Anse’s exaggerated traits of selfishness distance him from the other characters and others tend to dislike him because of his self-centered personality. Anse is even too stubborn to call a doctor for his own wife until it is obvious that she is desperate. Peabody says, “I knew that nobody but a luckless man could ever need a doctor in the face of a cyclone. And I knew that if it had finally occurred to Anse himself that he needed one, it was already too late.” (42) Peabody highlights Anse’s stubbornness in this passage and shows just how unwilling to adapt and help others he is. The other characters are bothered and annoyed by the grievances of Anse, and his neighbors such as Tull view Addies death and Vardaman’s actions as “A judgment on them.
John Proctor is an immoral coward at the beginning of the play. He could be seen as a selfish or self-centered person. John only cares about his own reputation while he does not care about others’. As a married man, he is coward because he sleeping around on his wife. He is totally selfish because only him feel pleasure about having affair with Abigail.
In an attempt to get back at Hindly for his cruelty Heathcliff purposely lends him money so that he will fall deeper into dept, because of his alcoholism. This shows the depth of his cruelty. He is now a man filled with hate, revenge and jealousy. Readers may again fell sympathy for Heathcliff despite his cruelty toward young Catherine and Linton, because of his struggle with loosing
Though Cholly was humiliated by the white men, “he hated the one who had created the situation, the one who bore witness to his failure, his impotence” (151). Cholly’s hatred with himself for being emasculated is channeled towards Darlene, and throughout the rest of his life, women in general. His hatred is openly exhibited towards his daughter, Pecola, as he mistreats her and exploits her because of his own self-loathing. After raping Pecola, Cholly notices that, “again the hatred mixed with tenderness. The hatred would not let him pick her up” (163).
Why didn’t his sons become successful? Why didn’t Biff do what Bernard did to obtain wealth? The Loman family is entirely unsuccessful, riddled with financial problems, and lives off the delusion of everyone becoming successful salesman. These family flaws led Willy to commit suicide with the idea that his death would leave his life insurance money to his family. This is the exact reason why Willy’s perception of the American Dream is distorted.
This was when Holden realized his cynicism and negative outlook on life when he struggled to think of anything or anyone that he actually liked. He has a wall around him because he depends on it to shield him from the rest of the world. Holden brings the isolation upon himself because he ruins his chances to get the love and human contact he so desired. For example, his date with Sally Hayes and calls to Jane Gallagher are cut short due to his harsh behavior. Holden revels in his loneliness for a sense of safety, while his loneliness causes him
His parents actions when he was young left him with the idea that love and relationships are horrible and all it does is hurt us, he felt as if it’s not worth going through the pain and stress. He only saw the bad sides of love, and because of that, he kept himself from everyone; he never realised the good sides of love until later on in his life. Another main contrast between the two poems, is guilt. In both poems the poets both feel guilt, but in different ways. Harrison, who had a good and loving family life, felt guilty about the way he treated his father when mourning.
Decline of a Family Although it is evident that Willy and Biff Loman are related, there are also many characteristics that set them apart. They are both misplaced and seem to embellish the facts on a regular basis. However, they differ in their accountability for their action and the way they think. Willy’s misplacement can be defined by the fact that he is a truly unsuccessful salesman who is convinced happiness comes from the wrong things in life. Instead of following his true talent of building and becoming a carpenter, he went down the wrong path in life for himself.
In consideration, self-loathing rules the man’s existence forcing him to be selfless. Their whole life is almost a lie, a misconception trying to convince themselves why they should try to survive. So it seems the man also mirrors this in his personality, pretending to be someone else, convincing himself and the boy of what he is not. An alternative interpretation to the man’s first expression of desperate anger, (or even of any extreme emotion, contrasting to his regular empty, shell-like state), is that he is tortured with the thought that his wife left them and the horrific memories the mention of her brings up. This interpretation would make sense as it leads to an analepsis of the man and his wife arguing.
Holden lives a very mixed up life. Holden is depressed because he learns that he is a failure after leaving Penecy since he flunked every subject except for English. Sally Hayes depresses Holden as well because he doesn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to run away with him. He says to Sally out of no where, "Look...here's my idea, how would you like to get the hell out of here"" (132; ch. 17).