Essay on Charlotte's Web: Webbing Characters with Words

When caught up in a good book, we assume the non-stop reading and page turning action is because of the plot. However, Karin de Weille gives credit to something that does not cross our minds while engulfing ourselves in stories we wished knew no ending. This overlooked literature superhero is syntax. Karin de Weille goes unto detail on just how important syntax is in her article “How Syntax Moves Us”. Through examples such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, Weille is able to put together interesting details on how syntax is like a dance for our minds.

In remembering her seventh-grade class in 1965, Charlotte recalls how much she and her friends loved Miss Hancock. They were "backward" because they "had not yet embraced sophistication, boredom, cruelty, drugs, alcohol, or sex." Because of their innocence and their sheltered environments, Miss Hancock "was able to survive, even flourish" as their teacher. Charlotte recalls when Miss Hancock read poetry aloud, the class "sat bewitched, transformed," and they were "drugged by some words as some children are by electronic games." This description juxtaposes the end of the short story. Miss Hancock's teaching career no longer inspired the children because they were no longer the broad-minded, influenceable children they once were. Nostalgia eats away at Miss Hancock, especially in the case of Charlotte. Once so inspired by the composure of a metaphor, “grown up” Charlotte, when asked if she still wrote metaphors responded, “oh, I dunno.” Miss Hancock once knew the mesmerizing and transformative power of words; however, as she and her students aged the words lost their power, in turn she too lost power.

Often times, people view individuals by the way they handle situations and their responses to others. Every character in a story can be summed up in about three to four characteristics based on their actions and speech. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator reveals his true character through the way he treats his younger brother. He possesses characteristics including authority, pride, and cruelty, and readers know these traits through Hurst’s dialogue and actions.

Characters of literature embody their unique personal qualities from elements of their lives. A merging of expectations and their environment, though neither in perfect balance, molds the two Wes Moore’s, Telemachus, and Elie Weisel, and determines their overall identity. Influencing expectations include those others form of them, or those they form for themselves. Living space, living place, stresses of life, and the people they live with are all factors of environment. Through these specific aspects of life, characters become further developed.

Female characters are influential in John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids. In the novel, three women are of paramount importance in comparison to all others in shaping David’s views and opinions: Sophie, the Sealand woman, and Aunt Harriet. In the society of Waknuk, individuals exhibit prejudice repeatedly throughout the novel through their own blinkered treatment of deviations. David Strorm’s, a twelve-year-old boy whose parents brought him up in such lifestyle, interactions with those three women throughout the novel sways him to have second thoughts about it. Their dealings with David each have a particular impact on his life. Sophie allows for doubt to enter David’s life for the first time; the Sealand woman expands his views and prompts him to consider other beliefs different from those of his society; and Aunt Harriet makes him more conscious of his society’s despicable activities and more attentive to it. In John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, Sophie, the Sealand woman, and Aunt Harriet are instrumental in influencing David’s outlook on society.

Her attractive persona and florid speech resulted in an initial impression of kindness and candor, though what lies beneath is hardly approachable. The one part of Cathy’s outwardly appearance that exposed her was the coldness in her eyes. Samuel Hamilton describes this phenomenon, saying, “There was nothing recognizable behind them,” and that “They were not human eyes,” (C). Cathy’s eyes are the window to her soul and represent her cold, haughty view of the world. Her soul is the the embodiment of whom Cathy really is thus, the real Cathy controls her environment, this controlling comes from the fear of being exposed. Charles recognized and saw through Cathy’s persona and therefore did not trust her blatantly stating to Adam, “I wouldn’t trust her with a bit piece,” (B). Charles saw the dangers of trusting Cathy due to her deceptive and manipulative ways that he easily recognized. He was able to see past her beguiling appearance and saw her as the inveigler she truly was. Although Samuel and Charles were able to see past Cathy, others such as Adam were not able to see her carefully crafted

The famous ogre, Shrek, once explained, “Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers... You get it? We both have layers” when trying convey that “there's a lot more to ogres than people think” (Shrek). This goes the same for complex characters in literature; they are multilayered figures who possess contradictory traits at the same point in time. An exemplary representation would be Janie Starks from Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. As a rare character in the time period, Janie’s complexity is broadcasted through her contrasting characteristics of being opinionated yet malleable.

In the novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, several minor characters are presented to help convey the themes of the text. Alan Irvin, Sophie Wender, and Axel Morton are several of the minor characters, who are presented in the novel, that assist in the communication of themes to the reader. These characters help develop themes such as intolerance, and the nature of a closed society. John Wyndham also employs various literary techniques including personalisation, and development of character depth, which are imposed upon the characters to better convey the themes of the novel.

The poem seems to be directed toward parents who might relate to Wilbur as they watch their children grow up.  Likewise, the poem might also be directed at young people, who will inevitably undergo a journey similar to that of Wilbur’s daughter in the poem – fraught with many ups and downs, and hopefully the triumph that the

As seen through Bronte's two characters, Nelly and Edgar, both victims of Catherine's emotional displays, each has a different belief about her . Edgar is quick to forgive his beloved's ugly outbursts because of his own inability to perceive such an impulse since he completely lacks that himself. Nelly, on the other hand, having been witness too many times to Catherine's outbursts, is jaded and intolerant. Their completely opposite reactions are due to the contrast in the type of relationships each shares with the protagonist , and because of the basic differences in their own

According to Wallace, throughout the text the “narrator has been trying to manipulate the reader’s expectations” (Wallace 266). The idea of the narrator manipulating the reader’s expectations closely mirrors the idea of Henry manipulating Catherine’s responses. Additionally, Wallace claims that following these “aggressive manipulations,” both Catherine and the reader experience “doubts, instability, and lack of confidence” (Wallace 266). Wallace even provides violent imagery of both Henry and narrator as antagonistic oppressors, alleging that “the language of struggle and capitulation” used in passages involving Henry and Catherine also demonstrates what “the authoritative narrator can do to an insecure reader, who may ‘contend’ and ‘resist’ but is eventually made captive to the narrator’s will” (Wallace 268). Moreover, Wallace uses this language of oppressor and oppressed engaged in a violent physical battle again when she describes the relationship between narrator and reader as one in which the reader becomes “an opponent who struggles with the narrator for control over the text” (Wallace 262). Through her diction, Wallace illustrates images of both Henry and the narrator as violent and oppressive antagonists who force Catherine and the reader into a position where they lose the ability to think for

Catherine is so wrapped up in her fictional world of reading that she becomes ignorant of her real life issues with Henry Tilney, for whom she has been love-struck since their introduction. She entertains herself with wild imaginings about his life and family. Catherine's imaginings foreshadow her eager desire for mischief as Austen's story develops. Catherine is endowed with a vivid imagination, but she has not yet learned to use it in concert with her perception, especially in understanding the interactions between people.

perception, that the reader can relate to. Williams' diction and visual presentation of words resists the artificial;

"Contradictory words seem a little crazy to the logic of reason and inaudible for him who listens with ready-made grids, a code prepared in advance . . . One must listen to her (Maria) in order to hear an "other meaning" which is constantly in the process of weaving itself, the same time ceaselessly embracing words and yet casting them off to avoid becoming fixed, immobilized.' (Iragary) Thus Wollstonecraft's conflation of public, symbolic discourse with private, emotional, semiotic language can be viewed as a strength rather than a weakness of her fiction" (45).

The author employs indirect characterization, as he reveals the character’s ´personality through their words and actions, and through what other characters say about a character. For example, Billy is described as a seventeen year-old boy, who has just finished school, naïve, innocent, and lacking knowledge of the world and its dangers. He arrives at Bath, he peeps inside the landlady’s house, and he is attracted by the room itself: “it looked to him as though it would be a pretty and decent house to stay in.” in addition, he gets a good impression of the woman, based on a short conversation. He is completely innocent t, sure that the woman was harmless, only because she behaves in a generous way as he arrives at Bath. “She seemed terrible nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school-friends welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas Holidays ” ,“With very gentle blue eyes”, and “a mind and generous soul.” Conversely, the landlady is directly characterized because in several passages the narrator describes what she is like. She is portrayed as a warm and caring woman but by the use of irony, the author lets us know that the woman has planned to murder every visitor she receives. This is stated by her insistence on Billy signing the book, in which she registers her victims. What is more, she is depicted through her actions as a two-faced person, who does not feel remorse for having murdered Mr. Mullholland and Mr. Temple, and what is curious is that every time that Billy tries to remember where he has heard those names, she interrupts him, offering him a cup of tea, so as to avoid Billy’s questions. “The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t ‘t much care for it.” Besides, she is an intimidating person, always looking at the boy, and he knows it: “[He] could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching over the rim of her