Reverend Louis Merrill is the doubt-plagued Congregationalist minister in Gravesend, who often speaks to Owen about matters of religious faith. At the end of the book, John learns that the Rev. Merrill is his father. Randy White is the headmaster at Gravesend Academy, which John and Owen attend, is responsible for the expulsion of Owen from the school which promptly results in his own dismissal. Hester Eastman is John’s cousin is Owen’s girlfriend.
“We paused over a snapshot of Ted Lavender, and after a while Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said he’d never forgiven himself for Lavender’s death. It was something that would never go away, he said quietly” (27). Cross believes that because he was so obsessed with his fantasy of Martha and the life they might lead after the war, he was negligent. Therefore, Cross sees Lavender’s death as the result of his negligence. His confession to O’Brien, years later, testifies to his intense feeling of guilt about the incident.
The constant use of "I" puts us right in the narrator’s head and allows us to empathize with her. Ironic Indirection If we took the narrator’s words at face value, we would believe that her husband is kind and loving, that she really is physically ill, and that women really do get trapped in wallpaper. All of this is questionable at best and mostly dead wrong. This is part of the fun of first person narration – you’re never quite sure if the narrator’s perceptions actually reflect what’s going on. The narrator's tone also clues us into her character – her uncertainty and hesitation at the start of the story, and her determination towards the
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY C. S. Lewis’s Views on Pain and Suffering: The Impact on Christian Life Submitted to Dr.Greer in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course SEMI 500 - D10 201430 Introduction to Seminary Studies by Angela Smalls Lopes August 3, 2014 Contents Introduction...................................................................................................................................1 Events That Had an Impact on Lewis’ Life……………………………………………………2 Childhood devastation and pain…………………………………………………………..2 Facing Pain During the War……………………………………………………………...3 Losing the Love Of His Life……………………………………………………………..4 Laying the Foundation
Another example is when Dimmesdale is returning home. We can see a dramatic change in his personality which was once shy and depressed to where he would, “He overcame every obstacle with a tireless activeness that surprised him” (225). Although, this change bring out the evil in him that was once hidden. When an old man had congratulated him or his accomplishments, “Dimmesdale could barely keep himself from shouting blasphemies at this excellent and gray-haired deacon” (227).When he sees a beautiful young girl he thinks to himself, “He could destroy her innocence with just one wicked look and develop her lust with only a word”
Dimmesdale is forced to hide his identity as the father of Pearl, the daughter of Dimmesdale and Hester, to not compromise Hester’s bold attempt to keep his paternal connection secret. He is affected psychologically and his anguish deepens as the story progresses; no help to Chillingworth, the real father (what a love triangle, eh? ), who is stoking Dimmesdale’s psychological suffering as if it were a camp fire that keeps him happy and warm. Dimmesdale’s psychological affliction also makes him live in physiological agony as seen by the “paleness of his cheeks” (99) and his “troublesome chest cavity” (187). Because Dimmesdale hides his shame by trying to appear collected towards the community, he “burns in secret” (159) which leads to the climax of his trouble a top the scaffolding where he finally lets out the guilt he has been hiding and falls
At several points in the story, he all but addresses us directly, imploring us, for example, to notice how bad Aylmer looks in comparison even to an animal like Aminadab. The narrator can also be characterized as a moralist who condescends to his readers. Rather than trusting us to figure out the symbolism of the birthmark, for example, or allowing us to draw our own conclusions about the soundness of Aylmer’s experiment, the narrator rushes to explain every metaphor and symbol as if we might miss his point. The strong narrative voice of “The Birthmark” epitomizes a key difference between modern American short stories and nineteenth-century American short stories. Modern stories are often told in an objective, distant, even ironic voice, whereas nineteenth-century stories were usually told by passionate narrators who infused their own strong opinions.
This is where a conversion is most likely to happen as the individual reaches a crisis, and may completely change their values, how they see life and the way they act. This is generally when an individual accepts the belief in God, and the feeling of crisis fades, replaced with love and happiness. William James’s work was primarily focused on conversion experiences. In his book The Variety of Religious Experience he records accounts of religious experiences. A prime example is of S. Hadley, who describes himself before his conversion as a “homeless, dying drunkard”.
The Evolution of a Hero Our lives are based on our vivid memories of the past. The experiences that we had early on in our childhood of learning to not steal candy from the corner store, or to say please and thank you at the table all intertwine to form our visions of our future. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Amir is a character we observe that has to deal with the painful memories of the past. His main regret of betraying his loyal friend Hassan has haunted his soul for the last 26 years of his life. “It maybe unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometime even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime” (Hosseini 183).
Langston Hughes in, “Salvation”, described how he, a young innocent boy, was pressured by his peers and elders so much that he lied about his faith. The 12-year-old Langston Hughes was participating in a revival at his aunt’s church. The purpose of the revival was to bring the young to Jesus to be saved from their sins. Instead of