Changes In Pepe

Although he is trying to act like an adult, he does not display much foresight or self control throughout the story. He is unable to control himself when provoked, and ends up using his father’s knife to injure the man insulting him. Pepe wants so desperately to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a man that he ends up killing someone to accomplish his goal. His twisted view of what it takes to become a man involves killing a person to defend his name. What is even more surprising is that his mother seems to support the idea. Upon first returning home from killing someone in town, Pepe explains “I am a man now, Mama. The man said names to me I could not allow” (5). Pepe’s claim about being a man is made several times throughout the beginning of the story, but this is the first time his mother acknowledges it as the truth. This only reinforces Pepe’s ideas about what it means to be a man and it is what initially caused his conflict with

In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck has positioned the characters to help drive the plot, aid or hinder the protagonists, and deliver messages to readers. On the surface, Steinbeck’s novel seems to project a theme of loneliness, and man’s need for companionship. However, often the difference between the lonely and independent characters is obvious, and the contrast between the two groups is extreme. Most characters are completely alone, but how they manage their given circumstances can push the plot, reveal previously hidden traits that may benefit the overall story, and help the reader explore the novel itself more in depth.

Picking up the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck holds a different feel then putting it down. Leaving the reader pondering the true theme of the story. A tale among two friends is the mindset most would assume before reading the book but digging deeper you start to realize the dark truth. The story starts with both Lenny who’s large and unaware of his own true strength and George who’s skinny and quick witted. The tale takes both characters and presents them with challenges. Lennie has a mild mental disability which often leads both of them into a lot of trouble. While George must take care of Lennie and always get him out of trouble. Two characters who travel together would be envisioned to be best pals but what awaits them is a rude awakening, George says “Lennie just come along with me out workin '. Got kinda used to each other after a little while” (Steinbeck 3.12).

The short story “Nilda”, by Junot Diaz, depicts the ever changing and complicated inner workings of manhood through its two male characters, Yunior and Rafa. The characterization of the two lead to very different outcomes when considering how they both behave initially, and respond to social and emotional stimuli within the story. They both conform to stereotypes within the male gender, and sometimes attempt to escape that confine. Both Rafa and Yunior give the reader a unique insight into what it is like to become a man, and also the way society labels you in ways that may not always apply. The different areas of manhood discussed are both broad in range, yet specific in considering the consequence of each aspect. The range of actions discussed in the story also creates juxtaposition between the two brothers in the story. They are in a similar living and social situation, yet their respective outwardly demeanor and outlook on life is vastly different from one another.

Stories about youth and the transition from that stage of life into adulthood form a very solidly populated segment of literature. In three such stories, John Updike’s “A & P,” Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” and James Joyce’s “Araby”, young men face their transitions into adulthood. Each of these boys faces a different element of youth that requires a fundamental shift in their attitudes. Sammy, in “A&P”, must make a moral decision about his associations with adult institutions that mistreat others. Dave, in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” struggles with the idea that what defines a man is physical power. The narrator of

The movie surveyed a wide array of the troubles faced by boys and men as they try to navigate the realm of masculinity. A common theme was the command “be a man” and the cultural baggage that comes with living up to that ideal. To “be a man” means to not cry, to not be sensitive, to not let people mess with you, to respond with violence, to be angry, to drink, to womanize.

“I am sorry, Salva,” Uncle said quietly. “Your friend . . .” A cold fist seemed to grip Salva’s heart (Park, 38). A lion had been hungry enough to approach the group as they slept. As Salva learned the terror that took his friend, the incident significantly affected him as he struggled to bear over it. It had been hard for him to accept on the loss of first his family and now friend. Leaving the airport felt like leaving his old life forever. Tears came to Salva’s eyes, but he blinked them away and entered his new life in America (Park, 96). Salva had come to the moment he wasn’t looking forward to. Wonder fills him as he explores America, yet his other life presents him with mixed feelings. Salva had always been the same, but has always been changing when it comes to his mental

Through his use of imagery, Steinbeck not only creates a brilliant setting, but also ties man’s inherent good into an otherwise dark portrait of the human condition, reminding me of the good within us all.

Human behaviors are recurring themes in many written works. These behaviors vary depending on the point the author is trying to make. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Gabriel Garcia Marquez aims to reveal the impact of certain human behaviors. The behaviors Marquez uses are patience versus impatience, and judgment.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez the author of the short story, “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings; A Tale for Children”, uses magical realism as a technique to illustrate how our desire to rationalize often gets in our way of understanding reality and perhaps something that is more difficult to comprehend. The author does this through the structure of how this story is told and his vague style of writing. Also he uses the few characters introduced in the story as ways of portraying and supporting his perspectives on the effects of human rationalism and practicality. By describing Pelayo and Elisenda’s views towards the winged old man, the author successfully reflects on the idea of how humans need for categorization of unique situation in life could

When reading the short story “Flight” of John Steinbeck, there is much evidence to show that although Mrs. Torres believes in the maturity of Pepe, but she often taunts him for his laziness. Why does she do that? It seems contradictory, we should analyze this in detail.

Both of the men's attitudes lead to their destruction. Pepe was very lazy and immature. "All day you do foolish things with the knife, like a toy-baby," his mother stormed. "Big lazy, you must catch the horse and put on him thy father's saddle." Pepe also had a hot temper. During the travel to Monterey, Pepe had a little to drink and ended up killing a man. "There was wine to drink. Pepe drank wine. The little quarrel--the man started toward Pepe and then the knife--it went almost by itself. The man said names to me I could not allow." In the other story, the man's attitude problem was that he was too self-confident. He pushed himself to the limit which was farther than he could go. "But the temperature did not matter." He also didn't listen to the advice of others. "The man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country," and used his knowledge to his best advantage. "Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head."

The novel “Flight” was a very interesting story about a young boy who seems to be lost in life and has an identity crisis which leads him down the wrong path and makes the poor decision to shoot up a bank. To have the boy come to the conclusion what he was doing was wrong Sherman Alexie sends him to different places and times to show teach him something more, almost like the Scrooge and the many ghosts he encounters in “A Christmas Carol”. I will discuss a few of his “flights” analyzing each flight and his journey from Zits to Michael through emotional encounters and tough lessons.

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children” which was written in 1955 by Gabriel García Márquez has been described by many as difficult to understand and hard to follow. Faulkner describes it as having a “charming (but unsettling) effect” (1) on readers. Raney says that the story leaves most readers not fully understanding it because it uses a “subtler irony” (108) that “whispers” (108) to them and that it leaves too many “loose ends” (106). In this day and age, where most “live in Literal Land” (Raney 108) readers need assistance in order to hear and understand this type of irony, they need definitive hints, and they need to be told what to