Many people tend to have lazy and carefree attitudes when given the option. Those types of people procrastinate until the very last minute, and are usually viewed as having childish personality traits. In the beginning of “Flight” by John Steinbeck, the main character, Pepé, fits this description well. Pepé’s mother, Mama Torres, antagonizes Pepé with remarks about his laziness, “Some lazy cow must have got into thy father’s family, else how could I have a son like thee” (Steinbeck 455). She never said anything optimistic to Pepé to make him feel like a man, until he was forced to become one. Pepé had gone to Monterey to fetch medicine and salt for Mama Torres, where he ended up murdering a man. He came back to tell his mother what had happened, and she urged him to take off on a journey to flee from his pursuers, which resulted in his inevitable death. John Steinbeck used strong symbols and motifs in “Flight” to coincide with the themes of coming of age and inevitable death.
To support the coming of age theme, a symbol of the moon and sun were applied in “Flight.” The moon helped Pepé travel easier and protected him against his pursuers. It was described as a “…withered moon” which symbolizes the peaceful transition of a person on their walk of life towards old age (Steinbeck 472). The moon was like a guardian for Pepé, keeping him impervious to the pursuers on his journey through the mountains. On the other hand, the sun kept Pepé from gaining a substantial amount of distance and also made him vulnerable to attack. The sun symbolized the hardships that are faced as one grows up, and how those hardships inevitably slow one down on their journey of life. Pepé falsely believed that daylight was a good thing, and he “…relaxed ...
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...urity blanket for Pepé, which he kept with him constantly when he lived at home, and what he yearned for during his journey. As Pepé comes of age, he realizes that becoming a man does not have gratifying rewards as much as it entitles hardships and inevitable death.
John Steinbeck used the themes of coming of age and inevitable death through the use of symbols and motifs in “Flight.” Pepé Torres is a prime example of how dreary Steinbeck sees coming of age; as soon as he transitions into a man, Pepé is killed. I agree with Steinbeck about his views of the working class man: there is a literal sense of more freedom, but emotionally and psychologically man becomes more weighed down with the stress of working and supporting a family. The working class man should be allotted free time throughout his schedule, because it protects against such a quick, unmemorable life.
Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan states that, "in the state of nature mans life is nasty, brutish and short". In depression era America, no greater truth could be said. There were millions unemployed, largely unskilled and living on the margins of society. The lowest of the low were the migrant labourers travelling from place to place trying to scratch a living. They often had to travel illegally by freight car with all its consequent dangers. Their life expectancy was low, crime was rampant and despair was a fellow traveller. This is the setting of John Steinbeck's, 'Of Mice and Men'.
... father, turned to alcohol to make the pain less noticeable. It is important to understand stereotypes because they often have a deeper meaning than what is seen at the surface. In addition to the stereotypes, it is also important to understand that the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. History repeats itself, and Flight takes that statement literally to develop a coming-of-age story that is deeply rooted in Native American history. The story of an orphaned child who has to live through vivid tales of murder, mutilation, suicide, and alcoholism from the past to come to a point of self-realization shows the reader how important it is to have knowledge of the past so that they can apply it to the present and eventually guide what course they take in the future. Hopefully, this cycle that often begins and ends with alcoholism will soon be broken.
In Isaiah Berlin’s Agnelli Prize winning essay, “The Pursuit of the Ideal,” the British philosopher claims that, “we are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.” Berlin’s statement is proven true in The Way the Crow Flies by award winning author Ann-Marie MacDonald. Set in a post-war era, The Way the Crow Flies tells a captivating story of a wing commander, named Jack McCarthy, and his family after they move to a close-knit community called Centralia. Jack’s choices in Centralia eventually place him in a compromising position. His daughter, Madeleine, falls victim to her fourth grade teacher’s horrible abuse after school. These two main plots are then intertwined with the death of a little girl, and an innocent boy named Ricky Froelich is placed on trial for her murder. Now, both Madeleine and her father Jack find themselves doomed to choose secrecy or exposure and find that every choice they make has great consequences. Over the course of The Way the Crow Flies, the theme of choice and its consequences is developed by Cold War chicanery, sexual abuse, and confrontation.
In the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie, Zits, a teenage boy, goes through many cycles of betrayal, abuse, and abandonment. This causes him to lose trust in others, and resort to violence and crime to deal with the battles in his life. He moves from foster home to foster home, running away from each one, he ends up in jail multiple times and allows himself to get manipulated by the people he trusts. After committing a mass murder which ultimately ends in his death, he shifts through multiple bodies leading to a deeper understanding of himself. The scene in which Zooey, Zits’ aunt, and her boyfriend abuse him every night develops the theme that trust can be lost and is hard to regain by showing Zits’ loss of trust in others after his aunt
We all know how segregated society can get and how heated people can get with this topic, but out of all the segregation of society, there is probably none more emotional than the indians and the whites. This is clearly shown when Zits, a Native American Indian protagonist of the book Flight by Sherman Alexie, talks about how he has a very strong hatred for the people who have done his ancestors wrong in the past. Throughout the first few chapters, we hear how Zit’s plans on getting revenge for his ancestors. He plans on getting justice for his ancestors with killing the white people and he expects that all of these actions and violent ways will be justified. As he travels through time, he slowly starts to learn that no matter what her does, he can’t undo the past. His mind set slowly turns from being “I can change the past by righting the wrong.” but ultimately learns that the past is in the past and that you can’t change what has happened; no matter how badly you want to.
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, portrays the hard–done-by life of two California labours, who form an unlikely bond and cling together in the face of alienation. The Novel exhibits the idea of the thirst for companionship when cast into the abyss of loneliness, while unveiling the horrors and strife that the labours of the south endured during the 1930’s. Throughout the plot, one of the protagonist, George, continuously carries through with several decisions that define him as a character and subsequently, as a human being. For example, at the beginning of the story, Geo...
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, symbols and vignettes to covey the complex significance of flight within Milkman's life. Overall, flight is equivalent to escape for the people in this book. For Robert Smith it was leaving behind all his responsibilities, for Solomon it was leaving his slave status and going home, and for Milkman it was escape from his family and finally gaining
Born 1902 in California, John Steinbeck grew up in a hard time for America. The Great Depression hit in 1929, leaving thousands of American people jobless, homeless, and poor. Along with this, the Dust Bowl occurred in 1931, which also killed and starved thousands. During this time period, many people did not have a home, and moved from farm to farm in order to feed themselves. John Steinbeck was one of the hundreds of thousands of migrant farm workers during this time. All of Steinbeck’s books are based off of American history, and migrant farm workers in the eyes of the people. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to contribute to the overall theme of loneliness.
Every great writer creates powerful images and presents story lines that draw their readers deep into the pages of their books, however; any writer would be hard pressed to do so without incorporating their own feelings, trials and tribulations into the plots and John Steinbeck is no exception. Through his appreciation for adventure and willingness to indulge in it, Steinbeck found a myriad of fascinating people in addition to experiences that he was eager to share. Past various negative criticisms and frequent rejections of his work, he manages to provide relatable characters capable of deep connections to those who enter into the realms of his tales. John Steinbeck's early life experiences influenced his portrayals of women, his love of the land, and his intimate connection to the plight of lower social classes, themes which translate into his work.
There is one event that unites all human beings. This event is the process of growing up and becoming an adult. The transition into adulthood from childhood can be very long and confusing. As a kid most of them can not wait to become an adult but once you experience adulthood you miss your childhood. The novel Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenager on the break of entering adulthood can get scared. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society. Holden is faced with many problems as some teens
...d by a difference in wealth. The difficulty to provide for a family, much less make more money to rise above the working class, caused children born into working class families to feel like they were “stuck” because they did not have the extra time or money to devote to an education. Instead of being able to learn and grow during childhood, children in the working class focused on the survival of themselves and their family. This contrasts the middle class where children had the possibility to earn an education before working in the future. Horatio Alger argued that anyone can change their situation by a little extra work and by improving their behavior, but Ragged Dick was an unrealistic character. Children born into poverty often faced a cycle, where guidance and luck could not even help the escape the working class because they were committed to their families.
... However, these three do show the literary freedom taken by Steinbeck as we follow his characters George and Lennie. Although George and Lennie didn't live the high life compared to most readers, they would have lived the high life compared to actual migrant farm workers. This supports the notion that Of Mice and Men does not accurately portray the lives of migrant farm workers. Steinbeck improved their lives so vastly that reading The Harvest Gypsies was a total shock and difficult to imagine that conditions were as bad as they were.
The influential British writer, Hugh Kingsmill, once stated, “Society is based on the assumption that everyone is alike and no one is alive” In his novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini depicts a unique friendship between two boys in a quickly disappearing Afghanistan. Hosseini creates Amir, an ambitious yet selfish character in order to elaborate on the negative effects society has on an individual. After he betrays his friend Hassan, Amir is conflicted and spends the rest of his life attempting to gain redemption by saving Hassan’s son. Similarly, in Of Mice And Men, Steinbeck uses two lowly ranch workers, George and Lennie, to depict a life impacted by the other men and their surroundings. Their valuable friendship is eventually thrown away due to the pressure of society when George is forced to take Lennie’s life. Although in both The Kite Runner and Of Mice And Men, Khaled Hosseini and John Steinbeck demonstrate society’s overbearing power over the individual, Hosseini and Steinbeck use different motifs and settings to convey their ideas regarding society.
On the 14th of September in the year 1607 the Earl of Tyrone Hugh O’Neill and the Earl of Tyrconnel Rory O’Donnell fled Ireland alongside officials, their families and numerous Gaelic chieftains. They left Ireland from Rathmullen in County Donegal. This flee was to become known as the flight of the Earls. They arrived in the Spanish Netherlands and then eventually made their way to Rome. The Flight of the Earls led to the most drastic form of the British government’s policy of plantation in Ireland. The Flight of the Earls has remained as one of the most memorable events in the history of Ireland. But what exactly were the reasons for the Flight of the Earls? The causes have been debated by historians with different interpretations as to why they fled but it is clear that the influence of the Earls in Ireland have been diminished greatly in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls. This essay seeks to clarify the reasons for the decline in power of the Earls in Ireland through exploration of the solidification of British rule in Ireland, along with key events in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls such as Hugh O’Neill’s campaign and onto the nine years war and the Battle of Kinsale and the Treaty of Mellifont after the Battle of Kinsale.