"The Sweet Hereafter and the Pied Piper"
A tragic event can occur in no longer than a moment and produce a domino effect that can change everything in your life. The book "The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks contains such an event. This book has a modernized undertone of the folk tale "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning. This tale is carried throughout the books entirety. Both of these stories show connections in many ways and almost parallel one another in their basic plot of showing the painful effects disaster can have on a small town. While the people of Hamlin had the Piper to directly blame for their miseries, the people of Sam Dent did not.
Both stories are based on the loss of the children in a small town. In "The Pied Piper" the town's children are lost forever when the Pied Piper leads the majority of them into a cave and seals it off, leading them away from their families, never to return. This occurs due to the towns people's greed and dishonesty to hold an agreement with the pied piper, basically a payment for ridding there town of its rat infestation. If the parents had paid their owed debt to the Piper their children's lives might have been spared.
In "The Sweet Hereafter" the town's children are lost in a sudden bus crash. Similar to the folk tale it can be seen that this event is almost a payment or rather punishment for all the immoral acts occurring within this town; such as adultery and incest. From this bus accident the small town of Sam Dent doesn't know how to react or whom or what to blame. In both stories the communities are really just in shock as to the "unbelievable" loss that they have just encountered; they are both attempting to find meaning in a tragic event...
... middle of paper ...
...traveling before it crashed. She does this because she is extremely fed-up with all the legal proceedings surrounding the accident and the manner in which the townspeople are acting towards it.
The Parallels that exist between these two tales can not be denied. The twists that are given to the old "Pied Piper" story to create it into something like "The Sweet Hereafter" are really interesting to see. Though "The Pied Piper" is a baseline for this book it also incorporates so much more. In the folk tale moral issues such as dishonesty are dealt with, in the book moral issues such as incest and infidelity are shown. Both stories have similar characters and take place in isolated rural small towns. Russell Banks saw the extended meaning in the folk tale of "The Pied Piper" and used it to write a very fascinating book with similar meanings and tragic events.
Both stories feature a father figure who creates the action and attempts to play God.
These two stories, although written by two different authors present similarities in the characteristics of the main character. Sammy and Tommy are presented with adversity they had previously never faced. Sammy has to decide should he stand up for the girls by quitting and be the hero or should he mind his own business and keep his job. Sammy is forced to quickly make a decision which his boss Lengel feels he made to rashly. “’I don’t think you know what you’re saying,’ Lengel said” (Updike, pg. 146). For Sammy his decision is what he feels he needs to do and he never regrets his choice. Tommy is faced with adversity of a different kind, he has to decide should he believe the teacher and listen to what she is saying or should he, like the other children, think she is strange and a liar. When she loses her job Tommy is forced to make a decision, confront the child who got her fired, or stay quiet and let the matter slide as it is not his problem. For both the boys their actions could be beneficial to them or it could cause them future problems. An example, if Sammy...
The similarities are prolific in their presence in certain parts of the novel, the very context of both stories shows similarities, both are dealing with an oppressed factor that is set free by an outsider who teaches and challenges the system in which the oppressed are caught.
When comparing the themes of each story, surprising similarities arise. First, both are developed around the lives of children. In “The Destructors” a group of boys called the Wormsley Gang have the same view of the world around them. They have grown up together and share stories about the bombs that destroyed their town. They also challenge each other to accomplish various tasks. The house that the boys ultimately destroy represents the greediness of Mr. Thomas, an architect who owns the tattered home. The Wormsley Gang called him ‘Old Misery’. In the Rocking Horse Winner”, the story’s plot is thickend by a a young boys obsessive desire to “become lucky”. This young boy, Paul, believes that his house is continually whispering, “…there must be more money…there must be more money”. Paul is able to relate the self-proclaimed dissatificatoin of his mothers life with the odd mood of his house. Paul knows that although his mother appears to have everything together on the outside, she does not love him on the inside. Paul believes that he can please his mother if he is able to find a way to give her more money. In both stories, the houses were very symbolic.
The basic ideas of the two novels are also similar. They have to do with rebellion against the so-called perfect new world and the sanctuary they find at the end. John the savage found peace by hanging himself. (It was hard to notice that, but I did. It made an excellent ending to the novel.)
Things that are similar about the two novels and how both of their dreams were crushed are both are groups of people who have these dreams and each finds or meets something that can help their dreams come true, the pearl and Candy. Furthermore, the realization of their dreams coming to an end is, in both books, caused by the death of someone who is a part of the dream, Coyotito and Lennie.
...ers were portrayed in both of these stories. Each character has a personal story that most people can relate do on a couple different levels. A common thread can be found in each of these books. It is easy to relate with these characters because no matter when these stories were written, the themes can be timeless. Parts and pieces of the novels can still be found in our world today and in our day to day life. Perseverance and courage is a trait that can be brought away from reading both of these books.
The themes that are similar in both of the novels are that guilt is detrimental to oneself and that redemption is key to happiness. These points are especially
"The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks is a fictional novel based on a real life tragedy. The story is about a community coping with the loss of almost all of its children after the towns school bus is involved in an accident in which most of them die. The accident occurs on a treacherous winding highway when the driver loses control of the school bus and it plunges down an embankment into an ice covered sandpit. The novel is unique in the way that it is written because it's story is told 4 different ways, from 4 different characters, each one filling you in just a little more on their perspective of what really happened. One of these characters is Mitchell Stephens. He is a lawyer from New York City with an undeniable past. He is a compelling character with an interesting story.
While reading different stories, you can find many similarities between the texts. For example, Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are two stories that have many similarities. Throughout the story, the characters have many of the same traits. Similar events take place in the two stories. All these events lead both stories to a tragic ending. Stories can be similar in many ways. The characters, the setting, and the story line itself. Stories can also be very different. One may talk about an event that will break your heart, while another might bring a smile to your face. The two stories The Man to Send Rain Clouds and Old Man at the Temple have many similarities and differences in their settings due to the place, time, and culture.
William Faulkner and Flannery O’ Conner both have mischievous and morbid characteristics. In Flannery O’Conner’s story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the main focus is that the grandma is old fashioned and uses this to her advantage in telling stories and trying not to get killed. In William Faulkner’s story, A Rose for Emily, it focuses on Emily who is also old fashioned but can’t get with the present time and keeps holding onto the past. Both have morbid endings because of their lack of letting go on past events, and use their archaic habits in different ways. In A Rose for Emily, Emily shows multiple signs of not liking change by denying her father’s death, not leaving the house and in A Good Man Is Hard to Find; the grandmother portrays the right way of being a lady, and her jokes associating with the plantation and the Negro child.
Both narratives compare as timeless tales of reputable heroes. They both include similar plots of long journeys back home. The main characters’ flaws are arrogance which is the source of many of their troubles.
Even though these two books may seem very different, they also share many similarities. Though they are not related through their plots, they definitely share some very important themes and resemblance of characters. Through these similarities, two different stories in completely different time frames and locations can be brought together in many instances.
The common elements in the two stories are the wolf, Little Red (Riding Hood/Cap), her grandmother, and her mother. The beginnings of the stories are also similar: Little Red?s mother sends her to grandmother?s house because the grandmother is ill. Both stories mention that Little Red is personable, cute, and sweet. This is something that, on initial inspection, seems irrelevant but holds a deeper meaning for the symbolism behind the story. In both stories, the wolf, wandering through the woods, comes on Little Red and asks where she is going. When Little Red responds that she is going to visit her sick grandmother, the wolf distracts her with the suggestion that she should pick some flowers so that he can get to her grandmother?s house first. The wolf arrives at Little Red?s grandmother?s house before Little Red and disguises his voice in order to be let in. When he is let into the house, he promptly devours the grandmother and disguises himself in her clothes in order to eat Little Red as well. At this point, the two narratives diverge.
...ion over. The settings vary significantly but vary to give the story meaning towards its origins. The plots are somewhat similar whereas the innocent come into contact with the villain, where the villain is always the loser. The characters always include the villain and the heroin. There will always be a way of contrasting folktales that have different versions, it's up to the students whom acquire the assignment of actual comparing and contrasting to actually literally achieve that tasks given.