Lear/Loman Comparisons

Lear-Loman

Although in completely different time periods and circumstances, protagonists King Lear and Willy Loman have plenty of comparable traits and differences. Similar thought processes and themes in the book connect the two seemingly different characters. Both of these men love one of their children so much that they inadvertently push them away. They both make rash decisions and have a hot temper. Their similar personalities give both of them a huge ego and lots of pride. This ultimately drives these men to make bad choices and it blinds them to what is really happening.

Both of these characters have a group of people who care about them, but they don’t realize it and end up hurting the ones who love them. When Lear banishes Cordelia for not telling him how much she loves him and joining in his game, he is crushed. He hates to do it to his favorite child, but she embarrassed him in front of others and hurt his pride. When Kent tries to stick up for her, he is also banished. He shows his true allegiance by coming back in disguise to help Lear.Willy similarly puts so much pressure on Biff in the book that he is getting less and less close with him and doesn’t realize it. When Biff sees that Willy is cheating on his wife, he loses much respect for him and it makes Biff push away. Lear doesn’t realize that Goneril and Regan , although they professed their love for him when they wanted power, abandoned him when he needed their help.

Lear and Loman both pride themselves on being great. WIlly works his whole life to try and be successful in finding the “American Dream”, and to gain riches to show his success to his family. Lear has money and land and power, and gives it away to the people he thought loved him. Although Lear has no wife for support and Loman does, he has more people who care about him. Their two hamartias blind the men to reality and lead to their demise. 

I like that we can connect these two men, because they embody traits that every man has. Although some of these traits are too controlling in them, it is interesting to see how it affects the characters. It also shows the extremes of what can happen when we put all of our happiness in one hope or dream. They are two examples of why we should not make judgments when our pride is hurt, and why we shouldn’t let anger cloud our minds. Although rash, Willy and Lear were not bad men. They were so focused on one thing that they tuned everything else out, and when they come to an end, it is even more tragic when they don’t reach their goals. 

Connecting to Death of a Salesman

I am not very good at making connections, and it is hard for me to relate certain books to real life. I don't really identify with any of the characters in Death of a Salesman, but I think I share lots of qualities with Biff. I respect my Dad and will do things that make him happy, but ultimately I have my own ambitions in mind. I know what I want and am more interested in pursuing my own interests than those of anyone else. Like Biff, I do not care about making millions of dollars as long as I am doing something I enjoy. When I think about it more, my little brother Ryan reminds me of Happy. He doesn't get as much attention as my 15 year old brother Kyle or I, but he is the most eager to please my parents. He does whatever he can not to get in trouble with them and is always questioning my Dad. In some ways, my dad shares qualities with Willy. He sets high goals and lets his happiness depend on attaining those goals. When he fails to reach them, he gets angry and tends to take it out on others.

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"Of Mice and Men" is a classic for many reasons. It is a tragic story about a man who hurts everything he tries to care for, but still has hope for the future. A man has to shoot his best friend to save him from a mob of angry workers. It also has a few underlying themes that were prominent at that point in time. Things like the separation between black and whites, the "American Dream" and everyones obsession with reaching it, the pain of leaving something behind, and moving forward towards a common goal. It is short but still has great character development and interactions between the characters. It focuses on the personalities of the men and how they deal with problems that come upon them. It is a great book and I believe it will continue to be read for a long time

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Lennie immediately runs to the riverbed where George instructed him to go to if something bad happens. Candy goes to the barn looking for Lennie, but finds Curley's wife. He alerts George who instantly realizes what happened. A crowd gathers around the body, and Curley orders the men to find Lennie and kill him. They set out for the riverbed. Meanwhile Lennie is sitting in the bushes, hearing his Aunt Clara in his head yelling at him for messing everything up for George. George soon appears, and sits next to Lennie. He tells Lennie that he has done a bad thing, but he isn't yelling. Lennie asks if they can still buy the ranch. George says that they can, and they can leave right away. He tells Lennie to look out across the river, and then quickly shoots Lennie in the back of the head. The rest of the men come running at the sound of the gunshot, and George says he had to wrestle Lennie to get the gun. Slim doesn't buy the story, and he tells George that he did the right thing. As they walk away, Candy and Curley wonder what is bothering the two men.

This last section of the book is almost hard to read, because we know something is going to happen to Lennie. When George has to kill Lennie, Slim knows that it is extremely hard for him, but that it had to be done. It keeps the idea going that nothing can last forever, especially the things you keep closest to you. Like how Lennie constantly hurts the things he cares for. This is also shown in the book "Marley and Me". The protagonist Marley ( a labrador) dies and the reader is shook with sadness. This is an effect used in tons of different books, because it gets such an emotional response. Losing someone close is very hard, and everyone can relate to that. George having to do it to Lennie personally made the story even sadder.

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The next night, Lennie walks into the stable hand Crook's room in the barn. Crooks asks him to leave but Lennie stays. Crooks agrees to let him in, since all the other men have gone into town. Lennie stats to talk about the ranch he George and Candy plan on buying but Crooks doesn't believe him. They talk for a while until Candy comes in, and also talks about the ranch. Crooks starts to see that they are serious, and says he could be handy if they brought him along. Curley's wife barges in and refuses to leave for a short while, complaining about her husband. She is very rude to Crooks for being black and she is curious abut who broke Curley's hand. She suspects it was Lennie, and tells him that Curley deserved it before she leaves. The book skips to a few days later, with Lennie in the bark stroking his dead puppy. He accidentally killed it by petting it too hard. Curley's wife enters and consoles him about the death of the puppy. She starts to talk about her loneliness and how everybody treats her badly on the farm. She asks why Lennie wants to tend to the rabbits so much, and he replied "I like to pet nice things with my fingers, soft things". Curley's wife lets him feel her hair, until he accidentally grabs it too hard. She starts to yell but Lennie tries to clamp his hand over her mouth. In panic, he pulls his hand and Curley's wife lay dead on the ground with a broken neck.

This is a very tragic part of the book, but there is also a lighter way to look at it. Crooks is opposed to letting Lennie in because of their racial differences, but then they start to talk and they become friendly and even plan on leaving the farm together at some point. It reminded me of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", because two boys of completely different worlds and on opposite sides of the religious persecution could still be friends. When I lived in California as a kid, my two best friends were Indian and African American. It isn't a big deal, but in a city where white people tend to look at themselves as better than other people, it is good that people can still come together across racial and religious barriers.

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The next day, Slim agrees to give one of his puppies to Lennie, and he is overjoyed. George explains why he watches out for Lennie, talking about how he told Lennie to jump in a river when George knew that Lennie couldn't swim. He almost drowned and from then on they have travelled together. George also tells Slim that in Weed, Lennie grabbed a girls dress out of interest and then got scared and wouldn't let go. They had to get out of town soon after. Lennie comes into the bunk room with his puppy, and George tells him to take it back to it's mother. Carlson complains that Candy's old dog smells too bad and is of no use. He offers to shoot the dog and put it out of it's misery. Candy objects, saying that he has had the dog since it was a puppy and doesn't want to kill it. Slim offers to give him a new puppy, and Candy eventually agrees, letting Carlson shoot the old dog. Crooks the black stable hand tells Slim that he has tar ready to fix a horseshoe and Slim exits with him.  Curley comes in looking for his wife, and then runs to the barn to see if she is with Slim. Candy hears George talking to Lennie about moving to their own ranch, and offers to pitch money if he can go with them. George agrees to his offer. Curley comes back in with Slim, who wasn't with Curley's wife. Curley is still angry, though and picks a fight with Lennie. Lennie resists until George tells him to fight back and instantly breaks Curley's hand. Slim takes Curley out of the bunkhouse and convinces him not to fire George and Lennie.

A big part of this section is Candy's reluctance to killing his own dog. He wants to keep it because he has had it for so long, and he felt very sentimental when considering giving his dog up. This is a common theme in the book, of wanting to hold on to things that have meaning. For some reason, this reminded me of the 7th Harry Potter book, when Harry's wand breaks. He uses a new wand, but could no longer use the one he had for the last 6 years, which is a very weird feeling. This applies to me because I recently moved from the house I had lived in for 8 years, and I felt a sad nostalgia when leaving.

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The next morning, George and Lennie arrive at the farm in the bunkhouse, where they are welcomed by an old man named Candy and his dog.  Shortly after, the boss walks in and questions the men about why they are late.  When the boss notices that Lennie isn't speaking, he starts directing questions at him. George becomes nervous when Lennie talks, and tells the boss that Lennie is his cousin who isn't smart but is a hard worker. The boss tells the boys that they will work with a man named Slim. Next the boss's son Curley comes in, and asks the same sort of questions. He is very rude to Lennie and insists that he talk. After he leaves, Candy explains that Curley likes to pick on people who are bigger than himself. Candy tells George and Lennie to stay on Curley's good side unless they wanted to lose their jobs. Curley's wife soon enters, claiming to look for him. She is a pretty lady but George is very short with her and tells her Curley left. As she leaves, Slim comes in and talks to George and Lennie. He likes that they travel together, and tells them that his dog just had a litter of puppies. Curley interrupts the conversation by coming into the bunk room asking for his wife, and George comments that he is afraid he might tangle with Curley himself.

A lot of the book focuses on George and Lennie's dream of moving to a Ranch all their own, and how that dream motivates them to keep moving forward. This is a common occurrence, without a goal we would have no direction. In the book " Death of a Salesman", Willy the main character keeps living in an attempt to find "the American Dream" and to be a successful salesman. Even if these are not realistic aspirations, they give people hope to look forward for. I do this frequently, I think about the future and how I need to do my job now in order to be able to do what I want later in life. I know that some of my goals are far-fetched, but I still work to achieve them.

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The first section of "Of Mice and Men" is not very eventful, but it is very descriptive. It introduces two characters: George and Lennie. They are stopping to sleep after a day of traveling , planning to walk further the next morning to a ranch where they will work. Through their conversation, we learn that something happened to the boys that got them kicked out of Weed, the last city they had worked in. George is a smaller man, but he acts as an older brother figure to Lennie who is large, but very forgetful and slow. George is constantly reprimanding Lennie for trying to pet a dead mouse and for all of the trouble he causes.  George talks about how they are going to buy a farm and have lots of land and crop.  Lennie gets very excited and has heard this story before, because he occasionally chimes in.Preparing for their first day of work, George reminds Lennie to stay quiet unless George tells him to talk to another worker. He says if there is any trouble, for Lennie to come to the place where they are now and hide in the bushes to wait for him. They eat beans for dinner over a fire and go to bed.

The relationship between George and Lennie reminds me of the relationship between Amir and Hassan in "The Kite Runner". Amir acts like an older brother, but sometimes doesn't want the burden of looking after Hassan. I can relate to this also, being the oldest child in my family. I like my brothers, but sometimes I don't want the responsibility of taking care of them. This brotherly relationship is shown very strongly in the first part of the book.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian"is a story told in first-person and follows "Junior" and his troubles in high school, making friends, and dealing with loss. Junior introduces himself as a teen living on an indian reservation in Spokane. He was born with hydrocephalus, which means that there was too much fluid in his brain. He went through surgery and survived. He has a lisp and a stutter, and occasionally has seizures. It is made obvious that he has very low self esteem and  gets picked on frequently. In the second chapter, Junior is talking about his dog Oscar who he has a strong bond with. When Oscar gets sick, Junior's family can't afford too take him to  the vet, and Juniors dad shoots Oscar. Soon after, Junior introduces his best friend Rowdy. Rowdy lives up to his name as he is tough, blunt, and not afraid to get in a fight. In fact, he gets revenge on a group of people that hurt Junior in the beginning of the book.

On the first day of school, Junior opens his geometry textbook and sees his mothers name on the inside cover as a previous owner. He gets so angry that the school doesn't care about the students' learning that he throws the book at his teacher, Mr. P. After a long discussion with Mr. P, Junior decides that it would be better for his education to go to the school off of the reservation: Reardan. His parents are OK with it, but Rowdy doesn't take the news so well, punching Junior in the face and storming off. Junior has a difficult time at Reardan, being the only indian. He gets in a fight with a kid named Roger, and ends up becoming acquaintances with him. He meets a girl named Penelope, and eventually they start semi-dating. He meets another friend, Gordy, who is very nerdy but still is a great friend to Junior. Junior is sad that his sister Mary has run away with a boy, but is happy to see her get what she wants and  she sends letters occasionally. At this point, Junior is starting to be accepted at his new school, although most of the reservation shuns him. Eventually, he tries out for the basketball team, and ends up being one of the best players on the team. Unfortunately in his first game, he gets a concussion from Rowdy on the other team. Later in the season, Reardan defeats the Wellpint (reservation) team. Although he should be happy, Junior feels guilty about beating the Wellpint team.

Towards the end of the book, three tragic deaths shake Juniors life. First his grandma, then his dads good friend Eugene, and finally his sister Mary. Junior is distressed and torn in his life. After some comfort from Penelope and his family, Junior recovers. At the end of the book, he and Rowdy talk things over and apologize. They play some basketball and renew their friendship.

This book was about an Indian boy who wanted something more than everybody else. He was willing to put in the extra work and persevere to get where he wanted. The story relates to everybody, because we have all felt the desire to break the social standards and do our own thing. The story is also about the struggle between keeping your culture and becoming your own person, and how difficult it is to balance these forces in life. The story takes place in a reservation where nobody is expected to do anything other than the norm. If you are born on the reservation, you will die on the reservation. It is a community somewhat resistant to change. The occasion is important because it means even more that a kid was willing to do something so different in a place like that. Also, people outside the reservation were very racist in general, and opposed to Junior or other indians being in the same areas as them.

This book was definitely meant for a younger audience, there are plenty of pictures and cartoons to go along with the story. There are many "asides" that keep the book in a more casual tone which greatly appeals to younger readers. However, I think that adult audiences can still fully enjoy and relate to this book and the sense of wanting to break free from the status quo.

The author wrote this as a way to convey the feeling of most teenagers through an indian kid, to create even more to the plot. Junior is a figure that people want to relate to. It is to entertain but also to make people think about their lives, and possibly to encourage them to do something unexpected to reach their goals.

The style that Sherman Alexie writes with is very unique. He wrote the book in first person, which allows for lots of creativity. His writing style is very fast paced, yet simple. Junior often makes comments to the reader outside of the story he is telling. Alexie uses lots of reoccurring themes. The most easily identified is the feeling of loss because of all of the tragedy on the book. Another is the question of identity and how you can change yourself without losing it. He uses lots of varying sentence lengths and structures to keep the reader interested. He uses lots of historical and modern references to relate the reader to the story. Alexie also includes lots of symbolism to portray the bigger issues or ideas. These include things like poverty on the reservation,  harm coming to innocent people, and the feeling of losing yourself.

The tone in this book is extremely casual and laid back, even if it is talking about serious things. The narrator is a 14 year old boy, so the thoughts coming through the pages are not meant to be the most mature. Junior makes no attempt to create euphonies for the audience, he tells it like it is. The frequent pictures only add to this feeling. There is a sense of hope throughout the whole book, which is shown through the tone. There are numerous accounts of metaphors and exaggerations. "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny lifeboats."

Overall, the book was very well done and I think that Alexia accomplished what he wanted to do with it. Most readers can relate to it and aside from small things, I really enjoyed the book. I give it 8 geometry textbooks out of 10.

In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood is the true story of the investigation, chase, and trial of 2 murder suspects in Holcomb, Kansas. The horrific murder of the Clutter family was a complete mystery. There was nobody who wanted to hurt the family, and no clear intention of the murders. The book takes a different approach to explaining the story. The killers motives were not told until the end of the book, the book focuses more on the hunt to find the killers, and explaining the development of the characters throughout the events.

The book opens up in Holcomb, and introduces the Clutter family. Herbert, the father of the family, goes to work like any other day, blissfully unaware that it will be his last. His wife leaves the house to help a neighbor make a cherry pie. On the other side of the state in Olathe, Perry Smith waits at a cafe for his accomplice, Dick Hickock. Perry is introduced as a man with many dreams and aspirations. After the planned murder, he is set on going to Mexico. He is very sentimental, and carries loads of old meaningful thing around with him. Dick on the other hand, is a very straightforward, pragmatic man. "I know about hell. I been there." (229)He doesn't understand music or poetry like Perry does, but he knows what he wants and how to get it. They tune up Dick's black Cadillac for the long road to Holcomb and set out to the Clutter's residence. The next morning, the Clutter family is found dead in their home, and local Alvin Dewey takes the case, determined to find out who did it.

Perry and Dick do travel to Mexico, befriending a German tourist (after travelling through Kansas and surrounding areas) and then hitchhike through the Mojave desert. While Dewey is losing sleep over the case, he gets a tip from a former cellmate of Dick Hickock's. Floyd Wells was listening to the radio in his cell when he heard about the murders. Remembering Dick and Perry's plan to take the "Clutter fortune", he tells authorities. Dewey and another man on the case, Harold Nye, set out to find the suspects. Dick and Perry travel through Iowa, Kansas City, Miami, and Texas, the 2 men end up in Las Vegas where the license plate on their stolen car in recognized.

They are taken to the jail, quickly followed by Dewey and Nye. They believe that they are being questioned for all of the fraudulent checks that Dick wrote on their journey. After lots of intense questioning, Dick gives in, and then Perry. For 5 long years they are kept in the death row penitentiary "The Corner" before they are sentenced on April 15, 1965. In the last chapters before his death, Perry is a mess. He is a very complex character and Capote explains what is going on in his mind. He tries to portray Perry as the innocent one of the two, because Dick was not remorseful. The story was told very well, and the character progression was a very important part of the book.

The author, Truman Capote, is a very intelligent man. He wrote the book not focusing on the murder, but on the race to find the killer. He presents the information in ways that the reader would not expect. He goes into Perry's childhood and bringing up very in depth, and the book follows his character development and mental state. He pays attention to the feelings of Perry, Dick, and Dewey in a way that is not the norm in a murder story. He wrote this so that even people who thought they knew everything about the murder would be captivated by the writing. In many large cities, murder is a common occurrence. This murder was such a big deal because in the small town of Holcomb Kansas, everybody thought they were safe.  In 1959, almost nobody was travelling through the tiny place and people were terrified by the murder. The uncertainty of the townspeople is shown throughout the book, and everybody is pointing fingers and making theories.

Although the book is written for an older audience, I believe that younger teens can enjoy the book. They may not fully appreciate Capote's stylistic devices and intelligence, but the story is intriguing. Older audiences can fully understand the message of the book and the emotions of the characters in it. I think the main purpose for this book is to question and challenge the morality of the death penalty. Capote makes the reader go deep inside of Perry's mind and when the time comes, the reader feels bad for Perry, because he isn't such a bad guy. He purposefully portrays Perry as more innocent than Dick.

Capote has a very interesting writing style. He uses lots of dramatic irony in the beginning chapters, because the reader knows what is going to happen to the Clutter family, but the Clutters are completely unaware. The chapters switch back and forth between the Clutters and the murderers, and the chapters become shorter and more intense, making the reader anticipate what is about to happen. Capote also leaves out the details of the murder until the end of the book. He gives the information in the order that he learned it during the questioning of Duck and Perry. He also chose to write Perry's confession in the present tense while the rest of the book is written in the past tense. It makes that chapter stand out. The tone that Capote uses is very unique and has many different moods. Towards the end of the book, his opinions on the death penalty begin to come through. He shows that even when you think you are on top of the world, it can all come crashing down without a moment's notice. This is shown in the Clutter's murders, and in Dick and Perry's demise. In the last few chapters Capote refers to the murderers at "Hickock and Smith". This, along with Dick betraying Perry, "It was Perry. I couldn't stop him. He killed them all."(230) in a sad way ends the reign of "Dick and Perry".

Overall, I thought In Cold Blood was a great book. The order of information and the stylistic devices used made the book very interesting. Knowing more about Dick and Perry's background really helped the story make sense. I would recommend this book to anybody, I give it 9 out of 10 Cherry Pies for creativity and overall great presentation.

The Devil in The White City

"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is hand down one of the best books I have ever read. Larson used so many creative writing techniques to pull the story together, and the book had a very interesting plot that kept me wanting to read more. This is the first book I have read by Erik Larson, but I will definitely be reading more of his work in the future. The subject of the book was the Worlds Fair in Chicago. The book spared no details in the process of deciding which city the fair would be in, where in the city the fair would be held, and who to put in charge of the project. A man named Daniel Burnham was a renouned architect in the city, and was chosen to oversee the fair. He and his partner John Root hired other architects from around the country in an attempt to build the largest, most spectacular fair the world had seen. It also followed the murders of Henry Holmes, who lived in the city during the time of the fair. He was a sly man who lured many women to their deaths in his hotel.

The story takes place in the early 1890s in Chicago. After the world fair in France, America feels that it needs to exhibit their talent in a similar way. The whole country is counting on the coordinators to finish the fair on time and to do an even better job than the French. There is tension everywhere, and everybody is blaming others. The fair is set up in a desolate place called Jackson Park, but a group effort turns it into "The White City".

Larson's target audience for this book was from a young adult audience to middle aged people. Most young teens won't understand the language being used, and the story wouldn't be as appealing. I also feel that a very old audience wouldn't like to read about death and tragedy that is portrayed in the book. His purpose for writing this was mostly to entertain, and partly to inform. Before reading this, I didn't realize how huge the fair really was, and how much effort was put into it. He makes the story more interesting by adding in the story of Holmes.

In the past, when books have switched between two different stories or viewpoints, I immediately put the book down. I could never get through the books because it was not a consistent story I could follow. Larson kept both stories interesting, and it was the first book written in this style that I really enjoyed. He introduced many characters, and developed all of them through the book which made it much easier to understand. Although his descriptions were a bit wordy and bland at times, Larson did a great job of painting an image on my head. The tone of the book overall wasn't really happy or sad, it played back and forth. So many problems were encountered during the fair, but every now and again a huge success would be made. One word to describe the tone of the book would be serious. The book went into detail of the business and behind the scenes making of the fair, and it was no joking matter. Neither was the life of Holmes, or the stories of the women he lured into his hotel.

Burnham and company face multiple struggles in the process of constructing the fair. Everything that could have gone wrong did. The roof on the "Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building" collapsed more than once. Nobody could agree on anything. The head of landscaping, Olmstead was extremely particular, and needed everything to go his way. John Root died before the fair opened. The ground under the buildings couldn't support their weight. Despite the odds, the World Fair opened on time, and it made a profit. At the same time, Larson tells the life of Holmes and his murder victims.He opens "The Worlds Fair Hotel" to attract people, and then burns them in his kiln or gas chamber. He sells the skeletons to universities, and becomes very good at what he does. Eventually, he does get caught and is sentenced to death.

The book goes over the transformation of a dreary, grey city into a place that people wanted to visit from all over the world. The struggle of meeting deadlines and outdoing France's Eiffel tower took it's toll on the architects. The first Ferris Wheel attracted many visitors, as did "The Worlds Fair Hotel". The story was dark at times, but it was factual and gripping. I would recommend this book to anybody.