Robert Penn Warren's 'Why Do We Read Fiction?'

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding the different views and beliefs of Ralph and Jack and the need for power in both boys’ segregates the group and

Gene must react to the change happening around him and make difficult decisions in order to prolong and benefit the story. A Separate Peace begins as a flashback and is viewed from Gene's perspective as he recalls a part of his life that happened fifteen years before and is set in the 1940’s, in the time World War II. Gene, the narrator, main character and protagonist gives the reader an insight to his personal struggles that are caused by both the war happening around him, and within him; Gene’s inner struggles allow the growth of his character. As an introvert, intellectual, insecure, and yet envious friend, Gene is nearly his Finny’s complete opposite. Gene’s insecurities about himself constantly compel him

For a character to be morally ambiguous the reader cannot determine whether the character is purely evil or purely good. Readers must take into account everything such as actions, dialogue, descriptions, and interactions with other characters, weighing each as good or evil. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays Ralph as a morally ambiguous character struggling to repulse the innate beast within him and the boys. Ralph’s morals are undetermined as the leader on the island, the role he plays in Simon’s death, and the civility he tries to maintain.

Someone once said “Humans, how tragically destructive we are.” As humans we all have our instincts, and these will subconsciously affect our daily decisions. Very seldom do we realize the decisions we make could change our lives forever in an instant, and it may come back and affect us later. A Separate Peace written by John Kolwes is thought to be about friendship but when looking at the two main character's true personality and motivation it can also show the true human nature of people. The story gives the ensite of Gene Forrester and showed how his natural thought process is what will bring his whole world tumbling down around him. These characters Gene and Phineas may be seen as complete opposites but truly they are extremely similar.

“There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (The Bible, Prov. 16:25). Thoughts that come to men stem from their participation in society or their natural state of good and evil. However, society’s morals mask the natural man—who is more vulnerable to natural evil than good. Because of this, every man is susceptible to ignorance and savagery. William Golding exemplifies this idea in his novel Lord of the Flies. When a group of military boys find themselves stranded on a deserted island, their ignorance soon leads to the inevitable savagery present in the end of the novel. The maturation process of Ralph illustrates the fight between man’s tendencies of natural evil and natural good when morals

-Gene Forrester was the main character of the novel, A Separate Peace. I can relate to Gene’s competitiveness with his best friend, yet I admire Gene’s intelligence and determination. The reason I relate to Gene’s competitive nature is because I am also competitive with my friends, as they are with me. I admire Gene’s intelligence that not only naturally comes to him, but his determination to keep his grades up at The Devon School. The reason I admire him for these traits are because I find myself struggling to balance out my academics and social life during the school year. I see Gene as a role model because of the way he seems to maintain his studies and friends.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

The novel " Lord of the Flies" focuses on the conflict that exists between two competing impulses that Golding, suggests exist within all humans; these being the instinct to follow the rules, act in a peaceful manner and comply to moral commands compared to the instinct to act violently in order to gain control over others and to satisfy our own greed and personal desires. The conflict exists within the novel in several forms; law and order vs. anarchy, civilization vs. savagery and the basic term of good vs. evil. Golding uses these themes consistently throughout the novel, clearly associating instinctive savagery with evil and the instinct of civilisation with good. The representation of this lies in Ralph and Jack, the two central

In his book A Separate Peace John Knowles communicates what war really is. He uses a number of complex characters in a very complicated plot in order to convey the harsh, sad, cruel, destructive forces of war. The Characters Gene and Finny are used as opposing forces in a struggle between that cold reality of war-that is World War II in this story-and a separate peace. A peace away from the real war and all of the terrible things that come with it. Through their relationship, that is a struggle on both sides from the beginning, Knowles establishes the reality of war in all of its essence.

A common cliché for many story’s plots is the battle between good and evil. William Golding put a twist on this concept, writing ‘Lord of the Flies’ as a battle between the superego and the id. He represents these two parts of the human psyche with two characters, Ralph and Jack. These two were swiftly established as the alpha males among a group of stranded British boys. This group rapidly devolves to savages, and some believe that it is Ralph’s and Jack’s fault.

The mind has always been an interest of scientists for it holds many secrets, such as how it controls us through various methods. These methods can be ways in which have influence over us through visuals such as television or even books. Annie Murphy Paul tackles this in her article "Your Brain on Fiction", "what scientists have come to realize in the last few years is that narratives activate many other parts of our brains as well, suggesting why the experience of reading can feel so alive"(Paul). In other words, Paul is trying to say that even as one reads he or she may be able to gain more than just knowledge from a piece of literature. Stating that our brains "come alive" as many parts activate with reading certain words. This causes us to feel the experience that is put on words on a piece of paper. Allowing us, the reader, to feel the characters pain,

The human mind is made of up two instincts that constantly have conflict: the instinct to live by society’s rules and the instinct to live by your own rules. Our civilized will has been to live morally by law and order, and our savage will has been to act out for our own selfish needs. We each choose to live by one or the other depending on how we feel is the correct way to live. In this allegorical novel, William Golding represents the transformation from civilization to savagery in the conflict between two of the main characters: Ralph who represents law and order and Jack who represents savagery and violence. Lord of the Flies has remained a very controversial novel to this day with its startling, brutal, and truthful picture of the

A Separate Peace starts off with an innocent and naive Gene. This young Gene hasn’t gone through much, and still has yet to experience everything this world has to offer. After school started, “[Gene] naturally felt older—I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone—I was taller, bigger.” (John Knowles pg.2 pdf). Although Gene was growing physically, he wasn’t growing mentally. He notices this and says, “ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was

Research Outline Draft #1 Virginia Woolf once said, “Fiction is like a spider’s web, attatched ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.” Fiction, although made up of fake scenarios, holds truth behind every word. The stories that we read connect with everyone in someway. “Where Things Come Back,” by John Corey Whaley is a perfect example of this. A teenage boy and a young adult go through trials that end up interconnecting them at the end of the book.

Sometimes life is hard. Loads of schoolwork and homework, extracurricular events, and other activities fill our schedules from sunrise until long after the sun has set. Fictional reading creates a healthy way to escape the rush of life for a while. Most fictional writers create stories with the intent of captivating their audience, dragging them into the world of the story. With vivid details of locations and events, writers pull readers in to experience