The Relationship between Ignatius and Myrna in A Confederacy of Dunces
One of the most unique and strange relationships in modern literature exists between Ignatius Reilly and Myrna Minkoff, the two perceived dunces in John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. The correspondence between them runs throughout the novel. In the beginning, Ignatius feels a certain air of superiority over her, yet she feels that he has lost touch with reality, and her suggestion begin to control his actions, as he tries to win at her own game. She genuinely cares for him and writes her opinion of how to transform his life. In three separate attempts to quiet her unrelenting criticism and suggestions, he heeds her advice, each time failing miserably and causing greater adversity for himself. Yet, at the end of the novel, in a comedic irony, she saves him from mental and physical captivity.
At the beginning of the relationship between the reader and the association between Ignatius and Myrna, Ignatius writes an egotistical letter to explain his adventures working at and grand plans for Levy Pants. Ignatius explains: "I have several excellent ideas already, and I know that I, for one, will eventually make Mr. Levy decide to put his heart and soul in the firm" (pg. 90). In Ignatius's own fantasy world, he honestly supposes that his changes will cause a revolutionary transformation of Levy Pants. He believes that his innovative contrivances can transform the forgotten Levy Pants into a Fortune 500 company, and he writes to Myrna in an attempt to clarify and reinforce his deranged world view. Reality does not allow for Ignatius's idealized rebirth of the factory, but Ignatius fails to see the actuality of the situation, and ...
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...r Myrna physically enters his life. She saves his mind and body from imminent institutionalization.
Relationships sometimes have profound effects on the people in them. At the beginning of the novel, Ignatius feels a great deal of superiority over Myrna. However, as the relationship between them develops through the novel, it causes a tremendous amount of hardship in his life, due to Myrna's critical letters to Ignatius, and his perseverance to take her advice. Like a naughty boy unable to learn his lesson and the consequence of his actions, Ignatius continues his pursuit to fulfill Myrna's suggestions on three separate occasions, each ending in horrible failure. Yet, in a ironic twist, Myrna becomes Ignatius's only escape from a life troubled by taking Myrna's advice. Her letters affect Ignatius in a manner that only her car and body can remedy.
The novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies does away with the stigma that Canadian literature is dull and boring. A master of his art, Davies creates a cast of vivid characters and skillfully weaves them into a story about love, guilt, myth and redemption. With the effective use of first-person narrative, Fifth Business is written as a fictional memoir of the character Dunstable Ramsey, who grows up in the small town of Deptford in Ontario, Canada. As a boy, Dunstable was unmistakably very intelligent, gifted with an uncanny ability to read others. He was raised in a Scottish household by strict Presbyterian parents, who into him hammered several religious canons and tenets. Thus, Dunstan understood the importance of respect and moral responsibility from a young age. There would seem to be no reason for such an exemplary youth, gifted with an intelligence exceeding of his small-town upbringing, to not go onto to lead a happy, satisfying life. Yet there is a single incident in Dustan’s boyhood that would define the rest his life. While in a quarrel with his friend and rival, Percy Boyd Staunton, Dustan evades a snowball in which Boyd had hidden a stone. The snowball misses Dunstan and strikes the pregnant wife of the town’s Baptist minister, Mary Dempster, causing her to give birth prematurely and subsequently slip into madness. This marks the beginning of Dustan Ramsey’s lifelong involvement with Mary Dempster, and the beginning of his lifelong struggle with guilt. As he is faced with the outcomes of his actions, Dustan’s core values are called into question. Throughout Fifth Business, Dunstan fails to understand both his true values and true self, which develops as a cons...
Understanding the differences between Socrates and Perpetua rests in two major elements. The first one is the role of religion and
It is really odd to make a comparison about this three, but there is a lot to say about it. He says that professional wrestling is completely different than boxing by seeing professional wrestling as a spectacle where you know what the result is going to be because the outcome is preordained. Professional wrestling have the evil character threatening the good character and he beats him until the point the good character rises up to have his revenge and win the match. In the other hand boxing is completely different because you never know who is going to win the match. It is just like what presidents do where they compete for power and policy with others, where the outcomes are uncertain. The presidency is presented by the White House the same way as professional wrestling does by putting a main character supported by its team engaging in debates with immoral or dangerous
Thinkers and philosophers have been pondering misery since the dawn of civilization. At the dawn of humanity, humans existed to survive and reproduce; every day was a struggle. However, with the advent of civilization, humanity has moved further and further away from its original evolutionary drives, and it can be argued by secular thinkers that humans exist now to find happiness. Therefore, misery can be seen as the biggest obstacle to human happiness, yet misery itself is a mystery to many. Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents put forth the authors’ opinions on the origins of mortal misery, and suggest methods to solve the problem of misery. Although the two have differing views, both see
The reason I chose this as my pivotal moment was because many people do not know of this very wonderful and tragic story of the successful, business savvy, and intelligent ways of the black people.
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
Porter, Katherine. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 79-86. Print.
John Kennedy Toole unleashes a compelling criticism of modern society in the principal work he produced in his short lifetime, A Confederacy of Dunces. Using masterfully crafted comedy, Toole actually strengthens his disparaging position on the modern world. Boisterously and unabashedly opinionated, Ignatius Reilly, the principal character of this novel, colors the narrative with a poignant humor that simultaneously evokes both laughter and pity from readers. Near the beginning of the story, his mother's financial difficulties suddenly force Ignatius to leave the womb-like security of his bedroom and seek employment, making him abandon his project of writing a scathing description of "the disaster course that history had been taking for the past four centuries" (Toole 41) on childish Big Chief tablets. The action of the novel revolves around Ignatius's experience in society as he bumbles from job to job with his ever-present sense of superiority.
To begin, Morrison establishes a healthy confusion by developing Beloved. Beloved is first introduced to the reader as the ghost of Sethe’s dead daughter. The ghost haunts Sethe’s house, 124. “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom” (3). Morrison creates abstract diction through the use of the word spiteful. The denotation of the spiteful
So why is capital punishment so expensive? It is because once capital punishment is an option everything becomes more expensive. Since the Constitution requires a long and involved process for capital cases it makes the
...of the value of time and silence. With few words and actions, Elroy is able to prompt O’Brien to reach a resolve regarding his moral obligation to attend war. Miraculously, he succeeds without so much as mentioning war or O’Brien’s obvious predicament “as if he already knew” (58), suggesting he encompasses the omniscient masculine ideal. The unique way in which Mary Anne and Elroy disappear nearing the end of each short story further establishes their character’s identity. While Mary Anne’s exit derives confusion and drama, Elroy’s is simple and painless. This suggests that Mary Anne’s masculinity is presented through her loud and chaotic actions whereas Elroy’s is through his quiet sagacity.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
President Obama’s speech definitely has more of a sorrowful drive to it in terms of the context in which the speech is given. There seems to be a more impactful sense of loss regarding the Sandy Hook tragedy. Although the battle of Gettysburg costed more lives, Obama has the ordeal of giving a speech about dead children in a school, a place that is supposed to be free from danger. When Mr.Obama says things such as “I know that there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do”, it is not profound to declare that he truly did mean these words. The general attitude towards children is very different from that of a soldier. Lincoln gave his speech in the backdrop of a war, a costly war mind you, where soldiers know what they are in for. In the context of war, some on the other side of said war may actually condone the loss of life from their enemy, be it in a cynical, tribalistic, or political manner. But when it comes to children, we have a general sense of wanting to protect children from harm, and when harm goes as far as to be massacred, it takes an emotional toll on the general populace, you would almost have to be a moral imbecile not to feel the same way. So by default, Obama is more effective, credit is of course due for being able to articulate an inoffensive speech that achieves its
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
Abrams, MH, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.