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The Sisters Brothers

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Yehuda Dubrofsky ENG3U Mrs. Thompson 11 January 2011 Eli Sisters’s Character Development Patrick deWitt’s novel, The Sisters Brothers, tells the tale of two brothers, Eli and Charlie, who make a living together as professional assassins. Right from the start, it is evident to the reader that Eli does not share his brother’s appetite for killing. Despite this, Eli has never known anything else. As the novel progresses, Eli becomes familiar with his sensitive side. He starts watching his weight, searching for love, and brushing his teeth. Finally, Eli solidifies his separation from murder, when he is searching for gold with Herman Kermit Warm. This is the first time he has been exposed to something created and acquired solely by the …show more content…

After one of these failed attempts, Eli remarks: “I saw my bulky person in the windows of the passing storefronts and wondered, When will that man there find himself to be loved”(Dewitt 246)? All he wants is to find love, and even though has not found it yet, the fact that he yearns for it it shows tremendous development of his character. After taking these steps, Eli is now much closer to uncovering the sensitive man he is inside. Although Eli is much closer to becoming his true self after taking these steps, he only solidifies his separation from murder when he is digging for gold with Herman Kermit Warm. Using chemistry, Herman had developed a solution that when mixed into a body of water, illuminates and reveals all the gold that is resting at the bottom of the water. While digging up the gold, Eli feels something amazing that he never felt before. This feeling is known as self-satisfaction. Describing the feeling, Eli says: “This feeling, speaking personally, was brought on not only by the wealth our ever-growing piles of gold represented, but also from the thought that this experience was born of one man’s unique mind, and though I had never before pondered the notion of humanity, or whether I was happy or unhappy to be human, I now felt a sense of pride at the human mind, its curiosity and perseverance”(Dewitt 359). Until now, Eli was used to achieving things in life by using violence and force. In his mind, the stronger, more powerful person

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