Analysis of Insignificant Gestures

“Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I bought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died;

Memory is a powerful concept. Often when an individual undergoes a traumatic situation, the ramifications of these actions seep into an individualfs psyche unknowingly. In effect this passes through memory and becomes sub-consciously buried within a personfs behavioural patterns generally. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink explores the concept of a young mans subconscious desire for a woman whom he gcanft remember to forgeth (1Memento) as she is so deeply inlaid within his soul.

The book "The Assault" by Harry Mulisch is very centered around the main character Anton's struggle with memory. The relationship between his approach to memory and the effects of his approach proved to be the main conflict of the story. Being complicated, it is hard to decipher. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is very much a shell of his memories. Many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, too small (seemingly) insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes can all be traced back to his supposedly forgotten memories of the events surrounding his families tragedy.

He sought to stay close to God by avoiding committing “the sins of the flesh,” again. He wanted to live a more righteous life than he had when he was living against the will of God. He felt that each person, should, above all things, have a relationship with God.

This is a great example of perception vs. reality as everyone makes it seem that one person might be happy, but inside they can be at the complete opposite state. This causes him to have the desire for more wisdom than what he has been taught. He wanted to find out what was really important and wanted to feel no emotion in regards to what people think of him.

In this chapter it talks about how Catherine LeMaigre was dying, and dying horribly and painfully. The two physicians sent for their esteemed colleague Dr. Benjamin Rush. They were trying to find out if they could stop the plague from spreading.

In the book “The Assault,” by Harry Mulisch, the author demonstrates how the main character, Anton, becomes free of the influence of his memories by showing that Anton's approach to memory changes over the novel course of the novel – from protective denial to acknowledgment. However, what remains static is a constant self awareness that Anton shows in-regards to his attempts to repress these memories. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is a shell of his memories of the night where is family was killed. This is shown through how many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, to insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes, can all be traced back to his allegedly forgotten memories.  The

Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel Fever 1793 takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the Yellow Fever epidemic is flooding through the city. The novel is focused around Matilda or as she is called in the book Mattie Cook, and her family. Mattie is faced with many difficulties throughout the novel, including sickness, death, loss, and learning how to be independent. By using personification and descriptive word Anderson creates the theme that fear can cause people to mature or act differently in situations. At the start of the sickness spreading, (pages 68-69 ) Mattie’s mother Lucile is sick in bed with, what they were told was “just a virus”.

He argues towards the sinners to express the way he feels about them and what he'll do to

After all the pain she has felt by George leaving, she still wants to give all she could and this proves her unconditional love. Both Celia and Alice show their love by their affection and need to care for the other character. Celia leaves the court and her father for Rosalind and Alice pleases George by with the watch. Even if the situations are tough, both go a step further to prove how much they care about the other

“I jolted awake. My sheets were soaked through with sweat, blood, and the foul-smelling black substance that marked a victim of yellow fever. Yellow fever,” despite her desperate cries for mercy, yellow fever struck young Matilda Cook with its evil hand, along with thousands of other unfortunate victims. An unpredictable future haunted the families of Philadelphia as this unbearable sickness slithered in between their homes. In the novel Fever, Laurie Halse Anderson described the fictional epidemic that occurred in 1793 to the citizens of Pennsylvania. She passionately painted the picture with blended colors of pain, perseverance, and hope. Despite unbearable pain, the protagonist pressed on with strength and hope. While her character certainly deserves admiration, Matilda Cook is not the only strong character in this story, her friends Eliza and Nathaniel share some of her inspiring traits as well as some of their own.

The poem goes on to explain� that Strephon's perception of Celia is forever altered and that he can no longer look at a woman without thinking of "all her Stinks" (122). After the Deacon's sexual assault and subsequent discovery of Clareese's menstrual cycle, "he drew back in disgust-no, _hatred-_then rinsed his hand in the kitchen sink and left without saying a word," and then

Doctor: "I cannot help thy Lady, she has taken a turn where those die holily in their beds."

F. Scott Fitzgerald understands that memory is a double-edged sword, and he illustrates this thought in two of his short stories, Babylon Revisited and Winter Dreams. In his story Babylon Revisited, the protagonist, Charles Wales, is tormented by memories of his past. His wife is dead, and his old friends won’t stop interfering in his life. His sister-in-law is basing her current ideas of him on the fact that he was an irresponsible person in the past, and it hurts his life greatly. Winter Dreams takes a slightly different approach. In this tale, the memories of the protagonist, Dexter Green, start off as pleasant but are later warped by new information. With these two works, Fitzgerald describes the problems that memories can cause in

With puppy water, beauty’s help, distilled from Tripsy’s darling whelp” (29-33). This statement depicts that women will go to the extent of applying urine from an animal to hide their imperfections. From a man's point of view, this is nauseating and absurd to find such a repugnant fluid masking the face of every beautiful woman. As Strephon’s curiosity leads him forward, his fear of the unknown prepares him for another sight, “Hard by a filthy basin stands, fouled with the scouring of her hands; the basin takes whatever comes, the scrapings of her teeth and gums. A nasty compound of all hues, for here she spits and here she spews” (37-41). The image of Celia’s white teeth after seeing the compound created by them is tarnished. Strephon cannot believe that such white teeth were actually the colour of the paste he found. Thus adding to his point that women are not what they seem or of the same value. Next, he goes to see her chamber pot and is shocked with the contents he saw, “When frightened Strephon cast his eye on’t, it showed a visage of a giant. A glass that can to sight disclose the smallest worm in Celia’s nose. And faithfully directed her nail to squeeze it out from head to tail; for catch it nicely by the head, it must come out alive or dead” (61-68). Such a sight led Strephon to see all the blemishes that once covered beautiful Celia’s face. Men would not have thought of Celia the same way if all those ‘worms’ that covered her were still