An Inspector Calls Essay Example for Free

An Inspector Calls Essay Miss Sheila Birling, a prominent character in Priestlys play An Inspector Calls, undergoes many changes throughout the play. The audience and readers perspective towards her also alters. Sheila changes before our eyes from a little girl into a strong young woman. In the beginning, Sheila is described to us as being in her early twenties and very pleased with life. This gives us an impression that she is just a girl, who has not seen enough of the world yet and is very young in her thoughts. We see her as being very immature at first, addressing her parents as Mummy and Daddy. She is clearly a mummys girl who follows her parents instructions and orders For example, she meekly follows her mother to the drawing-room and leaves the men including her husband-to-be. Although she is engaged to Gerald Croft, Sheila places her husband-to-be on a pedestal, admiring him and calling h9im darling. She takes the engagement ring like a little girl would receive a new toy look, mummy! The way Sheila acts in the first part of the play makes her seem like someone who is soft, innocent and silly, or plain immature. After the Inspector arrives, our opinion towards her changes. After she confesses to the Inspector, Sheila breaks down. She feels very sorry for all the pain she has caused Eva Smith. The Inspector makes her feel responsible for using her wealth, importance and influence to get a truly innocent girl sacked from her last steady job. Sheila sobs and cries, like a child. However, our opinion really changes when she confronts Gerald. Sheila laughs hysterically, at the end of Act One, when she says, You fool. Of course he knows. And I hate to think what he knows that we dont know yet. This behaviour is rather like that of a teenager throwing a tantrum, showing her growing realisation and maturity. When Gerald begins to confess, Sheila shows a rebellious streak. She refuses to be led away by her parents who want her to be protected. This is like what the average adolescent would do when they wish to cross new territory. Sheila begins to control herself a little more rationally during Geralds interrogation Gerald falls off the high placing he was originally on as Sheila calls him by name rather than by some playful nickname.

Camus: The Life and Writings of Absurdity :: Biography Biographies Essays

Camus: The Life and Writings of Absurdity      Ã‚   Camus was born in a small town in eastern Algiers on November 7, 1913. His father (Lucien August Camus) died in 1914 after being shot in the Battle of Marne in W.W.I. Camus was raised by his mother (Catherine Helene Sintes Camus) until he was seventeen, in a working-class section of town. "Sintes," his mother's maiden name was also Raymond Sintes' last name in the novel The Stranger. She was illiterate and became partially deaf after she was widowed. Her husband's body was never returned to her, but a fragment of the shell that killed him along with a picture of him was displayed in the apartment where they lived (Todd 4-6).    The Camus family was poor and struggled to make ends meet, but somehow kept on living. Albert however did go to a "snobbish" chic high school, despite his mother's illiteracy. The school was right next to the ocean, which could be seen from most of the classrooms. This is the beginning of Camus' fascination and love for the ocean and the sun, which comes through in many of his works (Todd 7-16).    Camus did however feel ashamed of his family, and was embarrassed by them. He escaped by excelling in sports and his schoolwork, but at home no one could relate to him nor could he share what he had learned because neither his mother   nor his grandmother could understand what he was saying. In 1930, when Camus was seventeen, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis after becoming sick and coughing up blood (he had tuberculosis reoccurrence in 1938, 1942, 1949-50 and 1957 after his Nobel Prize). This caused him to leave school but he later returned, and he studied philosophy, politics, and how to become an educator. At this point he moved and lived with his Uncle Gustave. This setting provided him with a better economic life and a job as an office clerk (Todd 17-28).    In 1933-34, Camus began school at the University of Algiers and taught classes at a high school.   He also had begun to write his first book Le Quartier Pauvre. He dated and later married Simone Hie, whom he divorced after two years because she prostituted herself to get money that was used to support her morphine habit.

Loneliness in ‘Of Mice and men’ by John Steinbeck Essay

‘Of Mice and Men’, is a novel written by John Steinbeck in the 1930’s. It is set in Salinas California and shows us what life was like for migrant workers at this time. The book was set in the time of the American depression caused by the Wall Street Crash. In 1929 Steinbeck himself had taken on unskilled jobs to support himself for 7 years from 1919. South Clara in Northern California was where Steinbeck worked as a farm laborer. It is from there that the scenery, setting and experiences of Steinbeck in Northern California have been etched into the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’. The book describes how lonely life can be. There are three different kinds of loneliness these include: isolation, solitude and abandonment. George and Lennie are different from the other characters in the novel as they have each other to look after them ‘ain’t many guys travel around together’. They have been companions from childhood and George has given and oath to Aunt Clara that he will look after Lennie. George and Lennie both share the same dream to own a piece of land that no-one will take away from them. They each dedicate a sum of their wages towards the dream. The characters in this novel are all envious to some extent of the special friendship shared by George and Lennie because they do not have that in their life. All the characters are extremely lonely and unhappy with their lives (except Slim, who is the only character that seems to be confident and happy with his life), and none of them can escape this unhappiness. Economic and social forces control them, and free will seems non-existent. â€Å"Guys like us, that live on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.† George means that if not for each other, then he and Lennie would be all alone, with no friends, like all the men like them, who are migrant workers moving from ranch to ranch without making any friends, and living a lonely life. George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, of a place to call their own. The Dream represents a sense of freedom to George and Lennie as they will be their own bosses and can do as they please. Also the achieving of the dream will mean they will not have to travel and have a house which they can really call home. They will not have to wear their uniforms and will have more possessions than a migrant worker. George and Lennie are very different, George is a smart and composed man, who seems to need mental stimulation from a companion, which he cannot have in his relationship with Lennie. Even though they have each other, they are still both lonely at a certain level, even if one does not clearly understand the other. The important thing is human contact and being there together. Somebody who loses his best companion is Candy. Candy is the oldest person on the ranch. We can tell this when he mentions they are going to fire him â€Å"They’ll can me purty soon† also by the boring jobs which he undertakes like sweeping the bunk house, as he only has one hand, he is a liability. He is a very friendly person and knows the rules of the ranch, we see this when he says ‘a guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions.’ His life long companion presumably a sheep dog which he had since it was a pup, was shot by Carlson, who was very persistent to take the dog’s life as he did not like the way it smelled â€Å"I don’t know nothing that stinks so bad as an old dog’. Although pleading with Carlson â€Å"I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup, I herded sheep with him† the only choice Candy was offered was if he would want to shoot the dog himself which he replied â€Å"No I coul dn’t. I had ‘im too long.† Finally Candy had to let his companion go. The dog which was Candy’s comfort and enjoyment was now dead. As the gunshot went off in the distance every head in the bunk house turned towards Candy to see the old man’s reaction. For a moment he continued to stare at the ceiling maybe remembering the happy memories he and his companion shared. Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent the same action a dog would do when going to sleep. All was not lost, overhearing George and Lennie’s dream he wanted to share it. He told George and Lennie about what they did to his dog that night maybe to try and win some compassion. â€Å"You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself or nobody else. When they can me here I wish’t somebody’d shoot me†. This shows Candy is nearing the end of his life at the farm. Being part of George and Lennie’s dream comforts Candy and would be an ideal way to spend the rest of his life free from worries. George and Lennie accepted him into their dream partly due to the large sum of money which he had to contribute towards the dream. The dream was now becoming a reality. Crooks like Candy is an outcast because the society in which he resides is racist towards black people. With a back injury that gives Crooks his nickname he is more permanent than the other men, we can see this with the possessions he has which include ‘several pairs of shoes, a pair of rubber boots, a big alarm clock and a single barrelled shot-gun’. Being alone has made Crooks very unsure about himself and bitter†A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick† this was Crook’s way of establishing a personal connection to Lennie. Like Lennie, Crooks has a ‘relationship’ with loneliness. Crooks is rejected from every group of people and cannot socially interact with others, just like Lennie who can’t socially interact properly because of his mental-disability. â€Å"Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m Black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me!† Crooks loneliness results from rejection; others treat him unjust because he is different from them given that he is black. Crooks isn’t allowed to participate in daily events with white people such as card games. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people who have offended him. In an effort to communicate with the outside world in my opinion Crooks reads books ‘there were battered magazines and a few dirty books on a special shelf over his bunk’ this shows they were well read, maybe even more than once. Crooks is fascinated by the strength of the friendship of Lennie and George, especially how close they are. Crooks said, â€Å"Well, s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?† Crooks asks these questions because he was curious and envious, about the friendship of Lennie and George, noticing that Lennie is retarded, he takes advantage of this situation to make him feel better and ease the pain of having others reject him. He wants the people to feel the way that he did when he was lonely, having no one. He is striving to achieve sympathy and understanding from others. Crooks would work for nothing if it meant communicating with others. He even offers his services to Candy to work on their â€Å"dream ranch† to join in on the friendship and dream shared by Lennie and George, in order to leave behind him his lonely life. Curley’s Wife’s loneliness is due to her husband. Even though Curley’s wife is mentioned frequently, nobody asks what her name is. Nobody wants to talk her because people are afraid of Curley; he is jealous and would start a fight with anyone who tried approaching her also due to the fact that Curley is the boss’s son and anyone who tried to do something could loose their job. She does not like Curley, and purely married him to spite her mother we can see this when she says ‘I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella’. Furthermore he doesn’t talk to her at all, and there’s no one in her life with whom she can share her feelings, and longs for companionship. Candy influences views about Curley’s wife in George by telling him ‘Curley’s married†¦ a tart’. She pretends to look for her husband when she really wants to have a conversation with the men in the ranch as she is lonely. Curley treats his wife like a trophy insisting that she should spend all her time in the house. Curley’s wife asks the rhetorical question, ‘think I like to stick in that house alla time?’ showing her unhappiness. Curley does not care about his wife as he leaves her behind whenever he goes out and visits ‘cat houses’ although he is married. Curley’s wife talks to Lennie in chapter five as she knows she can share her secrets and worries without Lennie telling anyone else, due to his mental age. She also indicates she is going to run away as she talks in a hurry. Curley’s wife is very vigilant in the way she knows how Curley’s hand was broken also in the way she finds the dead pup in the barn. Curley’s wife tells Lennie about the chances she had of being an actress and blames her misfortune on her mother. She shows that marrying Curley was her last chance to get away from home. Maybe she was making up stories about her past as she looked closely to see if she was impressing Lennie. Curley’s wife is a threat to Crooks as she threatens him with death by hanging if he stands up to her. In those days if a coloured man was accused of something there would be no trial. Curley’s wife is the one who ruins the dream as she let Lennie touch her hair and then resisted. She ended up getting killed which meant that Lennie would have to be killed as he committed murder. Her death could be thought of as a misfortune, but as a positive thing as well because it ended her suffering; being the only woman in the ranch and having married a man like Curley she was inevitably destined for loneliness. But now that she is dead, she will not have to worry about being lonely ever again. Curley’s wife’s case of loneliness was the most severe throughout the novel. She struggled in her society to find somebody that she could befriend in vain. We can draw a similarity between Candy and Crooks; both of these characters have a physical disability (Candy has a one hand, and Crooks has a crooked back) both caused by an accident, as well as another factor Crook’s color and Candy’s old age, those factors make both of them outcasts. Because of their situation, they are both destined to loneliness, each of them deals with it in their own way: Candy has his dog for companionship and makes conversation with the other men that work on the ranch, but Crooks turns towards books Another interesting similarity we can draw is the one between the relationship between George and Lennie, and Candy and his old dog. Both George and Candy are lonely, even though they have companionship; Candy cannot talk to his dog, and George can’t have a really serious conversation with Lennie either. Even though they have companionship, they need something deeper and more meaningful. It is also interesting to notice the similar fate of Candy’s dog and Lennie who will both be shot in the back of the head unsuspicious of what is going to happen. The last similarity drawn is between two of the loneliest characters in the novel; Curley’s Wife and Lennie. As we’ve seen previously, Curley’s wife is the only woman in the novel, and her husband forbids her to talk to other men, and because of his jealousy, doesn’t let other men approach her or else he picks a fight with them. George also gives orders to Lennie and strictly forbids him several times â€Å"Don’t even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does†¦you leave her be† â€Å"well, you keep away from her†, they aren’t allowed to talk to each other, that’s what makes the fatal scene in the barn so tragic; Curley’s wife wanted to talk to someone so bad, that it drove her to her death. One of the most important lessons we learn in Of Mice and Men is that friendship and human interaction are two very valuable things in life, and that having them is as much as a right as it is a privilege. We must treasure these two things as it keeps us away from loneliness which is one of the worst things a person can suffer from highlighted by the characters in the book.   

Persepolis, By Marjane Satrapi - 1456 Words

Persepolis, is a biographical visual novel written by an Iranian woman who decided to tell her story of growing up during a war that was tearing the social structures of her country apart. The author Marjane Satrapi, gives the reader interesting commentary on how the government of Iran has brainwashed her peers, starting as early as elementary school, into becoming a sexist, manipulable, and religiously misguided generation. As told by Satrapi, for the first few years of her childhood, the citizens of Iran, as well as the government, were very liberal minded allowing for men and women to freely wear whatever they would prefer, which could include any traditional or non traditional clothing. Though women did not have as strong of a political position than men, it was not uncommon to see respect among the people regardless of sex, age or religious beliefs. During these first few years of the 1970s, the schools that Satrapi had attended were secular and co-educational, providing lessons that were seen in other western countries. In the novel, the author even gives anecdotes of some of the times that she had played with both girls and boys in her neighborhood (Persepolis). In the year 1980, one year after the start of the Iranian revolution, the government began to make changes that would later affect the future generations for many decades later. The first set of action, to give the government the greatest control over Iran and its citizens , was to segregate the schools byShow MoreRelatedPersepolis by Marjane Satrapi970 Words   |  4 PagesUnbeknownst to some people, a graphic novel can be a very powerful vehicle for communicating a message of great seriousness and importance. In France in 2003, the Iranian-born writer and illustrator, Marjane Satrapi, published her internationally acclaimed autobiographical comic, â€Å"Persepolis.† The novel chronicles her childhood in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that were overshadowed by the displacement o f the Shah’s regime, the Islamic Revolution, and war with Iraq. The French contemporaryRead MorePersepolis : Marjane Satrapi s Persepolis1756 Words   |  8 PagesPersepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, this graphic novel was based on the eyes of a Ten year old that experiences all types of emotions before and after the Islamic revolution, the oppression from the leaders. This novel gives us a brief on the history of Iran and their leaders, to the Embassy being taken over, via how they weren’t allowed to party. They also experience prohibition just like the United States in the 1920-1933 and like many countries they didn’t have any freedom. In theRead MoreMarjane Satrapi s Persepolis 1646 Words   |  7 Pages Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis is an expressive memoir of her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, the fall of the Shah’s regime and the Iran-Iraq War. Unlike conventional memoirs, she uses the black-and -white comic book form to find her identity through politics and her personal experiences in Iran and it has become effective and relevant in today’s society because she is a normal person that has had to live through extreme circumstances. Marjane has contributed to a wholeRead MoreMarjane Satrapi s Persepolis 1314 Words   |  6 PagesPersepolis is an autobiography of Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in her native Iran. She writes about being a child in Iran through the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. As Satrapi recounts stories of her youth, one can observe that the Iran-Iraq war and the Iranian revolution are the central events driving the entire story. When the revolution and war happens, the dynamics of the book change completely. War creates a sense of unity and nationalism. Marjane shows a large contrast between herRead MoreAnalysis Of Persepolis By Marjane Satrapi1336 Words   |  6 Pagesthe graphic novel of Persepolis. Not only were Muslim women constantly judged by what they wore but they were also told how to act, what to think and how to raise their families. First of all by telling a woman what to wear is limiting their few rights they owned. It seems as if it destroys the individuality of a women. However the Muslim regime thinks differently and believes, it should be mandatory for women to wear the veil in order to follow their religion. 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Satrapi’s main purpose for this book is to describe how the Iranian government was corrupt, causing foreign nations to have a tainted view of all Iranian citizens. The Complete Persepolis does so by presenting major events and changes in a manner that is directed towardsRead MoreMarjane Satrapi s Persepolis 1501 Words   |  7 Pages The Iranian author of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, narrates a Bildungsroman showing her growth and development in Iran, as well as a memoir, showing the historical events in Iran. She discusses historical events like the Islamic revolution in 1979, whic h made it compulsory for the Iranian females to wear veils. Satrapi’s life story is mainly set in Iran, where she shows readers the strict, controlling and oppressive government the Iranians live under as well as the importance of clothing and bodyRead MoreMarjane Satrapi s Persepolis 1728 Words   |  7 PagesMarjane Satrapi deliberately uses an interesting layout usually used in successful comic books that convey deep messages. The layout of the graphics in Persepolis include elements such as panels, gutters, and graphic weight. The panels, or distinct segments of a comic containing a combination of images and texts, provide transitions that are instantaneous and direct. For example, on page seven, Satrapi uses a panel to show an innocent conversation with her grandmother about the rules she will assignRead MoreThe Complete Persepolis By Marjane Satrapi2268 Words   |  10 Pages Review of Literature While I will pull from other sources, the main focus of this paper will be The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Throughout this graphic novel, Satrapi tells her life story and what it was like growing up in Iran. In the opening illustrations, she describes her childhood and her transition from a secular school to one that was religious and separated by gender. At this time it had become law for a woman to wear the veil, or head scarf when in public. Iran transitioned