"Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil." (Aurelius, Marcus). Where Are the Children by Mary Higgins Clark is about a woman named Nancy Harmon whose two children were kidnapped and murdered. She was accused of being responsible for the deaths and was sentenced to death, but juror misconduct and the absence of a witness prevented any further legal proceedings from occurring. She moved across the country, remarried, had two more children, and tried to begin a new life until one day when her children disappeared. They were eventually found unharmed at Nancy’s former husband’s house, where he was planning to kill them. The theme of good against evil is the primary basis of the novel, and many aspects of the book, including the plot, settings, and characters, contributed to the formation of the theme.
The book’s plot played an important role in developing the struggle between good and evil theme. An evil event that was in the novel’s plot was the abduction of Missy and Michael. Carl kidnapped them while they were playing outside and took them to his house. This event was evil because Carl was planning to kill them and it would cause the tragedy that occurred when Nancy’s other children were murdered to happen all over again. One good happening in the plot was when Dorothy found Missy’s mitten as she was leaving Courtney’s house. She found the mitten in the driveway and soon realized that the children were in Courtney’s house. She relayed the information to Nancy and it led to Nancy going to Courtney’s house and finding the children. This event was good because it lead to the children being recovered unharmed. Furthermore, the climax of the novel supported the good part of the good versus evil th...
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...uding the plot, settings, and characters, helped form the good versus evil theme that was evident in the novel. Several good and evil plot events were in the book. The abduction of Michael and Missy was an evil event and the finding of Missy’s mitten and the climax were good events. The novel was also comprised of good and evil settings. The blizzard and Courtney’s large house supported the evil part of the novel. The proximity of Nancy and Courtney’s houses was a good part of the setting. Additionally, the characters played a role in the formation of the theme. Nancy and Ray were good characters as they put their lives at risk for their children. Carl was an evil character because he killed Nancy’s mother as well as his and Nancy’s children. These three elements present in the book helped develop the good vs. evil theme that the novel was primarily based on.
The author chose to do all of these things because they all are crucial to the story, and they help to make the book better. They make it more interesting, less confusing, and more professional. All of these elements were probably well planned and thought out because they are so important. I think that the characters make the story good or bad, and that’s the author’s job - to create the characters and the ideas and things like that, and that’s why we’re doing this project: to evaluate what the author has presented with these characteristics.
In most stories we enjoy, may it be from childhood or something more recent there is many times a theme that shows a clear hero and a clear villain. But ordinarily this is not the case in real life, there are few times that this is quite that simple. There are many sides to each story, and sometimes people turn a blind eye to, or ignore the opposing side’s argument. But if we look at both sides of a situation in the stories we can more clearly understand what is going on, moreover the villains in the book or play would seem more real, instead of a horrible person being evil for no reason, these two people have their own agenda may it be a ruthless vengeance or misplaced trust.
"The family I strained to hear no longer existed" (Welch 196). This quote is said by Liz Welch; she lost both of her parents at the age of sixteen (Welch 168). Many people lose one or both parents at a young age. In fact, "one in nine Americans lost a parent before they were 20 years old" (Zaslow 1). Losing one parent usually causes a person to have detrimental effects, so losing both parents will most likely ruin a person's health. Even though the Welch children, in the memoir The Kids Are All Right by Liz and Diana Welch, have grown up and appear well, growing up without parents can have negative effects on a person because the cultural impact of the book details the negative outcomes and the historical information and professional reviews provides a context for it.
Whether one would like to admit it or not, change is a difficult and not to mention uncomfortable experience which we all must endure at one point in our lives. A concept that everyone must understand is that change does not occur immediately, for it happens overtime. It is necessary for time to pass in order for a change to occur, be it days, weeks, months, or even years. The main character, who is also the narrator of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, realizing that “things felt less foreign in the dark” (Russell 225), knows that she will be subject to change very soon. The author makes it evident to readers that the narrator is in a brand new environment as the story begins. This strange short story about girls raised by wolves being trained by nuns to be more human in character is a symbol for immigration, as the girls are forced to make major changes in their lives in order to fit in with their new environment and adapt to a new culture.
BIOGRAPHY: According to the entry « Eudora Welty » found on Wikipedia, Eudora Alice Welty was an American author and photographer, well-known for working on the South American theme. She began higher education at the University of Wisconsin, then went to New York, where she studied at Columbia University until 1931. Unable to find a job on the East Coast because of unemployment due to the Great Depression, she went back to her her native city Jackson, Mississippi. She started to publish short stories in magazines from 1936 and rapidly acquired notoriety as a short story writer, managing to carefully describe the culture and the racial issues of the South. Each publication of her short stories collections was considered as a literary event. In 1956, her novel The Pounder Heart, adapted by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, achieved great success on Broadway. In 1975, her enchanting novel The Robber Bridegroom became a musical. In 1973, Eudora Welty received the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. Three years earlier, she published a collection of photographs that she had taken herself in the years 1930 and 1940, One Time, one Place: Mississippi in the Depression: a work intending to depict the harsh living conditions in Mississippi during the Great Depression. In 1984, at the request of Harvard University Press, she put on paper a lecture that she gave the year before to the students: the work became a bestseller. She died of pneumonia in 2001.
story as the corruption of evil takes a prominent role in the story of the two children. The
If these characters were both purely evil, and had no guilt whatsoever, this would be simply a boring story of unhinged men. Adding both good and evil sides to an individual adds a little something extra to the story that distinguishes it from many other pieces of literature. Aside from adding to the storyline, these morally ambiguous characters give students a chance to practice their skill at analyzing characters and think for themselves, forming their own outlooks on the characters and the book as a whole.
The prominent theme that was exhibited throughout the novel was inhumanity. The quote "Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky." This quotation shows how a powerful authority had all the control to carry out disturbing actions and no common ma...
...it up to each reader to draw their own conclusions and search their own feelings. At the false climax, the reader was surprised to learn that the quite, well-liked, polite, little convent girl was colored. Now the reader had to evaluate how the forces within their society might have driven such an innocent to commit suicide.
Society tries to place many rules upon an individual as to what is acceptable and what is not . One must decide for themselves whether to give in to these pressures and conform to society’s projected image, or rather to resist and maintain their own desired self image. In the story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, Munro suggests that this conflict is internal and external and a persons experiences in life will determine which of these forces will conquer. In terms of the unnamed protagonist’s experiences in the story, it becomes clear just how strong the pressure of society to conform really is, as it overcomes and replaces the girl’s self image.
In the end of each story the main character(s) who has shown the trait of evil has either succeeded in their goal or realized the error of their ways. In the end of Lord of the Flies Jack is broken down to tears as he realizes the mistakes he has made. At the end of "The Lottery" the Townspeople have once again saved the harvest from some unknown force by slaughtering a member of the community. In the end of "The White Circle" Tucker doesn’t kill Anvil but learns an important lesson about perspective. Finally in the last scene of "The Vigilante" Mike realizes just how much he liked killing the black man. The theme of mans inherent evil is carried out
develop an overall theme of good and evil in the story and to create a
The word evil is find on the dictionary as wicked, sinful, bad, likely to cause trouble. On the other hand, good has a meaning of beneficial, honest, noble and pure. In society, evil and good mean different things to each person, what is holy for one person is damaging for another. Historical fact that establishes that humanity’s evilness is part of their nature as human being, people born with abomination. Experiments as the Milgram and the Stanford prison experiments show the wickedness of the society. Indeed the Lord of the Flies by William Golding brings to light the theme of evilness versus good. What makes this novel attractive is a group of boy, trying to survive on an island making effort to live with civilization to avoid the war in the group. As the time approaches the behavior and the real personality of each one of theme reveals itself. As in each one of the experiment there is a chief, in the novel, Jack is a leader that takes advantage of his authority to have control over the other boys. Above all, for some people in society evilness is learn from the people. In contrast, evidence attests that evilness triumphs over good.
The plot of the novel follows traditional plot guidelines; although there are many small conflicts, there is one central conflict that sets the scene for the novel. The novel is about an embarrassing mismatched couple and their five daughters. The novel begins with Mrs. Bennet, telling her daughters of the importance of marrying well. During this time a wealthy man, Charles Bingley, moves close to Netherfield, where the Bennets’ reside. The Bennet girls struggle to capture his attention, and Jane, who judges no one, is the daughter who manages to win his heart, until Mr. Bingley abruptly leaves town.
Motherhood is a traditional role for women. From the time they are young, girls are taught to grow up, marry and become mothers. Of course they can do other things with their lives like play sports, have careers, and travel, but an overwhelming amount of women want to be mothers no matter what else they accomplish with their lives. It is common knowledge that being a good mother is one of the hardest jobs in the world. It is to forever have a special link with another person or people and have a tremendous influence, maybe the most tremendous influence over their lives. Motherhood is a roller coaster ride for women, full of ups and downs, fears and accomplishments. But what happens when motherhood defines who a woman is? All children grow up, and while a woman is always a mother, children need their mothers less and less until eventually their dependence is very minimal. What happens to the woman whose singular role and purpose is no longer needed? In The Summer Before The Dark, and The Fifth Child, the maternal roles of Kate Brown, and Harriet Lovatt are analyzed and traditional motherhood behavior is deconstructed due to these characters’ experiences and relationships with their children.