A Comparison of 'At Sea' and 'Capture of Walter Schnaffs' by Guy De Maupassant I have studied several stories written by Guy De Maupassant. In my essay I shall examine, in detail, two stories initially, and then later I shall expand, to other stories. The first story I have chosen is ‘At Sea’. In this story there are two loyal brothers, who work as fisherman. In this harsh life, you must choose the most beneficial outcome; otherwise you are foolish, detrimental and may starve. In this story, one of the Javel brothers gets his arm caught in the nets. The other refusing to release the nets, forces the brother to have his arm amputated and also become gangrenous. ‘Cutting the cable meant losing the net, and the net was worth money, a great deal of money’, This is the ‘having is keeping’ attitude, in which these brothers live by, which is understandable in their hazardous, living conditions. ‘At Sea’ represents a different manner of poverty from the worldwide view. Not simply that the brothers need nourishment, but that everything is valuable. The ‘Having is keeping’ attitude is a strong theme throughout. After the older brother Javel ignores the pain his brother is going through. He chooses to allow his brother to have his arm torn off, and yet the younger brother refuses to let his arm rot. He uses it as a trophy, to parade it, showing to people how brave he is. Claiming he let his arm get torn off, for the sake of the nets, and some fish. ‘No, I wont! It’s mine, I’d have you know; its my own arm after all.’ This was as if, he, too was proud of the ‘having is keeping’ creed. Words such as ‘roughness’ and ‘ransacking’ imply that ‘At se... ... middle of paper ... ...s made to tell us how we should not care about insignificant money, but actually important matters. I think ‘A Vendetta’ was made to show us the different lifestyles in the world, and how poverty can affect people. I think ‘The Capture of Walter Schnaffs’ was made to mock the French Generals in particular, and how they exaggerate what they have done. I think ‘Two friends’ was made as propaganda against the Prussians, especially since it was written so close to the war. I think ‘His confession’ was made for woman empowerment and to show how sophisticated the modern woman is actually like. Lastly I think that ‘Idyll’ was made to show the relationship between peasants and how everything they do is for them. Overall, De Maupassant has an anti-war stance and an ‘every man for himself’ attitude scattered through the stories.
“The Wreck of the Sea-Venture,” written by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker in their book Many Headed Hydra, tells the story of the shipwreck of the Sea-Venture en route to Virginia in 1669, which left the passengers of the ship stranded on Bermuda without a ship to continue the journey to Virginia. While the members of the Virginia Company made a boat to continue the journey, the remaining passengers of the Sea-Venture had to cooperate with one another in order to survive. The authors’ thesis in this document is the shipwreck of the Sea-Venture and the actions taken by the sailors portray the themes of early Atlantic settlement. For example, the sailing of the Sea-Venture was caused by expropriation. The Virginia Company advertised the New
Our journey starts in the year 1853 with four Scandinavian indentured servants who are very much slaves at the cold and gloomy headquarters of the Russian-American fur-trading company in Sitka, Alaska. The story follows these characters on their tortuous journey to attempt to make it to the cost of Astoria, Oregon. Our list of characters consists of Melander, who is very much the brains of the operation as he plans the daring escape from the Russians. Next to join the team was Karlson, who was chosen by Melander because he is a skilled canoeman and knows how to survive in the unforgiving landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Third was Braaf, he was chosen because of his ability to steal and hide things, which made him a very valuable asset to the teams escape. Last to join our team is Wennberg who we know is a skilled blacksmith who happens to hear about their plan and forces himself into the equation.
“The Boat”, narrated by a Mid-western university professor, Alistar MacLeod, is a short story concerning a family and their different perspectives on freedom vs. tradition. The mother pushes the son to embrace more of a traditional lifestyle by taking over the fathers fishing business, while on the other hand the father pushes the son to live more autonomously in an unconstrained manner. “The Boat” focuses on the father and how his personality influences the son’s choice on how to live and how to make decisions that will ultimately affect his life. In Alistair MacLeod’s, “The Boat”, MacLeod suggest that although dreams and desires give people purpose, the nobility of accepting a life of discontentment out weighs the selfishness of following ones own true desires. In the story, the father is obligated to provide for his family as well as to continue the fishing tradition that was inherited from his own father. The mother emphasizes the boat and it’s significance when she consistently asked the father “ How did things go in the boat today” since tradition was paramount to the mother. H...
When writing the book Into the Killing Seas, Michael P. Spradlin accurately explained the details and the historical value of the sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis. Additionally, it's clear that he did a lot of research on his topic of the sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis and what the remaining sailors had to deal with to survive. Switching Gears, his book is not only based on the WW2 sinking of the Indy, but The battles of Guam. He accurately described the terror people in history felt when the attacks happened.
third arm showed that he cared more about his image and purity than he did for
title, asks whether any man that is “bold in his blood” in courageous enough to
This poem captures the immigrant experience between the two worlds, leaving the homeland and towards the new world. The poet has deliberately structured the poem in five sections each with a number of stanzas to divide the different stages of the physical voyage. Section one describes the refugees, two briefly deals with their reason for the exodus, three emphasises their former oppression, fourth section is about the healing effect of the voyage and the concluding section deals with the awakening of hope. This restructuring allows the poet to focus on the emotional and physical impact of the journey.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the most destructive, longest, and most complex naval battle of history, lasting throughout World War 2. It was a six year long battle that started on September 3rd, 1939 and ended on May 8th, 1945 and Canada played a very important role in this battle. This battle was a struggle between the Allied and the Axis, (with the Allied being countries including, Canada, Britain, Australia, etc, and the Axis being the alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan), for the control of the sea routes between America, Europe and Africa. This battle had been mainly triggered since Germany kept cutting off Britain’s supply. Britain had always relied on imports such as, oil, food, and other important industrial goods from other places to meet the needs of its growing population. Germany, (and later Italy), had saw this as an opportunity to use their naval forces and warships to try and cut off this vital supply to starve Britain. When the Germans started causing a lot of damage to these vital supply’s, Britain decided to act. They declared war on Germany, which meant that Canada would be pulled into the war. Although the Royal Canadian Navy wasn’t that powerful at the beginning of the war, by 1943 Canada’s Navy was making a very important contribution to the war effort, especially in the Battle of the Atlantic.
This passage defines the character of the narrators’ father as an intelligent man who wants a better life for his children, as well as establishes the narrators’ mothers’ stubbornness and strong opposition to change as key elements of the plot.
He is proud of the fact that he did not cut the rattle tail off of the snake for a trophy. It doesn't
bow in order to symbolize what he and his father have been through. The harvest bow
and that there was no reason he should feel threatened. After years of perfecting his
Obtaining a goal can bring success to one’s outer “world” and to one’s inner spirit, the mind and soul. An achievement may bring recognition and respect from surrounding peers. It can also encourage one’s self esteem as well as give them more courage. In Ernest Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago receives outer, material formed success by earning the respect of his fellow peers and by attaining more physical strength. He also receives inner, spiritual formed success by gaining more self esteem.
The book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex” by Nathaniel Philbrick is tragic, eyes widening and heart wrenching where all the morals and ethics are gravely subjected to situation and questioned when it comes to survival. What they must do for survival? How man love their lives and no matter what strikes upon them, holler from behind, ambush their morale, yet they want to keep going just for the sake of living. The book is epitome of such a situation that encounters survival over morality. However, in the thrust of knowledge and oceans of secrets locked inside the chambers of this world, there is a heavy price men have to pay in the ordeal of yearning for knowledge.
off his muscles and to show everyone what he is capable of doing when it comes to