Henry James always managed to keep certain themes in his works similar. The one that usually stands out most is his literary battles between American and European customs. This is especially apparent in three of his works, Daisy Miller: A Study, Roderick Hudson, and The Portrait Of A Lady. However, in his short story, The Beast In The Jungle, there is another theme that takes center stage. That theme is fate; moreover, the failure to control that fate.
In The Beast In The Jungle, we are introduced to John Marcher, one of the main characters. Immediately afterwards, we meet May Bartram, someone he had met almost ten years prior in Naples, Italy, although he had accidentally thought it to be Rome. The two are getting along splendidly, in a flirtatious way, leaving the reader to wonder about the future of this would-be couple. However, it is then that we find out what eventually kills the hopes of any kind of romantic connection, as May recalls John's special holdup:
You said you had had from your earliest time, as the deepest thing within you, the sense of being kept for something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible, that was sooner or later to happen to you, that you had in your bones the foreboding and the conviction of, and that would perhaps overwhelm you (TBITJ, 338).
Marcher believes that he is fated to experience something but he is not sure what it is that he is waiting for. May probes deeper, possibly revealing something about herself and her desire for a connection, asking, "Isn't what you describe perhaps but the expectation--or at any rate the sense of danger, familiar to so many people--of falling in love?" (TBITJ, 339). He talks about a love that he had but that it was not this monumental thing that she talks of. She replies, saying, "Then it hasn't been love" (TBITJ, 338).
This whole conversation has been one flirtatious period of time. However, it quickly turns back to the topic of his fate, cutting short any additional talk of love, possibly leading somewhere. This was a missed opportunity for the both of them because of his obsession with the mysterious destiny. The discussion ends with her promising to "watch with [him]" (TBITJ, 340). And yet, the reason that she will see him again is not to pursue any sort of normal relationship. It is simply the desire to be there when whatever happens to him oc...
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...life has become and what is should have been. He realizes that the beast was actually the person that he met for the second time back in the house in Weatherend at the beginning of the story.
Henry James' works have been known to have a certain autobiographical aspects to them. Looking at his life, one can see that he did not marry either and, just like in Daisy Miller: A Study and most of his other works, the main character's story does not end happily. Throughout the entire time of the story, and more-so his life, John Marcher felt that there was something that he should be waiting for to happen. Something that was spectacular or, instead, brought suffering, he did not have any measure of a clue. Yet he continued to wait for that beast to jump out from the jungle and spark an incident. But what he never understood until the end of the story was that, perhaps, the only beast to be springing forth from the jungle of his life was the pretty swan. Perhaps, the old saying is truly correct, Carpe Diem.
Work Cited
James, Henry. "The Beast in the Jungle." The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Seventh Edition. Vol. C. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 335-376.
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 3: William Apess " PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: 04-10-2008
DeFalco, Amelia. "Jungle creatures and dancing apes: modern primitivism and Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Mosaic [Winnipeg] 38.2 (2005): 19+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Perkins, George B., and Barbara Perkins. "The Beast in the Jungle." The American Tradition in Literature (concise). 12th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 1148-1177. Print.
...his journey to India. When St. John decided to propose to Jane, she denied because she felt that man and women cannot be married if they have no affections towards one another. However Jane accepts St. John request to go to India as a free woman and not his missionary wife. Jane once again want to be free and be able to make her on decisions and that how St. John influence Jane to be in the matter of time she spend away from Thornfield.
“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit them in the stomach” (Sinclair). Upton Sinclair uses these words to describe the reaction his novel, The Jungle, receives upon first publication. Sinclair’s original purpose of The Jungle intends to illustrate the difficult challenges of immigrants in Chicago at the turn of the century; giving details and samples of abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry to highlight their troubles. Instead, the public demands government intervention against the atrocities and this public outcry leads to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Elements of Naturalism exist throughout most of the text. Naturalism attempts to apply scientific ideals and division when studying the human race. In Upton Sinclair’s brutally descriptive novel, The Jungle, the literary elements of character, setting, and theme show three areas where the book illustrates naturalistic fictional trends.
Despite their fighting families, Roseanna and Johnse Hatfield were passionate for each other. In the beginning of the novel, Roseanna says, “He's asked to me to marry him” (34). Seeing that they loved and ran away together, emphasizes the conflict. Of course, Roseanna's baby helped to intensified the conflict as well.”We'll talk here. It isn’t that I’m not happy about the baby, Ro. How couldn’t I be? But we've got to do something. I don't want my child a wood's colt” (88). The news of the baby had Johnse frantic to get married, but the “Onliest was is if we ran off” (88), Johnse stated. The daring love between Johnse and Ro is constantly intensifying, as they want to run off
Rudyard Kipling’s original story of The Jungle Book presented a very distinct group of characters in contrast to virtually all other jungle people in the book. The Bandar-Log were seen as lawless, careless, and mostly mindless individuals who were social outcasts and pariahs. Disney’s film adaptation of Kipling’s tale held this concept, while also giving the monkey people strong characteristic typically connected to African-Americans. This creates a racist undertone in the movie that is absent from the original story’s source.
...ssion and intrusiveness. John’s lack of having an open mind to his wife’s thoughts and opinions and his constant childish like treatment of his wife somehow emphasizes this point, although, this may not have been his intention. The narrator felt strongly that her thoughts and feelings were being disregarded and ignored as stated by the narrator “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 115), and she shows her despise of her husband giving extra care to what he considers more important cases over his wife’s case with a sarcastic notion “I am glad my case is not serious!” (Gilman 115). It is very doubtful that John is the villain of the story, his good intentions towards doing everything practical and possible to help his wife gain her strength and wellbeing is clear throughout the story.
By closing her off from the rest of the world, he is taking her away from things that important to her mental state; such as her ability to read and write, her need for human interaction, her need to make her own decisions. All of these are important to all people. This idea of forced rest and relaxation to cure temporary nervous problems was very common at the time. Many doctors prescribed it for their female patients. The narrators husband, brother, and their colleagues all feel that this is the correct way to fix her problem, which is practically nonexistent in their eyes. Throughout the beginning of the story, the narrator tends to buy into the idea that the man is always right and makes excuses for her feelings and his actions and words: "It is so hard to talk to John about my case, because he is so wise and because he loves me so," (23).
Elephants'." Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 75-77. Literature Resource Center. Gale.
Hoggart, Simon. “Beauty and the beasts.” The Spectator. ProQuest, 31 July 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
This leads to the fact that a beast really does exist within all human beings, but is only expressed when human instinct for survival becomes the main objective. At first the boys aren?t able to kill, but as survival instinct starts taking over, the reader?s are able to se the true character?s play out, and lives are compromised. ?You feel as if you?re not hunting, but- being hunted, as if something?s behind you all the time in the jungle,? (pg.53) proves that it?s every man for himself and people will do anything to survive. An example of this in the novel was when Robert became the ?pig,? and was wounded even though it wasn?t intentional, but the situation became worse when Piggy?s death happened as a result of all civilization lost and evil taken over.
" Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wished he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there" (474). John doesn't know how his wife
Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild. New York: Anchor Books , a division of Random House Inc.,, 1997. Print.
Stump, Colleen Shea, Kevin Feldman, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, and Edward E. Wilson. "The Epic." Prentice Hall