Throughout the lives of many individuals, the struggle of staying true to one’s self-values and escaping betrayal is inevitable. Instances of these are heavily shown in Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts through the main character Miss Lonelyhearts. In this novel, Miss Lonelyhearts struggles with his own religious views and status. This character was even described to the reader as resembling the look of a priest, being compared to Christ, and doing religious things such as nailing a cross on his wall. Although Miss Lonelyhearts tries to be religious, his personal life and his actions seem to fall below these Christ like expectations, leading him to betray his values. Miss Lonelyhearts’ character is well observed in the first chapter, when …show more content…
he makes an appearance at a local speakeasy after work. It is made clear to the reader that Miss Lonelyhearts has been suffering depression due to his emotionally demanding job of writing an advice column in the local newspaper. This also being how this character received his name, Miss Lonelyhearts receives over thirty letters a day begging for his help on relationships and life decisions. These letters take their toll on Miss Lonelyhearts and he feels that he needs to drink to feel at ease after reading said letters with no help to offer. Throughout the story, Miss Lonelyhearts attends the bar on a daily basis however he does not attend a single church service. This both shows that Miss Lonelyhearts is depressed and also that he cannot look to Christ to cure him of his sorrows, much like he cannot cure his readers of theirs. If Miss Lonelyhearts had stayed true to his values and personal morals, he would not need to set foot in a bar at any time and he would trust God to relieve him of his struggles. However, Miss Lonelyhearts neither attends church services nor prays to ask for forgiveness and help. Although Miss Lonelyhearts tries to convince the reader and himself that he is a religious man, he cannot commit to the work it takes to stay true to his value of being Christ like. Miss Lonelyhearts again strays from his values when he has sexual relations with two different married women.
First Miss Lonelyhearts goes on a date and gets intimate with his coworker Shrike’s wife, which is clearly a sin someone so Christ like would not execute. Next Miss Lonelyhearts has sexual intercourse with a woman named Mrs. Doyle after she wrote him a letter for his column and included her phone number. Miss Lonelyhearts knew Mrs. Doyle was married as that was the main subject of her letter. Mrs. Doyle turns to Miss Lonelyhearts because her husband is a “cripple” and she longs for a man in better physical condition than her husband’s. Although Miss Lonelyhearts tries to insert Christ into every aspect of his life, he forgets to remain in that state when he takes Mrs. Doyle back to his apartment, as a true religious man would never do. Despite his personal wants at the time, Miss Lonelyhearts forgets his values and strays away from his morals of staying true to Christ and his beliefs. Something that is emphasized in this story is that all the characters who write to Miss Lonelyhearts’ advice column all have physical ailments or disfigurements that match their broken, ravaged interiors, much like Miss Lonelyhearts himself. For example, Mrs. Doyle is described as being obese and “brutish” relates to her interior of being abusive to her husband and taking her anger out on Miss Lonelyhearts who gives into sin by giving her what she wants. However, later in the story Miss
Lonelyhearts shows Mrs. Doyle that he regrets what he has done by abusing and beating her. Instead of feeling for the weak and later turning to anger, Miss Lonelyhearts would have been better off if he had remained true to himself and what he believes in; instead, he lives with regrets. Throughout this short novel about Miss Lonelyhearts and the many people he meets, the reader is quickly exposed to the many sins and forms of betrayal embedded in their lives. Whether it is having an affair with married women, “sacrificing” animals to Christ, beating women, or being intoxicated on a daily basis, Miss Lonelyhearts is without a doubt going against his morals of being sinless and Christ like. Although at times Miss Lonelyhearts feels that his is doing the right thing, he still derives unsympathetic pleasure from reading the many desperate please from his readers, and still does not offer any real help. The only trait Miss Lonelyhearts possesses is that of feeling dismal for the weak; this however has no value because he cannot perform miracles. Much like people in the real world, Miss Lonelyhearts is the perfect example of someone who has betrayed their own values. He wishes to be religious and Christ like but is unable due to temptation and allurement.
The hardships of the need of acceptance from others makes peoples lives complicated and confusing. These hardships affect people differently and each person deals with hardships in different ways. The decisions people make due to hardships can change who they are as a person. Jean Howarth examines the idea of responses to hardship in her short story, “The Novitiate”. She writes about a girl who must go through the hardship of choosing between her brother and her morals. The author utilizes character development to suggest that the need of acceptance can cause people to make difficult decisions in hardships, which can lead to a person breaking their own morals for the satisfaction of others.
“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies”-(Unknown). In the book Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt she wrote about a nine year old boy named Jethro Creighton and his family. A war started to arrive in mid-April 1861, because of the north and south wanted to either keep slaves or to free them but that decision caused chaos to start to emerge. This chaos jumped into Jethro’s life when some of his brothers joined the war almost all of them joined the north but one joined the south, which in their case was the enemy. This left Jethro with the job of plowing the field. He got help from his fourteen year old Sister Jenny. Jethro’s mother Ellen and his father Matt were left worrying about their sons John, Tom, Bill, and their cousin Eb, and Jenny’s boyfriend Shadrach Yale. All this chaos with the war left the Creighton’s family worried sick, through all this they had to deal with the consequences of betrayal, and death on their minds.
An ardent Catholic as she was, Flannery O’Connor astonishes and puzzles the readers of her most frequently compiled work, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. It is the violence, carnage, injustice and dark nooks of Christian beliefs of the characters that they consider so interesting yet shocking at the same time. The story abounds in Christian motifs, both easy and complicated to decipher. We do not find it conclusive that the world is governed by inevitable predestination or evil incorporated, though. A deeper meaning needs to be discovered in the text. The most astonishing passages in the story are those when the Grandmother is left face to face with the Misfit and they both discuss serious religious matters. But at the same time it is the most significant passage, for, despite its complexity, is a fine and concise message that O’Connor wishes to put forward. However odd it may seem, the story about the fatal trip (which possibly only the cat survives) offers interesting comments on the nature of the world, the shallowness of Christian beliefs and an endeavour to answer the question of how to deserve salvation.
Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon depicts the fallacious logic of a totalitarian regime through the experiences of Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov. Rubashov had fought in the revolution and was once part of the Central Committee of the Party, but he is arrested on charges of instigating attempted assassinations of No. 1, and for taking part in oppositional, counter-revolutionary activities, and is sent to a Soviet prison. Rubashov, in his idle pacing throughout his cell, recollects his past with the Party. He begins to feel impulses of guilt, most especially in those moments he was required to expel devoted revolutionaries from the Party, sending them to their death. These subconscious feelings of guilt are oftentimes represented physically in the form of toothache or through day- or night-dreams. As his thought progresses with the novel, he begins to recognize his guilt, which emerges alongside his individuality. It remains in his subconscious, and it is not until Rubashov absolves himself through silent resignation at his public trial that he is fully conscious of guilt. By joining the Party, Rubashov allows himself to forget the questions of human nature and of his individuality. The nature of his guilt lies in this betrayal of his individuality.
...d both of them do not quite understand what being saved actually means. In the end, “when she saw the man’s face twisted close to her own (367).” the grandmother realizes that she and The Misfit are both on the same level and she is no worse than the latter. Almost like taking a look into a mirror and pondering upon one’s own reflection. The story takes a quick pause, when the author writes the line, “His voice seemed to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instance (367).” What were the thoughts that went through the grandmother’s head? What happened during the “instance” that changed the grandmother’s view on her beliefs? The sole purpose of the phrase drowns a reader with questions and uncertainty. The story makes a final closure with The Misfit’s remark on how his source of happiness by performing violent acts brings “no real pleasure in life.”
The couple, Mel states, was driving down the interstate when an intoxicated nineteen-year-old “plowed his dad’s pickup truck” into the couple’s camper (146). Though the driver was pronounced dead on arrival, the couple survived. They were, however, in critical condition. During their recovery, Mel states, the man was depressed: even after learning that his wife was safe. The reason being that, “…he [the man] couldn’t see [his wife] through his eye –holes…his heart was breaking because he couldn’t turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife”, an idea that would, by popular accounts, define the real nature of true love: of the two becoming one (151). Despite his self-proclaimed knowledge on the topic of love, Mel cannot fathom the thought of two people having such a level of affection for one another that the reality of not being able to see one another interferes with their ability to heal. As a cardiologist, it is Mel’s job to fix broken hearts. It is the one area where he feels he can relate to the heart. Yet with this couple, though he could physically mend the man’s broken heart, Mel cannot mend the man’s heartache. This leaves Mel feeling confused and
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
A distinct conscience is formed by the values and desires of one’s unique identity. However, common beliefs of societal standards can influence conscientious desires. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces a young girl named Scout, who learns about the difference between social conformity and human conscience. Through this, she notices the conflict it brings: choosing to conform or stand with your desire. Through Maycomb’s discriminatory principles, Atticus’ actions against common beliefs, and Scout’s comprehension of Boo, Lee reveals how society’s standards and conformity hinders personal desires for righteousness.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
The narrator is forbidden from work and confined to rest and leisure in the text because she is supposedly stricken with, "…temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency," that is diagnosed by both her husband and her brother, who is also a doctor (1).
Miss Brill is very observant of what happens around her. However, she is not in tune with her own self. She has a disillusioned view of herself. She does not admit her feelings of dejection at the end. She seems not even to notice her sorrow. Miss Brill is concerned merely with the external events, and not with internal emotions. Furthermore, Miss Brill is proud. She has been very open about her thoughts. However, after the comments from the young lovers, her thoughts are silenced. She is too proud to admit her sorrow and dejection; she haughtily refuses to acknowledge that she is not important.
She would not have grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion, she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love. Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression.
Mrs. Mallard's medical diagnosis is an example of the male-dominated society in which she lives. They are able to tell her that she indeed has a heart condition, but are unable to treat her effectively, portraying how ineffectual male patriarchy is in the life of this woman in particular. Mrs. Mallard is expected to fulfill the stereotypical role of "the angel in the house." She should acknowledge that the comforts in her life are all gifts from her husband, and should make it the primary goal of her life to please him in any way. As a dutiful wife, she must be content in serving and obeying her husband and children. On the other hand, there is the "madwoman in the attic" who breaks free from the constraints set upon women. This woman is seen as a "monster" and "sexually fallen" for simply desiring to have a life outside of her family (Bressler 178). Mrs. Mallard falls into both categories. Though she feels oppressed by her husband, she stills acts as the "angel," faithfully staying by his side despite her unhappiness. However, Chopin provides the reader with small indications of the "madwoman" even before Mrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband's death. The Mallards have no children, which signifies an unfruitful marriage. According to the same male-dominated medical society that is impotent in treating her heart condition, the failure to produce children would have fallen on Mrs. Mallard (Wald 2).
Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...