Talented Mr. Ripley Essays

(146) In order to emphasize his humility and goodness, Tom has been cast as a ?one-arm jackleg? (as he so eloquently puts it). He is a carpenter, ably fixing up the Crater property. He performs the miracles of reviving Mrs. Crater?s long-dead Ford (the religious connection reinforced by O?Connor?s characterization of his expression ?as if he had just raised the dead? [151]) and teaching deaf and mute daughter Lucynell to say the word ?bird?. He eschews modern man?s obsession with money and claims that he has a ?moral intelligence? despite his physical shortcomings. By emphasizing his focus on the spiritual nature of life, Tom succeeds in marrying the daughter and receiving money from Mrs. Crater.

Continuing throughout the story, the narrator not only notice the good in Dick 's character, but also became suspicious of other things as well. He senses a presence at times in which he feels is creeping in the dark. Dick continued on

motor company, "when I [Dick] had an automobile wreck with a company car. I was in the hospital several days with extensive head injuries" (Capote 278). The car accident caused his face to be slightly maligned, and, as concluded by Dr. Jones, caused residual brain damage and instability in his personality (Capote 286). Dick's father also confirmed that Dick had changed after the crash, expressing that "He just wasn't the same boy" (Capote 255). After experiencing the crash, many parts of Dick's life began to go downhill. His marital life twisted woefully, and when all was said and done, he had gone through 2 marriages. He did not have a steady job anymore, and he began to commit petty crimes, such as writing bad checks and stealing. The latter resulted in him being in jail, where he had met Perry, who was behind bars for burglary as well, among other charges. Dick and Perry had both agreed to kill the Clutters, however when the time came, Dick showed signs of doubt and lingered, while Perry had almost no hesitation. This seems to point back to each man's past, where Perry, who had a rougher childhood, did not seem to think twice about killing the family. His scarred adolescence points to a more cold-hearted, bitter, and lonely person, while Dick's more favorable youth showed signs of mercy and conscience.

The way that Nick describes Tom expresses his dislike for him. He sees him as too arrogant and cruel. In chapter one, its is said that “there were men at New Haven that hated his guts.” (page 7).

Everyone loved Dick he was admired in school up until his crash.“An outstanding athlete - always on the first team at school. Basketball! Baseball!Football! Dick was always the star player.A pretty good student, too, with A marks in several subjects.” After his crash, he became a psychopath he couldn't help his thoughts and the fact that he felt no remorse for anything he ever did.He even admits that it wasn’t the money that he went for it was Nancy. “Before I ever went to their house I knew there would be a girl there. I think the main reason I went there was not to rob them but to rape the girl. Because I thought a lot about

Tom is often inarticulate in expressing is emotions, which works to his advantage as sensitivity was, and is, often considered an effeminate quality. On one occasion, Tom seems as though he has a moment of sentiment, he is taken “from the edge of the theoretical abyss” (121) and doesn’t continue the point he had been trying to make, as he can’t seem to find the right words. During the fight with Gatsby, however, Tom relies on insult and humiliation as his main argumentative technique. He uses insulting Gatsby in order to draw attention away from himself. For example, he claims that Gatsby turns his “house into a pigsty in order to have any friends” (130), which doesn’t have anything to do with Daisy or the affair, but is just a stab at Gatsby. He also refers to Gatsby as a “common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger” (133). Tom exposes the fact that Gatsby would not be able to provide for Daisy, disproving Gatsby’s masculinity while assuring his own, and the fact that he is able to provide for Daisy. Not only is language, but also the way that Tom speaks is a way in which he upholds his masculinity. Rather than asking questions, he always “demanded” (121) them, so rather than asking, he is declaring that he requires an answer. Asking implies that he needs assistance, and to him, self-sufficiency is a masculine quality because it means being able to support yourself. Almost every description of the way Tom speaks is that he speaks forcefully or unpleasantly. He often “snapped” and “exploded” (131) in conversation, which suggests an interruption of conversation, which is in an effort to assert

Throughout Dick’s life, he has not shown compassion towards anyone besides himself, taking everything and everyone for granted. With the use of amplification Capote is able to represent how Dick just viewed Perry as an easily-manipulable piece in his little game never showing true fondness towards him as Perry believed he reciprocated towards him, thinking they were together in the long run: “Goodbye, Perry. Dick was sick of him--his harmonica, his aches and ills, his superstitions, the weepy womanly eyes, the nagging, whispering voice” (Capote 214). This use of amplification is exceptionally valuable in proving that Dick cares about no one besides himself and will do anything for his own benefit. Dick shapes Perry into a killing machine in

Throughout the reading, Tom is viewed as an irresponsible husband and father figure because of how he frequently relinquishes his duties as a man. After he gets married to Daisy, they eventually have a daughter. However, due to Tom’s nonchalant nature, he doesn’t feel obliged to handle any responsibilities concerning his marriage. He becomes an alcoholic and he is pictured as a very arrogant man due to his wealth. His cruel nature was depicted by the author when Nick states that “His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts” (Fitzgerald 9). This statement proves how rude Tom was.

This causes the reader to believe that Dick is a cold hearted person for not feeling a morsel of empathy or compassion towards Perry. As the passage progresses, Dick begins to pester Perry about the scenario in which he killed a black man. Of course, Perry told him the story, which seemed to catch Dick’s interest. The passage concludes by Perry, once again, bringing up the Clutter murder. As Dick told him to “Shut up,” Dick saw a dog trotting along the highway in Mexico. As a whole, this passage provides evidence for the poor mental state of Dick. Though he seems to be normal and understands right from wrong, he struggles with the inability to feel any emotion after committing a crime as horrifying as

Tom’s major concern lies with the way Gatsby obtained his money. With this concern comes Tom’s criticism of Gatsby as a “Bootlegger,” because of his information on Gatsby (76). Tom immediately separates Gatsby from himself, by placing Gatsby into the category of new money. With this sly criticism Tom insults Gatsby’s achievement and connects him to an infamous world of crime, ultimately trying to prove that Gatsby isn’t the man everyone believes him to be. He later says “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife….” (77). In his rage, Tom’s attitude toward Gatsby’s class and morals is displayed through his supercilious critique of Gatsby’s apparel, Tom contest Gatsby’s learning at Oxford by saying “An Oxford man! ... Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” (65) Within this criticism Tom’s incredulous attitude, brings out his superior social status through his narrow minded view of proper

He is insane because he hunts humans or I guess people. Instead of animals like a normal person. The author states it n the text on page nine, “ It’s a game you see, I suggest to one of them that we go hunting. I give him a supply of food and an excellent hunting knife. I give him three hours’ start.

Taking place shortly after the day of the murder, Dick and Perry have escaped to Mexico, and appear to be enjoying their time as fugitives on the road. During this particular scene, Capote is able to capture the multiple personality traits of Dick, particularly Dick’s tendency to quickly succumb to anger, especially towards Perry. As Perry discusses his guilt about the murder, Capote reveals Dick’s thoughts: “[h]e was annoyed. Annoyed as hell. Why the hell couldn’t Perry just shut up?” (29). The diction of these particular sentences make it clear to the reader that Dick is ill-tempered, and feels very strong and relentless anger towards Perry, even though Capote does describes Dick’s feelings in-depth. Furthermore, Capote explores the idea of Dick’s need to appear tough and masculine by describing Dicks actions. This is demonstrated, for example, after Dick has killed a dog with his car: “‘[b]oy!’ he said - and it was what he always said after running down a dog, which is something he did whenever the opportunity arose” (31). This excerpt takes place immediately after Dick begins to have doubts about the murder; to counter this, Dick kills the dog in order to feel more confident and assured, thereby allowing Capote to illustrate Dick’s need to constantly feel in control of his surroundings and certain of his actions. No regrets, truly believes that he’s

Everyone does something at some point in their life that can be considered insane. Sometimes it’s simple things like trying a new food or a new hobby. However, other times it can be more extreme such as stepping outside of the status quo or jumping out of an airplane. The story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl takes the term “insane” a bit farther. The story depicts the life of Mary Maloney and describes the event in which she hit and killed her husband with a leg of lamb after receiving unfortunate news from husband when he returned home from work. However, Mary Maloney is innocent due to reason of Insanity due to her inability of being aware of her actions throughout the story. She does this by portraying the symptoms of a person with schizophrenia, attempting to maintain to the forced conformity of gender roles, and her over attachment or jealousy for her husband.

Insanity, the true definition is doing something over and over again expecting the same result. It is a thing, that can affect a person and make them slightly off their rocker. The landlady seems like a sweet old lady until we find out that she takes her victims and stuffs them in her free time. While the narrator from the “Tell-Tale Heart” does nothing like this. He only kills his victim, and they may both kill someone, but the landlady kills multiple people. They may both be insane but the landlady is more so, because she poisons as well as stuffs her victims, kills more people than the narrator, and she keeps trophies of the people she kills and leaves them out in the rooms that they stayed in.

After some time, Mr. Greenleaf realizes that Dickie will not return home and cuts off Tom’s allowance. While Tom believed he was good friends with Dickie, Dickie decided that he and Tom need not hang out together anymore. This conversation happened on a small boat. You see Tom become quite upset at the thought of Dickie abandoning him. He confronts Dickie on his lack of concern for others and how Dickie leads people on. Dickie returns the verbal blows by confronting Tom on his weird attachment to Dickie which leads to Tom striking Dickie with an Oar and then later striking him again until Dickie is dead. After Dickie’s death, Tom proceeds to pretend to be Dickie. Later in the film one of Dickie’s friends comes to visit Dickie but only finds Tom, who comments that Tom is the only thing that looks like Dickie. The