¶ … Male Figures
In works of fiction, the hero's journey will always be fraught with danger. He will not only have to overcome his own shortcomings, but will also encounter individuals who hope to impede his journey and prevent him from accomplishing his goals or individuals who will help them overcome their obstacles and succeed. Literature throughout history and literature that transcends cultures exhibit this same proclivity. Each component of the hero's journey, beginning with his quest, his initiation into the situation which will lead to his development, his separation from his origin, and finally his transformation at the end of the story is heavily dictated by the attention and communication he receives from the other male character. The stories "Young Goodman Brown," The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and "The Legend of King Arthur" all show pairings of male characters, the protagonist and another male figure who either acts as an adversary or a figure of support, which are integral to the fulfillment or failure of the hero's quest.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," a young man desires to walk through the woods with the devil in order to see the supposed truth of the people around him and also to test his own value as a member of the Puritan community. His quest is to prove to himself that despite whatever the devil might promise him and whatever revelations the devil might make, he is worthy of his position in the community. However, when he is brought into the devil's web, he finds that he was not as prepared for the visions as he had originally supposed. Going into the woods and witnessing what the reader is meant to understand as false visions is all that is needed to initiate Brown into doing the devil's work. By allowing himself to physically separate from his good wife, who is a pure soul and go into the woods with the self-proclaimed devil, he has already made the choice which will determine his ultimate end. Brown says, "After this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow...
male figure in Hills Like White Elephants is inferior to Jig, the female counterpart within the story, yet Jig's realization of her strengths against the male is her power to refuse having the abortion surgery. Of course, the story is never resolved and many critical analysts of Hemingway's story have sought to make a prediction about what decision Jig will ultimately make in the face of such a selfish
171). On the other hand, men are sometimes depicted in the opposite stance: as overtly dominant. The difference between the "willing subordination" and the cocky gaze is that the former is a pose formally reserved for females whereas the latter epitomizes male social roles of dominance and political control. The individual who gazes directly at the viewer is confident and in control, whereas the individual who bears his or
male/female perspective on the issue of abortion as it appears in Ernest Hemingway's most subtle short story, 'Hills like white elephants'. The author has made use of symbolism to highlight the problems experienced by most married couples due to lack of proper communication. Hemingway chose this topic because he believed in this interesting iceberg theory which has been explained in the concluding part of this paper. HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS:
Christy had some preconceived notions about Roamni people and their motivations, habits, and lifestyle. Being proactive rather than reactive is the best way to deal with different cultural practices and beliefs. Christy could educate herself regarding the cultural practices of bathing, cleanliness, eating etc. This information is available on the internet. Typically when faced with medical condition that a nurse, aide or physician is unfamiliar with it is a
Relationship Challenges -- Family Communication Issues The high divorce rate in the United States (and elsewhere in Western nations) is one indication as to the fact that good communication -- or any communication at all -- is absent from relationships. Certainly there are always challenges to any relationship, but couples should be going into marriage and long-term relationships with the understanding that they will have challenges and without training or background
" (Anderson, et al., 2003) The study reported by Roberts, Christenson and Gentile (2003) provided a summary of a study that is unpublished but that states findings of a "positive correlation between amount of MTV watching and physical fights among third- through fifth-grade children. In addition, children who watched a lot of MTV were rated by peers as more verbally aggressive, more relationally aggressive, and more physically aggressive than other
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