Analysis of How the character Daniel Weir has Changed Throughout his Journey in Espedair Street by Iain Banks
Espedair Street by Iain Banks is a novel which is pretending to be a
rock star autobiography; the story of a fictional seventies band
Frozen Gold as told by bass player and song writer Danny Weir. It is
told using a series of flashbacks which converge to explain the
present, Danny living as a recluse, pretending to be his own caretaker
in a bizarre Victorian folly in Glasgow. Espedair Street is about the
emptiness that can come to fill the life of someone who has realised
all his dreams on a massive scale and still not be where they want to
be. It's also about other things like the hedonistic life of the
seventies rock star, the things that we do that we regret and feel
guilty about later, and the effects that these have on us. The hook
for the story is its dramatic opening lines "two days ago I decided to
kill my self" from this I gathered the book was set to be bleak
although interesting, the reader would immediately be drawn in and
want to read on.
What I found most effective was the way the character of Daniel Weir
was developed constantly during the book. Daniel, also known as
'Weird', is a thirty-one year old reclusive rock star who has a
pessimistic attitude towards life and is intensely introspective.
Throughout his childhood he struggled to fit in with his peers and had
a troubled relationship with his parents. This has led him to feel
constantly self-conscious and he often talks about how ugly he is,
"I'm a monster, a mutant, a gangling ape", "I've been a funny looking
kid and I've blossomed into an ugly young man." This attitude gains
Daniel a certain amount of sympathy from the reader because instead of
feeling jealous of his famous lifestyle, I actually end up feeling
sorry for him. As this young 16 year old boy Daniel found comfort in
song writing, it is evident this is something he has confidence in
People have goals everyday, believe it or not some people think that dreams aren't worth it. I believe that it is worth it to dream because it gives a person a goal, it makes them feel good, and it makes them stronger. I know this from The Pearl, A Cubs video, the Susan Boyle video, and We Beat the streets.
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.
In The Sky Fisherman by Craig Lesley, Uncle Jake is a man who lives for the sake of others. He is a hero to Culver. Uncle Jake is considered a hero because he saves Culver from being deprived of a father. Jake being a father figure and role model for Culver helped him adapt to his new journey in Gateway. From this we can learn that even the most common and ordinary man can be the most heroic of all superheroes.
figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet our
In order to fully examine the narrator’s transformation journey, there are many factors that have to be looked at in the themes that are discussed in the book. They include the Grandfather’s message in chapter one, Tod Clifton’s death, when the narrator is kicked out of college and the events in the factory and the factory hospital are some of the examples (Ellison 11). All these events contributed enormously towards the narrator finding his true identity.
A journey through a heartbreak can be tough on a person and may lead to clouding of proper judgment and beliefs. In the book Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old who has dealt with trauma and sadness in his past due to his brother’s death. This has created massive heartbreak for Holden who had become unstable when it came to projecting his feelings. This makes Holden not very admirable because he has trouble understanding age groups and the concept of growing up, he takes advantage of people by lying to them, and Holden has great difficulty when it comes to talking about how he feels. Holden may never realize it, but he is too far gone.
the dream, in the end, he is left dead and without the hope of winning
Conflict is a big part of life today. There is no way to avoid conflict. But conflict is not a problem, it is how you deal with conflict. Depending on how you deal with conflict may change your live forever. That is how it is conflict will change you in some way, big or small, major or minor. Facing conflicts changes you because your personal thoughts on the conflict change the way you handle upcoming things.
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the character Nick Carraway is one of the main characters in this novel. Nick isn’t only a character, he is a great narrator also for this novel. In The Great Gatsby the narrator, Nick, is the only one to seem to be know the real Gatsby and to be on Gatsby's side. He wants the readers to know who Gatsby really is and why he has become who is. Nick also talks about how he feels and his character is conflicted internally and externally.
...an up close and personal account of her life adventures and choices she made. When she lived, and what social class she was a part of all affect how she shapes her identity through the text. James Joyce’s autobiographical fiction is not quite as personal; however, he is able to convey some of his ideals and politics through the story of Gabriel Conroy’s self-realization and toils with social norms in Dublin, Ireland. Author Samuel Butler once said, “Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself”. Throughout the course of a text, be it fiction or non-fiction, one is able to paint a mental portrait of who the author is, be it adventurous or timid, confident or doubtful, humble or arrogant. Their understandings of the world, and place in it, will fashion how they tell the story.
Summer reading should be required because it enables students to ready themselves for the upcoming school year, to analyze and view an author’s writing, and to read a book with literary excellence. A Hope in the Unseen by Rod Suskind and Closing the Gap between High School Writing Instructors and College Writing Expectations by Susan Fanetti, Kathy Bushrow, and David Deweese exemplify the various reasons why summer reading is a necessary requirement for high school students.
In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author follows the development of protagonist Amir through a life filled with sorrow, regret, and violence. Amir encounters numerous obstacles on his path to adulthood, facing a new test at every twist and turn. Amir embarks on the long journey known as life as a cowardly, weak young man with a twisted set of ideals, slowly but surely evolving into a man worthy of the name. Amir is one of the lucky few who can go through such a shattered life and come out the other side a better man, a man who stands up for himself and those who cannot, willing to put his life on the line for the people he loves.
... but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find” (Fitzerald 118). Having devoted many years to this dream the character fails to recognize that his only motivation all along was greed so his dream never comes true.
The pivotal character of Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises is Jake Barnes. He is a man of complex personality--compelling, powerful, restrained, bitter, pathetic, extraordinarily ordinary yet totally human. His character swings from one end of the psychological spectrum to the other end. He has complex personality, a World War I veteran turned writer, living in Paris. To the world, he is the epitome of self-control but breaks down easily when alone, plagued by self-doubt and fears of inadequacy. He is at home in the company of friends in the society where he belongs, but he sees himself as someone from the outside looking in. He is not alone, yet he is lonely. He strikes people as confident, ambitious, careful, practical, quiet and straightforward. In reality, he is full of self-doubt, afraid and vulnerable.
The main protagonist of the story, Elizabeth Bennet (nicknamed both Lizzy and Eliza), is the second daughter in the Bennet family. Second only to her elder sister in beauty, Elizabeth’s figure is said to be “light and pleasing,” with “dark eyes,” and “intelligent…expression” (24). At 20 years old, she is still creating her place in society. Known for her wit and playful nature, “Elizabeth is the soul of Pride and Prejudice, [she] reveals in her own person the very title qualities that she spots so easily” (“Pride and Prejudice”) in others. Her insightfulness often leads her to jump to conclusions and think herself above social demand. These tendencies lead her to be prejudice towards others; this is an essential characteristic of her role