Character Analysis of Rip Van Winkle What would it be like to spend twenty years sleeping through life? The story entitled “Rip Van Winkle” is an 1819 short story publication this is authored by Washington Irving. The reader is drawn into the story of the lazy, neighborly, henpecked man who is affectionately known as Rip Van Winkle. Set in the Catskill Mountains Irving tells the story of Rip who supposedly falls into a deep slumber and does not awake for twenty years. During this period of slumber, Rip escapes the nagging of his wife, the American War for Independence, and the harsh realities of life.
Flypaper The short story Flypaper is written by Simon Armitage, is at first hand a tragic story about the law-breaking and provocative artist who gets caught up by the authorities. By analyzing you do see a connection between Flypaper and the tale of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for mankind on the cross. The story takes place in a small town in Northern England, where one of our main characters resides as a council leader – Perry. It’s hard to tell at what time the story takes place – the narrator tells: “It was an age like today.” which means that the story could take place at any time: the past, the present and even the future. You can divide the text into two parts: in the first part we hear a lot about how the artist becomes famous
Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as "overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves." But Gatsby confuses "youth and mystery" with history; he thinks a single glorious month of love with Daisy can compete with the years and experiences she has shared with Tom. Just as "new money" is money without social connection, Gatsby's connection to Daisy exists outside of history. Nick's fear of the future foreshadows the economic crisis that pushed the country into depression and ended the Roaring Twenties in 1929. The day Gatsby and Tom argue at the Plaza Hotel, Nick suddenly realizes that it's his 30th birthday.
The Caveman’s Valentine: An Analysis of Romulus Ledbetter Ryan A. Bettis Chattahoochee Technical College Abstract The Caveman’s Valentine is the story of Romulus Ledbetter, an accomplished husband, father, musical genius; turned homeless, paranoid schizophrenic played by Samuel L. Jackson. Romulus experiences prosecutory and paranoid delusions as well as auditory and visual hallucinations. Romulus lives in a cave-like dwelling in Innman Park in New York City and is appropriately referred to by the locals as “The Caveman”. Waking one morning, Romulus finds a dead man frozen outside his cave and is convinced that man was murdered. As he tries to convince authorities of what he believes really happened, he is ignored as merely spewing another crazy tirade.
After a twenty-year slumber in the Kaatskill Mountains, Rip Van Winkle returns to the town where he once lived. Upon his return, Rip finds his old house abandoned, his town transformed and those that were once his friends were now either dead or missing. After reaching this conclusion, Rip is overcome with doubt, but suddenly eyes fall upon his doppelgänger, walking up and down the streets where he once had, it is at this time that Rip’s doubt provokes him to relinquish his identity. A cry slips from his lips, his words coated with anxiety, “… I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name or who I am!” (540) This single statement defines his loss, his ripening madness, without recognition, without the acknowledgement of his people, Rip has become nothingness for he depends on his existence to be validated by the eyes of his community. To delve deeper into this disillusion, one must first understand who Rip is and how his community views his character.
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN “All ending are beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..." From the author of the number one New York Times bestsellerTuesdays with Morrie comes this long-awaited follow-up, an enchanting, beautifully crafted novel that explores a mystery only heaven can unfold. Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. As the park has changed over the years -- from the Loop-the-Loop to the Pipeline Plunge -- so, too, has Eddie changed, from optimistic youth to embittered old age. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.
The protagonist of the story is known as Ichabod Crane, a very eccentric scientist who was stationed in Sleepy Hollow after being exiled from his town in Northern Connecticut. Throughout the Gothic era the characters have been most important to the story. The characters are written in a way that the reader can relate to them and make them feel like they are actually in the story. The characters of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane are two examples of characters that define the Gothic Literary era. In Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow, the Antagonist is known as the Headless Horseman, a paranormal being that terrorizes the town and beheading all of those who oppose him “…the Headless Horseman, who had been heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and, it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard.” (Irving) His gruesome and tragic death dates back the American Revolution.
Rip would go to the town's inn and sit with his friends and discuss past issues in old newspapers. He was an overall laid-back man and "If left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in perfect contentment" (Irving 939). The one thing keeping him from doing so, letting his life drift away, was his wife constantly complaining about his idleness and laziness. One day, Rip Van Winkle went out hunting to get away from his wife and labours of the farm. He walked along to the Kaatskill mountains with Wolf where he heard his named called repeatedly.
The dream and storm that night was just a sign of what was to come next. The play All My Sons written by Arthur Miller is set in a Mid-West American town in the 140’s. The thematic intensions of the play evolve from a true story which occurred in WWII; a man who struggles with the pressure of making money and dealing with ethical and personal responsibilities. Joe Keller a wealthy businessman knowingly shipped out faulty cylinder heads to the navy, which lead to the death of many soldiers and the arrest of his deputy manager Steve Deever and himself. Joe sacrificed his honour in his struggle to make his family wealthy and strong as Joe denied his part in the shipment and blamed it all on Steve.
In addition, layering mystical qualities in the image of the wind contributes to the fantastical feel of the story. To further the impression that the reader will be taken to a dreamy world, Nabokov then introduces a series of unusual characters and images inhabiting the deep court yard – “the melancholy ragmen”, “an obese blond woman with a lovely voice”, “the wail of a crippled violin”. In this almost hallucinatory world the main character falls asleep. This is the departing point from reality into fantasy. Nabokov interweaves the imagery from the myth of Elijah and his chariot as a main cause for thunderstorms with the main character’s strong emotional reaction to the raging element to create an atmosphere.