Harsh Perspectives of Youth in Garland’s The Beach
As his narrator, Garland offers us Richard, a less than balanced individual, in possession of a tenuous grip upon reality. He is arrogant and reckless, often believing himself to have nothing left to learn ("Fucking New Guy? ... New to what?" p87) and convinced of his own immortality ("Yea, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherfucker in the valley" p87) The beach is supposed to represent the highest level of escape attainable, but can only be from the outset a disappointment, because it is already built up in his mind into something unobtainable; "It's silly really. I think I was expecting an . . . ideology or something. A purpose." p96
Richard being the narrative voice, one can logically infer that it is his perspective which is intended by Garland to be representative of the youth culture depicted. My first impression is that the very fact that Richard commits his story to text is indicative of a desperate need for recognition, and his style of narration suggests that its writing is not likely to be meant as a catharsis. As a character, he is shallow and self-glorifying beyond the point to which readers might sympathise with his reckless actions:
p163 "Collecting ... experiences was my primary goal when I first started travelling. I went about it in the same way as a stamp-collector goes about collecting stamps ... Then I had to graduate to the more obscure stuff. Being in a riot was something I pursued with a truly obsessive zeal, along with being tear-gassed and hearing gunshots fired in anger."
The cultural phenomenon of travelling, as distinct from tourism, is one reserved for domination almost exclusively by youth. In Richard's mind, as in others, it becomes the acquisition of experiences with only slight moral differentiation between them, merely a reinforcement in the mind of the collector of their own broadening life perspective; a form of validation which, whilst owing nothing to established mainstream cultural value systems, replaces these with a generation-created classification hierarchy which is just as strict.
Established value systems provide the catalyst for tensions within the group, which emerge at the earliest stages immediately upon Richard's arrival: "There's only five people with Walkmans in the camp, and I've refused all of them batteries in the past.
Richard was born to an alcoholic, authoritarian father and a mentally-ill mother. His parents fought quite often and lost their home to financial issues. He was torturing animals, setting fires, and wetting the bed. He developed hypochondria at an unknown age. In adolescence, he had reportedly been exhibiting unusual behavior among his peers. For example, he believed he had blood poisoning and the solution was to drink the blood
Perhaps one of the most famous paintings Leonardo da Vinci painted is the Mona Lisa in which he painted in 1503. Many experts believe the portrait is of a very wealthy women who lived in Florence whose
Leonardo da Vinci was born in the heart of the Renaissance. Like most humans Da Vinci was born. Da Vinci’s full name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. He was born in Vinci, Italy. His dad was a notary and his mom was a peasant (biography.com). He was born in the time of technological advancement and endless curiosity. He was raised by his father and his stepmother (biography.com). When he was five he moved to his father’s family estate and lived with his uncle and grandparents (biography.com). The birth of Da vinci likely seemed ordinary at the time, but was destined to make history.
Was it six days or about eight days? Both are correct. It’s simply a matter of observing the same period of time from a different viewpoint.
Leonardo was born April 15, 1452 he was the son of Ser Piero and Caterina. Leonardo's father was a landlord, and his mother was a peasant and they both were not married at the time. Leonardo lived with his father and had an education. Later on his father moved the family to Florence( Heydenreich). At the age of 15 Leonardo was showing that he was a great painter. In 1467 he became an apprentist to Andrea Del Verrochio a very well known artist during that time period. He became a member of Verrochio's workshop where he received an education in a huge variety of areas.(Giorgio). In another workshop of Antonio Pollaiuolo, Leonardo studied anatomy, and animals. He was accepted into painters guild in Florence. An early work by Leonardo was an angel painting for the Baptism of Christ artwork.After Verrochio viewed the artwork he thought it was time for Leonardo to move on and do other things. Later on Leonardo became an independent painer and later moved to Milan where he worked for Ludovico Sforza. During that time Leonardo created one of his most famous artworks The Last Supper. Later on his career he became a journalist in which he would write down his obeservations , and findings. His notes showed that he knew about how rocks were formed.He was also fascinated with fossils and how to make tunnels through mountains.(Weingardt ).Years ...
When telling their story, the narrators clearly express their aspirations of living an adventurous life. They both view international travel as a vessel for self-discovery and meaningful memories. For example, in Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa, David Sedaris expresses his desires for life-long memories and international travel when he writes, “They weren’t rich, but what Hugh and his family lacked financially they more than made up for with the sort of exoticism that works wonders at cocktail parties, leading always to the remark, ‘that sounds fascinating’.” According to this passage, Sedaris seems to believe that money is less important than experiences and memories themselves. One is able to infer that he yearns for a life that is filled with adventures. He wants to have the ability to tell interesti...
Throughout these different stages that Richard experiences, the reader reactions change as well. Although there is negative feedback throughout the first half, it seems as if Richard’s character is supposed to slowly elicit sympathy from the reader. In a journal article Paula Blank asserts, “Richard seems, for some readers, to emerge as the victim rather than the perpetrator of a crime.” (Blank, 328). By cleverly assuming the position of victim by the end, the King captures the emotions and feelings of many readers; thus, William Shakespeare orchestrates riveting transformations for King Richard in Richard II, and in return creates evolving reactions from the reader.
Richard moved to Hampden College as an attempt at escaping his depressing home life, creating a new identity for himself and pretending to have had a wealthy typical Californian childhood, rather than the truth: that he grew up isolated in a small town with a low class and careless family. As well as changing his own identity to come across as more appealing to his peers, he tended to idolise people, his idea of them making them seem ethereal and almost godlike. This occurred particularly with the Greek group. At first, Richard sees them from a distance, describing them as unapproachable and also as having “a variety of picturesque and fictive qualities”. He became fascinated by them, this fascination continuing throughout their
Leonardo Da Vinci had been a momentous painter of the Italian Renaissance who has had a long reaching impact on humanity. Leonardo had been born on April 15, 1452 to Ser Piero Da Vinci and Caterina, in Vinci, Italy. Leonardo grew up with his father and by age 15 he began as an apprentice painter under Andrea Del Verrochio and he had stayed with him until he was approximately 20 years of age when he would become an independent master himself. Aside from being an artist, he also had been an inventor and he studied science and nature. Throughout his lifetime, Leonardo has contributed art, art styles, and a variety of works that continue to inspire people in todays world.
Leonardo da Vinci was known as one of the greatest painters ever along with being a painter, he had many other skills and traits that made him unique. Leonardo excelled in almost all the fields of arts and science: in physics, mechanics engineering, mathematics, geometry, in anatomy, geology, botany and geography, in music, architecture, sculpture, and last but not least painting (Hohenstatt 6).He was born in Vinci near Florence Italy born on April 14, 1452. He grew up in the Renaissance Period a time where many people became more interested in the arts. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Pireo Frusiono di Antonito, a Florentine notary and a peasant girl Catarina (Herbert 1). For a time over twenty years Leonardo was the only child but by the time of his death, he had seventeen half-siblings (Douglas 2-3). Leonardo’s
His first painting was the “Virgin of the Rocks”. The painting was of a the Holy Family in a cave and symbolized respect and tradition. Once commented that artists should practice drawing at dusk in courtyards with walls painted black. In 1499 the Milan government was overthrown by the French, so he left to Venice. This was only for a brief amount of time. Leonardo was asked to do Military projects for the senate and left to
the play draws its readers to identify with Richard and thereby to participate in a
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance man that was born in 1452 and lived to 1519. He was a true renaissance man is regarded as one of the greatest minds of the renaissance era, displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. While he is most famous for his paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, Leonardo is also renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geometry, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, and physics, Making his biggest contributions to mathematics and engineering through his amazing inventions. Leonardo da Vinci was very far ahead of his time which is why most of his inventions were not made practical until someone reinvented later in time, when technology caught up to his ideas.
The Travellers, a minority community indigenous to Ireland, have existed on the margins of Irish society for centuries. They share common descent, and have distinct cultural practices - early marriage, desire to be mobile, a tradition of self-employment, and so on. They have distinct rituals of death and cleansing, and a language they only speak among their own. Travellers are not overtly conscious of a sense of group history. Concern with ancestry is an obsession of those who value permanence of place. Rather, the individual is defined by his/her place within the relationship network. They live in extended patriarchal families, prefer trailers, tend to nomadism interspersed with occasional house dwelling, and maintain a nomadic mindset even when settled; a house is considered only a stopping place between journeys, whether the stop lasts 20 days or 20 years! There are an estimated 21,000 Travellers currently living in the Republic of Ireland, over half of whom have no access to toilet facilities, electricity, refuse collection or piped water.
... executed in order to set off into the world alone. The influence that independent travel has on an individual is a splendor upon riches because it does so much for a person, and provides humans with a sense of the world. How a person can makes new friends and learn about new cultures and accept other people’s way of living. With its educational purposes traveling alone can bring, offers an endless amount of living data that tops any history book or internet page. Traveling is concrete history that is continuing around everyone. It can provide people to look through different lenses and experience aspects of life that they know they will never experience again in their lifetimes. Traveling alone provides an endless journey and an empty page in the minds scrapbook that is waiting to be filled with new memories and the endless amount of true belonging and bliss.