Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Accident narrative essay
A narrative story essay on accident
Story Of Accident
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Accident narrative essay
The central idea of the novel is Phineas, a very lucky man who survived a terrible accident. After Gage’s accident, medical science changes for the better by getting new information about germs and the brain. Phineas’s life changed forever when a metal rod got shot through his head (damaging the frontal lobe) and causing him to live as a new man for the rest of his life. The first piece of evidence that supports the central idea is on page 20. It states ” Phineas is just not his old self. The new Phineas is unreliable and, at times, downright nasty. He insults old workmates and friends.” This supports the central idea of the novel because after his accident, his personality is not the same. He has trouble working with other people. This supports
At the Devon School, the climate of war creates an even greater impedance in the way of Gene and Phineas’ development, as now both characters must attempt to understand death. For Gene at such a young age, death has never been a part of his life until Phineas dies. Phineas has always been fated to die, but Gene is not able to comprehend this until Finny falls down the marble stairs at the First Academy Building. On revisiting the marble stairs, Gene recognizes their “exceptional hardness” (Knowles 11). The hardness that Gene speaks of is representative of the hardness of coping with war and death during such a crucial developmental time. This imagery is utilized by Knowles in A Separate Peace to define that until Gene recognizes the incomprehensible nature of war and death, he will never escape the liminal state. By watching Phineas fall down the marble stairs, Gene is enlightened to the fact that war is real, death cannot be avoided, and both can never be
expressing individualism is elicited by Gene and Finny actions. Some ways the characters are forced to conform are by peer pressure, as evident in the excerpt,. In this citation, conformity is shown through Gene’s decision of complying with what Finny orders, due to peer pressure of jump off the tree, therefore nearly injuring himself. Furthermore, he realizes it wasn’t his culpability of being in that position, due to if Finny wasn't there none of this would have occurred. Even more, this led to Gene feeling a desire to assert his individualism, due to he feels that Finny has surpassed him in every way, and cause his failure, such as in his academics. As well, Phineas
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
As much as generous and honest Nick Carraway is, he still needs a few important improvements in himself. Nick went to Yale, fought in world war one and moved to East of New York to work in finance. After moving to New York, Nick faces tough dilemmas throughout the story such as revealing secrets, and witnessing betrayal. His innocence and malevolence toward others was beyond his control. He did not have the ability or knowledge to know what he should have done in the spots he was set in. He seemed lost and having no control of what went on- almost trapped- but indeed, he had more control than he could have ever known. Because of the situations he has experienced and the people he has met, such as Gatsby, Tom, Jordan and Daisy, his point of view on the world changed dramatically which is very depressing. Trusting the others and caring for them greatly has put him in a disheartening gloomy position.
Even as negative as these feelings are, they still prove to help people become successful in this world as they navigate through tough times and they use these feelings to re-inspire them to work harder and achieve more. Furthermore, Phineas' viewpoint is too innocent to last in the real world. For example, Finny views the world as he views sports which Gene explains as, "Everyone always won at sports. When you played a game you won, in the same way as when you sat down to a meal you ate it. It inevitably and naturally followed. Finny never permitted himself to realize that when you won they lost" (27). As idealistic as this sounds, it is not plausible to live by this statement in the real world and expect to succeed. Since Finny refuses to see logic in this statement but Gene understands the underlying problem with it, Gene is more likely to survive and succeed in this world because he understands not everything can be the perfect version that a person wishes it to be. Phineas' pure heart and innocent intentions are good in theory but they do not last in this world which demands more cunning and strategic motivations such as the ones Gene
In the fall before Gene goes to start school be decided to go visit Phineas. He mentions the fall again. He and Phineas discuss how it happened once again and they get into a major argument. Phineas is upset and in denial about Gene blaming himself so he snaps at him.
Competition and rivalry have the ability to make people shine and accomplish things they never thought possible, and the ability to bring a person’s dark side and get them to do terrible things. Phineas and Gene’s friendship is viewed very differently by each of them. Where Phineas sees Gene as his best friend Gene sees Phineas as a competitor. Gene sees him as someone trying to keep him from being successful in school. This warped view of their relationship is the cause of many of the eventual problems of the novel and arguably the death of Phineas.
...iendship between Gene and Phineas is amidst themes such as lack of reality, low maturity levels, and false appearances. Their relationship deteriorates and leads to death because they fail to learn these valuable life lessons. The purpose of Knowles’ novel is to exaggerate the life of two young boys to the extreme in order to reveal the unfortunate things that can occur in a relationship when these themes are not taken seriously. As stated in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, "It (A Separate Peace) can be viewed, for example, as a tale of Original Sin, with the Devon School as an Eden enclosing the great Tree of Knowledge through which humankind falls far from innocence but is redeemed by the suffering of a totally innocent one. It may also be approached as a reworking of the classic tale of the need to accept the potential evil within everyone and thus make peace with one’s self."
Indeed one of the unique features of this novel is the mystery surrounding it’s main character ‘Gatsby-the man who gives his name to this book’ This sense of inscrutability which is omnipresent with Gatsby is cleverly achieved through the narrative techniques which Fitzgerald employs. The most obvious, and also most effective of which is the narration from Nick’s perspective. Throughout this novel it is Nick’s views of Gatsby which we read, not Fitzgerald’s and not anyone else’s. Only Nick’s. And even Nick seems to be some what in the dark as to Gatsby’s character, he often switches tact throughout the novel on his impression of Gatsby. This seems to insinuate that he has been ponderous over Gatsby for some time. The reader gains the impression that Nick has made calculating decisions throughout the novel, in terms of what he allows us to know about Gatsby. He is after all writing in retrospect. The very fact that Nick still has an ambiguous attitude towards Gatsby even after his death, endorses the readers opinion of Gatsby as a character who can not be categorised. He is uniqu...
In the story “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald the reader is told a story through the eyes of the narrator Nick. Nick has many friends and acquaintances in the story, but the most important being Gatsby and Tom. Throughout the story Gatsby’s characterization is made to make him look like the protagonist while Tom’s is to make him look like that antagonist. However, while we see the story through Nick’s eyes the reader is actually seeing the opposite. Nick agrees with Gatsby’s actions more than Tom’s which starts to create a bias. This makes it very easy for the reader to instantly dislike Tom’s character and side with Gatsby. However, the reader does not always think about the situation without the bias giving them an illusion of what is really happening. Even though Gatsby is the main character of the story his antagonistic actions are easily overseen. In the story, Gatsby is deemed the antagonist due to his intent of stealing Daisy from Tom.
The novel is told in the perspective of a single character, Nick Carraway. Nick is an innocent and simplistic character and when the story is conveyed through this type of character it usually is told truly, and without any outside influence from the other characters in the plot. Nick’s telling of the story is taken from his first hand accounts on how he sees the story unfold, straightforward and in the order that it occurs without confusion. Nick is a very moralistic man and his morals, and also his values, are positively genuine. His heart is filled with compassion, especially for Gatsby and the events that surrounded Gatsby’s death as he was one of three people that were at this great man’s funeral.
...n the end Gatsby depicts all of these traits which are the reason why he faces such a tragic end. In the eyes of the narrator, Nick states, “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men,” (2), which expresses what his perspective of Gatsby was. It is never suspected that one must face death so abruptly but everything happens for a reason. Gatsby’s traits are illuminated throughout all of his reactions towards the incidents he faces, the statements he makes and the developments he undergoes through the course of the novel. Even though he made his living by participating in immoral things, Gatsby did have good intentions. But in the end he confronted consequences he, himself, had never anticipated.
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities. Gatsby has many issues of repeating his past instead of living in the present.
The line of attack we use in order to identify individuals around us is an intriguing thing. Our perception is forever shifting, forever building, and affected not only by the person’s actions, but by the actions of those around them. In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Nick Caraway’s perception of Jay Gatsby is always changing. All the way through the novel, Nick’s perception of Gatsby changes from him perceived as a rich chap, to a man that lives in the past, to a man trying to achieve his aspirations but has failed.
Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion. The themes of this story are important to show the growth of the young boy into a man. Without alienation, he wouldn't have understand the complexity of his feelings and learned to accept faults. With transformation, he would have continued his boyish games and wouldn't be able to grow as a person and adolescence. And finally, without understanding the religious aspects of his life, he would go on pretending he is somebody that he's not. He wouldn't understand that there is inconsistency between the real and ideal life (Brooks et al.).