On a small Kansas farm, during the 1860’s, a stray dog shows up to change the life of a boy. In the novel Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, Travis, a fourteen year old, has to take control of his house while his father is gone. During this time, Old Yeller comes along and eats the family’s food. Travis already has a big responsibility of taking care of the family and now he is forced to deal with this stray dog. Travis comes to realize that Old Yeller is a big help to his family and he begins to love him. Through Travis’s actions of responsibility, maturity, and love; the reader can see how it is important to trust and have faith in others. In the beginning, Travis’s dad heads to Texas to earn money for his family. Travis has to take on a big responsibility …show more content…
Travis climbs a tree to rope one of the hogs, but the branch snaps right in the middle of the pack. Travis is hurt, but Old Yeller is in worse condition. Travis has to leave him to get help and promises Old Yeller that he will come back to help him. Travis went home with a gash on his leg and his mom refused to let him go back. Travis replied, “Mama, I’m going back after Old Yeller. I promised him I’d come back, and that’s what I aim to do” (128). Mama wouldn’t let Travis go alone and wanted to join him. Travis trusted his mom and let her come with him to try to save Old Yeller. Later in the book Old Yeller saves his family, but Mama can’t fix this problem. Old Yeller gets bitten by a mad wolf with hydrophobia. Mama doesn’t want to take chances with Old Yeller getting sick and knows that something needs to be done. At first Travis doesn’t realize this, but he puts the pieces together and realizes that someone must kill Old Yeller. Travis’s mom offers to kill him, but Travis knows that he has to be the one to kill Old Yeller. Travis said “it was going to kill something inside me to do it, but I knew then that I had to shoot my big yeller dog… I stuck the muzzle of the gun against his head and pulled the trigger” (175). Travis trusted that his mom was right and that Old Yeller will get hydrophobia from the mad wolf. Travis kills Old Yeller because he wants to protect his family and keep them safe. Travis loves Old Yeller and doesn’t want him to suffer from the disease. Travis, as the man of the house, had to be the one to take Old Yeller’s
Henry was an extremely lonely nine-year-old boy whose greatest wish was to get a dog. His parents were busy with their work most of the time and it seemed that Henry did not have any friends, perhaps because they moved so often. A dog would have provided Henry with unconditional love - something in short supply around his house - and would have been the perfect companion. The problem was, his parents did not want dog, which would have been another obligation and something else to take care of. As emotionally detached as his parents were, something else to take care of was just not desirable.
Courage is valued in many ways. It is measured by bravery, heroism, physical strength, and morally correct behavior. The world mostly defines courage as having physical strength and being brave. Atticus, Scout, and Jem show many acts of courage through the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. They all have different views and opinions on courage. The novel is told from the point of view of Scout. She, and her brother Jem, live with their widowed father in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Their father, Atticus, is also a lawyer who defends his black client, Tom Robinson, who is innocent of rape. The title To Kill A Mockingbird explains that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” because they “make music for us to enjoy” (Lee 119). In other words, the mockingbirds are harmless and have never done anything wrong. It would be considered a sin to kill a harmless and peaceful mockingbird. Similarly, accusing an innocent and
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there is an abundance of minor characters. Three of these characters, Dill, Alexandra, and Calpurnia are especially significant because of the influence they had on Scout.
When you think of an older sibling, they tend to come across as bossy, mean, and overprotective, but they really have good intentions. Jem, a character in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is the brother of the main character Scout, and the son of Atticus Finch. Throughout the book, he plays a major role in the novel and is a very important aspect to the theme. Jem shows his imagination, bravery, and his love for his sister.
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
Betye Saar was born January 30, 1926. As a young girl Saar spent her summers with her paternal grandmother in Watts, California. This is where she got her first glimpse of real art. In the 1930’s Watts was a very racially mixed community. Saar watched an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia piece together what would become the glittering spirals of the Watts Towers. In and article with NPR Saar remembered the experience with this "And he wanted to make something monumental. And he put these steel structures up and covered them in cement and pressed shards of ceramics, of plates, I 've seen corncobs in there, I 've seen tools. It 's like, the cement is wet, what can we put in here? I think that was the beginning of me becoming an assemblagist or recycler." After her father’s passing in 1931, she moved with her family to live her maternal great-aunt and her husband
High school students in many American schools first read this book in an English class, which has been a staple for many schools. A required reading assignment exposes many more people to the book. Even though the book is considered to be a children’s book by many, it is still enjoyed by people of all ages.
“Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people’s gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. Thats why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119). In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the first mention of a mockingbird appears when Jem and Scout are learning how to use their new air rifles. Atticus doesn’t want to teach them how to shoot the air rifles, but he gives them one rule to follow: do not kill mockingbirds. Later Scout, the main character, is told by Miss Maudie about how it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent and they don't do anything to anyone. Throughout this story, there are several characters who are portrayed as mockingbird figures. Jem, Scout, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley all fit the symbol of a mockingbird because they all start off innocent but are later changed dramatically by the brokenness of the world.
Canine tales are becoming an ever-more-popular medium for expression, says Garber: “Just as the pathos of human love and loss is most effectively retold, in modern stories, through the vehicle of the steadfastly loyal and loving dog, so the human hero has increasingly been displaced and replaced by the canine one” (44). The spotlight has been shifted from the larger-than-life human to the humble family pet and his canine brethren. Stories that feature a dog rather than a person are able to more convey a deeper sense of meaning, establishing their...
Mays, Kelly J. ""Puppy"" The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Firstly, the story begins at a large estate at which Buck resides, owned by a wealthy judge, Judge Miller, in the Santa-Clara Valley. The gardener at the estate, Manuel, kidnaps Buck and sells him off to become a sled dog. Buck is sold to become a part of Charles and Hal’s team, two inexperienced sled drivers who are out for the sole purpose of making a profit. Instead of caring for their animals, the two owners mistreat the dogs, beating them and malnourishing them. This depicts the unfavorable form of relationship between man and dog, but in turn teaches Buck how to survive in the wilderness by scrapping for food and taking up for himself. This contrasts to Buck’s life at Miller’s estate. This idea of the differences of morality between civilization and the wilderness recurs frequently throughout the story and is one of the principal motifs in the story.
Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime mirrors the idea that trust is the glue that holds relationships together and how a lack of honesty and truth can create barriers between loved ones and shows how being honest can fix these problems. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a innovative and ground breaking novel that continues to show the understanding of the world by Christopher Boone and his
Walter seems to be a good father to Travis, but starts to lose control by the end of the play. When with Travis, Walter relates too much to money, instead of focusing on their family fun in life. Walter tries to impress Travis with money and thinks that teaching Travis to be rich is the happiest way to go. In the play, it shows that Travis is becoming like his father and is starting to think about money at too young of an age. In scene two in Raisin in the Sun, Travis complains to his mother, Ruth, that he wants to work so he can earn some money. His father responds by giving Travis money and trying to impress him. Walter says to Travis, "In fact, here's another fifty cents... Buy yourself some fruit today or take a taxicab to school or something!"(Page 30). It is all right to be happy with money but it shouldn't be the reason to be proud of your family.
Morals and ethics, which are founded on views of what is right and wrong, explain how people make decisions in their lives. In one’s developmental stage, the community and those around you have a lasting impact upon the basis in which people establish what is right and wrong. So, opposing society’s ideas and values would definitely be a challenge for many. However, Huckleberry faces this task head on during his journey with Jim. In his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain was able to illuminate beliefs society held in such a way to make them laughable and ridiculous by using satire, irony, and an especially lovable and relatable character, Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most classic American Literature Book. It consists of historical backgrounds, universality, and timelessness. But one of the most outstanding chapters of the book is chapter 27 and 28.In the two chapters, Twain’s use of the literary device – Characterization builds the character of Huckleberry Finn and show the different aspects of his character.