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What is the importance of character development in literature
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Character analysis essays
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In the short story After 20 Years written by O. Henry, Officer Jimmy Wells, while walking his beat, went to meet his old friend Bob at the spot they agreed to 20 years earlier when he realizes that Bob is a wanted man in Chicago. Officer Wells is faced with a dilemma - being loyal to his friend Bob, or being loyal to his duty as a police officer. Officer Wells doesn’t have the heart to arrest Bob himself, so he doesn’t reveal his identity and instead sends an undercover officer to arrest him. The undercover officer pretends to be Jimmy but, on their walk, they stop to look at each other and Bob realizes that the man isn’t Jimmy. The man reveals himself as an undercover cop sent by Jimmy and gives Bob a note from Jimmy in which Jimmy confesses who he is and explains that he could not arrest Bob himself. It seems as though O. Henry believes that Jimmy did the right thing. The evidence of that is that O. Henry writes Bob as an arrogant man who wears flashy accessories, brags about his wealth, and travels 1,000 mile to boast, knowing he’s a wanted man, while Jimmy is a quiet and clever man. …show more content…
The structure of the text is written so that we don’t find out that the police officer was Jimmy, making the mood of the story suspenseful.
Throughout the story, the author has us wondering if Jimmy will show up. But by the end, the curiosity was changed by a plot twist. Jimmy sent an undercover officer to arrest his good friend Bob. I discovered that although the author believes Jimmy is a good man, I found out that I disagree. I think Jimmy is weak to back out because he didn’t want to arrest his friend Bob. I also discovered that the author posed Bob as an innocent man throughout the story, and then at the end, he revealed his inner
criminal. The theme of this short story is true friendship and betrayal. Bob traveled 1,000 miles just to see his friend Jimmy, knowing at any time any where, he could be caught for a wanted criminal. Although Jimmy betrays him by leaving and turning him in, Bob still risks his chances and goes to meet him. The authors stance is that he believes that being a good person is more important than friendship. He proves this by making Jimmy leave and send backup, instead of staying and letting Bob go. The author wants us to believe that Bob is a normal guy who is going to see his good friend after 20 years. O. Henry also has us believe that the story will just be two friends meeting up. But then there was a plot twist of Jimmy needing to arrest Bob which made me question my view on Bob because I believed that Bob was a normal man throughout the whole story. After 20 Years reminds us about situations in everyday life. For example, there is a point in time that everyone has to chose between loyalties. Lets says your job and friendship. Jimmy had to choose whether he should stay true to his job and turn Bob in, or stay true to Bob and let him go. People have to make those kinds of decisions everyday, even when it's not just work and/or friends. You might have to choose between a sport commitment or a family commitment. But in the end of the story the author O. Henry showed us his beliefs of being a good person, no matter how much we disagree with it.
However having Jay know this information gave him fear of consequences. The fear of losing years away from his life and the well being of his family. Once a person fears the consequences of their actions necessary precautions will be taken into factor when dealing with high authority figures such as police. For example Jay had told officers he had seen the body by best buy, but once asked again during a later time and different location was provided.b a highschooler about to graduate many fears and responsibilities weigh heavy upon them. With Jay wilds his fear of the consequences pushed him to lie to save his himself from getting into legal
Andy goes to psychologist, Dr. Carrothers, to discuss his depression about Rob's death. He does not think he needs to be there because he is fine in school and he is fine at home. Andy talks about why the accident is his fault. He realizes he needs help with his depression and wants to come back for another visit to discuss what is going...
...maybe he will have a conscious this time. In agreement with O'Connor, the reader gains the insight that the story is "'something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida'" (Asals 178). Instead, the story is an account of a woman who shows mercy on a man who is not deserving of her grace.
As the film progresses, Gillespie moves from a desire to maintain peace to a realization that justice is better than peace. This is evident through two separate occasions during the film. The first event was when Virgil Tibbs was arrested solely based on the fact that he was black. After searching Virgil they found over $100 in his wallet. The second event was when the Chief arrested the suspect who stole the dead mans wallet. Since the man had his wallet, Gillespie laid the murder charge on him without further investigation. Through Virgil and the course of the film, Gillespie realizes that there is more to being a police chief than maintaining civil order.
Roy Fehler, a rookie cop out of the police academy is assigned with Andy Kilvinski, a veteran cop. They got a good relationship started right in the beginning. The only bad thing that I saw was the fact that Roy was being exposed to the bad habits of Andy. Since Andy is training him he thinks these habits are alright. As Roy’s mentor and partner, Andy teaches him a lot including most of Mr. Wilson’s four principles, the primary objectives, and the three B’s ; booze, broads, bribes. Kilvinski showed Roy in many ways that the right and wrong aren’t always black and white. And the fact that life isn’t fair. Roy and Andy become very close over the coarse of five years. And even afer Andy retires and moved away he came back to live. Andy then shot him self because of all the stress that he had came across over the years. I believe when he came back in town, he had seen all the guys at the police station and missed it. Also seeing a guy he trained (Roy) train someone else. Before he shot himself he called Roy and told him a story about an old man on the porch. This old man symbolizes loneliness. I believe Andy became that old man on the porch. He became very lonely and had no family or friends. He and Roy were friends but it seemed that Roy had no time for Andy. Andy was a cop and that was the most important thing to him.
Growing up Jack’s dad’s had a “keen eye for spotting criminals of all stripes was impressive” because he would always point out people that he thought were druggies, criminals, or ex-convicts. He would tell him as a kid that there is no coming back from certain things and being in jail was one of them (Gantos 7). “His eye “wasn’t perfect. He never pegged [Jack] for being one of them” (Gantos 7). Along with his dad trying to help his son not become a criminal his high school tried to help the community as well, In the town's high school there was a presentation where criminals came to share their stories and how they regret doing the things they did because doing the time and wasting their life was not worth it. Jack believed this to be useless, “What could they say that could possibly change my life? I was enjoying my life just fine. I wasn’t going to become a criminal. I was going to be a writer. And if not a writer, I wasn’t sure what I might do, but I certainly had no interests in becoming a criminal,” (Gantos 28). Little did he know that later in life he would become a prisoner
The article “Leaving Omelas: Questions of Faith and Understanding,” by Jerre Collins, draws attention to the fact that the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula Le Guin, has not impacted Western thought despite its literary merit. Collins breaks his article down into three parts, the first explaining that he will “take this story as seriously as we are meant to take it” (525). Collins then goes over several highly descriptive sections of the story, which invite the reader to become part of the utopia that is Omelas. Collins states that when it comes to the state of the child and how it affects the citizens of Omelas the descriptions “may seem to be excessive and facetious” (527). But this is because Le Guin is using a
1b. STRUCTURAL FRAME - The painting of Margaret Olley, painted by William Dobell won the Archibald Prize in 1948. This painting is now at the art gallery of NSW. The main colours that have been used in the William Dobell painting are a pearly white colour for Margaret Olleys dress. William Dobell has also used a lot of gold and brown in the background which I think makes the painting look royal. William Dobell has painted the background in dark colours and then uses lighter colours on Margaret Olley to soften and also to accentuate the figure of Margaret. In the darker areas of the background he has used a green colour mixed in with a black colour to make a darker tone. William dobell has made the the background darker so that your eye catches
Saturday, a novel by Ian McEwan, was written in 2005 in response to McEwan’s interest in the interplay between the social and professional worlds. McEwan’s novel follows top English neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne, through a typical Saturday disrupted by various intense events. Perowne takes many of these events in stride, allowing his logical nature to carry him through the process of action and reaction, each step proceeding rationally from the next. Perowne’s logical views of the world and the people within it are born from his education and work as a neurosurgeon. Within the novel, these views progress into every part of Perowne’s life from his relationships with his friends and family to his hobbies to his opinions, mainly his opinions regarding
Why are outsiders so fascinated with New York Is it the way that our city is portrayed by producers & directors? To the typical native New Yorker there is nothing special about the location in which we live it’s just average. the common notion to outsiders it that new York is this great city surrounded by fashion, gilts and glamour, normally they think of Manhattan which includes one world trade, the empire state building, central park, etc. people who aren’t from our city don’t know what it’s like to live here, they don’t understand what it takes out of someone to constantly put up with the stench, the noise, the exorbitant prices of everything & the long unending winters.
Jimmy always tried to keep these memories out of his head, but somehow they always found a way to come back to haunt him. Jimmy sates, “My brain would start boiling forth so many memories that I had to put toilet paper in my ears to block out the voices. Other times, however, nothing helped and I would wake up sweating and frightened, feeling I had no chance of ever having a decent life” (116). In that quotation, Jimmy is trying to shed free of all the nightmares that always seem to haunt him, but Jimmy knows that he will never be fully capable of getting rid of this memoires. Furthermore, Macaron, Jimmy’s closest friend in prison, was the only true person that Jimmy trusted, for Macaron taught Jimmy how to survive the brutal prison life. However, Macaron couldn’t fight Jimmy’s fights for him, so when Jimmy was faced with a situation with another inmate, Jimmy had to back up himself. Jimmy then states, “I planted my feet firmly apart and hit him until he sprawled out on the concrete floor. A voice inside my head kept yelling the whole time I was hitting him that I was doing this for Theresa, whose father had raped her, and for my brother, who’d been raped by those two white guys” (123). In that quotation, the reader is shown just how brutal Jimmy Baca has become, for Jimmy brutally injured an inmate who
During the scene with the police lineup, Detective Clay tells a worried and nervous Denise Moore, that she shouldn 't concern herself with testifying because Jesse Williams is most likely going to take a plea deal, and not go to trial. This caused me to realize that an officers has little to no responsibility with ensuring the innocence or guilt of an individual. Their job is to solely remove men and women, that they feel pose a threat to the rest of society, off of the street. In another scene, Detective Riley and the prosecutor for the case are seen revisiting the crime scene, the Detective emphasizes the need for the case not to go to trial, but rather for Jesse to cop a
In the text “The Cop and the Anthem”, Soapy's motivation was ironic which causes the whole plot to be ironic. For Soapy, the prison was all positive, the text had stated, “Three month of food every day and a bed every night, three months safe from the cold north wind and safe from cops. This seems to Soapy the most desirable thing in the world.” For Soapy, the prison will provide what he wants so he does all these criminals acts to get the cop to notice him and arrest him. Most part of the plot was about how Soapy does these criminal acts to get arrested. Most people would want to get out of prison unliked Soapy who would do the opposite, this creates an ironic plot. However, in the text “After Twenty Years”, Bob has a normal reaction toward cops as a normal criminal will react. Bob shows hints of his carefulness around cop. In the text, Bob had stated, “‘It’s all right, officer… It sounds strange to you, doesn’t it? I’ll explain if you want to be sure everything is all right.’” Bob keeps emphasizing how everything is all right but this also shows us Bob’s nervousness about cops. All these details shows us how Bob doesn’t wants to be arrested. Bob has a normal motivation creating a more normal plot compared to the text “The Cop and the
Like so many of Steinberg’s characters, Jimmy desires for more than he ever hoped to get from his women. Alison, in her conversation with Helena, enlightens on this, “A kind of a cross between a mother and a Greek courtesan, a henchwoman, a mixture of Cleopatra and Boswell.” The ambivalence of his demands arise from a basic insecurity of a man who fears the loss of all emotions in life that he so desperately desires to live. Jimmy’s troubled childhood had thoroughly sensitised him to the inadequacy of his mother’s position. Thus, Jimmy’s relation with women is perhaps the most appropriate indication of his personality: it’s a strange mingling of sensitivity and cruelty, insight and fullness, idealism and cynicism. His relation with women is often dependent on this understanding of his emotional vulnerability as it is dependent on his sense of sincerity towards them. As Jimmy moves from one woman to another, his helplessness is only reiterated as he searches in the other sex, his seed of
...e doesn't know where he is, or where he's going. He'll never do anything, and he'll never amount to anything" (Osborne 90). Thus, since Jimmy character is summed has no revolution to fight, he makes one wherever he can, creating multiple tirades and outburst to anger and alienate himself from his friends and family, only to end up where he originally started. Osborne hints through Jimmy’s character that he belonged in an era where change and progression was rampant, but instead, is forced to suffer through an era of stability and non-action. Therefore, Jimmy’s anger is a result of the built of tension and aggravation he has for not being able to find his place in society, and his outburst are his only outlet to feel that he has somewhat of a purpose in the society in which he lives.