“When I was 5 and playing against 11-year-olds, who were bigger, stronger, faster, I just had to figure out a way to play with them.” Gretzky’s mind set of hockey quickly had him playing with boys much older than him. In 1978, at age 17, he was signed a contract to the WHA Indianapolis Racers. In 1979 when the WHA join up with the NHL the NHL team associated was allowed to keep 2 players from their WHA team. Gretzky was obviously a choice for the Edmonton Oilers and was in the NHL by the age of 20. Wayne Gretzky is important to Canada in many different ways.
He gradually understands the passion and triumph of the game by comparing the players to lightening, which is fast, shocking, and uncomplicated. Structure is used specifically to show the progression of the hockey game as well as his the narrator's own thoughts. Fitzgerald acknowledges his thoughts throughout the passage while noticing the changes in pace of the game. In the last sentence, the innocent sums up his stance and view of hockey by believing that hockey's
He led us through the lows of the fall of France, and the highs of the fall of the third Reich. He is one of our most puzzling Prime Ministers, his interest in the occult and the fact that he kept to himself. “Canadians remembered King in his final years as a short old man waddling across the snowy expanses of Parliament Hill in a bowler hat and a coonskin coat”9 He brought Canada to the forefront of the political world, showing we were a leader among the world’s powerhouse nations. He led us through a terrible depression and brought us out, stronger and sturdier then ever. And social he did his best to keep a country always at ends, together.
Captain Robert Walton, an “arctic seafarer”, left society and into near desolation effecting him emotionally. As an aspiring poet, he pursued his passion to write with dreams of becoming as well-known as Homer and Shakespeare. By the end of a year full of criticism and hatred, “Walton’s education was neglected” (Shmoop). by his peers, and eventually by him. This neglect is surprisingly similar to Victor’s educational abandonment.
In Canadian history, those who have helped bring the provinces and territories together have the distinction of being named a “Father of Confederation”. Despite the stature of such a title, it has gone to those who seem undeserving. Louis Riel, an unofficial Father of Confederation, has been described as “a sad, pathetic, unstable man who led his followers in a suicidal crusade and whose brief glory rests upon a distortion of history,” by G.F.G Stanley. Sir John A. MacDonald, one of the ‘official’ Fathers, has been described by Will Ferguson as “a man of great flaws”. In modern times, however, people who contribute outstandingly to Canada get to grace the face of postage stamps.
Percy came from a prestigious family in Deptford, with great expectations to live up to. When quarrelling, the snowball intended for Dunstan hit Mrs. Dempster instead, which resulted in the birth of premature Paul and Mrs. Dempster being “simple”. When he was approached about this incident, feeling guilty but more so frightened by consequences, he denied it. As a result of this, Percy became obsessed with being ‘perfect’, to not be from the most prestigious family in Deptford, but to be the most prestigious man in all of Canada, as if to make up for his mistake as a child,. “Boy seemed to have made himself out of nothing, and he was a marvel.
Maurice Richard pg.7-13) What made him the icon he was to become was the way he began and continued scored his goals. On the ice, there was nobody as fierce, intense or as strong especially during that time when everybody’s mind was on the anti-French bias in Canada. It was the passion within him each time he sneaked past an opposing goalie, often with another player or several players clinging to his back. When those ferocious and deadly eyes he was known for, saw their target and final destination, there was no stopping regardless of what stood in their way. Whenever he was challenged, it just gave him more motivation to not only to prove to himself but to prove to Quebec what he was capable of doing.
And then, in the final pages, he shows what their actions cost them personally, how impossible it will be for them to ever be the men they were in Montreal, or even the men they were London. The final truth the narrator learns is heartbreaking and beyond all reason, but in our world, in the 21st century, it does not carry the heavy layer of shock that it most certainly did more than 70 years ago. We expect to be disappointed; we know that is the only guarantee that war brings us. When Charles Yale Harrison went to France, clearly he still felt the stirrings of a higher purpose. He came from a time when you had to see the lies up close to really know them; you had to become part of the lie before you could begin to believe that it ever
He found himself always having to cope with situations. His father taking on a job as a Police Constable, losing a loved one, losing his mother, losing his wife and almost losing his mind were all portrayed. Winton somehow placed all of the worst events that can ever occur in a person’s life all in this one character. His self- preservation and success as a lawyer not only ended a sad life story but also gave other individuals like myself hope. Hope to realize that whatever life tosses us we can catch it with one hand and throw it back with the other.
The coach- He doesn’t seem to keep his word very well. Response I found this short story interesting because it showed a conflict between English and French Canadians. When Roch thought he was being persecuted just because of his different hockey sweater, I knew how he felt. When I was younger, sometimes I felt that I was being treated unfairly because I was smaller. I did think that penalty for Roch was unfair, but I don’t think that Roch should have lost his temper.