In the movie, ‘To Save a Life’ one of the main themes is centralized around the saving of lives. This theme was portrayed by several characters to each other must prominently Jake saving Johnny’s life. In order to understand the great feat and magnificent action he had performed, the theme must first be clearly defined. The action of saving is defined as keeping safe, protecting or rescuing someone or something from any potential or particular harm; Life is defined as the existence of an individual human being. Three (3) main instances in which it is portrayed that Jake had saved Johnny’s life will be discussed in this essay. These instances are as followed; one, when Jake had invited Johnny to join the Christian lunch group; two, when Jake had insisted on spending time with Johnny instead of leaving him by himself at home and; finally three, when Jake had cleared Johnny’s reputation as the school bomb caller and also physically stopped him from overdosing on pills.
After forming the Christian lunch group with Andrea, a member of the teenage Christian youth group, Jake had decided to invite Johnny, a teenage boy who had recently been ridiculed by a fake invitation to a party, to join him. At the first few invitations Johnny had not accepted giving excuses such as having “Math Homework”, eventually however, he had joined the group and had begun to be much happier and vibrant in personality. If Jake had not invited Johnny to lunch with his new found friends more than likely the young teenager would continue to have feelings of worthlessness and of being unappreciated. This can be assumed due to the fact that, at the end of the movie, Johnny had written a note to Jake thanking him for his lunch invitation and making him feel as though life is worth living because people care about his wellbeing. He had then ended the letter by saying, “If you [Jake] hadn’t invited me to lunch that day I don’t know where I’d be right now.”
In the second instance, Jake had once again saved Johnny’s life by being persistent in not letting Johnny stay by himself after dropping him at home from school. Jake repeatedly insists that Johnny invites him in and even goes to great lengths by stalling Johnny and telling him that he also likes video games. This act saved Johnny’s life in two ways, as one, it resulted in him having a friend whom he could lean on for emotional support and two, it physically stopped him from making any attempts to suicide or to cause himself harm by cutting his wrists.
The story begins with Jake driving on the freeway. He is so enraptured by his daydream of better possibilities that he ends up smacking the car ahead of him. Jake considers driving away but instead he stops and finds out that the owner of the Toyota he hit was a beautiful girl. From there, Jake switches into his smooth talker role with Mariana. Jake then tries to con her by saying he doesn't have any insurance and assures her that he will pay for it. As he drives away, he sees Mariana behind him writing down the license plate numbers that he stole from another car.
Where do babies come from? The Birds and Bees, the stork, and the “talk”, at one point in time, we’ve all heard versions of where babies come from. In the film, Life’s Greatest Miracle, the question of where babies come from is answered in much more detail than many of us knew when we heard our own versions. In this essay, I will discuss the pattern of development, aspects of the movie, and the hindrances of successful conception, how sensitivity to food smells could protect the developing fetus, lastly address concerns in the movie that the mother and father had about childbirth.
Courage and determination directed by passion make Junior a very admirable character. By sympathizing with Junior, the reader feels that Junior is inspiring. An early example of when the reader pitied Junior was when his dog Oscar was shot, who Junior considered to be “a better person than any human [he] had ever known” (Alexie, 9). Oscar had been sick, and since Junior’s family did not have enough money to care for him, Oscar was euthanized. Furthermore, Junior felt defeated, saying, “A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that” (Alexie, 14). Everyone, especially poor people, can be plagued with death and despair. From the very beginning of the story, where the reader learns that Junior had a brain disability to the dreadful way he experienced poverty, the reader sympathizes with him because they are truly sorry for him. The reader wants him to succeed, to grow, and, above all, to inspire the readers themselves. Junior becomes a hero to the reader for soaring above what his life entailed for him.
The main point is that in chapter 5, Johnny goes inside the church in order to save the kids inside it. Johnny manages to survive the fire at first, however he has gotten the worst injuries out of the fire and is forced to stay in the hospital, this starts in chapter 7 and when they visit Johnny, they tell them that he is in critical condition and that he was suffering from third degree burns, however Dally is fine, but injured. They keep on visiting Johnny in the hospital and they see that he is getting worse and worse. And finally, in chapter 10, Johnny dies after being in critical condition for a long
Even though Johnny was faced with death, he faced death with courage. Johnny showed that, by keeping a positive attitude through this whole ordeal. Johnny’s hope, positive attitude, and courage kept his death at bay, even in the face of terrible pain and incurable illness. " But later that day he developed an excruciating headache, the only fierce and intense pain he suffered during the whole course of his illness-a small mercy, perhaps, but one to be devoutly grateful for"(p24) Johnny was faced with unimaginable pain throughout his illness; yet he maintained a level of hope and determination to live. At the young age that Johnny was at, and to face death, it must have took a lot of courage to stay positive. Johnny kept fighting, determined to recuperate, even if he had to do things himself. "I watched him give himself a hypodermic injection of liver extract on the side above the hip, an awkward place to reach. I could not possibly have done on anybody, let alone myself." (p77) Johnny, had to ta...
Before Johnny died from his severe burns and broken back he gave Ponyboy a book, Gone With The Wind, he found a note from Ponyboy saying “stay gold”. Ponyboy’s friendship with Johnny is so strong that he is persuaded to write an English assignment about his experiences. Johnny mentions that saving the children was worth sacrificing his own life. Johnny thinks sacrificing his life for the children is worth his life, because they still have their whole life to live and Johnny was going to get arrested if he would have lived. Johnny wants Ponyboy to do better for himself, and he believes he can achieve anything because he is strong.
You can tell a lot about a story by its title. Some might say that this is judging a book by its cover, however a title is basically an overview of the entire story, summarized in less than ten words. Flannery O’Connor’s (1925-1964) story, The Life you save May be Your Own, has a gargantuan title. From this title, you can infer that the ending of this story is a life changing one. This story has a very grotesque theme. However, it takes place in a very well light area, which shows a lot of contrast to the dark theme. In this story, its starts off with a man who has had an exciting past meet with a family who has most certainly not. He seems nice, but throughout the story, the characters show their true colors. By the end, the story takes a sharp turn from blissful to outrageous. There are three reasons why the title of Flannery O’ Connor’s story, The Life You Save May be Your Own, relates so well to the text.
This passage shows Jake 's inability to look past the war due to the changes he has experience because of it, even during what some would speculate as the most exciting event of the year in Spain. It shows that essentially, one must acknowledge their sorrows to be able to move on with their lives; otherwise, the turmoil and disilusionment that occurs can negatively affect one 's life
Jake considers himself free because he has no job holding him down, he knows in order to have a “steady occupation” (248) he would be giving up his freedom. Jake thinks about a steady job once “A steady occupation had its advantages, and he couldn’t deny thinking about that too.” (248). Gilbs lets the reader know that Jake is well aware the results of having a job would give him the necessities to make his life easier as well as help achieve his goals. But instead, Jake went back to thinking about the interior of his dream car, which caused the car accident. Immediately after the accident, Jake begins to think of quick lies and begins womanizing the woman he hit. Jake begins to flirts with the women by saying “So maybe we should go to coffee somewhere and talk it over” (249). And although she rejects the invitation the reader starts to realize Jakes motive. Jake was also trying to impress the women by telling her “‘I act too’, he lied to enhance the effect more. ‘Been in a couple of movies’,” (250) Ironically in this situation he had to stop thinking about his fantasy life and had to think of lies to make everything believable. What becomes revealed is that Jakes has it worse than originally thought “She was writing down the license plate number on his Buick, ones that he’d taken off a junk because the ones that belonged to him had expired so long ago” (250). Because Jakes license plate
Threats made him great because they made him think about what he was going to do with his life if he did not behave, and his future didn't look so bright. Also, others not reacting when he misbehaved made Jake a greater person because he just wanted attention and when he didn't get it he stopped. Finally, discovering his passion made Jake great because it gave him joy and he started to relate to others and want to also give them happiness. To summarize, Jake went through a lot, his parents were in jail, he moved in with a new family, and was threatened to be locked up. Jake's life was an emotional roller coaster, and he could have sat around feeling sorry for himself. But instead, he helped the Applewhites, worked hard and tried to please others. He realized that he could change his future. He stepped up to the challenge and made a difference in his life. Jake became
Dally is always getting into trouble and disregarding the law. He does not care if he gets caught because Dally believes he has nothing to live for. After losing Johnny, Dally pulls a gun on the police. Pony says, “I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted” (154). Dally knew the police would shoot him after he pulled out the gun, but Dally does not see a point to living anymore. He committed suicide due to feeling his life was not worth living. Dally’s action shows he does not value his life. Likewise, Johnny does not find his life valuable either. With all of the abuse Johnny endured in his life, he feels so worthless to the point where he does not want to live anymore. In the letter he wrote to Ponyboy, it is clear he feels this way. Johnny writes, “Their lives are worth more than mine, they have more to live for” (178). Johnny is referring to the kids he saved in the church; he places more value on the kids’ lives than his own because Johnny feels he does not have a purpose for living. An additional example of Johnny placing little value on his life is when he and Ponyboy are in the lot. Johnny says, “‘I’ll kill myself or something’” (47). Only a person who considers their life unimportant would experience suicidal thoughts. Therefore, Johnny feels convinced his life has little significance. Neither Johnny nor Dally
Just as Johnny’s courage shines through so does his fast maturity from child to adult. His childhood was stolen away from him by his illness but instead of sulking he pulls himself together. He takes every difficulty in stride, and gets through them. Even when he is feeling down he hides it for he does not want anyone else to feel his pain. Being a seventeen year old boy he wants to do the things all other seventeen year old boys do.
Johnny once was a teen who wasn't cowardly, and stood up for his gang. He was a good man in a rumble and kept his mouth shut around the police, but things changed when he was jumped by the Socs. The assault left him more anxious than ever, and ended up carrying a six-inch switchblade in his back pocket, despite that he was the most law-abiding of the gang. In addition, Johnny didn't do well in school, he had failed a year in school and never made good grades (Hinton 65). But even so, Johnny is more than a quiet, anxious kid who does poorly in school. Notably, when Ponyboy and Johnny were hiding in the church, the pair occasionally read a book called Gone with the Wind in order to pass the time. While they were reading, Ponyboy remarked, "It amazed me how Johnny could get more meaning out of some of the stuff in there than I could--- I was supposed to be the deep one... and I guess his teachers thought he was just plain dumb. But he wasn't. He was just a little slow to get things, and he liked to explore things once he did get them" (Hinton 65). This shows that he is able to comprehend the message and/or significance of a story or concept, albeit it takes him a long period of time. Although he was high-strung, quiet, and seemingly believed to be dumb by his teachers, Johnny is, in truth, quite reflective and
Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...
A true act of heroism comes in many forms. It could be a firefighter running into a burning building to save lives, a police officer who stops a robbery or even our military men and women who fight for our freedoms. For me, another act of heroism is someone who battles cancer. None of us expected the news we were about to hear. My boss was being treated for flu like symptoms for seven weeks and tried two different antibiotics. Because he was on antibiotics and was not any better his primary care physician ordered a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. This is when his life changed.