In the book, “Bronx Masquerade” by nikki Grimes, one theme developed throughout the story is that when you conform to fit in, you can lose part of yourself. Devon illustrates this theme throughout the story. Throughout the “Bronx Masquerade” Devon illustrates the theme that when you conform to fit in you lose part of yourself. The first time Devon illustrates this is in the beginning of the book. In the beginning of the book Devon tells us that he plays on the basketball team and he is tall. He also tells us that everyone expects him to always be thinking about basketball, but that isn’t how he really is. He likes basketball, but he also likes to read poetry, yet he is scared to show that he likes poetry to anyone. Instead of being himself around his friends, he has to hide how he really is and do what he wants in secrecy. In the book Devon says, “Anyway, when I hang around after school and any of the guys ask me; ‘Yo, Devon, where you going?’ I tell them I’m heading for the gym to meet coach and work on my layup. Then once they’re out the door, I cut upstairs to the library …show more content…
When Devon first introduces himself in the book he says, “I’ve got good height and good hands, and that’s a fact. But what about the rest of me? Forget who I really am, who I really want to be. The law is be cool, be tough, play ball. And use books for weight training- not reading. Otherwise everybody gives you grief.” In this part of Devons story he is saying that he is good at basketball like everyone expects him to be, and he thinks about basketball like everyone expects him to. He also says that even though he does what everyone expects him to do on the outside, he doesn’t want to do what people expect of him, like thinking about basketball, all of the time. Instead he would rather do what he wants like reading
At the Devon School, the climate of war creates an even greater impedance in the way of Gene and Phineas’ development, as now both characters must attempt to understand death. For Gene at such a young age, death has never been a part of his life until Phineas dies. Phineas has always been fated to die, but Gene is not able to comprehend this until Finny falls down the marble stairs at the First Academy Building. On revisiting the marble stairs, Gene recognizes their “exceptional hardness” (Knowles 11). The hardness that Gene speaks of is representative of the hardness of coping with war and death during such a crucial developmental time. This imagery is utilized by Knowles in A Separate Peace to define that until Gene recognizes the incomprehensible nature of war and death, he will never escape the liminal state. By watching Phineas fall down the marble stairs, Gene is enlightened to the fact that war is real, death cannot be avoided, and both can never be
There are many factors that lead to the development of an individual’s identity. Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” illustrates an extreme change in Gregor Samsa’s external identity and the overall outward effect it has on the development of his family. While James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates a young man struggling to find his identity while being pushed around by what society and his family wants him to be. Both of these characters exhibit an underlying struggle of alienation but both also demonstrate a craving for belongingness. This conflict of trying to belong to something as well as satisfying the needs of society, has directly impacted their own individuality and the lives of the people around them.
Does breaking the mold and speaking up for what is right always easy when shaping one’s identity? Society places norms that greatly impact someone’s personality, and how they identify as an individual in society. The protagonist in John Updike’s “A&P” is a young man working in a supermarket, who judges all the customers and see’s all the conformity that the store encompasses all while searching to be outside the conformist’s that exist there. John Updike uses Sammy to show through Symbolism the journey to self-identity. This coming of age story stands as a message of empowerment to all future generations.
The search for one’s identity can be a constant process and battle, especially for teenagers and young adults. Many people have a natural tendency to want to fit in and be accepted by others, whether it be with family, friends or even strangers. They may try to change who they are, how they act, or how they dress in order to fit in. As one gets older, society can influence one’s view on what they should look like, how they should act, or how they should think. If society tells us that a certain body type or hair color is beautiful, that is what some people strive for and want to become in order to be more liked. This was especially true with Avery as she longed for the proper clothes to fit into a social group and began to change the way she spoke to match those around her. As a young and impressionable sixth grader, she allowed herself to become somewhat whitewashed in an attempt to fit in with the other girls. However, Avery did not really become friends with any of those girls; her only real friend was
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
...Boyarin overcome his fear of being labeled by the society by sticking up to his morals and ethics. This shows that an individual’s fear of being labeled by the society can depend on the situations they face which shape their strategies of personal identity.
Society often pressures individuals within it to conform to different ideals and norms. This stems from the fact that individuals in a society are expected to act in a certain way. If a person or group of people do not satisfy society’s expectations, they are looked down upon by others. This can lead to individuals isolating themselves from others, or being isolated from others, because they are considered as outcasts. The emotional turmoil that can result from this, as well as the internal conflict of whether or not to conform, can transform an individual into a completely different person. This transformation can either be beneficial or harmful to the individual as well as those around them. The individual can become an improved version of himself or herself but conversely, they can become violent, rebellious and destructive. The novels Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both explore the negative effects experienced by individuals living within the confines of society’s narrow-mindedness. In A Clockwork Orange, protagonist Alex was the leader of a small group of teenage criminals. He did not have a healthy relationship with either one of his parents or with others around him. Instead he spent most of his time alone during the day and at night roamed the streets in search of victims he could mug or rape. In Fight Club the unnamed protagonist was an outcast in his community. He chose to distance and isolate himself from others and as a result had no friends, with the exception of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Due to his isolation, he often participated in nightly fights that took place in Fight Club so that he could relieve his anxiety and stress. In this way, Alex and the unnamed protagoni...
...iendship between Gene and Phineas is amidst themes such as lack of reality, low maturity levels, and false appearances. Their relationship deteriorates and leads to death because they fail to learn these valuable life lessons. The purpose of Knowles’ novel is to exaggerate the life of two young boys to the extreme in order to reveal the unfortunate things that can occur in a relationship when these themes are not taken seriously. As stated in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, "It (A Separate Peace) can be viewed, for example, as a tale of Original Sin, with the Devon School as an Eden enclosing the great Tree of Knowledge through which humankind falls far from innocence but is redeemed by the suffering of a totally innocent one. It may also be approached as a reworking of the classic tale of the need to accept the potential evil within everyone and thus make peace with one’s self."
Gene symbolizes inner war, while Finny symbolizes a sense of peace. Gene is the jealous one in the friendship, and he is also the one to immediately jump to conclusions. Finny is a little stubborn and manipulative, but he tries his hardest to be a good person. An example to prove this statement is when Gene suddenly assumed that Finny was trying to sabotage his achievements during school. When Gene reacted to this by being jealous of Finny, it showed that he was the type to make assumptions off of little factual evidence. Gene’s jealousy and hatred towards Finny resulted in him purposefully inflicting harm on Finny. Finny is the type of boy to try and talk himself out of anything, making him very manipulative and liked around Devon. The book causes the reader to believe that Finny was liked by most of his classmates and his teachers, this giving him an advantage when he tried to get out of trouble. The book gives us many examples of this. One being when Finny was late because of jumping off of the limb, and another when he talked himself out of trouble for wearing a pink shirt and a tie as a belt.
When pondering about what an individual thinks of you, people have varying views. Some people are not concerned; to others it is the most critical matter on their mind. The feeling of being judged is a very potent emotion. Likewise, conformity is one of the largest controversies in today’s society; the behavior of someone in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. So if someone personally made his or her expectations on what you should be like evident, would you change? In Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook, he illustrates that judgment and expectations conform a person into someone they are not due to their personal identity. This can be seen through a character’s loyalty to another, dominance and the vulnerability it includes, and a character’s love and devotion. Conformity and the reasons for its appearance will be analyzed through samples from Matthew Quick’s bestselling novel.
In the twentieth century, the United States of America has transitioned into a more diverse nation. Immigrants arriving from around the globe combined with African Americans to challenge the American identity. As a result, prominent figures including Theodore Roosevelt believed every American should indeed be Americanized. Throughout the twentieth century, Americanization, which means to sacrifice an old culture in favor of American culture, remains an issue amongst authors in particular. Authors in the twentieth century expressed their stance on the battle between cultural heritage and American assimilation. Some authors such as Langston Hughes supported diversity and pride in their culture. On the other end of the spectrum, others like Booker
Summer at Devon is easygoing as teachers mellow out and the rule enforcement dwindles, such carefree behavior represents childhood; Devon’s winter session is ultimately more strict and level, emphasizing the mood in adulthood. As the sun shines bright, tension unravels and everyone at Devon loosens up including the teachers as Gene explains on page 23, “Now on these clear June days in New Hampshire they appeared to uncoil, they seemed to believe that we were with them about half of the time, and only spent the other half trying to makes fools of them.” The summer days are filled with happy-go-lucky antics that seem to come with no serious consequence; exactly how a young child would spend everyday of his life as a youthful boy. There is no
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream be otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role in the lives of African Americans, who pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This occasion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart, and Miller 466).
2. Chapter 1, page 4, #2: “Devon is sometimes considered the most beautiful school in New England, and even on this dismal afternoon its power was asserted.”
Charles is actually Laurie which means that Laurie is arrogant because he talks about himself a lot. Every day, Laurie comes home and tells his parents about the day’s events, the topic that always comes up is Charles. The way Laurie talks about Charles makes him sound like he is someone who makes a great friend or that he is actually popular among other school children but his parents think that Charles is made up of “toughness and bad grammar” (1). Laurie talks about Charles to the point that it has become a “routine” (2). When children talk about someone very much, it usually means they either admire that person or the complete opposite like a child would go on and on about a superhero. The language he uses to describe Charles to his parents also suggests that he thinks Charles is not a bad influence. He mentions to his mother that even though Charles gets into trouble and the teacher warns the class not to play with him, everybody still does. Laurie makes it sound as if everybody thinks Charles is likable enough for everybody else t...