... reflects his foul, disgusting character. He has no respect for himself; he enjoys playing the part of the shameless "buffoon" for attention, even though the attention he receives is negative. Because he has no respect for himself, he can have no respect for others, either. He has no respect for women, for example; he is a despicable "voluptuary," and he satisfies his lust at any cost. He drives his wife to madness by bringing "women of ill-repute" into their house right in front of her. Even more shockingly, he rapes a mentally retarded woman, who later dies giving birth to his illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, who grows up as his father's servant. F ...
... in anger retaliates by leaving with a sailor who makes the highest bid. Henchard regrets his decision the next day, but he is unable to find his family. Exactly eighteen years pass. Susan and her daughter Elizabeth-Jane come back to the fair, seeking news about Henchard. The sailor has been lost at sea, and Susan is returning to her "rightful" husband. At the infamous furmity tent, they learn Henchard has moved to Casterbridge, where he has become a prosperous grain merchant and even mayor. When Henchard learns that his family has returned, he is determined to right his old wrong. He devises a plan for courting and marrying Susan again, and for adopting h ...
... of Wrath that there is no one man, but one common soul in which we all belong to. The subject of Steinbeck's fiction is not the most thoughtful, imaginative, and constructive aspects of humanity, but rather the process of life itself (Wilson 785). Steinbeck has been compared to a twentieth century Charles Dickens of California; a social critic with more sentiment than science or system. His writing is warm, human, inconsistent, occasionally angry, but more often delighted with the joys associated with human life on its lowest levels (Holman 20). This biological image of man creates techniques and aspects of form capable of conveying this image of man with esth ...
... He "genuinely appreciates brief and isolated instances of kindness" (Lee 263) and "accurately pinpoints phoniness in low and high places” (Edwards 556). Thus, it is easy to explain reader’s acceptance of him. “Indeed, these people are like Holden himself - the Holden who can be willful, contrary, often impossible, yet in a manner insistently of his own making and at odds with whatever he deems dull or conformist” (Lee 102). “Ambivalence is, in fact, characteristic of Holden, the surest evidence of his mental instability" (Furst 76). He is not what he and many readers assume he is: "an anti-establish figure whose Kennedy 2 disgust is directed at other pe ...
... In an interview with Milwaukee Journal staff writer Fannie Leflore, Morrison said that she “confronted and critiqued the devastation of racial images” in The Bluest Eye. The narrative structure of The Bluest Eye is important in revealing just how pervasive and destructive the “racialization” (Morrison’s term for the racism that is a part of every person’s socialization) is (Leflore). Morrison is particularly concerned about the narration in her novels. She says, “People crave narration . . . That’s the way they learn things” (Bakerman 58). Narration in The Bluest Eye comes from several sources. Much of the n ...
... a level of complete and utter independence from traditional principles. One telling passage occurs in a scene where Keating and Roark are discussing architecture. Keating: "How do you always manage to decide?" Roark: "How can you let others decide for you?" As two men on the extreme sides of conformity and independence, it is hard for Keating to understand how someone could be so sure of himself, whereas it is incomprehensible for Roark to believe that Keating could have so little self-assurance and such a lack of resolve regarding the decisions he chooses to make. In this regard, Howard Roark is greater than Peter Keating. Often times in ...
... to the others as she is drawn to the unadorned lamp. Kezia proceeds to find fault with the state and proportions of the doll's house and perfection with the lamp in its simplicity. As others take interests in the gaudy nature of the house, Kezia rebels: "But the lamp was perfect. It seemed to smile at Kezia, to say `I live here.' The lamp was so real." Conflict intensifies as Kezia remains the odd ball. The appreciation of the lamp is a metaphor for the actions to come. Kezia likes the lamp because she does not know any better. Thus, she decides to befriend the Kelveys because she doesn't see anything wrong in doing so. The Kelveys are a family that are shun ...
... day and every moment a lot, so Chillingworth let it do the avenge work alone without interfering (Hester: “Why hast thou not avenged thyself on me?” “I have left thee to the scarlet letter”replied Roger Chillingworth.). But for Dimmesdale he had a whole different plan. He came back to town as a different person with a different name. Now he was Roger Chillingworth (We don’t know his name before the first scaffold incident), a well-appreciated and educated physician. He came to help Dimmesdale, who was very sick. He became his close physician and they became very close friends. But the truth was that Chillingworth was constantly investig ...
... fueled by the events which occurred soon after World War I. After a devastating stock market crash, many employers lost a substantial amount of money and therefore could hardly afford to hire staff. Many resorted to buying slaves; it was cheap and required little responsibility on their part. This event led to the employment of Negroes. The Industrial revolution did not occur in South America since it was only logical to simply buy slaves rather than expensive machinery. The civil war soon followed, and declared that Negroes were no longer considered slaves and if they were unhappy with work conditions they could leave. Few did, since jobs were already dangerously s ...
... east and seeing how money affects people, he decides to go back west. I see now that this has been a story of the west, after all-Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all westerners and and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to eastern life. In other words, after finding out what the east was really like, Nick lost his interest in being in the east and returned to the west. Gatsby came east looking for another type of money - Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy had last seen each other about five years before, when they were dating. Then Gatsby had to go to war. While he was a ...
