The novel begins with the letter that Edgar is writing to his fiancée Mary in which he explains to her his endeavour to locate the murderer of his friend, after which he sets out on his mission. He goes for a walk around the site where Waldegrave's body was found and there, for the first time, sees Clithero whom he describes as “ a figure, robust and strange, and half naked“ , immediately recognizing him as something opposite than himself and everyone around him. After a conversation with him, which seemed more like an interrogation, Edgar begins to empathize with Clithero and as he runs away into the forest, Edgar follows. He is threatened and in awe of this man's ability to find his way through the wilderness and suddenly a sense of rivalry arises in Edgar which turns into pure competition. Consequently, Edgar's inexplicably drawn to the character . He finds him in a cave resembling a madman, a savage, a barbarian: "His grey coat, extended claws, fiery eyes, and a cry which he at that moment uttered, and which, by its resemblance to the human voice, is peculiarly terrific, denoted him to be the most ferocious and untamable of that detested race" . At the entrance of the cave, a panther appears as a symbol of Clithero's transformation into a primal, animalistic creature. That night, Edgar experiences sleepwalking for the first time and a sequence of occurrences begins which leads him deeper into the wilderness of the forest, as well as the wilderness of his identity. What comes next is a scene of Edgar waking up at the bottom of a dark pit in which he fell while sleepwalking. He wakes up to find himself almost entirely naked, covered in blood and with no sign of civilization whatsoever. As he succeeds to crawl out of the pit, he ... ... middle of paper ... ...s a metaphor of the gloomiest corners of his psyche that open up only when he loses complete control over his mind and body. His senses appear far more acute when he is dreaming, the percepton of the wilderness through his impressions grows stronger and together with it grows his sense of liberty and existence. “The mysteries of the forest ultimately prove to be the mysteries of one's own identity. The amount of secrecy one encounters in external reality is comparable in extent to the submerged areas of one's being. Somnambulism is the final phase of this deterioration, for to be a somnambulit is to live, paradoxically, outside one's impulses and actions while at the same time being a part of them... Though he feels equally unplaced and enveloped by fear, the things surrounding him appear to have greater firmness, weight, and presence than he experiences elsewhere.“
In the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the protagonist is a beastly creature, of whom the title of this novel takes after. Grendel closely follows a monomyth formed by Joseph Campbell. This monomyth is based on the belief that “the mind of each person has inherited archetypes that are either repressed or manifested through the experiences of the individual.” Something incredibly significant in the interpretation of this theory is “The Shadow.” Based on this monomyth, this is the part of the mind that contains our darkest desires and urges.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, humanity is a theme seen throughout. Humanity can be defined in many ways. It can be the disposition to do good, or it can be the human race. In the Night, the theme of humanity is the disposition to do good. In the book, Elie loses and finds his humanity. At the end, he holds on to his humanity, but loses some of it after events like his father’s death. Elie succeeds in retaining his humanity because he holds on to his father, he feels sympathy for people at the camps, and he keeps faith. Elie retains his humanity in the end even though he loses it in the middle of the book.
Christopher is a fifteen-year old boy with Aspergers Autism whose life is full of uncanny surprises. His main focus is on school, and his ability to take the maths A level exams. Unfortunately, that was his focus until he finds Wellington dead on Mrs. Shears’ lawn. Christopher wants to know who killed Wellington and why. He investigates and finds out not only who killed Wellington, but he discovers secrets about his mother and father. In the book “The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time”, the author, Mark Haddon, shows us how courageous Christopher is throughout his journey. According to Aristotle, a man is courageous when he sets himself free from his fears, pain, and poverty instead of running away from it. According to Aristotle’s theory, Christopher profusely shows courage when he investigates Wellington’s murder and travels to London to find his mom.
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesal presents the readers with many theme’s throughout the long journey of Elie, and his miraculous survival of one of the toughest experiences known to man. The major theme throughout the whole story is Elie’s struggle to maintain any sort of faith in god or a god like figure. As we meet Elie in the beginning, we see that God is a constant in this young boys life. He even stated “Why did I pray? . . . Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Wiesal) Here we see that there is no second guessing his faith in god and how strong it was. But after few experiences during the Holocaust it becomes apparent that his “faith” in god seems to be lessoning day after day. After his first days in the camps, Elie wonders how God could make life this terrible for people. The cruelty he witnessed and the hardships he fought made an impact on his faith and beliefs. Questioning is fundamental to the idea of faith and belief in God. The Holocaust forced Elie to ask terrible questions about good and evil and about whether God really does exists. But just him asking these questions shows his true belief in God. So Elie questioned whether he really was faithful to God, but as he did this, he soon realized questioning belief makes him know God is really there.
In this report you will see the comparisons between the novel Dawn and the life of Elie Wiesel, its author. The comparisons are very visible once you learn about Elie Wiesel’s life. Elie Wiesel was born on September28,1928 in the town of Hungary. Wiesel went through a lot of hard times as a youngster. In 1944, Wiesel was deported by the nazis and taken to the concentration camps. His family was sent to the town of Auschwitz. The father, mother, and sister of Wiesel died in the concentration camps. His older sister and himself were the only to survive in his family. After surviving the concentration camps, Wiesel moved to Paris, where he studied literature at the Sorbonne from 1948-1951. Since 1949 he has worked as a foreign correspondant and journalist at various times for the French, Jewish, periodical, L’Arche, Tel-Aviv newspaper Yediot Ahronot, and the Jewish daily forward in New York City. Francois mauriac the Roman Catholic Nobelest and Nobel Laureate convinced Wiesel to speak about the Holocaust. Wiesel wrote an 800 page memoir which he later edited into a smaller version called "Night". In the mid 60’s Wiesel spoke out a lot about the Holocaust. Later on Wiesel emerged on as an important moral voice on Religious Issues and the Human Rights. Since 1988 Wiesel has been a professor at Boston University. Some of Wiesel’s greatest novels has been "Night", "Dawn", "The Accident", "The Town Beyond The Wall", "The Gates Of The Forest", "The Fifth Son"...
Night is a horrible tale of murder and man’s inhumanity to man. Wiesel saw his family, friends, and fellow Jews degraded and murdered. Wiesel also states in his book that his God, to whom he was so devoted, was also "murdered" by the Nazis. In the novel Wiesel changed from a devout Jew to a broken young man who doubted his belief in God.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher Boone. Christopher has a highly-functioning form of autism which allows him to understand complex mathematical problems, but also leaves him unable to comprehend many simple human emotions. His inability to understand metaphors, distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes it possible to consider Christopher as functioning like a computer rather than functioning as a human being. Throughout the story, Christopher is faced with many challenges which he conquers using the stable and never changing system of mathematics. All of these factors suggest that Christopher does, in fact, function like a computer, but it is apparent early in the story that Christopher, regardless of anything else, is capable of independent thought which separates him from the programmed, dependent world of computers.
Every individual's mind functions in a different and unique way. We all have idiosyncratic behaviours and functions. These distinctive characteristics are what make us who we are. But not all neurological differences help us in our day -to-day lives. Every individual also possess some psychological defects. These issues are clearly portrayed in the novel, The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. In this story the protagonist is an autistic boy who faces many challenges in his life. Both his parents also face some complications in coping up with their son. Therefore the central theme in the novel, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, delineated by Christopher (the autistic boy), the father, and the mother, is that everyone has psychological problems that they need to overcome.
...nfined with total loss of control. In solitude, the mind roams freely in its own dangerous secluded world.
It has become paramount that composers utilise various techniques in order to influence an individual’s perception of the world. As seen through the eyes of an Aspergers sufferer, Christopher Boone, Mark Haddon’s inventive novel entitle ‘The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time’, skilfully portrays how the decisions of significant characters and their relationships shape the overall message about the difficulties of living with a limiting social condition. This is challenged from the unique perspective of Christopher and explicitly seen through the relationship between the protagonist and both his parents. Haddon employs a myriad of techniques through the concepts of the conflicting nature of love, the desperation for a world of order and stability, and the value of truth. Along with the reoccurring allusions to mathematics and science in order to display the complexity of human interaction, as he skilfully depicts how both relationships attempt to deal with the issue in their day to day lives.
At a young age, she defies her father and brother “with bold saucy looks,” and “ready words.” Throughout her life, they were the ones who tried to control her to be what they want her to be. She becomes friends with Heathcliff and they go out and do things that they want. Her brother was “entirely negligent how they behaved.” Her brother did not approve that Catherine and Heathcliff spent a lot of time together; so he arranged for Katherine to marry Edgar. Katherine, even when she is married, goes out and pursues her freedom. Heathcliff returns after a few years and wants to see Katherine. Edgar disapproves and wants Heathcliff out. Edgar walked out the room and Katherine “slammed the door and locked it.” Katherine was upset that Edgar talked to Heathcliff in the way that he did and that he wasn’t as happy as she was when Heathcliff showed up. A few chapters’ later, Catherine and Heathcliff ran away together. By doing so, Katherine escaped the wicked demands from a man she did not love and freed herself from the submission of a male with a higher status. After Catherine dies, another female is put in her same position. Isabella, Edgar’s sister, arrives back with Heathcliff and wants to see her brother. He disowns her and her now husband, Heathcliff, is not the man she imagined he was. Heathcliff is more violent and that no dangerous animal can “not rouse terror” in her like Heathcliff. Edgar’s daughter, Catherine, is the third female to witness his demanding behavior. She wants to visit her cousin and he denies her of that. Like her mother, Catherine goes against Edgar by writing letters to her cousin, Linton. Linton falls ill, and begs Catherine to visits him. While she’s there, he states that Catherine harmed him, and that he’s worse because of it. She’s upset and thinks it’s her fault, and Linton uses that to his advantages.
Robert Baer’s “Sleeping With The Devil”, is a very interesting book. This book is actually a critique from Baer, who was Central Intelligence Officer (CIA). It describes the relationship that the Americans had with Saudia Arabia. Baer was concerned about how much the relationship between the two was very hypocritical to the American values and that it put the US economy in jeopardy. When it comes to the book’s main theme and points it includes; that America’s corruption on cheap oil and political stability in the Middle East was also a lucrative business relationship, America is vulnerable to economic disaster and risks of terrorism, and that America is blinded by low prices and are not seeing how culturally bribing Saudia Arabia is along with its Islamic beliefs.
The book that I read was called The Stranger written by Albert Camus. The book is globally famous and was translated to many different languages and texts. The original was called L’Étranger which was written in French in 1942. The plot of this story involved a man in his late twenties or early thirties. The man's name is Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Meursault is notified that his mother had passed away in the nursing home that he occupied her to. Meursault’s income could not afford to take care of his mother any longer; therefore, he put her in a nursing home. Meursault took off of work and went to the nursing home where she passed away to pay his respects and attend the funeral ceremonies. When he arrived at the nursing home, the funeral director brought Meursault to his mother’s coffin. The director asked if he wanted to see her and he quickly replied to keep the coffin shut. Meursault sat in the room and nearly went through an entire pack of cigarettes while blankly watching his mother’s coffin. At the actual funeral, Meursault shows no signs of normal emotion which would normally be induced at such an event.
Fredrick Douglass once said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Coming from the advanced, civilized society we live in, there is never a second guess on how much reading and writing can affect our lives. In Dark Night of the Soul, by Richard Miller, Miller offers us the question, whether or not writing can generate a greater sense of connection to the world. In many places throughout the earth, writing is used to broaden people’s perspectives, as well as form a connection with the world. In the United Arab Emirates for example, a focus on literacy has allowed them to become civilized in the eyes of many advanced countries. But with a positive always comes a negative, with examples of this being the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, Story of Chris McCandles, and Columbine Shooting, all in which writing narrowed a persons ideas, causing them to act out due to the disconnection they felt with the world. This idea of narrowing and broadening perspective shows its true influence, that dependent on the material, writing can affect us all, allowing us in our own personal ways, to be “free.”
All these sacrifices made by Edgar shows the reader what kind of person he is. Although some sacrifices were for himself, he also considered other people when deciding on what actions to take. Edgar’s sacrifices show he is a brave, considerate, and caring person.