In the novel, Finney repeatedly refuses to listen to the facts of Gene breaking Finney’s leg because he “do[esn’t] care,” (Knowles 151). Because Finney wouldn’t listen, he ran out and ends up breaking his own leg, and since he is reluctant to face reality, he gets sent to the hospital. Likewise, during the movie, even when Neil is not allowed to participate in the play, because of his strong passion for acting he still goes on with his part, though it upsets his father deeply (Dead Poets’ Society). Because Neil acts in the play, it causes his father to be infuriated with him, and Finney’s father decides to ship him off to another school. Both examples show how each of the boys are opposed to face their own realities, and because of this they end up hurting themselves.
FATHER/SON RELATIONSHIP Blacky’s relationship with his father is integral in moulding the adolescent that he is. Although the relationship between the two is clearly negative, it somewhat helps him to look past the fatherly influences, and to seek positive role models to assist him through the journey to maturity. Blacky’s self-esteem levels are low due to the negative relationship and he expects no support from his father. His relationship with his mother, the relationships he develops with other men assist Blacky in developing the courage to stand up for what he believes in. During the course of the novel of ‘Deadly Unna?’ the readers are exposed to the negativity between the father and his son.
Due to his parent’s very strong will for him to go out and explore the outside world, Derek often kept himself in and sat around in his room, smoke and read comics, isolating himself from the outside world because he was afraid of it, showing the amount of stress he receives from his parents and peer pressure in such ways. When Derek met Chris Craig, this is when the true form of peer pressure truly emerge. Derek was introduced to Chris’ gang and was forcefully pushed to take his first cigarette and to change his appearance to gangster-styled clothing, a trend that was very popular of that time. This strongly depicts how Derek was frail, afraid and helpless, he only did this to fulfil his father’s wants of him to get along with children of his age, even though this crowd would be the type his father disagrees in. His lack of knowledge allows him to do things he thought it would be ‘cool’ and to be accepted in the group because his ‘friends’ told him to, a clear representation of peer pressure.
Todd Anderson can originally be characterized as the withdrawn one of the group. He lacks confidence, struggles with the fact that people compare him to his star brother, and is the most hesitant to follow Mr. Keating and the poetry’s ideas to “suck the marrow out of life” like the other boys. This shyness is displayed during the first meeting of the revived Dead Poets Society when he refuses to read and also when refuses to “sound his barbaric yawp” in front of the class. Todd’s lack of self-esteem and timidity restrain him from expressing and standing up for himself. Transcendentalism preaches growth, and renewal of the individual.
The father’s values can also be examined, along with his relationship with his son, Joel. Mr. Sansom’s expectations describe a perverted self love. He does not ask, but expects that other people should give up their lives for him. The reason that Joel was called to Skully’s Landing was to take care of his paralyzed father, but he was not told this. One day, while Joel is reading a magazine to his father, he notices that Idabel is outside and he wishes to be with her.
He is too young and immature to value how good he actually has it relative to many around him. Huck continuously feels sad about his fate and dreams of his independence, the kind of independence that allows him to live care-free with no responsibilities . An early example of Huck’s growing maturation involves his regrets about playing a practical joke on Jim involving a dead snake; this joke takes on forbidding undertones as the two simple souls attribute the snake prank as a foreshadow of bad things. Therefore, as the two seek out the town of Cairo, they begin to speculate that their difficulties finding it are a consequence of their bad luck. Huck attempts to be humorous:“ I says:” Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night.” Jim says: “ Dona le’s talk about it, Huck.
Everette, and the viewers, think that his life will get better when the flood is over, that he will believe in God, leave the con life and his wife Penny will come back to him. Everette ends up saying that there has to be a scientific explanation for the flood, he stays a con man, and his wife Penny doesn’t want him because he doesn’t get her the ring she wants. This is another example of how life gets worse or stays as bad when we think it will change for the
This shows how he does not know how to deal with conflict, confusion, and change. The museum presented an artificial way of how he would like to have lived his life; without change. The reality is-people change. I noticed that as people changed or there was a conflict, Holden distanced himself. For example: Holden strongly admired his English teacher, Mr. Antolini.
Lieutenant Cross’ fear and deep longing for Martha, turns every aspect of war into a romantic date, jeopardizing the safety of the entire platoon and concluding with his guilt for Ted Lavender’s death. Immediately, the narrator tells us how First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters in his rucksack from a girl named Martha. “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack” (637). Each evening after digging his foxhole and washing his hands, Cross would hold the letters delicately and pretend. “He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire” (638).
This is a strong contrast to school where it is “nothing, related to nothing in his experience” and “the others do not notice” his plight. Billy too experiences school as an alienating space and upon his departure from Nowheresville, graffiti’s “may you all well and truly get stuffed”. This is contrasted to Billy’s experience of Wentworth Creek where he learns about the world through reading and he “can dream”. The boy in the short story is less articulate about his sense of place as belonging, but through simple figurative descriptions and tone, we know how much he