Literary Analysis : ' The Death Of Buck '

"The hammer blows of guilt and remorse. He has no weapons with which to fight them off."(107) Conrad feels regretful for how he has affected everyone around him. Furthermore, he sees the release of emotion as a privilege that he does not feel he deserves. Therefore, he denies himself of his strongest weapon—his ability to articulate and communicate what he is feeling. His thoughts reveal, "[in] bed, he waits for sleep. He cannot get under until he has reviewed the day, counted up his losses. He must learn

Based on Conrad’s character in the movie, he could be described as having more of an intuitive grieving style. This style of grieving utilizes more of the affective domain and uses little of the cognitive (Martin & Doka, 2011). For the intuitive griever, grief is characterized by the experience of painful feelings. The feelings of guilt and sadness were those that Conrad experienced the most. After

The main reason IT took Meg and Charles’ father is because he is a gifted scientist and they wanted to use his smarts. When Calvin and Meg found her father Meg was faint because her father went to reach for her wrist but there was a slight jerk. The book stated that it felt like it broke every bone in her body. While she was lying on the floor, her father heard her heart beating and told Calvin she is still alive. Also, Calvin and the father had this conversation: “Her father: "Yes. Nothing seemed important any more but rest, and of course IT offered me complete rest. I had almost come to the conclusion that I was wrong to fight, that IT was right after all, and everything I believed in most passionately was nothing but a madman's dream. But then you and Meg came in to me, broke through my prison, and hope and faith returned." Calvin: "Sir, why were you on Camazotz at all? Was there a particular reason for going there?" Her father, with a frigid laugh: "Going to Camazotz was a complete accident. I never intended even to leave our own solar system. I was heading for Mars. Tessering is even more complicated than we had

Regarding psychological functioning, Conrad is under the vicious cycle of depression. His brother’s death led him to adapt a negative explanatory style. This in turn resulted in his depressed mood and cognitive and behavioral changes. He also believes that he has disobeyed his parents and does not deserve their forgiveness or affection (1:09:38). Conrad lives with a sense of guilt, not only for attempting suicide, but for things he had no control over (ex. Karen’s death). From a socio-cultural approach, Conrad depression worsens due to his unstable relationship with his mother, along with other relationships in his life. Throughout the movie, we clearly see that Conrad’s mother does not understand the severity of Conrad’s mental state. She frequently believes that Conrad is fine and wants their lives to ‘get back to normal’ (0:24:37). She believes Conrad’s mental health is a phase that can be fixed by simply being harder on him. The movie also takes place in a time where discussing mental health is taboo. Mental illness was significantly less common and thought to be a touchy subject. Throughout the movie, we can see that people do not know how to approach the Jarretts about Conrad’s state and frequently stumble through conversations or do not understand the situation (0:22:14; 0:31:52; 0:48:05). This plays a part in Conrad’s depression because he feels he can’t talk to or relate to anyone

This ending adds more obscurity to the work as a whole and goes right along with how Conrad wrote the novel in its entirety. This is how he shaped his characters as well. Vague descriptions and details make the readers think and try to process things on their own instead of the narrator telling them. That is why this ending and novel as a whole is one of the hardest to understand and

Now, any normal mother would say, “come on now, do not be sad. Eat your breakfast”, but not in this case. She immediately takes his breakfast and throws it away without even making sure he didn't want it. Now this behavior is called being passive agressive. It is what she didn't say which hurt the most to Conrad. The way she should have reacted to him should have been more concerning. She should have made sure he was okay and asked why he is avoiding breakfast and being more quiet. It was the mother’s lack of concern for anyone but herself which caused the family predicament to escalate. The next significant conflict rising from neglect of addressing the real issue is between Calvin, Conrad’s father, and Beth, Conrad’s mother. This conflict was, in my opinion, the main conflict of the story. This can be proven through continued arguments where the father is left facing his wife and always gets an ultimatum of choosing his wife or Conrad. An excellent example is when Conrad and Calvin get home from buying a christmas tree. Beth confronts Conrad about quitting the swimming team and blows up the entire situation into making it about how he is a bad kid and then about how it will affect her image.

The emotional agony that Conrad experienced following the death of his brother almost led to his end. The conflict inside of Conrad is only the beginning of his suffering. The emotions that engulf one's mind can swallow them up and eat them from the inside out. They demand to be felt, but the management of the emotional conflict has been just as important. For example, when the Jannett family is together to take family photos, including the grandparents, the disconnect between Conrad and his mother are clearly visible to the naked eye. After being asked to take a picture with her son, Beth hesitates, violently insisting a different photo to be taken in order to avoid accepting and showing the increasing disconnect between her and her son. Siting and watching, Conrad struggles internally to decode the intentions of the scene depicted in front of him before he burst into an outrage. Initially, Conrad practiced silence in the form of withdrawal. Thus, he situated himself in the isolated window chair. The actions of his mother spoke to him in the sense that she hated him, wishing to have nothing to do with him. The silence remained silent until he burst with rage, projecting the instructions of his father for the camera to be given to his emotionally silent mother. Conrad rested on the assumptions he formed based not only on his mother’s current action, but passed actions as well, to reveal what he

Life involves many hardships that may seem impossible to overcome, but with the right amount of strength, one can move beyond the wall of struggle, pain, hate, depression, and any set back. Many can relate to the events in this book because it was written by a normal person, living a normal life, who faced many problems just like any human being, yet, these struggles relate just as much to various theories. Some experiences in Buck come from the negative representation of woman, oppression of Malo, Amina, and Uzi, and Afrocentricity of Chaka. By observing this, M.K. Asante’s book, Buck, can be viewed through a Feminism, Marxism, and New Historicism theoretical lens.

In fact, his mother denies her loss, hoping to maintain her composure and restore her family to what it once was. She appears to have loved her elder son more and because of the suicide attempt, has now grown cold toward Conrad. She is determined to maintain the appearance of perfection and normalcy. When Conrad was in the hospital, Beth never went to see him for the four

The stages of grief are demonstrated in Conrad’s relationships with his family and friends. Conrad has experienced depression and a suicide attempt in response to his brother’s death. At the beginning of the book, Conrad is going through the first stage of grief, which is shock and denial. Conrad’s father, Cal, worries about Conrad’s mental health and gives him the name of a therapist. However, Conrad does not call him. Cal believes that Conrad, “ ought to stick with the plan --’” (13) However, Conrad “can’t [because he] is swimming every night…[He doesn’t] need to see anybody. [He] feels fine’ (13). Conrad is uncomfortable talking about the death, and seeing a therapist would require him to talk. Conrad is afraid to feel his emotions. He thinks if he just avoids thinking about his brother’s death, he will be okay. The second

The relationship between Calvin and his wife Beth is also extremely strained. Calvin, a kind and loving father and husband, spends a large part of the film playing the role of referee between Conrad and his mother. Calvin tries so desperately to mend their relationship but Beth makes it very clear that she is unable and unwilling to forgive Conrad and refuses to talk about it. It is no secret that Calvin cares vary deeply for both his wife and his son however, Beth's cold and emotionless attitude and behavior begins to change his feelings about their marriage and the love he once had for his wife. Beth's refusal and or inability to express any emotions/feelings makes her unapproachable and to some

Berger, "She loved my brother, too.  It's just me"(120).  He concluded that Beth could not love him because there was something wrong with him.  After the big fight that Conrad had with his parents, he revealed to his father his opinion of Beth's feelings for him. Conrad tells him, "All right, then.  She hates me"(114).  Because Conrad felt that there was something wrong with him, he did not know how to react to situations nor did he know when to express his feelings.  For his Christmas present, Conrad's parents and grandparents bought him a car.  His response to this extravagant present was, "Yeah, okay… Thank you both, it's beautiful really.  It's terrific"(126).  He was not overly excited, as one should be, on receiving such an extraordinary gift.  He was not quite sure how to act, so he repressed all of his feelings.  In an early conversation with Berger, Conrad said, "What I'm doing here is that I had to come"(41).  This proves that Conrad was in denial of his psychological state and foreshadows Conrad's severe state of depression.  Conrad repressed all of his feelings and emotions.  He told Berger, "I don't feel anything"(98). Later on in the conversation, Berger told Conrad that the "Only way you're ever gonna get to know him [the guy in the closet] is to let him out now and then."(100)  This alludes to the fact that Conrad repressed his feelings and was extremely depressed.  All of these factors led to

“I’m different, and I like being different. ”(L’Engle pg.10) This quote is said by CalvinO’Keefe from A Wrinkle In Time. Calvin is a lot things. He is outgoing, humble, and extraordinary.

At some point in our life we all deal with grief. Whether it’s because of the loss of a loved one, a relationship, or even if you’re the one dying. Grief is something no one wants to bear, but we all feel its heaviness one way or another. In her model, Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief, and this model can be applied to every situation involving grief or loss. In the novel Ordinary People, by Judith Guest, we can see the process of grief and how we and those around us are affected emotionally through the perspective of Conrad and Calvin.

In The Call of the Wild, one theme could be that only the strongest survive, Buck goes through significant changes in his life and has to learn very quickly how to adapt in order to survive. The connection between this theme and natural selection is that if you are not able to adapt or suited for a certain task, you will fail. If Buck had not adapted and learned how to a sled dog, he would have most likely of died. When it says "only the strongest survive" it means that if you are not prepared or are weak, you will die first. In natural selection, when disasters happen or things in the world change, only the strongest, smartest, and quickest to adapt will survive. Bucks life changed very rapidly, but he was able to adapt very quickly to his