He was still wiping his foul mouth as he walked out on to the tarmac and climbed the trembling metal steps.” He knew what he was doing was wrong, and because of that his stomach turned and he was feeling ill. Regardless to how he was feeling, he wiped his mouth after throwing up and was able to continue to his cruel mission. He denies having feelings towards what is going on, until Amis says, “Muhammad Atta had decided that romantic and religious ardour came from contiguous parts of the human being: the parts he didn't have.” This pretty much shows that Atta has no feelings, and doesn’t believe in love and he just can‘t feel the love or sorrow or anyone in the world. “They were called the 'bravest', accurately, in his view” Atta believes that the firemen where brave to risk their lives for the people, and in a way believed he was doing it for Allah and wanted to stay loyal to his fellow those in his country that were expecting them to attack; he didn’t want to back down. “Muhammad Atta had studied architecture and engineering.” He was planned for what he was doing.
He enters the separation stage when he first encounters the other man in the elevator and witnesses him breaking down in sorrow. He progresses into the struggle and initiation stage when he is deliberating what he should do while this person is in obvious disarray and ultimately chooses nothing. He finally enters the return and integration stage when he regrets not doing anything to comfort the man and ultimately seeks forgiveness through the epiphany in realizing that the right thing to have done was to help others in the time of need. The narrator progresses through the stages of the monomyth archetype from beginning to end and this essay will explain in detail of how A Step not Taken fits in these stages. The separation stage is characteristic of the protagonist entering a stage of adventure even though they may not be cognisant of this is about to occur.
The hero is called to the adventure when he encounters a young well-dressed man individual in the elevator. At that point the hero is unaware of how the following event will change his life. “Nothing about him seemed unusual, nothing at all”. But when the young man “suddenly drops and burst into tears” the hero refuses his call, steps out of the elevator and leaves the young man behind. By refusing to help the man, the hero now faces “a combination of guilt and uncertainty”.
The narrator describes him as ‘lying at full length’ on a sofa, which gives the reader the image of a weak, diseased man, but Poe creates antithesis to this portrayal with the suggestion of his ‘vivacious warmth’. This connotes that Usher’s madness could actually be bipolar disorder, because of the constant conflict in his presence. Towards the end of the short story, it is revealed the narrator has been driven mad by the events that have occurred, and this is foreshadowed by ‘Surely, man had never been so terribly altered, in so brief a period…’ in the passage. It depicts irony, because although Usher might have been transformed in a small amount of time, it takes the narrator mere weeks to fall into a state of delusion. Much emphasis is placed upon Usher’s physical appearance as an indication of his declining mental state, and with lexical choices such as ‘wild’ and ‘tenuity’ being reflective of his inconsistent behaviour.
Usually, a bildungsroman begins with an emotional loss or a new environment that leads the main character on his journey to maturity. Therefore, in the beginning of the novel, the hero and his environment are opposed, because the protagonist does not see his ideals reflected in the realistic and hostile world that surrounds him. This contrast results into a conflict between the main character and society throughout most of the novel, for the relations of the main character to his environment influence his development and education. Facing many unpleasant experiences let the protagonist mature. In the end of his development, the protagonist finds peace with himself and reconciles with environment.
The reading shows that D’Angelo decided to ignore the man and not provide assistance in his time of need, he chose to leave and continue on his way once his elevator stopped at his floor. This is where the separation stage takes effect. D’ Angelo could have helped the man and comforted him yet he didn’t, fear of the crying mans reaction prevented D’Angelo from assisting him in his time of need. Most times in archetypal stories during this stage of separation there would be a guide or some type of being to assist the hero. D’Angelo mentions within the story that if there was someone else in the elevator with him he might have been more willing to assist the crying man.
What differentiates this short story from those of greek tragedies lies in the innocence of the protagonist. Young Jesus was seemingly unaware of the nature of suffering as he unknowingly attempted to subvert fate. By his observation of life the next morning, he is able to realize that suffering, and as a by-product– death, is ever present, unavoidable, and even necessary. The switch in narrative focus from the ability to control fate to its inability is even further highlighted by the story’s imagery. This is presented by how
Saints are almost always formed in marginalized situations where their best gifts are dismissed or unrecognized and this causes them to do what the situation demands of them by faith and patience. A hero does what we all feel like doing; rescuing, fighting, winning, and conquering. As Professor Ambrosio made mention, heroes are formed by the human struggles, alone with Honor and self-esteem in his achievements. Humans are seen as masters of their own destiny which provides a crucial factor that separates saints from heroes. A very good example is in the story of
In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker expresses his initial thoughts and feelings about his past. He sees his past as an inseparable part of himself that has to be accepted the way it is passively. In order to better illustrate this, he draws a parallel between his past and his shadow: “As my shadow appears whenever I’m in the sun/ The past cannot be thrown off and its weight/ Must be borne, or I will become another man” ( ll. 2-4). Thinking of his shadow’s function, the speaker comes to identify it with his past.
So I imagine in my mind a man looking down from heaven watching his body die. I think the writer is referring to himself as being beyond being saved, but he is still crying for help. When I read, “I was much farther out than you thought.” I think that the person he refers to as you, would be the person that he drank his alcohol with, and he is saying, I was a lot father gone than you thought I was. Then it goes on to say for the first time, “Not waving but drowning.” Which to me, it is said sarcastically, in a sense that he is crying out for help, “Poor chap, he always loved larking and now he’s dead… they said.” but no one believes him. The poem uses imagery about his death as drowning.