Not only is Finny a very admirable people person, he is also the most talented athlete in the school. As Finny and Gene grow closer, so does Gene’s envy for Finny. Gene begins to believe that Finny is trying to pull him away from his studies to lower his grades, due to the fact that the fact that Gene gets good marks. Gene’s envy grows so deep, that he actually causes Finny to shatter his leg, thus ending his athletic career. Gene learns shortly after that Finny never was trying to bring him down, rather he thought that his academic success came naturally to him.
He builds up his son’s ego by telling them that all you need to be is well-liked. Theses false values shown by Willy makes Biff become overwhelmed with confidence that all he needs is to be attractive in order to be successful and makes him think of why should he have to try hard in school when his appealing personality will make up for poor grades. Willy’s flawed view of success, where being well-liked is more important than being the best at whatever job you pursue, leads to failure and unhappiness in both his life and his sons life’s in the business world. Although Happy has a job that would be more acceptable by his father than Biff’s, but Willy doesn’t admire Happy like he does Biff. Happy has lived in the shadow of Biff his whole life, he feels that to get the attention he deserves he must strive to be more successful than his brother.
A Separate Peace Essay Have you ever known that a friend or someone you knew had done something terrible, but just couldn’t accept it or admit it to yourself because of what would change? Well, in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Finny, one of the main characters, feels this way about Gene, his best friend. When Gene does this unforgivable thing - crippling Finny for life - he just won’t accept the fact that Gene really did it to him. It gets to the point where Finny refuses to believe it even after Gene has admitted it, and by remaining in denial Finny only immensely hurts himself, physically and emotionally. Overall, Finny’s actions prove the essential truth that ignorance is indubitably not bliss.
Gene’s inability to trust is a representative of Gene and Finny’s failed relationship. Finny, being the great friend that he is, is always trying to get Gene to enjoy himself. Gene, however, believes Phineas is secretly jealous of him, and is trying to use sabotage as a way to make them equal in the race for valedictorian. Later in the novel, Gene realizes Finny is genuine in his desire to help Gene, not hurt him and guiltily thinks, “And I thought we were competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry.” (Knowles 66) In addition, after Finny’s fall, Gene tells no one about what he has done.
Scout originally did not have the skill to empathize, but thanks to Atticus, earns it. Had Scout not honed in on this skill, the end of the book, and the message would have been affected. Bob Ewell is a very unempathetic man and did not teach his children the skill. Bob Ewell is so unempathetic, that in fact in the novel, he was referred to as a low down skunk. His children particularly Mayella, have been affected by this lack of empathy, and have developed it as well.
In the novel apart from George, no one else really cares for Lennie. He shows us how the characters feel and act towards Lennie as a character. Lennie, along with Curley’s wife, candy and crooks are considered to be the weaker characters in the novel and when they meet in chapter four in the stable house all the other weak characters reject lennie for his child like nature and his simplemindedness. Lennie tries to do his role in helping him and George fulfill their American dream but no matter how hard he tries, he only causes disasters. It also relates to that time in America, when everyone wants to have their “American Dream” but it’s actually really
Keller taught Paul 'life lessons', which was derived from his own life, plagued with suffering. Paul becomes fascinated with his past, and later discovers through Keller how hard a life he led after the death of his wife and child. Keller blamed himself for losing them, because like paul, he also had too much pride, and thought nothing would harm the family 'who played for hitler'. he was so hurt by his own arrogance that he wanted to kill himself. however, keller survives.
In order for him to see himself as an equal compared to Finny, he has to drag Finny Che 2 down onto his level of mentality. His motivation to improve comes from the desire beat Finny, who he believes is “out to wreck” his studies, when Finny truly isn’t. Gene’s
(Moller 545) The author lamented about the competitive nature of the students saying “everyone wanted that spot at the top of the class, and social life was rife with competition.” (Moller 545) Moller then tells of the time he snorted Ritalin given to him by a friend and that it helped him wake up and become more focused on his homework. (Moller 546) The author uses this story to show that he did what he thought was required to keep up with the other students, even though he knew it was against the rules as well as illegal. The author equates this to sports in that the negative consequence of getting caught taking drugs wasn’t as bad as failing a test, in much the same way that athletes take performance enhancers to “keep up with the Joneses” so to speak. Though I agree with William Moller that athlete’s take PED’s to keep up with each other and that we place athletes on a pedestal that we shouldn’t, I disagree that it is the public’s fault because we hold them in high esteem. For me it boils down to
But know I know why…” (70). Looking at this example, he used to be equal just like the other kids, everything seemed fine to him…eventually though Crooks figures out why his father’s fondness of the white boys played negatively, now he knows. This foreshadows the fact that he had such a controversial childhood that even now at this age he goes back searching the memories. It shows how being lonely has impacted him so negatively in such an emotionally unstable way. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the negative impact of loneliness through characters by the names of ‘George’ and ‘Lennie’.