The Body describes this important stage in the life of four boys – there is Gordie, the implied author of the story, who cannot live up to the legacy of his dead brother; Chris, who comes from a lower class family with criminal tendencies; Teddy, whose father was brought to a mental asylum after burning off Teddy's ears on the stove; and Vern, who is constantly tormented by his older brother. The story takes place in the late summer or autumn before the boys start high school, when they have to decide if they are aiming for a college degree or “settle for” a high school degree.
There is a remarkable ambiguity to the title; it does not necessarily refer to Ray Brower's body – the cadaver which the boys aim to find – but also the living bodies of the protagonists. “[...] Bodily sensations, the physical self and the dangers that beset it are emphasized and analyzed” (Heldreth, 64), primarily by the main character and first person narrator Gordie.
Gordon “Gordie” Lachance, who ends up becoming a successful author, is the narrator of the story, which takes place a
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Teddy enjoys the stories Gordie writes about a certain character called Le Dio, because he is fascinated with his father's time with the army, but it is Chris who encourages Gordie to pursue writing as a career (379).
During the course of the story, twelve year old Gordie Lachance is confronted with death for the second time in his life. The first time does indeed threaten Gordie's identity. Being an “invisible boy” (298) before Dennis' death, his sense of identity is further weakened because he is not able to escape from Dennis, and everything Dennis stands for; his athletic success, his reputation, the pride of his parents, expectations Gordie cannot seem to meet. By being “Denny Lachance's brother” (343) Dennis constantly intrudes into Gordie's
Gene understands that Finny is unable to make a transition into adulthood when he says, “You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight anymore. You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (191). Finny is unable to make an enemy out of anyone therefore preventing him from finding any real internal war to fight. Gene is already experiencing a mental and emotional battle from Finny’s fall allowing him to enter adulthood. Childhood can not thrive forever, adults cannot carry the careless characteristics of a small boy, and this is why Phineas can never made it to adulthood; he can never fully reveal an internal fight with true emotion behind it. Gene is shattered to the doctor say, “‘This is something I think boys of your generation are going to see a lot of,’ he said quietly, ‘and I will have to tell you about it now. Your friend is dead.’ He was incomprehensible” (193). Nevertheless, this marks the end of Gene’s war and grants him entrance into adulthood. Phineas’ death is the true mark that one can not be a child forever, they must find a fight inside their head that requires emotional and intellectual strength to become an
Teddy is a character that understood how important his imagination is, but is too young to put this understanding into words. Teddy’s ambition and imagination is being ruined by his aunt and uncle so that he becomes like them. His imagination, which is the key to his future in society, is now reformed. Clearly, life has never been easy for anyone in this world. Instead, it is filled with plenty of obstacles. Children are known as the future generation, but there will be no future when adults allow them to become corrupt. It is important to not allow what adults think is normal to affect the ever-growing minds of children, for, they will only be influenced and become violent, unimaginative, fearful
Ever since the snowball accident Dunny has been preoccupied by worrying over Mary Dempster, and now her son Paul. At the age of sixteen the small town of Deptford becomes too much for Dunny to handle so he decides to drop out of secondary school and join the Army. Dunny needed a change in his life, something to get his mind off Mrs. Dempster and the guilt he felt for her. Leading up to his departure to the War he never really saw much of Mary, mainly because Mr. Dempster told him to stay away, but also because every time him saw her he couldn't hold back feelings of guilt and remorse. This troubled Dunny, much more then he would ever let on. On the other hand, Boy was doing as well as ever, possibly due to the fact that he knew that much of the responsibility of Mary and Paul was securely on the shoulders of Dunny. Dunny knew this as well but it was too late to do much about it except leave.
His observations of surrounding nature changes after a few ironic incidents occur. The role he plays reverses itself and he finds that he is merely a scared child who is lost and alone in a big scary world. While at Greasy Lake, he is involved in a terrible fight where he almost kills another person, and attempts the heinous crime of rape onto an innocent girl. As he begins to gang rape an innocent victim he is forced to run for his own safety when more people show up at the scene. Ironically, within minutes he converts from being the bad guy, forcing himself on an unwilling victim, to becoming a scared kid hiding in the woods from attackers. While...
Because he never backs down from anything he starts, Christopher’s pursuit to solve Wellington’s murder remains his primary focus, although Christopher experiences problems throughout the book that affect his resolve. His father affects Christopher negatively from his lies; as a result, the dishonesties turn out to be the central focus in the story. His father made him leave the house to go find Christopher’s mother who he did not know existed. His mom tried to hug Christopher when he got there and he blatantly describes how he hates being touched by his own family members. Christopher’s mom goes in for a hug but he shoves her away so hard that he falls over. Christopher states, “And I pushed her away because she was grabbing me and I didn’t like it, and I pushed really hard and I fell over” (Haddon 191). Christopher feels awful about the incident with his mother and ends up getting along exceedingly sound. Family disputes led to most of the problems in the novel, however, the issues made the book more interesting. Every time Christopher’s dad would mess up with him, his father would come running back to Christopher apologizing for what he did or the way he acted. Christopher’s father was good at taking care of him most of the time but then again was not an straightforward family member all the time. Christopher did not consider his
The first indication of fear transpires as Teddy suspects his paper world would likely be interpreted as inappropriate by his uncle, creating anxiety and unease within him of being criticized. While awaiting his uncle’s reaction regarding his activities in the attic, Teddy was pondering “if his uncle saw them, or even destroyed them”, revealing Teddy’s worries of being exposed, fearing his uncle may label him as immature upon discovering it. Furthermore, Teddy is fearful of his paper world being discovered due to the fear that his enthusiasm for the world would fade if it were to be revealed, as he bears a strong obsession with it, and considers it his second world. He yearns for his uncle to disregard his paper world, as “Theodoresburg had been growing for a year, and often it seemed more real than the town …. in which he lived in.” Teddy feared his uncle would ruin his fixation with his paper world, regarding his it as an equivalent to the real world, which is indicative of Teddy’s immaturity, cherishing a world that does not exist. Teddy’s fear of his paper world being exposed to his uncle is conspicuous, as he is petrified of his uncle discovering it, symbolizing society’s expectation of
‘wholly’ evil, but his experiments become quite dangerous. ‘The Body Snatcher’ is about two old friends, Fettes and Doctor. Macfarlane, who studied under someone who was famous, but unorthodox, anatomist. They would collect bodies for this person but they soon regret collecting one body. The confession of William Burke.
Brian Turner's "The Hurt Locker" captures his personal and painful experiences during his time spent in war and furthermore, express the tragic events he witnessed. Brian Turner's poem is miraculously able to gather multiple first hand accounts of tragic, gory, and devastating moments inside a war zone and project them on to a piece of paper for all to read. He allows the audience of his work to partially understand what hell he himself and all combat veterans have endured. Although heartbreaking, it is a privilege to be taken inside "The Hurt Locker" of a man who saw too many things that should not ever be witnessed by anybody. Turner's words bring to life what many have buried deep inside them which subsequently is one of the major underlying problems facing combat veterans today. Reading this poem, I could not help but wonder what the long term effects of war are on a human being, if it is worth the pain, and how does a combat veteran function properly in a society that is unfamiliar with their experiences?
Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the main character Grendel is searching for answers about life, most importantly the meaning of life. He is confused with how he wants to view life and searches for some reason to why he exists. He turned too many for these answers; his mother, man, and the dragon, but no one could provide Grendel the answer he so desperately sought, all just pushed him to the idea of existentialism.
...verything” (Hurst 1). The brother only cared about himself and having fun, and did not think about the affect his actions had on Doodle. The brother decides to “teach him [Doodle] to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight” (Hurst 3). Readers can begin to infer that the brother’s careless actions will later lead to serious injury or the death of Doodle.
...ren who will soon become teenagers. In spite of Teddy’s creativity and imagination, his uncle and aunt blame him for being absent from the real world. Teddy has to mentally grow up in order to meet the expectation from his society. In addition, he is in conflict with his uncle who makes fun of his paper dolls. Finally, he is in conflict with himself since, at the end of the story, he cries after he has torn his imaginary city into shreds. In our society, childhood ends about the same way as described in The Fall of a City. In the beginning, the child would complain about the change of their home schedule, and gradually the kid starts to adapt to his new daily activities. It is necessary that parents put pressure on their child so the youngster gradually becomes mature in order to match social standards.
After years of non communication between brothers, a single event happens that puts them back in touch. This event is the passing away of the narrator’s daughter Gracie. Sonny writes a letter to the narrator from prison explaining how he got to where he is and how difficult his drug addicted life has been. After this letter the brothers keep in constant contact. "The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk any more because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him" (pg 137) Just before she dies, his mother tells the narrator about his secret uncle, the brother his father had watched die in a hit-and-run. This was his mother’s way of telling him to look out for Sonny; as not doing so would haunt him as it did his father before him.
Grendel lives in a dark and gruesome underground cave with his mother and dozens of cold, unmoving creatures. He is very curious and, in his early years, finds a way to escape this terrible place and enter the world. Every night he wanders outside his cave, exploring the land around him. One night, he gets trapped in a tree. A band of human beings led by King Hrothgar approaches and, after some hesitation, attacks Grendel. They close in for the kill, but Grendel's mother arrives just in time to save him.
Life is an ongoing process of learning and growing through challenges and experiences. It is mentioned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet, that “unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Emerson contributes to the idea that change is inevitable and it is key to one’s personal development (Lipovetsky, 2012). Well, such is an essence in the film “The Blind Side” when the protagonist, Michael Oher, changes and grow through adversities, which eventually shaped him into the man he is today. Oher, also known as Big Mike, is a 16 year old African American teenage boy. Oher was one of the twelve children living in a broken extremely impoverished home in the ghettos of Memphis surrounded by drugs.
The story opens with the boy, whom to this point had ignored his mothers coughs, drops everything to rush to her aid as she “collapsed into a little wicker armchair, holding her side”. (O’Connor 206) As he watched his mother struggle trying to light the fire he told her, “Go back to bed and Ill light the fire”. (206) Now to this point, as the reader, I am unsure of the age of the boy, but I get the impression that he is a young boy. My idea of this boy is that he tries to take on too much throughout the day and eventually it was the demise of the opposite sex that eventually caused the meltdown of the “awesome” little boy. This is certainly something that will happen again to this young lad but he has definitely learned his lesson this time.