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Comparing Winter's Tale And My Brother, The Artist, At Seven

Decent Essays

In Mark Helprin’s novel, Winter’s Tale, and Levine’s poem, “My Brother, the Artist, at Seven”, the characters grow spiritually, “Rising Above” themselves. The characters in both the novel and the poem share this charactersistic. Rising above one’s self is not only a figurative theme in the characters, but also a literal theme. Beverly Penn, Peter Lake, and Cecile Mature in Helprin’s novel, as well as the young boy in Levine’s poem, all show similiar traits of rising above. Beverly Penn rises above herself in some very meaningful circumstances in Mark Helprin’s novel, Winter’s Tale. One moment in the novel in which Beverly is shown “rising above” herself is when, Peter Lake watches as she plays the piano. The novel states, “He had unspeakable admiration for the way she had risen from obvious weakness to court with such passion the elusive and demanding notes that he had heard. She had done what Mootfowl had always argued. She had risen above herself, right before his eyes she had risen, and then fallen back, weakened, vulnerable, alone (Helprin, Pg. 127).” Beverly pushed through the weakness she was experiencing from consumption, and conquered it. She was doing something that she loved and doing it strikingly well. This was Beverly “rising above” herself, challenging herself to overcome her weakness. Beverly is …show more content…

He had to grow up before other children his age- he had to mature himself. Likewise, lines twelve through sixteen of the Levine poem state, “Just after dawn he sneaks out to hide in the wild, bleached grasses of August and pretends he’s grown up, someone complete in himself with out the need for anyone else (Levine, lines12-15).” The boy in the poem and Peter Lake were both immigrant children that had to grow up at a young age. They both had to rise above themselves, and get through the struggles of having to be an adult at the age of a young

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