Acceleration By Graham Mcnamee: Character Analysis

Many times the feeling of guilt comes with regret and shame. Because of this, people often reflect on their past decisions and cry. Therefore, guilt helps people to change. The author James Hurst evokes a feeling of guilt in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by using flashback and climax. The narrator regrets his past wrongdoings and shows guilt for them through flashback. Furthermore, the climax of the story reveals the narrator’s realization of Doodle’s death that causes him to feel guilty.

It is easy to get caught up in one’s own world when life picks up the pace and everything seems hectic; along the way decisions are made unconsciously to let go of people who were once held dear. It is easy to be torn between what appears to be important and what is trivial. Amidst the mess that is life, various things contend for one’s attention, and what really matters might not be so clear. In “The Last Rung on the Ladder” the guilt that consumes the narrator over his sister’s suicide becomes an essential part of his identity even as he tries to adjust to her loss. In “Sanctuary” Jim Hammer is in the very first stages of realizing he is guilty of his friend’s death, and the responsibility has not yet taken its toll on him. The history and experiences of one’s identity affect the way an individual reacts to guilt, if one has never understood the impact that relationships have upon past and present selves then it is difficult to fully digest the impact of his/her actions.

authors use the concept of guilt to imply the idea that guilt has the capabilities to

Sometimes, forgiveness is used as an excuse to make the mistakes conducted okay. Eventually, the ones that are forgiven take advantage of the idea of forgiveness. In the memoir, The Glass Castle, the protagonist, Jeannette Walls and her siblings face difficult situations where they're forced to accept and learn from a young age to forgive those who are responsible. Jeannette’s parents struggle with being strong and stable parents for their children, making mistakes that have consequences that affect not only themselves but also the the Walls children. Jeannette chooses to believe that by letting go of the grudges she holds about parent she can avoid a bitter life, even though it is her parents responsible for her pain. Through Jeannette Walls journey she is able to capture the hard reality of forgiveness.

This quote shows that his remorse was so strong that he couldn’t even live past it. He was constantly living in the past to try to find forgiveness and

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

There are many ways to decide what makes a man guilty. In an ethical sense, there is more to guilt than just committing the crime. In Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland, the reader is presented with a moral dilemma: is Theodore Wieland guilty of murdering his wife and children, even though he claims that the command came from God, or is Carwin guilty because of his history of using persuasive voices, even though his role in the Wieland family’s murder is questionable? To answer these questions, one must consider what determines guilt, such as responsibility, motives, consequences, and the act itself. No matter which view is taken on what determines a man’s guilt, it can be concluded that

This ethical analysis will define the hierarchical societal pressures and psychological torment that validates acts of crime committed by Bigger Thomas in Native Son by Richard Wright and Maria in Ian McEwan’s novel The Innocent. In Wright’s novel, the main protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is a twenty year old that is prone to crime because of being marginalized in a racist white society that will not allow him to advance himself. After accidently killing Mary Dalton, Bigger’s fear of being caught is part of psychological torment that partially vindicates him from the crime. This is also true of Maria’s murder of Otto to protect Leonard from getting killed during a fistfight, since Otto had psychologically and physically abused her. Maria’s case is more compelling than Bigger’s, but they both share the underlying hierarchical abuse of society and the psychological torment that vindicates the traumatic outburst that lead to murder. These criminal acts define certain circumstances in which “crimes of passions” are vindicated in relation to the abuse and mental torment of the perpetrator of the crime. In essence, an ethical analysis of Bigger Thomas and Maria will definer the vindication of certain crimes due to hierarchical oppression and psychological torment in crimes of passion.

People will be motivated to make powerful decisions to become something greater and achieve greatness, However sometimes these decisions can put great amount of stress on the soul as well as mentally. Joseph Boyden delved into this idea in the book Three Day Road by using the protagonist, Xavier Bird, and his road of healing and acceptance. Joseph Boyden developed how hard it is to cope with guilt and live unrestrained, however can help those to accept their actions as well as to live with nothing to weigh them down.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles the theme of guilt is used, which is used to say that guilt comes with every wrong deed done and that the truth will out. First of all, the most important example of guilt is in A Separate Peace is when Gene confesses to Finny about what he had done before Finny broke his leg. He says “‘I was thinking about it… about you because I caused it… I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off… it struck me then I was injuring him again… that this could be an even deeper injury than before’” (70). By reading the quote there is evidence that Gene has guilt because he goes back to Finny, who is at home recovering from his injury, and confesses and when he does he realizes that, he

Thesis Statement: Guilt can put a toll on your life by affecting your conscience and your state of mind and the way you live your life.

A powerful quote in the novel Pulse by Jeremy Robinson is said directly after Pierce discovers that he is invincible, but at the same time savage. He looks into a reflection in a metal cabinet and sees “green-tinged skin and bright yellow eyes. As the face in the reflection mirrored the expression of horror on his own face, he realized the awful truth. He was the monster,” (Robinson 154). This was a powerful quote because throughout his entire time working at Manifold, Pierce thinks of Ridley as a horrible person, and a monster. Now that Pierce looked was literally a monster and Ridley was still human, the roles were reversed, and this is a traumatic change for Pierce. However, this quote also puts things in perspective for the reader. It

However, they always lead to a subsequent revealing the character of any person. If remorse in the evil action is acknowledged, then one can better free

Eventually, Dimmesdale confesses to his sins and asks for people to “forgive thee,” believing the death by “triumphant ignominy” brings mercy and preventing the loss of his existence (Hawthorne 161). For individuals with a moral conscious, the punishment of their actions relieves the guilt of allowing others to receive their sufferings. By claiming their accountability, they restore their sense of purpose and existence, they believe that they found themselves. Individuals should relinquish the patriarchy and masculine hegemony and aim for total equality, for the effects of the patriarchy proves detrimental to all with a sense of morality. Critic Stroner extends Hawthorne’s argument that individuals leave with a “comforting truth” that Dimmesdale would rid himself of the guilty conscious prior to his death (Stroner). When individuals receive the justice of rewards or punishment they deserve, those individuals prevents the forsakenness of their souls, they comfort others with preservation of their morality. Relinquishing the hypocrisy of their actions of hegemonic masculinity against their sense of morality, individuals have the ability to forgive themselves for both the original sin and the sin of secretive oppression. By ending the neglect of responsibility, all individuals would have the ability to carry equal burden of societal sin rather than