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 extend of most American’s knowledge of early America is of Columbus’ discovery of America for Europe in 1492 and the landing of the Mayflower in Plymouth in 1620. This was true of A Voyage Long and Strange author, Tony Horwitz. Horwitz felt as if there were pieces missing in his picture of early America and set out on a journey that spanned from Canada to the Dominican Republic. The novel starts out with a prologue of Horwitz talking about his own reasons for wanting to learn more of early America and then is broken into three sections Discovery, Conquest, and Settlement. Each section discusses another period in early American history starting with first contact in Vinland and ending with the landing in Plymouth.
During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the French used Indian raids to attack British settlements all along the east coast. These efforts were successful in checking British colonial expansion. In response, Britain occupied forts in upstate New York with hopes that their conventional forces would inhibit Indian raids. These forts failed because they only controlled the area within musket range of their walls. The British turned to Robert Rogers and his rangers. The colonial rangers were inured to the deprivations of wilderness fighting. They had a personal stake in the war in their backyard. Comfortable in the woods, the rangers fought to win.
want to look like a fool and run, but he is also scared of getting killed.
does not have faith in his ability to walk, he persists anyway. This is because he wants
...hat they know they can stand up for him and be proud. It is effective.
He is a very proud man and cares about his reputation a lot. He has a
In this story, Richard Adams' creates an interesting part of the story when eleven rabbits unite to form a group and flee from their warren, in hopes of avoiding a great tragedy. These rabbits leave their warren without knowledge of why they need to leave their homes. The one thing the rabbits have in common is their faith in Fiver's dreams and visions. Together these rabbits will have to put aside their differences in order to face the danger ahead of them.
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.
title, asks whether any man that is “bold in his blood” in courageous enough to
for the love of a woman. Perhaps he feels that without her he will surely die,
“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...
The end to existence, more commonly known as death, is a unique and moving form of liberation. Death has the power to grant freedom from illness, safety from a life of danger, and in the case of Edna Pontellier, refuge from a life of entrapment. In the novel, The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, the literary work’s main character Edna Pontellier struggles to find her own identity and sense of selfhood. Edna fights to find her place amongst the expectations and traditions of society while herself longing for a life of independence and personal will. Despite numerous efforts made to find a suitable and fulfilling place in American society in the 1890s, Edna falls short, is not accepted by her peers, and is incapable of finding true happiness. Because Mrs. Pontellier finds that she shares with no other her visions of independence, individual strength, and personal happiness, the only fitting way Edna is able to fulfill these visions and fully awaken from a previous life of ignorance and unconsciousness, is through death. “Given the choices available to her, the ‘fulfillment’ of Edna’s desire can only be merger, and presumably death, in the element that first awakened it” (Freeman). Death frees Edna of unwanted responsibilities, from a judgmental society, from the bore of life, and most effectively from her old self. Because of Edna’s death by sea, she is able to fully transform and evolve into the woman she is destined to be. In the novel, The Awakening, despite her tragic death, the protagonist Edna Pontellier experiences an awakening through her fatal swim thus freeing herself from a life of entrapment.
He is proud of the fact that he did not cut the rattle tail off of the snake for a trophy. It doesn't
“’Jim, this is nice,’ I says. ‘I wouldn’t want to be nowhere else but here. Pass me along another hunk of fish and some hot corn-bread.’
off his muscles and to show everyone what he is capable of doing when it comes to