Finding Ones Place Within Society         Most flock would agree that children enjoy beingness lounge about wind to and, that p atomic number 18nts ought to read to their children regularly. why is this? The answer is very(prenominal) simple. Childrens holds foster imagination and teach lessons. At a young age, we realize the potential and importance of secondary experiences that groundwork be achieved through with(predicate) literature. When we read a entertain, we atomic number 18 given the unique prospect to try on a point of view and see things from a several(predicate) perspective. We plausibly wouldnt read a young child a book or so intermolecular forces, because he would set about the subject function confusing and virtually the the likes ofly non interesting. Although as adults, our train of understanding increases, not much(prenominal) substitutes: as with children, a book must commencement exercise capture our attention before we are willing to continue. More importantly, if we are unable to relate to the represent we are reading, as children would near likely be if we read to them from a chemistry book, the moral of the story or of import point often falls on deaf ears.
        Thus, this piece will explore a topic to which most readers flock relate: the pursuance for acceptance and the induce need for geniuss stimulate out indoors the union. Websters Dictionary defines community as a unified body or throng of individuals who often dep cunning together and share a common history or common social, economic, and political interestsÂ. As children sportswomaning in the schoolyard during recess, we cursorily escort, often painstakingly, the importance of fitting in (oh, the horror of being chosen last for kickball!) and, as we grow older, fitting in often becomes more difficult as we maybe learn that the world isnt as kind as we had apprehension. Then, as teenagers, we take for to colleges and put our hearts into being accepted into what we believe to be the ideal community. The desire to be accepted and to fit in is one which governs our actives.
        The prot agonists of The Swindler, The Adventures of huckabackleberry Finn and Wide Sargasso Sea - Pablos, huck and Antoinette, independently - attempt to find a community in which they looking most well-off. Through these stories, we, as readers, are given the opportunity to observe and sympathize with the situations of the protagonists who struggle, as each of us has done, is doing or will do, to find his proper adjust deep d declare a community.
The Swindler, a fifteenth century Spanish fabrication, written by Fansisco de Quevedo, is a prime example of a man who is a part of many communities but never fully belongs in any one community. Pablos, the protagonist, has a constant, seemingly never-ending proneness for acceptance which is never actually quenched. Pablos seeks a community in which he can be himself, whomever that may be. Often, Pablos feels a plastered gumption of belong, but he never in truth becomes a part of any one community, something of great importance to him.
The novel begins with Pablos condemning his parents occupations and promulgating his aspirations to be an upright and well-educated man. Pablos is all the way ashamed, and perhaps rightly so, of his father, a thief, and his mother, a harlot. Pablos despises his parents for not wanting a better life for their except son and he excessively despises them because he knows that he is a social outcast because of them: callable to his parents occupations and low values, Pablos is often ridiculed and seldom discovered. In a epic attempt to find his place within the community, Pablos becomes a servant to his noble friend, Don Diego.
As Don Diegos servant, Pablos travels to Acalàwhere he is at once rejected by the other attendants who make it their electric charge to torture the poor boy. After being duped and humiliated repeatedly by his peers, Pablos decides that things must change: I determined to change my outlook. We made it up and from then on we all lived like brothers and nobody twoered me anymore in the schools or the courtyards (111). Thus, Pablos gains respect and is admitted into the small community of servants by mastering the tricks of the trade: the art of lying, stealing and, taking advantage of the unsuspecting. Pablos truly believes that he has tack his place in confederacy and, when it is time for the next stage in his life he draws Acalàmost upset: the sidereal day came for me to leave the best life I had ever had. G-d unsocial knows how I felt having to leave so many friends and acquaintances (123). Although Pablos clearly enjoys being a part of this community he must fit on. Thus, he continues on his way in try of a new community.
Later in the novel, while on his way to Madrid, Pablos encounters a gentleman thief and is instant(prenominal)ly haggard into his mysterious ways of life. Before long, Pablos is accepted into the brotherhood and master the skill of swindling: I was well in with them as if we were brothers (159). while he relishes being part of a seemingly trustworthy community and thoroughly enjoys working with and being respected by appendages of the entire t declare, it is in like manner clear that he knows this acceptance is fictive: you can always find life easy and gracious in criminal circles (159). It is not surprising, therefore, that when the shade is opened and the authentic workings of Pablos and the gentleman thieves are revealed, Pablos does not hesitate to leave his felonious friends in the dust.
Pablos once again begins his never-ending quest for community and, eventually, on his way to Toledo he meets up with a group of actors, whom he pays in exchange for acceptance. At rakehellal he struggles to find his place within their group but ultimately succeeds. He gains a part in the play and the audience applauds his performance and then he begins to write his own plays. Within a month, he is highly respected within the group of actors and even begins to sell his poetry to young lovers and sacristans. For the first time, it seems as though Pablos may have found an in effect(p) place both within his small group of friends and within inn at large but, Pablos soon becomes bored with this and discovers that the church building and many others look down upon acting.
Throughout The Swindler, Pablos searches for a sense of community and a feeling of belonging. Sadly, he never truly finds his one place within society, but merely wanders from group to group, longing to fit in.
        Mark Twains great American classic, The Adventures of huckabackleberry Finn, expand the adventures of a young boy, huck Finn. Like Pablos, huck struggles to find one community in which he feels truly comfortable being himself and doing what he pleases.
At the start of the story, huckaback lives with widow Douglas and her sister, throw away Watson. Although Huck is welcomed into their home with open arms, he is never truly at home here; he is, in essence, an orphan and uncomplete Widow Douglas nor Miss Watson is his parent. Moreover, the adventurous and rebellious Huck cannot stand sprightliness under such morose rules. The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are the representatives of the society that he rejects wholeheartedly. They both immerse themselves in the values of civilizationÂ, feeling moral by punishing themselves with tight clothing and delaying their meals to say grace. From the very beginning Hucks unruly and often defiant nature shines through. Huck wants mainly to be go away to his own devices, to sleep in hogshead, to wear his old rags and, to eat his food all manifold up because the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better (2). To the strip Huck, these motherly women represent an artificial and empty society - one of which Huck has no desire to be a part. He yearns to find a community in which he can just be Huck.
Late one evening, when everyone is sound asleep, Huck sneaks out with his daredevil friend, gobbler. gobbler and Huck meet up with a few other boys and take an old gravy holder to a large cave a few miles downstream. erst inside the damp cavern, Tom makes everyone swear secrecy and getting even to explain his plan for forming a new band of robbers, Tom Sawyers GangÂ. All must sign in communication channel an oath vowing, among other things, to kill the family of any gang member who spills the gangs secrets. This leaves Huck out; his mother passed away years ago and no one has seen his drunkard of a father in nearly a year. Huck is virtually an orphan and feels lost from his group of friends. Finally, after moments of desperation, Huck remembers Miss Watson and frantically offers her as a substitute. The gang accepts Hucks proposal and he is welcomed back as a member of their elite society. The separation due to the accompaniment that Huck has no parents is nearly inevitable; the boys do not hold it against Huck in the end, but it prevents him from being straightway admitted into the club. After a month, however, Huck loses interest in Tom Sawyers Gang and voluntarily quits.
Desperate to escape his alcoholic and abusive father, Pap, Huck feigns his own conclusion and eventually meets up with Jim, Miss Watsons niggerÂ, who fled after hearing Miss Watson discussing the possibility of merchandising him to a slave trader in New Orleans. Huck chooses to estrange himself from his friends, father, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. The social outcasts form an instantaneous bond and help each other survive the sexual climax challenges. It is when the two males are roughing it together in nature that Huck feels he is truly accepted and can be himself. locomotion with Jim proves to be the lifestyle of his dreams, both adventurous and dangerous - it is the surroundings in which Huck feels most comfortable and in which he is most eager to stay.
One morning, Huck decides to go into the crossroads and, in order to keep from being recognized as the boy who faked his own death, Huck disguises himself as a young woman with a dress stolen from the houseboat. He lies to Mrs, Loftus about his name and his origin and she, not realizing that the lady friend standing before her is Huck, rambles on about Hucks murder and the suspected killers, Pap and Jim. When asked to restate his name, Huck by the way calls himself Mary WilliamsÂ. Suspicious Mrs. Loftus notes the contradictions and announces that he is not a girl but, she fails to realize that he is the boy who was supposedly murdered. She asks him to reveal his dead on target individuality and Huck replies that he is George Peters, a runaway orphan who is apprenticed to a mean farmer. Mrs. Loftus believes Hucks shrewd cover-up and sends him on his way. Unlike when with Jim, Huck is not welcomed for who he is; he feels peril and refuses to share his true identity with anyone, realizing that if he admits who he is, his evasion may be discovered. Although everyone would love to hear that he is live and well, the concepts of make passing to live with Widow Douglas and turning Jim in are not the least bit appetizing.
Nevertheless, after lies not only to Mrs. Loftus, but later to the slave catchers, the Grangerfords, and despite all of his struggles to repose independent and continue living in nature with Jim, Huck Finn ultimately ends up just about where he was in the beginning of the novel: looking for some way to get out from under civilization and escape its stifling ways. At the close of the book, Jim has obtained his freedom and Aunt Polly comes, revealing the true identities of both Huck and Tom. Huck ends the novel by announcing that Aunt pass wants to adopt him now, so he needs to start homework on heading west since he already tried and true to become civilized once before and did not like it: I reckon I got to light out for the filth ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally shes going to adopt me and sivilize me and I cant stand it. Ive been there before (321). The ending seems to leave Huck right back where he started: dreadedly wishing to be someplace else, doing what he pleases, when he pleases.
        Wide Sargasso Sea, denim Rhys literary masterpiece inspired by Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre, details a young womans struggle for acceptance and quest for belonging. In this compelling novel about racial tension, the protagonist is torn among calling herself pitch-black or white. Existing as a white Creole female in post-emancipation West Indies, Antoinette Cosway lives a life of estrangement. While she is at once able to move between black and white cultures, she is accepted by neither: the black community does not accept her because she is white and, because of her Creole background, she does not fit into the world of her incline husband, Rochester.
        The story begins in ex-slave town of Martinique, Jamaica on the Coulibri estate, near Spanish town. In this beat outive, colonialist society, the half-white-half-Creole Antoinette bears get to the tense and hate filled consanguinity between the whites and the blacks. The death of her planter father and the end of slavery reduce Antoinette and her family to poverty. Although not totally white, as descendants of former slaveholders, Antoinette and her family are shunned and ridiculed by the locals: they hated us, they called us white cockroaches (23). Martinique, a predominantly black town, displays an atypical relationship between races, one in which the blacks oppress and attempt to destroy the whites. patronage constant ridicule and craziness from the black community, Antoinette yearns still to fit in, even after the blacks kindle her house, causing the death of her younger brother. As they flee Martinique, Antoinette sees Tia, a young black girl and her former friend, and runs to her for she [Tia] was all that was left in my [Antoinettes] life as it had beenÂ, only to have a rock hurled at her head in hatred (45). Antoinette is neither welcomed nor accepted into the black community on Martinique, despite her desperate desire to be liked.
Much to her dismay, Antoinette is sold into marriage to Rochester and, although their relationship runs smoothly for some time, the differences between Antoinettes Creole culture and Rochesters English culture become both apparent and destructive as the story progresses. Not only does Rochester not understand the Creole culture which is of utmost importance to Antoinette, but he is similarly understandably frustrated by the language barrier within their home. The problem is not that Antoinette does not speak English but, rather, that she also understands and speak, quite fluently, the native French patios. Rochester feels separated from his wife and he rejects her because she is so distinguishable than he. Antoinette realizes this and frantically attempts to win him back but, it is an insurmountable task.
Rochester moves back to England, taking Antoinette with him. By taking her away from her homeland, Rochester also takes away any chance that she may have in trying to establish an identity. Once in England, a place that Antoinette describes as a cardboard world where everything is colored dark-brown or dark red or yellow that has no light in itÂ, a place altogether different from the lush, natural world of the Caribbean, Antoinette realizes that she will never fit into this society and retreats into herself.
Tormented as a child for being biracial, unable to relate to her husband and keep him interested and, now living in a far away place most different from anything she has ever known, Antoinette goes mad. In short, her inability to be completely understood by either the white culture or the black culture leaves her as a woman without an identity driven to insanity.
These three novels, written about very different people, each illustrate a young persons desire to be a part of a certain community. We, as readers, although perhaps not able to relate to their stories specifically, understand and sympathize with the protagonists.
For Antoinette and Pablos, the prognosis is rather dismal. Neither one ultimately finds the community in which he or she belongs. Antoinette may perhaps find soothe in the fact that she has at least, in a way, through her madness, has escaped the constraints of the communities which shunned her for not fitting perfectly into a mold. Despite all his journeys and struggles, Pablos, however, ends up in a place most similar to where he started. His main reason for searching for a new community was because he hated the dishonorable theme that his parents had bestowed upon him and longed to be an honest man. In the end, however, Pablos lacks a sense of belonging and remains a dishonorable man. Although Huck ends up in a situation very similar to which he began in, distant Pablos who similarly ends up in much the same place where he began, Huck has found his place in society and has learned more about himself. For Huck it is merely a matter a reuniting himself with his community. The reader can appreciate how much Huck has changed and matured throughout the course of the novel. Once a poor, uneducated boy Hucks character has grown tremendously - he is now intelligent young man. Huck has seen his ideal community in nature and now, separated from it and threatened by the thought of returning to live under someone elses rules, he longs to return to it.
As readers, we are provided the unique opportunity to walk in Hucks shoes, to change outfits with Pablos and to hear the innermost thoughts of Antoinette and, we do so excitedly for we are enthralled by their struggles. From this new perspective, we gain a wider sense of the characters in the book and the world in which they live and, perhaps most importantly, we can apply the lessons they learn to our own lives.
If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderessayIf you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.