Character Traits in A Separate Peace
In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, one of the
main themes is the effects of realism, idealism, and isolationism on
Brinker, Phineas, and Gene. Though not everyone can be described
using one of these approaches to life, the approaches
completely conform to these characters to create one realist, one idealist,
and one isolationist; thereby providing the foundation of the novel.
The realist is Brinker. Brinker's realism takes on a very morbid
quality after Gene decides not to enlist with him, do to Phineas's
return to Devon. Brinker still sees everything the way it is, but
begins to think that the way it is, is bad. On page 122, he is quoted
as saying, "Frankly, I just don't see anything
to celebrate, winter or spring or anything else." Brinker will scrutinize
any incident until he finds a dark side to it, because, in his mind, at least
one side of everything is a dark side. Already we have the footing for our
climax.
Phineas (Finny) is the idealist. Like Brinker, Finny's approach
experiences a grim metamorphoses. Before his accident, Finny sees
the world as a glorious playing field and life as a never ending game.
After his accident; however, Finny begins to view the world through
the eyes of a paranoid old man who is always seeing something
covert in everything. On page 106, Finny even goes as far
as to ask Gene, "Do you really think that the United States of America is
in a state of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?" This outlook
is a mental facade that only succeeds in setting Finny up for a harder
fall.
Finally there is the isolationist, Gene. Gene's approach is
austere from the beginning. It is Gene who generates the dark
change in the others. Gene looks for danger in everything he is
emotionally close to. When he finds danger, he ostracizes
himself from whatever it is that is posing a threat to him. If he can not
find danger, as with Finny, he creates it. On page 45 he strives so hard
to create danger in Finny that he falsely concludes that, "Finny had
deliberately set out to wreck my studies." This creates the story's
The American Library Association defines a challenge to a book as, “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based on the objections of a person or group” (“About Banned). A Separate Peace by John Knowles was one of the many challenged books of its time; it was ranked sixty-seventh on the American Literature Association’s list of most challenged classic novels The book continues to be challenged all over the country and in 2013 it is ranked thirty-fifth on the summer of banned books list .(ALA). A Separate Peace chronicles the life of a boy named Gene Forrester, a student of the prestigious Devon School in New Hampshire. In Gene’s first year at Devon. He becomes close friends with his daredevil of a roommate Finny. Secretly Gene somewhat
"Put on what weary negligence you please, / You and your fellows. I'd have it come to question. / If he distaste it, let him to my sister" (14 -15).
Niccolò Machiavelli was known during much his life as a part of the republican government in Florence until 1512. At that time, the Medici family took over the city and ruled under a more monarchical system. From that point until his death in 1527, Machiavelli was always just on the outside of Florentine politics. He would occasionally get work from the Medici but his tasks were never as important as they had been under the republican government of the past. As he was trying to find his way back into a major role in Florentine government, Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a manual of sorts that explained how a monarch should rule his state and why. While Machiavelli had been a strong proponent of republican ideals in the past, in The Prince, his ideas are far from adhering to republicanism. The book seems to promote the ideal monarch as a cold, heartless person whose only goal in life should be to retain power, regardless of who or what he destroys. This includes killing enemies of the state, personal enemies of the Prince, and even, in some cases, friends or family. While The Prince was not the first book of this kind, it was the first to suggest a government that rules with no regard for religion or morality. Machiavelli did not particularly pay heed to religious law in the way he lived his life, but he also did not particularly care for the Catholic Church of the time because of the lack of morality demonstrated by the Pope's and other supposedly "religious men's" actions at the time. There are other works that Machiavelli wrote both before and after The Prince that survive today, as well as letters he wrote to his friends that demonstrate a different set of ideals than th...
The first wave was in the year of 1789 which was organised to promote women’s rights by the first group of which included a wide range of women directly after the French revolution. The revolution had been fought in the 1970s on the basis of equality and freedom for women; as a result of this many women had then formed clubs mainly in Paris and also in major cities. The main principal for these clubs was to form a meeting place for women; as a result of these meetings it caused the development of political programmes regarding many issues such as rights in education. (Quidlen, 2001) First Wave Feminist activism grew out of abolitionism, thus leading to the rise of a suffragist movement in which was to ensure that slavery was put to an end if they received the right to vote. (Giddens,
the better part of a day, and spawns a fatal manhunt. His conflict with the
Albert Camus was a French-Algerian novelist, essayist, dramatist, and journalist and a Nobel laureate. He was born in Algeria to a French father and Spanish mother. After his father was killed in WWI, he was raised in poverty by his grandmother and mother. He was forced to end his studies and limit his life in theatre as a playwright, director, and actor due to tuberculosis. He then turned his interest to politics and, after briefly being a member of the Communist party, he began a career in journalism in 1930. His articles reflected the suffering of the Arabs in Algeria. This led him to his dismissal of his newspaper job. Later, he worked in Paris for a newspaper and soon he became involved in Resistance movements against the Germans. He started writing an underground newspaper. Camus wrote many novels and his writings, illustrated his view of the absurdity of human existence: Humans are not absurd, and the world is not absurd, but for humans to be in the world is absurd. In his opinion, humans cannot feel at home in the world because they yearn for order, clarity, meaning, and eternal life, while the world is chaotic, obscure, and indifferent and offers only suffering and death. Thus human beings are alienated from the world. Integrity and dignity require them to face and accept the human condition as it is and to find purely human solutions to their plight. He used a simple and clear but elegant form of writing to convey his ideas about morality, justice and love. In 1957, Camus received the Nobel price for literature. He was deeply troubled by the Algerian War of Independence and he immersed himself in the theatre and working on an autobiographical novel. He died in an automobile accident just before being named director of the national theater.
faced with his own demise, grasps at any concept of freedom and safety to help him cope
" Two truths are told.but what is not" (line 137-152, Pg 27-29). We see him arguing with himself and feeling disgusted that he even thought that. That was interesting because we get the feeling that something out of the ordinary is coming up and our anticipation gets into the story straightaway.
This article explains the fear that runs through abused women’s head. Signs within the victim to look for in an abusive relationship is feeling threatened, criticized, controlled, afraid, or shy from the spouse. Physical signs to look for is the abuser hitting, twisting words around, insulting, or purposely putting the victim in danger (Rafenstein
...d hegathers himself and makes a clear decision to face his fear in order to help his friend....
he thinks is right. He does not fear his actions nor does he regret them.
The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the man's "Evil Eye" (34). Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man.
This is the first sign that we can trust this narrator to give us an even-handed insight to the story that is about to unfold. But, as we later learn, he neither reserves all judgments nor does his tolerance reach its’ limit.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.