The Importance Of Empathy In Steinbeck, By John Steinbeck

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates a protagonist that clearly demonstrates a feminist. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier seeks more from life than what she is living and starts to refuse the standards of the society she lives in. Edna has many moments of awakening resulting in creating a new person for herself. She starts to see the life of freedom and individuality she wants to live. The Awakening encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain freedom and choose individuality over conformity. Chopin creates a feminist story that shows a transformation from an obedient “mother-woman” to a woman who is willing to sacrifice her old life to become independent and make an identity for herself.

Empathy is something everyone is capable of feeling, but not everyone chooses to take action and help.“Harvest Gypsies” by John Steinbeck, is a non-fictional story about two migrant families who lived in unstable and filthy conditions. “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, is a fictional poem regarding the relationship between two neighbors that come together every year to mend a wall that divides their properties. The reader is more likely to experience more empathy while reading “Harvest Gypsies” than while reading “Mending Wall” because, Steinbeck regards real people who suffer through hardships, Frost, on the other hand, doesn’t involve the characters undergoing any distress or misfortune, thus the reader may not fully understand what is

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is a novel about a women named Edna Pontellier and she transforms from an obedient, traditional women of that era – a woman that stayed home cooked and cleaned for her husband and took care of the kids- into a an independent, sexually free and self-realized woman. In the novel Edna notices 3 people. Two lovers constantly followed by a lady wearing black. These people are very significant in representing Edna’s life.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening controversial protagonist - Edna Pontellier - lives a personally unsatisfying life with her idealistically perfect husband; a marriage that exists solely on the satisfaction of the Creole society they live in. In the beginning of the novel, she starts to struggle with the dominance of her outer identity that consists of how everyone sees her as the beautiful wife to a perfect, rich husband. But, when she is alone or with Robert, she begins to self-reflect on her inner identity that consists of how she sees herself and the new, rebellious freedoms that she desires. In The Awakening, the frequent symbolization of birds and the manner with how Edna interacts with music and the different men in her life illustrates

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is the story of a woman who is seeking freedom. Edna Pontellier feels confined in her role as mother and wife and finds freedom in her romantic interest, Robert Lebrun. Although she views Robert as her liberator, he is the ultimate cause of her demise. Edna sees Robert as an image of freedom, which brings her to rebel against her role in society. This pursuit of freedom, however, causes her death. Chopin uses many images to clarify the relationship between Robert and Edna and to show that Robert is the cause of both her freedom and her destruction.

Have you ever felt compassionate towards someone or something? Maybe even had a dream you strived for? In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck displays compassion through main character, George Milton, by having him take care of Lennie and being kind to him. George has dreams of being independent and having his own farm. George shares this dream with Lennie who is easily excited about the idea of tending the rabbits. George is happy when he can please Lennie and is nice to him rather than being cruel to him. Compassion is being fully present with someone no matter the circumstances of his or her life. George watches over Lennie, always stays with him even if he is slower and gets into trouble, and George takes care of him.

Social expectations have affected people throughout the years, however, they have changed as time has progressed. Today, women specifically may be labeled by their body size or the way they speak, being cast out of society and even being subjected to physical and/or emotional abuse. In the nineteenth century, women faced harsh discrimination by white men that objectified them and forced them to submit to their husbands and tend to their every need. Today, more women would not subject themselves to this sort of traditionalism, however, many found themselves fulfilling the role without protest and enjoying the simplicity of such a life back in the 1800s. Edna Pontellier refused to be one of these obedient women, deciding to instead follow a path of discovery that allowed her to find herself by being independent of her husband and of society. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier expresses a woman who refuses to bow down to societal expectations, rather freeing herself from those chains and becoming the embodiment of her true identity. Chopin is able to illustrate this theme through an exquisite use of symbolism, sensory imagery, and juxtaposition.

	 John Steinbeck was a famous American author who wrote from the 1920 to the 1940. Steinbeck was constantly moving across the country trying to succeed as a writer. John Steinbeck lived a life of constant up and downs, successes and failures before he landed on his feet and became a famous author.

John Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, is a book about two friends, George and Lennie, who travel around the country working together. George is a small man who is in charge of taking care of Lennie, his big huge friend who is mentally disabled. This in itself helps to provoke sympathy from people reading the book due to his increased responsibilities, however there are more things that occur to make us sympathize with George. When things happen to Lennie, like when Lennie gets into a fight and depends on George for instruction on how to handle things, is another important example of things that happen in the book, making George’s hardships apparent, which make people have an increasing amount of sympathy towards him. Also, at the end of the book, George is pushed to shoot Lennie because of the bad things he accidentally did, which had extremely bad criminal consequences.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

    One theme apparent in Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, is the consequence of solitude when independence is chosen over conformity. The novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is faced with this consequence after she embarks on a journey of self-discovery. "As Edna's ability to express herself grows, the number of people who can understand her newfound language shrinks" (Ward 3). Edna's awakening from a conforming, Victorian wife and mother, into an emotional and sexual woman takes place through the use of self-expression in three forms: emotional language, art, and physical passion.

In the novel “ Nightjohn a theme is Showing love through pain . This theme can be seen through three different events. Night John said he was the one who was teaching sarny to read and write Sarny’s mammy was getting beaten and then Nightjohn said he was the one who taught sarny how to read and write. So the slave owner took nightjohn and let go of sarny’s mammy. He could’ve let sarny’s mom suffer but he owned up because he loved what sarney mammy does for the slaves. “She don’t know nothing. It was me that taught the girl letters.” Said Nightjohn Pg. 72. Because he told the slave owner that it was him instead of letting sarny’s mammy suffer

In societies, both past and present, individuals with mental illnesses are judged and stigmatized for their differences. The Australian filmmaker, Michael Buckley explores this aspect of society through his short biographical film Witness portraying the life of John Harrowell and his suffering due to being institutionalized at such a young age. The text runs for a brief period of time, however, there are a variety of filmic techniques utilised to create an emotional impact on the viewer. Through the use of three prominent filmic techniques; symbolism, characterisation and monologue, Buckley effectively portrays the tragic life of John Harrowell and successfully creates viewer sympathy.

“When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake,” Peter D. Ouspensky once stated. While some let their soaring ideals beguile them, others face their hardships and forge onwards; awareness of one’s delusions marks the first step towards a solution. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, protagonist Edna Pontellier struggles with confronting reality. Although the title of The Awakening alludes to Edna's budding realization of her constraints as a married woman in Creole society, her efforts to rebel against her societal role display her self-delusion rather than a true awakening, which she only gets close to experiencing at the end of the novel.

No man is an island, and in the face of loneliness George and Lennie formed a family. It is portrayed that through their companionship they chose to rise above. As George and Lennie depended on each other they were able to dream. Like brothers George and Lennie had their fair share of disagreements but it is clearly seen that George is devoted to Lennie and Lennie