William Faulkner, famous author, once said, “always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” Throughout one of his novel’s, The Reivers, Faulkner endorses this ideology. Almost every character in the book, regardless of race, age, or gender, realizes that it is important to make the most of themself. Everyday we overcome obstacles, make mistakes, and try new things. However, it is what we take away from all these acts that matters. We must learn and grow as individuals, bettering who we are not just for others, but also for ourselves. We have to realize that we are the ones in charge of our fait and molding ourselves into the people …show more content…
we want to be. When Faulkner said, “try to be better than yourself” he was not kidding, because being better than others does no good when you are not the best you can be.
Boon Hogganback, a white middle-aged man, is far from a saint. In his spare time he borrows cars without asking (steals), visits brothels, and to top it all of he takes a young kid, Lucius Priest, with him. In the process Boon makes a web of lies so big you cannot see where the strings started. However, Faulkner shows that everyone deserves a second chance, a chance to realize their wrongs and try to make any reparations for the harm they have created. Boon soon realizes that this is not the life he wants to live. He wants to have a family, a legacy. However, in order to follow through with his dream he needs to give up the recklessness and settle down. Luckily he knows the perfect girl, Everbe, whom graciously loves every crazy part about Boon. Eventually “the day came at last” where Boon could achieve his dream- he could have a family of his own and even though many believed “it was just another baby, already as ugly as boon” it was so much more than just another baby (Faulkner 305). It was Boon’s second chance. However, the perfect girl Boon settled down with, Everbe Corinthia, wasn’t always so perfect. She came with her own baggage and coincidently her “flaws” are how she became acquainted with Boon. Everbe, also known as Corrie, was a whore. She has since given up on the career for her second chance at the life she …show more content…
always wanted. Everbe was the mother of a rotten child, Otis, who she could not mother due to her occupation. However, Lucius priest tries to defend Corrie’s honor refusing to believe that she could whore herself out to all those men when she seems like such a good person. Everbe realizes that Lucius is right and to do right for not only herself but to set a good example she “[makes him] a promise” and says that “it won’t be [her] fault anymore” (160). Meaning she will give up her job because she realizes that you always have an option and she should not have taken the opportunity presented to her and instead have turned it down. She realizes that her past caught up with her and because of some bad decisions she made she is not living the life she once aimed for. Boon and Everbe show that life can be what ever you make it. Even if you get off track you have to take all opportunities to hop back on, because you are better than your mistakes. There will always be someone better than us and unfortunately there is no way to change that; however, that does not mean there is not room for improvement.
There is always something more we can do. There are people under the impression that they cannot change, because they were a bad person or they did something unforgiveable and do not know how to live with themselves. Yet according to Boss, Lucius’s grandfather, “ a gentleman can live through anything. He faces anything. A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences” (302). Boss knew what he was talking about, because every obstacle is conquerable as long as you work at it. And to become a better person does not mean all of your flaws disappear, it means that you realize your mistakes. It did not take long for Lucius to come among this realization. Lucius came to the conclusion that he “will never lie again” because to say it simply “it’s too much trouble” (58). While Lucius might not under the complexity of a lie or why it is so detrimental he is a child and he already figured out how to come over a road bump. He discovered that one simple tweak in a lifestyle can drastically affect a persons
character. In the end we are the ones responsible for our decisions, because we have to deal with the end result. Run for the opportunity at a second chance, because it is not something that will appear often. What others think of us seems like the biggest problem, like they are the ultimate decider of who we are. However, we are who we want to be, and so everybody should be aim to be the best version of themselves. Everyday strive to be better than yesterday, because eventually we all run out of time and whether or not we were a better person than our neighbor or best friend is irrelevant. People will remember the type of person we were as an individual.
Overcoming obstacles in one’s life can lead someone along the path of ultimately taking pride in themselves. This is apparent in William Bell’s novel Crabbe, in the case of young Franklin Crabbe. Firstly, Crabbe’s ordeal in nature teaches him to put others before himself. At the beginning of his journey, he is self-centred whilst making decisions, whereas at the end of his journey, he is able to consider others first. Secondly, during Crabbe’s time in the wilderness, he gains self-satisfaction from hard work. Crabbe learns about how good it feels to accomplish something in his waking hours, and continues to realize this after his encounter with nature. Lastly, throughout Crabbe’s time in the wilderness, he learns to take responsibility for his own unhappiness. In his bounty of moments for reflection, Crabbe realizes his parents are not to blame for his every moment of depression. During Crabbe’s journey in the bush, he overcomes frequent obstacles which send him back to civilization as someone he can be proud of.
Richard Rodriguez author and journalist wrote a short piece “Scholarship Boy” to explain to his audience of underprivileged children wanting a better future, the scarifies he endured as a young child: the loss of family ties and knowing himself in order to succeed a better self. Another great author who faced huge sacrifices is known as none other than abolitionist leader Fredrick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write” giving his found audience a look into the various dangerous tasks he took to give himself a better chance of survival. The two pieces show how one boy sacrificed so much in order to free himself and the other coming from less harsh circumstances but understand sacrifices just as well. All to be able to have a better and brighter future.
Family, education and a person’s opportunities are significant elements that collectively define an individual, as demonstrated by both Wes Moore’s. Depending on the opportunities offered to you and whether you decide to take advantage of them through hard work and persistence will result in your success or failure in the end. Wes Moore explains “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” goes to show that certain factors affect how you will be as an adult regardless of similar or differentiating backgrounds. (Moore xi).
In the essay “Achievement of Desire”, author Richard Rodriguez, describes the story of our common experience such as growing up, leaving home, receiving an education, and joining the world. As a child, Rodriguez lived the life of an average teenager raised in the stereotypical student coming from a working class family. With the exception, Rodriguez was always top of his class, and he always spent time reading books or studying rather than spending time with his family or friends. This approach makes Rodriguez stand out as an exceptional student, but with time he becomes an outsider at home and in school. Rodriguez describes himself as a “scholarship boy” meaning that because of the scholarships and grants that he was receiving to attend school; there was much more of an expectation for him to acquire the best grades and the highest scores. Rodriguez suggests that the common college student struggles the way he did because when a student begins college, they forget “the life [they] enjoyed
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War.
War and Grief in Faulkner’s Shall Not Perish and The Unvanquished. It is inevitable when dealing regularly with a subject as brutal as war, that death will occur. Death brings grief for the victim’s loved ones, which William Faulkner depicts accurately and fairly in many of his works, including the short story “Shall Not Perish” and The Unvanquished.
In William Faulkner's 1930 short story "A Rose for Emily," the protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson is a desperately lonely woman. Miss Emily finds herself completely isolated from other people her entire life, yet somehow manages to continue on with her head held high. French philosopher and writer Voltaire said "We are rarely proud when we are alone," but Miss Emily's case is quite the opposite. The strength that Miss Emily gains from pride is what helps her through the loneliest of times.
In The Great Gatsby, many individuals are involved in a struggle to find themselves and who they want to be. Personal identity is a very challenging thing to define. Everyone has an image in their mind of who they want to be. These images are usually very different from the actual identity of a person. In this novel, Jay Gatsby’s search or struggle for a new identity for himself is an ongoing journey. He has dedicated his entire life creating an image to impress Daisy Buchanan and to set himself into her society. This image does not necessarily depict who he is in reality.
and learn to grow up the right way in a racial environment. Faulkner's setting is one of
"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, is an interesting character study. Faulkner fully develops the characters in this story by using the passage of time and the setting as well as the narration. The story is not told in chronological order; this allows him to piece in relevant information in an almost conversational way. He tells a tale of a woman who goes slowly insane due to heredity and environment; and describes the confusion and curiosity she causes the watching town.
Community and culture play a large part in how a person presents them self, and how they are perceived by others. Perception is a very subjective process, and personal biases influence each person’s observations. In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner portrays the story of an isolated and emotionally stunted woman’s desperate attempt to not be alone as told through the eyes of the townspeople. First, Emily is isolated by her father then, after his death, by the townspeople who view her as a monument to tradition and not as a person. In Emily’s desolation, she poisons her lover, and proceeds to hide his body, in her home, for forty years. Many critics have argued Emily’s motivations for Homer’s murder. Hal Blythe reasons that her motivations were to save face within the community while retaining control over their
“Dysfunctional families pervade Yoknapatawpa County” (Urgo 66). The ventures of the three key characters in Light in August lead to inevitable outcomes due to their families’ neglect. Each individual respectively has his own faults in life. However, it is a mixture of childhood negligence and happenstance which causes these characters to isolate themselves and commit negative acts. Undoubtedly, William Faulkner develops empathy through the trials of Hightower, Lena Grove, and Joe Christmas as they confront their families’ past actions.
To Kill a Mockingbird has been named the “Best Novel of the 20th Century” by readers of the Library Journal, has been translated into more than 40 languages, and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The power of the book is created by its realistic picture of how our identity is shaped by society and the immense impact that identity has on everyone’s lives. These identity-shaping social factors include gender, social class and race.
In the Unvanquished, a version of southern masculinity is developed through the narrator using dialect and the device, or should I say vice of memory. Fairly early in the novel, the reflective standpoint of the narrator becomes obvious, and a certain sense of “retelling” the story, not just telling it as it happened, prevails. This use of memory is not necessarily selective but it does show the processing of perceptions of the narrator’s childhood. As readers, we first get the sense that we are hearing the story from a much older Bayard when he drops comments like “I was just twelve then; I didn’t know triumph; I didn’t even know the word” (Unvanquished 5). If he was just twelve then, he could be just fifteen or sixteen when retelling this story, assuming the grandiosity that adolescence creates, leading to such thoughts as “I was just a kid then.” However, the second part of the statement reveals a much older and wiser voice, the voice of someone who has had time to think out such abstractions as triumph and failure. Furthermore, the almost obsessive description of the father in the first part of the novel seems like the narrator comes to terms, much later in life, with how he viewed his father as a man. “He was not big” (9) is repeated twice on the same page. He was short enough to have his sabre scrape the steps while ascending (10), yet he appeared large and in command, especially when on his horse (13). The shape and size of a man being an important part in defining masculinity, I think Baynard grappled with his father’s physical presence as well as his tenuous position as a leader in the Confederate Army. Other telling moments are on page 66 when Baynard postulates what a child can accept as true in such incredible situations and on page 95 with his declarations on the universality of war. (Possibly he is an old man now and has lived to see other wars.) Upon realizing the distance between the setting of the story and age of its narrator, the reader is forced to consider how memory and life itself have affected the storytelling.
In the novel Light in August, by William, Faulkner, Joe Christmas is stripped of his masculinity at a young age. He loses his masculinity shortly after leaving the orphanage when his stepfather, Simon McEachern, beats him unconscious for not memorizing the catechism. Later in this chapter he is then portrayed as animal when he eats his food off the floor. Christmas then goes on a mission to regain his masculinity by associating himself with a female, Miss Burden. Unfortunately Miss Burden is an independent women who dominates him by using racial slurs and during intercourse. To get over the domination of Miss Burden and to regain his masculinity Joe Christmas turns to rape and Murder.