Stephen Goree Dr. Jeff Netto English 103 11 November 2014 Parker’s Appeal In the short story “The Hunter” the author Richard Stark introduces Parker, the main character of this book. The main character is a rough man, he’s a criminal, a murderer, and even an escaped convict. He’s described as crude and rugged and though women are frightened by him, they want him. Parker is not the classic criminal, but rather he’s intelligent, hard, and cunning. In this story the author carefully appeals to his audience by making a loathsome criminal into a hero, or rather, an anti-hero. The author, Richard Stark uses ethical appeal to make his audience like Parker through the use of phronesis, arête, altruism and lastly the ethos of his audience. Richard Stark’s …show more content…
Parker lived his life by a couple key principles according to the author, principles that he always followed in every situation. Some of his principles included that he would never kill unless there was a purpose, he would always honor a deal, he would always settle a score to bring balance back to his life, and that liabilities always had to be removed (Stark). Some of Parker’s less poignant principles are that business must come before pleasure, and that he would never allow himself to hate someone. Lastly, Parker adds a final rule to his value system, he vows to never love again, since love makes him vulnerable and blind (Stark 24). These principles make Parkers apparent eradicate actions become more understandable and even appealing. An individual that lives their life in a controlled fashion, with discipline, morals and values is often someone that people will gravitate towards, even though aside from these things, the person’s is someone we would never associate with …show more content…
Although this is not as clearly seen in the story as are Parker’s principles and his expertise, we are given a few good examples of how he seems to care for other people’s wellbeing more than his own. One such example, Parker is in the limousine with Stegman, he tells Stegman to be careful of the kids on the street while Stegman is driving. (Stark 37). This brief statement implies that Parker is very concerned with the wellbeing of children and that he would never want harm to come to them. This idea of altruism can be safely implied, since this thought interrupted his attention while dealing with a very tense subject. Additionally we see Parker cares for his friends because he puts himself in harm’s way with the cops, by defending his friend’s father Delgardo in the grocery store. Here to we have to summarize that Parker has an affinity for other criminals. It’s almost as though Parker believes that it would be wrong to not defend other criminals. Supporting this thought we see that Parker says that he doesn’t hit (steal from) other criminals “because you people are on the same side as us (Stark 166).” Finally we see that Parker seems to believe in being a gentlemen towards women, although this seems contradictory to all of his other actions towards women. A perfect example of Parker being a gentleman is seen when he is attempting to collect the forty five thousand dollar pay off at the
Throughout the story Parker is trying to escape reality and as a result becomes entrapped with no hope of escape. He is ashamed of his name and goes by his initials O.E. to prevent people from knowing his real name Obadiah Elihue. He continually shows his inability to accept blame and fully believes his problems are a result of another person’s actions with the first person possibly being the one who gave him his name. He was very rebellious and would not listen or cooperate with anyone. An example of this was his mothers concern over what was becoming of him and her decision to take him to church. “When he saw the big lighted church, he jerked out of her grasp and ran”. It was clear his mother had lost all control of him at this time. At the age of 16 he lies about his age and joins the navy. The story shows his life as a continuous downwa...
In conclusion, Wesley Hayden is a strong character, who consistently upholds his morals in the faces of racial and sexual inequality. Despite superficial weakness, that of his limp, he was a stronger sheriff than his son saw him to be. He was morally sound, and was a respectful character. Wesley was also shown to be a compassionate and caring man, a courageous protector. Though he lacked the masculinity showed by other male characters within the novel, it was not shown to have a negative impact on his integrity.
McCarthy uses literal and figurative language to describe the thief which creates a sympathetic image of him and positions the reader to pity him. The use of visual imagery in phrases such as "nude and slatlike creature" adds to the thief’s already pitiful image. By comparing the thief to a "creature", McCarthy stirs within the reader the natural compassion and desire to protect animals that humans have. The word “nude” also suggests a v...
...omeone who is not thinking clearly can be. Pyle tries to help and risks the lives of other people instead of putting themselves first. Greene does not glorify being a bystander like Fowler either though. He shows us that someone has to act in order to save the day and save lives. He makes sure that the reader does not feel too sorry for Fowler when he is stuck in between Phuong and Pyle because he did not seem to try hard enough in his relationship with his wife or when he had Phuong attached to his hip. Inaction is as despicable a reaction to conflict as action. Greene makes it clear at the end of the novel that people just have to take care of themselves and what they need to do in order to survive in the world. Whatever they decide determines their futures and their relationships.
It is apparent in Parker’s poems that she has had plenty of damaging experiences, and she has turned these into her life’s
First of all, in order to understand O’Connor’s short story, the reader must look into the background of her life. “Parker’s Back” was the last story written by O’Connor before she died at the early age of thirty-nine from the disease of Lupus. Her writings all reflect from her religious background of Catholicism. “O’Connor wrote brilliant stories that brought the issue of religious faith into clear dramatic focus. She was a devout Roman Catholic living in predominantly Protestant rural Georgia. Her stories are far from pious; in fact, their mode is usually shocking and often bizarre. Yet the religious issues they raise are central to her work (Drake, online vertical file--------------------------------).” “Time and again in her stories, the spokesmen for a self-satisfied secularism run afoul of representatives of... the God-haunted protagonists…they play an indispensable role…they act as spiritual catalysts…(CLC, p276………………………………….).” “To even the casual reader it would appear that Miss O’Connor really had only one story to tell and really only one main character. This principal character is, of course, Jesus Christ; and her one story is man’s absolutely crucial encounter with Him (Drake, p273).”
What compels a good person to turn to a life of crime? Do people’s circumstances define their character, or does character determine what circumstances a person lives under? Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is a prime example of this dilemma. Bonnie Parker was born in Rowena, Texas on October 1, 1910, to parents Henry and Emma Parker (Find a Grave). She had a younger sister named Billie, and an older brother named Hubert (Famoustexans.com). Their mother made the Parker family devout churchgoers (Guinn 46). Their father was a bricklayer, allowing the Parkers to live somewhat comfortably, until Henry Parker died in 1914 and her mother had to move the family to Cement City in Dallas to live with relatives (Find a Grave). Bonnie Parker undoubtedly had her share of hardships and negative influences in life, however she was also taught right from wrong, and was very smart. Bonnie Parker was a tenderhearted, starry eyed girl whose character was corroded by poverty, desperation, and her love of Clyde Barrow.
From the beginning of the story it’s very clear what type of man Papi is. When he arrives home, he goes to “wash off the evidence quick” (150) because he was probably with the Puerto Rican woman, Yunior speaks of. That one moment showed the adulterous side of Papi. This is a clear cut conflict. (Man vs. Man) In a sense he shows respect by going to washing himself off in the presence of family, but the manner in which he shows his respect cancels everything out. His respect is almost in vain. Papi struggles with being his poor self. He does not like the life he lives. Papi wants to be impressive to people. He went out and brought a VW van, knowing they could not afford one, “new or used” (173) All of Papi’s actions influence the other characters within the story. He had begun to bring the children around the Puerto Rican woman he was having an affair with. Eventually his cheating becomes normal and something that does not s...
As previously detailed, Nate shows he is willing to go to any lengths to pull off a successful con. Nate displays American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg's sixth stage of moral development–that of universal principles. He has created his own set of moral guidelines, saying that he “picks up where the law leaves off” (The Two-Horse Job): it is his responsibility to find justice for those who cannot do it themselves, even if it means breaking a few laws. He even extends his own moral principles to the rest of the team. He recognizes that he “taught [them] how to help people” (The Beantown Bailout). Sterling, on the other hand, wholly disagrees. He believes if you break the law, for any reason at all, you must to be punished. Sterling predominates Kohlberg's fourth stage: he maintains social order. He upholds the law by obeying the established rules, first as an insurance fraud agent and later as an Interpol agent. Sterling does, nevertheless, sporadically drift into the fifth stage, realizing that sometimes rules and laws existing for the greater good may work against an individual's interests. This variation in moral beliefs sets the stage for a twist in television stereotypes: good and bad people aren't always so easy to
Man vs. Man is a conflict that can be seen throughout the story. For example, when Parker is telling his wife Sarah Ruth about his tattoos. “ “I got most of my other ones in foreign parts,” Parker said. “These here I mostly got in the United States. I got my first one when I was only fifteen years old.” “Don’t tell me,” the girl said, “I don’t like it. I ain’t got any use for it.” “You ought to see the ones you can’t see,” Parker said and winked” (O’Connor 2). Sarah automatically shows her distaste for them, later on even going so far as to call Parker a fool for having them. This particular problem can be witnessed though out the rest of the story. This struggle does not end even when the audience has arrived to the end of the story. For instance, when Parker slams his hand in the hood part of the car. “ “God dammit!” he hollered, “Jesus Christ in hell! Jesus God Almighty damn! God dammit to hell!” he went on, flinging out the same few oaths over and over as loud as he could. Without warning a terrible bristly claw slammed the side of his face an...
Prendick and Pi are sickened when they display bestiality despite the fact that the animal tendencies of both protagonists were present from the beginning of both novels. Chapter Eight of Life of Pi establishes that the mirror in the zoo is a physical representation of the potential threat humans pose, and the savagery to which humans can descend. This is substantiated in the ensuing events when Pi, who does not appear to be in his right mind, rescues Richard Parker from a watery death and allows him in the lifeboat. As Parker is shown to be an embodiment of Pi, this suggests that Pi is inviting the bestial traits Parker represents into cohabitation with him. Furthermore, Pi “tears flowing down [his] cheeks” (Martel 203) breaks the neck of a flying fish. Yet, not a long while later he can “gleefully bludgeon to death a dorado” (Martel 205) or suck the blood out of a freshly decapitated sea turtle. Pi comments “a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (Martel 205). He further notices with shame his animal-like habits and compares himself to Parker stating he “ate like an animal, that this noisy frantic, unchewing wolfing-down of [his] was exactly the way Richard Parker ate” (Martel 249). He eventually resorts to cannibalism to satisfy his hunger, “descending to a level
Parker’s Back was written by Flannery O’Connor and it was published back in 1965. It was O’Connor’s last story before she died at the age of 39. All of O’Connor’s writings reflect from her religious background of Catholicism. She wrote stories that helped bring the issue or religious faith into clear focus. Most of her stories were usually shocking and bizarre. She loved to use color in her stories as well because it helped her show the type of feeling/emotion that the character was having.
...they are both outcasts. The only people who address or speak to the Grandmother are her grandchildren who don’t speak fondly of her either, but the only time she is taken seriously by her son is when he yells at her and makes her cry. Mrs. Turpin even spent her last seconds of life are spent trying to get on the same level as The Misfit, but in the end he only shoots her three times in the chest when she touches his shoulder. This is equal to Parker because he doesn’t seem to have anything in common with his wife and she puts him down calling his tattoos the“Vanity of all vanities.” Just like when the Grandmother tries to connect with the Misfit, Parker tries to connect to his wife through the spiritual Christ tattoo.
knew it was bad but Parker makes us realize how bleak poverty is. She shows us
Passion is a strong feeling in which one feels towards an object or another person. This strong feeling can make a person do a matter of crazy things, even if it goes against his or her beliefs. In the novella Poachers by Tom Franklin, passion is conveyed in every aspect of the short story “Poachers”. In this story, there is not much to live for in the broken down town of Lower Peach Tree, but the characters manage to find one feeling that they all have in common. Delicately, Franklin brings a sense of passion through every character in ways that are both clear and hidden.