Character Evaluation: Cask of Amontialldo

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Favorite Work: Survivor Type by Stephen King Most Memorable Character: Montresor ( Cask of Amontillado) Expected Grade: 100 In the beginning of the year, we read Survivor Type by Stephen King which has stuck with me throughout the year. This story is narrated by a disgraced surgeon, Dr. Richard Pine, who initially gives you very vague detail about his life other than being stranded on an island with a considerable amount of heroine. As the book progresses, he reveals detail about his scandalous past as a poor boy from Brooklyn who worked his way up in the world and went into prescription drug dealing. In an attempt to catch food, he breaks his ankle and is reduced to amputating his own foot (careful to keep his hands in immaculate condition) using the heroine as anesthetic. This foot is his first meal. After this major turning point, Richard shows signs of mental instability caused by starvation, isolation, and drug abuse. In a savage attempt to keep living, he cuts off and eats his entire lower body and even his hand which he had originally protected with all his might because of his determination to go back and continue his work as a surgeon. This shows the internal want he has to stay alive. He will not accept the fate that is before him, which is to simply die of starvation and instead turns to self-cannibalism which seems unfathomable to any other person reading this. But I believe that although he was mentally unreachable by the end, Richard was a perfect example of the power of the human mind. Stephen King portrays the physical feats that the mind can overcome while the only thing that you want is to

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