In Carver’s The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off, Dummy is isolated from society and is not defined by his individuality. Dummy is seen as one who does not fit in with the coworkers or even his wife. Dummy carrying everything on him made him a target of taunt and disrespect at the workplace. His wife is with other men, which signifies her non-supportive behavior towards her husband. Dummy’s real name is not mentioned in the story signifying how he does not belong in society, specifically the town members. Throughout the story, he is silent and speechless because other folks have no empathy and consider him as an outcast. While he was alienated from the town, the author provides a twist with a solution to Dummy’s conflict of alienation.
According to Jack Fraser, the narrator of the story, “The fish changed Dummy’s whole personality” (Carver 76). The presence of bass fish in Dummy’s pond signifies a source of happiness, a source of connection, and a decrease in the isolation and alienation he was feeling. He even had an electric fence, symbolizing the barrier between alienation and happiness. Furthermore, as Jack Fraser caught a bass fish, Dummy served as the guardian and released the fish because the fish are the source of Dummy’s satisfaction. Although the fish gave him satisfaction and purpose, he would again feel alienated as the flood resulted in the fish going from the pond to the river. The narrator says, “He was just standing there, the saddest man I ever saw” (Carver 81). Apparently, even Mother Nature was against his happiness. As a result, Dummy drowned himself in the pond. His death shows that he did not find meaning in his life and that death was the solution from all the alienation.
In Steve Martin’s, “The Death of My Father” Martin takes his reader on a compelling journey through his personal experiences and allows the connection made with the reader to be the gateway in which he provides his information. From the beginning of Martin’s article his story of his father is heartfelt; the reader can immediately feel sympathy for the author. This proves to be a very successful way to insure his readers think deeply about what he has to say. With phrases like this one, “… if I had anything to work out with my parents, I should do it now, because one day that opportunity would be over” (1) Martin expresses one of the valuable lessons that he is portraying to the reader through a meaningful life experience like that of his friend
Upon reading Raymond Carver's short story of the Cathedral one will notice the literary devices used in the short story. When analyzing the story completely, one then understands the themes, motifs, metaphors, and the overall point of the piece. This leaves the reader with an appreciation of the story and a feeling of complete satisfaction.
“Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools” he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them,” (Jackson). Mr. Warner is not a good-natured person and has a selfish personality. Warner leaves a negative tone on the village, complaining for everything that does not work in his favor. In spite of Warner’s personality, George lives in a calm ordered manner. Reasoning of his behavior comes from the fact he was intelligent and miserable within his society. “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little handicap radio in his ear,” (Vonnegut 38). Being handicapped George is left immobile, making life tiring, the point where he can not accomplish anything. Life left in a broken society changes the aspect of a character, George Bergeron and Old Man Warner were left with nothing, showing the effect of a society and its
While Huck is traveling down the river with Jim, he must lie and often disguise himself to survive on his own to conceal his identity. Huck rebels because he does not want to follow his aunts house rules or live up to her expectations which are to conform to social norms. This means he has to dress cleanly and neatly, use manners, go to school, and be polite to everyone. Huck also is confused because he wants to get away from his abusive father who excessively drinks. Huck is afraid of his father who has beaten him and verbally abused him repeatedly therefore, his only solution is to run away. He does this by faking his own death. Curiousity overwhelms him and he wants to know how society has taken to the news of his death. In order to get some information Huck disguises himself as a girl. He meets with Judy Lawson, a local woman, and asks about the disappearance of Huck Finn. Although his disguise works well, Judy Loftus starts to test him to disguise whether Huck is really a girl. As soon as Judy says, "What's your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob? -or what is it?"(Twain 70) Huck realizes he has no chance in pulling such pranks. When confronted with his lie Huck tells the truth and ends up making a friend who says he can count on her. Huck also tries to protect Jim from being captured by lying about himself and his situation.
In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.
From birth, Lester Ballard seemed to have been cursed with misfortune. His mother had run away from home when he was an infant and his father hung himself when he was about nine or ten years old. Lester actually had to see his father hanging from the ceiling. That would leave a permanent scar on any child, including Ballard, as the author notes, "They say he never was right after his daddy killed hisself." (21) From then on, Ballard seems to have gone where life took him. What he suffered from was a total lack of awareness. Ballard was a well before he understood what that word meant and he never learned the concept in his entire life. He did not know what things meant, did not even know what happened. Every signal he got from the outside community was telling him that he did not belong there, that he was not accepted. Even when Ballard enters a church service, a setting where people are accepted and loved, he was rejected for who he was. People spoke about him in whispers, "A windy ruffle of whispers went among them." (31). His community, through rejection victimized Ballard. Rejection may well be the most potent form of victimization since it cuts off the air to out most cherished need of connection and love.
A silent, decided, and seemingly frustrated teenager . He speaks nothing more than needed and " yes" or " no" forms most of his answers. He becomes a member of the gang because he wants to take revenge of a society in which his parents have come down. His father, formerly an architect, is working as a clerk ; and his mother considers herself better than the neighbors. This leaves T with nothing better to do than join the local gang. In the destruction of Old Misery's house, he is given the ability to lash out at the world in response to the misfortune it beset onto him.
Boo is a secluded and shy man who never leaves his house. There are only rumors of Boo creeping out when it’s pitch dark outside. Besides those rumors, he is always kept locked up inside his house with “the shutters and doors closed” (9). It is not until one day, when Jem and Scout are walking along the road coming home from a Halloween event at school that Boo Radley comes out from his house. The children are walking silently home when they suddenly heard the shuffling of someone’s shoes. Not before long, Bob Ewell runs straight towards the children, knife in hand. While the children are being tackled, there is a “crunching” (262) sound of Jem’s arm, and he is left on the cold and damp ground. Scout is so entangled that it is hard for her to see. What she does manage to see is a man carrying Jem home. This man is Boo Radley. When Bob Ewell is fighting the children, Boo has to make a decision on whether or not he wants to reveal himself. In the end, Boo ends up fighting off Bob Ewell and saving the childrens’ lives. Even though Boo is always locked away from the rest of society and doesn’t want to be seen, he gets over his fear and fights for the children’s safety. He truly shows courage because he stands by what is right and leaves his house to save Atticus’s
For instance, it is important to note that only Dave and the woman narrator wanted a change in their lives and their environment. However, every person of the story was portrayed in agreement to his or her duties, and societal roles. For example, in the story of “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, Dave’s mother is so busy with her role, that, with the condition of bringing it to her, she gives up the money for him to buy the gun. In addition, when everybody is gathered at the scene of the killing of the mule, Dave’s mother confronts Dave to tell the truth in front of everybody, taking the side of the societal opinion, which was that Dave was lying. Similarly, the husband of the hysterical character from the “Yellow Wallpaper” story, takes his sick wife away from society, so she does not interrupt the flow of society, and, with the exception of John’s sister, the lives of their families can continue to function as
The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually know him. It seems he has judged too soon as his ideas of the blind man change and he gets a better understanding of not only the blind man, but his self as well.
In Hamlet, a famous play written by William Shakespeare, the character Polonius says, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” With these words, Shakespeare captures the idea of realizing the true identity in one’s self. Unfortunately, at times, one might allow a disability to hinder him or her from achieving the realization of full genuine truth. Through Carson McCullers’ Great American Novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter the idea of disabilities hindering the truth about a man or woman clearly presents itself. The novel, published in 1940, takes place in a rural mill-town in the south from 1938-1939, just before WWII. In the novel, characters like John Singer, Mick Kelly, Jake Blount, Dr. Copeland and Biff Brannon take the reader on an emotional roller coaster that sends the message of disabilities hindering the achievement of complete truth. When observing The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by McCullers, it becomes clear to the reader that a disability, occasionally, can conceal the genuine truth of a person through John Singer’s inability to hear or speak, Jake Blount’s addiction to alcohol, Dr. Copeland’s insecurity about his race, and Biff Brannon’s androgyny without his wife.
A house slave, Roxy tends to both her child and her master’s, Thomas à Becket Driscoll. Although Roxy appears white, “one-sixteenth of her was black,” so Roxy, along with her son, was born into bondage (Twain 7). In response to a theft, Tom’s father, Percy Driscoll, threatens to sell all his slaves down the river. With the fear of this terrible fate in mind, and without control over their socioeconomic status, Roxy decides to drown herself and her son in the same river that could deliver them to the grueling cruelty of plantation life in the South. Her tattered clothes, a reflection of her slave status, remind her of her inferior position. Dressing instead in her finest attire, Roxy “resolves to make her death-toilet perfect” (Twain 12). But when she sees that her son is wearing a “miserably short tow-linen shirt,” and she “noted the contrast between its pauper shabbiness and her own volcanic irruption of infernal splendors, her mother-heart was touched, and she was ashamed” (Twain 12). To similarly elevate her son’s appearance, “she clothed the naked little creature in one of Thomas à Becket’s snowy long baby gowns, with its bright blue bows and dainty flummery of ruffles” (Twain 12). Roxy realizes that not only does Chambers look as opulently-dressed as Tom, he in fact mirrors his appearance. Indeed, she recalls when even Percy
The theme of Hugh Garner's 'The Sound of Hollyhocks'; concerns one of Canada's most serious social problems. The theme suggests how condescension and discrimination can have devastating effects on the people around us. The story is set in Pinehills Clinic where alcoholics and psychotics are placed to recover. Wilf Armstrong, an alcoholic at the clinic, ends up with 'Rock Hudson';, who is a psychotic at the hospital, as his roommate. 'Rock Hudson'; was the nickname given to William Cornish Ranson by some of the other alcoholics. Rock was forced into mental illness by his mother because his wife, Sarah, was from a different social class. Rock comes from a rich family and he met Sarah at one of his father's branch of banks. They got married secretly because Rock knew that his mother would object such a marriage since Sarah came from a poorer and less prestigious background. The first meeting between Sarah and Rock's mother proved to be a disaster. Due to Rock's mother's disapproval of Sarah, Sarah and Rock's marriage starts to fall apart. One thing leads to another, and Sarah and Rock's marriage ends with Sarah's abrupt death. This pushes Rock into his present state of hearing flowers talk to him. This is a great example of how social problems such as condescension and discrimination can have devastating effects on those around us. If Rock's mother had not shown such hostility towards Sarah and Rock, they wouldn't have grown apart and Sarah would not have died and Rock would not have gone crazy. So Rock's mother, who originally just wanted the best for his son, becomes the person that pushes Rock into his mental illness, which ultimately lead to his death. Things like this happen every day in Canada and around the world. Awhile ago, several 'skinheads'; were tried for beating a Sikh man to death due to racial and religious differences.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel explains greatly about a famous phrase that starts with “Don’t judge a book by its cover. People aren’t who they seem to be because most people have qualities that they hide/fake about. This theme is the most significant aspect in the novel. Boo Radley is a character that does a perfect example of hiding his lifestyle the people in Maycomb heard rumors about him being a monster. Atticus is also another great example. In the beginning of the book, Jem refuses to eat dinner until his dad, Atticus, promises him to play football. When Atticus does not tolerate to do that promise, Jem calls/consider him a boring dad. Mrs. Dubose is considered to be a cranky lady, but she is a whole different person. Out of all
I feel like the voice that stood out to me the most had to be Charley’s Dad. I think it was super brave of him to discuss the struggles that his son was dealing with and even the stuff he had to go through with the different staff members that worked at Charley’s school that were not doing their part or not even doing anything to help benefit Charley’s needs. It is definitely sad to say, that there are those educators out there that do not treat their students that have a disability with the respect and help them with their needs that they deserve. With these types of teachers, they see a student with a disability as a waste of time or chose not to help them, because they do not want to have to deal with it. Charley’s dad was the voice for