The twentieth century is the century with the greatest loss of human life in the history of civilization. It was a time of mistrust and espionage. To be loyal is defined as “faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations” (OED). Some loyalties are bought, while others are earned. Earned loyalty tends to last while loyalty that is bought tends to fade. Two books, The Human Factor by Graham Greene and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro show this difference. While both characters demonstrate external loyalty, Stevens’ loyalty was purchased, and Castle’s was earned. Castle’s genuine loyalty allows him to risk his life, while Stevens’ loyalty is only compliance.
Stevens, in The Remains of the Day, lives only to serve. Whoever employs him is awarded with a blind loyalty. He works tirelessly to please his master. No act is too great or small to complete. All it takes is for a a wealthy man to give him his paycheck and in return they get his life. Stevens is not one to take time off. He dedicates his life to the house. His mind is always on the subject of his job. His actions all concern his role as the butler of the house. He puts it ahead of family, of love, of his morals. He lets the love of his life slip through his fingers because of his devotion to the job. He believes “a butler who is forever attempting to formulate his own 'strong opinions' on his employer's affairs is bound to lack one quality essential in all good professionals: namely, loyalty” (Ishiguro 165). Stevens sounds sure of himself, he uses bound as if to say it going to happen, like no good butler can have their own opinions. He admits to unquestioning faith. He believes to be loyal is to be a robot. He only believes in what he is ...
... middle of paper ...
...e knows exactly what he doing, there is no part of him that questions himself. His loyalties were earned and he does not take that lightly.
The Remains of the day show that bought loyalty is not true dedication, while The Human Factor show earned loyalty is valued more than life. One has his loyalty earned by being bought, one has his earned by them saving his wife. Both dedicate their lives the causes of those who they owe their loyalty too. However, ones loyalty does fade, and the other’s never waivers. Devotion to a cause is always tested, and only those with true sincerity decide to stick around.
Works Cited
Greene, Graham. The Human Factor. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978. Print.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. New York: Knopf, 1989. Print.
Simpson, J. A., and E. S. C. Weiner. The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989. Print.
The film tells a story about a man who was too proud to run— a tale of a lone, stoic marshal (Will Kane) who was left desolate and abandoned by the townspeople he has sworn to protect because of a four-man gang led by Frank Miller. This is where the loyalty part comes in. Kane did not have to stay and protect the town’s people because he was “retired” and was going to leave town with his wife. Nonetheless he did stay because he felt that it was his duty to protect the townspeople even though no one would volunteer and help him. His wife, Amy along with the some townspeople tells him to leave town im...
Loyalty is one of the ethics that is instilled in a person at a young age. Loyalty can range from loyalty to a family member, friend, teammate, ect. In Larry Watson's, Montana 1948, the summer of 1948 tests the loyalty of each character and is told through the eyes of a young boy, David. The picture was clear to David when Marie was Murdered. Through this tragic event David was able to read each family member determining whether they were loyal or whether they would betray.
Imagine you were someone who could do whatever thing for his own personal gain. How could the feeling of taking over a certain part of the world be like? Wouldn’t it be nice to realize that you have the supremacy to do everything? All of this is generally considered a fantasy of mankind. There is no man or women that can do all. There was one fellow, who had this feeling, of conquering a certain space from which not many people attempt to do. This man, Chris McCandless, had been filled with hubris in his mind to conquer the outside part of society, the wild. Although his spirits for an attempt to accomplish this were so high, all’s not so well that ends not so well; which, in other words, came forth the death of Christopher Johnson McCandless. This man, was a man who, unlike many of us, thought that by following his hubris, and conquering nature by living there a long time all by himself, he would be considered a man who had the capability to conquer almost everything. Chris McCandless was a very unconventional thinker, has the spirits of adventure, and enjoys freedom. Plus, from every part of information that we have acquired from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, we must assume that it is Chris’ own hubris that leads him to his own certain demise, because what if we assured that the flaws of society today lead him to his loss of life? More than one person like Chris should’ve been mentioned that their scenario’s were very similar or the exact same of Chris’ case that he himself had possessed in his life.
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man are three of Ray Bradbury's most famous books. Ray Bradbury has written thousands of published items from poetry to short stories to three hundred page books; he has done it all. Bradbury's best writing combines a great imagination with a poetic style of its own.
Loyalty allows people to make sacrifices in order to protect the ones that are deat to them. In the book The Chrysalids written by John Wyndham, there are individuals willing to die for one another just to keep each other safe from the society trying to hunt them down.
What is loyalty? Loyalty means being faithful to one’s own country, ideals, and friends. Loyalty is illustrated as Mark Antony in this The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. This play, which was set in 44 B.C., was written by William Shakespeare in 1599. “I shall remember: When Caesar says “Do this,” it is performed.” (l.ii.9-10). Mark Antony also changed his party and completely devoted himself to Caesar when Rome split into two factions; the aristocrats supporting Pompey or the republic and the populous or imperialist left seeking the help of Caesar. Mark Antony devoted and risked his own life for Julius Caesar. His loyalty might have blinded him from Julius Caesar’s perception of his being a party-going individual that would not betray him like a thinking man, such as Cassius would.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, loyalty is defined as being faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain shows tremendous loyalty during his travels. Similarly, Heloise shows loyalty towards her “husband” while they are separated into different religious monasteries through several letters that they exchange. A friar is defined as one who lives in a priory and serves God on earth. In the Canterbury Tales, the friar does this, but also he takes advantage of his position by taking bribes and being unfair.
Loyalty is a trait that many people nowadays struggle to have and express. To be loyal is to stay faithful and stay committed . Loyalty is keeping your word and perceives a feeling of devotion towards something or someone. Throughout each literary work such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, and Much Ado about Nothing, the thematic topic loyalty is shown throughout the stories through the character’s triumphant experiences on epic journeys.
Tim’s loyalty is torn between his family, neighbors, friends. One of these sides is with his brother Sam. First is allegiance to his brother Sam. Sam was going to join the fight against the British and he told Tim. In the novel it reads “‘It’s true, Tim I’m going to fight the Lobsterbacks’ That scared me, but it excited me, too”. Collier 15. Since Tim is terrified that Sam is fighting he wants to say to his father what he is doing,but since he is excited he is also proud and gleeful that Sam is fighting it’s loyalty to his brother.Also Tim lied to his father about Sam in the story to protect him. In the novel it recites “‘Tim, did Sam say anything to you about going
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller both have a striking resemblance in the themes of anti-war and of free will. Both don’t come into full force right in the beginning but eventually become more evident. Both novels focus on one character throughout the entire novel, and each protagonist is affected by all the events around them. It changes their perspective and how they view life as a whole. Both Billy in Slaughterhouse Five and Yossarian in Catch -22, dislike war and are known as anti-war heroes. They also believe in the idea that they have free will and that their actions can be controlled. What makes these two novels so different from other war novels is that both protagonists don’t die for their country, they live through the end to see the world around them change.
What could a deeply religious, devout Christian nobleman and an existential, indifferent common man separated by roughly four hundred years have in common? Furthermore, what could Sir Thomas More, an eventual saintly martyr as portrayed in Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, and Albert Camus’ Meursault from The Outsider, an apparent murderer who does not believe in God, possibly have in common? For starters, both men have led similar lives in a search for the truth, and have very strong personal belief systems. It is for this that they are persecuted and “who, without any heroic pretensions, agree...to die for the truth'; (The Outsider, Camus, p. 119). Both characters, More and Meursault refuse to compromise their beliefs and as a result society condemns them.
This leaves Stevens to function as one of the few servants left in Darlington Hall that still embody the traditional English identity. As scholar Ryan Trimm mentions, “The irony that, in moving from serving the English aristocrat and amateur diplomat Lord Darlington to being in the employ of the retired American Mr. Farraday, Stevens has in fact changed positions without leaving Darlington Hall” (Trimm 197). Stevens is now forced to perform all of the duties of the different service personnel in hopes that he can keep the dignity of the English butler alive. While Stevens is still the butler of Darlington Hall, he is also now the last remaining symbol of Englishness in a now American space. Stevens is no longer surrounded by the gentlemen of England or the staff members that he had control over. The lack of service personnel within Darlington Hall plays a major role in Stevens’ identity because it isolates him within a space that once represented his
Sadly loyalty is a rare thing, so when you find it you shouldn’t even hesitate to do anything you can to keep it. Loyalty is a privilege whether or not we are the ones giving or receiving it, it is a gift.