Philip Pullman’s novel, The Golden Compass, raises questions by readers due to its questionable ideas on organized religion. To craft his novel, he uses different literary elements and devises that create a fantasy story that children love, and for older readers it shows secular ideals. Pullman’s greatest strength in writing his novel is said to be the way he develops his characters (Young). To understand a character, one must first know what their motivations are and what “stuff” they have. He must ask the question: what does that character want and what sort of “stuff” defines them? Each character has an ultimate goal. Once one knows what “stuff” a character has and what their goals are, he can then interpret them and form ideas about the …show more content…
She has a daemon, Pantalaimon, who can transform into any animal. The daemon of a human is said to be their soul and their animal form can often symbolize how their human is feeling (Erb, 713). Together they go through voyages trying to uncover the truths that so many are trying to suppress. Lyra wants to help save the children that were taken; she wishes to understand her newly discovered parents; she wants to learn more about dust and other worlds; and she wishes to stay with Pantalaimon. All Lyra has is her daemon, her alethiometer, and her morals.
Pullman uses Lyra as a key to show the reader how the church tries to control its followers. Lyra works to understand and uncover what the church is trying to hide. She is seen by other characters as someone who is destined to save everyone, most likely from the church, by figuring out what is really going on. She uses the alethiometer to guide her to expose truths and other characters.
Lyra herself is only a child. Pullman most likely portrayed Lyra as a child because children represent innocence and growth. As Lyra progresses through the novel, she grows and gains experiences while in the beginning she is just a young girl who likes to have fun and
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Pullman defines his ideas on organized religion using character throughout. Character is one of the extremely developed literary elements of this novel. As it progresses, the reader discovers what Lyra and the other character want and what defines them. Since The Golden Compass is only the first novel of the trilogy His Dark Materials, the characters are still not entirely revealed but the reader can still get enough from what Pullman provides. The reader understands that the church in the novel is a tyrant symbolizing how Pullman feels about the church in the real world outside of his
The major points in the story are about not necessarily believing in something just because
Several characters through the course of Steinbeck's novel East of Eden demonstrate a lack of self-knowledge or corruption of the soul. A gap is created between some the character's actions and their true essence as a person. The disparity between a character's conduct and their identity as a human being is often a demonstration of the fight between good and evil within the character's own soul. Caleb, one of Adam Trask's twin boys embodies this struggle vividly throughout his life. This search for self-identity plays into a key theme of the novel, which is that of free will. Despite the fact that there is a variance in the way a character wants to act or the person who they truly are at heart and the way that they actually carry out their lives, free will offers hope. Steinbeck pushes the idea that a person's life and fate is never out of their control and that it is never too late to change the road that you are on. It can be argued either way that this break up of fundamental identity, expression and self-knowledge is the nature of man or simply provoked by the events in the character's lives. It becomes apparent through Caleb's life that the nurture of the individual seems to be the larger factor in causing this separation. Caleb Trask's character demonstrates how the struggle between good and evil within an individual can affect one's self-knowledge, which is catalyzed mainly by the nurture of the character and, ultimately, is amendable through free will.
The Pacific coast port city of San Francisco, California provides a distinctively mysterious backdrop in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Unlike many other detective stories that are anchored in well-known metropolises such as Los Angeles or New York City, Hammett opted to place the events of his text in the lesser-known, yet similarly exotic cultural confines of San Francisco. Hammett used his own intricate knowledge of the San Francisco Bay Area - coupled with details collected during a stint as a detective for the now defunct Pinkerton Agency - to craft a distinctive brand of detective fiction that thrived on such an original setting (Paul 93). By examining the setting of 1920’s San Francisco in The Maltese Falcon, it becomes apparent that one of Hammett’s literary strengths was his exceptional ability to intertwine non-fictional places with a fictional plot and characters in order to produce a logical and exceedingly believable detective mystery.
The Chronicles of Narnia are enticing books, which offer a wonderful fictional plot line, but also a deeper philosophical importance if one analyzes the series. Many religious allusions can be found between characters in Narnia and biblical people. Deeper understanding can be found throughout the stories even in many overlooked aspects of everyday life. “The Chronicles of Narnia” is a piece of literature filled with religious symbols and allusions, such as the actions of Aslan and the personality of Peter, that enhance one’s perception and understanding of the books.
Furthermore, Lennie is captivated by her alluring beauty and cannot take his eyes off her, constantly mentioning that "she's purty". George, recognising Lennie's intoxication, cautions him to keep his distance from this temptress. Moreover, Curley's wife understands that her magnetising beauty is the main reason control and her authority, and she fully deploys it to seduce the other ranch hands and make her husband jealous of her, which in turn gives her attention. However, she is completely isolated on the ranch and her husband has made it so that no one will talk to her without having a fistfight with the man.
To thoroughly grasp the meaning, intention and significance of The Things They Carried, the reader must pull apart the novel.
Firstly, Lyra gets told she can not go to the North but after some dangerous events and her nagging
“Early in the spring of 1300, "midway along the road of our life," Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell.” (Smith) Dante’s Inferno, one of the great classical poems that have come out of literature that’s topic is hell. Dante’s Inferno, gives a descriptive look into hell, from the eyes of Dante. Dante goes into detail about every part of hell. The people, what it looks like, sins to go there, the whole shah-bang. Dante splits up hell into nine different parts. In which he sends different types of sinners to each part. Each hell is made up differently, each has different systems that make up that particular systems. For example, circle three, has Cerberus the three headed dog, and another circle is completely frozen over. There are three circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno that are the best in the book: Circle one, circle six, and circle three.
Morality is a driving force in many of the most successful literary works. Morality dictates human actions, and in a literary case, allows a reader to relate to a character. C.S. Lewis employs morality throughout the Chronicles of Narnia as a means to rally the reader behind a character. He is able to pull at the heartstrings of his audience and in doing so successfully entices them to celebrate in the children’s victories and scoff at the Witches cruelty.
Pullman's first novel from the His Dark Materials collection, The Golden Compass has many imaginary and realistic modern-day aspects of the world he envisions; such as Daemons, Dust, and the Alethiometer. The Golden Compass takes place in an alternate universe with definite similarities to that of our own Earth. Slight differences, however, define this innovative and beautiful world Pullman has created for his audience. A key difference between the two worlds is the existence and association of Daemons with Humans. These otherworldly creatures known as Daemons are the window to a person's soul. They expose you for who you really are as a person in the world. Daemons are representation of the emotional and mental state of a person, especially the humans' ‟ souls" which can communicate with their "owners”. Ultimately, revealing their true inner self, intentions and a way of life. Daemons are important throughout the entire novel, because it gives us a look under the mask of each main character presented to us in the novel. This relationship between daemon and human can be observed heavily through Lyra, the main protagonist and her daemon; Pantalaimon and Lord Asriel and his daemon; Stelmaria the Snow Leopard and finally, Mrs. Coulter with her daemon, The Golden Monkey. Daemons associated with different lifestyles and mindsets of their owner. They not only help their predestined owner with various tasks and devising plans, as shown from Lyra, but as well are an external representation of themselves that understand the owner's motives and thinking shown by Mrs. Coulter.
	The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas, tells the story of a man, Edmond Dantes, a sailor who goes through being betrayed by his enemies and thrown in to a dark prison cell to planning revenge on his enemies. His behavior and personality changes after spending 14 years in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit. Edmond Dantes was thrown in jail ,after being framed by his enemies, accused of committing treason and being a bonapartist. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Era while the usurper, Napoleon has escaped to his place of exile, the Isle of Elba, located in the Mediterranean Sea.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis employs symbolism, development and morality. He uses symbolism as a driving force throughout the novel. Without the use of characters similar to Christian figures, Lewis’ series would lack a sense of meaning. His use of these figures evokes a sense of wonder in the reader and encourages them to continue reading. Lewis uses development throughout The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a means to create vivid and more impressionable world. He uses morality as a means for rallying the reader behind a character, inspiring them to continue to support them though the story. These three elements work harmoniously to establish a novel that contains literary depth and meaning.
Renascence: Essays on values in Literature 59.2 (2007) : 93. Literature Resources from Gale Web. 24 Feb. 2010. Hatcher, Melissa. A. McCrory. The “Mythlore.”
...ities. Love is a long hard road and cannot be reached by taking a straight, clear-cut path. Even though throughout the scene Hermia and Lysander are in constant conflict, a resolution is eventually reached. Hermia and Lysander remain in love, proving that true love can prevail.
One seeks to change his or her identity, or to create a new one, in order to find love. In both Dickens’ novel and Shakespeare’s play, the two protagonists, driven by love, flee from their normal lives in order to search for a better existence. Shakespeare illustrates that when love consumes people, they will do whatever it takes to protect it: “There my Lysander and myself shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes to seek new friends and stranger companies” (Shakespeare I.i.222-224). Shakespeare asserts that the two characters Lysander and Hermia must protect their love, so they choose to run away into the forest. In order to protect their love the two possess a mindset that they must flee from their home and create new identities. They wish to create an identity for the both of them that their love produces. In order to develop their perfect identity, they flee from Athens and seek out a new life with new friends and new places in which their love can grow and flourish. Shakespeare tells the audience that when people love each other, endless