In the first few pages, Lester Ballard is described as a “child of God much like yourself perhaps”. However, this novel focuses on his abhorrent violation of social taboos such as thievery, rape and murder. Ballard is debased and noted for his unprovoked violence. Certain events that take place in the novel aid Ballard’s descent into madness, which allows the reader to feel empathy towards him. However, the polyphonic, omniscient narrative emphasizes the apathetic tone of the people associated with Ballard. This highlights the perplexing nature of the title “Child of God”. In many religions a child of God is equated to being a child in a family. We inherit attributes from our parents and that idea is paralleled to our relationship with God. This essay will explore the ways in which the author Cormac McCarthy helps the reader understand how Lester Ballard is a child of God. He does this by explaining that Ballard was not born to become murderous necrophiliac. He is simply a product of his experiences. The reader can acknowledge the progression of Ballard's descent into madness by understanding his past, and experiences explained throughout the novel. Additionally, the detestable actions of other characters in the novel emphasize McCarthy’s desire to highlight how violence is part of human nature.
Throughout the novel, it is apparent that Ballard is confronted with cruelty and social marginalization. As a result, he becomes isolated from his community to such an extreme, that is may be regarded as solipsism. Although this does not justify his actions in the least, it provides one with insight as to why Ballard committed such heinous crimes. Ballard’s lack of communication with people and his few interactions with individuals of ...
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... end of the novel, the reader learns that Ballard is presented to students for scientific purposes. One deputy states, “I think people are the same from the day God first made one”.
McCarthy has Ballard present every conceivable taboo in society from murder to arson to necrophilia. However, He is not the only one who behaves espicably including the father who rapes his daughter, gangsters of the klu klux land and mob justice exhibited by the townspeople. Yet, Ballard's descent into violence and madness-graphically portrayed in this novel is central to understanding unconcious human desire at its worst. He is able to question what makes a person a human being not simply an objectified being capable of control by society. He does so by exploring these taboo's in society in order to answer the taunt by a young girl, " You ain't even a man. You're just a crazy thing."
Upon close examination of the story “Young Goodman Brown” one might notice that Goodman Brown had stored his faith in three places; in his neighbors, in his wife, and in his personal experiences. The placement of Goodman Brown’s faith with his neighbors is the first...
...r of a family who grew up in a town where crime, racism, and violence flourished. The social problems that were present in Southie, Boston all could have been minimized if only the parents had led their children down the right path. Parents could have warned their children of the horrors associated with any associations to the drug trade, discouraged them from discrimination against people of different races, and reporting the violence that occurred in their neighborhood instead of remaining silent in the hopes of upholding some kind of Southie loyalty code/ “Southie code of silence” (MacDonald 8). Instead parents did not teach their children about the dangers of the drug trade; they encouraged racial discrimination, and remained quiet in the face of violence. All of those things contributed to the poor living conditions and bad reputation of South “Southie” Boston.
Wright grew up in the Jim Crow South where everything about his life was socially and culturally inferior to the white masses. In Bloom’s Modern Critical Views Richard Wright, Qiana J. Whitted wrote about Wright’s life as a kid, shedding light on how his grandmother forced him to partake in religious in order to be saved from “religious execution” (123). It was this type of religious interpretation held by his grandmother, that was a “cultural marker” for Wright, reminding us, “that in his life, as in his writing, Richard Wright wrestled with his faith” (122). This struggle can be seen in Wright’s male character, Big Boy, in Big Boy Leaves Homes. Big Boy and his friends go to swimming creek where they see and are saw by a white woman. With the woman, was a white man who shot at Big Boy and his friends. Big Boy wrestles with Jim over the gun and ends up shooting and killing him. In panic, he runs home to retell the story of the murder he committed and the ones he witnessed. As he tells the story, his father sends for some of the religious members in the community. During this time Big Boy’s mother calls out several times for mercy, “Lawd Gawd in Heaven, have mercy on us all!” (36). The religious community members become a fist around Big Boy and come up with a plan for saving his life. In the midst of this Big Boy experiences an internal conflict with his actions and how they look in the eyes of God.
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
...in other parts of the novel, for example when he shot the man who threatened the boy’s life, those actions were always for the purpose of survival and to protect himself and his son. The pressure of living in a post-apocalyptic setting causes the man to always be in a highly strained emotional state and this is one of the main reasons why he reacted to the thief in such an outrageous manner. This suggests that the man is a product of his environment and so his behaviour is determined by external conditions, implying that the man lacks agency and autonomy to some extent. McCarthy’s representation of the man’s character in this extract encourages the reader to think about whether moral rules, which were established in a normal civilisation, can still exist in a world where all civilisation is destroyed and if they can how will people ensure that they are carried out.
During the course of this work, many ideas and themes are portrayed and readers are able to view subjects that surround the main topic of racial injustice and intolerance. With the three main narrators, Minny Jackson, Aibileen Clark, and Skeeter Phelan, the audience quickly gains an insight on how racial inequalities affected everyone. These thoughts help to form a plot that can easily keep readers entertained throughout the novel. During the course of the novel, there are many points in the plot that decide the actions and events other cha...
As a child, Hazel Motes is indoctrinated in religious fundamentalism by his grandfather, “a circuit preacher, a waspish old man… with Jesus hidden in his head like a stinger” (9). Time after time young Haze hears the searing sermon of his Bible-thumping grandfather who, in front of a crowd, would point to his grandson, “that mean sinful unthinking boy,” and pronounced him “redeemed”: “That boy had been redeemed and Jesus was not going to leave him ever…. Jesus would have him in the end!” (10). Understanding Jesus as the “soul-hungry” devourer, as “something awful,” the boy very early comes to the conclusion that “the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin” and, at the age of twelve, decides to follow the preacher’s calling like his grandfather. Furthermore, Haze’s mother, with “a cross-shaped face” reinforces the fundament- alist piety in her son by equating the boy’s germination sexuality with sin. Her chilling question “what you seen?,” to the shame-faced boy who just had a peek at a naked w...
People exploit the faults in their surroundings in hypocritical attempts to justify their own imperfections. Goodman Brown and Dimmesdale demonstrate hypocrisy in their efforts to avoid confronting their own distorted realities. Both Goodman Brown and Dimmesdale seek to exemplify the ideal Puritan lifestyle. After succumbing to unfaithful temptations, both men recognize that they have transgressed certain central values of their respective puritan communities yet neither correctly identifies the sin that ultimately debases his initially righteous character. For instance, Goodman Brown breaches basic Puritan prin...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne short story “Young Goodman Brown,” he takes us on a journey of the human heart, in which he would later coin the phrase that “there is a fund of evil in every human heart”. Though the story is filled with dark gloomy imagery, Hawthorne was able to keep us wanting to know more base on the fact its Salem village. With the uses of symbolism, the author incorporate nature such as the “deep forest”, and “Faith” the newly wife of young Goodman brown working hand in hand to illustrate the purpose of the story. Hawthorne shows us that our faith should not dictate base on the perception of others, as a result, would be compromised and weaken.
Undoubtedly, Michael Tritt uses a psychological strategy to critically analyze “Young Goodman Brown”. He carefully constructs his criticism through quotes from other critics and the short story. Sigmund Freud is also quoted because he theorized the projection process.
Throughout time education has been considered a process that every so often must be improved. The education quality in the U.S. has declined over the years and people have been looking for a way to make improvements. A more recent proposal has been to go from a traditional nine-month schedule to an all year program. Supporters of year round school claim it gives the student a better education. However, the prospect of year round school is not beneficial to the taxpayers pocket, to the education a student receives, or to the people involved with the district.
In Cormac McCarthy's Child of God, Lester Ballard is a recluse who is shunned by the people of his community. Because of his morose nature and his bizarre habits, he stands out among the small rural community. The rejected Ballard turns from being a harmless recluse to a murderer. While he is clearly a victimizer, he is also a victim himself. He is the victim of his own ostracization from the community that he was a part of. While the victimization that he suffers cannot justify his violent actions, it provides some explanation of how Ballard has reached the point of being a victimizer himself.
A Toronto man with a mind of a six year old, is currently behind bars with no where to call home. Leroy Humphrey was removed from his group home and sent to Maplehurst Correctional Centre, where he has been teased and bullied by inmates. (Trish Cawford) This man is excluded from the basic rights and luxuries offered to the common citizen because he is different and society does not yet know how to accept and incorporate such people within the mass. Similarily, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are two books that highlight the prevailing element within society that forces humans with more ability to oppress the lower classes of society. Dave Boyle from Mystic River and “Frankenstein” the monster from Mary Shelley’s work are both characters that suffer the prejudice of society for reasons they have no control over. The former is a victim of a child molester and the latter is a hideous monster created yet abandoned by a scientsidt. Both characters are constantly pushed away from society which flames an inner desire to take revenge, to simply just fit in. Dave Boyle and the monster are both similar in how they are mistreated by society for abnormalities overwhich they have no control; both are also willing to use violence as a tool for vengeance against those who are the cause of their problems. However, the two stories differ in that Mystic River has a less just ending, and its protagonist does not have the capability to justify and explain his actions, whereas “ the monster” is sane enough to do so, but has no one to listen to him.
Cormac McCarthy manifests his novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic world on the east coast of the once famous America. The novel tells the simple tale of a man and a boy who must journey forward to find a way to survive in the wastelands. However, when analyzed with the techniques shown in Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, The Road’s complex structure in unveiled. The once simple journey transforms into a quest filled with exploitive vampires and meaningful conversations with food. The novel explores the depths of heart and strengthens the end with the parallel of the return of Jesus Christ. The concepts complete the novel as a whole and brings an interesting
Through O’Connor’s religious background, the audience must closely analyze the true message of her story through her symbolism. Her shocking and grotesque ending of the short story challenges individuals by questioning what is good and what is evil. O’Connor’s symbolism found in her setting and main characters truly embody her view of modern society. She uses these elements as a representation for the realistic paths individuals struggle to choose between: the path involved in sin concerning money, good looks, and pride or the path towards God concerning morals, values, and respect for humanity.