Nadine Gordimer, an alumni from Witwaterstrand University and a political activist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, in her short story, “Homage”, published in 1995, tells about a hired assassin who ultimately kills an important person, most likely an official, after having to flee his native country in hopes gaining a brighter future. By giving out specific details about the crime scene, we can infer that this story was based on the assassination of Sweden’s Prime Minister, Olof Palme in 1986. Gordimer appears to write in hopes of presenting a theme about self-identity due to the fact that all names and places in the story have been removed and by the main character’s identity being removed by the people who have hired …show more content…
It was injected in various stages in the story and it was only one single sentence. It stood out to me and I clearly understood why the author was trying to impose this phrase on the main character, the assassin. “When I think of going to some other country like they did, taking out at the frontier the paper and the name of nobody they gave me, showing my face- I don’t talk” (Gordimer 679). The phrase the man mentions is “I don’t talk” or “I don’t speak”. What I understood is that while he can physically speak, he chooses not to because he believes it wouldn't make difference or an impact to anybody if her were to. He states that he is “no one” and since he is no one, his works are also nothing to the world, nor anyone. Since he mentioned it in the begging, I had a feeling that the character would be isolated or damaged in a way that would ultimately affect his influence. I also believe he is not sadden at the fact that he just killed someone, because at the end of the day he is still a nobody and that is why he sadden even after the incident. In the beginning, the narrator states “we leave home because of governments overthrown” (678), and as a result of the man leaving home, he is left without an
The author means that the murderer brought degradation upon himself. He has dehumanized himself, and cannot remain
Elie was facing his punishment because he walked in on Idek on a private moment. The only thoughts running through his mind were: " If only I could answer him, if only I could tell him that I could not move. But my mouth would not open." The text illustrates the pain taking over Elie's body as he was being whipped by Idek. This quote demonstrates his silence because he was unable to speak nor could he contradict his superior's motive. Elie Wiesel was stating that although your voice is always with you, sometimes it is inappropriate and not allowed.
He has one task to perform - to kill the soldiers of the Free States. However, the most important line is that catches the attention of the reader is “.the eyes of a man who is used to look at death.” This is very ironic as he was earlier compared. to a student who is like a symbol of innocence where now he is spoken of a murderer as a child. He is engrossed in fulfilling his duty and is now a student of the violence of the.... ...
Wiesel brings him up to reinforce that his faith is gone, the death of the boy is the death of God to him, “Behind me I heard a man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where is he? This is where hanging from the gallows.’ That night the soup tasted of corpses.” And after that, we see him slowly begin to change as a person.
Speak is a cleaver and an ironic title for a story in which the main character chooses not to speak. The story is written in first-person narration from the point of view of protagonist, Melinda Sordino. Speak is written like an interior monologue in the mind of an introverted teenage girl, like excerpts from her personal diary during her miserable freshman year of high school. Instead of blending in and finding her way through high school. She withdraws and secludes herself from the other students. She calls herself an "outcast." Melinda is so desperate to hide from the world; she turns an old janitor's closet at the high school into her safe haven. She cuts classes to hide in her closet. How lonely could this teenage girl be? All of these characteristics are common in assault victims. Melinda has been seriously disturbed by something traumatic and doesn't feel comfortable talking about it, nor does she really trust anyone. Teenage depression is a common
Does Kogawa intend these lines to introduce "silence" as a character of sorts? Does the second line clarify the first, or does it instead differentiate one silence from another, an involuntary muteness from a willed refusal to speak?
In 1989, a tragedy happened that would later be known as a national day of remembrance of the Montreal Massacre. Marc Lepine, the shooter, took the lives of many victims as well as his own, at the school of Polytechnique in Montreal. Because of his hatred of feminism, he felt compelled to kill fourteen of the female engineering students as well as any other female students or faculty who got in his way. Through the powerful film of “Polytechnique” and the credible facts of “The Seven Minute Life of Marc Lepine,” one could not help but to see a victim in Lepine, whose fate was tempted since the moment of his birth. Through the stimulating images of the movie and the emotional, yet credible, writing of Petrowski, Marc Lepine is seen as a victim of the massacre as well as the 14 other female victims of this horrific event in history.
The story of “Killings” by Andre Dubus looked into the themes of crime, revenge and morality. The crime committed in the story depicted the father’s love for his son and the desire to avenge his son’s death. However, his own crime led to his own destruction as he was faced with questions of morality. The character found himself in a difficult position after taking his revenge. He failed to anticipate the guilt associated with the crime he committed. Feelings of anger and righteousness are illustrated by the character throughout the story.
Even though he was just a servant for some reason he always seems to act like he was superior to him. This behavior from the servant makes the underground man hate him so much and make him develop this way of always feeling less than other people.
...nd his own mortality. Yet as the anti-hero, he is a coward; he denies his mortality and accepts immortality. He lives within the pantheon of the gods yet by rejecting their societal rules, he is a thinking human mortal being. But as a mortal being he lacks the strength to change and recreate the New York pantheon. He is forever trapped within the walls of its mausoleum.
...ter this that he has tarnished his reputation, so he ends up killing himself so the world doesn’t have to see somebody like him. He was made a fool of by Iago, and he made a fool of himself by killing his one true love.
To the character and to the author, it seems that ghastly nature murder and the immoral approach of treachery is merely an element of reality. This story is a true representation of author’s anguish and torment nature.
...ng. He says "Cursed, cursed Creator! Why did I live?” He hated himself for being alive and all the things that were happening to him. This is a reflection of the dejection the creature discovered through reading The Sorrows of Werther. He contemplates what he could have done so as not to face the humiliations he received from the people around him. These humiliations created a lot of suffering and anger in him and he wishes that he could have ended his life just like Werther so as not to suffer any more.
...He is forced to see that the new hedonism he embraces with open arms is not without price to himself and those around him. It leads him deeper and deeper into sin and depravity until he cannot be redeemed for his faults. In a fit of madness he decides he no longer wants to have his own faults, the results of his impulsive, narcissistic, and selfish behavior visible to him. He takes a knife to the canvass and, in doing so, ends his own life. A life devoted to following his impulses without tempering them with reason, a life of thinking only of his own selfish desires and disregarding the hurt caused to the people around him. The legacy begotten by new hedonism.