...Reaction Paper-Fiction: Short Story “Misery” by Anton Chekhov Scott Battaglioli University of Phoenix “Misery,” written by Anton Chekhov is a story about a lonely old sledge driver in 19th century Russia. In the story, Iona Potapov has just lost his son a week before. He is drowning in grief, expressed by his sitting still on his sledge and allowing himself to be covered in snow. He is a man who seems to have lost all hope. The only thing that Potapov wants is to discuss the loss of his son with another human being. He longs to connect to someone and try to make sense of the situation. Maybe he just seeks to connect so that he does not feel so alone. In this story Chekhov was trying to illustrate his belief that people have grown accustomed to the suffering of others, and therefore pay little attention to it. Chekhov shows us different characters with different personalities, but all indifferent to Potapov’s plight. The military officer is impatient and rude. He pretends to be deep in thought to avoid the conversation with Potapov. The three young men are self-absorbed and rowdy. They take advantage of Potapov’s grief and pay him an unfair wage. They also so abusive behavior towards him. The young cabby at the yard shows complete indifference to the older man’s suffering by falling asleep while Potapov bears his soul. Potapov’s final chance to get his feelings out comes with his horse. Though she cannot answer, she can listen. I think most people can...
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...their wishes was a good idea at all. “Aunty Misery”, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, is a short story about a woman who makes a wish for children to stop plucking the pears off from her pear tree. Though the...
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...the past. The staircase as well as the paneling in the house are 200 years old. The house was built by a famous architect. In the time that the story takes place, architects are too becoming a thing of the past, as people don't care about the quality or appearance of the buildings that are created. Most of all, the house is the one of few to have survived the first blitz, a series of bombings in London. It is all that is left of the past, and it keeps Old Misery just there. He...
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...Pangloss was a philosopher and was also Candide’s mentor. Pangloss believed the world is “the best of all possible worlds.” This assumption is one that Voltaire poked fun of throughout the novel. It is very apparent that Voltaire thought this was an outrages belief. This is apparent to the reader by the way Voltaire explained the journey Candid, the old women, and other characters faced during this time. Voltaire made you question how anyone could believe the world is “the best of all worlds” when things such as rape, torture, and destruction were conflicted upon these people. He expresses his belief of reason when the old lady says that she has considered suicide. With all that she went through the thought of suicide seemed like a reasonable reaction. During Candides time in Eldorado, he obtains a great deal of wealth. He uses his wealth during his journey to find Cunégonde. Candide uses his wealth to try and buy the help of others. He finds those that his wealth only brings him trouble. People were not interested in helping Candide. They just wanted his wealth. This is also...
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...and heroes. With this in mind, sympathy looks like a very altruistic principle, quite void of any self-interest at all. This view of sympathy, however, is not the view that Smith sustains throughout Theory of Moral Sentiments. In fact, as Smith continues to dissect the causes and effects of our sympathetic nature, it begins to look more and more as if sympathy is based in concern for oneself. This notion is rooted in one of Smith’s primary definitions of sympathy; that sympathy is a sentiment that arises from observing passion in others, but does not necessarily reflect the exact same passion in the observer as it does in the observed. Instead, when humans are observing a situation that elicits passion in others – whether it is anger, misery, or happiness – they imagine themselves in the...
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...qualities of the characters are good, some are not so good, and some are just evil. The characters in The Rocking Horse Winner are Paul, Paul’s mom who is not identified by name till the last sentence of the story, Uncle Oscar Creswell, and Bassett. In The Destructors the characters are Mike, Blackie, T or (Trevor), and Old Misery or (Thomas). One thing that is similar about the characters in the two stories is the number, both have four main characters. Both stories are centered on the actions of young people; The Destructors there is only one adult, and three boys, and in The Rocking Horse Winner there is one boy and three adults. The protagonist of both stories is a boy, Paul is assumed to be about nine or ten, where T is assumed to be about fourteen or fifteen. The outstanding qualities of the main characters from both stories greatly very, both Greene and Lawrence developed these qualities throughout the story’s, in some instances only giving a small glimpse. Lawrence showed that Paul’s mom was a cold and greedy woman. Lawrence shows us the coldness in the opening paragraph saying that she married for love but it had died, and also by her reactions to her children. Her greediness is portrayed through the story by her responses to money they do or do not have and how that affected the children, especially Paul. Paul’s outstanding quality is a psychic ability. This quality is slowly disclosed to the reader, in the beginning it is implied, but then is...
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...Adversity plays many active roles when shaping one’s identity. Everyone goes through adversity at some point in their life, although some individuals have it harder than others, any misfortune or hardship is reflected back on to our identities. Any suffering we engage in is reflected through our strengths and weaknesses that are sourced from identity. Adversity is nevertheless a factor that shapes identity, but it is also a learning aspect. Image by Stephen Shaver displays that the reactions you have to misery and suffering surrounding you builds identity. Despite the fact that the little girl many not have much, she is offering all she has to help another individual. In this act of kindness the little girl is not thinking about herself and is merely distracted by the wellbeing of another, this reflects who she is, as you can see her pureness and heart through her actions. Essentially, actions speak louder than words, and these actions are displaying a person with compassion unselfishness....
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...It was once thought that fate was an unwavering force that was decided at birth, but that has proven to be false. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, W.W Jacobs explores the consequences of interfering with fate through grief, greed, and superstition. The death of Herbert proves that changing a person's destiny leads them to face severe consequences. Also, Sergent Morris' introduction of the cursed monkey's paw causes the Whites to go through many hardships and emotional trauma. As evident in “The Monkey’s Paw,” people’s inability to deal with greed, superstition and grief lead to sorrow and loss. Tampering with a person's destiny leads to them facing severe consequences. Herbert sees an opportunity to grow his family's wealth by using an unnatural object...
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...Compare and contrast the reactions to death in Thomas Hardy’s poem ‘The Voice’ and an extract from Emily Bronte’s novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ Both Hardy and Bronte portray the different aspects to death through the use of their male protagonist and speaker. The first way the poet and writer does this is through their male protagonist’s reaction to the death of their loved one. In Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Voice’ the speaker feels a sense of loss and longing for his dead lover demanding a response “how you call to me, call to me” suggesting that the death of his lover has somewhat changed him, in the sense that he no longer interacts with the physical world he is within, but instead wishes to be re-joined with her beyond the point of reality. Furthermore, the speaker begins to doubt himself comparing the wind with the voice of his lover. “Wind oozing thin” when “the women calling” infers that this doubt has turned into madness by the forth stanza. The wind can further be compared to a raw, harshness that penetrates right to the core of someone, which can be seen as what his lover did to him when they broke and when she died. The structure of this poem possibly reflects the way in which over time, the loss of the speaker’s lover is slowly driving him insane, and although he was almost speaking about her in admiration at the start of the poem with “Women much missed” but now he is faltered, and changed due to her death. Opposing Hardy’s speaker as a crazed man by the end of his poem, in...
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...To demonstrate this, Steinbeck uses the motif of animals to show the detriment in a different kind of companionship. Throughout the beginning of the story, Candy is with his dog and they have a special companionship. Candy says, “I ought to have shot that dog myself, George” (67). This shows how Candy admits that having the companionship with the dog kept the dog alive too long, even when the dog was in substantial amounts of pain. The companionship was detrimental because the dog was kept alive through too much pain, when if he would’ve put the dog out of its misery, it would have been better for the dog. Not only can the reader see the negativity of companionship through Candy keeping the dog alive too long, it can also be seen through the motif of comparing Lennie to animals. In the story, when talking to Crooks, Crooks tells Lennie that if George happens to leave him, they will, “ They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog” (79). By Crooks saying this, he is implying that George is the only one saving Lennie, and without George, everyone would kill Lennie or Lennie would basically become the pet. If Lennie wasn’t with George, he would have developed the skill to think for himself and be able to survive, even without George. Another, equally important, point with the animal motif is when Lennie kills...
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...way to explain these inequalities and that it is not purely accidental; karma being one of those explanations. The other three reason Buddhism gives for these inequalities are heredity, environment, and “nature and nurture.” Karma in the Pali term means action or doing. Any kind of intentional act is regarded as karma as intentional means there has to be thought put into it. Karma can be either good or bad, depending on the action taken by the person. If the action is unintentional or involuntary, then there is no karma present. The whole idea of karma is that a choice, whether good or bad, is being made, causing a reaction. Being good and making good choices will lead you to be happy while being bad and making bad choices will lead you to be unhappy. ("Basic Buddhism: The Theory of Karma") Talking a lot about the reaction of Karma, the proper name for this reaction in Buddhism is Vipaka. Vipaka is the result of a voluntary action made by someone. A way to explain the relationship between Karma and Vipaka in Buddhism is seeing Vipaka as a fruit and Karma as the potential seed. When taking care of the seed, you will grow a good fruit; if you neglect to take care of the...
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...similarities. “The Destructors” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” were both written by British authors and set in a post war Great Britain. Both stories were written after a World War, so the living conditions were still depressed. I will compare and contrast the authors’ choice of themes and characters, emotions, materialism, use of suspense, and setting. The themes of both stories are developed around the characters of the stories, especially on the children in each story. The characters in “The Destructors” are not as fully developed as the characters in “The Rocking Horse Winner”. The only two characters that Green developed were Trevor, better known as “T”, and Mr. Thomas, also referred to as Old Misery. Trevor was the outsider that quickly became the leader of the gang. Old Misery was an architect that lived in a house that was falling apart but was pretty much the only building still standing in that area. The destruction of this house becomes the challenge and the focus for Trevor and the rest of the characters who are gathered together as the Wormsley gang. They have grown up together and share the experience of bombs falling on their town. “The Rocking Horse Winner” has characters that are a little more rounded. Paul, the boy in the story, his mother, his Uncle, and Bassett the gardener are in constant trouble over poverty. Paul has an obsessive desire to become lucky, due to the fact of his mother’s obsession with luck. His mother believes that luck is money. He constantly...
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...Ma. Gretchiela G. Gabral R71 Ma. Gretchiela G. Gabral R71 Comparative Analysis of Philippine and Anglo-Saxon Short Stories It could not be denied that the early Philippine short stories in English were influenced by the Anglo-Saxon. The Philippine short stories had evolved from the earlier literature of fables and folk tales and adapted the elements of the short stories of the Anglo-Saxon. The Philippine and Anglo-Saxon short stories were alike in many ways. I found “Dead Stars”, the first Philippine short story in English as equally interesting as “The Storm” although the pace of the story differed in each. Both stories were able to present thematic ideas with the use of the setting “storm” and the symbolism “dead stars”. While the storm seemed to be the driving machinery of the events that followed in “The Storm”, the dead stars on the other hand seemed to be the closure of the events in “Dead Stars”. Both left an equal effect of wonder. That effect of wonder had always been present whether it was Anglo-Saxon or Philippine short story. The authors of these short stories were able to use profoundly the elements of a short story. Anglo-Saxon and Philippine Short Stories also had similarities in terms of character development and world views. The conflict in each of the characters of the short stories supported the flow of events that happened eventually. Emily in “A Rose for Emily”, pressed by the image of her coming from the elite family, led her to kill the man...
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...1 - Character must be of noble/high stature 2 - Hubris (tragic flaw) - pride blinds them 3 - Downfall 4 - Enlightenment (near the end of the play) 5 - Their death Someone of high position; in this time period, that meant royalty. He is 'universal,' meaning that everyone everywhere can relate to the kinds of problems or sufferings or emotions that the hero experiences. He has a 'tragic flaw' - this could be a personality trait (like greed, lust, ambition, jealousy, etc.), OR an error in judgement (a bad decision). This 'tragic flaw' leads to his downfall - usually ruins his career, reputation, power, etc. He is enlightened at the end of the story, meaning he realizes where he went wrong, he is humble, and he accepts the consequences . A tragic hero is a character in a work of fiction (often the protagonist) who commits an action or makes a mistake which eventually leads to his or her defeat. The idea of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle (and others). Usually, this includes the realization of the error (anagnorisis), which results in catharsis or epiphany. Aristotelian tragic hero Characteristics Aristotle once said that "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics: Nobility (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth). Hamartia (translated as flaw, mistake, or error, not an Elizabethan tragic flaw). A reversal of fortune(peripetia)...
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...The pursuit of knowledge carried on by the scientist for the past several centuries has produced results which have produced different reactions in different sections of society. There are lay people who consider science to be the fore runner of all comfort, progress and prosperity. On the other hand there are many good people who look upon science as the chief cause of the sufferings of humanity today. The debate has been raging for a long time. But while people talk and argue, science goes on taking long strides, blissfully ignorant of the praises or the abuses heaped on its head. If I Were A Scientist, I believe that we are suffering from the effect of a little science badly applied and the remedy is a lot of science properly applied. Hence I need not offer any apologies for wishing to be a scientist. But I want to be a scientist with a difference. I do not want myself to be confined to the ivory tower of pure reason unmindful of the realities of life. It is not a mere empty statement to say that the modern mind lives, breathers and has his being in this age of science. In every minor detail of our life science plays a very valuable role. I wish to contribute my share in making this world better than I find it. At the very beginning, I may make it clear that if I were a scientist, I would like to carry on my work in the province of pure science. Pure science is a relentless search for truth, for the discoveries of the mysteries of nature. As such no fault...
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