Essay Analysis Philip Ross created a great essay in “The Boy and the Bank Officer.” He carefully chose creative and descriptive language while keeping the rhythm of the essay. He created an informative and insightful essay about a boy and a man’s experience while at the bank. This essay shows that people do care about the well-being of others, even if it is for their own good. The essay, “The Boy and the Bank Officer,” starts out with a nameless man who thinks back to a old friend of his. The author, Ross, uses good similes, one comparing the bank to a “candy store;” and continues on to compare a bank to a church, “if banks were required to sell wallets and money belts, they might act less like churches (Ross, p. 154).” His point was …show more content…
“The boy looked destroyed. Silently, he put his savings book in a rear pocket and walked out of the bank (Ross, p. 154).” Ross described the boy’s demeanor, the bank teller’s feelings, and the way the man felt using one word. “He looked exasperated (Ross, p. 155). The anger that the man felt toward the teller was apparent, “I zeroed in on the officer (Ross, p. 155).” Ross used many single word descriptions describing the three characters’ feelings. The culmination of the essay happens when the boy leaves the bank. The character of the bank officer changed, questioning the man as to why he interfered. The man was mad. He shouted, “Shouldn’t of interfered (Ross, p. 156)?” The man thought that someone should represent the boy’s interest. The man still felt the need to shout by stating, “He was representing his interests (Ross, p. 156).” It was at that very moment that the teller filled the man in and told him that a punk has been shaking the boy down and was taking his money. He also said that the punk has been doing this for more than a month now, and the boy was too shaking up to let anyone know. Apparently, the police had known about the situation, and were going to make an arrest that day. The man replied with; “Uh (Ross, p. 156). Even at the end of the essay the short responses of “Uh,” only shows that the man was bewildered, in one short word. Ross continued throughout the essay with his
Tobias Wolff’s memoir, “This Boy’s Life”, explores the idea that an individual’s actions can be altered due to the people they are exposed to. The protagonist Jack Wolff lives an impressionable life where he undergoes somewhat of a dilemma in relations to his actions, being incapable of changing for the greater good of himself. The absence of a proper male role model plays a large role on Jack’s actions, though is definitely not the only reason. Jack’s actions are influenced by Rosemary’s abusive and power craving ex-husband Roy, as well as Dwight’s violent and arrogant personality. However, Jack is also responsible for his
In the article “The Terrible Boy” written by Tom Junod Jonathan Miller was one of the world’s most terrible boys. In America’s eyes a terrible boy is cruel, hostile and merciless. In this article, Jonathan was painted by these descriptions. However, this wasn’t always the case. He wasn’t terrible when he moved to Georgia he just wanted to get kicked out of school, so he did whatever it took. Though in highschool he took on the description of a terrible boy. It all started on the bus when Jonathan threw a open ketchup packet at his rival Joshua Belluardo. They got off the bus and instead of a fight it was a crime scene.Jonathan murdered Joshua. Sadly, though Jonathan was a terrible he should have been shown mercy.
• What are the characters’ emotions, attitudes, and behaviors? What do these indicate to the reader about the character?
In the essay, Staples describes how people see him as a threat and how they allow their fear to base their judgements on him that was preconceived by societies teachings. For example, Staples sarcastically writes, “My first victim was a woman…” (542). When first reading this sentence, the audience begins to fear about what they are about and begin to take the place of the soon to be “victim”. But when the reader continues to read deeper into the essay, Brent’s sense of sarcasm and use of hyperbole, becomes clear and the audience is able to understand why he used the previous quote as the beginning of the sentence. Brent is frustrated at how the people in this society judge good people, based on the sole acts of those who do evil. Staples’ use of fear creates the passion in the message by using first person point of view. Staples describes to the audience his childhood and college years by writing, “...I have since buried several, too” and “...I was mistaken for a burglar” (543). The reader can feel Staples’ fear as he is being chased and how he has had to bury family and friends. This becomes powerful in writing and the reader is able to better understand just what it is like for Brent. The audience also gets a feel for how Brent felt being compared to a burglar. Just by including these personal stories and relating it back to himself, Staples gives the audience the capability to better
Perhaps the biggest element in this story is the use of irony, both verbally and dramatically. For verbal irony, we can see clearly at the end that what the narrator tells the officers and how he acts on the outside, (in a "cool manner", as he puts it) is much different than the chaos on the inside, as in what he wants to say. He sees the police as "villains" and wishes them to leave, but due to the situation, he had to keep them there. The more that he assures himself of his sanity near the end of the story and the more that he thinks that he is acting coolly, eventually leads him to reveal that he is the one that killed the old man after all. As for dramatic irony, since we know that the narrator is the one that killed the old man,
Energy is one of the single most important concepts to keep in mind when writing, it can make even the most insignificant occurrences interesting. Energy plays with the reader’s senses combining subject matter, leaps/ spacing and words into one to create a fascinating piece of work. “Good writers choose a topic they know a lot about—relationships, travel, growing up, bedrooms, hotels, restaurants, the synagogue on 42nd Street—and they trust that they will discover things about the topic as they work.” (Sellers 71) Rick Moody author of “Boys” has taken a relatable topic the process of growing up and has turned a thirty year frame into a condensed
The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between
“The mother removes her purse from her shoulder and rummages through its contents: lipstick, a lace handkerchief, an address book. She finds what she’s looking for and passes a folded dollar over her child’s head to the man who stands and stares even though the light has changed and traffic navigates around his hips… He does not know his part. He does not know that acceptance of the gift and gratitude are what makes this transaction complete… The mother grows impatient and pushes the stroller before her, bearing the dollar like a cross. Finally, a black hand rises and closes around green” (paragraphs 3-5).
“But take my word for it, you youngsters - and I've learnt in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and - We hear the sharp ring of a front door bell.”This shows the power of Mr.Birlings and how he is a capitalist he always thinks that he is correct no matter what but when the moment when the inspector arrives it's now accidentally it arrives at that time to cut Mr.Birling's speech so he could stop with his capitalism, the inspector, the contrary of Mr.Birling decides to arrive at the perfect time to make tension in the family.
Rick Moody 's short story "Boys" is written with a distinct style. The author uses a form of a stream of consciousness to convey the purpose at hand, which encompasses writing as if without hesitation or editing - whatever came to Moody’s thoughts, he transferred to text. There was also a substantial use of the word “boys”, placing emphasis on the central meaning of the story. The style is thoroughly descriptive and fails to leave any details of the boys ' lives out. This quality donates a sense of reality and creates a bond between the reader and the characters. The tone of the story comes of as particularly unbiased and serious, as if the author were just stating purely factual information. As events become more somber in the boys ' lives, the author approaches a more sympathetic tone. The boys were supposed to be kids, fooling around playing games and living a care-free childhood, but these boys found themselves in scenarios no boy or child should ever encompass.
The bank represents the white stereotype of a good slave, a slave who treasures every little coin. This racial stereotype even follows the narrator around even when he tries to throw away the bank; a person returns it to him. It is difficult for the narrator to overcome this degrading stereotype when he can’t even get rid of the bank. Because of these degrading symbols, the narrator feels invisible. These racial stereotypes depict how the white people believe African-Americans (including himself) should behave. He tries to fight the racial stereotypes created, but it just forces him to act counterfeit. Both of these symbolize show racial stereotypes that follow the narrator throughout the book.
7.) In the novel, a main character that disliked another character in the story was Rawlins. He loathed the young kid Belvins, who accompanied John Grady and Rawlins on their journey to Mexico. Rawlins was not a fan of Belvin’s because he was simply threatened by him, and he believed that Belvins was all trouble. He had a bigger horse, more ambition, and could do many things better than Rawlins even though he was so much younger. For example, in one particular scene, Rawlins is talking about how good of a “shot” he has. Belvins commented on Rawlins claim stating that he has a great shot, in fact the best one in town. Flustered after hearing enough from Belvins, Rawlins asks him to prove his shot by shooting a hole through his wallet. Agreeing, Belvins shoots a hole right through the center of Rawlins wallet when it is thrown into the air. This specific event shuts Rawlins up for the rest of the night.
Mark Twain once said, "We are creatures of outside influences -- we originate nothing within. Whenever we take a new line of thought and drift into a new line of belief and action, the impulse is always suggested from the outside." In the memoir This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff Jack shows that he is a creature of outside influence. Some examples of this are that he copies what his friends do, he doesn't try to shape his own life, and he is heavily influenced by the male figures in his life.
The narrator is so frustrated that he breaks the bank into small pieces. However, when he tries to discharge the small pieces, he cannot seem to do this. This is significant because it’s as if this stereotyping has become a part of him although he has so much hatred for it.
His family’s confidence never dwindled; time after time, they joined a crusade to save Richard’s soul. Tensions began to increase when Aunt Addie enrolled Richard in the religious school where she taught. Labeled as a black sheep, Richard continued to defy the iron fist of his family. The conflict between Aunt Addie and Richard exploded when he was accused of eating walnuts in class. Richard knew the boy in front of him was guilty, but he abided by the “street code” and said nothing. Despite Richard’s denial, Aunt Addie did not conduct an investigation and immediately beat Richard in front of the class. After submitting to his aunt, he finally confessed the guilty suspect. Rather than to commend Richard for the truth, Aunt Addie attempted to beat him again after school. However, brandishing a knife, Richard defended himself. He had stood up for his dignity and pride, something that was worth more to him than anything.