Presley is the most prominent character in the book: he is not really the protagonist because much of the action has nothing to do with him, but he is the novel's conscience, observing what happens and understanding the significance of it. Presley is the character at the beginning and at the end of the story, first travelling across the countryside to neighboring ranches in a sequence that introduces other main characters and finally leaving on a wheat-laden ship bound for India. Because he has connections in San Francisco high society, he is able to see characters on both sides of the central dispute. As a central character that gets caught in a situation, he represents the typical American in that he is forced to analyze the events, which …show more content…
in turn, affords him artistic and financial success. This entrepreneurial attitude demonstrates the very nature of the American spirit Presley is thirty years old and is a poet who graduated with honors from an Eastern college. He came to live on the Los Muertos ranch for his health after nearly dying of consumption (tuberculosis). After witnessing Dyke's destruction because of the railroad company, Presley returns to his room at Los Muertos and works on "The Toilers," a poem that he started once and abandoned.
When it is finished, he sends it to a San Francisco newspaper, which publishes it; it is then reprinted in other newspapers around the country and in a glossy national magazine, making Presley's name famous nationwide. Shelgrim, the railroad president, is familiar with the poem and is unimpressed with it, not because it takes a pro-labor stand, but because he finds the painting that inspired it to be more complete. Mrs. Gerard, the wife of the railroad vice president at whose home Presley has an extravagant meal, is also familiar with the poem and says that she was inspired to join with other society matrons to start a relief organization for the starving people of India. She is oblivious to the suffering of the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley that provide her with the chance to be extravagant and …show more content…
generous. Frustrated with all the suffering and distraught over the ruin and imprisonment of Dyke, Presley briefly decides to take matters into his own hands. With the help of Caraher, he builds a bomb, which he throws into S. Behrman's house. The railroad employee is unharmed. Later, when he takes over the Los Muertos ranch, Behrman mentions in a condescending way that he knows Presley threw the bomb. The novel depicts actual events referred to in historical context as the Mussel Slough Affair. In the mid-1800s, the railroads grew at a tremendous pace, from twenty-three miles of track in the United States in 1830 to 30,000 miles thirty years later—a jump of over a 1000 percent. In another ten years the distance of track had increased to 53,000 miles. Much of this growth was due to government assistance. For the federal government, encouraging the railroads' growth meant increasing the country's wealth, since new roads spread out into areas with untapped resources. In California, the government granted the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railways the rights to odd-numbered parcels of land along their tracks as a reward for laying the track.
The two companies operated under one board of directors, and were, in effect, one company. When the line through the San Joaquin Valley was completed in 1872, the Central Pacific sent out flyers telling farmers that they would be able to buy the land from the railroad. The flyers named no particular price, but they implied that the land would be made available for just a little over the $2.50 per acre that the government charged for the even-numbered parcels. Farmers came, even though the land was dry and not good for farming, and they erected irrigation methods that made it more usable. In addition, they built houses and barns. The railroad circulars indicated that the price of the land would not be raised because of improvements that the farmers
made. As in the novel, the farmers found, when they tried to buy the land they were living on, that the railroad wanted considerably more than they had indicated would be the price. The farmers fought it in court, but, also as in the novel, the railroad moved to evict farmers while the court suit was in progress. Most of the farmers in the Mussel Slough area were at a countywide picnic to celebrate a new irrigation canal when railroad officials and marshals arrived to take possession of the lands. There are differing reports of what happened that day— of what was said, who fired first at whom. There were five deaths among the farmers, with two more dying later. A plaque was erected at the scene of the battle, and for years the name "Mussel Slough" was mentioned among opponents of the railroad to remind each other of the struggle they faced.
The four main characters in the book are Drue “True” Robinson, Lee Atkins, Urban “Legend” Donald Sellers, and Mr. Gilbert. Drue is a rising basketball star from New York City. He played in an all-star game, where Mr. Gilbert first noticed him. Mr. Gilbert convinced Drue and his mom to come to the east coast where he would find his mom a job and a nice home. Drue became friends with Lee the first day of school and later in the book he becomes friends with Legend.
The Act of 1862 called for construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. So on January 8, 1863, with a ground breaking ceremony in Sacramento, Central Pacific Railroad started work on the western end of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
Willie, the antagonist of the story accidentally makes Bobby overcome his fears and stand up to him. In a way Willie could be a protagonist because he helps Bobby overcome his fears. Willie is a crazy person that doesn't know what he is doing.
This had farmers in distress, for they were losing more money than they were making. Farmers’ incomes were low, and in order to make a profit on what they produced, they began to expand the regions in which they sold their products. This was facilitated through the railroads, by which through a series of grants from the government as contracted in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, were made possible; which latter lead to the boom of rail roads in 1868-1873.... ... middle of paper ...
When Zora Hurston wrote this novel, she wanted to explain how a young women search for her own identity. This young woman would go through three relationships that took her to the end of the journey of a secure sense of independence. She wanted to find her own voice while in a relationship, but she also witnessed hate, pain, and love through the journey. When Logan Killicks came she witnessed the hate because he never connected physically or emotionally to her. Jody Starks, to what she assumed, as the ticket to freedom. What she did not know was the relationship came with control and pain. When she finally meets Tea Cake she was in love, but had to choose life over love in the end.
The characters in this story are some very interesting people. They each lead their own way of life, and have their own interests at heart. Some of the main characters in this novel are: Sarny, Lucy, Miss Laura, Bartlett, Stanley, and Sarny's two children Little Delie, and Tyler. Sarny is the central character in this book. She is clever and knows exactly what to even in the worst of times. She is very emotional though, and can break down and cry when the slightest of things happens. This is perhaps from what she has experienced as a slave earlier on in her life. Sarny is fond of teaching people, as a friend named Nightjohn once taught her. Lucy is Sarny's close friend. She is also quite wise, but is a bit too optimistic at times. She never stops smiling and is very friendly. However, she does help Sarny find her lost children. Miss Laura is a middle-aged woman who lives a very luxurious life. She gives Sarny and Lucy a place to live and offers them employment. She also finds Sarny's children for her. Bartlett works for Miss Laura as well. He is a quiet and patient man who is helpful and quite kind. He was however castrated as a young slave boy, and cannot have children. Stanley is Sarny's second husband, for her first died from being worked to death on the plantation. Stanley is a gentle, big, fun-loving man, but is not intimidated by anything. This leads him to his death when he gets mad at a white man, and is confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. Little Delie and Tyler are Sarny's lost children. After she recovers them, and they grow up, Little Delie starts to like business, while Tyler wants to become a doctor.
The branch was originally intended to carry the route south and connect to San Diego and the rest of southern California. But after the Southern Pacific was acquired by the "Big Four", who founded the Central Pacific, not only did the Southern Pacific reach southern California, it also stretched out to the southeastern United States. In 1883 the Southern Pacific had provided a connection between Southern California and the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. The western end of the "Sunset Route" began on December 31, 1869 in the newly built city of Lathrop, California. It continued south through the valley which was easy building for the Southern Pacific. Rail traffic crept all the way to what is now East Bakersfield by 1874; November 8, 1874 to be exact. Trains reached Modesto on November 8, 1870. In 1872 the rails passed through Merced, Fresno, and Tulare by the end of the year. During the eastern expansion of the Southern Pacific, there was yet another gold spike ceremony when the railroad reached Tucson, Arizona in 1880. In the following year of 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad joined the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, better known as the Santa Fe, in Deming, New Mexico to complete the second transcontinental railroad. A few years later, in 1885, the Southern Pacific railroad leased all track and equipment from the Central Pacific, although the official merge
By 1857 a concord coach was able to complete the fifty-mile run from Portland to Salem in a single day (Schwantes, 183). California Stage Company was one of the largest organizations of its kind in the United States, established direct and regular service between Portland and Sacramento in 1860 (Schwantes, 183). Wells, Fargo and Company of San Francisco utilized a far-flung network of stagecoach and freight lines in the 1860s and 1870s to serve mining regions in the interior Northwest (Schwantes, 183). Ben Holladay, the stagecoach king, laid the foundation for his transportation empire in 1862 when he gained control of stagecoach and freight wagon lines that extended from Salt Lake City to the booming mining camps and supply center of Boise City, Walla Walla, and Virginia City, Montana. Holladay sold h...
It can cause one to become hopeless and think that it might not ever happen. One can be lead to thought that since Hughes is an African American he can not achieve his dreams due to the society that holds him back. One can see all throughout the poem Hughes uses words that perfectly describe a deferred or delayed dream. Hughes uses words like “fester”, “explode”, “sugar over”, “dry up” and “stink”. One can see that all the words describe a dream deferred in a negative and violent manner.
The Pacific Railroad bill of 1862 launched the transcontinental railroad construction project. The Pacific Railroad bill granted 6,400 acres of public lands and government loans ranging from $16,000 to $48,000 per mile of track completed to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad companies. (Pacific Railroad Bill) Following the Pacific Railroad bill a series of federal and state acts between 1862 and 1871 granted more than 130 million acres of public land and supplied additional monetary loans of approximately $150 million dollars to the expansion of the railroads. (Gillon p.652)
A character named Jefferson, an African American male, is wrongly accused when he is in the wrong place at the time during a shoot-out between two African American men and a storeowner. During the shoot-out the storeowner and both men were shot and killed, Jefferson in shock stays at the scene of the crime until authorities arrived and arrested and tried Jefferson for murder. Jefferson being found guilty and compared to a hog fills him with hate and anger. Jefferson has an aunt that reaches out to a creditable teacher at a local school named Grant; she gets Grant to help Jefferson find a purpose. Grant helps Jefferson find a sense of dignity, although it took some time he was successful. Grant later focuses his time and energy on the importance of Jefferson’s death and tries to explain it to him. Jefferson doesn’t really understand it until members of the community come to visit him; young children, old men, strangers, friends, all come to see Jefferson in his cell and speak to him. The onslaught of attention makes Jefferson begin to understand the enormity of his task. He now realizes that he has become much more than an ordinary man and that his death will represent much more than an ordinary death. Gaines emphasizes the worth and dignity of everyday heroes like Jefferson; just as Christ did during his
Tom Sawyer, THE MAIN CHARACTER, is an imaginative young man who sometimes allows his imagination and high-spirit TO get in the way of telling the truth. Tom is very adventurous; he never passes up a chance to play pirates, robbers, or soldiers. We are introduced to Tom, when he is climbing in his window after a long night of cavorting with his friends. Soon after this, Tom meets Huckleberry Fin. Huck is a social outcast who likes to live by his own terms. Tom and Huck become good friends. One night the two boys go to the graveyard AND while they are there they witness the murder of the town doctor, Mr. Robinson. The boys watched as Injun Joe kills the doctor and frames a drunk by the name of Muff Potter, who happens to be IN the wrong place at the wrong time. The boys swear never to speak of THE MURDER again.
Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huckleberry Finn, goes through many circumstances that allows him to grow as a person. Huckleberry Finn is an individual that experiences many life-threatening situations that one should never have to go through. During these events, Huckleberry Finn encounters internal struggles that push him to go against southern societal views and he decides to listen to his own morals. These actions give Huckleberry Finn the title of being the hero throughout the story. In the fiction novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn transforms and trusts his own morals, making him the archetypal hero.
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.