The Sense Of Community Saul Gets From Hockey And The Kellys

The residential school and other negative influences cause Saul to lose his identity. First of all, at St. Jerome’s they would constantly crush the

A tale can be told in several different ways. Many people are aware of the astonishing feat of the 1980 USA Olympic Men’s Hockey team, who were huge underdogs in their bid to win the gold medal against the powerhouse USSR. The movie “Miracle”, directed by Gavin O’Connor, is the dramatic journey taken by this team, from the anxiety-filled tryouts in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to the exhilarating game against the USSR in Lake Placid, New York. The book, “The Boys of Winter” written by Wayne Coffey, is based on the same events, but takes a less emotional, more factual approach to the subject. The purpose of this essay is to compare these two resources, and to discuss how they differ in tone, style, and theme.

Hockey is Saul’s healing, through hockey, he gets his new identity and disposes of the memory of being abused. When Saul first comes to the residential

set and experience hockey as a community. Hockey Night in Canada reflects an idea that hockey brings together Canadians in a common experience of the game. In this case the sport does not play the role of glorifying masculinity and violence, but it unites Canadians in the understanding of our own culture, preferences and values. For example, the values respected in hockey could be an aspect contributing to principles Canadians try to uphold on the world stage, and as

The main theme which is described is isolation, before talking about isolation what is isolation and how does that affect the reader? Isolation is one of the Canadian themes; it is a state of being alone, complete separation of others. The book revolves around isolation from the Karim family went to Montreal to their grandmother and then his friend left Lebanon and went to Paris. After some time everyone left Karim and he was lonely since Nada died because a building collapsed. On the other hand, isolation is one of the important themes because Karim describes his entire life spent in Lebanon. Karim wanted to live in Lebanon while his family was going, “A few days before the bombing resumed, Karim’s parents together with their youngest sons flew to Montreal in North America.” Karim was alone and decided not to go because he used to think that every cloud has a silver lining, a person is a coward and rather than finding a solution escaping is not the answer.

When Saul is torn away from his family and heritage, he begins to subconsciously seclude himself. To begin, when Saul is first put into a residential school, he knows that his previous life is gone, and hope for him continues to diminish quickly

Isolation is the main theme which influences the reader. Before talking about isolation what is it and how does that affect the reader? Isolation is one of the Canadian themes; it is a state of being alone, complete separation of others. The book revolves around isolation since Karim’s family went to Montreal to their grandmother and then his friend left Lebanon and went to Paris. After some time everyone left Karim and he was lonely since Nada died because a building collapsed. Karim wanted to live in Lebanon while his family decided to leave, “A few days before the bombing resumed, Karim’s parents together with their youngest sons flew to Montreal in

These words foreshadowed how hockey would soon become the greatest part of Saul’s life. He says the Father’s “passion for the game is contagious” (Wagamese 57) which unbeknown to him at the time was that passion was one he would inherit. Aside from providing Saul with the resources and opportunities needed for success in hockey, the father went above and beyond to ensure his success in life. This relates to indigenous scholar Niigaan Sinclair’s talk at Mount Allison, Father Leboutilier gave the greatest gift one can give to Saul, his time. Because of the Father’s teachings and support, hockey became the one thing that helped the boy leave the residential school and move towards a better

The feeling of being judged for the experiences an individual faces can be detrimental to the person 's personality by that these experiences result in you trying to become someone you are not so that you hide what society feels is your flaw, your race. Starr lives in two completely separate worlds, Garden Heights and the area surrounding Williamson High School. These two worlds hinders Starr’s ability to voice her opinions and thoughts about anything because in both of these areas there is this fear of overstepping boundaries. Overstepping boundaries in either area causes an individual to become threatened, for example, in Garden Heights, Starr silences herself whenever she is around gang members because she is frightened that the gang members will harm both her and her family for her opinions. Starr silences herself when she is at Williamson High School, especially since she is one out of the few African Americans that attends there, because her opinion is outnumbered by the majority of the population who are either ignorant about the issues that affects Starr’s race or cares less to even hear issues that occurs to others beside them.

The narrative allows for the idea of segregation to act as an aspect of the hardship faced by the characters. It distinguishes the differences between those who are separated, identifying their different lifestyles and values as factors, which has caused this disconnection. The segregation and major personality differences between the two families are highlighted in the quote, “Sometimes they squared off at one another like opposing platoons.” The metaphor of comparing the two sets of children to “platoon”, a word commonly used in war, parallels the separation caused by the war. This emphasizes a key aspect of the contextual features of the storyline, as the war has a major impact on the lives of the characters. This also exaggerates the level of separation between the two families, suggesting they have a war-like standing against each other, caused by different views and opinions. The notion of segregation between the families is an obvious cause of hardship, as the two families share so much, whilst being completely different.

For the very first time that [he] could remember, [he] couldn’t find the vision. [He] couldn’t seem to read the play and [he] felt hopeless. [He] felt like a loser’ (142). Saul continuously proves his worthiness to play hockey and does it for the sole purpose of amusement; however, a recent major part of the game changes to retaliation and seeking revenge through bitter fights, his vision is altered by the shocking and traumatic discrimination he faces, and takes away his feeling of joy and happiness he used to feel. As the story progresses, Saul proceeds to play in higher skilled teams, such as the Marlboros, who isolate him due to his ethnicity which only constantly reminds him that he is an Indian. For instance, Saul feels “bitter. [He] wanted the game to lift me up. To make the world disappear as it always had. But as a Marlboro, [he] could never shake being the Indian. So [he] became a puck hog. Instead of making passes to [his]open teammates, [he] skated and whirled until [he] could make the shot [himself] (164)”. Saul’s sportsmanship gradually decreases from the first time he plays hockey due to his teammates who widely unwelcome him because of the colour of his skin, to the extent where he loses the joy and the satisfaction that hockey used to give

The story states that “it seemed like some part of him was in that room watching him do things that he should not do (Wright 194),” a sentiment directly echoed during Saul’s confession, “speaking in a low, listless voice without a trace of emotion, vividly describing every detail (Wright 199).” However, this sense of hopelessness is not only caused by his situation, but the reality that someone without his world lens would never understand his motivations. Saul “knew that he could not have helped it (Wright 193),” yet when speaking with the police later on, describes how “it was utterly hopeless for him to try to make them understand how horrible it was for him to hear that woman screaming (Wright 199).” The white cops can’t understand, just as a reader likely can’t understand why Saul would be consumed with fear if they didn’t share his world lens, if they didn’t understand his identity or the identity of the woman who condemned him to death. So, the hopelessness Wright intends to impart is only strengthened by a an empathy, but a lack of ability for the reader to fully understand everything that Saul was thinking, and everything going through his mind due to uniquely situated sense of self and resulting situational

In the book, Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger depicts the culture of a small town called Odessa where economic instability, racial prejudice, sexism, and poverty are common. The one thing this town can truly hang onto is the local high school football team. In Miracle on Ice, directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, the head coach of the American Olympic Hockey Team Herb Brooks is determined to gather up an American team to beat the Russians in their own game, ice hockey. In both works, unity is an important theme that is reached through different means. In Miracle the elements of socioeconomic class and race were not a factor in unifying the team. While in Friday Night Lights those factors were extremely important throughout the context of what unity means in the story. The unity in Miracle is more constructive because it was more easily achieved because it was more well defined, it was simply to defeat the Russians and bring glory and pride to the nation. Whereas in Odessa the mission was more unclear. In a time where America was facing a “Crisis in Confidence” the U.S. Olympic Hockey brought the nation together. Although Permian football was effective in unifying and giving hope to many of its citizens, the football culture was also used to create division among different races and social classes ,and therefore was destructive.

Man is a social animal and is in a constant search for a companion. This quest gives birth to the idea of community. Community is the unification of different beliefs and culture, weaving to help create individual identity. Although assimilation into a community increases connectivity, it causes an individual to delve into isolation by losing their sense of identity. The writer will use “Home at last” by Dinaw Mengestu, “Walking the path between Worlds” by Lori Arviso Alvord, and “Aria: A memoir of a bilingual child” by Richard Rodriguez to support his claim.

Whether her brush with serious illness brought out her joie de vivre, or whether she was always this way (the story doesn't tell), Johanna's vivaciousness and extroverted certainty are just the tonic for a lonely, introverted boy like Finn. With humor, strong characters, and vivid set pieces, Paulsen shows once again that you don't need a villian to propel a wonderful story. Veteran author Gary Paulsen had a purpose beyond the story for writing this, something that can be fatal in the hands of a less experienced writer. He says that he "wanted to do something to show that cancer doesn't win, can't win, won't win." But he goes far beyond that, and shows, through Johanna's connecting to Finn to those around him, that connection to community is