The Secret River

People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into

Being skeptical about this type of movie is normal, however, keep an open mind. It tells the story of two children growing up in rural Montana with a strict Minister father. Their father not only taught them the word of God and to put all their faith in their religion, but he also taught them to fly fish. Several times it is mentioned that the line between God and fly fishing was usually blurred or hard to find. Norman Maclean is the eldest son, he also appears to be the protagonist. The movie is in his point of view with an older version of himself providing voice overs as he reflects. The story starts when Norman and his younger brother Paul were children, but it spends most of the time when they are older. Both being out of college and fresh to the world as responsible adults, this movie adds its name to a long list of drama films.

A River Runs Through It is a story about family, religion, and fly fishing. This story is a semi-autobiography set in the early 20th century, written by Norman Maclean. That was a time when fly fishing and religion were far more relevant to the average American. Norman spends most of the story describing fishing and fish neither of which are very captivating to me, as well as most people within 30 years of my age. Even though fly fishing takes up most of the story, A River Runs Through It is an incredibly emotional and melancholy story.

Have you ever needed easier access to the essential items to stay alive? This is specifically what the residents of the North-East thought around the year 1817. Carol Sheriff argues in her book, “The Artificial River” that the residents of the canal corridor actively sought after long-distance trade and therefore consumer goods that markets brought to their homes. The fact that people supported the Erie Canal at all "suggests that at least some aspired to engage in broader market exchange" (p. 11). The transformation of this region because of the Erie Canal is organized around six topics, each of which is covered by a chapter. They include the; Visions of Progress, the Triumph of Art over Nature, Reducing Distance and Time, the Politics of Land and Water, the Politics of Business, and the Perils of Progress.

The jump point for my psychoanalysis begins where the reader begins, the opening title. Rivers, the first part of Sherston’s Progress, named after his psychologist. The choice makes the reader think, why Rivers? Who is Rivers to George besides simply a psychologist? The first note George gives us about Rivers which jumps out to me is the following: “anyhow his name had obvious free associations with pleasant landscapes and unruffled estuaries.” Initially this seems just happen stance but in further reading of the book, one realizes that nature is personal comfort of George’s. Rivers is the only character in the semi fictional autobiography to maintain his real name and this puts him in a seemingly elevated position within Sassoon’s life. Just the act of creating a fictionalized version of an autobiography demonstrates a want to recreate one’s life. Much like George

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the southern United States of America.[2] The river was named for the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name. Although it was once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure.

Nick is a World War I veteran who, as many veterans, suffers from emotional trauma that his experiences from the war left him with. Multiple scenes throughout the story, Big Two Hearted River, relates to Nick, the main character’s, journey toward recovery. Nick describes his surroundings in way that parallels to his own experiences and current voyage in respect to his revival.. He takes a calming adventure saturated with calming natural paths over hills, through woodland, and along a river to find peace with himself and to return to his prewar state of mind.

The world of Ernest Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” exists through the mostly unemotional eyes of the character Nick. Stemming from his reactions and the suppression of some of his feelings, the reader gets a sense of how Nick is living in a temporary escape from society and his troubles in life. Despite the disaster that befell the town of Seney, this tale remains one of an optimistic ideal because of the various themes of survival and the continuation of life. Although Seney itself is a wasteland, the pine plain and the campsite could easily be seen as an Eden, lush with life and ripe with the survival of nature.

The River of Doubt wrote by Candice Millard is a story wrote about the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, based on the rough times that endured through his fall out of the presidential campaign, he sought to find a new adventure in his life and discover an undocumented territory in Brazil, the river of doubt. Throughout this book, the most meaningful aspect of the book that I learned through this reading was the perseverance of Teddy Roosevelt. As he continued to have hard times he found ways to find ways to accomplish what he wanted to do in his life. For example, when he lost in that presidential campaign, many might say that it was a suicide mission to try and discover the unmarked land in the Amazon, but how I understand

In the memoir The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the chapter titled: On the Rainy River has a central idea of resentment, embarrassment and eventual acceptance to change. The author creates this central idea with the use of a regretful tone, man vs society conflict, and dreary imagery. The theme of this chapter contributes to O’Brien’s intentions for the book because it demonstrates the struggle, shame, and or confusion each man drafted into the war experienced.

Characters in the text The Secret River by Kate Grenville represent a variation of attitudes and views towards the colonisation of Australia and the Aboriginal Australians. While many characters are indecisive about their opinion on the natives, some characters have a clear mind-set on how they are to be treated. The characters of Thomas Blackwood and Smasher Sullivan represent the two very different sides of the moral scale, and the other characters fit between these sides. Smasher is a vicious, cold-hearted man who shows no respect or humanity towards the Aboriginals. On the other hand, Blackwood’s character contrasts Smasher with his humanity and general respect to the original owners of their new home. The

Steven Herrick’s work of “By the river” displays a bildungsroman novel in which harry goes on a journey through life, facing love and loss.

Flannery O’Conner’s “The River” is a very interesting story about a little boy whose parents would prefer if he just went away. At the end of the story, the little boy did get away from them for good. In my opinion this story has a weird but interesting meaning to it. The little boy’s death at the end made me question the spiritual meaning of it; however, after thinking about I understood the intentional meaning O’Conner could have for readers.

Set in a rural Australian town in the 1960s, Steven Herrick’s novel by the river is portrayed through the eyes of protagonist Harry Hodby. This novel explores the interconnected themes of loss and leaving. Harry Hodby loses three significant people in his life; his mother, Linda Mahony and Eve Spencer. As we peer into the perspective of the principle character, we understand how he deals with each of his losses in an individual way, and how he finally finds closure and acceptance of the people in his life that have departed.

In the passage “Two Ways of Seeing a River,” author Mark Twain attempts to share the feelings of loss he experienced after he was disillusioned to the beauty of the Mississippi River. Twain was a famous Nineteenth century author who had previously worked as a steamboat captain and who grew up along the river. The organization of the paragraphs in relation to each other is linear, and the content of each paragraph is dominated by a different rhetorical device.