When Luke Castellan from the "Percy Jackson series" betrayed his friends and family, he did it because of his pride. He put his pride first and endangered himself and the rest of the world. His example shows us that having pride isn't always good. This theme is also shown in many of the short stories in the unit, making it a universal theme.
One example of this theme is in the short story "The Scarlet Ibis." In the story, the leading character was ashamed of having a disabled little brother, believing that other kids would make fun of them. He decides to teach his brother how to walk. After a rough couple of weeks, Doodle, the little brother, learns how to walk. The older brother decides to also teach Doodle how to run, swim, and climb so
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This part shows the theme because she is ashamed to show herself wearing her old, decaying wrap. She walks a bit with her husband and hails a cab away from the party. It's only when she gets home she realizes she has lost a necklace she borrowed from her friend. She has to call her friend to tell her that she broke the clasp of the necklace but in actuality, she was trying to find a replacement for the seemingly expensive necklace.This is another example of pride because instead of admitting that she lost the necklace, she tried to replace it. She and her husband have to pay off the debt they received from buying the replacement necklace. One day, after she pays off the debt, she unexpectedly runs into the lady that let her borrow the necklace in the first place. The lady tells her that the necklace that she lost was a fake, and she went into debt for 10 years for replacing that one necklace. All of this was caused by Madame Loisel not wanting to ruin her pride by wearing an old wrap and not admitting to losing the
In The Necklace, Madame Loisel was embarrassed by her poverty which made her state of being even worse with her self-centered actions. Characteristics to describe her actions would be materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. Evidences from the story, about these characteristics, are given to support them. Madame Loisel have plenty of traits that describes her, but the three that stood out the most was materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. With a simple, loving, and caring husband didn’t stop her self-centered actions.
In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing “herself born for every delicacy and luxury”(82). Mathilde’s vain materialistic goals, make her bitter and unhappy. The main point of irony in the story is the fact that Mathilde borrows the necklace and looses it. The necklace was very expensive, or so she thought, so she ended up in poverty
“The Necklace” develops the theme of irony through Madame Loisel’s constant need for money and jewels. The first example of irony is when she borrows the necklace to appear wealthy, then loses all her wealth. When Madame Loisel begins to worry about how she will appear to the other wealthy people, her husband tells her to go borrow jewelry from her friend, Madame Forestier (Maupassant 4). The very
The necklace serves as a symbol for greed. When Mathilda Loisel loses the necklace that she believed was worth forty thousand francs, she desperately retraces her steps and gets her husband to help her find it as well. It ends up taking ten years to pay off the debt. The ten years were hard on Mathilda Loisel and her husband, and Maupassant told the reader that she “looked old now… with hair half combed, with skirts award, and reddened hands” (6). However, even after the long ten years of manual labor all because she lost the necklace, she “sat down near the window and though of that evening at the ball so long ago, when she has been so beautiful and so admired” (6). The necklace symbolizes that when greed controls emotions and decisions, it never leads to good results.
She thinks that because her friend is rich and beautiful, that her material items would extend with that wealth. Instead, it shows Madame that even the richest of people do not always have to have genuine items. Madame realizes that she does have fun at the party even if she is not wearing all authentic things, the opposite of what she thinks she is wearing. A third ironic happening, is when she has been working to pay off the money for the necklace for a decade. Madame clearly admits to her friend on page 196 how she loses the necklace, and has been paying it back for ten years. As someone is reading the story, they will find it silly how Mme. is working for something when she is usually having people, mostly her husband, do things for her. Instead, she is working to pay off the money that she has spent on a replacement necklace. The turnout of the story changes Madame’s views on how silly, textile items, are not always needed for someone to be happy.
What is pride, is it a good thing? Pride is a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions, that are widely admired. According to Paul Bryant, “If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride and high, but so are the rewards,”which means pride is a good thing. According to C.S. Lewis”Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you provide the pleasure of being above the rest.
In the story, the narrator is not able to accept the fact that his little brother cannot do activities all the other little boys could do. An example of acting with pride is when the narrator was finally able to help his disabled brother, Doodle, walk. “I helped Doodle up, and when he was standing
Overall, it is concluded that the theme of the The Necklace is to be grateful for what you have and to accept responsibility for your actions. If one person was to try to pretend to be someone that they are not, they are leading themselves to
One example of this theme is when Smalls is taught how to play catch by his stepdad. In order to learn how to play baseball his step dad plays catch with him. This is important to Smalls because he wants to play baseball with the other kids but is scared of his lack of experience. Bill’s experience ll
Another theme is that life responsibility gets in the way of someone being true to themselves. This was shown when St. Peter was reminiscing about how he changed over time. His childlike fun loving personality was locked away. As life threw more and more responsibilities at him. This can be seem in other works of literature, like in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Lennie’s and George’s dream was to own their own farm. George quickly realized that it was not possible because Lennie was not mentally capable of achieving a lofty goal. So, he had to kill Lennie even though he promised not to let anything bad happen to him. Both of these examples show how life alters a person’s thoughts and
The internal conflicts established in “The Necklace” were a result of Madame Loisels perception of happiness. Because of her ungrateful and dejected views on life, she didn’t realize nor recognize true merriment. In the text, Guy De Maupassant shows how Madame “..was one of those pretty and charming girls born as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of
Madame Loisel’s pride demands more: “It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress” (Maupassant 2). Ironically, it is Monsieur Loisel who suggests that his wife borrow jewelry from Madame Forestier, and subsequently has to spend the next ten years borrowing money to replace it. As May puts it, “Her husband exhausts his meager inheritance and then borrows the rest, mortgaging their life away to buy a replacement for the necklace” (May 7). Monsieur Loisel sacrifices everything to salvage his wife’s pride.
Madame Loisel is provided with a necklace from Madame Foresteir for the event, since she does not own any jewelry. Wearing the necklace exemplifies that Madame Loisel is disguising her true wealth status, so that she appears to be an upper class person. Furthermore, tangible and extortionate items make her feel happy. When she takes hold of the “superb diamond necklace, her heart started beating with an overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up….She
One, noticeable part that plays a huge part in the theme is irony and/or suspense. In “The Necklace” the readers are suspenseful of if Mathilde will come out and tell the truth or try to cover up her steps. Mathilde hurries to find the diamond necklace that she has lost, and to find someone willing to work with her payment plan. Throughout this short story Mathilde faces hard tasks of work to receive the money until she can pay it off. Also, It was very suspenseful when overtime we watched Mathilde try to conquer her external conflict. Suspenseful was a feeling that took over most readers because most of them were worried that Mathilde’s friend was going to find out about to lost of the necklace. Also, Ironically the necklace was fake causing all of Mathilde’s hard work to be useless. Overall, this taught Mathilde a lesson.
Money and wealth isn't everything. Madame Loisel from The Necklace by Guy Maupassant has to learn that the hard way. Madame Loisel is a woman who feels entitled to a lavish lifestyle. She is a character who is dissatisfied with her current lifestyle even though she has a caring husband who provides her with everything he can. Madame Loisel is invited to an elaborate party in which she feels she needs a beautiful gown and a diamond necklace. In order for Madame Loisel to attend the party her husband gives her 500 Francs and she borrows a very expensive diamond necklace. After the Loisels attend the party they realize that they have lost the necklace and now their lifestyle must change dramatically so that they can pay to replace the necklace. The Loisels both work very hard for the next ten years to pay back the money they borrowed to replace the necklace. Madame Loisel realizes what a comfortable life she had and how her greed got the best of her. Leading her to a life of misery and hard labor to replace the diamond necklace. Madame Loisel is a complex character because she is both round and dynamic.