Summary The story begins with a focus on Billy Parham, a homesteader’s son living in New Mexico. Their area begins to have trouble with a she-wolf that traveled up from Mexico and is killing cows from multiple ranchers. Billy and his father set off to capture or kill the wolf, but it becomes a difficult task since the wolf discovers and disables any trap they lay. Eventually, Billy makes one more attempt to capture the wolf by laying the trap in the ashes of a fire. The wolf is caught and her leg injured. BIlly realizes that she is also pregnant. Instead of killing the wolf, however, Billy decides that he will relocate her to Mexico. He manages to muzzle her and begins the long trek. He runs into many incredulous farmers, but eventually enters …show more content…
Despite the initial idea that this story will have a happy ending for Billy and the wolf, life and its trials change the ending dramatically. McCarthy said in the quote that “Nothing can be dispensed with”. This is a vital lesson of the story; every hardship and issue that had to be faced led to another vital step in Billy’s journey. Without the death of the wolf, he would not have wandered and met the people he did. He may have returned home sooner and been killed alongside his parents. Later on, if his family hadn’t have died, he would not have traveled again into Mexico, where he would save a young girl, learn even more, and lose his brother. While the events that took place were not pleasing, they were necessary. That’s what this quote is trying to teach; that every step in life, good or bad, must take place to reach the end goal. “We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall” (McCarthy). This is entirely correct. If Billy had known what was in store for him and his brother in Mexico, they may not have ever traveled there. They didn’t know the outcome, though, and even though the end wasn’t appealing, it was necessary for both of them to just live their lives and face whatever came their way. This quote is mainly showing that life can’t be predicted, only lived, and The Crossing on proves …show more content…
He succeeds in showing multiple aspects of the story and characters throughout. However, I disagree with Rollyson on his final point. While the characters do, in fact, begin to take on aspects of their landscape, the characters do change by their own powers as well. Billy began the novel as a young boy who just wanted to save a wolf and journey a little. Because of the journeys that he chooses to take, he becomes beaten down by life, but he also interacts with others who teach him and help him. While he doesn’t have many pleasant experiences, he learns more about the world and becomes a
Plot: The book took place in the 1860’s in Texas. Jim Coates is off for the summer doing a cattle drive. He left Travis his oldest son in charge of the house. The day after his dad left, Travis went into the dog run and got some meat but a dog was in there. It was a big yellow dog and ate a bunch of the meat. Travis’s mom let his little brother Arliss keep the dog. One day Arliss and the dog were by the stream playing in the water and a she bear and her cub were there. Old Yeller saved Arliss from the she bear. From then on Travis and Old Yeller had a special bond. Old Yeller
His ability to identify and accept his situation are the first stages of Billy's transition.
to it because his fate did not lead him there. Billy applied the fact that he had to accept
...erson & by not doing everything that his parents said he was able to find out the truth which I think, in the end would have made his relationship with his parents much stronger. Billy was very restricted & confined by the expectations placed on him by his family & as well as society & because of this was not able to express himself or find his own personal happiness but through dance he was able to discover who he really is & what he loves & by pursuing it he became a much stronger person, it even enabled him to stand up to his father in showing him how much he loves dance & in doing so also stood up to society & gender stereotypes, this made Billy a much stronger person, throughout the movie it also shows how Billy is able to make a better personal relationship with his father & his brother Tony who he grows closer to as he becomes his own person through dance.
Billy is also traumatized by the extreme loss in his life. Everywhere he looks, he experiences great loss. First his father dies in a hunting accident, then he gets in a plane crash and everyone aboard dies but him, and while he is in the hospital recuperating, his wife dies of carbon monoxide poisoning. There is so much death surrounding his life, that it is no wonder Billy has not tried to kill himself yet.
In this story Billy is faced with a wide range of undeserved punishments, but shows good through all of them with his strong will and determination. He accepts the things that happen to him in a levelheaded manner, which works to keep the story from becoming a tragedy. The first instance of undeserved punishment is the death of Billy’s family. Not only was he unable to help them in any way, there was no good reason for it to happen. While Billy could lose all hope, become depressed, and angry at the world or at God for this injustice, he instead sets out to right the wrong.
...ho never recovered after experiencing the death of his entire family. Through substance abuse, affairs with Risa Walker, and his use of memory to escape the reality that his family is no more, he proves to be the least successful character in the novel at coping with death. The new questions then become whether or not one ever has such access in order to pull through grief, or, does someone even want to? Reading about Billy he shows us how we should not cope with death, we learn that what is needed at times like this is someone by your side, someone you can lean on, and someone to love you, all of which Billy really does not have. Most human beings do not have that someone to help them cope with death so the responsibility of moving on then falls on them. It is up to them to decide if they want to move on or live the rest of their lives replaying that tragic event.
Billy is used to showing that everything happens because of fate. As a prisoner, Billy has no control over his day to day life. While Billy is in Dresden, the city is bombed, because of luck, only Billy and a few others survive the bombing in a slaughterhouse. The people of Tralfamadore tell Billy that humans do not understand time because everything they do is in singular progression.
In the novel El Puente “The Bridge” written by Ito Romo who was born and raised in Laredo, Texas when he wrote this novel he wanted to show people how is the life living in the border of United States and Mexico. The Bridge was taken place in a town of the Rio Grande the pure border of the United States and Mexico. Thirteen women of all ages and different from background react one day that the river turn crimson red. This story covers the problems of each women that are involve to the mysterious changing color of the river. As people also the women were surprise seeing the river turning a different color many news reporter from both sides were making this coverage for first time Rio Grande had turn different color.
The story begins in a small town in America. The Fowler family is faced with the burden, frustration and pain of having to bury their twenty-one year old son, Frank. The inward struggle faced by Matt Fowler, his wife, and family drives him to murder Richard Strout, Frank's killer, in order to avenge his son's murder and bring peace to himself and his family. Matt faced a life-time struggle to be a good father and protect his children from danger throughout their childhood. Dubus describes Matt's inner ...
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
James Baldwin’s a The Fire Next Time” Down at the Cross – a letter from Region of my Mind” directly relates with the relationship of religion and race, exploring the differences between his experience with the Christian church when he was a young man and the ideals of Islam in the town of Harlem. Baldwin explained the whites as a group of people trapped within a purity given by God, and within this purity it allows them innocence. Baldwin analyzes the church or the Christian faith, because it has historically been used to go against black people dating back to the pre-Emancipation, and with a connection gone bad with Africa he also denies the movement of Black Muslim because he seeks to rather reverse hierarchy, than to destroy it. Through
Jake, Lucy’s neighbor was a well-educated kid. He was 15 years old and lives in an old timber house with his parents. Jake’s father was a farmer and had lived in the area since he was a lad. The area seemed to be haunted since creepy tales about all sorts of beasts was told. People even claimed that they were awakened some nights by a howling. Mostly people believed that it was a feral dog but Jakes father incised that it was a wolf, a ghost wolf. He was sure since he had seen a wolf in the forest when he was in Jake’s age, but none believed him. He kept telling his son about the wolf and Jake wanted to find out the truth. Lucy knew about Jake’s curiosity, at the same time as she decided to escape from her unbearable father. So she lied to get Jake by her side on the endless escape from the futureless community. She said that she knew where the wolf’s lair was. Jake got even more curious and joined her wolf hunting-adventure.
When Billy was a child, he was never taught how to swim. One day his dad took him to the pool to “teach” him. Billy’s father threw Billy into the pool, teaching him how “to swim by a method of sink-or-swim” (Vonnegut 55). Right before Billy fell unconscious, he sensed someone coming to rescue him, he “resented that” (Vonnegut 55). By resenting the rescue from a lifeguard, Vonnegut reveals Billy’s preference to escape rather than face his problems, therefore highlighting his weakness from a young age and foreshadowing his fatigue as a soldier during war. Although escape isn't a huge factor is Billy’s decision making throughout Slaughterhouse 5, it is always in the back of his mind as the “easy way out”. Additionally, escape develops an internal conflict between Billy and himself as he struggles to make decisions about facing his hardships or physically escaping his
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally