More handpicked essays just for you.
Character is what you are in the dark literary analysis
Literary analysis
How is society reflected in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Every character in the following short stories have realized something immense, and some choose to ignore the fact or accept it. In “Cons” by Jess Walker, and “Killings” by Andrew DuBus, the characters in them have had major epiphanies which also teach lessons to the people who read them. Each individual character has their own struggles, and they are highlighted in the short story. They have their own subtle, or not so subtle, the realization that leads to a rocky or very certain future—sometimes it’s both. In “Cons,” the story depicts a man trying to lead a normal life, by having a not-so-normal past. Kyle finds himself grieving over a lost life or two lost lives, he took one drunken night in his youth. He finds himself telling everyone …show more content…
Matt’s son, Frank, was a successful young man who fell in love with a woman named Mary Ann, and this would later lead to his death—by insane ex-husband, Richard Strout. Matt soon is driven to do the unthinkable. He is going to kill the man who took his son away from him. Matt feels rage to the point of killing this man, to justify his pain by taking away another life, even when the killing itself will not bring his son back. While committing to the deed, Matt goes to Strout’s apartment, and he finds himself drawn to the life this man is going to leave behind. While Strout was trying to explain himself, he said to Matt, “I couldn’t even talk to her. He was always with her. I’m going to jail for it; if I ever get out I’ll be an old man. Isn’t that enough?” (Dubus 60). This is the only part of the story which depicts any measure of decent humanity Strout has in his body. He was upset that Matt was holding a gun to him, and he knew he deserved what was coming for him, even if he didn’t agree with Matt’s actions. Matt soon takes Frank’s life away, and he realizes killing Strout only made things worse, and made him realize even further the pain and suffering would never end. In the story, it says, “…he saw Frank and Strout, their faces alive; he saw red and yellow leaves falling to the earth, then snow; falling and freezing and falling,…he shuddered with a sob that he kept silent in his heart” (DuBus 64). Strout felt what Matt felt when he saw another man with his wife, and Matt wasn’t in the right mindset to realize both men are
In the beginning of the novel Con had just returned from the hospital for attempting suicide. Right off the bat Con finds it hard to wake up in the morning because he is afraid that anxiety and failure will be waiting for him. He makes himself think of reasons to get out of bed. Then he goes through the whole ritual in his head. Con was depressed. He would be a treated very fragile wise by his teachers. He also was a very doubt full person. When it came to his brother’s death, he would wish that he could have done something different. Con would go through the whole scene in his head over and over again pondering on what he could have done right. He also feels isolated from his mother. Although he loves his mother, she could never love him back. Most of the time he would feel obligated to stay away from her. Because Lazenby reminded Con of his brother, Con decided to break up their friendship.
The All-American quarterback; a past life for Neely Crenshaw who returns to his home-town in Messiena and finds himself dealing with the problems he thought he ran away from. In the book Bleachers, John Grisham tells the story of a former star high school football player from a small town where football was more sacred than a Sunday Mass. Being back where it all started, sitting on the bleachers, Neely awaits the death of his former coach. Throughout the story Neely is able to find himself by realizing that greatness has its costs; running away from your problems doesn't make them go away and by deciding to forgive Coach Rake.
... experienced by his wife Ruth Fowler. This story is a tragic tale of how love for another person translated into murder, and there is no moral distinction between these acts. Since there is no explicit difference between these two murders, the audience understands that vigilante justice reduces an individual into a criminal – blind to ethics in an effort to attain retribution. Vigilante justice also comes at a hefty emotional price – loneliness and regret. For example, after Matt Fowler kills Richard Strout, he experiences a great deal of isolation and hidden shame, which is evidenced by his inability to make love with his wife and his internalized sadness. Matt Fowler will forever have to live on knowing that he compromised his morals to commit the gruesome act of murder to appease others. In an effort to please others, he became the murderer he sought to end.
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
Many times in life things are not as they seem. What may look simple on the surface may be more complicated deeper within. Countless authors of short stories go on a journey to intricately craft the ultimate revelation as well as the subtle clues meant for the readers as they attempt to figure out the complete “truth” of the story. The various authors of these stories often use different literary techniques to help uncover the revelation their main characters undergo. Through the process of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately convey the significant revelation in the short stories, “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations.
The “Man I Killed” takes us into the Vietnam War and tell us about a soldiers first time of killing another individual. The author describes a Viet Cong soldier that he has killed, using vivid, physical detail with clear descriptions of the dead mans’ fatal wounds. O'Brien envisions the biography of this man and envisions the individual history of the dead Vietnamese soldier starting with his birthplace moving through his life, and finished with him enrolling in the Vietnamese Army. O'Brien also describes some of the dead soldiers’ hopes and dreams. The author uses this history in an attempt to make the dead man more realistic to the reader
A character that was admirable in the novel “we all fall down” is John. John is the father of Will who is the main character, they spend nearly the entire story together looking for a way out of the world trade center during the 9/11 attacks. During the story you learn that John is very smart, brave, and respected. These are all characteristics which play a crucial role in saving lives such as his co-workers and a random lady they find on the way named ting, but mainly in the ending John and Will successfully escape.
This story starts off with Dikeledi headed to prison for man-slaughter. When she is taken to prison, she is told that there are four women in there for the exact crime that she committed of killing her husband. The guard makes a comment that killing your husband is becoming the fashion, dismissing them as if the women had no reasons to kill their husbands. This shows that the women are not taken seriously. They way that the wardess treats the women, represents women oppressing women. There are some women that feel that men are superior and submit to their husbands not because they want to, but because of tradition or what may have been taught to them. This plays on the idea that women are inferior beings to men. By doing this they add to the
Richard Strout was married to Mary Ann, who was most likely fed up with his hot temperedness that always seemed to get him into fist fights. She separated from her husband and while they were going through the process of divorce, she began a new relationship with Frank Fowler, killing all hope of reconciling her marriage with Strout. In return Strout became enraged not only in losing his wife, but their sons, who now spent their days with this new man who was taking on the father role in their life. Whether it was his love for his wife and children or pride, it drove him to the only solution he could find, and that was to kill Frank. “Richard Strout shot Frank in front of the boys…Strout came in the front door and shot Frank twice in the chest and once in the face with a 9mm automatic(100).”
Is murder ever truly justified? Many people might proclaim the adage, "Two wrongs don't make a right,” while others would argue that the Old Testament Bible states, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (Deuteronomy 19:21). Andre Dubus explores this moral dilemma in his short story, Killings. The protagonist, Matt Fowler, a good father and husband, decides to take revenge for his son's murder. Richard Strout is a bad man who murders his soon-to-be ex-wife's lover. These facts are complicated by the complexity of interpersonal relationships when seen through the lens of Matt’s conviction, Strout’s humanity, and ultimately Matt’s personal sacrifice on behalf of his loved ones. Though on the surface this tale might lead someone to think that Dubus is advocating for revenge, a closer look reveals that this a cautionary tale about the true cost of killing another human as readers are shown how completely Matt is altered by taking a life.
O’Connor powerfully made the reader realize that having an epiphany opens up our mind to a clearer insight, and this was seen with the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Mrs. Turpin in “Revelation.” Nonetheless, O’Connor also created characters that obtained a certain type of violence deep within their personality to show the importance of real life experiences within our society. These two short stories show a great amount of emotion and life lessons towards the reader, and O’Connor successfully conveyed her point while using her powerful Southern gothic writing technique.
I quit! These words can be attached to so many things in life. At times in life things seem to be different then they really are, for instance the thrill and the excitement of having a summer job or even successfully getting a first job. There are certain moments in a person’s life that will always have an impact on them one could call this a definitive moment or an epiphany. In the short story A&P by John Updike the main character Sammy has an epiphany in that he realizes that a moral line has been crossed in his working environment.
Coming out of the Great Depression, this generation was encouraged to be anything but depressed. In this book these two characters, although distinct in background, must deal with their problems, and face the consequences. The pressure to move on, as is human nature, eventually leads to a sadly fatal conclusion.
Evidence of professionalism on the part of the two killers, Al and Max, is that they both wear a uniform? They wear overcoats. that are too tight for them, gloves to prevent finger prints, and Derby hats. This might be for intimidation, to suggest they are. gangsters or something similar, or it could be that they are not so.
Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.