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literary analysis of Two kinds
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literary analysis of Two kinds
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"In Theodore Taylor’s The Cay (1969), Phillip Enright, a twelve-year-old boy who lives on the small Dutch island of Curacao, is shipwrecked with Timothy, an old black man, once the Germans have torpedoed their boat during World War II. Having been knocked unconscious, Phillip then wakes up in a raft with Timothy and Stew Cat, the cook’s cat that has survived the explosion. Phillip at first does not trust Timothy because of his own prejudice, but after he loses his eyesight, Philip realizes how dependent he is on Timothy and comes to love him. By the time rescuers find the cay where Phillip and Timothy have been stranded, Timothy has died from shielding Phillip from the wrath of a hurricane. These two are both resourceful but differ considerably in compassion.
Both Phillip and Timothy are highly resourceful survivors. When they notice signs of the impending storm, Timothy’s resourcefulness enables him to try to protect them: “he took the remaining rope that we had and tied it securely around the same sturdy tree… I realized then why he had used our rope sparingly” (103). Timothy’s c...
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.
Have you ever felt so much guilt and shame that you want to kill yourself? Francis Cassavant in Heroes, by Robert Cormier, is a realistic and relatable character who has suffered from this feeling ever since he was little. Even as a child, he has felt unusual and out of place compared to everyone else. Francis’s characteristics determine his actions throughout his story and motivate him to join the army, beginning his expedition as a so-called “hero”.
To the 20, to the 10, to the 5, touchdown! Charlie Gaines is a football phanatic. He knows all there is to know about football. From his favorite team the Los Angeles Bulldogs to the New England Patriots Charlie knows it all. Above all this Charlie truly wishes he were a better football player like his bosom buddy Kevin Fallon. All in all he is still a decent middle linebacker for the Culver City Cardinals. A kid known as the “Brain” because of his freakishly good ability at fantasy football, Charlie Gaines is a very interesting character.
Have you ever had a terrible day that positively changed you in some way? Theodore Taylor’s The Cay demonstrates how Phillip Enright, the main character, changed positively throughout the book. In The Cay, Phillip’s character reveals that he develops independence, maturity, and kindness to other races through many conflicts. Phillip demonstrated independence after experiencing blindness, as evidenced in the novel, when he has to survive on the cay by himself after Timothy dies. At the beginning of the novel, Philip hits his head and becomes blind, causing him to rely on Timothy. Phillip states, “I heard Timothy shout, ‘I see an islan’, true.’ In wild excitement, I stumbled up and fell overboard. I went under the water, yelling for him, then came up,
Mark Twain, an American author of the 1800s, narrates the adventures of Huckleberry Finn in his novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s purpose is to expose the greedy nature of humanity and what effect it has to the society and the people. Twain highlights the lengths that people are willing to go through to benefit or gain for themselves through the satirical strategies of humour, irony, and derision. The author has adopted a humorous yet serious tone in order to compel the yearning for the refuge from the constraint environment of greed of the post-Civil War American easterners.
In the Irish detective novel In the Woods by Tana French, we confront the dilemma of discerning the good from the bad almost immediately after cracking open the covers—the narrator and main character, Robert Ryan, openly admits that he “…crave[s] truth. And [he] lie[s].” (French 4) But there is more to this discernment than the mere acceptance that our narrator embellishes the occasional truth; we must be ever vigilant for clues that hint at the verisimilitude of what the narrator is saying, and we must also consider its relation to Robert’s difference from the anticlimactic (essentially, falsehood) and the irrevocable (that which is unshakeable truth). That is, the fact that in distinguishing the good from the bad, we are forced to mentally
Baym, Nina, Arnold Krupat, Robert S. Levine, and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. "The Storm." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York, NY: Norton, 2012. 557-61. Print.
“Humanity is going to require a substantially new way of thinking if it is to survive.” -Albert Einstein. This quote, along with the documentary, is so eye opening to how our society functions and what it’s based on. In I Am, Tom Shadyac had the same dream and goals of many others in the USA: to stand out, be different, and be better than others. Well, until he got in a terrible bike crash where he broke a hand and got a serious concussion. It doesn’t seem like anything life changing, but the catch is that he was told that he had also had gotten post-concussion syndrome. PC syndrome is where you have all the symptoms of a concussion but for an extended amount of time; it can last for weeks, months, or even as long as you live. For several months after the crash Shadyac had very strong symptoms and ended up isolating himself because he was always in pain. He
In a time where the general population is overweight and obsessed with technology, there isn’t much time for the outside world. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is about two corpulent men on a journey to walk the Appalachian Trail. At first their tale seems unlikely because of their weight and the fact that they have never hiked a day in their lives. However, it quickly turns into an inspiring story that we, as people, should use to spark our own adventure in the great unknown. Bryson writes A Walk in the Woods to encourage people to live a little and experience the great outdoors, to meet interesting people in it, and to encounter the enthralling wildlife that resides on the Appalachian Trail.
In The Cay, Phillip’s character reveals through many conflicts that he developed independence, confidence, and maturity.
Christopher Johnson McCandless, a.k.a Alexander Supertramp, “Master of his Own Destiny.” He was an intelligent young man who presented himself as alone but really he was never lonely. However, he believed that life was better lived alone, with nature, so he ventured off throughout western United States before setting off into Alaska’s wild unprepared where he died. Some may say he was naive to go off on such a mission without the proper food and equipment but he was living life the way he wanted to and during his travels he came across three people: Jan Burres, Ronald Franz, and Wayne Westerberg. McCandless befriended these people, it is believed that he made such a strong impression on them that their connection left them with strange feelings after finding out about McCandless’ death.
Optimistic: op·ti·mis·tic - adjective - to be hopeful and confident about the future. Being optimistic can be extremely difficult when you’re taken away from a happy life, and forced into situations that make him pessimistic about the future,just like Buck did. My dad was taken away from a happy life, going through tons of traumatic situations while being forced to grow up at the same time. Although Buck and my dad went through different situations, they still felt trapped and unhappy at one point in life. Perseverance is a life skill and everyone goes through tough situations everyday, it’s the way you handle them that shows true characterization.
Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most classic American Literature Book. It consists of historical backgrounds, universality, and timelessness. But one of the most outstanding chapters of the book is chapter 27 and 28.In the two chapters, Twain’s use of the literary device – Characterization builds the character of Huckleberry Finn and show the different aspects of his character.
“They had passed autumn afternoons when they were nine years old in the hollowed-out base of a cedar tree, where they sprawled on the ground looking out at the rain as it pummeled the sword ferns and ivy. At school they were stran...
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...