Quentin Compson

Quentin is a very troubled person because he is unable to deal with dishonor, pride, and grief. His father’s words haunt him everyday beginning when Mr. Compson tells Quentin that he will forget his grief because time will heal his despair and misery. Quentin is tortured by what he feels is the most awful sin, Caddy loosing her virginity. Quentin is the only member of the Compson family to have pride and he feels that Caddy’s lack of pride in her family has led her to commit this dishonorable act. As a result of Mr. Compson’s pessimistic view of life and Caddy’s sin, Quentin can find no basis for any true morals. Quentin cannot live a life without a system of morals and values. This gives him his greatest struggle in life. Quentin strives to prove his father wrong but he becomes devastated when he learns of Caddy sin. This leads him to question the truth behind his father’s claims.

Quentin feels very connected to Caddy on a level that he experiences with no other character of the novel. Quentin loves Caddy so much that he is willing to go to all lengths to cleanse her of her sin. Quentin goes as far as trying to convince their father that he and Caddy committed incest so that Caddy’s sins will decrease in significance. Quentin also tries to save Caddy when he suggests a double suicide pact. Caddy is willing to commit suicide with Quentin because it will go against her parents, while Quentin wants to die so that Caddy will be freed from her sin and be safe with him. Quentin will never be able to understand Caddy’s motives for loosing her virginity because while she looks for ways to disturb the peace between her and her parents, Quentin looks for ways to restore all lost order. Quentin is hopelessly connected to Caddy in a lost cause because she can never regain her virginity.

Quentin’s biggest fear in life is that all his values are meaningless. Unfortunately, Mr. Compson gives Quentin his last piece of evidence that leads him to the conclusion that Mr. Compson is indeed right when he says that there are no real values in life. Quentin tries to disregard his father’s ideas because he does not want to forget his grief. Quentin believes that if he forgets his horror then it will all become meaningless. If the experiences in life become meaningless then Quentin does not see the worth in living through them. He feels that he must stop time in order to stop himself from forgetting the dishonor that Caddy brought upon the family. The only way that Quentin knows how to stop himself from forgetting the horror and to stop time is by committing suicide. To Quentin, suicide is not a dishonorable act because he is preserving the grief he suffered and preventing the whole situation from becoming meaningless. (567).

Benjy and Caddy's Relationship

The character Benjy can be defined by two main qualities: his medical condition and his love and attachment to his sister Caddy. Benjy is extremely mentally underdeveloped. His body grows and goes through puberty but his mind does not grow and expand with knowledge. He is unable to speak and fully comprehend his feelings and the things he sees. As a result of this he is cast aside in his family and in his society. However, Benjy’s sister, Caddy, loves him unconditionally. She understands him the most and connects to Benjy on a level that no other character does. Benjy in return places all of his happiness in Caddy. Caddy always sticks up for Benjy, treats him with love and respect, and helps him when Benjy is in need. Caddy will always be at Benjy’s side when he needs her and Benjy knows this. Benjy has such a deep connection to Caddy that he knows when she is being led away from him by other people, causing him to agonize over her and her staying with him.

The largest problem with Benjy and Caddy’s relationship is that Benjy wants Caddy to himself at all times. He does not want Caddy to ever leave him. Benjy first has trouble with Caddy growing up when he discovers her wearing perfume. This distresses Benjy because to him Caddy always smells like trees. Her perfume makes Caddy’s smell unrecognizable to him and gives him his first impression of her leaving him and their childhood relationship behind. Caddy calms Benjy down and comforts his by washing the perfume off and promising Benjy she will never wear it again. Caddy chooses Benjy over the perfume and shows her devotion to him. Later Benjy becomes upset when he finds Caddy with a boy named Charlie. Benjy is threatened by Charlie and the image he puts in Benjy’s head. Benjy views Charlie as someone who is trying to take Caddy away from him. Once again Caddy consoles Benjy and again washes herself off so she no longer has on lipstick and the remains of a kiss. Caddy promises Benjy she will never do that again which eases Benjy’s crying. This is a huge gesture that Caddy is giving Benjy. At first glance is seems like a very loving gift but in reality it only ends up hurting Benjy more in the end when Caddy can no longer wash away Benjy’s troubles and keep such promises. When Caddy looses her virginity Benjy instantly knows that part of the Caddy he loves has become lost to him. Benjy tries to approach Caddy and force her to wash away what she did and promise to never do it again, but she can not go through with it. Caddy realizes that she can not keep such a promise to Benjy and she is hurt and upset by it. Benjy is even more distraught because he cannot fully understand the situation and the fact that Caddy is growing up. When Caddy is married, the family keeps Benjy away from the ceremony and party because it will be too much for Benjy to understand and accept.

When Caddy moves away from home, after she marries, Benjy does not understand that she is gone and will not be coming home to him everyday. Benjy continues to wait for Caddy to come home at the gate just as he had his whole life. As Caddy fails to appear everyday Benjy cries and moans. He wants to talk his thoughts through but he is unable to. His inability to speak and accept that Caddy was not leaving him specifically, but rather leaving her adolescence, inhibits Benjy from appreciating the situation. Benjy’s undying love for Caddy serves as a great happiness and source of strength for him when she is around, but once Caddy moves away it becomes Benjy’s greatest sorrow in his life.

Jane Eyre

In the novel, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte shows the development and gradual characterization of the main character, Jane Eyre, making her become one of the strongest protagonists in literary history. The novel opens with Jane portrayed as a lost, unhappy, and unloved orphan. She is neglected by her aunt and cousins in their house at Gateshead. Bronte uses this as a contrast to the novels closing. When the story ends, Jane is a strong, focused, intellectual, and loved woman. These two examples from the novel’s beginning and the novel’s end emphasize the turn that Jane’s life takes and how she develops and evolves into a brave, independent, and happy character. Through the progression of the novel, Jane goes from being a powerless individual to the character that ultimately holds all the power in her hands, largely because of her strong independence.

Jane Eyre is an extremely independent character throughout the entirety of the novel. She is independent even when she wishes she was not. When she is a young, orphaned child, she is independent because her aunt chooses not to love or include Jane in her family. Jane is independent when she attends Lowood School because she is without any long-lasting relationships; she has to fend for herself and she is determined to excel in her studies even though she has no family members to support her. During Jane’s work as a governess at Thornfield, she is independent because she is let down by her love, Edward Rochester. Jane has to recover from this sadness in her life by herself. Jane finally triumphs in her independence when she is at Marsh End. She became strong enough to stand up for herself and turn down St. John River’s marriage proposal. This is possibly the best decision Jane ever made because at the end of the novel, Jane is reunited with Rochester and they become happily married. Jane remains independent even after she becomes Rochester’s wife because she believes in and treasures the abilities of women and their right to equality.

Jane Eyre is a strong advocate of women’s rights. Part of her faith in women’s equality comes from her independent mind and her longing to break social barriers that she has faced in her life. Jane works hard in school because she believes that a good education should be enough to set her apart and should help her become a lady. Her success in school adds to Jane’s self-confidence which further stresses her view that women should be allowed to be intellectual, active in society, and equal. Jane opposes society for setting women below men and for setting her profession, a governess, in low social standing. She fights against society through her relationship with her wealthy, upper class master, Rochester. Jane’s independence sparks her rebellion against the social norms of her society.

Jane Eyre gains much of her strength because of her relationship with Edward Rochester. Their very powerful connection is deepened because they both understand each others shortcomings and resistance to become emotionally close. Rochester sees the independence within Jane and does not want to hold her back. He knows that she is cautious with people because of her lack of any emotional connection or love as a child. He shows this when he says:
I see you laugh rarely; but you laugh very merrily; believe me, you are not naturally austere, any more than I am vicious. The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your features, muffling your voice, and restricting your limbs; and you fear in the presence of a man and a brother- or father, or master, or what you will- to smile to gaily, speak to freely, or move to quickly: but in time, I think you will be natural with me, as I find it impossible to be conventional with you; and then your looks and movements will have more vivacity and variety than they dare offer now. I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.

These words of Rochester’s show that he is dedicated to Jane and that he sees her full potential as a person, even when she does not. Rochester accepts Jane’s independence, unlike the many men who would have found it inappropriate. Rochester is even impressed with Jane’s intelligence and her drawing capabilities because this was so unusual at the time.

Jane Eyre resembles a modern day heroine because of her revolutionary ideas on equal rights for women, the denial of social ranking, and her pure independence. These qualities give her the power to oppose the people who attempt to deny Jane of her happiness. Jane targets the injustices within her society which allows the novel to progress and build up around her and all that Jane was trying to accomplish. Jane’s success is largely due to her motivation, her desire for happiness, her ability to say no and to do what she knows is right for her. The novel plays off of all of Jane’s notions, ideas, desires, and actions. The growth of Jane’s character is critical to the novel because it takes this literature to another level beyond the basic story line. Bronte presents Jane Eyre to the reader as a likeable character that the reader roots for and wants to see succeed. The reader wants Jane and Rochester to end up happily together and to see Jane overcome her sad childhood. Bronte makes the readers sympathetic to Jane as a method for making the novel progress through developmental phases in Jane’s life. The reader grows to love the novel as Jane grows to love herself. The reader comes to admire Jane and everything that she stands for through her independence and her final success in her marriage to Rochester. (1021).

The Rocking-Horse Winner

The character Paul in D.H. Lawrence’s, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, becomes terribly trapped and sick in his need to be “lucky.” The young boy becomes distraught and determined to become lucky after a conversation that he has with his mother (Paragraph 10). This conversation combined with the “voices” that haunt his house drive Paul to the conclusion that he needs to be lucky and that he is lucky (Par. 5). The voices that support Paul’s concern continually chant “There must be more money!” Paul asserts that the voices can be heard throughout his family’s entire house because of the illusion of money, but the unfortunate lack there of it. Paul’s mother directs negativity and regret towards her husband because she believes that it is his fault their family is not rich. It is the father’s fault because the mother insists that he is not lucky (Par. 20). Paul feels concern for his family and their money needs. This distress leads him to find an answer in his rocking-horse and in gambling on horse-racing. The reader regretfully discovers the toll that Paul’s need to be lucky and his solution of gambling take on him.

Paul’s need to be lucky quickly escalates into an obsession. His obsession is defined by his secret for knowing which horse will win the major horse-races. Paul does not reveal his secret to anyone, not even his gambling partners, Bassett, the family gardener, and his uncle Oscar Cresswell (Par. 60). Paul is able to know which horses will win by furiously rocking on his wooden rocking-horse until he “gets there” and has the winning horse revealed to him (Par. 240). The reader is unaware of how this can be true. One can only assume that it is part of Paul’s obsession that takes over him, his body, and his mind. Paul is emotionally unstable because he believes he must change the tide for his family and provide money for his mother. Paul’s mother does not teach him a good lesson when she responds to his question, “Then what is luck, mother?” by saying, “It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money (Par. 15).” The rocking-horse and the voices that speak through the house serve as supporting details for Paul’s behavior. Paul in a sense looses his mind at the end of the story when he dies. The imagination of voices and a rocking-horse that reveals winners are both tricks that Paul’s mind plays on him. They build up as his need to please his mother with his luck and money increases. Finally, Paul is overcome by his erratic mind and can not control himself. He sends his body into an unconscious state where he cries out to his mother, “Do you think I’m lucky, mother? I knew Malabar, didn’t I? Over eighty thousand pounds! I call that lucky, don’t you, mother? Over eighty thousand pounds! I knew, didn’t I know I knew (Par. 235)?” Paul was overcome with his gambling and his want to please which cause him his final collapse.

I felt sympathy for Paul when reading the short story because his initial goal with gambling was merely to help his family. His good intensions are twisted by his mother’s disgust with her husband’s lack of luck and therefore, deficiency of money. Her expensive taste and her absence of true love and connection with her children lead her to corrupt her son (Par. 1). Although I believe she did this unintentionally, it is still undisputable that a child yearns for his or her mother’s love. When a child does not find this love, as in the case of Paul and his mother, the child oftentimes reacts with some attempt to gain the missing love. For Paul, he was misguided into thinking that his mother would love him and respect him more if he became different then his father and could instead provide for his family. The only way Paul knew how was by gambling, an addiction that ran in his family (Par. 185). Paul could not save himself from his desire to be lucky because he believed that it was the key to his mother’s love (737).

The Effect of Setting in Jane Eyre

In Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre, the mood of the novel is greatly affected by the weather and the location of the events. The different settings, which go along with the separate phases of Jane Eyre’s life, can serve as supporting details in relation to the characters feelings and behaviors. Consequently, gloomy weather can be a signal for somber and disappointing times ahead for Jane and those around her. The same can be said for sunny and warm weather brining happier times. Throughout the novel, the depictions of the weather and the location also serve as a method of foreshadowing. When different scenes begin with descriptions they oftentimes inform the reader of what is to come. Bronte makes this a very affective literary tool because the characters and the weather and the setting all work together and play off of each other in the development of the novel.

The weather that is incorporated into the storyline provides a way to show the mood or tone of certain points in the novel. For example, at Gateshead “The cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and rain so penetrating” (Pg. 1); this opened the novel with a gloomy tone. This description of the weather informs the reader of the mood of Jane and the behavior of the Reeds towards her. The dreary winter weather is used to forecast unhappy times at Gateshead with the Reeds. In addition, sunny and warm weather appears at Lowood to bring about positive times (Pg. 67-68). This relates to the plot because the conditions at Lowood improve. The weather change sets a brighter tone for the novel after the countless deaths that occurred only weeks earlier at Lowood.

Location is also a strong way to keep the plot moving by affecting the mood. For example, Lowood School brings long days with strict rules and commitments (Pg. 52). The harsh conditions and plain setting lead to unhappy and sick students. The mood is further affected by the secluded upbringing of the children and the isolated lifestyle. Likewise, Thornfield affects the mood of the novel because it brings forth many emotions such as mystery, loneliness, and romance (Pg. 99, 100-101, 160-161). Thornfield is large and mysterious which leads to suspicion and many questions. Mr. Rochester makes the somewhat gloomy and lonely house pleasant. Charlotte Bronte’s precise use of weather and location as setting made Jane Eyre appeal on a higher level largely because of the thorough descriptions. (451).

Exaggeration

The message of the short story, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. can be analyzed in many different ways. One particular way of looking at the piece is through the literary tool of exaggeration. Vonnegut uses exaggeration as a way of directing the readers view to specific ideas. The characters of the story all have handicaps that are intended to make them all equal. The outrageousness of the handicaps is Vonnegut’s most significant use of exaggeration. The characters handicaps disable them from having any real ideas, thoughts, or progress throughout the story. As a result of the lack of character development, there is also no real plot to the story. Vonnegut does this intentionally in order to focus the reader’s attention on the premise behind the story. People and readers can be blind to the truth; in this case exaggeration is used to open the reader’s eyes to the value of differences, competition, and freedom.

The symbol of the mask is very prevalent in Harrison Bergeron. The characters of the story wear masks to disguise their beauty in an attempt to make them more equal. This is symbolic to the presentation of the story because often times people cannot see things for what they truly are or they are masked to them. The exaggeration present in the work serves to remove those masks and point out ideas to the reader that might not have been previously evident. In Harrison Bergeron, the characters are not only physically masked but they are also figuratively masked because they cannot see their situation for what it really is. The characters are blinded into thinking that their equality has a positive effect on society. However, this is simply not the case because no one can stand up for himself or herself or work to their fullest potential. This situation will prevent society from ever improving. Harrison’s removal of his mask and all his handicaps along with his exaggerated power trip reveals the truth to the people. Harrison’s exaggeration in calling himself the emperor shows the people that they too have the ability to stand up against their handicaps and their controlling government system. Unfortunately, in this case the people are too unintelligent or are dumbed down so much by their handicaps that they are prevented from remembering Harrison’s actions. Therefore, they cannot take after his lead and try to make changes themselves.

The exaggeration in Harrison Bergeron reveals the tragedy in the characters lives. They have no control over themselves and are subject to a greater power, the government. The government thinks it knows what is best for the people but in reality the government is only hurting its society and its citizens. Through the exaggerated and extreme measures that the government takes on the people, the reader is able to decipher more then just a predictable ending. The reader can see beyond the story and understand that Vonnegut intends to show the value of the individual. People need freedoms to be able to work for themselves and to gain self-worth, instead of being suppressed into a desired model. The ability to stand out for who you are was not possible for any of the characters in Harrison Bergeron. Harrison tried to make it a reality but he failed when he was murdered by the government. If the people were not originally handicapped so much that they could not retain Harrison’s actions, then he might have made a significant impact. Harrison had a strength that no other character had; he stood up and fought against the government. This is an admirable quality that sets Harrison apart from his fellow characters. Vonnegut used exaggeration with Harrison to reveal this side of him and it show what one man can do for the society at a whole. (635).

Cathedral

In Raymond Carver’s, Cathedral, the reader gets a glimpse into one man’s self-consciousness towards one of his wife’s dearest friends, a blind man named Robert. Robert recently lost his wife to cancer and turns to his old friend for condolence and comfort. Robert and the wife have been close friends for ten years by staying in touch through tape recordings. The two friends trade off sending each other tape recordings about their thoughts, interests, and lives. In the story it had been ten years since the two friends had seen each other. The wife was anxiously awaiting Robert’s arrival. However, her husband was skeptical of having a blind man in his house. This initial concern of the husband allows him to come to terms with his comfort levels and his ability to accept differences in people. The husband takes the entire night to realize the wrong in his predetermined decisions, but he finally concludes that blindness should not be a block in any relationship.

The title of the short story, Cathedral, can be viewed as a metaphor for brining people together. In an actual cathedral people are united through her beliefs and religious views. People who may otherwise not socially gather or unify, as a result of their dissimilarities, are brought together. The people see each other on the same level and are able to connect through a common understanding. This parallels to Robert and the husbands endeavor to draw a cathedral together. Originally the husband attempts to describe a cathedral on his own but the two men can not find a common understanding through this method of sharing. Robert suggests that the husband draws out a cathedral on paper so that he can feel the motions of the pen. Robert holds his hand on top of the husbands as the husband becomes entranced with his drawing. The husband finds himself in a whole new state of mind as his drawing continues to flow from his hand. Robert follows along and touches the entire drawing when the husband completes it. The drawing of the cathedral is what finally connects the two men and allows them to understand each other. The cathedral, in both terms, serves as a figure for uniting people. The husband was very critical of the blind man and somewhat uncomfortable with his presence until he is able to understand his condition through the drawing.

The final lines of the story read as follows: ‘“Well?” he said. “Are you looking?” My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something,” I said.’ These lines inform the reader that the husband has become disconnected with his previous feelings towards the blind man. The husband is aware that he is physically in his house but he feels as though mentally he has been taken somewhere else. This can be interpreted to say that the husband has seen the real person within Robert and the husband knows that he now has a whole new feeling within himself. The husband knows that the drawing he drew is “really something” without even looking at it because he believes that it must be influential because it gave him his entirely new feeling and outlook. The story ends with the reader feeling happy that the husband was able to look beyond Robert’s disability and form a connection with him. The drawing of the cathedral allowed the husband to comprehend Robert’s condition and react with sympathy and kindness. (597).