Firstly, I would like to talk about the title of chapter four: The Cynical Smirk. I thought it was interesting because I think it means that when a negative person who does not support or believe in something that will happen is right for doubting for the cause is right, will be happy that were right. So basically a cynical person who is happy that his intuition was right that something would not succeed, but really that smirk is pointless. Being happy that something failed seems unproductive and the results had no impact on the person if they failed is being happy over nothing. Loeb describes that people who smirk are “full of themselves, smiling arrogantly, ‘in a self-conscious, knowing, or simpering manner.’ They know the score, you don’t and they’re about to put you in your place” (81). He is trying to say that those people who doubt you are arrogant. They are haughty in that they think they are right because they think a person’s a cause is useless, but really they could put their time and effort to help rather than criticizing I wholeheartedly believe that cynicism encourages us to distance ourselves from others and I am sad to say that I am cynical. I believe that how we are raised drastically affects our behavior so under the circumstances I have lived, I would say I have …show more content…
At one point in my life, I would say that I have gotten tired. I did not think that anything I did would help my grades or help me be a better person or would impact in the lives of others. I did not think there was a point in doing things because any tempt was futile and things would not change. I did not think I could be the definition of what I thought was a “good person” because I knew I could not accomplish it. Not trying to sound like the angsty teenager nor do I believe I was one, but this is an example of how cynicism convinced me that I could do nothing and as a result did
... sets in the book is optimistic. Kerman enforces the idea that things happen for a reason, and a person will learn and benefit from good or bad things happening in his or her life.
In these five paragraphs I will be writing about the book “Hotel on the Corner of Sweet and Bitter” written by Jamie Ford and five quotation that important and made up the theme for me. This book gives a feel a lot of different emotions. The first quote was “‘You are Chinese aren’t you,Henry? That’s fine. Be who you are, she said, turning away, a look of disappointment in her eyes. “But I’m an American’’(p. 60). This quote is important because it shows how Keiko believes even if her parents are Japanese she feels more American then Japanese since she barely spoke Japanese.
There’s optimism in all literature known to man if not optimism then it would be pessimism. They are the basis of any literature work. It’s found in many books and poems today. In the novel Fahrenheit451 by Ray Bradbury evaluates the theme of optimism. The author Ray Bradbury writes about a guy named Montag who is in a society where firemen burn houses instead of putting fires out. Montag seeks out the good in the books which are banned in this dystopian society where knowledge is forbidden to rise from society. He and other literature seekers pave the way for him to learn knowledge and the freedom of thinking which is against the law in this society. Montag falls in love with books so much that he tries to find someone who can teach him about the books and how important they are to life. The world would fall apart without knowledge no one would have a clue on what to do or how to eat since they don’t have that knowledge at hand. Optimism can also be found in the William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus”, Freedom to Breathe” by Alexander Solzheitsynand and in the speech “The Nobel acceptance by Elie Wiesel.
Lieutenant Commander Oram and Captain John Adam are lethal weapons. These characters are leaders, kings of their castles. With emotions like storms that cloud their thoughts, makes hard decisions similar to escaping from quicksand. Below us, the submarine of Michael Bruce’s “Gentlemen, Your Verdict” lies helpless at the bottom of the ocean, Commander Oram must decide whether fifteen innocent men should die for five to live or if all twenty men will die from oxygen deprivation. Trusted by his crew with anything and everything, he is the Albus Dumbledore of his submarine: Colin McDougal’s The Firing Squad focuses on protagonist Captain John Adam, who is asked to be the executioner of a prisoner he feels innocent and with whose execution he disagrees. The characters in question are both placed in different situations, yet can be compared and contrasted through their moral dilemmas, tough decisions and their military
I predict that in the final chapters, Steinbeck will allude to Tom’s growth and renewal as a better person, going on in spite of all he has lost in order to walk in his friend Casy’s footsteps and share stories of a brighter future with the...
One thing that I do have to not that was very interesting to learn from this chapter is the meaning of the yin and the yang. I had been taught growing up that it stood for good and evil but it was nice to learn that it actually doesn’t stand for that and it stands for “complementary but opposing forces of the universe (208).”
Base on skimming through the book, I look every part from beginning to the end and saw nothing. I thought I was a failure just because I couldn’t see the thing he want us to focus on. I took my time again in reading the book slowly. Analyzing the book more thoroughly, I think I started to get the hang of the theme he wants us to learn from. I felt so ignorant because it was always there in front of me the whole time.
If my life had no purpose, no individuality, and no happiness, I would not want to live. This book teaches the importance of self expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
5) “My uncle didn’t believe it. “People are always lying to others with such promises. Don’t let them get your hopes up, my son.” he said.” -Chapter 19, page 189
In this book review I represent and analyze the three themes I found the most significant in the novel.
...confident, they may be perceived as cocky, and if they are not confident enough, they will be completely ignored. These are cases where the virtue of confidence has been turned into a vice that most definitely will not bring happiness.
In the story, Seventh Grade by Gary Soto, the main character, Victor, learns lessons from being embarrassed while trying to charm a girl named Teresa, and he learns that persistence pays off. In paragraph 12, it states, “Victor tried a scowl. He felt foolish at first, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a girl looking at him. Umm, he thought, maybe it does work. He scowled with greater conviction. As this example demonstrates, Victor tries a scowl that his friend Michael recommends to try
1. My first impression of the story was the setting reminds me of a fall day in Michigan. It was dark and cool so it reminds me of my childhood in the mornings getting ready for school. At first I thought it was something like a family trip for the guys before the characters where describe. The thought of a young boy on a trip into manhood with his father and Uncle. As the story goes along my impression changes over time to its a story about life circle and the development of a young man 's understanding about life at the hands of his father.
Michael Henchard’s constant exercise of jealousy, pride, immature actions and overwhelming emotions bring him to his tragic end. Although Henchard might have you think he is a victim, the reader can see that his personality leads to the conclusion of his downfall and that Henchard’s inability to learn from his first mistakes takes him down a path no one wants to face. He might have been able to survive his mistakes had he not been so self-destructive. But because of the combination of his personality traits and the complexity of his character’s mind, he is eventually led to the nothingness that engulfs him.
In his book, The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli outlines many characteristics that he thinks an ideal prince should have. A true ruler, according to Machiavelli, looks out for his own good as well as the welfare of his country, even if that requires him to resort to deceitful means. There are many examples of Machiavellian princes in literature and one such example is Denethor, Steward of Gondor. In this paper I will first clarify a few quotes from The Prince, and then describe how Denethor fits the requirement for being a true prince, according to Machiavelli.