In the novel The Unvanquished, written by William Faulkner, honor is dealt with first hand throughout the novel. In some cases, like Ab Snopes, there is a major lack of honor. But the characters Bayard and his Grandmother, Granny, have honor, and lots of it. Though Granny dies, it is an honorable death that brings out honor in Bayard. Bayard is a young man and is changing, as he grows so does his honor. When in the end he displays his honor in many different ways. Ab Snopes is a conniving devious character that is only in the war for booty. Ab never shows true honor in this novel, and possibly anywhere because he has no honor. Honor plays a key part in this novel and is vividly shown by each character.
Granny takes care of Bayard and his black friend Ringo for most of the book. She dealt with hard times, and had to do some bad things, but she did it honorably, and taught the two boys about honor. Granny ran a business with Bayard Ringo where they stole mules and horses from the Yankees, then sold them back. She was a southern woman, and this was her way of fighting the war. Because she needed the boys help to do this, they had to do some sinful things. Granny took the burden of the sins: “I have sinned. I have stolen and I have born false wittiness against my neighbor, though that neighbor was an enemy of my country. And more than that, I have caused these children to sin. I hereby take their sin upon my conscience” (Faulkner 148). Though she is being a good grandmother, she is also taking the sin of two extra people. Granny shows honor here by taking the sins of the boys. Granny also showed the boys that it was not all right to steal.
When Granny walks into a situation unarmed to get some horses she demonstrates honor because she says to the boys that the men won’t harm a woman, she knows that she could die: “And now I am taking no risk: I am a woman. Even Yankees do not harm old women. You and Ringo stay here until I call you. We tried. I keep on saying that because I know now I didn’t” (Faulkner 153). Though she did die, it was not a dishonorable death.
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Respecting your grandparents and elders is a given. Either if your mom warns you to do it or if you’ve just grown to respect them yourself, we all are taught to respect them. In the stories,”Abuela Invents the Zero,” and “Celebration of Grandfathers,” These usual teachings are amplified because respecting your elders would be considered the theme. In “Abuela Invents the Zero,” A teenaged girl named Constancia learns a valuable lesson on this topic, changing her personal values for a lifetime to come. Along with her realizations and now “opened eyes,” Anaya from the story,”Celebration of Grandfathers,” tells us about his life on the farm with his grandfather and growing up being with such a powerful role model. He tells us how these experiences shaped his
William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, has a heavy focus on honor. The characters in the play have a tendency to refer back to honor and the honor of Rome, but are they really as honorable as they say? Honor is a very abstract concept that is widely applicable in many situations, but what is it? To honor someone is to show them respect, and to be honorable is to act in a way that deserves respect and admiration. The characters of Julius Caesar, for the most part, are all seeking some form of honor, but do they achieve it? Three of the best examples of honor in Julius Caesar are Brutus, Cassius, and Portia. With varying levels of honor, these characters display the spectrum well.
This essay will contrast a good and evil concept between two different stories. There is an obvious distinction that stands out between the stories; however they are similar in one way. In A Worn Path (Eudora Welty) and A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O’Conner) the one thing that sticks out, is the main character in both stories. The main character in both stories being the grandmother. Grandmothers are of course an important part of the family. In each story we have a grandmother of a different race, appearance, and attitude. In each story the grandmothers take different journeys, but there is one thing they both face being treated disrespected. We live in a world in which the grandmother resides with the family and helps to take care of the grandchildren. In the world today things are different and times are still hard if not harder. We live in a time when respect is no longer earned. Now days it seems as if respect is not as important as it was in earlier years and it is evident in these two stories.
Firstly, there is verbal irony at the very beginning of the story. The grandmother is presented to us as someone who thinks very highly of herself and needs the rest of the world to think highly of her as well. She is controlling and speaks her mind and is clearly a pain to the rest of her family. As the family discusses their plans to go down to Florida, the grandmother says “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor, 1). This is verbal irony because it is actually what she ends up doing. Because of her need to be dressed like a lady and her need to bring a along Pitty Sing, and her insistence on visiting the old plantation, she actually lead her child and her grandchildren right into the hands of the Misfit. This irony adds a lot to the story. It helps us understand O’Connor’s Grandmother character better and allows us to wonder about this character more. It also allows the reader to uncover certain discrepancies about the truth, like the author is trying to hint something to the readers. Without verbal irony of this kind, the events that happen later in the story wouldn’t be as ironic and the story wouldn’t have as much meaning.
First we will take a look at grandmother. She is made to look like the saint in this story. Her, in contrast to the rest, is the good person, always looking out for the best of others. She is not going on vacation, she is going to visit her "connections" in Tennessee. While on the drive, to their destination, she sits and admires the scenery as the others are more interested in the funny papers or the sports section. She brings the cat along on the trip for the good of the cat. She didn't want the cat to accidently kill himself by turning on the gas on the stove or something. She is the "Christ-like" figure of this story, and this is more relevant at the end of the story when she confronts the Misfit. Just like in so many other O'Connor stories the grandmother, the good character, is going to take the hardest fall.
It is inevitable when dealing regularly with a subject as brutal as war, that death will occur. Death brings grief for the victim’s loved ones, which William Faulkner depicts accurately and fairly in many of his works, including the short story “Shall Not Perish” and The Unvanquished. While the works differ because of the time (The Unvanquished deals with the Civil War while “Shall Not Perish” takes place during World War II) and the loved ones grieving (The Unvanquished shows the grief of a lover and “Shall Not Perish” shows the grief of families), the pain they all feel is the same.
Honor can be defined by how one holds them in the public eye. Others may say that honor is how you live your life when none can see your actions. However defined honor can play major roles in how a person will act in a given situation. The Crucible by Arthur Miller has excellent examples of how honor can manipulate people’s decisions in times of importance. John proctor holds his moral standpoint and does not falter into the temptations of selfishness, while Elizabeth would describe honor as how a person lives their lives. Some can even describe honor as what is most important in life; family. Giles believed that his life was the ultimate object he could sacrifice to maintain his family’s happiness. However honor can be defined, one thing is certain; Everyone has some degree of honor in their lives.
Many people take the word honor very lightly and believe that it is incredibly easy to be defined as a person who shows their honor for the people around them, and that may be true for some people but not for others. Three people who easily fall into the group of being an honorable person includes, William Wallace from the Mel Gibson film Braveheart, Sir Gawain, and Beowulf. Honor may be mistaken for many different things, but the word honor easily falls into the category of being a hero. In order to be a hero someone has to be honorable, and being honorable includes the same characteristics of being considered a hero. There are specifically two different types of heroes including, an Anglo-Saxon Hero and Epic Hero. There are four very strict
In the article, “O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Doyle W. Walls, the author writes about how judgmental the grandmother is and how her actions lead up to her family’s death. Her southern side comes out as her character is building when she calls a little boy a cute “little pickaninny.” As much as the grandmother portrays herself as a good woman and a leader, her actions contradict everything she wants people to believe. The grandmother talks to her grandchildren telling them that they should be good people by listening and showing respect. Walls writes, “The grandmother has just been lecturing her grandchildren concerning
In this story Faulkner appears to be using Drusilla as the primary voice representing the old Southern honor system, an honor system that is distinctly masculine. As the grieving widow, it is Drusilla who seems to be pushing the hardest for retribution in the form of a duel—an option that would put Baynard’s life at risk. Baynard is barely home after his long ride back from college when Drusilla directs, not asks, him to take the dueling pistols (Faulkner 459). Drusilla expects Baynard to challenge her husband’s killer with "the long true [dueling] barrels true as justice" (Faulkner 459). She is inflamed and passionate about Baynard’s chance to kill and speaks glowingly of what so many Southern men in the same position must have thought: "to be permitted to kill, to be permitted vengeance, to take into your bare hands the fire of heaven that cast down Lucifer" (Faulkner 460). Drusilla expects that Baynard one day will be grateful for her support. She tells him that "you will remember me who put into your hands what they say is an attribute only of God’s, who took what belongs to heaven and gave it to you" (Faulkner 459).
Since the beginning of the story, the readers have come to known the grandmother as a spiteful old lady due to her repulsive and deceitful attitudes toward others. Right from the start, we can see the grandmother using her manipulative tactics on her family. “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.” (O’Connor 1) This initial quote shows an early indication that the grandmother is determined to obtain whatever she wants and will not allow anything to get in her way, even if it means manipulating her own family. This line already suggests that the grandmother may have sly motives concealed in her mind. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen a...
The grandmother’s personality is that of the typical human character. We all know someone like her. Some of us, more than likely, are her. The key is to break down those nuances of her and see our own selves within. We see her behavior exposed within the first sentence of the story, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind.” (O’Connor, 186) Immediately we are given evidence of a stubborn, will-bending woman. Her personality grows uglier as the story continues, she compares her daughter-in-law’s face to a cabbage, later she sneaks her cat in the car, lies about details of a house to have her way, and soon after even hides the fact that she has the family driving in the...
In the Unvanquished, a version of southern masculinity is developed through the narrator using dialect and the device, or should I say vice of memory. Fairly early in the novel, the reflective standpoint of the narrator becomes obvious, and a certain sense of “retelling” the story, not just telling it as it happened, prevails. This use of memory is not necessarily selective but it does show the processing of perceptions of the narrator’s childhood. As readers, we first get the sense that we are hearing the story from a much older Bayard when he drops comments like “I was just twelve then; I didn’t know triumph; I didn’t even know the word” (Unvanquished 5). If he was just twelve then, he could be just fifteen or sixteen when retelling this story, assuming the grandiosity that adolescence creates, leading to such thoughts as “I was just a kid then.” However, the second part of the statement reveals a much older and wiser voice, the voice of someone who has had time to think out such abstractions as triumph and failure. Furthermore, the almost obsessive description of the father in the first part of the novel seems like the narrator comes to terms, much later in life, with how he viewed his father as a man. “He was not big” (9) is repeated twice on the same page. He was short enough to have his sabre scrape the steps while ascending (10), yet he appeared large and in command, especially when on his horse (13). The shape and size of a man being an important part in defining masculinity, I think Baynard grappled with his father’s physical presence as well as his tenuous position as a leader in the Confederate Army. Other telling moments are on page 66 when Baynard postulates what a child can accept as true in such incredible situations and on page 95 with his declarations on the universality of war. (Possibly he is an old man now and has lived to see other wars.) Upon realizing the distance between the setting of the story and age of its narrator, the reader is forced to consider how memory and life itself have affected the storytelling.
William Faulkner's novel "As I Lay Dying" centers on the death and ensuing burial of the matriarch of the Bundren family, Addie. The book is written in first person point of view and is narrated by family members and acquaintances of Addie. It is through the narratives of the other characters that her personality is revealed. Few clearly defined details about Addie are given in the novel, and as such, the reader must learn about her through the narrations of the other characters. Addie Bundren is a complex woman with many conflicting personality traits that often influence others.