“Paul’s Case” written by Willa Cather not only offers an entertaining read with content which at first glance can come off as merely a story, but when read closely it becomes evident that there are substantial themes being explored through Cather’s protagonist, Paul, along with his predicament. Paul, a young boy living on Cordelia Street, a place that quite inordinately contradicts his frequent exotic fantasies, sets course toward tragedy when he begins to realize he can no longer remain within the rigid dimensions set by his community’s perception of social norms. Set in a Pittsburg town made up of cookie cutter homes, and where the children attend Sabbath school on a regular basis, Paul stands out with great conspicuity. One cannot help but…
Subordinate characters, whose roles are seemingly unimportant, are thermically critical in Richard Connell’s and Eudora Welty’s short story. A subordinate character often either motivates or challenges the protagonist to do something. The subordinate characters from “The Most Dangerous Game” and “A Worn Path” help the reader understand how the protagonist feels and believes. Both stories are similar since their subordinate characters help express the protagonist’s thoughts, mindset, and characteristics.…
Cited: Hurrell, John D. Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a…
In a world where everything previously known disappeared into ash, anyone would meditate on death. The wife was one to resort to death for comfort, whereas the husband remained faithful to life. Though the husband adopted his wife’s attitude towards death by the end of his life, he still differs from the woman in that he maintained hope for mankind even though he was resigned about his own life. In writing The Road, Cormac McCarthy successfully illustrated the conflict between life and death, hope and…
While the characters in the two short stories Destructors by Gramham Greene and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson had unexpected endings the characters varied in qualities, emotions, and motivation. Each story seems to reveal a surprising outcome and turn of events as their personalities unfolded. As the climax grew the outcome was not so predictable.…
A choice made by Paul was when he told the police about when Arthur hit Louis with a black jack and killed him. It affected Paul that he felt more confident. The choice was made because Paul wanted Arthur to go to jail for killing his friend. Paul’s reaction felt weird because he never told the police about a murder before. Paul's effect was that he felt good about himself that he helped solve a murder case.…
Compare and Contrast the ways in which two Poets create Sympathy for their Characters – ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ and ‘The River God’.…
In the short stories “The Lottery” and “The Destructors” even though the stories are in two different settings and time frames, the characters and tone of the stories are similar in the fact the characters are subject to difficult challenges of the environments they are living in.…
It is very important to know your own personal limitations, likewise, it is important to know how your personal decisions can and will affect you and others around you.…
Death is a horrendous thing that can cause an irreplaceable hole in somebody’s life. Death can also represent chaos and the pain of another character in the story. In Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the deaths of Johnny, Dally, and Bob created an intriguing plot and unveiled the hidden feelings and personalities of characters who react to the deaths, like Dally and Randy. The major deaths in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which are the deaths of Candy’s Dog, Curley’s Wife, and Lennie, displayed the personalities of the characters who killed them and developed the story in the book. The theme of death reveals hidden elements of characters who strongly felt a certain way about the character. Even though death is the end of a character, it…
Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” All of the characters in the stories learn the significance of what the things they once had. One similar theme that runs throughout those three works, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is the loss of something significant. Each story or poem has a different way of ending peacefully and handling the loss.…
In these particular poems about death, there are two different pictures painted of death. It is a clear contrast on the author’s individual point of view for such character. On both poems, the diction used to describe death is different from what I would use to describe death. It is very interesting that death is not described as an enemy, or a powerful and intimidating being. Both poems negate the mightiness of this character in different ways.…
Everyman, the play, lives up to its name in every sense of the word. The title takes a character named Everyman and takes him through a journey to face God. Through his journey the reader is able to reflect upon their own life and see some of the various ways people view life and mistakes made. Many people share those same views now as well as then in the 1400s when the play was written. The play is a moral play. Therefore, leaving the audience with something to meditate on after reading it. The anonymous writer uses characters with human attributes of a person such as beauty, strength, knowledge among others. Other times, the writer uses characters such as God, Angel, Everyman and even Death to enable the reader to understand the play.…
Suffering and loss is a regular situation in the human life cycle, it is vital to learn how to deal with it so that it doesn’t affect the rest of our lives negatively. In Scott Russell Sanders’s Ten Reasons Why We’ll Always Need a Good Story he explains that one of the reasons is to help us deal and become aware of suffering, loss, and death. During our youth we often don’t consider the end of the life cycle. However, in life we will always encounter grieving from a loved one’s death. The first time we experience some sort of grieving it may be very hard to handle and may cause depression. Stories help us prepare for moments of suffering, loss, and death with fictional experiences which show us how to deal with these unfortunate events. In the three short stories we read at least one character in each story is forced to deal with suffering, loss, or death. In the short story Bluffing by Gail Helgason, Liam has an unfortunate accident and experiences physical pain as well as the emotional pain of his deteriorating relationship with Gabriella. In Two Words by Isabel Allende, Belisa Crepusculario is devastated by the death of her entire family due to their impoverished lifestyle and the love between her and the Colonel causes them to miss each other. In The Indisputable Weight of the Ocean by Darryl Berger, Edmund deals with not being able to see his father and deals with the suffering of moving to a suburban area.…
In this essay, “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” are compared and contrasted. Their different themes and different characters have some similarities. The things the characters do and want ultimately brings them to their very own downfall. Throughout this essay, I talk about how these characters are just like every ordinary person and how our society is well represented by the different themes in each of these stories. One character is cruel and self-centered and all of that leads to her own death while the other is “unlucky” and her greed and want for wealth leads to her very own son’s death.…
