Only hours ago, a freak event occurred at Devon School, a boy’s boarding school in New Hampshire. At this time, many of the students are preparing for war. However, two boys had their summer prioritized for different activities. Phineas (whose last name is undisclosed), the star-athlete at Devon School and Gene Forrester, an academic prodigy, created a society called the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. They begin every meeting by jumping off a tree into a lake at Devon School. Jumping off this tree is a well-known sign of courage all around the school. Older boys use it for war training, they pretend it is a torpedoed ship. Phineas is a fearless and daring boy who was able to convince Gene …show more content…
However, today they decided to try something new, and jump together. Unfortunately, while they were preparing to jump, the limb jounced Phineas and he lost his balance. He fell down many stories of branches and onto the rock-covered ground below. His injuries were then treated by the school’s doctor, Dr. Stanpole. Dr. Stanpole, states “Phineas had an unlucky fall, he landed right on the side of his leg and shattered his femur and parts of his tibia and fibula. We hope that he will be able to walk again, but his athletic career is done.” Phineas also will not have the ability to fight in the current war because of this devastating injury. Not to mention, his expected sports legacy will never be fulfilled. As we know now, the only witnesses of this horrific event were Gene Forrester and Leper Lepellier. Leper Lepellier recalls seeing two figures on the limb of the tree when Phineas fell. Mr. Lepellier was reportedly standing by the lake and looking up at the tree. He describes seeing the two figures standing on the limb of the tree at the same time. He then announced that the motion reminded him of an engine in that one figure moved and the other fell. He was unable to tell who each figure was because of the bright sun behind them. He says they appeared as only
When Gene pushes Phineas out of the tree in a burst of jealous rage, he gains this profound meaning of friendship. Even after the incident, Phineas doesn’t blame Gene for pushing him out of the tree. Instead, Phineas chooses to believe that a gust of wind had jostled the branch causing his fall. This is the story that he tells people and he believes himself. When other students get suspicious of what really happened, they hold a mock trial in attempts to find the truth. Phineas continues to lie for his friend and conjures an elaborate story to clear Gene’s name. This evidently shows that Phineas would much rather lie to others and to himself, to protect the good name of Gene.
In 1942, a group of prep school boys take courses to allow them extra time to prepare for the armed forces. Gene, a conservative intellectual, befriends Finny, a free-spirited adventurer. The two form a club where they must dive from a high tree limb into the Devon River. He becomes anxious that his friend is taking time away from his studies. One evening, as Finny is about to jump from the tree limb, Gene bounces the branch and causes Finny to fall onto the bank, breaking his leg and leaving him unable to participate in athletic activities. Gene is riddled with guilt over what he has done and attempts to confess to Phineas the reasons for his accident; Finny refuses to believe Gene. Boys at the school conduct a mock investigation of Finny’s fall. He at last realizes Gene’s guilt, and in his anger and confusion he falls again, this time fatally.
The Super Suicide Society was a group at Devon School that had members join by jumping off a tree into the river. One night at the school Leper Lepellier decides he wants to become a member of the Super Suicide Society. Each time the Super Suicide Society opens a meeting Gene and Phineas jump off the tree one at a time. Because they decided to do a double jump at this
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has been the cause of many debates about whether or not the ghosts are real, or if this is a case of a woman with psychological disturbances causing her to fabricate the ghosts. The story is told in the first person narrative by the governess and is told only through her thoughts and perceptions, which makes it difficult to be certain that anything she says or sees is reliable. It starts out to be a simple ghost story, but as the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the governess has jumps to conclusions and makes wild assumptions without proof and that the supposed ghosts are products of her mental instability which was brought on by her love of her employer
“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both” (Roosevelt). The goal of America’s legal system as we know it is that everyone is given an equal opportunity to stick up for what they may or may not have done, as described by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Also this is what officials strive for, it is not always the case. Facts can be skewed, distorted, or misrepresented to make one side seem to be guilty without a doubt and to make the other side seem as if they have done nothing wrong. The Crucible by Arthur Miller begins and ends with one-sided accusations of witchcraft. It all results from a group of girls who had been dancing in the woods. After two fall sick, the accusations begin. The girls who were dancing, especially Abigail Williams begin blaming others to look less guilty themselves. Accusations are flying left and right so that soon, hundreds are in jail and over a dozen are executed. Abby’s main goal is to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor, so she can be with John Proctor, a man she previously had an affair with. However, John is not interested in Abby and his
“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten.” (Knowles 59-60). Gene Forrester, one of the main characters in John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace, describes his best friend Phineas' fall from a “tremendous tree, an irate steely black steeple beside a river,”(Knowles 6) at their all boys boarding school, Devon. Gene is an introverted young boy who is very academically gifted. Finny, however, is an extremely extroverted childish young boy who is very athleticaly gifted. Finny's fall eventually leads to terrible things, such as death and guilt. Throughout the novel Knowles uses Phineas' fall from the tree to symbolize his loss of innocence, to show Gene's guilt, and to develop Phinea's death.
The epic poem, Beowulf, a work of fiction, offers more insight into Ancient Anglo-Saxon English culture than the work of Bede, who wrote, A History of the English Church and People. The epic poem Beowulf gives an enhanced illustration and clearer understanding of the culture of the Ancient Anglo-Saxon’s. The epic poem gives the audience a picture of what the Ancient Anglo-Saxon English valued; seafaring, warriors, heroes, and paganism.
Officer Taylor’s thoughts on “those people” should not affect her decision-making skills. It is not fair to judge someone on the color of the skin or race. That thought process is garbage and needs to be fixed. At that point Officer Taylor’s mindset is not using facts. Officer Taylor wants to stop crime but locking the wrong person up doesn’t help anything. You must have evidence or probable cause. The definition I got off the Webster website says Evidence that gives someone a reason to think that a crime has been or is being committed. Officer Taylor is acting off suspicion.
After the Civil War ended between the North and South there were many questions left to be answered. Likely one of the biggest questions looming over people was what would happen to the Southern states that had rebelled against the North? People had many different opinions on how reconstruction should go and how harshly the South should be punished, if even punished at all. Some people like William Grosvenor felt that consequences for the South should be severe (Dudley 7). Mr. Grosvenor was an abolitionist pre-Civil War and went on to be a commander of one of the original African American units of soldiers during the war (Dudley 7). Plenty of grudge holding Northerners had the same opinion as William Grosvenor, but some felt that the South
I, Jeremiah Finch, believe that everyone, no matter what their color, should receive justice and equal rights in court. Like Atticus says, every man should be equal at least in court, every man deserves a fair trial where his word will be believed to be as good as any others. Tom Robinson did not receive a fair trial. The no good jury decided to believe the lies of the white trash Ewells who are disgraces to Maycomb. The trial wasn’t based off of justice, evidence, an’ truth, it was based off of color. Good righteous judges and lawyers sho’ should be able to make up for the worthless men on the jury. I told all this to Miss Maudie one day after the trial, while Scout, me, and Dill was eating her famous Lane Cake. Black men just aren’t treated the same as white men down here, and I know it
In times past and recent, a person may have expressed their gratefulness to another person with a statement such as, no one expected to lose their life when they woke up today. This case of Phineas Gage is still a modern mystery to some people, in as much, the fact that he survived this horrific incident was a true blessing and a wonder for all to see. At a period in history where the brain’s activities and functions was in high debated, scientist wanting to prove their theory and every situation that involved the brain an avenue in which they used to fuel their research, Phineas gave them an enormous amount of evidence. In making the point that the brain has different lobes that has control over their respective areas and motor skills of
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
Throughout my years of school many teachers have helped lead me to what I plan on becoming, but Mr. Seal has inspired me to become a political journalist. While taking his AP Government and Politics class I grew to love politics. He was extremely passionate towards what he taught and even related government to things that we would know of.
Tom Robinson, a black man in To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the main characters in
What makes a good person good? According to WikiHow, "We should learn to define our own morals ourselves. One of the simplest ways to do so is to love others, and treat them as you would like to be treated. Try to think of others before yourself. Even doing small things daily will greatly enrich and improve your life, and the lives of others around you." This quote shows us what we need to do in order to be what society thinks as, “good". In order to be a good person, you have to do good and moral things in your society consistently. However people might think that by doing one good thing once in a while will automatically make you a “good person”, but in reality it doesn’t.