Theme Mania
An all star theme vs. theme showdown
Expression vs. Phoniness
Throughout the novel, Rusty faces a constant struggle- finding himself. When his mom dies, he travels to Canada to finalize her will, but what he finds is a lot more than a lawyer. He realizes that all these years he's been something J.D. Salinger would only describe as a "phony". Through long walks and deep talks with Papa McCreary, he discovers that he's been pretending to be an average, run-of-the-mill city slicker, but in all actuality, he discovers he has much more to offer in the world.
“I've filled the page with signatures- these sundry inscriptions of my name, I examine each: they look like a strangers attempt to impersonate me.
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Picture
The City
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vs. The Wilderness As rusty boards the "airbus 333" destination- Toronto, He believes that the city life is the only life for him. “Taxis, skyscrapers, apartments, the lot. I love it. Right on down to those weird cone shaped structures in the middle of the road with smoke commin' out of 'em. I love it.ˮ However, Rusty soon realizes that walks within the forests of Kitchener are way better than calling a cab at 10pm after work. Affection vs. Ignorance Rusty's mom- up until she became very sick, showed little to no affection for Rusty. Rusty blames this partially for his loss of identity- he was never taught how to express himself, and show his emotions. “She did something totally foreign to us both- she gracefully extricated the land I had buried in my warm left pocket and clasped her cool fingers around my palm.ˮ 12/6/15 Asher Brown- Wilderness Oil Paintings Asher Brown was a famous artist in the 1870's. He was known for using only oil paints in order to make his paintings more realistic. Many of his works perfectly mirror the scenery described in Gravel Roads. Brown believed that one can become closer to himself by experiencing nature, similar to how Rusty found himself in nature. Picture “ "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth." ˮ Picture Picture Picture 12/6/15 Pop Culture and Gravel Roads There are many examples in today's pop culture that reflect the overall theme of finding one's identity within the novel Gravel Roads. Me, Myself, and Time- Demi Lavato: This song, released by Demi in 2010, describes her journey through self redemption, and finding oneself in a world of charlatan people, very similar to the struggles that Rusty faces in the woods of Canada. Picture DjKhaled305 on Snapchat: Dj Khaled, a successful musician and entrepreneur, makes daily "vlogs" on his Snapchat Story (a modern social media platform for sharing pictures and videos). These videos share inspirational anecdotes and live-action tribulations of Khaled's experience of personal growth. These posts inspire others to find who they are, and find their own path to remediation, silimar to that of Rusty's in Gravel Roads. “Bless up. It's a beautiful day out there. Go be who they say you can't. ˮ Picture 11/30/15 Gravel Roads & Diction Picture Anthony Horton uses diction throughout the entire novel to not only accentuate his themes & motifs, but also to stress the importance of certain thoughts. 1.
"Papa McCleary's eyes dragged over the landscape like he would never see it again... memorizing the craters of the rocks, and the rise and fall of the inescapable plateau"(106 Horton).
- In this case, Horton uses the words "dragged" and "inescapable" to convey his confusion and disapproval of the amount of time Papa McCreary was spending, simply looking at the forest. Rusty at this point has yet to discover himself and his love for the remote forests of Canada.
2. "I felt like an explorer who had discovered an untouched nirvana. It was as though, in the chilled early morning hush, we were the only souls on the planet" (286 Horton).
- Anthony again uses diction in words like "nirvana" and "souls" to convey his newfound peace with not only nature, but also himself.
3. "Mass general was a clean, sterile, and private hospital, where elderly patients came to quietly accept that their money would ultimately fail to save them from their own mortality"(19).
- This is towards the beginning of the novel, when Rusty is with his mom in the hospital before she dies. Rusty still has yet to lead his path towards self-discovery, and he is still very
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pessimistic. 11/30/15 An Interview with the Author- Anthony Horton Q: Why is Rusty scared of planes? What is the underlying significance behind this fear? A: "Good question.
When Rusty boards the airplane, he reveals his thoughts about his (fake) love of the city. The fear of planes is more of an ironic thing than anything else. I mean think about it. This guy who just expressed his love for smoke and buildings and pollution, and to think he's scared of a little plane. Bam. Irony."
Q: What inspired you to write this novel? Is it based on any truth or personal feelings?
A: "Of course. I feel like every author generates a little truth behind each novel. I grew up in Toronto, with all the billboards and flashing lights and Niagara Falls and what not, so as a kid I always dreamed of camping. Of getting away from the hustle and bustle and tourism. To this day, camping is my favorite thing to do in this world. Too bad your mom hates it."
Q: How old where you when you began writing this book and when did you finish?
A: "Lets see, I was 18, on my second year of university, and I finished about 5 years ago."
Q: Can you relate to Rusty, and his newfound lifestyle?
A: Yes, of course. When I first started writing this novel, I had just moved to Kitchener, an area where everybody knew everybody. No kidding. I literally walked past the Tim Hortons (a Canadian coffee shop) and I knew all the employees' names. Anyway, I discovered that there's more to life than the busy, busy, go, go, go, life I lead in Toronto, similar to
Rusty.
“Hospitals today are growing into mighty edifices in brick, stone, glass and marble. Many of them maintain large staffs, they use the best equipment that science can devise, they utilize the most modern methods in devoting themselves to the noblest purpose of man, that of helping’s one’s stricken brother. But they do all this on a business basis, submitting invoices for services rendered.”
Those are the last words the author wrote to his younger self. Astoundingly, it left a moment of sudden disclosure and realization to readers, as it sounds
In an excerpt from “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote writes as an outside male voice irrelevant to the story, but has either visited or lived in the town of Holcomb. In this excerpt Capote utilized rhetoric to no only describe the town but also to characterize it in order to set a complete scene for the rest of the novel. Capote does this by adapting and forming diction, imagery, personification, similes, anaphora, metaphors, asyndeton, and alliteration to fully develop Holcomb not only as a town, but as a town that enjoys its isolation.
The staff, physicians and board members were not ready to fail. They didn’t want to abandon all those who depended on their services, but they also knew closing the hospital's doors would hurt
The drive to cross the Kentucky border had taken hours and hours of strenuous patience to finally arrive in another state. The view was by far country like as hints of cow manure could be smelled far from a distance. We drive through small towns, half the size of our hometown of Glen Ellyn had been the biggest town we've seen if not smaller. The scenery had overwhelmed us, as lumps of Earth from a great distance turned to perfectly molded hills, but as we got closer and closer to our destination the hills no longer were hills anymore, instead the hills had transformed to massive mountains of various sizes. These mountains surrounded our every view as if we had sunken into a great big deep hole of green pastures. Our path of direction was seen, as the trails of our road that had followed for numerous hours ended up winding up the mountainous mountains in a corkscrew dizzy-like matter.
14)What do you know about the author? What was his or her purpose on writing the book.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
“Long days. Open country with ash blowing over the road. The boy sat by the fire at night with the pieces of the map across his knees. He had the names of towns and rivers by heart and he measured their progress daily”
scene in the book where he was having an interview with Jim Williams when Danny Hansford
... as giving details about the location” (Benedict). Carol even explains something interesting, “the type of vocabulary the characters use can suggest where they live or where the scene occurs. Teens from Chicago will sound different from teenagers in rural Kentucky” (Benedict). This is why it was important for Hemmingway to show the reader how Krebs was feeling. He set the story and it was the reader’s choice to envision how the character felt about his return.
“ I myself fell prey to wanderlust some years ago, desiring nothing better than to be a vagrant cloud scudding before the wind... But the year ended before I knew it... Bewitched by the god of restlessness, I lost my peace of mind; summoned by the spirits of the road, I felt unable to settle down to anything.”
"When my girlfriend got pregnant, we decided to keep the baby. I had to work two jobs to support us, three during the summer. So my grades aren't so hot."
Conrad, Peter, and Joseph W. Schneider. 1992. Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness. St. Louis: Mosby.
Mona Counts works in the village of Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. It is a medically underserved area and a HPSA (health professional shortage area). The town has an extremely poor economic base and majority of Mona’s patient population are poverty level. Mona is not worried about the money and will tell a patient to come in for a check up, regardless of whether or not they have health care. One patient said, “she is old-fashioned, she talks to you and tells you what you nee...
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and believe it to be one of the best books I have ever read. It was extremely well written and challenging for me to understand at times. It conveys that dark side of human ambition very well, and it has given me much to think about.