The Portable Phonograph - Character Analysis
Walter Van Tilburg Clark's short story, The Portable Phonograph, is a tale about the last survivors in the world after the total destruction of a war.
The author gives clues and hints of this throughout the beginning by writing in a narative voice and describing the scene in dark war-like terms. The characters are then introduced as a group of men huddled around a fire. The older of the men, Doctor Jenkins, is the leader and his character is full of personality that can be analyzed by the reader. He is the owner of the shelter that they meet in. This paper will point out the different aspects of the old man in this story and state conclusions that can be drawn from them.
The men in this story are obviously amused by the slightest little things.
They occupy themselves through book readings from a collection that one man has. Each of the men has their contribution to the group and together they endure a time of devastation by entertaining each other. The older man has a record player that he brings out once a week for the listening pleasure of the group. He is very proud of this treasure. It has sustained through these hard times just as he has and he limits his use of it to make it last. He owns only three steel needles and he gets one out to use because on this particular occasion, their is a musician visitor with them. The other men act as excited as children. They listen to the record and then leave the doctor's house.
Doctor Jenkins is nervous and suspicious at the end of the story when the other men leave. "With nervous hands he lowered the piece of canvas which served as his door, and pegged it at the bottom. Then quickly quietly, looking at the piece of canvas frequently, he slipped the records in the case..."
(Clark, page 241). He feels that "everything he has" is at risk with the greed that a time like this could produce in the other men. He is secure and comfortable with the things that he has and he doesn't trust the others. He then hides his treasures away in a safe place after they leave. As he gets into his bed he feels the "comfortable piece of lead pipe" with his hand.
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
Delivered at his October 1886 trial, August Spies, ‘The Address of August Spies” is a primary source document. Spies recites the testimony in response to the accusations put forth against him as result of the Haymarket Affair. It is because Spies was both an active participant and observer in the labor struggle of the era that he is able to capture the tension of the period. In addition, because this account is given from the subjugated person himself, one may presume that it is an effective representation of the time. Nevertheless, these factors do not indicate that his speech is free of all bias. In fact, Spies’ defense is contingent upon highlighting the collective perspective of the laborers and does not address the views of capital. Thus, by presenting just one half of the convictions of the labor struggle, Sp...
desires lead him to believe that everyone and everything is out to kill him, so he must protect
provides for them, and they, as his most loyal subjects, keep to his standards of honor and
and noble man, and he will be looked upon as loyal man who has pride
Adirim, Terry A. “Concussions in Sports and Recreation.” Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine 8.1 (2007): 2-6. Print.
true. After a long walk through the castle he gets to the room. On his
In only a matter of time, the surrounding environment is destroyed, natural sources become contaminated and useless, the temperature drops, and suddenly winter is paying a lingering visit. A nuclear winter. It is a definite possibility in today’s society, a thought that casts shivers down spines. It is the topic that is being addressed by Walter Van Tilburg Clark in his short story, “The Portable Phonograph”, and it is the possible occurrence that is being assessed by James Roberts in the article “How to Survive Nuclear Winter”. In the short story, a group of four men is forced to survive during a nuclear winter, and they have been for a certain period of time. So far, the men have found sources that they can live off of, however, the primary
Dear Butler, after reading your story “Speech Sounds”, made a positive and great impression on me which are unexplainable and reminisced over the events while I had in my childhood.
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...e most troubling times he kept everything and put it to good use. In the present, he still saves everything and tries to exchange the things that he no longer needs.
shows that when the man had been quite and not spoken up for the ones being taken
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would have usually been a man in his youth) a sense of security, as he
In this course we study both phonetics and phonology. Phonetics to improve the way we should spell the sounds, and in order to spell the correct sounds we should learn how to listen accurately. It’s also known as the study of language which contains 44 sounds and 26 letters. Phonology is to study the rules for combining phonemes and what happened due to this combination. Phonetics contains consonant, vowels & diphthongs. It’s also used in language and linguistics rules that specify how the phonemes are organized into syllables, words, and sentences to