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the chocolate war argumentative
the chocolate war argumentative
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In life, destiny is already set. The plan is to make the correct decisions, free will is a gift God has given all living beings. A decision is based on free will, there is ether the right path or the wrong one. So, why not dare to be different? Jerry Renault chose a path that he did not think would cause him pain and suffering. The Chocolate War written by Robert Cormier illustrates what individuals go through at some point in their lifetime, making life changing decisions.
As the story begins, Jerry is introduced as a kid who is trying out for the football team, he’s a small kid standing at 5 9’ and a buck 45. He’s bullied around by many of this kids at school. His coach asks him, “What the hell you trying to play football for? You need more meat on those bones.” (Cormier 9) From here the author shows Jerry’s heart and determination from an early stage. Even though it was not likely that he would make the team, he chooses to come back the next day, ironically Jerry ends up being their starting quarterback. Jerry attends an all boys school. Simply put, with men and boys, whoever is...
In this section the importance of destiny is again reminded to us. In this story the idea of God chooses your destiny and some of us become kings and some become slaves. It doesn’t matter what you do because you can’t change your destiny God has picked out for you.
Fourteen-year-old Jerry Renault is like your typical skinny or thin teenager in his freshman year at Trinity, a boys' Catholic high school. He tends to dwell on depressive emotion, sexual frustration due to hormones, and loneliness from his mother as well as asking his own existent in the world. He is has no mother and had recently died in a few months. He often remembers and recalling times of his parents lived together in a house with a large backyard and front lawn which his father never got tired of mowing it. He's trying to make quarterback and to do well in school despite that fact weighing him down. As well as being best to be a good son to his widowed father but Jerry is beginning to freak out of his father’s boring life style. He worries about ending up like his dad and being stuck in the same routine as his father. Realizing this factor, Jerry decides to make a change in his life out of impulse saying "No" to chocolates but, he's really saying "no" to the entire “universe” that The Vigils and Brother Leon created at Trinity. The random guy out from the streets accuses Jerry of being a "Square boy. Middle aged at fourteen… “. Disregarding the guy’s aimless lifestyle, he begins questioning all the routines in his life. It’s not like he doesn't love and appreciate his father but Jerry becomes more worried that he'll grow up and be trapped in the kind of boring life as his dad. He comes to the realization that his father is stuck living a dull, almost unhappy life as he looks in the mirror and "sees his father's face reflected in his own features." We can see also in the story, Jerry tends to waver in the border lines of excitement and boredom by isolating himself and not being isolated. In the beginning of t...
The Chocolate War is a story which takes place in New England in the 1970's. Most of the events happen in a Catholic school. Since this school was exclusively for boys, they were constantly trying to prove their power over each other. The story is told in third person omniscient. The story's mood is suspenseful. With each page turn one wonders if Jerry will take or refuse his chocolates. The protagonist of this story is Jerry Renault and the antagonist in Archie Costello. Jerry is a very quiet fifteen year old boy. He is also the quarterback for the Trinity High junior varsity football team. He is a very troubled individual due to his mother's death. He appears to be angry toward the whole world. Jerry is very ordinary and wants more change in his life instead of the same old thing. Archie Costello is 17 year old boy who is a member of the high school's very prestigious club called The Vigils. Archie is the "assignment giver". He gives assignments to the younger class men to do very mischievous things; for example, loosening all screws on desk chairs and chalkboards so that they will fall apart when students and teachers touch them. Archie is very clever and conniving.
In this essay I shall argue that Paul Rée is correct in saying that free will is just an illusion. Throughout the reading entitled “The Illusion of Free Will,” Rée makes numerous great points about how we believe we have free will but we really do not. He discusses how one’s childhood upbringing determines his actions for the rest of his life, which, as a result, diminishes his freedom of will. He brings about the major issues with the common thought that since you could have acted in a different way than you actually did, you have free will. Another main argument was the proof of the reality of the law of causality, which can also be referred to as determinism.
The fact that the reader is reading this paper must mean they chose to do so, right? Or was this all predetermined based on their past experiences? Human beings want to believe that they are in control of their lives, and have the ability to decide between choices. To be in control is what everyone wants, because it makes them feel safe, at ease; but this may not be the case. According to the article “The Problem of Free Will”, to believe in free will is to believe that the future is more open rather than determined, and that the agent has the power to shape it (4). Then there are determinists, who think that this argument is unpersuasive because of the insufficient evidence. The article features a scenario in which a girl has had arachnophobia her whole life.
Destiny, as Merriam Webster Dictionary, means “a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency”. Throughout the ages, historians, philosophers, psychologists, theologians, sociologists, biologists, jurists, and other scholars have struggled with the issue of free will versus fate and predestination. Where fate is related to the theme of trying to change one’s position in life. And the ultimate fate is that of death. But free will implies that human beings are endowed with the capacity for choice of action or for decision among alternatives. Fate and predestination are moving in the same direction to reach the same result Determinism is the doctrine that every action, event, or decision is the inevitable result of earlier causes, such as psychological, physical, or environmental conditions, which are independent of the human
In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Jerry Renault. As he is trying out for the school’s football team, Archie and Obie, two members of The Vigils, are writing “assignments” for the chosen boys at school. If the boy fails to complete or do his assignment he gets punished by The Vigils. Archie sees Jerry get slaughtered by the football team and still manage to get up. Archie then decides to give Jerry one of his assignments. “‘The assignment must fit the kid. That’s the beauty of it, Obie... Put him down for the chocolates’” (Cormier 15-16).
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, Elie and other Jews judge what is right from wrong by using their conscience and free will. Because of Germany’s current leader at the time, Adolf Hitler, the promise of economic reform and a stronger military infrastructure quickly turned somber as the effect of these promises impacted the Jewish community. Without a doubt, many Jews were able to tell the difference between right and wrong using their conscience and make the choice to say it based on their free will. The same principle can apply to any individual no matter how severe the situation is. In the book Night, Elie and other Jews were sent to multitudes of camps for either labor or execution. In Elie’s case, extensive labor was forced upon him and his father. Elie and his dad were
Everyday throughout life you live with the idealism of free-will, even if you believe in a bigger plan throughout guided by fate. You chose how you live, you make decisions about life, which may lead to a predestined fate that we may not know existed. What if we could see the blueprints of our fate? Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse five could. He wrestled with both ideals throughout his life. Billy Pilgrim’s life of free-will lead him to a predestined fate with numbed emotions.
There has been a long debate on if a person can control their destiny or not. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare and The Sports gene by David Epstein both have similar views, that says a person cannot control their destiny. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, follows the life of Macbeth and his best friend Banquo on their lives towards their ultimate fates/destinies. The Sports Gene, by David Epstein, follows the journey of Donald Thomas to finding out that he has a skill in high jump. Shakespeare and Epstein both have similar views and have details about their reasonings; even though the two pieces are very similar Shakespeare better answers the question, how much of what happens in our lives do we control, because he has multiple reasonings and
The outcome of things depends on both the power of the individual and destiny because they tie in with each other. Things do not just happen, randomly, they happen for a reason only to be seen at the end of things. For example, Jim was raised by his parents in Virginia until they died, upon which his relatives shipped him west to his grandparents. This is part of his journey through life which was predetermined. Jim, as an adult writing, realizes that Destiny makes our decisions and nothing need be worried about because he "did not say my prayers that night [the first night on the farm in Nebraska]: here, I felt, what would be would be." (7) The next big chance Jim takes where his is unsure of what will happen is going to college. Over there he befriends Gaston Cleric, a Classics Instructor. Later on Cleric gets a job at Harvard that "he would like to take me East with him. To my astonishment, gran...
Choices are hard to make in life and well said by Graham Brown is that “Life is about choices. Some we regret, some we’re proud of. Some will haunt us forever. The message: we are what we choose to be” Each time we make choice our life we usually get in dilemmas between choosing our comfort versus choose what other people want you to do. Similarly, on the Rainy River short story the main character O’Brien also had this conflict when he received his draft about going to the war.
In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess provides many examples relating to the topic of free will. Throughout the novel Burgess makes several attempts to show the importance of free will and many other themes through Alex, the main character. Alex goes through trials and tribulations in his journey through life. From being with his “droogs” in a milkbar to prison to being a guinea pig as they were trying to “cure” him. “Ultimately A Clockwork Orange shows that free will and choice can be harmful and dangerous but is ultimately an inherent part of human beings that cannot be repressed or manipulated for the benefits of the state” (Kolker, 2003).
Destiny, also known as fate, is said to control the outcome of one's life. However, does destiny really determine what occurs in people’s lives on a daily basis or is it just a convenient excuse when things don’t go as planned? The Truman Show is a 1998 film directed by Peter Weir that shows us that the decisions we make define our destiny rather than our destiny defining our decisions. Without knowing, Truman Burbank has been the star of a reality television show since birth. Having no control of the events that happen in his life, Truman decides to get out of the town that seems to keep him hostage. Truman could have decided to let Christof, the creator of his world, keep him in Seahaven for the rest of his
Life is very much like driving. You are free to choose any one of the many options before you both now and in the future, but not every option will take you where God would want you to go.