...Edith Wharton’s novel, Summer, headed the literary, feminine, sexual revolution of the 1920s. Summer was published in 1917 and remains Wharton’s most sexually explicit novel, showcasing Charity Royall, the main character, sexually awakening and in love as a stranger to the rural North Dormer enters into her life. Charity’s life description leaves the reader a sense of greyness and boredom in her tired life of living in the “red house” and working in a dingy library. As Charity finds herself stuck in North Dormer between two places, the prosperous Nettelton and the lawless Mountain, she also finds herself stuck between two men, young Lucius Harney and her guardian Mr. Royall. Looking at Summer through a psychological reading, Charity’s actions...
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...Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road, is about the journey of a young college-age man across the country in search of something more from his life in post-war America. The book revolves around a young man named Sal Paradise, and the whole story is told from his perspective. The rambling writing, while hard to understand sometimes, offers a detailed record of his pursuit and the ensuing antics. The story starts in 1947 where Sal meets a man named Dean Moriarty, a lively and animated man who was a “sideburned hero of the snowy West” (Kerouac 2). It was Dean who prompted Sal’s adventurous travels west. Along the way, Dean and Sal befriend Carlo Marx, an energetic young poet who shares the same view of wanting something a little more out of life. Sal’s journeys across the U.S. and to Mexico open his eyes to the good and bad, the up and downs in life. His constant stints on the road with madman Dean sometimes got him in trouble with the law. Other times, the trips allowed Sal to truly find out more about himself, and relate to Dean on a more personal level to share and connect The meaning behind the title On the Road lies in Sal’s innate desire for something more. The road in this novel comes to symbolize freedom and the solution to answer life’s problems. Sal constantly finds a refreshing sense of purity once he hits the open road, especially in the company of Dean, whose spirit was the catalyst for the voyages in the first place. However, once Sal and Dean get to Mexico City...
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...How is the theme of rejection explored in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye? The theme of rejection is explored in many ways in both novels “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain and “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger. I have chosen to analyse and compare how rejection is portrayed in Chapter 7 pages 85-86 in “Huck Finn” and Chapter 7 pages 54-55” in “Catcher in the rye” as this is the point where both narrators embark on their own journey. Huck leaves pap and fakes his own death in this extract it shows he is rejecting social pressure to conform to authority prompting him to escape whereas in Holden rejects becoming a part of society and rejects the rules of society, leaving him expelled from school and ready to set off on his journey in this extract. Both authors have portrayed the themes of rejection well throughout however in this extract I am going to scrutinize the copious range of literary and linguistic features used and also the context, genre, narrative perspective that exhibit the characters declination towards society. In both novels the genre presented is bildungsroman; both passages are at the point where they make the decision to initiate their journey. In ‘Catcher in the Rye’ Holden comes to an abrupt conclusion to leave Twain expresses this by using an adverbial phrase “But all of a sudden, I changed my mind.” Twain uses inclusive language by using second person narrative, “You know what I mean – I don’t...
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...adversity to face the possibility of rejection. While attempting to find methods to waste his time, Holden considers to call Jane Gallagher, his former neighbor of whom he respects and finds attractive. He thoroughly develops a plan to pose as someone else if anyone but Jane answers his call. After much consideration, Caulfield abandons the idea claiming that he, “... wasn’t in the mood” (63). Throughout the beginning of the novel, it is apparent that Holden has feelings toward his old neighbor, and perhaps he may even be in love with her. However, Caulfield masks his love for Jane with various excuses to conceal his cowardness. The idea of love presents itself within the relationship of Holden and Jane. Caulfield, unfortunately unable to react to his feelings toward Gallagher, responds cowardly to prevent the possibility of having to face any form of rejection. By protecting himself from rejection, Holden displays his conflict to accept and understand the concept of...
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...Emasculated Reality The novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is filled with a large number of motifs from downward movement and destruction to overall decay. The unnamed narrator uses motifs to show images and pictures of greater themes throughout the novel. The narrator and other main character Tyler Durden share the feeling that civilization has emasculated men and, “What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women” (Palahniuk 50). The author shows the reader many themes by describing overly vivid motifs that represent them. Motifs are images that show up throughout a work. Fight Club uses motifs of downward movement and disintegration to point to the larger themes of emasculation, self-destruction and rejection of civilization. Motifs of downward movement in the novel make visible many of the cultural norms, by which the narrator feels extremely emasculated. Not only do cultural norms make him feel emasculated, but also being surrounded by men who don't typically fit the definition of a man. The narrator himself doesn’t fit the definition of a typical man. He works a cubicle 9 to 5 job that is split with being sent all across the country like a carrier pigeon, evaluating insurance claims on failed safety equipment in cars that have already been subject to horrible life threatening accidents. Emasculation hits the narrator when he feels like it pointless to die in a body without few scars. The narrator says, “It’s nothing anymore to have a beautiful stock...
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...school. When Eliot was seventeen, her mother died and Eliot came home to care for her father. In 1841, Eliot and her father moved to Coventry. While living in Coventry, Eliot met Charles and Caroline Bray, who led her to question her faith by introducing her to new religious and political ideas. Eliot’s personal life likely influenced Adam Bede in several ways. First, the portrayal of Methodists as a positive social force possibly stems from Eliot’s own rejection of some organized religions. While Methodism is an organized religion, Eliot was particularly drawn to the religion’s belief that salvation is possible for all people through personal effort. Second, the character of Dinah, who is strong and powerful beyond normal social conventions, is perhaps inspired by Eliot’s own willingness to step outside normal social convention in her common-law marriage to Lewes and her novel writing. Finally, the sardonic tone that the narrator takes toward social convention and the “lady reader” suggests a rejection of tradition. Such a rejection fits with Eliot’s life, in which she was criticized for moving in with her lover and rejecting traditional religion because its tenets could not be derived by reason. Eliot drew the plot...
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...Only the Lonely Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's most notable piece of work, written when she was only eighteen years old. The novel explores the theme of loneliness and rejection. The monster created by Victor Frankenstein is rejected by human society because of his appearance. Mary Shelley explores the feelings of how the creature is utterly ignored and abused by the society. I believe the novel became a reflection of the inner state of Mary Shelly. It reflects sufferings and loses that occurred in the own authors life. As notes Anthony Badalamenti in his article Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein: “She was also the product of her own past, suffering three successive losses in her early life that reveal why themes of being alone and abandoned run through the novel”(Badalamenti, 431). All these sad events and constant feeling of loneliness helped Mary to create a very deep and powerful character. Victor does not think about possible results of his experiments. He does not think what will happen when he finally succeeds and created a living creature. He is severely punished by his attitude when the creature created by him turns into a monster. Shelley illustrates that the guilt for murders can not be put only on Frankenstein's creation. Society and social norms finally result in the feeling of loneliness and estrangement. “The monster complains that his maker and mankind are moving his nature from goodness and benevolence to wrath and violence. He attempts the company of...
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...In the novel, The Awakening, by Katie Chopin, main character Edna Pontellier struggles to find her identity between being her outer self and her inner self. Her outer self, as Chopin describes, is the one that conforms based on society’s expectations of her. Edna’s inner self, on the other hand, is the one that questions her outer self and is authentic to who she truly is when free of society’s norms. As the novel progresses, Edna’s desire to identify more with her inner self rather than conforming to her outer self increases; Edna begins to devote more time towards her paintings and furthermore, moves out from her residency with her husband. However, in the process of accepting her inner self, Edna is no longer able to fit in as a functioning member of society. She as a result becomes frustrated and depressed. Furthermore, not even those who are closest to her (for example, Robert) are able to understand her needs and desires. As a result comes the ending: Edna’s ultimate death in a search for independence (her swim out to the sea). Such ending comes as a shock with no real solution for Edna other than death. However, such ending is conclusive because of its realistic parallels to society that Chopin is trying to highlight. Chopin’s ending of the book serves as a commentary of society’s expectations of women. Chopin’s main message, as highlighted through the ending, is the expectations society places onto women is an ultimatum forcing women to either conform to its norms or...
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...Both "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D Salinger and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain contain the theme of rejection interwoven throughout them. Both extracts show teenagers rejecting society’s norms as, Holden begins his journey on the train to New York as a way of escaping his expectations much like Huck’s journey along the river in the other extract. In the late 1940s, teenagers were starting to be recognised as their own demographic, which Salinger explores in "Catcher" through the protagonist Holden Caulfield's rejection of both adulthood and childhood simultaneously. Similarly, Twain counteracts the norms of society throughout "Huckleberry Finn" wherein the eponymous character rejects society’s views and begins a journey down the Mississippi river with the slave, Jim. Both Holden and Huck reject the view that all children have to grow up and accept subordination in society rather than choosing to escape what’s expected of them and run away. Holden’s journey on the train is a microcosm for the main plotline, thus creating a physical and metaphorical mode of transport to steer Holden’s rejection of and escape from society. When Holden first boards the train he meets a woman who questions him on the “Pencey sticker” featured on one of his “Gladstones”. Although Holden continuously rejects Pencey for being “phoney” and “lousy”, he still keeps the sticker thus rejecting moving on from Pencey as the sticker isn’t a permanent fixture but he doesn’t remove it. This...
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...hair and unbridled wrath, violence, greed and lust, Heathcliff is an embodiment of everything Victorians feared. His passion was completely unacceptable. Heathcliff lures Catherine from being an acceptable Victorian girl to being brutally passionate as well. Catherine’s big choice in the novel whether to marry Heathcliff or Edgar reflects society’s pressure. She chooses Edgar despite the fact that her sense of identity is bound up in Heathcliff. That’s why she suffers so much when she marries Edgar. One issue in the novel is discerning the author’s voice. Bronte’s voice is not the voice of Lockwood, who in many ways is a farcical character who doesn’t understand at all the relationships of Wuthering Heights he has stumbled upon. Nelly Dean’s voice doesn’t seem to be one that Bronte wants us to trust; there are several incidents where Nelly lies, or at least conceals the truth of Catherine’s real situation from Edgar. Nelly tells us that Catherine dies and rests in peace, but her words are contradicted by the reports of Catherine and Heathcliff being seen walking upon the moors, and by the appearance of Catherine’s ghost to Lockwood in Chapter 3 in a very Gothic situation. The events of the novel suggest that Catherine waits for Heathcliff to die so that they can walk on the moors together in their version of heaven. Catherine explicitly rejects the Christian notion of heaven: ‘If I were in heaven I would be extremely miserable’. She tells Nelly of...
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...tenderness” (39), illustrating that despite their physical and emotional distance, her love for her mother remains. This distance and difference in Hang’s outlook is conveyed through the contrast in color imagery associated with Russia and Vietnam. In Russia, Hang sees “earth covered with silvery grey flowers” (68). This draws contrast between the colorful foliage of Vietnam and the explicitly colorless foliage of Russia, reflecting that her life has been drained of its former hope and promise. She goes further, stating that the Russian landscape is a “discolored ocean, an expanse of sadness” (82), directly relating the coloration of her surroundings to her negative emotional state. As her emotional state has become more negative throughout the novel, colors more often portray Hang’s problems. As Hang looks out the window of her train, she sees a landscape “awash with fog” (129). The fog dissolves “all colors in a blur” (129). This blurring reflects Hang’s feelings of emptiness and monotony during her time in...
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...An archetype is a character based on universally shared roles. In East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Adam could be considered a dreamer archetype because of his childlike view of the world, blatant rejection of reality, and his idealized image of the world around him. Adam’s ignorance of reality causes him numerous conflicts throughout the novel, however; these traits humanize him. All individuals have these tendencies which is what makes being a dreamer an archetype. From the beginning of the novel, Adam is portrayed with a childlike innocence to him. This innocence allows him to feel moral and pure while obtaining what he desires. Even when Adam is presented with contradicting evidence that threatens to tear down his reality, he dismisses it. For example, when Charles finds papers that seem to implicate his father acquired their inheritance dubiously, Adam completely rejects this thought. “Can you see that I don’t think our father was a thief? I don’t believe he was a liar...He did not steal it. He couldn’t have stolen it” (Steinbeck 71). Although Adam never loved his father he still defends his character because it supports his ideal reality. Adam sees the...
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...and Abel. As the novel progresses and the more about the characters is revealed,even more instances of the good versus evil clash emerge. This is best exemplified by Cal Trask, who, throughout the book, is caught in a constant battle between good and evil. Although Cal possesses a certain level of cruelty that contrasts heavily with his brother's innocence, his desire to be liberated from what Cal sees as inherited evil demonstrates his...
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...Stephen King is famous for multiple novels such as, Carrie which turned into a great/4 movie, The Shining, Under The Dome. These novels lead to fame and fortune. It was not always easy. Carrie, King’s first novel was rejected 30 times. The shining was what helped lead him to most of his fame. Under the dome was a success turning into a TV show. As a matter of fact, Carrie, King’s first novel took 30 rejections to sell over 30,000 copies. At first King wasn’t going to finish the novel but his wife, Tabitha found the manuscript and forced King to finish it. Thanks to Tabitha, shortly after the novel was written it was made into a film. This novel and movie was about a girl that had telekinetic powers and used them to get revenge on...
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...The Motivation of Dreams The ultimate objective of life is to turn dreams into reality. Dreams are valuable because they are the ideal life conditions that people want to live in. They provide a source of motivation to achieve great success in the future. This motivation can be seen in the characters of many novels including David Adams Richards's The Lost Highway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In both novels, the protagonists strive for dreams of winning over the loves of their lives through their pursuit of wealth, rejection of reality, and persistence of ambition. Firstly, Gatsby -- the protagonist of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby-- follows his dream of achieving Daisy’s love through his growth in wealth. When Gatsby first meets Daisy, he falls in love with her. However, she soon leaves him for her life that is filled with riches. Because Gatsby was a “penniless young man” (Fitzgerald, 149), he was determined to obtain wealth in order to impress Daisy: “He wants her to see his house...” (Fitzgerald, 80). He had great desire to attract Daisy through wealth and became a rich man who owned a beautiful mansion: “It took me just three years to earn the money that bought [the house]” (Fitzgerald, 91). Gatsby’s quest for money demonstrates great initiative to stun Daisy. Similarly, Alex-- the protagonist of Richards's The Lost Highway-- seeks to gain the treasure of his life, Minnie, by gaining wealth. Early on, Alex loses Minnie to Sam Patch, who she eventually...
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