As many people would know, standing up for what you believe in is very strenuous and it takes a lot of courage. This is clearly shown in the movie Secondhand Lions, directed by Tim McCanlies, when a fourteen-year-old Walter is dropped off by his dishonest and irresponsible mother to visit his two uncles (Garth and Hub) during the summer. The only reason why his Mae, his mother dropped Walter off was so he could find the millions of dollars stashed away with his two uncles, but when he figures this out, he is shocked of the betrayal of his mother, so he decides to change his personality. In the end, Walter changes from his old timid self to someone bold and ready for the world. In the beginning of the movie, Walter starts out as a bashful kid with no confidence in his beliefs, but soon figures out the true meaning in standing up for them. When Walter and Mae first arrive at the farm, they see uncle Garth and Hub is a frightening one, since he saw them trying to shoot fish with their shotguns. Luckily, both uncles fortunately let him stay, but they both view Walter as …show more content…
a “damn weenie,” ( McCanlies, 1). To elaborate, the two uncles view Walter as a very shy person and someone unable to do good work. When realizing this, Walter begins his journey to change his ways of thinking and personality. As the movie progresses, Walter starts to find out how important believing in yourself can be.
As Walter sees Uncle Hub in their pond, he says that around his mother, all he hears is lies, and he does not know what to believe in. Uncle Hub replies that if you want to believe in something, believe in it, and then he says, “ Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil … Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in,” (McCanlies, 1). From this, Walter changes his thoughts from not knowing what to believe to believe what you want to believe. He finally realizes the true meaning of believing in
himself. When the movie was going to end, Walter was picked up by his mom and her new boyfriend. As they left the place, Walter treacherously jumped out of the moving car, forcing them all to stop. At this moment, Walter finally had the courage to stand up to his mom and said this, “Why can't you do something for me for once,” (McCanlies, 1). He finally stands up to his mother because she has let him down so many times and has been dragging him down with her. From this, Walter soon becomes a man by the way he’s uncles influenced him In the end, Walter changes from a bashful kid, not able to stand for himself, to someone confident with a sense of belonging. Before visiting his uncles, he always had a sense of insecurity when speaking, but now, he speaks with conviction, and he cares of what he has to say. Even though Walter was brought to a foreign area which he did not like at first, he dealer with the new situations, and soon grew to love their new so called home.
Mama talks to Walter about her fears of the family falling apart. This is the reason she bought the house and she wants him to understand. Walter doesn't understand and gets angry. "What you need me to say you done right for? You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to. It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. So what you need for me to say it was all right for? So you butchered up a dream of mine - you - who always talking 'bout your children's dreams..." Walter is so obsessive over money that he yells at his mom for not giving him all of it. He doesn't know that what his mom is doing is for the family. He thinks that having money will make the family happy, when in reality the family doesn't need anymore than what they have to be happy.
Walter's first impression of Garth and Hub is a fearful one. When Mae and Walter arrive at their broken-down ranch, they find Garth and Hub shooting fish in their pond from a rowboat. Both uncles are reluctant to have Walter at their home and view him as a damn weenie (McCanlies). In other words, Garth and Hub sees him as a nuisance and an inconvenience. Even though the uncles have never raised any children, they accept the responsibility of taking care of Walter for the summer.
Before going to Alaska, Chris McCandless had failed to communicate with his family while on his journey; I believe this was Chris’s biggest mistake. Chris spent time with people in different parts of the nation while hitchhiking, most of them whom figured out that McCandless kept a part of him “hidden”. In chapter three, it was stated that Chris stayed with a man named Wayne Westerberg in South Dakota. Although Westerberg was not seen too often throughout the story, nevertheless he was an important character. Introducing himself as Alex, McCandless was in Westerberg’s company for quite some time: sometimes for a few days, other times for several weeks. Westerberg first realized the truth about Chris when he discovered his tax papers, which stated that “McCandless’s real name was Chris, not Alex.” Wayne further on claims that it was obvious that “something wasn’t right between him and his family” (Krakauer 18). Further in the book, Westerberg concluded with the fact that Chris had not spoken to his family “for all that time, treating them like dirt” (Krakauer 64). Westerberg concluded with the fact that during the time he spent with Chris, McCandless neither mentioned his
Walter's change happen because he was in a crisis. Walter has lost almost all his money when he gave it to a person he trusted. From their Walter was willing to do anything to get some money back. This ends up backfiring when Mama gives Walter a choice. On page 1605 Ruth, Walter's wife, tells Travis, Walter's son, to go down stairs but Mama says no. Mama states: "No. Travis you stay right here. And you make him understand what you doing, Walter Lee. You teach him good. Like Willy Harris taught you. You show where our five generations done come to." Walter was set and stone on not to move in the house until Mama brings Travis into the conversation. Mama wants Walter to think if the choice he is making is the right choice. Walter and Malcom had a similar crisis and that was an identity crisis. With Malcom, when he went to prison, was still acting like the same low life criminal he was on the streets of Harlem until he meets Baines. For example Malcom was taking a shower Baines gave him a drink. Baines tries to talk to Malcom but he ignores him. Bains soon asks him the question "Who ate you?" This left Malcom to change to him think who he really was. From the cause to change to the change Walter and Malcom went through they had some similarities but big
American Character by Colin Woodard, is a book about America’s history and the upcoming of how the United States has become. Woodard starts off first explaining what it was like when America was colonized by the New England colonists and goes onward to present-day America. A book like this should be deemed great for a political history class because of the vast amount of information it has. Although, this book is exceptionally very small for a book of such kind, Woodard loves jumping around from era to era and can leave his readers at a disarray. Claiming so, a strong and prior knowledge of the American history and its government is strongly encouraged. Historical and economic terms are also used immensely in this book, so a thesaurus and dictionary would be of great use. If those two resources aren’t of much help, a recommendation of facts found upon the Internet regarding an era of which Woodard is explaining would be helpful.
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.
Ruth was being prevented from having a baby because of money problems, Walter was bringing him self down by trying to make the liquor store idea work. Once Mama decided to buy the house with the money she had received, Walter figured that he should further go on with the liquor store idea. Then, when Walter lost the money, he lost his dignity and tried to get some money from the “welcome party” of Cylborne Park. Mama forced him to realize how far he went by making him show himself to his son how low he would go. But he showed that he wasn’t susceptible to the ways the racism created.
Some people want to forget the fact on how cruel we were to blacks, however it did teach us a lesson to treat people equally. While we can not go back in time, books can help bring us those past experiences. One book that that does just that is The Lions of Little Rock. While the characters were fiction, the author Kristin Levine did give the reader a slight feel of the events that took place in this time period of the Civil Rights and school integration.
Walter brings to topic his importance to the scenario, and decides to break away from the event and think of his answer towards his wife’s information and response. He later is shown the understanding of his wife by the reaction of his mother, who questions his standing on how his father would have reacted. This brings Walter to think of why he should change and not walk out on times of importance. Walter discovers that his turmoil of drinking and appearance on the topic could end up losing the life of his newly developing child. At the discussion over selling the house owned by the family to Mr. Linder, Walter is shown the original faith that the selfish purpose of the money for himself would be better the property that would benefit the entire family, including his child.
The first reason I believe that Walter is the protagonist is because he isn’t a selfish man. What I mean by this is when he is talking about issues he tends to discuss family issues above his own personal things. Though at times in the play when he is drunk and loses his temper he does start speaking selfishly, I believe that his overall attitude in the play is for his family to move up the world. I believe that Walter’s son Travis is the main reason why he acts so unselfishly. He seems to want the best for this son and doesn’t want his son to feel that there isn’t anything he can’t have or do.
...ontrol of his personal ambitions to benefit the whole or in Walter's case the family. Certainly it would be unfair for Walter give up his aspirations. The issue is whether Walter can distinguish between a fantasy of reality and a dream deferred.
... therefore he is taught and did not inherit. Moore explores both of these issues in depth, and creates a third element. This third element is the most controversy. People are not born to be good or bad, nor are they raised to be good or bad. Psychologists would say they are either natured or nurtured to be good or bad. Rorschach is a good example of both of those. He is also a confusion in the argument because he develops himself into a super hero. His mother did not influence him in anyway, either through gene heritage or observational learning to become a super hero. Through creation of this alter ego Walter receives attention. When he is dressed up he is no longer vulnerable to his mother or society, now he is feared and respected. He can hide from his memories of abuse because his sole concentration is on being a super hero. Even though he can forget, the memories still exist and therefore effect the rest of his life. Moore adds the third element to a psychological argument that disrupts the whole concept of either beliefs. Rorschach is a developed image in Walter’s mind that allows him to act as what he sees as a psychologically sound human being, with an average up bringing.
comprehends by writing it in a certain point of view. In Rios’ “The Secret Lion,” the first
The conflict that involves Walter and Mama superficially concerns Mama's receiving an insurance check for ten thousand dollars, which she hasn't yet decided what to do with. Walter has hopes for using the money to invest in a liquor store, with the profits providing him and his family a better quality of life than what they have endured in the past. What really is at stake here, though, is more than money. Mama and Walter have different visions of what happiness is and what life is all about. For Mama, the best thing to do with the money is to make a down payment on a house. This house is to be situated within an all-white neighborhood, and represents assimilation. This is Mama's dream, and the dream ...
...the deeds done for your family. Instead of choosing to give up the home his mother purchased for the family Walter stands up and chooses not only a better home for his family but also a better life. He chooses to keep a place his mother purchased that went against his dreams to provide his son with a real home and in doing so he finally and truly understood what it was to have his manhood restored.