Comparing Shane and Pale Rider
In Shane & Pale Rider, changing the boy to an adolescent girl (respectively) had a great effect on the elements of the story. In both stories, each child had a relationship with the stranger, but as we saw, the child's age and sex affected this bond.
In Shane, the boy Joey was first to see the stranger riding over the edge. As he gets closer, Joey is in complete aw by the sights of the stranger Shane. Living on the land with parents that are always working for the family, Shane comes off as a gunslinger, something that Joey has always wanted to be. Throughout the story, Joey is always looking up to Shane, trying to emulate him. He wants to be just like Shane. Shane takes notice of this and plays along as not to upset the boy. He shows Joey how to shoot and to be a good gunner. His parents want Joey to not get too attached to Shane, but as a young boy, he's not intended on listening. When Shane gets into a fight with Starett, Joey becomes mad at Shane and yells to him "I hate you Shane." But when he realizes that Shane was keeping his father safe, he runs after him to apologize. In the closing scene, all Joey can do is to say goodbye to what will become a hero for his family. As Shane never looks back, we can tell that he helped out, but never really cared about Joey.
In Pale Rider, using an adolescent girl change much of the story. Instead of a young boy trying to find a hero, we see a girl Megan looking for a man or husband. As much of the story is the same, a family or group of families in this movie trying to keep their land from others that want to take it. Megan becomes upset that the stranger Preacher says no about marriage to her because she is too young just like Joey from Shane getting upset about the fight his father had. Megan gets terribly upset, and runs off, trying to show everyone that she is grown up. She only gets into trouble, and is mauled by some of the towns people. The stranger though is there to save her, and she regains his trust.
Joey was a frail child, yet he was tough. Innocently, he showed great affection toward Josh, though, Josh was not deserving of the love Joey showed. As the Depression prolonged, Stefan’s attitude worsened. Often times, Josh was the subject in which his father carried out his rage. Josh’s father was a proud man, and once the Depression hit, all of his pride was ripped away from him. Stefan stated quite often, He pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, then suddenly, his bootstraps, his thriftiness, and his industry were all pulled away from beneath
World War one saw many great airmen, but there were two that stood out among the rest; Captain Edward Rickenbacker and 2nd Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr. These men both demonstrated courage and bravery that ultimately asked them for their life. Both men received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their deeds of bravery, as well as earning the title of Ace. An Ace is someone that has shot down at least five enemy planes. Rickenbacker was nicknamed “Ace of the Aces”, while Luke was the first of only two men to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Luke honored his country through his actions. Frank Luke Jr demonstrated superior characteristics that lead him to make a valuable contribution to World War I through bravery, skilled flying skills, and selflessness.
Times got harder and more rough over time. Josh begin to worry about Joey, thinking he was going to get sick. Surprisingly Joey’ health was better than Josh’s health. Josh came down with a bad cough with everyday it got worse. Joey was the one who spent money to buy cough syrup for his brother. He would go to soup kitchens and beg to and bring the food back to his brother. It became harder and harder for them to stay alive each day. The only thing keeping them was that they were getting closer and closer to Lonnie. It was pretty risky for them, but
In the short story Doe Season, by David Michael Kaplan, the nine-year-old protagonist, Andrea, also known as Andy, the tomboy goes out on a hunting trip and endures many different experiences. The theme of coming of age and the struggle most children are forced to experience when faced with the reality of having to grow up and leave childhood behind is presented in this story. Many readers of this story only see a girl going hunting with her father, his friend Charlie, and son Mac, because she wants to be one of the guys. An important aspect of the story that is often overlooked is that Andy is going hunting because she doesn't want to become a woman because she is afraid of the changes that will occur in her body.
People change everyday, whether it is from good to bad or for the better. People often say to themselves, maybe, if I didn't do “blank” this wouldn't have happened. However, the reality is, it happened, and there is no way to change that. Why go around throwing maybe’s around if you cannot change it? Authors purposefully make readers ask those questions. Authors love to create complex characters, characters that go through change. In Ellen Hopkins’ book, Crank, is the perfect example. Ellen Hopkins writes from her own daughter's perspective, Kristina, on how “the monster” changed her own life and her family's life.
At first she was a little confused but then began to be more patient. The Character arc changes throughout the story in very slight ways. At first the narrator sounds playful and childish. However, getting towards the end of the story, the narrator becomes more patient and a little more mature.
We are made aware from the opening that Shane is connected to the wilderness as he descends from the mountains. The mountains are another key western theme that occurs time and time again. The opening scene echoes the final scene, as Shane proceeds back up the mountain he descended from. This shows the individual' leaving the community' of the homesteaders that he has been welcomed into.
Coming-of-age stories commonly record the transitions—sometimes abrupt, or even violent—from youth to maturity, from innocence to experience of its protagonist, whether male or female. Greasy Lake by T.Coraghessan Boyle and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates are great examples of traditional coming-of-age stories. The roots of the coming-of-age narrative theme are tracked in the male protagonist’s perspective for Boyle’s short story, while the Oates’ story captures the coming-of-age theme from Connie; a female protagonist’s perspective. In both short stories, the authors fulfill the expectations of a coming-of-age genre when they take us through the journey of rebellion and self realization, as the
The novel Shane written by Jack Schaefer is a story of a mysterious stranger that walked into the Wyoming valley in late 1800’s. He was introduced into the life of Joe Starrett, an honest, hardworking Wyoming farmer. The stranger rarely speaks about himself except that his name is Shane. Even though Joe knows little about Shane, he invites Shane to stay at his place for a while. While Shane is staying with the Starrett family, he discovers Fletcher, a wealthy and greedy man, and understands he is trying to take hold of Joe’s and other homesteader’s land. He decides to stay with Joe and help him and the others. When Fletcher sees that Shane is a strong man, he sends a couple of guys to take down Shane, but Shane and Joe fight them off. Later, Fletcher brings a new guy named Stark Wilson, whose only goal is to remove Shane from the picture. In the climax, they have a final duel in the saloon between Shane, Stark Wilson, and Fletcher. First, Shane shoots and kills Stark Wilson, but Fletcher from behind shoots Shane. The gunshot does not kill Shane, but merely injures him. Shane turns around, shoots and kills Fletcher. Shane makes up his mind and leaves without saying good bye to the Starrett family that he loves because he understands that as long as he is there, somebody will always come looking for him and that will put Joe and his family in jeopardy. Reading the novel Shane, it is self evident that characters possess heroic qualities such as honesty, bravery, integrity as well as villainous qualities like cowardice and greed.
A recent young adult novel has stirred up a lot of controversy in the world of writing literature. The issue is that current young adult literature is too dark for teen readers, or is merely more realistic than previous works for teens. In early June 2011, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial written by book critic Meghan Cox Gurdon says how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from ages of 12 to 18. As I write rhetorically about this argument meaning the understanding of or approach to human interaction or based on their purpose and motivation.
The individual that I chose to observe is a toddler. She appears to be between the ages of ten to fifteen months. She has brunette hair, wore a pink outfit on, and is of mixed race. My observation was completed at chucky cheese. She was accompanied by her mother, father, and older brother. Her brother was not that much older than her. He had to be about three or four years old. When I arrived, I had a hard time picking someone. When I first saw her she was in a teacup ride. Her father was standing close by watching her. I thought to myself, “how cute”. I knew instantly she was the one. I grew up with a father who was detached. It was nice seeing a father interacting with his daughter. At first, I didn’t know her mother and brother were there.
...tty, sweet, and talk in a more gentle tone. If they were talking to boys they would use words such as tough, handsome, and talk in a more masculine voice. Although the toddler will not remember this, this could affect the way they view themselves as they grow older.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
“I've told her and I've told her: daughter, you have to teach that child the facts of life before it's too late” (Hopkinson 1). These are the first three lines of Nalo Hopkinson's short story “Riding the Red”, a modern adaptation of Charles Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood”. In his fairy tale Perrault prevents girls from men's nature. In Hopkinson's adaptation, the goal remains the same: through the grandmother biographic narration, the author elaborates a slightly revisited plot without altering the moral: young girls should beware of men; especially when they seem innocent.
In the story, “Boys and Girls”, the narrator is not the only one coming to terms with their identity.