1. The title of Tim McCanlies’s movie, “Second Hand Lions” is extremely significant to the meaning behind the whole story. Hub is one of the main characters in the movie, he is a man in his older years who has been through many hard times and has seen any number things. In his prime he was a fighter, a brave man unafraid of any challenge. He succeeded at many thins and could do as he pleased. Therefore, the reality of getting old was painful and frustrating for a man so full of passion and energy, and he struggled to find his purpose. When his nephew Walter was left to live with him, he forced some prospective on to Hub. Near the end of the movie Walter gives a speech to Hub telling him that he can’t just sit around and wait to die. He explained that there are plenty of things to live for even when life seems impossibly hard. Walter explained how he looked up to Hub and wanted him to be there to raise him and help him become a man. Earlier in the movie Hub ordered a lion in hopes of hunting it, but when it arrived it was old, worn out and tired, they called it a second hand lion. Later in the story that second had lion sacrificed itself to save Walter. Hub is just like that secondhand lion. He may be out of is prime and his crazy adventurous days may be over, but he still has fight left in him, and more importantly he has many valuable life lessons that he has yet to share. Walter offers Hub a chance to relive his younger years, and allows him to find meaning in his older
In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien created several allusions that each character endured during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story were vast representations of the things the soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to the symbolism, imagination was a focal theme that stood out amongst the characters. This particular theme played a role as the silent killer amongst Lt. Cross and the platoon both individually and collectively as a group. The theme of imagination created an in depth look of how the war was perceived through each character which helped emphasize their thoughts from an emotional standpoint of being young men out at war.
In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, the chapter “In the Field” O’Brien expresses how similar the shit field that Kiowa died in is a metaphor for war. Kiowa, a good man, drowned in the field can correlate to how many good men die in war and how for other people it stays on, they can taste it in their mouths and smell it for a long time afterwards, in the form of ptsd and the ecetera.
When Even the Rat was White was announced as the book that we would be assigned to read and complete a reflection on, I felt indifferent. The title generated the all too familiar themes of cultures being white-washed. In other words, the United States has a past and ongoing history of taking every culture and putting a European spin on it. Naturally, with the announcement of this title, I immediately thought of the Eurocentric atmosphere that is diligently maintained in this country. With that title, the book had to be about the history of that. Also, there were thoughts brought to mind about the book including more information about the cultures that were disregarded and misappropriated.
The audience is engaged in Saroo’s experiences as he learns to trust people along his journey so he can survive. Saroo uses his trust and friendships to help him get off the streets and find a place to sleep or a place to the stay like the orphanage.”When he saw me watching him, he said hello and we talked shyly for a bit. He seemed to know more words than i did, to speak more like an adult, so he probably went to school, but he was friendly and we played around on the street for a while. Then he said i could go with him to his house. Cautiously, if followed.”Pg 62/63. “We talked for a bit and i admitted i was lost, and he invited me to stay with his family. i might have hesitated, wondering whether he meant me harm or would turn on me, as the little boys mother had but i went with him.” Pg 65 in this example Saroo bonds trust with two people, older boy and the young school boy. it informs the reader that Saroo is in a situation where he does need help but it also displays that there are people that will help and sometimes these people can save your life. This part of "Lion" identifies how much somebody needs trust in order to survive and how by trusting others you are taking a risk that won't always turn out
The desire to be at one with nature sometimes becomes apparent within some of us. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer highlights the fact that Chris McCandless is a reckless fool and a narcissist due to his carelessness, ignorance, and incompetence.
In his novel, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer recounts the true tale of Chris McCandless, a recent college graduate who decided against a professional career and instead opted for a life of adventuring and self-reliance. Readers of Into the Wild have shared differing opinions of McCandless. Some view him as passionate, courageous, and admirable while others view him as reckless, arrogant, and “unworthy of the considerable media attention he received.” (Author’s Note) Though McCandless’ courage and steadfast dedication to his beliefs are admirable, I believe that his hubris, naivete, and his inadequate preparation should be the most important points in any discussion of his trips and subsequent death.
“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed”(Rand). This was stated by Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand; the extract relates to the novel William Golding wrote called Lord of the Flies. Golding wrote about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island from a plane crash. The boys had to figure out how to survive without grownups. Trying to survive was difficult because they had to have common sense and order. They lose those traits throughout the book which resulted in selfishness and corrupt behaviors.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best
The central theme of the movie is that despite your age, you still have a something to offer and a job to do. The “secondhand lion” that uncle Garth bought for sport ended up protecting Walter from an attacker trying to find the uncles’ money. The uncles are like “secondhand lions” in that they are being called to care for young Walter and to be the male examples in his life. Once both uncles discover their new purpose in life, they become happier with their current stage of life.
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way
While this aspect of war was only explicitly explained in the beginning of the book, its message followed the soldiers in Vietnam through their experiences. O’Brien explains in the beginning of the book that “[the soldiers] would go to war… because [they] were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 57). Despite personal feelings against the essence of war, soldiers still found themselves heading to Vietnam. The fear of embarrassment not only played a role in a soldier’s entry into the war, but it often plagued a soldier while in Vietnam. Should soldiers act in a way that would deem them cowards, they feared the loss of their reputations. The “men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien
In Tim O’ Brian’s work, “The Things They Carried” the soldiers carry many things being actual objects to feelings or outlooks. What the soldiers carried, however, is much more different than what I carry every day. Objects I carry from a day-to-day routine would be school supplies, my medicine, and my computer; although, I also carry within myself opinions and feelings that cannot be seen, only conveyed. I hold in myself my expectations, my personality, my intelligence, and my values all of which determine who I am as a person and show what I think from day to day.
When thinking of Mexican American immigrants, what comes to mind? The American public consistently listens to the media telling stories of how these people cross the border illegally, which is deemed as a crime. Immigrants are portrayed just as stealing American jobs and benefiting from government programs such as welfare. Countless people think it was a voluntary action for them to come to the United States, therefore whatever comes their way is what they deserve regardless if it is health problems, racism or low paying jobs. However, what most of American people don’t realize is that the majority of Mexican migrants are forced to migrate to the United State in order to survive. They constantly risk their lives to cross a dangerous border in order to find the jobs that the American people don’t want to endure. In the book called “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies”, the author, Seth Holmes focuses on the lives of an indigenous Mexican group called the Triquis. Throughout the book, he focuses on the journey of the group from their hometown of Oaxaca to farms in California and Washington. The book also emphasizes how racism and health problems of migrant workers have become invisible to the American people. It is commonly seen that their personal damage such as health problems and placement on the social hierarchy system is only to be blamed on their sole decision to come to a country where they are considered illegal. Instead of blaming the Triqui people for their sickness, Holmes
Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion narrates the forgotten stories of those who contributed to the building of the city Toronto, particularly immigrants and marginal individuals. In the very first page of the novel, Ondaatje stresses the concern with personal narratives and the act of storytelling: "This is the story a young girl gathers in a car during the early hours of the morning [...] She listens to the man as he picks up and brings together various corners of the story..." (4). Similar to Crossing the River, there is a framework story, that of a man telling a story to a girl, that opens and ends the novel and gives coherence to
Ballad of Birmingham, written by the poet Dudley Randall relives a tragic moment in time in which four little girls died when a church was purposefully exploded. This poem is based on the incident that occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. This poem vividly shows the perspective of a mother losing her child. Most of the poem includes a mother daughter discussion regarding the participation of the freedom march. The mother explains to her daughter that it is far too dangerous for her to be participate, therefore she sends her daughter to church, where she believes that she would be safe. The mother later hears of the explosion and runs over to find out that her daughter had been killed by noticing her daughter’s shoe on the ground. In Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall uses voice, imagery, and sound to show how the tragic event revolves around a theme of racism/mother’s love, which most readers can empathize to.