Chappie “Bone” Dorset: The Anti-hero

Exploring Chappie, the protagonist, and his life as an anti-hero

A hero is typically admired for their integrity, strengths, and ability to do good. However, Chappie is admired for his weaknesses. Though he is not an ill-mannered teenager, he is definitely sitting on the fence, or walking the line of criminal activity at the age of fourteen. Chappie’s father left him when he was very young, and his mother eventually remarried. It is hinted early on in the novel that Ken, Chappie’s stepfather molested him when he was younger. This initial loss of innocence is what propelled him into a world of chaos and criminal activity.

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To Kill A Mockingbird – Scout’s Lessons and Loss of Innocence

This story is being told retrospectively by an older Scout who is telling it from a child’s point of view. Scout, our narrator, takes us on a journey toward maturity in the small fictional town of Maycomb. In the beginning chapter Scout depicts her world as one of the absolutes and not much room for error. She doesn’t view the world as one with varying perspectives. To her, the words black and white simply mean

American and European Society in The Razor’s Edge

In a time when society in both America and Europe were experiencing economic growth and the pursuit of wealth, there was also a rise in spirituality. Maugham presents a sense of superficial elitism when he first introduces Elliott Templeton who is as snobbish as one gets. We then meet Isabel, Elliott’s niece who has been raised to expect a high standard of living. She embraces this superficial outlook and rejects Larry because of his lack of social conformity. Out of all the characters in The Razor’s Edge Elliott is by far the best representation of the elitist mindset of that period in American and European society.

Psychoanalitic Criticism: The Use of Force by William Carlos Williams

The Use of Force

When it comes to literature, there are many critical theories we can use to gain an understanding of the texts we read. It also depends on what perspective we would like to glean that understanding. Applying Psychoanalytic Criticism to a text is one way of understanding the psyche of the author and the psychology behind the text’s meaning and the text’s purpose. Psychoanalytic criticism “argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author” (Delahoyde). This is where the Id, Ego, and Superego come in. Freud’s model of the psyche consists of the id which is the “instinctive, unconscious part of the personality” (McLeod). The id is

Looking into the society of “Sons and Lovers”; a novel by D. H. Lawrence

Have you ever wondered why a novelist wrote a specific book? I often do. Sometimes it is good to delve deep into the historical events that support the time period of which a piece was written. Well, I did a little diving and this is my take on the novel Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence.

           As the world gave way to industrialism in the early twentieth century, there was a falling away from religion in British society. The pursuit of a secular or materialistic mindset and lifestyle soon gave way to a sense of false hope and desperation. Social issues such as “the income gap, poor working conditions, the collapse of Christian morals, and environmental pollution” played a significant part in the attitudes of the public (Wu). D. H. Lawrence spends a great deal of effort trying to expose the destructive influence that industrialization had on “human relations” and their “spiritual well-being” (Wu). We especially see this in Why the Novel Matters when Lawrence says “Men get ideas into their heads, of what they mean by Life, and they proceed to cut life out to pattern. Sometimes they go into the desert to seek God, sometimes they go into the desert to seek cash, sometimes it is wine, woman, and song, and again it is water, political reform, and votes” (Lawrence, Why the Novel Matters).

In the novel Sons and Lovers, Lawrence tells a story that reflects the deterioration of the family unit brought on by industry—coal mining to be exact. It starts out with a young woman, Gertrude, who becomes enamored by a young coal miner named Walter. The two marry and have four children. Life is not as easy as Gertrude had thought it would be and the family struggles to survive as Walter spends the majority of his time underground in the mines and the pubs drinking. This shows the deterioration of the spirit—the seeking of things other than God. The greed of industry threatens the well-being of the people who feed it—the workers.