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Elephant man critical evaluation
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(TS) In the novel "The Elephant Man" by Christine Sparks Mr. Fredrick Treves displays loyalty and respect to John Merrick when he helps Merrick recover because of his will to help turn "The Elephant Man" into the fit and healthy Mr. John Merrick. (CD) First, as Mr. Treves walks into the isolation room in which Merrick hides on the ground, he says," Come up, John, come up on the bed… I won't hurt you now. Come on now" (Sparks 83). (CM) Dr. Fredrick, in shock to see John on the ground, talks to Merrick in a calm tone to help Merrick understand that Treves will do his best to help him. (CM)Treves fully understands the feelings of someone who has to work with someone they have never met. (CD)Additionally, upon arrival at the Hospital of London,
Treves notices a mirror propped up in Merrick's room and says," I never want there to be a mirror of any kind… There's no need to remind the creature of his tragedy" (152). (CM) Treves, aware of Merrick's background, wants no impediment in the way of Merrick's therapy.(CM) Instead of choosing to let the mirror remain, he respects Merrick through his actions which shows as he orders the mirror to be taken down.(CD) Finally, as Merrick returns to London, he meets with Carr-Gomm who says to Treves," I would not have believed such a change could come over by any man in a mere two months" (259). (CM) Carr-Gomm becomes blown away at the fact that Treves cures Merrick in just two months.(CM) This shows how loyal and dedicated Treves has been to Merrick during their time together.(CS) To conclude, Treves displays loyalty because of his will to help turn "The Elephant Man" into Mr. John Merrick. Treves shows how loyalty and respect can change a human being.
Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk is a passage about a study preformed to test elephants' abilities to collaborate. It explains the basic process of the experiment, and provided in-depth analysis of the results. It made many comparisons between the study and other studies and research and noted the opinions of numerous professionals, which helped show the significance of the test's findings. The purpose of this passage was to primarily to be an entertaining article, and secondarily to inform the reader about the experiment. It was very similar to Elephants Console Each Other in tone and style, but differed more from Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk, mainly because it was less informational, and more enjoyable.
Morell’s purpose of writing is to inform the reader of the elephants behavior during the testing, their intelligence, and their compassion. In “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk” It says, “...the pachyderms understand that they will fail at a task without a partner’s assistance. The ability to understand when you need help Is present in both humans and elephants. Just like when a human asks for help elephants know when they need help in doing a task. Morell also says in her other article, “Elephants Console Each Other” that elephants who are angry erect their tail and make their ears flare.
Life is not easy and it is changing all the time. There are various sharp thorns in the life. Many people are afraid to face the hardships they cannot overcome themselves. Nora Ephron, George Orwell and Plato, three famous writers, represent three different views about how people attempt to escape the everyday struggles in life. Ephron’s “The Boston Photographs” details peoples’ reactions toward the pictures of death. Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” tells a story about how and why a British officer kills an elephant after struggling with himself. Plato’s famous “The Allegory of the Cave” tells a story about a group of prisoners who live
Many great authors that study human nature stood out the most during the period of time between the Imperialism and World War II. Among these authors were George Orwell and Virginia Woolf. Their study of the human nature is especially visible in certain short stories that each author respectively did. Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” and Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth.” In either of these stories the respective author uses animals to depict their complex ideas about the nature of life, men, and the whole world.
Elephants'." Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 75-77. Literature Resource Center. Gale.
In Water for Elephants, the story is told through Jacob Jankowski at two different parts in his life: twenty-three year old Jacob who is out there exploring the world and, ninety-three year old Jacob who feels like he is wasting away his life in a nursing home. Water for Elephants is Gruen’s third book, it became one of the New York Times best sellers, it’s also available in forty-four different languages and it’s now a motion picture (Sara Gruen). Throughout the novel the reader is brought through both Jacob’s happy memories and ones that he wishes he could forget which shows its impact on the reader, a sense of catharsis and its social significance.
Jamison describes another medical figure in her life that she referred to as Dr. M. Dr. M was Jamison’s primary cardiologist, a figure who is involved in some of the most intimate details of Jamison’s life. However, Jamison describes Dr. M by saying she, “…wasn’t personal at all” (14). Dr. M would actually record personal information about Jamison on a tape recorder, however, Jamison would hear Dr. M referring to her as “patient” instead of by her name. This example demonstrates that Dr. M was indeed putting in the minimal effort needed to keep her clients, however, no additional effort was put into the process of learning about her patients. Jamison says that, “…the methods of her mechanics [were] palpable between us…” (18). Dr. M would not even put any effort into disguising her lack of interest of getting to know Jamison. This atmosphere of apathy that is exuded by Dr. M naturally causes Jamison to retract from Dr. M, which creates an environment that is not good for cultivating
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is a short story that not only shows cultural divides and how they affect our actions, but also how that cultural prejudice may also affect other parties, even if, in this story, that other party may only be an elephant. Orwell shows the play for power between the Burmese and the narrator, a white British police-officer. It shows the severe prejudice between the British who had claimed Burma, and the Burmese who held a deep resentment of the British occupation. Three messages, or three themes, from Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” are prejudice, cultural divide, and power.
What would someone do if they had only three wishes and knew that there would be a price that they would have to pay in order for them to fulfill their wishes? This is the question that overcomes the main characters, Mr. White and Mr. Peters, in the stories “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken. In these two stories, two men were each allowed to create three wishes and had consequences that followed; therefore, they learned a valuable lesson about life.
Chapter 22 in the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker is very significant to the development of the character Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, through the symbol of control throughout the book. In this chapter, Rivers returns to his home after witnessing Dr. Lewis Yealland’s horrific treatment of his patient Callan through the use of electrotherapy. Being displaced by the incident, Rivers finds it difficult to do any work because throughout the night recollections of the treatment continue to haunt him. After deciding to go to sleep, Rivers has a nightmare where he is treating a patient with electroshock therapy, just as Yealland did, except after attempting to shove the electrode into the patient’s mouth several times, he realizes that what he is holding is not an electrode, but a horse’s bit. Rivers awakens and reflects on this dream, noting that instead of trying to cure a patient of mutism by stimulating the patient with electroshock therapy, he was really trying to get his patient to stop speaking, and to rather become mute. The passages in chapter 22 serves to force the reader to question wether or not Rivers and Yealland are actually helping their patients, as well as to develop Dr. Rivers’s character by showing how he and Yealland are quite similar despite their differences in treatment through the exhibition of the element of control that both of these characters possess.
There are some wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than wounds that bleed. Just as all humans, elephants similarly feel emotions whether it is joy or sorrow. In his article “An Elephant Crack Up?” the author, Charles Siebert focuses on the recent strange and bellicose behaviors of elephants and clears up the causes of the behaviors with plenty of informative observations. In “Immune to Reality,” Daniel Gilbert theorizes that the psychological immune system is triggered by large-scale negative events. We also see these negative effects in the passage, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” while Ethan Watters exposes the attempts of Glaxo Smith Kline to convince the Japanese doctors that the Japanese people
The Elephant Man is a moving film, based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a man born with a prevalent deformity and dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this film, John Merrick is initially portrayed as an imbecile and is consequently placed in a circus freak show, where he is ridiculed as a result of his deformity and is abused by his manager. However, his life takes a turn for the better when he becomes acquainted with Dr. Treves and is introduced to a new lifestyle, dissimilar to what he had endured throughout his life. He commences the construction of a model church and develops a close friendship with Dr. Treves, who introduces him to kindness, love, and companionship. After being tortured and taken from the hospital by his former manager, Merrick is reminded of the terrible life which he had lived, prior to meeting Treves. He overcomes many obstacles in returning to the hospital, where he dies from trying to conform to being a normal person. One of the key themes in this film is societal rejection, which John Merrick is subjected to, and with the help of Treves, is able to surpass. The bag that Merrick wears over his head in public, the church model which he builds, and the nature of his death are all interrelated symbols of the overall theme of societal rejection.
Since the modern era, Japanese literature has adopted new writing aspects as a response of Occidentalism. Some Japanese writers have manifested through their literary works this substitution of culture that besides of being just external changes, it left deep internal conflicts of adaptation in the society. Accordingly, the short story “The Elephant Vanishes” by Haruki Murakami, one of the most popular Japanese writers of the 21th century, portrays an alienated man who is obsessed with the vanishing of an old elephant and its keeper. Murakami gives the old elephant a symbolic meaning; therefore, its disappearance seems to question the existence of the traditional way of life in Tokyo. Further, the author has a lot of western influences in his style of writing but he also has inherited the mysticism of the oriental world which is presented in his short- story. Murakami, besides of being the most commercial and global writer of Japan, he is unconsciously faithful to his traditional principles. Therefore, the story “The Elephant Vanishes” contains magic elements Japanese consciousness of the modern society.
Williams, William C. "Old Doc Rivers." The Doctor Stories. Ed. Robert Coles. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1984. 13-41.
Everyone has a favorite cartoon character they love or grown up on as a child. Mines happen to be the most adorable, ticklish, honey eating bear in the hundred acre woods. I love Winnie the pooh so much, that I went and got a tattoo of him on my right shoulder. Let’s go on a wonderful journey into my favorite bear “Pooh” and how the world became to love him.