I read the book Head Case by Sarah Aronson.
Characters
Frank Marder: Frank is the main character of the book. When he is seventeen, Frank makes a poor decision to drink and drive after a party. He crashes his car and kills two people and is paralyzed from the neck down. The struggle of dealing with his paralysis is a reminder of the accident that he must learn to cope with every day. At the end of the book, Frank learns to accept his condition and becomes grateful for what he still is able to do.
Frank’s Parents: Frank’s parents take countless hours each day helping Frank and making sure that he has anything he needs. They must learn to adapt to a selfless life of putting Frank’s needs before their own. Although this is often difficult and frustrating, they eventually come together as a family to make the best of their situation.
Ruth Stein: Ruth is the mother of Meredith Stein, Frank’s girlfriend that was killed in the accident. After her daughter’s death she had a heavy and unforgiving heart, but as the story progressed, Ruth was able to forgive and was one of Frank’s biggest supporters. She wrote on a blog as “anonymous” and told people that they should not be so hard on Frank-- he is paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Plot
It only took one night to change the life of seventeen-year-old Frank Marder forever. On a Saturday night, Frank was at a party with his friends having a great time. They were dancing, and talking, and drinking. After the party, and a few too many drinks, he was driving his girlfriend, Meredith, home and he crashed. Frank killed two people that night: Meredith and an old man crossing the street.
Along with killing two people because of his poor decision that night, Frank was paralyzed ...
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...cts with his parents when they are trying to help him. He and his parents get frustrated and impatient when something does not go as planned. Arguments often take place regarding how Frank wants something done because he cannot do it himself.
Person vs. Society: Frank must learn to cope with the people who are unforgiving of his mistake and think he should receive further punishment. It is difficult for him to hear negative remarks and ruthless comments for strangers saying he should have greater consequences, even though he is paralyzed for life.
Person vs. Nature: Frank encounters many problems with his environment and surroundings. Since he is unable to move anything below his neck, it is troublesome to maneuver and live comfortably in his environment. His inability to move in his home and be self-sufficient is a constant battle between Frank and nature.
The characters in this story are some very interesting people. They each lead their own way of life, and have their own interests at heart. Some of the main characters in this novel are: Sarny, Lucy, Miss Laura, Bartlett, Stanley, and Sarny's two children Little Delie, and Tyler. Sarny is the central character in this book. She is clever and knows exactly what to even in the worst of times. She is very emotional though, and can break down and cry when the slightest of things happens. This is perhaps from what she has experienced as a slave earlier on in her life. Sarny is fond of teaching people, as a friend named Nightjohn once taught her. Lucy is Sarny's close friend. She is also quite wise, but is a bit too optimistic at times. She never stops smiling and is very friendly. However, she does help Sarny find her lost children. Miss Laura is a middle-aged woman who lives a very luxurious life. She gives Sarny and Lucy a place to live and offers them employment. She also finds Sarny's children for her. Bartlett works for Miss Laura as well. He is a quiet and patient man who is helpful and quite kind. He was however castrated as a young slave boy, and cannot have children. Stanley is Sarny's second husband, for her first died from being worked to death on the plantation. Stanley is a gentle, big, fun-loving man, but is not intimidated by anything. This leads him to his death when he gets mad at a white man, and is confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. Little Delie and Tyler are Sarny's lost children. After she recovers them, and they grow up, Little Delie starts to like business, while Tyler wants to become a doctor.
Frank has an interesting view on the way man has progressed morally. I think that he says that we don’t really know our morals until we have them truly questioned. In this he implies that the people who have strong morals, not only will stay true to them, but will survive. An example of this is Randy Bragg. Randy, on the day of nuclear fallout, stopped on the side of the road to help a woman. This shows that he has respect for the human race as a whole. The opposite of this was Edgar Quisenbury. Edgar valued nothing but money. In the end, the absence of money caused Edgar to become an example of Darwin’s “Only the strong” theory as he shot himself.
The story is concerned with the conflict between his conception of himself and the reality.
Frank Wheeler yearns to appear mysterious, intelligent, and manly, causing him to gloss over his true identity and lose touch with himself. In his youth, he dreams of riding the railroad, going so far as to plan different routes for his trip on a railroad map. He rehearses how he will act, talk, and interact with other people and buys outfits from an Army and Navy Store that perfectly convey a rugged image. Frank conceals the signs of his true self—Boy Scout emblems and the immaturity of adolescence—in exchange for this foreign identity. Others knock him down because they doubt he will play the role well, but from that point onward, Frank aims to become a man. His life in New York City reflects this goal: Frank, a war veteran, shares a one-room apartment with his friends which he uses with the girls he brings home. With increasi...
Nothing was considered more of a sin than wasting valuable time, that is why the father, Frank timed himself trying to go as fast as he possible can with almost everything.
Quentin Jacobsen: He is the main character. He is very shy, he lives a very uneventful life, and is just an average shy high school boy. He wants a eventful life, but doesn’t know how to have one. He is a very realistic character in comparison to some of the other characters in the story, but in the story i think Quentin was the character who changed the most. He went out of his comfort zone and started having an eventful life to find a girl. He started doing things he never imagined he would ever do and I believe he starts to grow as a person the more life he experiences.
The second struggle in this short story is man vs. nature. Most of the elements of nature and environment are against Andy, primarily the rain. It both prevents passerby from lending him a hand (“She [the old woman] did not hear Andy grunt...the rain was beating a steady relentless tattoo on the cans.”), and makes his physical situation even more uncomfortable (“With the rain beginning to chill him...”). Also, t...
Conflict arises in several aspects of life. We often have conflicts with ourselves, with other people, and even with nature. These three main conflicts, which bring Louie to redemption are seen in Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. These conflicts are between the man and nature, Louie and the Bird, and the internal conflict as Louie struggles with alcoholism
The main character, Tom Tin, faces hardships and struggles many fourteen year olds do not have to face so early on. His father has mistakenly got himself into trouble and it is up to Tom to save his father and help make his family’s future bright again. Tom has good intentions throughout the novel, but he gets himself into trouble. He turns out to be an unlikely hero after pushing through his doubts and finally triumphing over his mistakes along his journey.
The first way that Frank overcomes adversity in his memoir is when he gets a job as a paper delivery boy to help support his mother Angela and his siblings because his father drinks away all of his money at the local pubs. “Mrs. O’Connell gives me telegrams to deliver to Mr.Harrington, the Englishman with the dead wife that was born and bred in Limerick…” (326). This quote tells of how he has to work and do work that he really does not like to help out his family and their situation. Frank is overcoming adversity by providing for his family and saving money to
Ruth Fowler is Matt’s wife of many years and the mother of Matt’s three children: Steve, Cathleen and the now murdered Frank. Ruth can’t come to terms with Frank’s death and is haunted at all times of the day, whether at home or out in the town shopping and running errands, “She was at Sunnyhurst today getting cigarettes and aspirin, and there he was. She can’t even go out for cigarettes and aspirin. It’s killing her” (108). This quote is a symbolism of her mental state. The anguish of just seeing her son’s killer on the streets with freedom is more than Ruth can mentally comprehend. Ruth continually applies emotional pressure to her husband with comments and allusions to why the killer is sti...
Ruth is Walter's wife. Her dream is to have a happy family but she also wants to be wealthy.
After Jesse was killed, Frank was tired of being on the run. Within 3 months of Jesse's death, Frank surrendered to the government of Missouri. All in all, the James brothers and the
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
By not taking that opportunity, Eveline probably missed a life of exploration with Frank. Eveline would have had the chance to know what independence feels like and she would have had the chance to experience individual freedom. Instead, her life afterwards is a life of regret and imprisonment with her family. Being an only child, she is bound by her family’s actions and their duties. Eveline has taken on an incredible part of the burden in keeping the family together. Her father is an overbearing and unfair man who takes his daughters earnings for himself; and rather than appreciating her sacrifices, he ridicules her. As she now lives with her dad and her two brothers, she feels tired and frustrated with her dad’s commands and her everyday life. Everyday, she sadly waits for frank to come back into her life once again and fill her life with happiness. Eveline may possibily in the future live her freedom when her controlling father passes away, but perhaps it will become too late for her to experience the freedom she wanted.