The boy from “Araby” was alone, with this feeling that he could not make sense of because his faith tells him that they are a sin. Something similar happened with Nickles as Sebacher says, “That night, unable to sleep, Nickles drove his Nova out to her house. The house was completely dark and vacant-looking, but he knew she was there. He felt as though all the light had left the world, which was not an entirely unpleasant feeling, somehow. The loneliness of interstellar space, he said to himself-a line from Ulysses Robert [his best friend] often recited” (Sebacher 1).
Another example of how Bruno was avoiding thinking about what was happening around him was when he said, “I expect we’ll have to wait here till it eases off and then I’ll get to go home” (Boyne, page 212). He was ignoring the reality, the facts, instead he is thinking ahead, about going home. This book has definitely showed me, we need to be more aware of the circumstances we are in. Innocence leads to tragedy. Before I read your book I often thought of the cruelty of the WWII and I could hardly imagined the world with people not protesting
John Berryman’s, “the Traveler,” is a poem about a nomadic man who is always different from the people around him. He takes notice of what people say about him and mimics their actions to try to fit in but it doesn’t always work. The poem starts out the first three stanzas with solid evidence of judgement. “They pointed at me” he says, and then recalls what each group or did towards him. The first group of people passed him in a car and said, “that man has a curious way of holding his head” (line 2) the next group stated that he would never amount to anything.The guard at the station in stanza three didn’t say a word, but took a double-take at the traveller and stared.
Billy’s actor Michael Sacks “who looks like a cartoon fall-guy copied in flesh” through the movie never got a chance to express his own outrage and not even were his thoughts presented, but he would simply end up speechless. On the other hand, in the book, reader can imagine what is Billy thinking and also, his abstraction was presented in a different way. In the book he had dialogs and monologue where the movie didn’t have so many. According to the Vincent Canby, the movie, but also the book is not enough outrageous, rather it is a time travel trick. Almost every time Billy falls asleep, he ends up time-tripping.
The theme of the story is the growth of the boy and the dissatisfaction when he found his belief was so weak in the darkness of the real world. The author uses many negative words to describe the place he lived. In “North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except hour when the Christian Brothers School set the boys free, An uninhabited house of two stores stood at the blind end.” (1) The word “blind end” implies there is no way out and there is no place for the boy to escape for his belief. Also, in the third paragraph, the word “somber” (10), “the dark muddy lanes behind the houses” (12-13), and “the dark dripping gardens”(14) show the image of the dirty place to the readers. He also shows his attitude at the beginning of the story, “I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.” (29) He trusts his belief and believes it will keep his soul far away from the dirt.
Bartleby was basically hired for copying the text but eventually he started refusing the work requested by the lawyer. The story reflects the mental and physical breakdown of the character Bartleby through the eyes of other people. Even as the story progresses and different people come into contact with Bartleby, he remains unchanged. The narrator repeatedly states that “Bartleby did nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery” (Melville 607). This is yet another way that Bartleby’s static character, along with his flat nature, is shown.
In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Meursault constantly shows his existential principles, such as his indifference toward anything and his belief that there is no afterlife. Camus informs the reader very little of Meursault’s character in The Stranger. The first person narration allows Meursault to tell the story through his own perspective, and he does not divulge much of his background or childhood. The most striking aspect of his personality is his apathetic attitude towards everything, introduced in the first paragraph of the novel: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 1).
The light in the café is man-made or artificial and can be turned off; giving us the sense that it can only be a temporary and incomplete relief from the emptiness of the dark. The light that shone on the brass number that was on the collar of the passing soldier is perhaps an indication of how meaningful this soldiers’ life was, which can be further emphasized in that he had a companion next to him. The old man likes to go to the café late at night “because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference”. Daytime, with its busy streets, probably reminded him of his disconnection from the world, while the darkness of the night made him feel as if he was not missing out on much. In essence, being deaf can bring him darkness and a separation from the rest of the world which can be the symbolic reason why he chooses to sit in the shadow of the well-lighted café.
Throughout the novel, Marner’s personality transforms from that of an entirely isolated, enigmatic man into an open and even admired neighbor. In his earlier days in Raveloe, Marner was not accepted by other members of the community. They had a “half-fearful fascination” (p. 10) about his loom, and its “questionable sound” (p. 10). In general, they didn’t talk to him, and he made no effort to talk to them. However, during the course of this novel, something and someone begin to change Marner.
“..Father’s silence was infinitely more menacing than a flood of threatening speech. That night the old man did not eat,” (pg.260) Pain was obviously felt by the father even though he did not show it because of his pride. The father also experienced pain when his son sent him a letter explaining that his grandchildren want to see him. “That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them.” (pg.262) Besides fear, he also has pain because a thunderstorm is coming in the small village and he starts picturing his grandchildren and he says to himself he