Book Report: The Once And Future King

It is interesting to consider the titles of both Disney’s The Sword in the Stone and the story section in T.H. White’s book The Once and Future King: The Sword in the Stone as somewhat misleading. Although the sword was found located on top of a stone in both cases, it was in fact fused into an anvil. As seen in the film, Wart, who is later revealed to be the young King Arthur, pulls the sword out of an anvil in a church yard, positioned on the top of a pile of rocks. This is significant because when an individual hears the title of the film, one assumes that the sword actually came out of the stone but this is not the case. This common misconception is present in almost every King Arthur representation, and the reasoning behind it is quite

A common phrase is “History is written by the victors”. Perhaps that is the reason why King George III of England is remembered as being the mad king who lost the American colonies. However, there is more to the king than what the rebel colonists made him out to be. King George’s reign of nearly 60 years was full of hardships and setbacks, yet he was a hard worker who was kind and looked out for the welfare of his empire.

Many characters in stories have one fatal flaw that can eventually lead to his or her downfall. In The Once and Future King by T.H. White and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, the love triangle between King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot is revealed. Guinevere is married to Arthur, but she has feelings for Lancelot who is Arthurs most trusted knight. Each of these three characters have characteristics that could be their fatal flaw. The fatal flaws of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot all contribute in one way or another, to Arthur’s downfall.

The Once and Future King, or King Arthur, is a legend that is, despite its age, known by all. Everyone has heard of King Arthur and his loyal knights that make up the Round Table, but the rest of the famous legend is less known. If asked about Arthur’s parentage or birthplace, most people would not know. How many people can name off Arthur’s knights? Everyone knows Arthur’s name, but the details are less defined. Arthurian legend has many parts, the first being how Arthur came into being, then the most well-known part of the legend, but there is also his famous knights, the possibility of a historical Arthur, and how the legend has evolved over the ages.

In June 1791, King Louis XVI and his family snuck out of Paris during the night, hoping to escape from the French Revolution and its violence. He planned to escape the country and return with foreign assistance to reclaim control of France, but the people of Varennes stopped and detained him until authorities arrived and sent him back to Paris. Louis’ attempted escape, in addition to the letter he left behind denouncing the Revolution, “profoundly influenced the political and social climate of France” (223). His escape outraged many people and left the administration in shambles, and this caused tensions to break out. To control the situation, the people of France quickly organized

It can occur in any form, slightly stressful or devastating painful. It can happen to anyone, rich, poor, big or small. Adversity is inevitable. Most people would consider it very negative with no benefits, but they are not aware of its hidden effect. Roman poet Horace suggests that adversity can cause a person to demonstrate certain talents, which would not have been present if not for their misfortune. People and characters in any literary work experience unfortunate events and put through difficult situations that they need to overcome. Adversity uncovers their concealed gifts that help them through their hardships. Under its effect, it also can alter the process in developing a character and transform them into someone completely different.

Many people throughout history have also faced adversity and have been resilient through it. For example, Tyler Perry; he had a terrible childhood, he was physically and sexually abused as a child, kicked out of high school, and tried to commit suicide twice in his lifetime. Still, through all his hardships, he produced and starred in his first theater production, I Know I’ve Been Changed, which failed. Therefore he obtained odd jobs to pay for the production; finally on the seventh run the show broke through. Through all his hardships he never gave up and today has a successful career as a writer, director, and actor. Oprah Winfrey also endured a rough childhood because of sexual abuse, she had a child at fourteen who passed away two weeks after. She continued on to finish high school with honors and get a scholarship for college. She worked her way up from TV anchor to a creator of her own network. Scientist Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS and through his colleague, friends, and family’s support he became a great scientist. Through his perseverance Hawking managed many accomplishments such as his published book on the theories of the Big Bang. Nelson Mandela was also a person with great resilience who dreamed of racial equality and spent 27 years in prison for it.

In Unbroken, a strong quote that demonstrates this theme is, “[Pete] told the principle that Louie craved attention but had never won it in the form of praise, so he sought it in the form of punishment. If Louie were recognized for doing something right, Pete argued, he’d turn his life around.” This quote supports the theme strongly because of all the bad situations Louie got himself into, Pete still always had unconditional support and faith in him, and in this scenario believed he was just a little lost and misguided. Constant belief and support is one reason why family is so important, so someone always has a person they can count on to help them when they need it, whether they know it or not.

Mr. P is thinking about eating him. At this instance Wart has enough time to turn around and swim away just in the nick-of-time to escape from Mr. P.

Arthur is simple minded and optimistic and has hopes of things that are way out of his league to even expect to happen. He takes on the same traits when he was a young boy in Forest Sauvage, naïve and feeling strongly about justice. Although Arthur may have known about Jenny and Lancelot, he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want them to suffer so he acted completely oblivious to the entire situation. Because of Arthur’s childlike attitude, it affected all three of them tremendously and also Arthur’s form of government. Another theme that is in effect in both books is the importance of knighthood. The playfulness of this still appears in Book I and Book IV, for example, King Pellinore’s refusal to kill the Questing Beast is as pointless as the trials by combat that happen in the fourth book. The Once and Future King not only revolved around knighthood and chivalry, but it implied what was to happen in the future. It was easy to pick up on the foreshadowing in both of these books. In the first book for example, Merlyn can see the future so therefore he prepares the Wart for what is ahead of him. While Wart explores the animal kingdom he realizes that “Might is Right” is unjust from what he saw from the ants, and Mr. P. While reading book one I knew that Arthur was going to be king because there were insinuations leading up to the point of his rein. Toward the near end of the book Thomas is presented and

“Rockin’ and a-rollin’, splishin’ and a-splashin’, over the horizon, what can it be?” Those would be the opening lyrics to the Schoolhouse Rock special entitled “No More Kings”. The cartoon walks us through an extremely “G” rated version of the beginning and conclusion of the fight for independence. Family feuds are never pretty, and apparently “royal” family feuds are no different. Different things come into play when a family rebelling, but the question I look to answer today is, what motivated the “children” colonist to rebel against their controllable “mother” Great Britain.

Paine’s ideas about the origins of government was that America should form its own government and become independent from that of England because of their different thoughts and notions. England’s government was more corrupt because of the king as Paine mentions, a king ruins the peace of a country as a whole and disrupts mankind. Paine also declares how before the rise of kings, there was no war, but with a king’s ego, causes chaos and confusion among one another. Paine believed that in America, “the law was the king” and that “a government of their own was [their] natural right” because America is supposed to be a free country (82). He said that the real king was actually God. England’s law enforcement of taxes with the American colonies caused many colonists to unify and start petitioning against Great Britain. The taxation laws left the colonists barely enough to survive off of. Paine didn’t think it was right for the colonies to be taxed when nobody in Britain knew how bad the situation actually was, therefore the British shouldn’t have any rights to tax them. Paine talks about how the community as a whole suffered because of England’s ongoing conflict with other countries. Every time, a conflict occurred, the colonies were the ones

There are many events that happened in history that makes the world how it is today. Many people don’t realize that society has changed dramatically from the 17th century to now. In those days they dealt with a different type of government system, (monarchy) in which the king is in control of the government. Some kings are great in which they run their country well and have the respect of those around them and beneath them in society, and you also have those who don’t have the respect or the authority to the people.

Rudyard Kipling’s novella,“The Man Who Would Be King”, is about two English men, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, who are cons artists that live in India with the goal of becoming the kings of Kafiristan. The story is told through a narrator, an Englishman, that stumbles upon the two characters through a strange interaction at a train station. After meeting up with the narrator at his job, Dravot and Carnehan gather as much information as they can about Kafiristan and head off in disguise for their journey to becoming kings. There are many similarities regarding how and why the British Empire and Dravot and Carnehan came to imperialize these Indian countries. Throughout the whole novella, Kipling uses the story as a way to display

The early childhood of King Arthur seems to be the foundation of the epic journey of his life. Even though his achievements as a child were brief, they were extremely important to King Arthur’s outlook on life, as well as character. As an optimistic squire, King Arthur had hopes of one day overcoming his social standing. He received his wish when he unknowingly pulled the magical sword out of the stone.