Glendon Swarthout's Bless The Beasts And Children

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We all have parts within us that connect us to each other. In Glendon Swarthout’s Bless the Beasts and Children, we recognize a glimpse of these characters within ourselves. The three main characters we see within ourselves include Cotton, Goodenow, and Lally 1. In this essay we will go in depth with these children. Firstly, Cotton is the leader within us, the selfless part of us, and the normal outcast. Cotton is the part of us that realizes the action we need to take to help others, and the selflessness we show to be the leader we truly are. Now Cotton believes he is the only normal one within the group of misfits. “Cotton lay thinking. Is this the time. What’ve got to work with? A teeth-grinder. A head-banger. Two actual bed wetter’s. A nail biter and overeater. And a thumb- sucker and bad-dreamer. And they all sleep with radios and talk in their sleep. I’m the only one normal out of six. I’m the only who can do it. And if I don’t now, it’ll be too late. So get the lead out. Get the show on the road.” This demonstrates how even in a family, we find the duty in ourselves, and how we find the …show more content…

We see the part of ourselves that grasps onto our mother and anyone around us, and when they don’t latch back on, we give up. In the novel, Goodenow’s father died, and he has this certain need to be the man of his house yet he was still a child who was desperately in need of a mother. He was so desperate to hold onto something and when there was nothing he was done. Many people are like this, in today’s society, suicide is a large problem that people must help, however we cannot help the person whom is helpless. Goodenow is the person within us whom never lets go of being a “mommy’s boy”, he is the boy that can’t let go of his mother’s hand going into kindergarten. Some of us may judge this as “childish” or weak” however this small ember of needing a loving hand is there, even if we pretend it’s

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