"I am ashamed at how much time, resources, money, food, stuff, and energy I have wasted over the years, like storing my personal trash and possessions, as if they were more important than God, my family, and the people around me." ~ Jon Barnes…
In the book A Separate Piece by John Knowles, A group of teenage boys attend a selective boarding school in New Hampshire called Devon. Throughout the novel, the characters experience the prominent effects of World War II. From rotten apples to the disappearance of maids, the lives of boys at Devon were changing rapidly. Also, because most of the characters were on their way to turning 18, they are faced with the decision of whether to enlist or wait to be drafted.…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson is a late-Victorian novel. It tells a story about a London lawyer Mr. Utterson investigates the unusual relation between his old friend Dr. Jekyll and the wicked murderer Edward Hyde. The message that author tries to convey throughout the novel is controversial and revealing. In fact, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson makes effective use of imagery, characterization and several points of view to emphasize his contention that a dual nature exists in every human being and that both good and evil sides should be recognized and kept in balance.…
Stevenson makes sure the reader knows what a disturbed character Hyde is. He does this by using some horrific phrases in which to describe Hyde’s appearance and actions.…
Utterson is a “lover of the sane and customary sides of life,” but the mystery of Hyde touches his imagination. He believes that if he can only set eyes on Hyde, the mystery will roll away. Even Jekyll himself says, “My position . . . is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking.” The irony is that all Stevenson has to work with is words; all that Jekyll can use to account for Hyde is words. Even Jekyll’s words are hidden, however, as if within nesting Chinese boxes, in the letter within the letter that reveals…
Six o'clock struck on the bells of the church that was so conveniently near to Mr. Utterson's dwelling, and still he was digging at the problem. Hitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged, or rather enslaved; and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr. Enfield's tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures. He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor's; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams. Or else he would see a room in a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams; and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given, and even at that dead hour, he must rise and do its bidding. The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamp lighted city, and at every street-corner crush a child and leave her screaming. And still the figure had no face by which he might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him and melted before his eyes; and thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the lawyer's mind a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr. Hyde.…
Resume: After dinner, Utterson goes in his business room before going to sleep. He opens his safe and takes out Dr Jekyll's will, that stipulates that should he die or disappear, all his possessions would go to a certain Edward Hyde. Intrigued by these terms, and somewhat uncomfortable, he goes to Dr Lanyon's house, thinking he should know something about this case. Dr Lanyon answers that he now finds Jekyll strange and unscientific, but that he does not know anything about this Hyde. Utterson then goes back home and goes to sleep with difficulty, haunted by nightmares and visions. From then on, he is overwhelmed by curiosity and starts walking around the door, wanting to see the face of Hyde. One night, he meets Hyde. The man behaves strangely, as if not wanting to be seen or remembered. The only impression he leaves behind is that of a deformed man, scary but vague. After that, Utterson goes to see Jekyll, but he is not at home.…
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said that “the battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” East of Eden is a novel written by twentieth century author John Steinbeck. The Viking Press published it in 1952. The narration takes place from 1862 to 1918, mostly in the Salinas Valley, although some episodes happen in Massachusetts and Connecticut. John Steinbeck's East of Eden depicts humanity's struggle between virtue and in as a perpetual narrative of human history. Cathy Ames, the most controversial character in the novel, seems to be the only person of the book incapable of good: she has the characteristics of a born moral monster. She is not. The events that took place in her childhood affected Cathy. We will then see…
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he uses setting and characterization to emphasize the idea that a person will act a way if they are expected to. In his novel, the character of Dr. Jekyll alludes to the mostly good people. Mr. Hyde, however, specifically shows the bad people in society. For these two characters, the constantly changing gothic setting of this novel and the different extremes between light and dark represent their characterizations.…
They were more likely to become the victims of crimes and end up as an anonymous body in places like the Paris Morgue. Compared to members of the middle classes , it was more common for bodies of working class people to end up in the morgue. So while it did serve as a form of entertainment for people from the working class, especially because it was one of the few free entertainment options in the city (Schwartz 61), it also showed them what could possibly happen to them after their death. Therefore, even while it entertained, it also highlighted the negative aspects of anonymous city life. Another example of the negative aspects of anonymity can be found in Stevenson's novella. While Stevenson did not often depict the working classes in his novella, it still has some instances where it shows how the anonymity of the modern city affected the working class. In the beginning of the novella, Enfield tells Utterson about a strange incident he witnessed. He was walking home one evening when he witnessed a man and a young girl running into each other. The man trampled over the girl and continued on his way. Enfield stops him and Enfield and the other people at the scene force him to pay money to the girl's family as compensation (Stevenson ). While Enfield knows the name of the man that trampled down the girl, this name being Edward Hyde, he never mentions the names of the girl…
“Make mistakes, take chances, be silly, be imperfect, trust yourself and follow your heart.” (Mary Lopez) Something Borrowed, a novel by Emily Giffin expresses the themes of friendship, relationships and the unfairness of life. In the second quarter of the novel, Dex continues to cheat on his fiance, Darcy, with her best friend, Rachel. Dex and Rachel’s feelings grow stronger for one another but Darcy and Dex’s wedding rapidly approaches. There’s no longer much time to put off making the decisions for Dex and Rachel’s future. It’s pretty much now or never. If I were to give advice to any character, it would be Rachel. I would tell her to follow her heart, stick to her values and do what feels right, even if it seems radical or selfish.…
Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak has won multiple awards and is recognized for its raw and powerful story of Melinda, the protagonist. Melinda is a ninth grade rape victim, who is sexually assaulted by a senior student at her high school in the summer between her eighth and ninth grade school years. The trauma of the rape causes Melinda to lose her voice that would allow her to speak out about the event, so instead she spends a majority of her ninth grade school year silenced. It is only when her rapist attempts to attack her again that Melinda finally finds the voice that allows her to say NO. Through standing up to her biggest fear, her assaulter, Melinda finds her true self that had been hidden in her depression and sets on a path of…
Throughout the entire novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, everyone is inquiring or investigating about something. The characters are either meddling in someone else’s business or they become curious about something scientific. Because of this curiosity, different people get in trouble in some way. In the first chapter, Mr. Utterson’s friend Mr. Enfield says, “You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name. No sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.” (35). This is an important epigraph for the entire novella because when Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Utterson, and Mr. Lanyon become curious, someone gets in trouble.…
Stevenson uses Mr. Hyde as the Id. He is the pure evil side of Dr. Jekyll, Stevenson describes him as looking like an animal. In Freud’s theory, the Id is like a spoiled child, selfish, without control. “Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth… with ape-like fury.” (28) That’s what the maid sees when she is standing near the window.…
Ms. Strangeworth has lost many friends in her life without realizing why. She looks down on her old friend that dropped out of school. The readers can tell that she is a woman of upstanding she believes everyone loves her. The audience will also spot how observant…