An Examination of Southern Dialect

as Seen in the Works of William Faulkner

In the writings of William Faulkner, the reader may sense that the author has created an entire world,
which directly reflects his own personal experience. Faulkner writes about the area in and around
Mississippi, where he is from, during the post-Civil War period. It is most frequently Northern
Mississippi that Faulkner uses for his literary territory, changing Oxford to "Jefferson" and Lafayette
County to "Yoknapatawpha County," because it is here that he lived most of his life and wrote of the
people he knew.
Faulkner's stories focus on the Southeastern United States at a time period when old traditions began
to clash with new ideals. This is an era in American history with which most people can quickly
identify, whether they are Southern or not. The South in Faulkner's works are complete with all the
expected features: an agricultural society, Southern belles and gentlemen, racial tensions, and
especially the common characteristics of Southern speech. Faulkner strays from the normal customs of
Northern literature to present a realistic portrait of the South that he grew up in. In doing so, he comes
up with an excellent sample of the Southern language, including linguistic qualities of both black and
white speech. Faulkner establishes a unique literary voice which is recognizable due to variances from
standard English in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical form, while juxtaposing speech
elements foreign to anyone not familiar with Southern heritage.
The works of William Faulkner succeed in creating a literary dialect which is relatively consistent
throughout all of his stories. A literary dialect is best defined as an "author's attempt to represent in
writing a speech that is restricted regionally, socially, or both" (Ives 146). In Faulkner's writing, this
can be described by such traits as an intentional misspelling, like "marster" for master, or in the use of
"Miss" along with the given first name of a female, as in "Miss Corrie." These, amongst countless
other examples, are distinctly Southern speech traditions. Anyone not from the South may need
explanations of much of Faulkner's pronunciations, words, usages, and language customs which the
author himself takes for granted. Because Faulkner has employed such a vast and complex Southern
dialect in his stories, the language he uses has become a microcosm of Southern language as a whole.
As one critic has noted, "local forms of speech maintain one's individual dignity in a homogenizing
world" (Burkett vii).
In Faulkner, this local speech is a mixture of "Southern American and Negro dialogue with all the
folklore from Virginia to Louisiana, Florida to Texas" (Brown 2). Faulkner's dialect is effective both as
a literary device and as a link between the American English language and American culture and
history, specifically in the Southeast.
The South is probably the most linguistically diversified part of the nation. Blacks and whites from
Atlanta to Charleston to Nashville speak a different form of standard English in a different version of
the Southern accent. Part of this linguistic diversity is reflected in the way that the Southern
aristocracy can "shift not only vocabulary and pronunciation, but even grammar, according to the
audience" ((1)McDavid 219). This technique is very much alive in Faulkner's work. For example, in
The Reivers, the upper-class grandfather character Boss is an educated man of high social standing in
the community. Yet, when he is in the company of only his grandson Lucius, as part of a lecture, he
says "the safe things ain't always the best things" ((2)Faulkner 117). Throughout the book, Boss's
speech moves from the formal to the informal, largely depending on the intimacy he feels with the
person or persons to whom he is speaking. Such a case illustrates that Faulkner is well aware of the
prestige norms that exist in Southern speech, and he takes advantage of this knowledge. As Feagin
points out, in the Southeast, the way in which "nonstandard English is employed demonstrates a

symbol of intimacy and local loyalty, as well as a gauge of the level of integration into a close-knit
network" (Feagin 222).
Faulkner's characters reveal a tendency to speak in a slang-like or non-prescriptive grammar when
they converse with other characters that they know well, often apparent in the form of jokes and
metaphorical language. Similarly to the aristocratic speaker, the less educated Southern speaker often
attempts to improve his or her speech when in a formal setting. McDavid asserts that the common way
to do so is by "using bigger words and longer sentences, sometimes resulting in the ridiculous"
((2)McDavid 265). A good example of such in Faulkner occurs in As I Lay Dying when Anse, a rural,
farming man, attempts to sound eloquent at a time of utmost solemnity. During a funeral speech, Anse
states the following: The somebody you was young with and you growed old in her and she growed
old in you, seeing the old coming on and it was the one somebody you could hear say it don't matter
and know it was the truth outen the hard world and all a man's grief and trials ((1)Faulkner 511).
It is obvious that Anse intends to speak formally in this situation, thus Faulkner follows McDavid's
rule of Southern speech about the elongation of sentences and its irregular result. This passage is
successful in two ways. First, it reveals a realistic trait common in the Southeast, reflecting the
solidarity norm based on local non-standard speech (Feagin 219). Second, it serves as a very powerful
literary technique because the oration captures the high level of sincerity in the speaking character.
Another highly common form of Southern dialect which is often seen in Faulkner's writing is the
presence of African American speech features. There are numerous examples of black speech in
Faulkner that follow linguistic patterns. However, it is the purpose of this essay to view only a few of
the most common. Alphonso Smith defines the most general rule of Southern Negro speech as the
tendency to pronounce words like more, store, four, and floor without the /r/ sound, as in mo, sto, fo,
and flo (Smith 365). Faulkner holds true to this generalization by narrating similar speech from the
black characters in his books. For instance, in As I Lay Dying, the character Cash offers a statement
which proves Faulkner's conformity to this black English norm when he says, "I ain't so sho that ere a
man has the right to say what is crazy and what ain't" ((1)Faulkner 221).
Further, linguists such as Raven and Virginia McDavid have gathered that the oldest and least
educated, as well as many Negro informants in their Southern language studies have demonstrated
dominant usage of such ungrammatical verb past tenses as div for dive, growed for grow, and riz for
rise ((3)McDavid 264-280). Accordingly, in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, there is an immense
sign on the Negro Second Baptist Church which reads "He Is Ris."
Faulkner also depicts the vernacular of Southern blacks in his opulent use of repetition and Biblical
allusion. It has been noted by researchers of Southern linguistics that a strong relationship exists
between the rituals of black churches and everyday black speech customs. Examples of this
relationship include religious reference, long pauses, swaying and gesturing, and repetition (JonesJackson 115-124). Although it is impossible to identify with many of these aspects of black speech
while reading words on a page, it is clear that Faulkner takes advantage of those aspects that the
readers can detect. For instance, all of his works display abundant uses of the words Jesus, heaven, and
crucifixion, and sometimes choir hymns such as "all folks talkin' bout heaven ain't gwine dar" appear
in the speech of black characters (Brown 19-222). Other Negro language features common in Faulkner
are loss of /r/ at the end of words as in "betta" for better, use of be substituted for all tenses of the word
be, as well as the "zero copula, or possession indicated without a possessive morpheme" (Stewart 57).
Much of Faulkner's writing has viewed blacks humanely, giving them a significant voice in the
Southern American culture. However, for the most part, the literature reflects the general social
attitude towards blacks at the time, which renders their language substandard and basically inferior to
that of most whites. In the stories of Faulkner, the author writes in his natural language which he

learned growing up in Mississippi. This language, obviously, is what constitutes his literary dialect.
Nevertheless, a closer observation of the linguistic style of his writing reveals exactly how he
establishes this unconventional dialect. Primarily, Faulkner utilizes the technique of intentional
variation of words from standard English orthography or, to be more specific, he purposefully spells
words incorrectly.
The examples of this in his works occur on a page by page basis. Some of the more common and
peculiar, occurring in more than just one of his stories, are "Ferginny" for Virginia, "ricklick" for
recollect or remember, and "gwine" or "ghy" for going to (Brown 19-222). Another similar
pronunciation feature of Faulkner's work is the combining of two like words to create a new word with
a new spelling. Two examples of this action are "aggravoke," a blend of aggravate and provoke, and
"agoment," used as a combination of agony and torment (Brown 19). In addition to these, Faulkner
also plays on language variation by exhibiting words or expressions to which the average English
speaker cannot possibly know the meaning. Words like "jumper" for denim jacket and pants or
"dragon" for a Ku Klux Klansman, and expressions such as "struck and jumped" to signify picking up
the scent of and then killing a deer, fall into this category (Brown 19-222).
Finally, to establish his literary dialect, Faulkner ensures that "grammatical forms are used that do not
appear in the textbooks - except as awful warnings" (Ives 147). Many of these have already been
discussed above, but several others appear in the writing as in the multiple cases of double negatives,
eliminating the /g/ from words ending in -ing, and placing the word "like" at the end of adjectives for
emphasis (as in "proper-like," and "quick-like"). In short, most of these features, and the local dialect
as a whole, can be seen in such passages as the following from As I Lay Dying: "I know that Old
Marster will care for me as for ere a sparrow that falls" ((1)Faulkner 440). This quotation is
grammatically unsound, it contains unusual word spelling and pronunciation, and it also makes use of
a seemingly foreign phrase or saying. From the start, what almost all of these characteristics have in
common is that they are chiefly reflections of the Southern Lowland dialect, and therefore they make
Faulkner's literature a symbol of that geographical region and culture as a whole.
Some important questions arise when examining the language of Faulkner or any similarly dialectoriented author. These questions surround the actual nature of a dialect, and the way in which it is
manifested by the writer on to the page. Dialects are patterns of communication by which all people in
an exclusive region recognize. People, even without a written language, understand "these speech
conventions, or patterns to which actual noises conform" even though they may not be "systematically
analyzed and recorded in a grammar" (Ives 150). A group of people who speaks a dialect will
commonly have uniform variations from other dialects that are noticeable by people outside their
speaking class, as in the differences between black and white Southern English. A writer like Faulkner,
then, presents a very special affinity with his own dialect because he writes in it without having to rely
on research or background study. His storytelling language is pure, "when he needs something, he
searches the lumber room of his head for something to serve his purpose" (Brown 4).
The literary dialect in the works of William Faulkner is almost a carbon-copy of the Southern dialect
he truly speaks. Moreover, although Faulkner is not commonly regarded as a great historian, his
writing reveals a great deal of Southern history and culture.Though probably not all of these accounts
are entirely accurate, it is quite possible that Faulkner's descriptions of historical events alight directly
from his own experience with the Southern tradition of oral storytelling. Faulkner's representation of
Southern speech in his writing, follows the actual linguistic parameters of the Southern Lowland
dialect very closely, or Southern Proper by Raven McDavid's classification. Faulkner makes a strong
effort to display the various facets of this dialect even though many of them cannot really be sensed
through writing alone. For instance, the only true aspects of language that are excluded in writing are

facial and bodily expressions accompanying speech, pauses and changes in pitch or volume, and speed
of articulation. Generally speaking, however, these features are secondary in comparison with
pronunciation, grammar, and word usage.
Faulkner's literary dialect is consistent with several of the prevailing trends of Southern speech. For
one, it supports the theory of Southern language diversity due to the fact that Faulkner's is a distinctly
Southern dialect, yet has many differences from other Southern dialects, including the use of phrases
like "trade days" (days set aside for auctioning) only used in the immediate area (Brown 202). Also,
Faulkner's writing presents the large quantity of archaic and folk utterances in the Negro dialect, which
are the result of years of insufficient educational opportunity. One other trait of Faulkner's language
that is common to the popular conception of Southern dialects is the occasional loss of postvocalic /r/,
as in the words "baun" for born, and "bastud" for bastard. These words, along with dozens of others
appearing in many of Faulkner's stories.
Faulkner, quite simply, delineates a place rich in the tradition and pride of the average Southerner.
Consequently, the speech in his text also carries some of the stigmas attached to Southern life itself.
First and foremost of these blemishes is the pervading tone of racism, automated by the appearance of
the word "nigger" in practically all of Faulkner's works. Although the word does represent the
authenticity of Faulkner's dialect, it will always carry with it an arresting level of shame and disgrace.
The feeling of racism is perpetuated by the fact that most of the Negro speech in Faulkner is slightly
less standard than white speech, giving it a hint of inferiority. Although Faulkner explores the issue of
racism with an open mind and even attempts to repudiate some of the negative connotations associated
with blacks, his genuine Southern tongue cannot completely detach from the very real evils of racial
injustice in Southern American history.
Finally, the dialect in these stories, in all of its originality, continues to uphold the popular belief that
Southern English is, in many instances, bad English employed by less intelligent speakers. This
setback is mainly attributable in Faulkner's writing to the double negatives, use of ain't, and use of
third person don't. Contrary to these negative opinions however, most of the cases of bad grammar
here are actually remnants of archaic proper English rather than unintelligent corruptions of modern
English. Thus Faulkner's storytelling dialect creates a lasting impression of his Southern world,
encompassing both the common and unique, the positive and the negative. In demonstrating his ability
to author such a realistic, yet original world, drawing on his own natural dialect, "Faulkner insists that
life is narrative, based on the preeminence of language in our lives" (Lockyer xii).
Envy: A Pitfall of Marriage in Hemingway's The Garden of Eden
Jealousy is a natural, human emotion that holds most of man kind captive. It drives the human mind to
act upon envious impulses that lead to distress and sometimes disaster. Though most of humankind has
a sense of self-control to recognize and overcome this, there are those that do not. This is just the case
in Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden. As Catherine Bourne struggles to cope with her confused
sexual identity, she becomes uncontrollably jealous of her husband's prosperity as a novelist. Her envy
ultimately leads to the destruction of her marriage with her husband, David.
Catherine's confusion with her sexual identity first develops when she decides to get a boyish style
haircut. She explains to David, "You see, ...I'm a girl. But now I'm a boy too and I can do anything and
anything and anything" (15). Catherine believes that she possesses the ability to change sexes at any
time. She sees that she is not entirely David's equal and attempts to remedy her insecurities by
claiming to be a boy. "Nobody can tell which way I am but us. I'll only be a boy at night..." David
responds, "All right, boy" (56). David perceives this as merely a sexual "game" between he and
Catherine. However, he does realize that there is a change in his wife's personality. "...His heart said

goodbye Catherine goodbye my lovely girl goodbye good luck and goodbye" (18). David is
acknowledging that a part of Catherine is gone and that he must learn how to deal with his wife's
changing state of mind. Catherine is slowly developing a distorted perception of reality that later leads
to her jealous rages.
Although Catherine evinces a desire to further her husband's career, she is only expressing a
willingness to help him so that she may somehow be a part of his work. She is envious of his abilities
to write, and because she does not share that part of his life, she retaliates with violent and harmful
force. The first problem arises when David receives newspaper clippings containing reviews of his
latest novel. Catherine says, "How can we be us and have the things we have and do what we do and
you be this that's in the clippings?" (24). She feels invaded by her husband's prosperity as a writer and
cannot fathom how their relationship can continue the way it is if he chooses to be the man described
in the clippings. She implies that the David Bourne that she knows is different from the David Bourne
characterized in the newspaper. He assures her that nothing will change saying, "I've had them before,
they're bad for you but it doesn't last" (24). He mentions that the clippings are temporary and have no
effect on him. David's words do not assuage Catherine's jealousy. Later, David expresses a desire to
begin another novel. Catherine responds, "Then write, stupid. You didn't say you wouldn't write.
Nobody said anything about worrying if you wrote. Did they?" (27). Catherine's retort carries a tone of
derision and sarcasm. Her words and tone imply a contempt for David's talent; one that she knows not
how to deal with.
Catherine's envy reaches a peak when David finishes his third novel. Realizing that her verbal protest
of the last novel and its reviews have no affect, Catherine resorts to damaging the writing itself. As
David goes to place the finishing touches on his novel, he notices that "the pile of cahiers that the
stories had been written in was gone. So were the four bulky envelopes from the bank that had
contained the press clippings" (218-219). David immediately suspects Catherine of taking the stories
but cannot comprehend how or why she would take them. "He had not believed that the stories could
be gone, he had not believed that she could do it" (219). David confronts Catherine with this and says
"Where did you put them, Devil?" (220). Catherine tells him honestly that she put them "in the iron
drum with holes that Madame uses to burn trash. I poured on some petrol...It made a big fire and
everything burned. I did it for you, David, and for...us" (221). Catherine feels that in order for her to
obtain some validity in their relationship, she must destroy the thing that keeps her and David separate.
After this tirade, Catherine decides to leave David and travel to Paris. David is very pococurante about
her decision and lets her go with only a warning to "...drive carefully and don't pass on hills" (227).
The climax of her jealousy and the result of her actions overshadow the love he once had for her.
Because of this, David falls in love with another woman, and Catherine leaves without being heard
from again. The development of Catherine's jealous nature is the cause of David and Catherine's
destroyed marriage
A Farewell To Arms
All fiction is autobiographical, no matter how obscure from the author's experience it may be, marks
of their life can be detected in any of their tales. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is based
largely on Hemingway's own personal experiences. The main character of the novel, Frederic Henry,
experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived. Some of these similarities are exact,
while some are less similar, and some events have a completely different outcome.
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway worked as a reporter
for the Kansas City Star after graduating from high school in 1917. During World War I, he served as

an ambulance driver in the Italian infantry and was wounded just before his 19th birthday.
Hospitalized, Hemingway fell in love with an older nurse. Later, while working in Paris as a
correspondent for the Toronto Star, he became involved with the expatriate literary and artistic circle
surrounding Gertrude Stein. During the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway served as a correspondent on
the loyalist side. He fought in World War II and then settled in Cuba in 1945. In 1954, Hemingway
was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. After his expulsion from Cuba by the Castro regime, he
moved to Idaho. In his life, Hemingway married four times and wrote numerous essays, short stories
and novels. The effects of Hemingway's lifelong depressions, illnesses and accidents caught up with
him. In July 1961, he committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho. What remains, are his works, the product
of a talented author.
A Farewell to Arms is the story of Frederic Henry, an American, driving an ambulance for the Italian
Army during World War I. The novel takes us through Frederic's experiences in war and his love affair
with Catherine Barkley, an American nurse in Italy. The novel starts in the northern mountains of Italy
at the beginning of World War I. Rinaldi, Frederic's roommate, takes him to visit a nurse he has taken a
liking to. Catherine Barkley, the nurse Rinaldi speaks of, is instantly attracted to Frederic and he is to
her. Frederic courts her for a brief time before he goes to the front.
At the front, Frederic is wounded in the legs and taken to an aid station and then to an army hospital.
He is then transferred to an American hospital in Milan where he meets up with Catherine again. Their
love flourishes. They spend their nights together in Frederic's hospital bed and their days going to
restaurants, horse races and taking carriage rides.
Frederic returns to the war after his recovery. The war is going badly in Italy. The German troops
forced a full-scale retreat. Soon after Frederic's return, he deserts the war in a daring escape. Frederic
leaves and meets a pregnant Catherine in Stresa.
The two go over to Switzerland where they spend an idyllic time waiting for the birth of their baby.
Catherine has a long and difficult labor. Their baby is delivered dead. Catherine dies soon after from
"one hemorrhage after another." After Catherine dies, Frederic leaves and walks back to his hotel. A
Farewell to Arms is a story of love and pain and of loyalty and desertion set in the tragic time of war.
There are many similarities in the experiences of Ernest Hemingway and his character Frederic Henry,
in A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway and Henry were both involved in World War I, in a medical
capacity, but neither of them were regular army personnel. Like Hemingway, Henry was shot in his
right knee during a battle. Both men were Americans but were ambulance drivers for the Italian Army.
In real life, Hemingway met his love, Agnes, a nurse, in the hospital after being shot; Henry met his
love, Catherine Barkley, also a nurse, before he was shot and hospitalized. In both cases, the
relationships with these women were strengthened while the men were hospitalized. Another
difference is that in A Farewell to Arms, Catherine and her child died while she was giving birth, this
was not the case with Agnes, who left Henry for another Italian Army officer. Nevertheless, these
differences are only surface. These slight changes allowed Hemingway, an extremely private man, to
try and prove to the public that it was not himself and his own experiences which he was writing
about. On the contrary, In the book Modern Critical Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms, Millicent
Bell sees the novel as "not the autobiography some readers have thought it" (Bloom 113). Instead, Bell
perceives the novel to be a "pseudoautobiography and a personal metaphor." One can see that Bell
ignored the deep psychological similarities that Henry and Hemingway share. Their similar escapes,
their morbid nature, their avoidance of relationships, their obsession with war, and their similar views
on death.
There is great power in being an author; you can make things happen which do not necessarily occur
in real life. Hemingway felt throughout his life, powerless, and so to escape this, he created alternative

lives by writing stories. Hemingway, who fell in love with Agnes, an American nurse, seven years
older than he, while wounded in Milan, was deeply hurt after she didn't return his affections. While the
beginning of A Farewell to Arms, up until this point is similar, this is where the story changes. In the
book, Frederic and Catherine are both in love with each other. Hemingway continued his affair with
Agnes through Frederic and Catherine. He put his dreams of what his faded love affair would have
been like in the love scenes between Catherine and Frederic: "When I saw her I was in love with her.
Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat
on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me. I pulled her down and kissed her and felt her
heart beating." Writing about what could have been was one way that Hemingway escaped from his
life. Like Frederic Henry, Hemingway also acted out his feelings of inadequacy among other problems
by hunting, drinking, spending lots of money and sleeping with many women. Escapism, which is a
theme of the novel, is largely by Frederic and Ernest to deal with their similar wounds, psychological
and physical.
Hemingway and Henry also have similar unhealthy obsessions and personality flaws. Both men are
eternally morbid, which shows itself in their obsessions with war and death. Hemingway shows his
melancholy belief that death is inevitable through Frederic. Hemingway shows the reader that death
ends life before you have the chance to live it. This was undoubtedly one of the reason's that
Hemingway ended the book in Catherine Barkley's death and the death of her child. Frederic says in
response to the deaths: "You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn.
They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you^
they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you." Hemingway
fought in more that one war and subsequently wrote more than one novel about his experiences in
them. Henry also could not leave the war for even a moment, up until the end when he decides to
desert. When Catherine asks Frederic to stop talking about the war for awhile, he counters with, "It's
very hard, there's no place to drop it." Essayist Wyndham Lewis in the book Twentieth Century
Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms says that the war years "were a democratic, a leveling school"
for Hemingway. Lewis feels that war was "a release" for Hemingway, an "opportunity to show that he
is a real man" (Gellens 76). The statement made by Lewis is evidently true of Hemingway. One can
see that he is obsessed with war, much like Frederic Henry, because it is an outlet for him, or another
form of escape.
Another striking similarity between Hemingway and his character Henry, is their isolationism. Edgar
Johnson in Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms writes, "it is society as a whole
that is rejected, social responsibility, social concern." Henry, like Hemingway, leads a private life as a
detached, isolated individual. He socializes with the officers, talks with the priest and visits the
officer's brothel, but maintains only superficial relationships. The only relationship that means
anything to him is Catherine, which is Hemingway's Agnes, both of which are isolated relationships.
Johnson says about Hemingway, "He will solve the problem of dealing with the world by taking refuge
in individualism and isolated personal relationships and sensations" (Gellens 112-113). Happiness
comes for Hemingway and Henry only when they are in these relationships, away from the pressures
of society and their lives.
Ernest Hemingway once gave some advice to his fellow writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. If something in life
hurts you, you should use it in your writing. In writing a Farewell to Arms, Hemingway followed his
own advice. In many ways, Frederic Henry was a psychological parallel to Hemingway. The painful
experiences of his own life, which were consciously and unconsciously placed in this novel, helped
make it a major literary achievement.

Farewell To Arms
Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms captures the inspiring trials and tribulations of a disillusioned
man caught between love and war. Driving an ambulance on the Italian front of World War One
Frederick Henry discovers his values as he realizes his love for Catherine Barkley, a innocent English
Nurse.
An American Second Lieutenant in the Italian Army's Ambulance Corps, Frederick Henry is depicted
as an average man in search of a set of values. Initially Frederick is lonely, lustful, confused and
restless, but as he becomes involved with Catherine Barkley he finds his niche, and a meaning to life.
Frederick can be considered heroic in that he is honorable, not interested in material commodities, and
puts his fellow soldier before himself. When the entire mess hall teases the priest Frederick defends
him and is his only true friend. Also, when offered an award, Frederick refuses. Additionally, when he
and the other drivers were bombed, he ignores his own injuries to assist the others and insists that the
doctors treat others before himself. Catherine Barkley is a young English nurse who has already lost a
fianc to the war and is introduced as partially crazy. She begins her relationship with Frederick
pretending, he is her lost fianc who has returned, but soon falls! in love with him and regains her
sanity. Throughout the story Catherine remains static, and represents the ideal Hemingway character
that Frederick is to become as the novel comes to an end. The basic plot of the novel revolves around
Frederick's relationship with Catherine. Frederick experiences the war in the Italian Alps and sustains a
leg injury that hospitalizes him for several months. Although he knew Catherine before his
hospitalization, their relationship blossoms during this period when he is away from the front. Soon
after his return to the front, there is a huge retreat and he takes his ambulance crew on a back road to
get around traffic. When he finally does make it back to the army he is forced to desert in fear of
execution. He finds Catherine and they begin a new life together in Switzerland. Ultimately, Frederick
learns his basic values through Catherine in their adventures of love, war, and death during World War
One. The theme shown is that love can come from even the strangest places, also there is a basic good
versus evil shown by the dramatic tragedy at the end.
A Farewell to Arms is a very emotional and understanding story. Throughout the book Frederick acted
as a confused hero with Catherine as his guidance. Frederick is very realistic and while he is a better
man than the average he has several flaws. Catherine on the other hand is entirely too perfect. She
seems almost supernatural, like an angel at times.
Initially when she is a little insane her character was more believable. The story is written in the first
person narrative where Frederick is the narrator and sometimes refers to future events. Overall, A
Farewell to Arms is an excellent book that while not always action packed kept me reading and
surprised me many times.
The Sun Also Rises
In the novel The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, a reader is forced to decide weather the spite
that the Jake has for Chon originates from Jakes racist background, or his deeply seeded jealousy of
Chon for having a brief affair with Brett. Even though it is clear that Jake has racist views, the hatred
he has for his former friend Chon Chon is strictly based on the jealousy he feels towards Chon for the
weekend he spent with Brett.
Jake goes in to great detail about Chons early life. He speaks highly and admiringly of Chon, but in a
condescending way. A reader get her first hint on page one that Jake has some racist feelings toward
Chon. He speaks of how Chon's nose was flattened in a boxing match and concluded the sentence with

...and it certainly improved his nose (11). This can be taken as a reference to the stereotypical Jew
nose that is often associated with Jewish people. Jake and Chon are close friends, and Jake likes him
up to the point where he becomes involved with Brett. Jake goes on and on about all of the
relationship mistakes in Chons life. There is an hint of jealousy that appears in Jake's tone. He states
that women began to become attracted to Chon as he got older, and that it changed him so that he was
not so pleasant to have around (16). There is racism in Jakes tone, but Jakes problem with Chon is is
strictly one of jealousy.
By this time Jake has already developed an extreme distaste for Chons endeavors with women, but
these feelings their peak when Chon and Lady Brett have a brief affair. Jake, having unconditional
love for Brett, blames the entire incident on Chon. In turn, Chon makes as point to rub it in Jakes face.
Jake says ...it was giving him pleasure to be able to talk with the understanding that I knew there was
something between them (106). Jake has a great deal of trouble dealing with this. It has nothing to do
with the fact that Chon is Jewish, Jake is merely jealous of him. It would not be manly for Jake to
openly admit his jealousy, and blame the jealousy on his harsh feelings toward Chon. As a result Jake
falls back on the fact that Chon is Jewish, and uses that as an excuse for his anger.
One of the reasons that Jake was so hurt by Chons affair with Brett was that Jake knows that Brett
will always love him, and has no feelings for Chon other than a temporary lust. Chon is unable to
accept the fact that Brett does not care at all for him, and he makes it very difficult to for people to
enjoy his company. Bill sayshe makes me sick and he can go to hell,and I am damn glad he is staying
here...(108). These is not a racial based opinion, Chon just has an unpleasant personality. Everyone in
the group agrees that Chons presence is not enjoyable, but nobody feels it the way Jake does. In this
story Jake allows the woman that he to loves run his life and occupy his thoughts. Jake is a bitter
person, and he is living in a time of unhappiness and depression that resulted from the war. The hate he
feels for his former friend Chon Chon is not one of racism; before the incident with Brett they were
close friends. This is just another case of a woman coming in between two male friends. The affair
might not have even affected that relationship, it is Chon's reaction to the affair that spoils the
friendship. Jake is jealous of Chon because he knows that Brett loves only him.
The Sun Also Rises
In the novel The Sun Also Rises, written by Ernest Hemingway the main character makes a decision to
introduce the woman he loves to a young bull fighter. Jake makes this decision very much agonist the
will of his friends, but in doing so he pleases Brett. Jake does this because he is unconditionally
committed to Brett, and is willing to do whatever necessary to bring her happiness, even if it is only
temporary.
Jakes first reaction to the news that Brett is interested in meeting and spending time with Romero is
one of negativity. He learns of this from he friend Montoya and tells him Dont give him the Message
(176). He did not think that it would be a good idea for Brett to have anything to do Romero, and did
not want him to receive the message that invited him to have coffee with their group. At this point it is
clear that Jake does not approve of this proposed encounter. His later decision to introduce them
supports the idea that Jake is unconditionally devoted to Brett, and her happiness. The introduction
was a very strange one. It was not as if Jake went out of his way for it to happen. It was much more the
will of Brett. She raved on and on about Romero and insisted to Jake that they go and find him. Jake
did not fight her on this issue, but he certainly did not provoke it. Jake was more of a stooge for Brett.
She would have had her way even if Jake had not helped her. She uses her feminine charm, and there
is, little that Jake can say. At one point she says Oh, darling, please stay by me. Please stay by me and
see me through this(188). Jake is to wrapped around her finger to refuse. There is no question in

Jakes mind that he will be losing Montoya as a friend and also the respect that others had once held
for him, yet he choose Brett over these losses. Jake even goes as far as to make an agreement with
with Montoya that he breaks upon the introduction of Brett to Romero. It says when Romero walked
into the room he started to smile, but then say the group with Romero then at that point he did not
even nod(181). This was at the first introduction. The real damage had nod even been done yet, but
Jake proceeded because he wanted to to make her happy.
In this story Jake is forced with a decision that will change a great deal of his life. He decision
ultimately costs him a good friendship, and takes away the respect that his other friends had once had
for him. He does this consciously and unselfishly without hesitation. This does not mean that he has
lost his moral creditability as a character, but rather the opposite. Jake becomes a stronger character
after this because is shows his unconditional devotion and love for Brett.
The Sun Also Rises
With a strong setting in Paris and parts of Spain such as Madrid, Pamplona, and Bayonne, The Sun
Also Rises takes a journey through the countryside of Spain, as well as the big and busy city of Paris.
Drama as occurred between close friends in this time of 1924, a spring filled with buzzing bees,
succulent sunlight, and quarreling acquaintances. This wonderful work of fiction written by Ernest
Hemingway. While Jake Barnes and his company of friends are on their way to see the bulls of
Pamplona and the fiesta that follows, Jakes old lover Brett Ashley has an affair with Jakes best friend
Robert Cohn, a Princeton educated Jew. While this is going on, Brett is still Mikes fiance, one of
Jakes other friends. Bill, an acquaintance of Jakes spends his time with Jake, having drinks and
fishing. After much of this activity, Cohn, Ashley, and Mike arrive in Pamplona from San Sebastion.
Brett is a woman who likes many different men, so her affair with Robert Cohn meant nothing to her,
but it meant a lot for him. While in Pamplona and the hotel, Cohn is constantly following Brett around
like a sad puppy dog. Brett, after being fed up with the whole ordeal, calls Robert on his behavior,
exposing him to Mike, Bretts fianc, who takes the news lightly.
The whole point of the crew going to Spain was to see the running of the bulls and the bullfights that
go along with it. Jakes friend Montoya, who owns the hotel they are staying at, is an aficionado on
bull fighting, as well as Jake. Montoya introduces Jake to young but very talented bullfighter by the
name of Pedro Romero. Brett, who is suddenly infatuated with this young stud whose nearly half her
age, persuades Jake to get the two aquatinted. Mike, drunken and tight, hears of this and calls Jake a
pimp, of which makes Jake feel like an ass. Pedro and Brett run off together for a short-lived fling.
To put it all together shortly but simply, a man who doesnt want to get old along with aging friends
set out on small adventures to make themselves somehow feel young. One of these events turns out to
be the fiesta of the bulls in Pamplona. Brett, a needy and beautiful woman has a close connection with
all of the men on her trip, and eventually creates one with one of the main attractions at the bullfights.
Jake and his male friends leave, while Brett has run off with the bullfighter. After breaking the fling
off, Brett returns to Jake for help, and resolves to stay with Mike after all.
There was lots of talking in this book. Hemingway obviously sees the importance of conversation in a
book about people and their lives or the way they live. A great majority of the important details came
about with the knowledge of what these characters spoke about. Also a better understanding of the
characters was established through the use of dialogue.
The main conflict in this book was man vs. himself. Brett was struggling to come to terms with what
type of person she was, as well as Mike. Jake was steadily trying to keep himself together in order to
keep his friends friends. Robert Cohn was just trying his best to make himself feel young or as if he
had really lived. The characters all had problems with themselves.

The Sun Also Rises and A Clean Well-Light Place

In this paper, I will describe what critics have to say about Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also
Rises and his short story A clean well-Light Place. First I will describe the basic plot of the story, then
go one to describe each of the characters by what the critics have to say about them. I will start off
with the main character and narrator Jake Barnes. Then go to Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Pedro
Romero, and finally I will fish off that section with a little about Bill Gordon. Then I will describe a
little of how Ernest Hemingway's characters fit into what critics have to say about the story. After that,
I will then go into describing how the four American Themes were used in the novel. After that, I will
evaluate the criticism of the book using one or two quotes from the book. >From there, I go into my
next literary work. I describe the basic plot of A Clean Well-Light place. Then I describe the themes of
the story. I then go on to describing the criticism, or at least what I could find on the short story. I
continue with my evaluation of the criticism of the book. Also using one or two quotes. I conclude my
paper by giving my evaluation of each of the works, and evaluating the author's style, content, and
themes. In The Sun Also Rises, meet Jake Barnes, the main character and narrator of the novel. He and
his friend Robert Cohn meet a lady named Lady Brett. Here is the story of their adventure. In The Sun
Also Rises, a group of young Americans move to Paris after World War I. Jake Barnes, a
newspaperman who is in love with Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, a Jewish former Princeton student
who was outcast, Lady Brett Ashley, an older Englishwoman who also love Jake Barnes, but can't
consummate their love because he was wounded in his genitals. As they travel through Paris drinking
and sitting at cafes, they met up with Brett's fianc Mike Campbell and his friend Bill Gorton. Jake
plans a trip to Pamplona, Spain for a festival full of bullfighting and the running of the bulls. Before
everyone got to Spain, Mike, Brett and Robert already being there, Mike and Brett decided to take a
side trip to San Sebastian. Robert followed them like a lovesick puppy. While in Spain they met up
with a bullfighter named Pedro Romero, who Brett falls madly in love with. After the festival is over,
Brett leaves with Pedro and goes to Madrid, Mikes goes to a town on the French borde! r, Bill goes
back to Paris, and Jake leaves for San Sebastian to relax. When Jack arrives, he finds out that Pedro
wants to marry Brett, but she turned him down. She tells Jake about how happy they might have been
together. The conflict of this novel is that one loves another and that person loves someone different.
No one can truly get what he or she wants. Jake tells this story in first person. Psychology of the
individual was definitely present in this novel. You could always tell what Jake was thinking.
American Dream is also present because everyone wanted to have the perfect life. 'The difficulties of
interpreting The Sun Also Rises in a clear and relatively certain manner stem in the main from two
factors: the use of a particularly opaque first-person narrator; and the fact of Jake's wound which has
rendered him impotent, while leaving him normally responsive to sexual desire. The first factor results
in the bewilderment a reader will have in trying to locate the norms of 'truth' in the novel; that is, since
the entire novel related directly by Jake Barnes, the reader can never be sure how reliable Jake's
observations and judgments are.' (Monarch Notes) In the novel, Jake goes from being at a stage of
anguish and at times, a state of self-pity at the beginning to accepting himself as he is at the end. He
also discovered the appreciation of nature, companionship, and bravery. Jake emerges as the
Hemingway Hero, a cynical realistic individual who will hide his feelings in himself and who will
await the inevitable reckoning which life presents itself, of the novel. (Monarch Notes) In book one,
we start to see the outlines of the Hemingway Hero in Jake. He is capable of showing sorrowful, deep
emotions. He is also tender, compassionate and thoughtful. You see this in Jake when Brett and Jake
have their initial meeting together. Until meeting Brett, Jake was more interested in Robert Cohn.

Readers may think that Cohn is Jake's best friend because in the first chapters, most of the information
is about Cohn. As the story continues, the narrator unmasks Cohn. We discover Cohn not being the
pleasant companion, but the ant! i-hero to Jake. Jake becomes more aware of Cohn's boy-man
personality in Chapter IV when two lovers argue. So in the end of Book one, Jake goes from being a
friend to being suspicious and increasingly belligerent acquaintance of his fellow American. Early on
readers usually make the conclusion that something is wrong with Jake. It is implied that that he can
not have sex. When Spain comes into to play with the story, Jake changes in a very distinct way. He
loves Paris, but he loves Spain in a very different way. His French capital provides him with a refuge
from the States, the chance to live individually and freely. Jake feels an intimate contact with the
nature and existence when he's in Spain. (Monarch Notes) 'Because of her four lovers and the
attendant fact that the plot, such as it is, revolves about the ensuing complications, Brett stands out as
the most fascinating protagonist of the total group of actors in the novel.' (Monarch Notes) Without a
doubt, Brett is very colorful and adds an exotic approach to his characters. Although Brett appears
rather late in the novel, she begins to dominate the action in Book one. Just like Jake and Robert, Brett
wears a mask. They also identify Brett as an extreme example of the 'lost generation'. (Monarch Notes)
Robert Cohn is labeled one of the most bitter verbal depictions of a character in the novel. He is the
exact opposite of the Hemingway Hero. Hemingway probably described Cohn as a Jew, not for any
overt demonstration of anti-Semitism but to explain part of the young man's problem. Some critics
have read into this character a Hemingway attack on the defects of the American character. If this is
true, and there seems to be more than a modicum of accuracy in the criticism, then the unfavorable
attributes of American youth are: a basic immaturity, reliance upon physical strength, a thin veneer of
romanticism, the lack of appreciation for the simple virtues of companionship, good food and drink,
and the inability to adjust to the demands of an older civilization. (Monarch Notes) Robert Cohn is an
example of the boy-man, the adolescent playing the role of a mature individual. Without Cohn's
presence in the novel, the positive morality would not have been so fully illustrated; one arrives at a
clearer understanding of Jake Barnes and Pedro Romero's dedication to life and death. Cohn is
basically bewildered by the world of his contemporaries and he does not understand the members of
his own generation. He doesn't belong to the group he associates with. Hemingway is implying that
Cohn does not belong in Europe. In Book two, Cohn is more sentimental and requires more
recognition and appreciation. Cohn is also bored at the festival in Spain and is critical and cynical the
whole time. (Monarch Notes) Pedro Romero is the young Spanish matador who enters the story late,
and is not involved in much of the action in general. In a lot of ways, Pedro is an idealization of the
Spaniard: concise pride, honor, and bravery. 'Romero is untamed and uncorrupted by the decadence of
the modern world so that he is fundamentally a symbol and a stereotype rather than a living complex
to fathom.' (Monarch Notes) Some say that Romero is the answer to the rush of American civilians and
youth in the rise of the death in Europe after World War I. Bill Gordon, is probably one of the most
successful characters. He also belongs to the 'lost generation in spirit and sympathy, but learned how to
work hard, and he adjusted well to the 1920s. 'For many people in America, the years immediately
following World War I and World War II were characterized by anger, discontent and disillusionment.'
(Kwan, The Sun Also') This simple quote describes the main characters in this book. Jake is angry
because of his wound, and that he can't consummate his love with Brett. Cohn is angry and discontent
because he, same as Jake, can not consummate his love with Brett, but for different reasons. Cohn is
the Hemingway anti-hero so he is very critical of everything and is not open for change. Brett is the
disillusioned one. After losing the love of her life, she just gone from man to man, disillusioned that
she'll find someone to make her whole, but she never does. The major themes of American literature in
this work are psychology of the individual, American Dream, Individual in Society and Nature and the

Land. Psychology of the individual is shown through Jake Barnes. He tells the story through first
person and you always know how he's feeling, and how he feels about the other characters. Although
his feeling about the other character may be different from what the characters are really like, but that
still shows what he is thinking. The war also plays a role in the Psychology. The war has implict the
character's approach to daily life. American Dream is in this novel, but it's killed. Post-World War I
attitudes of the characters disapprove of the war and the US getting into the war, so they've moved to
France. The war has left them with a cynical view of the United States, and therefore isn't as much
American Dream as it is achieving their personal dreams. Individual in society is shown through each
of the characters and how! they react to their surroundings and situations that occur. Brett being the
very man-friendly woman that she is, has been known to have many relationships that mean nothing to
her, and don't last her very long. Robert Cohn shows his views when he follows Mike Campbell and
Brett around Sebastian the whole time like a lovesick puppy. Also when he is very critical of
everything at the festival in Spain. Jake shows it through being the Hemingway Hero, how he over
comes tragedy, first with Lady Brett, then finally with the acceptance his wound, and his impotency.
And finally the Nature and the Land, you have the background of the land, the rivers, the mountains
and the plains. But unlike some of his other novels, this nature shows the aftermath of wrath and
destruction after World War I, not during it. 'At five o'clock I was in the Hotel Crillion waiting for
Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote letters. They were not very good letters but I hoped
their being on Crillion stationery would help them. Brett did not turn up so about quarter to six I went
down to the bar'' (Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 41) This quote show the emerging of the
Hemingway Hero. He's beginning to get over his bitterness and starting to feel those deep sorrowful
emotions that the stereotypical hero does. 'We often talked about bulls and bull-fighters. I had stopped
at the Montoya for several years. We never talked for very long at a time. It was simply the pleasure of
discovering what we each felt.' (Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 132) This passage also agrees with
the critics when they said that Paris has a special place in Jake's heart, but Spain meant something
totally different to him. He loves Spain in a different way. He loved to learn about Spain and talk to
people abo! ut the culture. In Paris, he liked to drink and sit at cafes. In A Clean Well-Lighted Place,
two waiters are sitting at their caf talking and waiting to close up. While they are waiting they are
discussing the old man sitting out on the terrace, and why he would have wanted to commit suicide. As
old deaf man is sitting out on the terrace drinking brandies, he flashes to the waiters for another. When
the young waiter goes over to the table to tell him he's had enough and must go home because the
waiter wants to close up and go home himself to his wife waiting in bed for him. When the waiters
close up the caf, the young waiter goes home, and the old waiter goes to find another caf/bar that's
open. He goes to another bar, and he discusses the nadas with another bartender. There isn't much
American Dream, Individual in society, or Nature and the land. The only theme in this short story is
Psychology of the Individual. This comes at the end of the story when they discuss the nadas. The
nadas, pertaining to nothing, and nothingness, these people discuss their fear of nothing, the clean
well-lighted caf that the waiter works in is like a refuge for those that have no where to go, and need
some, not nothing. The Hemingway hero doesn't make its appearance quite as obvious as it did in the
novel. The older waiter would be the stereotypical hero in this short story because of wanted to help
people escape from nada, just like he wants to. He's trying to help others as he helps himself. This
portrays the deep and sorrowful emotions by having a place for the lonely people to go to. (Literary
Companion, 37, 38) 'Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name, thy Kingdom nada, thy will be nada,
in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas
and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada y pues nada' (Hemingway, A Clean Well-Lighted
Place, 383) This passage states that if you believe in nothing, you are nothing, and in a way you have

noting to live for. You just wander around. In the story the darkness is the nothing and the nothing is
death. The clean well-light place was a place where people could go to escape the nothing, to believe
in something, and be something. (Chelsea House, 1843) AS the two waiters sit in the bar they discuss
why the man might have wanted to commit suicide. The young waiter can not understand the one
man's despair. He doesn't understand how he can have all that money, and yet want to kill himself.
(Mangum, Short Fiction, 1626) The Sun Also Rises is a very good piece of literature. It has a very
intreqit, well developed, easy to follow plot, and a very good portrayal of the four American themes.
Ernest Hemingway also has very developed, constant characters. Jake did change in the novel, but that
was a physical, believable change. Their attitudes are also very developed and intriqit with their
surrounds after the war. The Clean Well-Lighted Place is also a very good piece of literature. Although
in this short story, Hemingway sows his pessimistic side. He discusses even the riches people may be
happy, but if they don't believe in something then they are nothing, and the poorest people who believe
in something are the happiest. The darkness in this story is death and death is nothing, the light is life,
and happiness. The old deaf man was happy sitting in the caf drinking his brandies in the well-lighted
caf. The older waiter wasn't very happy sitting the dark bar talking to the bartender and drinking. Their
conversation describes the nothing that is surrounding them. They are all scared of the nothing, which
is death, but the old man. He was the one with the courage to stand up and be he. He believed in
himself, and believing in something is having something to believe in, not believing in nothing.
Therefore the old deaf man was the happiest out of all the characters. Even the! young waiter who had
his wife waiting for him at home. Being a woman, I don't necessarily agree with Hemingway's style of
disgracing the woman, and making all the men seem macho. But then again, if I were a guy, I'm sure I
would be agreeing with his style of writing. Among the sexist characteristics that Hemingway has he is
a very talented writer, and has written some very meaningful novels, that involves themes that still
stand true today. His content is varies from book to book. The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms
are during and post war activities. A Clean Well-Lighted Place having to do with death, and
nothingness. By doing this Hemingway doesn't get boring by writing about the same topic every time
he writes. Hemingway writes about all four themes. In The Sun Also Rises, all four themes come into
play with the characters. A Clean Well-Lighted Place mostly has the psychology of the individual
because of what the story pertains to.
Ernest Hemingway: The Importance of Middle-Class Masculinity
Ernest Hemingway is a legendary writer who was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was
the second of Clarence and Grace Hemingway's six children. He was raised in a strict Protestant
community that tried as hard as possible to be separate themselves from the big city of Chicago,
though they were very close geographically. While growing up, the young Hemingway spent lots of
his time hunting and fishing with his father, and learned about the ways of music with his mother. He
attended school in the Oak Park Public School system and in high school, Hemingway played sports
and wrote for the school newspaper.
Ernest Hemingway has received several awards for his work such as the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, the
Prize for Fiction for his novel The Old Man and the Sea, and The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954
for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for
the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style (The Life and Work of Ernest Hemingway in
Oak Park). He is acclaimed as being the most influential writer of our time, "the most important author
living today, the outstanding author since the death of Shakespeare" according to John O'Hara. Yet
recently, his works have come under heavy fire for their blatant use of homophobia, androgyny, and
misogyny. Rumors are spewed from critic to critic about his mysterious sexuality. Different sources

claim different interpretations of his simple, yet complex stories. While others claim that to believe
Hemingway purposefully used androgyny, misogyny, or homophobia is ludicrous, I believe the
opposite. Hemingway's homophobia, which was shaped by his early life experiences and American
society, is evident in many of his works such as "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot" and The Sun Also Rises.
There may be two main reasons as to Hemingway's strong homophobia. One such cause is the
American society at the time. Hemingway grew up in the mid-nineteenth century in which the
advancements in industrialization opened opportunities for a division of labor in the American work
place. As a result, more and more male workers found themselves able to earn a decent amount of
money from means other then manual labor. As Gail Bederman notes, "Between 1820 and 1860, as
increasing numbers of men had begun to earn comfortable livings as entrepreneurs, professionals, and
managers, the middle class had become increasingly conscious of itself as a class, with interests,
tastes, and lifestyles different from both the very rich and from those who performed manual labor"
(209). By the end of the nineteenth century, the middle class in America had an identity separate from
that of the upper and working classes.
Along with this identity came a Victorian ideology. They began giving their society "roles" for males
and females. Those that did not fit into those "roles" were considered "abnormal". In the words of
Byrne Fone: By the 1880s in both England and America, the Victorian medical theorists and social
commentators had participated with social and sexual activities of men and women, assigning to each
very different roles. The "true woman" was to be submissive socially and sexually, the manager of
domestic life, pious as well as morally "pure." Men were socially and sexually assertive, benign rulers
of the patriarchal family, and active providers of material goods. Victorian theorists argued that these
roles were dictated by nature and biology and that their qualities were "naturally" associated with the
biological female or male. (183) According to the Victorian standard that was being upheld by the
middle-class medical profession, the dominance of the male was not something designed by society,
but a sign of "civilization," a natural fact of evolution. American middle-class "civilization" depended
greatly on the division of the two sexes into different "spheres". These spheres epitomized their role in
society, home life, and the workplace. Without this division they believed they were no different than
the "savages" from whom they tried to individuate themselves from. Bederman states, "Savage (that is,
nonwhite) men and women were almost identical, but civilized races had evolved the pronounced
sexual differences celebrated in the middle-class's doctrine of separate spheres" (213).
As time went on females were becoming more and more commonplace in the workplace. The middleclass began losing jobs that were once defined as "masculine." Women were slowly raiding their
sphere. While they never had much love for the jobs of their male counterparts, the mere presence of
women was unsettling to the concept of middle-class masculinity. Males began to fear that they were
not as different from women as they once believed. To further the troubles, men were beginning to link
themselves with another group males that didn't differentiate itself from females: homosexuals.
Middle-class men were not disgusted with homosexuals for their sexual preference as they were for
their social appearance. Chauncey aptly illustrates the difference: "The determining criterion in
labeling a man as `straight' (their term) or `queer' was not the extent of his homosexual activity, but the
gender role he assumed. The only men who sharply differentiated themselves from other me, labeling
themselves as `queer,' were those who assumed the sexual and other cultural roles ascribed to women
("Brotherhood" 75-76)." At this time the middle-class man dreaded his connection with homosexual
males, especially since both groups were increasingly being identified with the "feminine" sphere.
"Middle-class men gravitated toward a harsh, often brutal pronouncement against homosexuality in
order to recuperate the loss of their masculinity through their identification with gay men: the radical
disavowal of homosexuality" (Donnell 10). The middle-class man then began to identify homosexual

men as "fairies". "Only by violently disavowing any relationship to `fairies', " Donnell sates, "were
middle-class males able to repossess a modicum of the masculinity they felt that they lost by being
identified with the "queer" male" (10).
Feeling that their identities were threatened from all sides by women, other classes of heterosexual
men, and by gay men, "turn-of-the-century middle-class men began to formulate elaborate defense
mechanism[s] to protect their fragile sense of masculinity" (Donnell 6). According to Bederman: [M]
iddle-class men, uncomfortably confused about the nature and sources of male power, began to cast
about for new ways to fortify their shaky constructions of manliness. They adopted a variety of
strategies . . . [like] growing crazes for bodybuilding and college football. . . . A new rhetoric about
maleness appeared. Contemporaries . . . began to speak approvingly about something they called
"masculinity." (211)
However, the middle-class male did not recover fully. While he recovered some of his lost masculinity,
he did so only at the expense of homosexuals. At this time World War I had initiated. It seemed to be
an "excellent forum for the middle-class male's revitalization of his masculine ideology" (Donnell 13).
However, it turned out to be something completely different. World War I gave the middle-class
American soldier with a masculine world vastly different from the one constructed in the United
States. Generally, Europeans were far more tolerant of alternative expressions of sexuality than were
Americans. According to Chauncey:
The war not only took many Americans from their small towns, it sent them to Europe, where they
were likely to encounter a cultural and political climate for homosexuals that was almost unimaginable
at home. By the time of World War I, there existed in Paris and Berlin a highly developed gay
commercial subculture that easily surpassed the scope of the gay world in New York. (New York 144)
So what does this struggle for the importance of middle-class masculinity have to do with
Hemingway? Growing up in Oak Park Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Hemingway was the epitome of
the middle-class male.
Hemingway's possession of the middle-class preoccupation with proving how masculine he was is
incredibly evident in his life as well as his art. Critics and scholars have found there are two
Hemingways emerging in his writing. One was the brilliant writer while the other was "Papa"
Hemingway. "Papa" signified Hemingway's more masculine public alias. Josh Silverstein notes:
Whether it was "Papa" hunting in Africa, or "Papa" in Spain watching the bullfights, or "Papa" at a
cafin Paris chatting with acquaintances over a bottle of cognac, this was the public image
Hemingway projected to others, rough and tough, a real "man's man." (1)
Denis Brian describes Hemingway's quick motions to violence whenever anyone challenged his
manhood: "Writer Max Eastman questioned Hemingway's manliness, not to his face but in print. Soon
after, the two met by chance in their editor's office where Hemingway first used Eastman as a duster to
clear the editor's desk, then wrestled him to the floor" (5). In another incident Hemingway used more
violence to prove his manliness. According to Brian, "Publisher Robert McAlmon called [Hemingway]
`a fairy' who had beaten his first wife, and deserted her to marry a lesbian. . . . Hemingway had
responded to McAlmon's slurs by punching him in the face and calling him a half-assed, fairy asslicking, fake husband" (Brian 194). This underscores his tireless efforts to prove his masculinity.
Just as it did for the middle-class American, World War I changed Hemingway's views of homosexuals
also. After serving in the Red Cross in Italy during World War I, Hemingway started to show signs of
an increasing tolerance of different types of sexuality. According to Warren Bennett, "Hemingway's
interest in variant sexual behavior as a subject that could be exploited in fiction was kindled . . . in
1920 when Hemingway began reading Havelock Ellis's Erotic Symbolism" (226). Notice that
Hemingway's interest in Ellis and alternate sexualities began only after his visit to Europe during

World War I.
Hemingway was a part of the middle-class lust for masculinity just as much as any other middle-class
male in his personal and public life. Donnell states: The author's many physical attacks upon friends
who question his masculinity; the threats leveled at innocent passerby whom Hemingway perceived as
"fairies"; his practically manic desire to hunt and kill as many animals as possible; his incessant need
to experiment sexually-all of these indicate a symptomatology of angst that Hemingway shared with
his fellow middle-class men. (13) This was Hemingway's public life. These were the strange
mannerisms that he developed from the American society. However, the American society was only
half of the cause. His troubling early life experiences didn't help matters. As Debra A. Moddelmog
notes:
Among the disclosures that have drawn the greatest scrutiny are Grace Hemingway's Treating her son
as the female twin of his older sister and dressing him in girls' clothes, apparently for longer than was
conventional for the time; Hemingway's attraction, both sexual and non-sexual, for lesbians; his
fascination with the mage trios; and his engagement in role playing in bed, the man becoming the
woman to the woman's man. (187) Hemingway was tainted, and his public antics showed its effects.
However, to get the broad spectrum of his childhood and the society's effects you must look at his
works. There you see how his unique sexuality comes into play.
The novel we shall consider is The Sun Also Rises. In this novel Hemingway deals with impotence,
androgyny, and homosexuals. The story speaks on a man named Jake how epitomizes the "Lost
Generation" in the words of Gertrude Stein. Jake has come back from the war completely different. He
is less of a man, with an injury that has left him impotent, much like Hemingway's injury in France in
1944 that left him experiencing bouts of impotence. Jake is in love with a woman named Brett, whom
he cannot have. Brett (whose name even resembles that of a male) is very "mannish", lacking the
curves of a woman and has with the dominance of a male. Jake, who is threatened by the homosexuals
that dance with Brett outside of a club because, though they are gay, have more "manhood" than Jake,
lacks manhood or masculinity, and has the characteristics of a female. Perhaps Hemingway was
exhibiting his interest of androgyny as Jake and Brett, both lacking something from their respective
sex but possessing something from the other, struggle for love.
A story from In Our Time called "Mr. And Mrs. Elliot" deals greatly with homosexuality. In the story,
the protagonist, Hubert Elliot, is a self-styled puritan. Hubert was a twenty-five year old virgin until he
married Mrs. Elliot. As Donnell states:
. . . Hubert learns about ostensibly heterosexual practices (male-female kissing) solely from the lips of
another man - even if it is only in form of a story (162). Thus, the knowledge of a heterosexual
practice can only be passed through a male-male interaction - and example of heterosexuality being
transmitted through a homosexual dynamic.
Hubert's wife, Cornelia, fifteen years older than he, similarly shows a sexual problem. The narrator
states, they both try "very hard to have a baby . . . as often as Mr. Elliot can stand it" (161). Cornelia
has an intense dislike for sex (with males at least) and it is apparent through her "falling asleep" on her
wedding night.
Cornelia shows other sexual problems through the fact that she owns a business. This is an obvious
intrusion of the female into the male "sphere". She also has a "girl friend" (162). Although many
women have friends who are "girls", Cornelia's friend is more than simply a friend. Soon after they get
married, Cornelia makes Hubert send for her "girl friend"; soon after that the two women sleep in the
same bed and have "many a good cry together" (164). "Crying", as the narrator puts it, does not have
to do with emotional or physical pain but with sexual pleasure. The fact that they have "many a good
cry" shows that Cornelia's girl friend is better at pleasing her then Hubert is. To top it all Hubert's

acceptance of the situation not only shows his wife's lesbianism, but his own homosexuality.
Hemingway described Hubert as an experienced virgin to make him out to be the middle-class' typical
homosexual. By giving Cornelia a "girl friend" and making her intrude into the male "sphere",
Hemingway created the ideal middle-class representation of a lesbian.
Hemingway may have been a homosexual in denial. His determination to keep up his manhood's
"good name" may have been a decoy to hide his true homosexuality. As a Rolling Stone article notes,
his son was in fact gay. Perhaps he got it genetically from his father, Ernest Hemingway. Many things
were repeated in that family. Hemingway, the depressed drunk, committed suicide just like his father.
However, they were different reasons. After Hemingway's depression he was sent to the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota. There he received electroshock therapy that impaired his memory and
stripped from him the concentration to write. Hemingway also lost the ability to do other things he so
loved like fish and hunt. So perhaps he killed himself because Ernest Hemingway could no longer "be"
Ernest Hemingway.
Hills Like White Elephants - Jig's Choice of Progress
In writing "Hills like White Elephants" Ernest Hemingway expresses that having a child is better seen
as a progressive life change rather than an obstruction. This short story begins with a man and girl
bickering and having drinks at a train junction between Barcelona and Madrid. The tone becomes
serious as the two discuss the future of their unborn child. Hemingway skillfully uses the elements of
fiction to create a subtle statement concerning life and the decisions it sometimes forces us to make.
The girl, Jig, first demonstrates her tiring of the couple's lifestyle with her comment: "That's all we do
isn't it-look at things and try new drinks?" (463) Hemingway shows the reader that she is ready for the
next step in life, now that it has been presented to her. On one side of the setting, lies the sun baked,
barren hills. Jig contemplates their future and observes "the other side" (465) where the country is
fertile and there are "fields of grain and trees" (465). In the images of water and drought, or more
simply, of life and death, the author emphasizes Jig's choices. One choice is to abort the baby and
wonder about the future of her relationship to the. The other choice is to make the jump into the river
of life, which seems, to Jig, to have some promise. This promise is demonstrated in her suggesting to
the man: "We could get along." (465)
Later Jig steps away from the shade of the building and of her mate and she initiates a change in tone.
Jig tells the man that "It isn't ours anymore," referring to their lifestyles and the world they have been
living in. With Jig's smile to her mate and to the serving woman, Hemingway eases the tension created
by the conflict. By this time Jig seems to have come to a conclusion. Finally, the man asks, "Do you
feel better?" and she replies, "There's nothing wrong with me, I feel fine" (466). Jig has decided that
being pregnant is a life change to be cherished and built upon.
Jig's outlook changes as the story progresses. In this short time, her dependency on the man
diminishes. Jig's private thoughts are illuminated by Hemingway's clever manipulation setting,
character and conflict. Through Jig, Hemingway concludes that life has choices that should be made in
order to develop one's self.
Old Man and The Sea
In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the literary device of metaphors.
Hemingway uses the metaphor of the ocean to symbolize life and to depict the role that individuals
play in life. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lions to signify people who live their lives as active
participants. The tourists in the novel represent the individuals, who in observe their lives and are not
active participants. In the novels that Ernest Hemingway writes, he uses metaphors to reflect his life

experiences and opinions. The ocean in The Old Man and the Sea is a metaphor, which represents
Hemingway's personel view of life. Hemingway believes that in life everyone must find their own
niche and uses the metaphor of the ocean and the boats on it to demonstrate this.
...most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars. They spread apart after they were out of
the mouth of the harbour and each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish.
The old man knew he was going far out...1(page 22) Hemingway feels that in life there are people who
participate in life and people who observe life as it passes just like on the ocean where there are boats
that do not test their boundaries. The boats are the people in life, and most of the boats are silent. They
paddle within the areas they know to be safe and always are cautious not to upset the life that they
have established for themselves. Hemingway is explaining that most people don't raise a commotion,
they just allow life to happen to them. The old man is testing his limits, he is challenging the ocean,
and rowing where he wants to go, not where the ocean wants to take him. Hemingway believes that in
life, the farther a person stays from the observers, the more free and exhilarated they will be.
If there is a hurricane, you always see the signs of it in the sky for days ahead, if you are at sea. They
do not see it ashore because they do not know what to look for, he thought. The land must make a
difference too, in the shape of the clouds. But we have no hurricane coming now.2(page 51)
Hemingway theorizes that in life there are going to be unexpected collisions. Just as the sea creates
storms life creates storms. Those who live life to the fullest will be the least affected by these storms
because they have the strength and the knowledge to handle them, but the observers or those on land
will be destroyed because they do not have the power to handle the destruction that the storms will
cause. The individuals who are far out to sea have the knowledge that the ocean will test them with
momentous storms, and this is why they go so far out to sea. The people who Hemingway thinks face
life head- on are represented by lions in the novel.
Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lion to depict the participants in life.
When Santiago is a child he visits Africa, and tells Manolin of the lions he sees. "When I was your age
I was before the mast on a square-rigged ship and that ship ran to Africa and I have seen lions on the
beaches in the evening."3(page 17) Hemingway uses the lions on the beach as a metaphor, because
most lions would never be found on a beach.
The only lions that would ever be found on a beach are the lions who are equivalent to the humans
who are participants. The lions on the beach are going where most lions would never dare go. These
lions are testing their boundaries, seeing just how far they can go, just like participants. This line also
hints at Hemingway's belief that age impairs, but does not extinguish one's ability to be participants in
their own lives.
Santiago realizes that all of his glories were in his youth, and strongly relates the power that the lions
in his dreams have to his youth.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights,
nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach.
The played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about
the boy.4(page 19) Santiago is slowly losing his ability to be an effective participant in his life because
of the limitations that are associated with aging. Hemingway also experiences inabilities that he has
never known and which brings him into a depression. Santiago is beginning to believe that he is not a
participant in his life so he doesn't depress himself by dreaming of anything other than the lions, who
are participants. In his dreams, Santiago is living vicariously through the lions. The lions represent all
that Hemingway ever was, and what he wishes he still could be. The tourists in the novel are
metaphors for what Hemingway isn't.
The tourists are metaphors for the people Hemingway believes live their lives as passive observers.

The tourists appear only briefly but the statement that Hemingway makes through them is profound.
That afternoon there was a party of tourist at the Terrace and looking down in the water among the
empty beer cans and dead barracudas a woman saw a great long white spine with a huge tail at the end
that lifted and swung with the tide while the east wind blew a heavy steady sea outside the entrance to
the harbor. 'What's that?' she asked a waiter and pointed to the long backbone of the great fish that was
just now garbage waiting to go out with the tide. 'Tiburon,' the waiter said, 'Eshark.' He was meaning
to explain what dare grapple happened. 'I didn't know sharks had such handsome tails.' 'I didn't either,'
her male companion said.5(page 109) These two tourists who speak are hardly differentiated from the
group to which they belong. They are all metaphors for individuals who are spectators of the human
scene rather than participants in its activity. They see, but they see without fully comprehending. They
are only faintly curious, only passingly interested, only superficially observing, they have not been
initiated into the mysteries that Santiago understands. These tourists live their lives as tourists,
skimming the surface of life, without resolution or clarity. Their life reflects that of all people who live
their lives ashore, who dare not grapple with the mysteries of the ocean, or of life. This is the type of
life that Hemingway always tried to avoid, to the point of his taking his own life. Hemingway uses
metaphors to reflect his opinions of life and the people that he has met in life. The metaphor of the sea
symbolizes all of life and the roles that people must choose to have in life. The lions are a metaphor
for the people Hemingway respects and the type of person Hemingway is. The tourists are a metaphor
for the individuals who choose to live their life as onlookers but never participants. Through
Hemingway's use of penetrating metaphors in his novels, readers gain an understanding of
Hemingway's life and or their own. Through his novels Hemingway challenges every member of
society to admit that most people are observers and through his novels dares them to head out to sea
and catch their marlin.
Bibliography Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. Triad Grafton. London. 1976 *All
subsequent entries are from this source* Endnotes 1Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea.
Triad Grafton. London. 1976
Soldier's Home
Critical Analysis of "Soldier's Home": Before, During, and After the War (with bibliography)
Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingway's stories are ironic, and can be read on a number of levels;
Soldier's Home is no exception. Our first impression, having read the title only, is that this story will
be about a old soldier living out the remainder of his life in an institution where veterans go to die. We
soon find out that the story has nothing to do with the elderly, or institutions; rather, it tells the story of
a young man, Harold Krebs, only recently returned from World War I, who has moved back into his
parents' house while he figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.
And yet our first impression lingers, and with good reason; despite the fact that his parents'
comfortable, middle-class lifestyle used to feel like home to Harold Krebs, it no longer does. Harold is
not home; he has no home at all. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people
(such as college students) returning into the womb of their childhood again. But with Harold, the
situation is more dramatic because he has not only lived on his own, but has dealt with -- and been
traumatized by -- life-and-death situations his parents could not possibly understand.
Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last person in his home town to return home from the
war; according to the Kansas City Star, Hemingway himself "left Kansas City in the spring of 1918
and did not return for 10 years, [becoming] 'the first of 132 former Star employees to be wounded in
World War I,' according to a Star article at the time of his death" (Kansas City Star, hem6.htm).
Wherever he was in the intervening time, by the time Harold gets home, the novelty of the returning

soldier has long since worn off. All the other former soldiers have found a niche for themselves in the
community, but Harold needs a while longer to get his bearings; he plays pool, "practiced on his
clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed" (Hemingway, 146). What he is doing, of course, is
killing time.
The problem, of course, has to do with Harold's definition of who he has become. He recognizes he
has changed, and this change is played out dramatically against the backdrop of a town where nothing
else has changed since he was in high school. His father parks his car in the same place; it's still the
same car; the girls walking down the street look like the same girls, except more of them have short
hair now. Imamura comments, "Krebs admires them, yet he protects himself from the danger of sexual
involvement as if he were still suffering from a previous affair" (Imamura, 102). And Daniel Slaughter
observes that "One gets the sense while reading 'A Soldier's Home' that watching the girls was a
healing process" (Slaughter, hemingway_1.html).
What has happened here, really? Why is Krebs unable to adjust to life back in Oklahoma? Why can't
he talk to girls, or manage to do anything productive with his time? These answers can be found in a
careful examination of what Krebs was doing before the war and what happened while he was in
Europe.
Prior to the war, Hemingway tells us in the very first paragraph, Krebs attended a Methodist school in
Kansas. He was not out of place then; Hemingway says "There is a picture which shows him among
his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar" (Hemingway,
145). There is a tremendous poignancy in this detail; at least one of these young men, so concerned
about his appearance, would soon be shipped overseas to the most horrific war the world had ever
known. The fact that his college was a religious institution is also significant, for it shows that he was,
at that time, in synch with his mother's religious values.
At least, he did not have any reason to doubt them, or not enough strength to resist them (or her).
Hemingway tells us before the first paragraph is over that Krebs "enlisted in the Marines in 1917"
(Hemingway, 145). The Marines are an elite fighting force who today advertise they are looking for "a
few good men" -- indicating that if the prospective soldier is not out of the ordinary, he need not apply.
However, was Krebs a good Marine? J.F. Kobler observes that there is at least some indication in
"Soldier's Home" "that Krebs did not fight bravely in the war. . . . Krebs admits to himself that he has
lied in public about his military experiences, but he cannot stop lying to himself about the real extent
and the psychological effect of his lying" (Kobler, 377).
We know for sure that he was "badly, sickeningly frightened all the time" (Hemingway, 146).
Certainly his war experiences were not glamorous, and he brings home quite a collection of battlescarred baggage, not the least of which is his guilt over having to live a lie. Krebs even connects the
politics of courting with "lying", which he has already told us makes him feel "nauseated". As Lamb
points out, "The shadow that renders Krebs incapable of action and that lies at the crux of the story is
stated in three sentences that follow immediately after his first statement that young women are not
worth it: 'He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted
to live along without consequences.'
His desire to avoid consequences is his single overriding motivation. He fondly recalls the French and
German women because relationships with them were uncomplicated and without consequence; there
was no need even to talk. He wants the hometown women but does not act on these desires because
they are too complicated and not worth the consequences. He is attracted to his little sister because he
can shrug off her demands and she will still love him. But his mother repels him because her demands
are complex and unavoidable" (Lamb, 18). But it is not until his mother confronts him over breakfast
about his future that he realizes that he cannot continue to live at home any more.

Robert Paul Lamb observes that before Harold's mother begins her lecture, she takes off her glasses;
"this gesture seems to imply that she either can not, or does not want to 'see' him" (Lamb, 18). His
mother, in other words, does not want to be distracted by Harold's point of view while she is
expounding on hers. This somewhat echoes his earlier observation that "Later he felt the need to talk
but no one wanted to hear about it" (Hemingway, 145).
Essentially, no one wants to recognize Harold's unique identity. His mother pressures him to get a job
by arguing that "There are no idle hands in [God's] Kingdom," to which Harold significantly observes,
"I'm not in His Kingdom" (Hemingway, 151). And he's not. The world he discovered during World
War I had no hand of God in it.
His mother then observes that all the other boys "just your age" are settling down and becoming
"really a credit to the community". This hearkens back to the first paragraph of the story, in which
Harold observes a picture of himself with his fraternity brothers, all sporting identical haircuts and
collars.
Harold is no longer like everybody else; he's not sure who he is, but he's sure of that. Finally, his
mother asks whether he loves her. He replies quite truthfully that he does not. We know that this is
because his entire worldview has been turned upside down by his traumatic experiences in the war,
and the ability to genuinely love requires an emotional balance he does not have right now. But his
mother does not understand this, because she cannot identify with his experiences; as Tateo Imamura
observes, "Krebs' small-town mother cannot comprehend her son's struggles and sufferings caused by
the war. She devotes herself to her religion and never questions her own values" (Imamura, 102). So
he lies to please her, and kneels down as she prays to please her -- and then he knows he has to go
away. Harold lies out of an inability to force a painful issue and take a stand. He may feel that he
acquiesces out of compassion, but in fact he is not secure enough in his own self to risk a
confrontation that could be painful or guilt-inducing.
Harold veers onto the edge of self-revelation with his straight-forward answers about the Kingdom of
God and his lack of ability to love, but when his mother begins to cry he waffles; she will never see
that he isn't the boy he was in high school -- or perhaps, the boy she thought he was.
Into The Wild
In Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Chris McCandless is portrayed as a reckless and foolish person who
perishes out of arrogance, stupidity and self-centeredness. He knows what he would encounter out in
the wild, but he doesn't prepare for it and it costs him his life.
Chris McCandless is an adventurous and reckless person. Chris loves the outdoors. After graduating
from college, Chris buys himself a car and travels west in search of a new life. "...he intended to invent
an utterly new life, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience." (pg. 22-23)
During the time Chris is out west, he makes some reckless decisions such as when he is traveling alone
in the desert and he almost dies of dehydration. Chris also almost dies when he paddles his canoe
through gale force winds and whitecaps and he breaks his oar because he beats the canoe with it
(luckily he has a spare). "He screams and beats canoe with oar. The oar breaks. Alex has one spare oar.
He calms himself. If loses second oar is dead."(pg. 36) Chris could have been killed not only by
capsizing, but also by breaking his oar. Chris' recklessness in Alaska is one of the contributing factors
of his death. He knows what the conditions of his escapade are but he doesn't prepare for it. "Alex
admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly
minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior, which in April still lay buried under the winter snow
pack. Alex's cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .
22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou,

which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no ax, no bug dope,
no snowshoes, and no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road
map he'd scrounged at a gas station." (pg. 5)
Chris McCandless' arrogance is another contributing factor of his death. Chris shows his arrogance to
anyone who tries to offer advice and/or supplies to him. "Gallien offered to drive Alex all the way to
Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go." "No,
thanks anyway, I'll be fine with what I've got." (pg.6) Ronald Franz tries to "Convince him to get an
education and a job and make something of his life." (pg. 51) Chris doesn't want any advice on how to
make his life better and replies, "Look Mr. Franz. You don't need to worry about me. I have a college
education. I'm not destitute. I'm living like this by choice." (pg. 51) Chris' arrogance also shows to
Wayne Westerberg. Wayne offers to buy Chris a plane ticket to Fairbanks so Chris can stay and work
for another 10 days. Chris rejects the offer, saying, "No, I want to hitch north. Flying would be
cheating. It would wreck the whole trip." (pg. 67) Because of Chris' arrogance he walked into the wild
ill-supported and he paid the ultimate price.
Chris' self-centeredness is his hubris or fatal flaw. He keeps all the people he meets at arms length.
Chris is able to make many friends during his escapade. Wayne Westerberg gives Chris a job and
lodgings, Jan and Bob Burres give Chris a place to stay, as does Ronald Franz. Chris had a bad
relationship with his family except for his sister Carine. "Since they won't ever take me seriously, for a
few months after graduation I'm going to let them think they are right, I'm going to let them think the
I'm "coming around to see their side of things" and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once
the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I'm going to completely knock them out of my life. I'm
going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as
long as I live. I'll be through with them once and for all, forever." (pg. 64) Chris disliked his parents so
much that when he goes away for the last time, he tells no one where he is going. Chris cares only
about himself, not about the feelings of others. Chris' self-centeredness is another contributing factor
to his death.
Three things contributed to Chris' death, his arrogance, recklessness and self-centeredness. His hatred
and non-caring of his parents and family, the way he put down advice and supplies from others who
try to help him and the way he goes into the wild unprepared are part of his hubris. Hubris will
eventually lead to a tragic downfall. Just as in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Brutus and the
other conspirators, along with Julius Caesar, himself, have their tragic downfalls; Chris succumbs to
the same end.
George Orwell - 1984
There is a reoccurring theme in the novel 1984, by George Orwell. The main character, Winston Smith
is often fantasizing about his utopia, and dreaming about past events. In a world where everyone is
controlled and everything is decided for you, Winston relies on his subconscious mind to maintain his
sanity.
Winston works rewriting the past in a department for the Party. His memories of the past are usually
the opposite of the Party's version of the past. Winston is very confused about whether or not he is
losing his mind. His dreams reveal the reality of the Party and the truth of the past, enabling him to
trust his own instinct of what is right and wrong, keeping it clear in his mind what the past was really
like. In one dream Winston envisioned his mother and his baby sister sinking into a well or lowering
off the side of a ship - he wasn't quite sure. He felt as if they were being sucked towards death. He
knew they were sacrificing their lives for his own. Winston realizes "...that his mothers death, nearly
30 years ago, had been tragic and sorrowful in a way that was no longer possible" (Orwell 28). He

believed that the feelings of tragedy, privacy, love, and friendship were things of past times. The
memory of his mother's death saddened him because he knew that she had died loving him, all the
while he was too young and selfish to love her back. The loyalty his mother had for him does not exist
in 1984. There is only fear and hatred and pain.
Winston had another dream of the disappearance of his mother. He remembered a time of chaos and
depression when he was about 10 or 12 years old. His father had disappeared sometime earlier. Food
was scarce but his mother did what she could to comfort her children. Winston was always hungry, and
that drove him to steal bits of food from his sister's plate. "He knew he was starving the other two, but
he couldn't help it; he even felt he had a right to do it" (134). A chocolate ration had been issued and
the family had a two ounce piece for the three of them. Winston, of course, demanded the whole piece.
His mother responded by telling him not to be greedy. She gave him the majority of the piece and the
rest to his little sister, but he stole it from her. She started to cry while Winston ran away with the
chocolate. His mother held his baby sister in her arms, trying to console her. It did not produce more
chocolate, but it was only natural for her to do it. His mother was an unusual woman, yet intelligent,
noble and pure, "her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from the outside" (136). He
realized that in those times if you loved someone, you loved them from the bottom of your heart, no
matter what. If you had nothing else to give, you gave love. Contrasting this with today, Winston
recognized that the Party persuades you to think that impulses and feelings are unimportant, ultimately
robbing you of your power. Whatever happens really makes no difference, in the end you are vanished.
What mattered then were individual relationships, nowadays people had become hard on the inside.
Emotions are the only weapon against the Party, they cannot stop you from loving someone, because it
isn't something you can control. After he had eaten the chocolate he felt ashamed, but that lifted when
hunger stroke again. His mother had disappeared by the time he had returned.
While Winston was sitting in his cell at the ministry of love, a memory floated into his mind. He
remembered playing a board game with his mother, while his sister watched. She had gone out to buy
the game of Snakes & Ladders because Winston had been whining of boredom. It was a cracked
board, and poorly made. Winston was very disappointed with it, but he became intrigued when his
mother started to play. "For a whole afternoon they had been happy together, as in his earlier
childhood". "His affection for her had temporarily revived"(243). Winston suddenly pushed this
thought out of his mind as if it were a false memory. At this stage of Winston's life he no longer
believed that this was the reality of the past, he thought it was a false memory. He could no longer
distinguish between fact and fiction; he now believed the only love that existed was that for Big
Brother. He did not want to admit that his memories of the past were the truth. This is the turning point
for him, where he no longer uses his memories to guide him.
In the same respect as his dreams, Winston fantasizes to keep his hopes up. He has fantasies about his
utopia the Golden Country. The Golden Country was an old pasture with a path, and a molehole here
and there. There were elm trees that swayed faintly in the breeze. Somewhere that couldn't be seen was
a stream with willow tress. Winston dreamt of the golden country so often that he wasn't sure if he had
seen it in real life. He had pictured Julia (at that time she was "the girl with dark hair", before they had
met) coming toward him in the field. She had thrown her clothes aside with a graceful, careless
gesture. This impressed him. Not her nudity, but the way she did it. It was as though Big Brother, the
Party and the Thought Police had been swept aside; you could do what you wanted a notion of ancient
times. It was this possibility that gave Winston something to look forward to.
When Winston and Julia met on their first getaway she took him to the countryside outside of London.
It looked very similar to what he had seen before with a footpath, pasture and elm trees that swayed in
the wind. Winston asked Julia if there was a stream nearby and she confirmed that there was. "It's the

Golden Country - almost", Winston had told her (103). Julia and Winston acted out their desires, like
in his fantasy. Julia was exactly what Winston had wanted. She wasn't pure or perfectly good. He
wanted her love, but also he wanted "the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: the force
that would tear the Party to pieces". This newfound love for Winston was like a blessing. It was his
weapon against the party, in this lifetime that was definitely something to be grateful for.
Furthermore, Winston had bought a glass paperweight from Mr. Charrington's Antique shop. He found
the inside very intriguing. It had a depth to it, even though it was transparent. He thought of the
outside arch as the sky and the inside as a complete little world. He imagined he was inside, along with
Julia and their apartment. The symbolism of this paperweight indicates that Winston feels protected
from reality of the real world, the Party. The outside glass is his protection. The inside contains his
Golden Country and perfect relationship with Julia, transparent and free of flaws. They have a stronger
emotional bond than the average relationship of those days. This is his escape from the harsh reality.
The dreams and fantasies that Winston has allow him to remain in a positive state of mind; it is
because of this that the Party does not overpower him. Winston and Julia had a conversation about the
lies of the Party. Julia learnt at school that the Party had invented airplanes. Winston argued that
airplanes had been invented long before the days of the Party. Julia, also did not remember that 4 years
prior, Oceania had been at war with Eastasia. She thought they had always been at war with Eurasia.
The fact that Julia did not remember these things "frightened him a little" (127). Julia is clearly not the
only person who doesn't know this factual knowledge evident to Winston. Winston's memory is what
sets him apart from others. The Party has failed in making him believe their lies. He has won, so far,
by remembering the truth and trying to remind others.
Winston and Julia visit O'Brien at his home. They told him that they believed that there was a "...secret
organization working against the Party" and they wanted to join (140). Without hesitation Winston
agrees to: give his life, commit murder, commit acts of sabotage, betray his country, and even throw
sulfuric acid in a child's face. Neither Winston nor Julia agreed to be separated from one another.
Winston is definitely devoted to oppose the Party, and it is evident that he would do whatever it takes.
Although, from his dreams he has realized that his love for Julia is his firearm against the Party and he
finds strength and support in her.
When Winston began to regain his health in the ministry of love he began to dream a great deal. They
were all surpassingly happy dreams. He would dream himself into the Golden Country with his
mother, Julia and even O'Brien. "Such thoughts as he had when he was awake were mostly about his
dreams" (227). Previously he had told O'Brien that he believed that even if he gave up, the spirit of
mankind could overthrow the Party. He had almost completely given into the Party but he had not
betrayed Julia. Winston did not want to give up the possibility that the Party could be destroyed.
Finally, at the end of the story Winston gave into the Party, but willingly. He had made a good effort to
remain an individual but he decided it just wasn't worth the struggle any longer. Winston knows the
truth deep down. We should learn from his example to trust our gut feelings and believe in ourselves.
Winston didn't let anyone change him and neither should we. It is important to find strength in yourself
and in the relationships you have with others.
The Literary Activity of George Orwell
The British author George Orwell, pen name for Eric Blair, achieved prominence in the late 1940's as
the author of two brilliant satires. He wrote documentaries, essays, and criticism during the 1930's and
later established himself as one of the most important and influential voices of the century. Eric Arthur
Blair (later George Orwell) was born in 1903 in the Indian Village Motihari, which lies near to the
border of Nepal. At that time India was a part of the British Empire, and Blair's father Richard, held a

post as an agent in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service. Blair's paternal grandfather, too,
had been part of the British Raj, and had served in the Indian Army. Eric's mother, Ida Mabel Blair, the
daughter of a French tradesman, was about eighteen years younger than her husband Richard Blair
was. Eric had an elder sister called Marjorie. The Blairs led a relatively privileged and fairly pleasant
existence, in helping to administer the Empire. Although the Blair family was not very wealthy, Orwell
later described them ironically as "lower-upper-middle class (Gross, p.109)." They owned no property
and had no extensive investments; they were like many middle-class English families of the time,
totally dependent on the British Empire for their livelihoo! d and prospects. Even though the father
continued to work in India until he retired in 1912, in 1907, the family returned to England and lived at
Henley. With some difficulty, Blair's parents sent their son to a private preparatory school in Sussex at
the age of eight. At the age of thirteen, he won a scholarship to Wellington, and soon after another to
Eaton, the famous public school (Gross, p.112). His parents had forced him to work at a dreary
preparatory school, and now after winning the scholarship, he was not any more interested in further
mental exertion unrelated to his private ambition. 'At the beginning of Why/Write, he explains that
from the age of five or six he knew he would be, 'must be,' a writer (Gross, p.115).' But to become a
writer one had to read literature. But English literature was not a major subject at Eaton, where most
boys came from backgrounds either irremediably unliterary or so literary that to teach them English
Literature would be absurd. One of Eric's tutors later declared that his famous pupil had done
absolutely no work for five years. This was, of course, untrue: Eric has apprenticed himself to the
masters of English prose who most appealed to him, including Swift, Sterne and Jack London (Gross,
p.117). However, he has finished the final examinations at Eaton as 138th of 167. He neglected to win
a university scholarship, and in 1922, Eric Blair joined the Indian Imperial Police (Gross, p.118). In
doing so he was already breaking away from the path most of his schoolfellows would take, for Eaton
often led to either Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, he was drawn to a life of travel and action. He
trained in Burma and served for five years in the police force there. 'In 1927,while home on leave, he
resigned. There are at least two reasons for this. First, his life as a policeman was a distraction from the
life he really wanted, which was to be a writer. And second, he had come to feel that, as a policeman in
Burma, he was supporting a political system in which he could no longer believe (Stringer, p.412).'
Even as early as this, his notions about writing and his political ideas were closely linked. It was not
simply that he wished to break away from British Imperialism in India: ! he wished to ' 'escape from ...
every form of man's dominion over man,' as he said in Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and the social
structure out of which he came dependent (Stringer, 413).' Back in London he settled down in a gritty
bedroom in Portobello Road. There, at the age of twenty-four, he started to teach himself how to write.
His neighbors were impressed by his determination. Week after week he remained in his unheated
bedroom, thawing his hands over a candle when they became too numb to write. In spring of 1928 he
turned his back on his own inherited values, by taking a drastic step. For more than one year he went
on living among the poor, first in London then in Paris. For him, the poor were victims of injustice,
playing the same part as the Burmese played in their country. One reason for going to live among the
poor was to over come a repulsion which he saw as typical for his own class. At Paris he lived and
worked in a working class quarter. At the time, he tells us, Paris was full of artists and would-be artists.
There Orwell led a life that was far from bohemian. When he eventually got a job, he worked as a
dishwasher. Once again his journey was d! ownward into the life to which he felt he should expose
himself, the life of poverty-stricken, or of those who barely scraped up a living (Stringer, p.415). When
he came back to London, he again lived for a couple of months among the tramps and poor people. In
December 1929, Eric spent Christmas with his family. At his visit he announced that he's going to
write a book about his time in Paris. The original version of Down and Out, entitled 'A Scullion's

Diary,' was completed in October 1930 and came to only 35,000 words for Orwell had used only a part
of his material. After two rejections from publishers Orwell wrote Burmese Days, published in 1934, a
book based on his experiences in the colonial service. We owe the rescue of Down and Out to Mabel
Firez: she was asked to destroy the script, but save the paper clips. Instead, she took the manuscript
and brought it to Leonard Monroe, literary agent at the house Gollancz, and bullied him to read it.
Soon it was accepted - on condition that all curses were deleted and certain names changed. 'Having
completed this last revision Eric wrote to Victor Gollancz: 'I would prefer the book to! be published
pseudonymously. I have no reputation that is lost by doing this and if the book has any kind of success
I can always use this pseudonym again' (Stringer, p.419).' But Orwell's reasons for taking the name
Orwell are much more complicated than those writers usually have when adopting a pen name. In
effect it meant that Eric Blair would somehow have to shed his old identity and take on a new. This is
exactly what he tried to do: 'he tried to change himself from Eric Blair, old Etonian an English colonial
policeman, into George Orwell, classless antiauthoritarian (Gross, p.131).' Down and Out in Paris and
London, was not a novel; 'it was a kind of documentary account of life about which not many of those
who would read the book at the time would know very much about, and this was the point of it: he
wished to bring the English middle class, of which he was a member, to an understanding of what life
they led and enjoyed, was founded upon, the life under their very noses (Gross, p.144).' Here we see
two typical aspects of Orwell as a writer: his idea of himself as the exposure of painful truth, which
people for various reasons do not wish to look at; and his idea of himself as a representative of the
English moral conscience (Gross, p.148).
His next book was A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) and Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1936). He opened
a village shop in Wellington, Hertfordshire, in 1936, where he did business in the mornings, and wrote
in the afternoons. The same year he married Eileen O 'Shaughnessy. In that year he also received a
commission from the Left Book Club to examine the conditions of the poor and unemployed. This
resulted in The Road to Wilgan Pier. He went on living among the poor about whom he was to write
his book. Once again it was a journey away from the comparative comfort of the middle class life. His
account of mining communities in the north of England in this book is full of detail, and conveys to
the reader what it is like to go down a mine. When the Left Book Club read what he had written about
the English class system and English socialism in The Road to Wigan Pier they were not pleased, and
when the book was published it contained a preface by Victor Gollancz taking issue with many of !
Orwell's main points. The Left Book Club wasn't pleased because in the second half of the book
Orwell criticized the English socialism, because in his eyes it was mostly unrealistic. Another fact
criticized by Orwell was that most of the socialists tended to be members of the Middle class (Stringer,
p.438). 'The kind of socialist Orwell makes fun of is the sort who spouts phrases like 'proletarian
solidarity', and who puts of decent people, the people for whom Orwell wants to write (Stringer,
p.439).' Having completed The Road to Wigan Pier he went to Spain at the end of 1936, with the idea
of writing newspaper articles on the Civil War which had broken out there. The conflict in Spain was
between the communist, socialist Republic, and General Franco's Fascist military rebellion. When
Orwell arrived at Barcelona he was astonished at the atmosphere he found there: what had seemed
impossible in England seemed a fact of daily life in Spain. Class distinction seemed to have vanished.
There was a shortage of everything, but there was equality. Orwell joined in the struggle, by enlisting
in the militia of POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacin de Marxista), with which the British Labor
Party had an association. For the first time in his life socialism seemed a reality, something for which
was worth fighting for. He was wounded in the throat. Three and a half months later when he returned
to Barcelona, he found it a changed city. No longer a place where the socialist word comrade was!
really felt to mean something, it was a city returning to "normal." Even worse, he was to find that his

group that he was with, the POUM, was now accused of being a Fascist militia, secretly helping
Franco. Orwell had to sleep in the open to avoid showing his papers, and eventually managed to
escape into France with his wife. His account of his time in Spain was published in Homage to
Catalonia (1938). His experiences in Spain left two impressions on Orwell's mind. First, they showed
him that socialism in action was a human possibility, if only a temporary one. He never forgot the
exhilaration of those first days in Barcelona, when a new society seemed possible, where
"comradeship" instead of being just a socialist was reality. Second, the experience of the city returning
to normal, he saw as a gloomy confirmation of the fact that there will always be different classes. He
saw that there is something in the human nature that seeks violence, conflict, and power over others. !
It will be clear that these two impressions, of hope on one hand, and despair on the other are entirely
contradiction. Nevertheless, despite the despair and confusion of his return to Barcelona, street fights
between different groups of socialists broke out again, Orwell left Spain with a hopeful impression
(Stringer, p.441-446). In 1938, Orwell became ill with tuberculosis, and spent the winter in Morocco.
While there he wrote his next book, a novel entitled Coming up for Air published in 1939, the year the
long threatened war between England and Germany broke out. Orwell wanted to fight, as he has done
in Spain, against the fascist enemy, but he was declared unfit. In 1941, he joined the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as talks producer in the Indian section of the eastern service. He
served in the Home Guard, a wartime civilian body for local defense. In 1943, he left the BBC to
become literary editor of the tribune, and began writing Animal Farm. In 1944, the Orwells adopted a
son, but in 1945 his wife died during an operation. Towards the end of the war Orwell went to Europe
as a reporter (Stringer, p.448-449). Late in 1945, he went to the island of Jura off the Scottish coast,
and settled there. He wrote Nineteen Eighty-four there. The islands climate was unsuitable for
someone suffering from tuberculosis and Nineteen Eighty-four reflects the bleakness of human
suffering, the indignity of pain. Indeed he said that the book wouldn't have been so gloomy had he not
been so ill. His wedding to Sonia Bronwell took place at his bedside in University College Hospital.
By the time of his death in January 1950, he had been judged a major author by cities on both sides of
the Atlantic, and his value as a cultural critic has been increasingly widely recognized (Stringer,
p.450).
Analysis 'Animal Farm', Orwell wrote, 'was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of
what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole (Hopkinson, p.12).'
Orwell's purpose of writing this book was to write a book in simple language with concrete symbolism
so that ordinary English people, who had enjoyed a tradition of justice and liberty for centuries, would
realize what a totalitarian system, like Russia's government, was like. His experience in Spain had
shown him how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in
democratic countries. Orwell's style in composing a cynical novel in simplistic manners allows the
reader to easily relate the plot and characters to the events and leaders of the Russian government from
1917 to the middle 1940s. Orwell wrote Animal Farm to destroy the Soviet myth that Russia was a
true socialist society. 'He attacks the injustice of the Soviet regime and seeks to correct Western
misconception about the Soviet Communism. Orwell's Animal Farm is based on the first thirty years
of the Soviet Union, a real society pursuing the ideal of equality (Atkins, p.120).' His book argues that
a society where men live together fairly, justly, and equally hasn't worked and couldn't work. Animal
Farm, a brief, concentrated satire, subtitled 'A Fairy Story', can also be read on the simple level of plot
and character. It is an entertaining, witty tale of a farm whose oppressed animals, capable of speech
and reason, overcome a cruel master and set up a revolutionary government. They are betrayed by the
evil power-hungry pigs, especially by their leader, Napoleon, and forced to return to their former
servitude. Only the leadership has changed. On another, more serious level, of course, it is a political

allegory, a symbolic tale where all the events and characters represent issues and leaders in Russian
history since 1917, 'in which the interplay between surface action and inner meaning is everything
(Atkins, p.125).' Orwell's deeper purpose is to teach a political lesson. Orwell uses actual historical
events to construct his story. Each animal stands for a precise figure or representative type. The pigs,
who can read and write and organize, are the 'Bolshevik intellectuals who came to dominate the vast
Soviet bureaucracy (Iftinkar, p.731).' Napoleon is Stalin, the select group around him the Politburo,
Snowball is Trotsky, and Squealer represents the propagandists of the regime. The pigs enjoy the
privileges of belonging to the new ruling class, which include special food and shorter working hours,
but also suffer the consequences of questioning Napoleon's policies. The other animals represent
various types of common people. Boxer, the name suggesting the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 where
revolutionaries tried to expel foreigners from China, is the decent working man, fired by enthusiasm
for the egalitarian ideal, working overtime in the factories or on the land, and willing to die to defend
his country. Clover is the eternal motherly working woman of the people. Molly, the unreliable,
frivolous mare, represents the 'White Russians who opposed the revolution and fled the country
(Iftinkar, p.732).' The dogs are the vast army of secret police who maintain Stalin in power. The sheep
are the ignorant public who repeat the latest propaganda without thinking and who can be made to turn
up to 'spontaneous demonstrations (Orwell, p.108)' in support of Napoleon's plans. Moses, the raven,
represents the opportunist Church. He flies off after Mr. Jones, but returns later, and continues to
preach about the Sugarcandy Mountain (heaven), but the pi! gs' propaganda obliterates any lingering
belief. Benjamin the donkey, the cynical but powerless average man, never believes in the glorious
future to come, and is always alert to every betrayal. Orwell's allegory is comic in its detailed parallels:
the hoof and horn is clearly the hammer and sickle, the Communist party emblem. 'Beasts of England'
is a parody of the 'Internationale' the Communist party's song. The Order of the Green Banner is the
'Order of Lenin, and the other first- and second-class awards spoof the fondness of Soviet Russia for
awarding medals, for everything from exceeding one's quota on the assembly line or in the harvest to
bearing a great many children (Iftinkar, p.732).' 'The poem in praise of Napoleon (Orwell, p.90 - 91)'
imitates the sycophantic verses and the mass paintings and sculptures turned out to glorify Stalin. Each
event of the story has a historical parallel. The Rebellion in chapter 2 is the October 1917 Revolution,
and the Battle of the Cowshed in chapter 4 is the subsequent Civil War. Mr. Jones and the farmers
represent the loyalist Russians and foreign forces that tried, but failed, to dislodge the Bolsheviks. The
hens' revolt in chapter 7 stands for the brutally suppressed '1921 mutiny of the sailors at Kronstadt,
(Iftinkar, 732)' which challenged the new regime to release political prisoners and grant freedoms of
speech and the press. Napoleon's deal with Whymper, who trades the farm's produce at Willingdon
market, represents 'Russia's 1922 Treaty of Rapollo with Germany (Iftinkar, p.733).' Orwell
emphasizes Napoleon's decision to trade because it breaks the First Commandment, that 'whatever
goes upon two legs is an enemy'(Orwell, p.33). 'Official Soviet policy was hostile to Germany, a
militaristic, capitalist nation, but the Treaty revealed that the Communist regime h! ad been trading
arms and heavy machinery, and would continue to do so (Iftinkar, p.734).' The Windmill stands for 'the
first Five-Year Plan of 1928, which called for rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture
(Iftinkar, p.734).' In chapter 6 a terrible storm caused 'the windmill to fall to ruins' (Orwell, p.71),
which symbolizes the grim failure of this policy. Chapter 7 describes in symbolic terms the famine and
starvation which followed. The hens' revolt stands for the peasants' bitter resistance to collective
farming, when they burned their crops and slaughtered their animals. The animals' false confessions in
chapter 7 are the Purge Trials of the late 1930s. The false banknotes given by Mr. Frederick for the
corn represent Hitler's betrayal of 'the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 (Iftinkar, p.735),' and the second
destruction of the Windmill, by Mr. Frederick's men, is 'the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941 (Iftinkar,

p.735).' The last chapter brings Orwell up to date of the book's composition. He ends with a satiric
portrait of the Teheran Conf! erence of 1943, the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, 'who
were planning to divide the world among themselves (Atkins, p.163).' The quarrel over cheating at
cards predicts the downfall of the superpowers as soon as the war ended. The plot's circular
movement, which returns the animals to conditions very like those in the beginning, provides
occasions for vivid irony. In the first chapter they lament their forced labor and poor food, but by
chapter 6 they are starving, and are forced to work once more. In chapter 1 Old Major predicts that one
day Jones will send Boxer to the butcher, and in chapter 9 Napoleon fulfills this prophecy by sending
him to the slaughterhouse. In chapter 7, when various animals falsely confess their crimes and are
summarily executed by the dogs, 'the air was heavy and the smell of blood, which had been unknown
there since the expulsion of Jones (Orwell, p.83).' These ironies all emphasis the tragic failure of the
revolution, and support Benjamin's view that 'life would go on as it had always gone on ' that is badly
(Orwell, 56).' Though all the characters are representative types, Orwell differentiates the two most
important figures, Napoleon and Snowball, so that they resemble their real-life counterparts both in the
broad lines of their characterizations and in their two major disagreements. Like Stalin, Napoleon,
having 'a reputation for getting his own way (Orwell, p.25),' takes charge of indoctrinating the young,
sets up an elaborate propaganda machine, cultivates an image of omnipotent portraying charismatic
power, and surrounds himself with bodyguards and fawning attendants. Like Trotsky, Snowball is an
intellectual, who quickly researches a topic and formulates plans. He is a persuasive orator, but fails to
extort the leadership from Napoleon. Napoleon and Snowball's quarrel over the Windmill represents
their dispute over what should take priority in developing the Soviet Union. 'Stalin wanted to
collectivize the agriculture; Trotsky was for developing industry. Ultimately Stalin adopted both
programs in his first Five-Year Plan (Iftinkar, p.736),' just as Napoleon derides Snowball's plans, then
uses them as his own. 'Their most fundamental disagreement was whether to try to spread the
revolution to other countries, as classical Marxism dictated, or confine themselves to making a
socialist state in Russia (Meyers, p.137).' Napoleon argues for the latter, saying that the animals must
arm themselves to protect their new leadership. Snowball says that they must send more pigeons into
neighboring farms to spread the news about the revolution, so at the end Napoleon assures the farmers
that he will not spread the rebellion among the animals. 'Expelled from the Politburo in 1925, Trotsky
went into exile in 1929 and was considered a heretic. His historical role was altered; his face cut out of
group photographs of the leaders of the revolution. In Russia he was denounced as a traitor and
conspirator and in 1940 a Stalinist agent assassinated him in Mexico City (Iftinkar, p.737).' Similarly,
Snowball is blamed for everything that goes wrong in Animal Farm, and the animals are persuaded
that he was a traitor from the beginning. It has been said that the very act of reducing human
characters to animals implies a pessimistic view of man, and that in Animal Farm the satiric vision is
close to the tragic. 'Orwell turns elements of comedy into scenes of tragic horror (Connolly, p.176).' In
chapter 5, Napoleon comically lifts his leg to urinate on Snowball's plans. But shortly afterwards, he
summons the dogs and orders them to rip out the throats of those who confess their disloyalty. In one
instance Napoleon's contempt is amusing, in the next it is horrifying. The beast-fable is not only a
device that allows Orwell's serious message to be intelligible on two levels; the use of animals to
represent man is basic to his whole theme. We can readily grasp that animals are oppressed and feel it
is wrong to exploit them and betray their trust. Orwell counts on our common assumptions about
particular species to suggest his meaning. The sheep and their bleating are perfect metaphors for a
gullible public, ever read to accept policies and repeat rumors as truth. We commonly believe pigs are
greedy and savage, even to the point of devouring their young, which describes the power-hungry
government officials of the 1917 ' 1945 interval. In chapter 3, 'the work of the farm went like

clockwork (Orwell, p.36)' when the animals were in charge; into this simple fabric Orwell inserts a
word with Marxist overtones: 'with the worthless 'parasitical' human beings gone, there was more for
everyone to eat (Orwell, p.36).' The simplicity of his vocabulary adds to the creativeness and ingenuity
Orwell displays through the double meanings in his writing. The political allegory of Animal Farm,
whether specific or general, detailed or allusive, is persuasive, thorough and accurate, and the
brilliance of the book becomes much clearer when the satiric allegory is compared to the political
actuality of Russia's historic government. Critics who write, 'It makes a delightful children's story' are
completely oblivious to the sophisticated, underlying meanings the parable satires. The pleasure of
reading Animal Farm lies in recognizing the double meanings, the political and historical parallels, in
the story that George Orwell cleverly disguised through creative symbolism. Some critics say that
Orwell's satire is over-exaggerated. But to those critics I would ask then why did 'customs officials at
the Moscow International Book Fair in 1987 clear the British exhibitors' shelves of Animal Farm
(Meyers, p.241).' I believe there is no better certification of the book's truth. Bibliography Ahmad,
Iftinkar, Herbert Brodsky, et al., World Cultures: A Global Mosaic. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1993.
George Orwell - Animal Farm
George Orwell's novel Animal Farm does an excellent job of drawing parallels from the situation
leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Animal Farm is a satire that uses its characters to
symbolize leaders of the Russian Revolution. The animals of "Manor Farm", the setting of this novel,
which symbolizes Russia, overthrow their human master after years of mistreatment. Led by the pigs,
the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for
themselves, as opposed to working for their human master, Farmer Jones. Slowly over time the pigs
gain power and take advantage of the other animals. They gain so much power that they become just
as power hungry and corrupt as their human master. The theme in the novel being that in every society
there are leaders who will, if given the chance, likely abuse their position. Old Major is a prize white
boar who helps point out to the animals that no animal in England is free. He continues to tell the
animals that the their labor is stolen by man, who benefits alone. The animals in return get near
nothing, just enough to keep them away from starvation. Old Major gave many speeches to the farm
animals about hope and the future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started even though he
died before it actually began. Old Major's role compares to Lenin and Marx whose ideas would spark
the communist revolution. Lenin became the leader and teacher of the working class in Russia, and
their determination to struggle against capitalism. Like Old Major, Lenin and Marx wrote essays and
gave speeches to the working class poor. The working class in Russia, as compared with the barnyard
animals in Animal Farm, were a laboring class of people that received low wages for their work. Old
major tells the animals that the source of the problem is man, they must overthrow man to abolish
tyranny and hunger. Soon Old Major does die, but his words still echo in the hearts of all the animals.
With the leadership of the pigs, the smartest animals, they repel against the human and gain complete
control of the farm. This would symbolize the Russian Revolution.
Another parallel represented in the book is Farmer Jones. His character is similar to the politician Czar
Nicholas who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his animals. The animal rebellion
on the farm was started because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care of the animals. This
made them very angry, fed by the words of Old Major the animals decided to rebel like the Russians.
Czar Nicholas was a very weak man who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his
animals. The Czar made his working class people very uneasy with the way he used his authority and
preached all the time, and the people suffered and finally demanded reform by rebelling.

The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character representing Stalin in Russia. Both were very
mean looking, didn't talk very much but always got what they wanted through force. In one part of the
book Napoleon had the dogs charge Snowball, another animal, as soon as he thought that the pigs were
becoming corrupt. Stalin became the Soviet Leader after the death of Lenin. He was underestimated by
his opponents who always became his victims, and he had one of the most ruthless, regimes in history.
In was not till very many years later that the world found out about the many deaths that Stalin created
in Russia during the Revolution. Another strong parrael would is the character of Snowball with the
Russian leader Trotsky. Snowball was very enthusiastic and was a leader who organized the defense of
the farm. He gave speeches and instructions but was not very beneficial. All the other animals liked
him, but he was outsmarted by Napoleon. Trotsky and Stalin's relationship was very much like
Snowball's and Napoleons. Trotsky organized the Red Army and gave speeches and everyone in
Russia thought he would win power over Stalin. After Lenin's death Trotsky lost all his power to Stalin
and was expelled from the communist party.
George Orwell has created a masterpiece which is excellent if it is read without any prior knowledge
to the situation in Russia. However the added element does wonders for this novel. Orwell is a genius
and he has cleverly hidden the satire in such an excellent way, that everything fits into the picture like
a jigsaw puzzle. I give this book five stars. This rating is given for many reasons. It is a very easy read
and quite enjoyable to many levels of education.
George Orwell's Vision of the World
George Orwell's vision of the world in the year 1984 is horrific and chilling. Written in 1949, this
piece of literature is an everlasting classic that reminds us that history is a vital part of human
existence, although we often forget it. The past, present, and future are as changeable as human
opinions and beliefs. In this book, Orwell highlighted on some of the fears that many people have for
the world that we are creating. The control of the Party that he speaks of is like that of the Nazis of
World War II. The only difference between the Nazis and Orwell's imagined Party, is the emotion. The
Nazis fell from power because of the emotions of its leader, Adolph Hitler. The Party held up because
their leader, Big Brother, was merely an image and had no emotion at all. Within my reading, I
encountered many interesting points, both scenes and lines, that I remember vividly. All of these points
reflect the type of power that we humans have to control our existence as we know it. From the points
that I concentrated on came my own thoughts and fears about what future the human race was able to
create. The point that I remember most vividly is the motto of the Party. The motto is: 'Those who
control the past, control the future; Those who control the future, control the present; Those who
control the present, control the past.' This slogan played a main part in the plot. George Orwell
incorporated this theme into the story to show the kind of power that the Party actually had. The Party
did control the present, so they were able to do with it what they wished. The members of the Party
rewrote history at every current change, whether the changes be as simple as a human dying or a
change of enemy in the ongoing war. The Party had every piece of literature rewritten and every photo
reproduced to fit their fictional stories of war success and economic advance. By having this power, to
control the past, they controlled the future. With the power to control the future of the human race, the
Party manipulated the human body and its functions. It also controlled the hum! an mind through
physical experiments and the enforcement of complete orthodoxy to fit their needs. This absolute
power is everlasting and definite. This idea of total power made the line memorable. A second
prominent concept that I came across in my reading was the idea of doublethink. This meant that a
person was to know and believe in one idea while subconsciously knowing that it was wrong.
Everyone knew the ideas of the Party, forgot them when they didn't serve a specific purpose, and then

they remembered them again when they were needed. This could all happen to a person with in a
single moment. After the moment passed, the idea was forgotten again. One of the concepts of the
party was that two plus two equals five. Everyone was to believe this if and when the Party said so. If
it was convenient at any one time to think it, they did, if it was not, they did not. This is an example of
doublethink. The Party manipulated people into thinking what they wanted. In this way, it controlled
the human mind, body, and spirit. The third most memorable point in this book was not a concept of
the Party, but it is about human instincts. Humans naturally need the love, affection, and acceptation of
another human. To feel any of these primitive emotions, one had to secretly brake all of the rules and
regulations of the Party. Two of the main characters in this book shared human feelings for each other
that the Party didn't encourage. They secretly read forbidden books, sang age old nursery rhymes, and
made love to each other, all of which the Party banned because they encouraged free thought and
human emotion. After reviewing all of these points, I find that my fear of what the human race is
capable of is more realistic than I originally thought. The thought that human existence was regulated
with such rigidity is disturbing and unnerving. George Orwell's writing may, in some way, keep us
from forgetting that we can learn from the past and what we did then will determine what we do in the
future. As long as we always remember that free thought and expression are uncontrollable, no one
person or organization can stop us from experiencing them. As long as we understand this concept
there is no way to go but forward.
George Orwell Research
Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India. While growin up, he attended
private schools in Sussex, Wellington and Eton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police untill 1927
when he went to London to study the poverty stricken. He then moved to Paris where he wrote two
lost novels. After he moved back to England he wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese
Days, A Clergymans Daughter and Keep the Apidistra Flying. He published all four under the
psuedonym George Orwell. He then married Eileen OShaughnessy and wrote The Road to Wigan
Pier. Orwell then joined the Army and fought in the Spanish civil war. He became a socialist
revolutionary and wrote Homage to Catalonia, Coming Up for Air, and in 1943, he wrote Animal
Farm. Its success ended Orwells financial troubles forever. In 1947 and 48 despite Tuberculosis, he
wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. He died in 1950 (Williams 7-15). This essay will show and prove to you
that George Orwells life has influenced modern society a great deal.
BIOGRAPHY In 1903, Eric Arthur Blair was born. Living in India until he was four, Blair and his
family then moved to England and settled at Henley. At the age of eight, Blair was sent to a private
school in Sussex, and he lived there, except on holidays, until he was thirteen. He went to two private
secondary schools: Wellington(for one term) and Eton (for four and a half years).
After Eton, Blair joined the Imperial Indian Police and was trained in Burma. He served there for
nearly five years and then in 1927, while hom on leave, decided not to return. He later wrote that he
had come to understand and reject the imperialism he was serving. He was struck...between hatred of
the empire and rage against the native people who opposed it, and made his immediate job more
difficult. Blair, on his first six months of release, traveled to the East End to research the English poor.
In Spring of 1928, he took a room in a working-class district of Paris. He wrote two novels, which
have been lost, as well as publishing a number of articles in French and English. He became ill with
pneumonia, worked ten weeks as a dishwasher and kitchen porter, and returned to England at the end
of 1929.
He used his parents home in Suffolk for writing and earned money from occasional articles and
teaching. Blair then completed several versions of what was to become his first book, called, not by

his choice, Down and Out in Paris and London. The book was a record of his experiences, but If its
all the same to everybody, I would prefer [it] to be published pseudonymously.
Discussing the publication of his first book with his agent, he decided on three possible pseudonyms:
Keneth Miles, George Orwell and H. Lewis Allways. He favored George Orwell. The Orwell is a river
in Suffolk, south of his parents home. George Orwell published his first book in 1933. Down and
Out... was followed by the novel Burmese Days, published first in the United States rather than in
England because of his English publishers fear of its giving offence in Burma. After Burmese Days
came two more novels: A Clergymans Daughter, published in 1935; and Keep the Apidistra Flying,
published in 1936.
In the Spring of 1936 he moved to Hertfordshire and married Eileen OShaughnessy, an Oxford
graduate in English, a teacher, a journalist, and later a London graduate in psychology. Orwells
reputation at this time was based mainly on his accounts of poverty and depression. His next book,
The Road to Wigan Pier was written for the Left Book Club and started his career as a political writer.
Much of this book was composed of an essay on class and socialism, which was Orwells first
statement of his political possition.
In July, he left for Spain to fight (and write) in the Spanish civil war. For the next two or three years,
Orwell became a revolutionary socialist. When he returned from war , he wrote Homage to Catalonia
and in the winter of 1938, wrote Coming Up for Air. In 1941 he wrote London Letters and in August
joined the BBC as a talks producer in the Indian Section of the Eastern Service. Later in the year, he
began writing Animal Farm. It did not appear until August 1945, at the end of the war.
He and his wife adopted a son in 1944, but in 1945 his wife died during an opperation. Animal Farms
success ended Orwells financial worries that he had suffered from for twenty years. In 1946, he
settled in Jura, Scottland, with his younger sister as houskeeper, though he returned to lundon for the
winter. During 1947, in the early stages of renewed tuberculosis, he wrote the first drafts of Nineteen
Eighty-Four. In 1948, amid several attacks, Orwell wrote the second draft. In September, 1949, he
went into a hospital in London, and in October married Sonia Brownell. In January 1950, Eric Arthur
Blair, aka George Orwell, died. (Williams 7-15) WORKS In 1933, Orwell wrote Down and Out in
Paris and London. This was his first book. It is the record of a young mans (most-likely Orwells)
experiences with poverty in Paris and London. It did very well for a first novel. In most ways it was a
long, autobiographical essay on poverty. (Wykes 71-72) Orwells second novel was Burmese Days. It
was an account of Orwells experiences working for the Imperial Indian Police in Burma. For fear of
insulting Burma, this novel was published first in the U.S. rather than in England. (Wykes 44) His next
two novels were A Clergymans Daughter and Keep the Appidistra Flying. A Clergymans Daughter,
published in 1935, is the journey of Dorothy Hare. A journey of escape and self-exploration (Wykes
4). Keep the Apidistra Flying, published in 1936, is a novel about middle-class decline and
compromise (Wykes 7). Orwell regarded these novels as failures.
The Road to Wigan Pier, written for the Left Book Club in 1936 was Orwells fourth novel. This book
started Orwells life-long career change to political writing. The first part of this book is reporting on
the poor and unemployed. The second part is an essay on class and socialism, as I mentioned before. It
was the first statement of Orwells political possition. (Wykes 50-60) Homage to Catalonia, Orwells
fifth novel, completed his break with the orthodox left. It is an attempt to tell the truth about war from
Orwells point of view. The genre to which this book belongs was later defined by Orwell as the
Political book...a sort of enlarged pamphlet combining history with political critiscism. Orwell came
to believe that Homage to Catalonia was the best book he had ever written.
During winter in 1938, Orwell wrote his sixth novel Coming Up for Air. It is the discovery of George
Bowling, that his boy-hood home has changed like everything else. It is regarded as his best novel

(with the exception of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four). It illustrates in great detail, the fact
that everything peacefull eventually becomes corupt.
After Coming Up for Air, Orwell wrote one of his most-loved novels, Animal Farm. It is the fairy
story of an animal revolution on the Manor Farm, The animals create a socialistic republic in which
Some animals are more equal than others (Orwell). The book an alagorical essay on the Russian
Revolution. By the end of the book the pigs disobey the laws of Animal Farm, but as they do so,
they change the laws to fit their needs. Animal Farm is a spiritual parody of the Communist Manifesto
(Calder 5-20) Animal Farm was followed by Orwells eighth and last novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Another of Orwells best novels, 1984 is the story of Winston Smith. Smith is a member of a
totalitarianist party ruled by the god-like Big Brother. There is no freedom, privacy or choice. No
friendship or love. There is only love for Big Brother. It is the story of Smiths secret rebellion from
the party through love, sex, free-thought and choice. It is said to be Orwells greatest achivement
(Calder 74-88). CRITISCISM This is the kind of book I like to read, where I get the truth in chapters
of real life..., writes W.h> Davies about Down and Out in Paris and London. Daniel George for the
tribune says, Much of it is, I should judge, written from first-hand knowledge. Hames Farrell
comments [Orwells] account is genuine, unexagerated and intelligent (Meyers 39-49) About
Burmese Days, an annonymus author writes, Burmese Days, by George Orwell is symptomatic of the
reaction against conventional portrayals of Burma as a land of tinkling temples bells, gentle charming
Burmans, and strong silent Englishman. For the Fortnightly, G.W. Stonier observes, Burmese Days
is another novel, and I recommend it to all those who enjoy a lively hatred in fiction (Meyers 50-57)
About Orwells next novel, A Clergymans Daughter, Peter Quennel writes A Clergymans Daughter
is abitious yet not entirely successfull. Michael Sayers comments George Orwell is a popular
novelist sensitive to values that most other novelists are popular for ignoring. For the Commonweal,
Geoffrey Stone reports, ...in A Clergymans Daughter, [Orwell] arranges circumstance so that the
pessimistic conclusion will seem inevitable (Meyers 58-64) Mr. Orwells new book, bitter almost
throughout and often crude is also all about money, writes William Plomer of Keep the Apidistra
Flying. Cyril Connoly, for the New Statesman and Nation, writes, The book is the recital of
[Orwells] misfortunes interrupted by tirades against money and the spiritual evil it causes. An
unsigned notice in the TImes Literary Supplement states, If this book is persistently irritating, this is
exactly what makes it worth reading; few books have enough body in them to be irratants (Meyers
65-90) Walter Greenwood writes about The Road to Wigan Pier, Mr. Orwell has the gift of writing
vividly, of creating in the minds eye a picture of the scene described. Of Mr. Orwells book, there is
little to say except praise..., comments Arthur Calder-Marshall. It takes an ugly section of British
life, and it forces us to confront it for what it is, writes H.J. Laski (Meyers 91-118) Homage to
Catalonia is... a book which is at the same time a work of first-class literature and a political document
of the greatest importance, reports Geoffrey Gorer. John McNair for the New Leader, writes, There
have been many books written on the Spanish civil war, but none containing so many living, first-hand
experiences as this (Meyers 119-151) Mr. Orwell writes with hard, honest clarity and unanswering
precision of feeling, states of Coming Up for Air, an unsigned notice in the Times Literary
Supplement. John Cogley for the Commonweal, writes, George Orwell, a hard man, is frankly
sentimental about the world he knew as a boy. Coming Up for Air, written in 1938, reverts to the
journalistic stylo of ease and understatement, the disquietude of Burmese Days worked out of it
(Meyers 152-190).
..it is a devestating attack on Stalin and his betrayal of the Russian revolution, as seen by another
revolutionary, writes Cyril Connoly on Animal Farm. The staory is very well-written, especially the
Snowball episode#, which suggests that that the communist Trotskyite is a conception on much the

same plane as the nazi jew...,writes Northrup Frye for the Canadian Forum. Isaac Rosenfield for the
Nation, writes, George Orwell, to judge by his writing, is a man, not without imagination, who is
never swept away by his imagination. Of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fredric Warburg comments, This is
amongst the most terrifying books I have ever read. Mr. Orwells latest book, Nineteen Eighty-Four,
can be approached either as a political argument or as an indictment of materialism cast in fictional
foprm, writes Harold Nicolson. Mr. Orwell is in every way similar to Huxley, especially in his
contempt for people, in his aim of slandering man, reports Isaac Anisimov for the Pravda.
CONCLUSION As you can see, George Orwell is one of the most beloved and respected authors in
history. His works speak out against money, hypocrisy, poverty and injustice. His style has influenced
many modern authors and will, most definetly, influence many more authors to come.
George Orwell - Political Satire
George Orwell, author of the highly acclaimed Animal Farm, wrote this fable in hopes of informing
not only children, but also the population as a whole, of his views on the Russian Revolution and the
rise of communism in that nation. The fable, a literary composition conveying a moral truth, clearly
guides the readers through the steps and outcome of the Russian Revolution. But instead of the battle
being fought and won in the streets of Russia, Orwell chooses to portray the happenings of the Russian
Revolution on a farm based during the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. The animals, unhappy
with their day-to-day living conditions, rise and revolt against the tyrant Jones, the cruel and drunkard
owner of the Jones' farm.
In Animal Farm, the barn was a place for the meetings that took place, and alternatively served as a
shelter for all of the animals, except for the pigs. The schoolhouse was a place for the pigs, and rarely
other animals, to learn to read and write and therefore grow in social power over the other lessintelligent animals that spent their days working in order to bring in enough food to keep the
revolution alive. The farmhouse was where the Jones family resided, before the revolution that forced
them astray. According to the commandments set forth after the revolution, no animal was to use the
farmhouse for their own personal gain, however, the pigs were able to distort this rule so that they
were able to live in luxury in this house meant for the humans. Building the windmill proved to be an
important icon and struggle for the animals of Animal Farm, as it was destroyed twice and never quite
brought the gleefulness and comfortable life that the animals were led to envision before-hand and
during the construction by the sinister pig Napoleon. Each character of Animal Farm represented an
important character or type-of people in the Russian Revolution, a direct comparison between Animal
Farm, and a strong political movement that shocked the world.
Comrade Napoleon, as he insisted the other animals called him, represents Joseph Stalin, a cruel leader
during and after the revolution, who exiled other political leaders and forced mass-executions upon the
people, just as Napoleon does in Orwell's fable. Snowball, the opposing pig and leader of the farm to
Napoleon, seemed a strong and just leader, until, Napoleon expelled him from the farm and set-off
rumors about Napoleon's false attempt to destroy the civilization they had worked to build after the
revolution. Snowball links closely with the Soviet expatriate Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from
Russia under the leadership of Stalin. Major, the wise pig that passed away days after he unveiled his
plan for a new and better life on the farm, seems to portray traits of both Karl Marx and V.I Lenin.
Marx, because like this political thinker, Major brought about and created the idea of communism, or
'animalism', the Animal Farm version of this system of thought. In a way, Major is associated with
Lenin of the Russian Revolution, the opportunist who brought and initiated the communist way of life
on this land when it needed a new system-of-thought to help it's troubled economy and the way-of-life
it's people were forced to live out every day. Pilkington and Frederick, the human owners of

neighboring farms, represent various world leaders during the time of the revolution, and the
occurrences that happened between them and Russia, or between Animal Farm and the other farms.
Boxer, a strong dedicated horse of Animal Farm, I believe represented all of the people of Russia. The
poverty stricken, the homeless, who still work hard in order to make the system of communism or
animalism work. Boxer is the representation of the workers who are pushed around, who are taken for
all they are worth, and who are left for dead.
In the end of the Orwell's tale, Animal Farm is much worse a place for the common animals then it had
been previous to the revolution. The food is scarce, the leadership is harsh and unruly, the world-load
is hard, and the conditions of life for the common animals had changed for the worse. The pigs, the
leaders of animal farm, celebrate their victory and their entrance into high-society, as the lowly other
animals still left on the farm look on. This is how history recorded the Russian Revolution, and Orwell
illustrated the political aspects of this in the fable Animal Farm.
George Orwell - Politics and the English Language
If George Orwell, author of Politics and the English Language read Tom Verduccis essay Three
Dimensional, he would argue with Tom Verdiccis style. Tom Verdicci breaks several of Orwells rules.
The rules broken are; (1) Never use a long word where a short one will do; (2) Never use a foreign
phrase, scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
The first rule broken is Never use a long word where a short one will do. Verdicci tends to puzzle the
reader by using words such as captaincy, crispness, deficiencies, and competent. Orwell states: A
scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What
am I trying to say What words will express it What image or idiom will make it clearer Is this image
fresh enough to have an effect In each sentence which Tom Verducci has used these words, it seems
like he didnt bother asking himself these four simple questions. Consequently, Tom Verducci has
broken one of Orwells rules.
Verducci goes on to break a second rule, which states: Never use a foreign phrase, scientific word or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. For example in his essay, there is a
passage written in foreign language that states Blue Jays first baseman hits like a bouncer but
schmoozes like a maitre d. This phrase relates to another rule of Orwells. Orwell states: In certain
kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literacy criticism, it is normal to come across long
passages which are almost completely lacking of meaning. Thus, this phrase is a prime example,
which breaks Orwells rules in two ways.
Overall, the essay written by Tom Verducci is well done. But to George Orwells expectations, it is
breaking several of his rules. Both readers agree on the fact that asking themselves a question, which
is: Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly, is agreed upon. Tom Verducci has not said something,
which is ugly in his essay. Also, Verducci has not broken the rule of Never us a metaphor, smile which
you are used to seeing in print. Tom Verducci uses various types of words to keep his essay interesting
to the extent of not making it boring by repeating words, which are metaphors or similes. Thus, Tom
Verducci has not broken all of Orwells rules.
In conclusion, George Orwell, author of Politics and the English Language read Tom Verduccis essay
Three Dimensional, he would argue with Tom Verdiccis style. The rules Tom Verducci breaks are:
Never use a long word where a short one will do; Never use a foreign phrase, scientific word or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and George Orwell's "Animal Farm"

There are many different ways to reveal one's perception of society. In art for instance, the reflection
may be revealed in the form of a sculpture, a song or a picture. Satire is one the ways that the reaction
or perception of life is expressed. People look at life from different stand points, as matter of fact, they
naturally perceive it in numerous ways. As a result of the variety in perception, the way of revealing
the effects or reflections of these perceptions also shows variety. In the satiric work of Jonathan Swift's
"Gulliver's Travels" and George Orwell's "Animal Farm" both authors make a distinction between
country vs. court or in Orwell's case, country (people) vs. government. Gulliver's first adventure takes
place in Lilliput. Gulliver gets shipwrecked and finds himself tied down by a considerable number of
little people called Lilliputians. The Lilliputians stood only six inches high. During this time Swift
recognized that England was also small in stature but was dominant force and had a great influence in
Europe. England, despite its small size, had the potential to defeat any nation that might try to conquer
them. Swift relates this situation with the Lilliputians. They only stood six inches tall but had the
power to take on the, Man-Mountain, Gulliver. The ability of the Lilliputians to capture someone ten
times their size can be seen as reinforcing their strength as a small nation, such as England. Thus
becoming and remaining a great and powerful country.
Swift further illustrates satire of the country vs. court distinction by comparing English government to
Lilliput. In the early eighteenth century, the English government was under the Whig's political party.
Swift represented himself as Gulliver as being a Tory, and the Lilliputians as being power-hungry
Whigs. Their heels of their shoes identified these parties. In Lilliput the High-Heels represented the
Tories and the Low-Heels represented the Whigs. George I favored the Whigs, so the Lilliputian
emperor favored the Low-Heals. But the Prince of Whales favored both parties, and thus the
Lilliputian heir to the throne wore one High-Heel and one Low. When Gulliver started learning about
the Lilliputians government he noticed that their government officials were chosen by rope dancing.
To Gulliver and the reader these practices seem ridiculous and idiotic, but to the Lilliputians they see
these practices as normal. Swift uses this scene to satire the British government at this time. The
British government also elected their ministers in a same foolish manner. George Orwell's Animal
Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability an
allegory for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917. Orwell makes a parody of Soviet
Communism as demonstrated by Animal Farm's brutal totalitarian rule, manipulated and exploited
working class, and the pigs' evolution into the capitalists they initially opposed. The animals of Manor
Farm overthrow their human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm
animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for
themselves, as opposed to working for humans. Little by little, the pigs become dominant, gaining
more power and advantage over the other animals, so much so that they become as corrupt and powerhungry as their predecessors, the humans. The theme in Animal Farm maintains that in every society
there are leaders who, if given the opportunity, will likely abuse their power. Animalism, which
represents communism, was a revolution that didn't work. Animalism was supposed to make life better
for the animals but instead their lives got worse. By the end of the story, everything had changed. The
government had become corrupt, there was a dictator, and the animals had become slaves to the pigs.
Life for the animals couldn't get any worse.
Meanwhile, the pigs as leaders are taking bigger food rations for themselves justifying their behavior
as something necessary for the brains of their animal society. At this point we begin to suspect that the
pigs will abuse their positions and power in this animal society. This is Orwell's way of depicting the
vices and problems of society during his time which in some ways, still holds true to many societies

and governments today.

The country vs court is a reoccurring theme in many satirical and literary works. "Gulliver's Travels"
and "Animal Farm" were both written to express their authors' disenchantment with the state of
evolution of human nature.
"Shooting An Elephant" - Pressure of the Masses
The essay "Shooting An Elephant" begins with the author, George Orwell, a British Police officer in
Burma, describing his experiences with the local Burmese people who hate the British and find
various ways by which to put the English fraternity to shame and ridicule. In order not to lose face and
be jeered by the Burmese people, Orwell has to shoot down an elephant which had gotten out of
control and was stampeding around destroying everything that came its way and even killing a man, an
Indian Dravidian coolie. He did not wait to see the elephant die, but was later informed about the gory
details of the elephants death and of the people who stripped the elephant to the bones. Orwell is a
sub-divisional police officer in Myanmar, Lower Burma. He goes through inner conflicts and feels
sorry for the poor and exploited people. The people hate the British and their rule and find ways to
ridicule and jeer them from a safe distance and in ways not are punished for their actions. Orwell
himself is against the British imperialism and has strong feelings against the rule. In his job as a
policeman he had seen the duty work of the Empire at close Quarters and hated it bitterly. In doing his
duty by the empire, he came in for a lot of ridicule, jeering, and insults from the Burmese people.
These insults were not done openly, but subtly. He understood the situation in no uncertain terms. He
also understood the position of the British, of how to save their face by unknowingly doing what the
population was making them do.
One day Orwell is informed about an elephant going wild, in the bazaar. The elephant had broken its
chain and went on a rampage destroying whatever came its way. The elephant also killed an Indian
Dravidian coolie. As the people see Orwell armed with a gun, they supposedly expect him to shoot the
mad elephant. He goes, looking for the elephant and his act of destruction and killing, armed with a
gun and a rifle only for his own protection and not for shooting down the massive elephant. In his
eyes, the elephant is worth more alive, than dead. The people, seeing him armed with a gun, follow
him and the mob goes on increasing by the time he locates the elephant. The elephant has got over his
"must", and is now peacefully pulling stalks from the field and putting them in his mouth with his
trunk. Orwell has no intention of killing the elephant, but the will of over two thousand natives, seems
to imprint on his mind. He is the holder of the magic weapon, which will give them their fun, and meat
off the elephant. Orwell is driven to kill the elephant, inspite of his unwillingness. Says Orwell "that
when a white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow,
posing dummy, that conventionalized figure of Sahib". The whites had self imposed certain conditions
and rules for impressing the natives. When any crisis happened, the natives looked up to them for the
solution and to keep that image they inadvertently, had to do what the natives wanted. The white man
wore a mask and his face had grown to fit it. To impress and please the people, he is forced to shoot
the now peaceful elephant. He has to shoot the massive elephant several times with his rifle and gun.
The elephant suffers acute agony and a very painful death. Orwell walks away from the tortured gasps
of the elephant, which he finds unbearable. He is later informed about the details of the elephant's
death, and the people who ripped the meat off it to the bones. He was perfectly justified in killing the
mad elephant. That was the right thing to do as the elephant had killed a human being and brought
about a lot of destruction. It could not be trusted to remain sane even though it then looked peaceful.
Orwell however feels in his heart that what he did was to save his face and not having to look a fool in
the eyes of the natives.

Catcher in the Rye - "Boys will be Boys"

Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling
to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager
living today. The fact that they book was written more than forty years ago clearly exemplifies the
saying "boys will be boys" no matter what period of time is taking place. Holden's actions are those
that any teenage can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters,
the questioning of one's religion, the individual view of the world as a whole, the language, and
dealing with teenage pressures such as drinking and smoking are issues that almost all teens have had
or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. Thusly, this novel and its main character's
experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society,
because everyone was or will be a teen. The first and most obvious characteristic found in most teens,
including Holden, would be the desire for independence. Throughout the novel, Holden is not once
wishing to have his parents help in any way. He has practically lived his entire life in dorms at
prestigious schools, and has learned quite well how to be on his own. "This tendency of teenagers took
place even in ancient history, where the freshly developed teen opts to leave the cave and hunt for his
own food" (Kegel 54). Every teenager tries, in his or her own way, to be independent. Instead of
admitting to one's parents of a wrongful deed, the teen tries covering up the mistake or avoiding it in
hopes that they won't get in any Bailey 2 trouble. They feel that they have enough intelligence to think
through a problem without going to their parents for assistance. When Holden hears the news that he
has been expelled from Pency, he concludes that his parents would not know of this for a few days.
Therefore, he would wait from Saturday until Wednesday, to let his parents "get it and thoroughly
digest it" (25) and then face the consequences, which will more than likely be less severe after his
parents calmed down. He states, "I didn't want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very
hysterical. She's not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though" (51). In taking the
independent route, Holden does not look for sympathy or help from either of his parents. He feels that
he can deal with his situation by waiting until the next school year in order to apply himself a little
better. Another characteristic of a teenager, usually of the male gender, would be the widespread
subject of sex. As everyone knows, during and after puberty, males have a stronger fascination with
the issue and related experiences. Holden is no different. "In my mind, I'm the biggest sex manic you
ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn't mind doing if the opportunity came
up" (62). Although Holden honestly states to the reader that he is a virgin; he still has encounters
associated with sexual activity. First and foremost, Holden actually obtains a prostitute during a brief
stay at a hotel room. Holden never has sexual intercourse with this woman, but it does show that he is
a teenager looking for affection and pleasure. Also, he proclaimed that he had plenty of opportunities
to "give the time" (32) to other women, but he never quite knew to do it while on a date. Holden is
very much like the average teen in this regard. The media and other primary sources in teen lives have
taken an interest in sex, and have made it seem like it is the greatest thing known to mankind. Most
teenagers find it Bailey 3 slightly embarrassing to admit to being chaste, mainly due to the fact that
they think everyone is doing it; which is clearly false. Teenagers want to experience and experiment
with sex, and even if they choose to not have sex until marriage, they will fantasize about it. This is yet
another example of the similarities in which Holden and the typical teen share. Sex and religion almost
go hand in hand today amongst the teenage population. Do teens wait for marriage like the Bible
insists or should teens defy the rules outlined by the Bible and have pre-marital sex? Although the
novel does not quite refer to sex in a religious sense, it is a good example of choices teens are forced to
make. Teens, along with many other members of society, do not agree with every guideline that the

Bible sets out for them. They have to decide how large a role religion is going to play in their lives.
Holden says that he, in some ways, is "an atheist" (Breit 82). He sometimes prays to Jesus, and yet
other times he feels like he just cannot pray because of his likes, dislikes, and indifferent views of the
church. This can be related to many teenagers, for religion is not always an easy subject. Teens
sometimes feel that not all information on a particular religion is completely true. Some teens toy with
the fact that their faith, if they have one, is actually factual. Holden feels that the information on Jesus
is probably true, but he is a little suspicious of the Disciples and other characters from the Bible. "Take
the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all
right after Jesus was dead and all, but while he was alive, they were about as much use to him as a
hole in the head" (99). He has many questions, as does all of society, of some contradicting issues
concerning religion. As every teenager perceives the world in one way or another, Holden too has his
own individual views on the world, in which he sees as an evil and corrupt place where Bailey 4 there
is no peace. This perception of the world does not change significantly through the novel. However as
the novel progresses, Holden gradually comes to the realization that he is powerless to change this.
"During the short time period of Holden's life covered in this book, he does succeed in making us
perceive that the world is crazy" (Stevenson 216). Shortly after Holden leaves Pency Prep he checks
into the Edmont Hotel. This is where Holden's turmoil begins. Holden spends the following evening in
this hotel that was "full of perverts and morons. (There were) screwballs all over the place" (188). His
situation only deteriorates from this point on as the more he looks around this world, the more
depressing life seems. Around every corner, Holden sees evil. He looks out on a world that appears
completely immoral and unscrupulous. The three days we learn of from the novel places a distressed
Holden in the vicinity of Manhattan. The city is decked with decorations and holiday splendor; yet,
much to Holden's despair, he seldom yields any occasions of peace, charity or even genuine
merriment. Holden is surrounded by what he views as drunks, perverts, morons and screwballs. These
convictions, which Holden holds, waver very momentarily during only one particular scene in the
book. The scene is that with Mr. Antolini. After Mr. Antolini patted Holden on the head while he was
sleeping, Holden jumped up and ran out thinking that Mr. Antolini was a pervert as well. This is the
only time during the novel where Holden thinks twice about considering someone as a pervert. After
reviewing Mr. Antolini, Holden finally concludes that maybe he wasn't making a "flitty" (190) pass at
him. "Maybe he just likes patting guys' heads as they sleep" (191). This is really the only time Holden
actually considers a positive side. This event does not constitute a significant change. As Holden
himself says, "It's not too bad when the sun's out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming
out" (200). The sun of course is a reference to decency through the common Bailey 5 association of
light and goodness. His perception of the world would remain the same. Many teenagers today see the
world in a way that everyone is out to get them. They believe if they do not get what they want that
life is not fair. Holden apparently feels the same way. The one conviction that does not change during
the novel is Holden's belief that he can change the world. On his date with Sally, Holden reveals his
feelings. "Did you ever get fed upI mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go
lousy unless you did something" (131). Holden goes through several plans. It takes most of the book
before Holden begins to realize that he is helpless to stop this corruption. Finally, he realizes that not
only is there nothing that he can do, but there is nowhere he can go to hide from it. This relates Holden
back to the typical teenager in the sense that everyone wants to change the world in some drastic way.
But in the end, they realize that there's nothing for them do to that is so significant and that there is no
escape from the harsh reality of the world surrounding them. "Adolescents use their own unique
language of slang and swearing, which is partly to rebel and partly to find their own identity" (Carlton
337). This typical teenage trait is also exhibited in Holden. When someone listens to a teenager they

usually hear a variety of swear words and slang terms. Holden uses quite a bit of slang and profanity in
his speech. For example, when he is talking about the football game near the beginning of the novel,
he says: I was standing way the hell on top of Thomsen Hill, right next to this crazy cannonYou
could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You couldn't see the grandstand too hot,
but you could hear Bailey 6 them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pencey sidescrawny and faggy
on the Saxon Hall side (2) When Holden says, "crazy," "bashing each other all over the place,"
"hot," and "faggy," he is using slang terms. Each generation has its own variety of slang terms each
with separate and almost ironic terms. Some slang used by today's teens means exactly the opposite of
what would be thought. Each child is taught that there are some "bad" words or swear words that
should not be used, but as like most teenagers, Holden swears quite often. Holden's sister, Phoebe,
makes a comment on his swearing. She merely requests Holden to, "Don't swear so much" (168).
Vulgar language is a pitfall of adolescence. Another major aspect of teenage life, are such pressures of
drinking and smoking. As most teenagers in today's world have come across alcohol at one point or
another, Holden has given into the pressures of underage drinking to drown his sorrows. Throughout
the novel, Holden drinks even though he is underage. "Many drink to escape the problems that they
face day to day, and in the novel it is apparent that Holden is drinking so that he can stop thinking
about the fact that he has gotten expelled from yet another school" (Barr 93). Drinking is a major issue
in the world today with such dangers of binge drinking and drinking and driving. Holden, like the
typical teenager is also curious about drinking. The media clearly exploits drinking and makes it
appear "cool." His curiosity gets the best of him and he continually drinks. Another problem with
teenage drinking, at all times throughout history, is the great ease at which it can be acquired. In the
novel, Holden can simply walk into a bar of some sort, order a drink and in most cases, get served.
Although society is more stringent with underage drinking today, there are ways for teens to easily
acquire alcohol, as Holden does in this novel. Bailey 7 Holden is also an avid chain smoker. It seems
that every chance he gets, he is lighting up yet another cigarette. Smoking is an adult activity, and
Holden smokes to be more of an adult. Even though the cigarettes taste bad, he still smokes them. He
smokes to ease his nerves and simply because he has become addicted to the substance. Smoking is a
big problem faced by teens in all generations. Many smoke to rebel against their parents or because,
like alcohol, it is viewed sometimes as the "cool" thing to do. A large portion of today's teens smoke
although they are aware of the dangers like the fact that tobacco is the only product which kills a third
of its users. Smoking is a bad thing, but teenagers of every day and age are faced with this. As seen in
these previous examples, and also found in more instances, Holden Caulfied truly resembles the
typical teen. He has gone through the same situations, encountered many of the same problems, and he
also has acted in similar ways as the average teen. Teenage adolescence is a period of transition
between childhood and adulthood. In this period, we all experience development both physically and
emotionally, including the epitome of all teens, Holden Caulfield.
Catcher in the Rye - Fall of Innocence
Jerome David Salinger, born in New York City on January 1, 1919, may not have written many novels
in which he is recognized for. Although, he did write one novel, which brought him fame. In many of
Salinger's short stories and especially his most well-known novel he writes about how the main
character falls from his or her own innocence then rises to face their challenges. In J.D. Salinger's ,
Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield goes through a fall from his innocence throughout his journey to
his safe haven, home.
One example of when Holden fell from his own innocence is when he is in the room with Phoebe and
he can't name anything he likes. Holden reacts to this question by saying, "Boy, she was depressing

me"(Salinger 169). The only three things he can name that he liked were Allie, James Castle, and
sitting there chewing the fat with Phoebe. The reason this is a time when Holden falls is because he
gets really depressed when he can barely think of anything he liked. The reason I think Holden gets so
depressed is because two of the people he names are dead. That's why he is so lonely all the time.
Holden finds things in common with Allie and James Castle and since they're both dead he feels, in the
back of his mind, that he should also be dead which makes him depressed.
Another example of a fall for Holden is when he realizes he can't erase even half the "fuck you's" in
the world. This doesn't sound very important, but it is symbolic because he realizes that he can not be
the catcher in the rye. His dream of shielding all the innocent children from society's harsh elements
has been ruined by this one statement. Now because of this realization he comes to the conclusion that
he can not shield everybody, not even half of everybody. An example of Holden trying to be the
catcher in the rye is when Holden first sees the "fuck you" on the wall. Holden said, "It drove me
damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they'd wonder
what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally what it
meant, and how they'd think about it even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill
whoever'd written it".(Salinger 201)
Holden's final fall comes when he is in the Egyptian Tomb in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When
Holden is deep within the Egyptian Tomb he feels he is in a safe and sanitary place free from society's
cruel components until he sees the "fuck you" on the wall. When he sees this he starts to think about
committing suicide because he feels like living is just a waste. During this time he spent in the tomb he
decides on life or death. After going unconscious for a couple of minutes he decides to live because,
"Death thus becomes not a gesture of defiance but of surrender"(Miller 17). Once Holden wakes up he
feels better and symbolically chooses life. This is when Holden begins to rise. When Phoebe is on the
carousel Holden wants to protect her but restrains himself, "The thing is with kids is, if they want to
grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but
its bad to say anything to them"(Miller 17-18)When Holden says this his dreams of being catcher in
the rye vanish. He realizes that all children must fall, like he himself did.
In conclusion, The Catcher in the Rye is a story of a boy falling from innocence to enter adulthood. An
example of J.D. Salinger using symbolism to show Holden's Holding on to his childhood is in his
name, Holden(Hold On). This is referring to Holden not wanting to enter society and all it's phonies.
Today, when somebody holds on to their innocence they are often considered outcasts; and in the
persons mind everyone who considers him this, is a phony, like how Holden saw everyone.
After Holden Caulfield returns to his native New York and rents a room in a sleazy hotel, he makes a
date with Sally Hayes. Before this date, Holden finds himself wandering the streets of the naked city.
He is feeling depressed and finds himself on Broadway trying to purchase a record for his sister.
After making this purchase, Holden notices a poor family walking in front of him. This unit is
composed of a father, mother, and "little kid." Holden notices the child who is walking in a straight
line in the street and humming a tune to himself. Holden approaches him to determine the tune he is
singing. This tune is "If a Body Catch a Body Coming Through the Rye."Holden finds it amusing that
the child is strutting quite literally on Broadway and is so care-free. He notices cars screeching and
honking all over the place, and yet the child proceeds. The child's happy disposition seems to
encourage Holden's on vitality. It gripped Holden that the child was singing with "a pretty little
voice...just for the hell of it" and brightened him up. A deeper interpretation of this scene would dictate
that the child represents Holden's own personality and life. Holden is defiantly singing his own tune
just for the hell of it and like the child, seems to have no regard for his own well-being. At this point,
Holden may see a side in himself that is care-free and this lightens his depression.

Catcher in the Rye - Loss of Innocence

In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden Caufield struggles with the fact
that everyone has to grow up. The book gets its title from Holden's constant concern with the loss of
innocence. He did not want children to grow up because he felt that adults are corrupt. This is seen
when Holden tries to erase naughty words from the walls of an elementary school where his younger
sister Phoebe attended. "While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd
written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other
little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid
would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe
even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it. I figured it was
some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote
it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps
till hew as good and goddam dead and bloody." (201) His deep concern with impeccability caused him
to create stereotypes of a hooligan that would try to corrupt the children of an elementary school.
Holden believed that children were innocent because they viewed the world and society without any
bias. When Phoebe asked him to name something that he would like to be when he grew up, the only
thing he would have liked to be was a "catcher in the rye." He invented an illusion for himself of a
strange fantasy. He stated that he would like to follow a poem by Robert Burns: "If a body catch a
body comin' through the rye." He kept "picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big
field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around- nobody big, I mean- except me.
And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they
start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to
come out from somewhere and catch them. Thats all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye
and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." (173) Holden wants to stop
children from "falling" into losing their innocence and becoming an adult, and he takes pleasure in the
attempted thwarting of maturation.
In the beginning of Catcher in the Rye, his initial character is one of a child. Throughout the book, he
takes steps and the forces of change take a toll on his childish ways. In the end, he seems to be
changed into a man. Holden is definitely extremely immature in the beginning of the book. He
characterizes almost every person he meets as a "phony". He feels that he is surrounded by hypocrites
in a school filled with fakery. Principal Thurmer, the principal of Holden's high school, Pencey, was
the leader of the whole charade. During a teacher/parent day, Principal Thurmer would only say hello
to the wealthy parents of students. He would not associate himself with those that were not financially
stable, because he was a phony.
Holden also maintains a lack of responsibility throughout the whole book. He was the equipment
manager of the fencing team at Pencey, but he lost the equipment on the subway. He also failed out of
two schools for lack of effort and absences from classes. Holden also had a daydream about two
children who never grew up, whore main in a perfect world forever. This daydream is a result of his
younger brother Allie's death. Allie represents the unchangeable youth of which Holden must let go if
he ever expects to maintain sanity. Holden has a fixation on childhood, which shows itself in many
forms. His glorification of children, inordinate admiration of Phoebe, idealization of his dead younger
brother, and the joy he gets from reminiscing about his own childhood all contribute to his obsession
with innocence and youth.
Throughout the middle of the book, forces of change unfold on Holden. While waiting for an old
friend of his, he had the sudden urge to go into a museum that he had visited while still a child in

school in order to bring back memories of his childhood. However, when he finally reached the
museum, he decided not to. "Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a sudden
I wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks. It just didn't appeal to me..." (122) This shows that
Holden is becoming an adult. He did not want to enter the museum because he realized that he was too
old to take part in such an activity. When he takes Phoebe to a carousel later in the book, he decided
not to ride on it, or even stand on it during a rain storm, because he felt "too old" to get on. Holden
also had another one of his childish fantasies for his future. He wanted to go and be a deaf mute
somewhere in the west, so he wouldn't have to deal with all the phonies and hypocrites of every day
life. Phoebe told him that she wanted to go along with him, but he denies her of this because of his
growing responsibility and metamorphosis as an adult. He told her, "I'm not going away anywhere. I
changed my mind." (207)
At the end of the book, Holden seems to be much more mature. His key step was when he did not ride
with Phoebe on the carrousel. Holden only watched his sister ride along. In the center of the carousel,
there was a gold ring. The children riding on the carousel would reach for the gold ring in order to win
a prize. "All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of
afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is,
if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off,
they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them."(211) This carousel symbolizes life, and the
constant journey of childhood into adulthood. Children would sometimes fall when striving to reach
the gold ring in the center of life, or their complete success or adulthood. Holden would have yelled
out to the children that it was dangerous to try to achieve this goal, but he realized in this anagnoresis
that the children should go along the path of life by themselves.
Throughout the book, Holden tried to save all children from growing up and losing their innocence.
When he realized that he could not achieve this goal, he had a nervous breakdown and could not deal
with it. However, it is an inevitable fact that everyone has to grow up.
Catcher in the Rye - Through Holden's Eyes
The Catcher in the Rye has truly earned it's place among great classic works. J. D. Salinger created a
literary piece that was completely unique. The entire novel was written in the first person view of the
17-year-old, Holden Caulfield. The majority of the story is compiled of Holden's rudimentary
monologue of 'complexly simple' thoughts, the rest utilizing his relay of previous dialogue. That and
the use of unique punctuation, digressing explanations, and complex characterization, transformed the
simple plot into the complex literary classic.
The novel's dialogue and monologue alike, manage to relay the feel of natural speaking such as:
"I mean you'd be different in some way - I can't explain what I mean."
The contractions; you'd and can't - since they are common in everyday language - establish a very
common and simple tone. Stress on the first syllable of "different," reinforces the tone by
demonstrating how typically they speak, just as in reality. He uses dashes for pauses and signaling
associative digressions. Instead of signaling pauses, commas are used mostly where mechanically
required, for instance:
"So all of a sudden, I ran like a madman across the street - I damn near got myself killed doing it, if
you want to know the truth - and went in this stationary store and bought a pad and pencil."
Holden Caulfield creates a thought provoking point of view. On the surface many of his thought
patterns seem unrelated and straying from the topic. His association of topic with digression is used
almost constantly throughout the novel. However, realizing that these digressions are very relevant and
even crucial to the topic allow the reader to gain true insight to the character. His statements about his

sister's intelligence, followed by explanations of how well she listens, reveals Holden's associations of
intelligence with being quiet and observant. Another example would be his tension around the nuns.
Even though he enjoyed the conversation, he worried about being asked if he was Catholic. He stated
they "...would have liked it better if he were Catholic." This gives insight to his discomfort with being
judged morally, and to his association of people of morals looking down on those who don't share
them.
In Holden's descriptions and thoughts, Salinger accomplished the most unique aspect of the story's
point-of-view. Instead of using the popular - however overrated - style of well refined thoughts and
flowery descriptions, Salinger describes things as they are perceived upon a first impression. Naturally
the human mind does not instantly process first encounters or experiences into drawn out rhetorical
metaphors. We must think about them first, relate and compare them to past experiences, then form
associations. This is based on Jean Piaget theory of assimilating new situations, accommodating them
with previous knowledge, then forming generalizations for understanding, called schemas. [HoughtonMifflin Psychology, pgs. 49-50] That is exactly how Salinger describes Holden's thoughts. Holden,
like us all, has difficulty explaining things until they have been thought through. For instance, Holden
observes Stradlater's grooming and his looks. Then he compares it to the way guys look in yearbooks,
and what parents say about them. Last he concludes, through comparison, that Stradlater is the kind of
guy that your parents ask about. He states: "I've had that experience quite frequently."
In the more descriptive writings of other authors, it is difficult to relate to the complex associations.
The majority of thought inspired by these works can sometimes be just to figure out the point.
However, Salinger expresses the thought patterns of Holden in the same inherent ways that all humans
think, and through that, relays a strong tone of realism and active thought. Despite the lack of dazzling
rhetoric, Salinger's descriptions are no less intricate. They inspire a more natural style of analyzation
that most can relate to easily. A more logical and linear path, relating to typical primal human thought,
is followed instead of abstract reasoning and artistic representation.
Finally, the elements previously discussed, and a few independent ones, will be used to examine the
characterization of Holden Caulfield. Such as how Caulfield's tendency toward constant introspection
and analyzing of his world, his digression of topics, and the nature in which he speaks, gives us clues
to his character.
His level of intelligence is in no way reflected by his lack of knowledge on trivial issues. He is adept at
reasoning the things around him. Almost all of the insight Caulfield spoke of were things that would
not have been taught to him. Such as repeatedly displaying understanding of human nature,
pretensions, and thought processes. However, despite his intuition, he applies his often cynical and
pessimistic reasoning to almost everything. This fact illustrates ignorance and a level of immaturity.
This is obvious in his inquiry about the ducks, thoughts concerning women, obscene graffiti, and
always getting a "pukey cab."
Since the fact that his mental health was brought up often with his thoughts of being crazy, with
statements like "I'm crazy, swear to God, I am..." and references of psychological hospitalization in the
beginning and end, a psychological approach will be used to explain his manner. Holden demonstrates
tendencies associated with both OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and bipolar Disorder,
consisting of swings between manic and depressive states.
OCD is characterized by obsessive thoughts and their motivation of compulsive acts to relieve the
stress of the obsession. [Houghton Mifflin Psychology, pg. 539] It is quite obvious that Holden is very
obsessed with detail. He also demonstrates a common symptom of OCD, counting. At Grand Central
Station, he mentions repeatedly counting floor squares. Small details trouble him endlessly. Once he
becomes so obsessed with type of luggage that his roomate has that he hides his own under the bed.

Bipolar Disorder, the more severe of the two, is the most apparent in Caulfield. He displays an
amazing amount of symptoms of this Disorder. He suffers symptoms such as: little need to sleep,
difficulty remaining on topic discussions (jumping from subject to subject), bursting with ideas and
insight, irritation with people who rationalize with them, excessive spending of money, impaired
decision making (instances of people going to live on the streets), cynicism, and paranoia. The mania
will give way to severe depression, in some cases, in a matter of hours.
The examples of the previous symptoms are demonstrated in Caulfield's monologuos thoughts and
dialogue. The instances of his jumping from topic to topic, and his insight and ideas, have already been
discussed. Holden comments on his "little need for sleep" often like after the clubs close he says, "I
wasn't sleepy or anything." A great amount of irritation is shown toward Sally when she points out
flaws in his plans of running away. He becomes belligerent and tells her, "you give me a royal pain in
the ass." In the beginning he comments on his abundant supply of money, but by the end he is forced
to borrow from his sister. He frequently pays for peoples meals and drinks, donated money to nuns,
and offered anyone a drink "on him". A textbook example of his impaired decision making was his
plans to run away, pretend to be mute, and build a cabin in the woods. His cynicism is constant as he
repeatedly generalizes everyone on the basis of dress, status, and looks. The thoughts of always getting
a pukey cab and obscene words being everywhere are prime cases of paranoia. Then in his swing to
depression, he comments on people making him depressed, his feelings of being "lousy," and once
expressed thoughts of suicide. When he spoke of people coming to New York to get up early, he
voiced his wish to jump out of the hotel window.
Holden Caulfield, being afflicted with such handicaps, was doomed to fail in school, and his
breakdown inevitable. Living in a time when clinical psychology would not come for a few years,
Holden was forced to cope with this on his own. There was no one to go to for help, so his wish for it
manifested itself into the one thing he would like. So in his subconscious wishes for control and help
he said:
"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on
the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the
cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where their going I have to come out from
somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's
crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."
The children represent all of his problems running rampid in his game of life that "old Spencer" told
him of in the beginning. The absence of "big" people portray no one being in charge, and him the lone
"big" person, express him as being souly in control. The playing in the rye field next to a crazy cliff
would depict his nearness to his fall, while being oblivious to the danger. His one wish is to able to
prevent this, to be in control. Then after establishing his wishes he considers it impossible by
expressing thoughts of it's craziness. He is resolved that he cannot be in control, but it is all he wants.
In a world before alternatives to his painful lifestyle, what can Holden do but blindly play the game in
the rye field, right beside his cliff of sanity.
"But life is a game boy. Life is a game that one must play by the rules."
Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caufield Character Analysis
The Catcher in the Rye can be strongly considered as one of the greatest novels of all time and Holden
Caufield distinguishes himself as one of the greatest and most diverse characters. His moral system
and his sense of justice force him to detect horrifying flaws in the society in which he lives. However,
this is not his principle difficulty. His principle difficulty is not that he is a rebel, or a coward, nor that

he hates society, it is that he has had many experiences and he remembers everything. Salinger
indicates this through Holden's confusion of time throughout the novel. Experiences at Whooten,
Pency, and Elkton Hills combine and no levels of time separate them. This causes Holden to end the
novel missing everyone and every experience. He remembers all the good and bad, until distinctions
between the two disappear. Holden believes throughout the novel that certain things should stay the
same. Holden becomes a character portrayed by Salinger that disagrees with things changing. He
wants to retain everything, in short he wants everything to always remain the same, and when changes
occur; Holden reacts. However the most important aspect of Holden Caufield's character can be
attributed to his judgment of people. Holden Caufield, a character who always jumps to conclusions
about people and their phoniness, can be labeled as a hypocrite because he exemplifies a phony
himself.
Holden Caufield the 16 year old protagonist and main character of The Catcher in the Rye narrates the
story and explains all the events throughout three influential days of
his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to
find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the
scapegoat for his puzzlement in life. Harold Bloom explains,
His central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence., but because of biology he must
move either into adulthood or madness. As a sort of compromise Holden imagines himself as "the
catcher in the rye," a protector of childhood innocence exempt from movement into adulthood, which
is neither possible nor sane." (Bloom's Notes 22)
Even Gerald Rosen states that, "It is important to note here that Holden's rejection of an adult role is
not a case of sour grapes. He believes he will succeed and it is the successful life he fears"(101). Even
though Holden tries to act like an adult at times, he is actually extremely afraid of the adult life and as
a way to escape life, he creates this character, the catcher in the rye, throughout his thoughts. He feels
that by saving the children from falling off the cliff, he saves them from falling into the adult world
that he disgusts. He feels that this character can prevent the children from becoming adults and
remaining in that childish world. Holden pictured it this way,
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean except me. And I'm standing on the
edge of some crazy cliff.
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff. I mean if they're running
and they don't look we're they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I
have to do all day. I'd just be the Catcher in the Rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing
I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy(Salinger 173).
Holden exhibits the madness described before at often times throughout the book and in the end it ends
up sending him to a sanitarium. He knows he has become mad and he even tells himself this many
times in the book; but he never really believes it. One time in the book when he displays this madness
is:But I'm crazy I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I started pretending I had a
bullet in my guts. Old Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on the way to the bathroom to get a good
shot of bourbon. I pictured myself with my automatic in my pocket, and staggering a little bit. I'd walk
down a couple of floors-holding on to my guts, blood leaking all over the place. As soon as old
Maurice opened the doors he'd start screaming at me. But I'd plug him anyway(Salinger 103-4).
This explains the psychotically disturbing actions Holden makes in this novel. Holden becomes
obsessed with death and dying, and several times in the book he wishes he was dead. "Again, Holden
can't stay away from the subject of the death of family members and the decay of the corpse. Even
when he later goes to the Museum of Art, he winds up in the mummy room explaining about

preserving the dead to two boys and then getting sick and "sort of" passing out"(Rosen 100). He
knows that he has become crazy but has a problem admitting it fully and this shows why can be
considered a phony.
Holden Caufield constantly criticizes religion and many different aspects of it. Throughout the book he
makes remarks on Jesus and the Disciples many times. About the Disciples he says, "Take the
Disciples for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth"(Salinger 99). He
explains that his reason feeling this way is because he is an atheist. However he also says that he
believes in Jesus but not the disciples. However the definition of an atheist is someone who does not
believe in God. Frederick Gwynn and Joseph Blotner explain, "Jesus and Holden Caufield truly love
their neighbors, especially the poor in goods, appearance and spirit. Holden not only gives $10 to the
nuns in the station but is also depressed by their meager breakfast and the fact that they will never be
going anywhere swanky for lunch"(29). Holden and Jesus have many similarities, but Holden feels he
is totally opposite from Jesus. Just one more example of Holden's total disregard of what is going on.
Holden dislikes many people, places, and events all because of the phoniness surrounding them.
Mollie Sandock says that "He feels a scathing, harrowing disgust for the "phoniness" he senses so
acutely all around him. It makes him literally ill. He is repulsed not only by the insincerity and self
promotion of the "phonies," "hot-shots," "jerks," "bastards," and "morons," but by the phoniness that is
excellence corrupted"(966). Holden realizes all the flaws within others but he can not see them within
himself. At the end of the novel he complains heavily about the fowl language written on walls where
children can see it. Yet as Edward Corbett explains, "Holden's swearing is so habitual, so
unintentional, so ritualistic that it takes on a quality of innocence. He is constantly seeking to appear
older than he really is. His profanity is so much ingrained by habit. that he is wholly unaware of how
rough his language is"(442). There were even a few times in the book that his sister reprimanded him
for swearing too much. He also does not trust that anyone tells the truth. Sandock replies by saying,
He repeatedly insists that he is telling the truth because in his experience and by his rigorous
standards, most people do not speak the truth. He prefaces his revelations with "If you really want to
hear about it," and "If you want to know the truth," because he found few people do want to know the
truth(966).
Holden encounters many different people, and experiences many adventures throughout the three days
that this story occurs. He becomes involved with a variety of people, including taxi drivers, two nuns,
an elevator man(pimp), three girls from Seattle, a prostitute, and a former teacher from whom Holden
thinks he should flee from, in the middle of the night. He can never hold on to anyone he cares about;
so he always finds a way to ruin the relationship by escaping, or destroying it. Nash Burger says that,
"Holden's mercurial changes of mood, his stubborn refusal to admit his own sensitiveness and
emotions, his cheerful disregard of what is sometimes known as reality are typically and heart
breakingly adolescent"(New York Times 14). He also easily mocks certain people and the way they
act. On teachers Holden feels that, "You don't have to think to too hard when you talk to a
teacher"(Salinger 13). When his sister asks him if he would want to become a lawyer like his dad, he
replies by saying, "Lawyers are all right, I guess-but it doesn't appeal to me. All you do is make a lot of
dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink martinis and look like a hot-shot"(Salinger
172). Many would think that after all of Holden's experiences and tragedies, he would go to his parents
for help. However he does not, which shows that he must not have a good relationship with his parents
if he can not talk to them. It seems as if he wants to reach out to them but for some reason he can not.
Gerald Rosen gives examples of being shut out, he says,
Holden sorely misses being able to turn to his parents in his time of trouble. He doesn't say this, but he
reveals it obliquely in his movie fantasies of being shot by the mob. He first pulls the peak of his

hunting cap over his eyes and shouts about being blind. Then Holden shouts, " Mother darling, give
me your hand. Why won't you give me your hand?" This seems like clowning, but in fact it is a
revelation of his terrible anguished isolation from his family(100).
According to Webster's dictionary, "Phoniness is described as artificial, counterfeit, or
hypocritical"(362). These are all actions displayed by Holden at several times throughout the novel.
Phony is one of the words heavily used by Holden. He uses the word phony several times throughout
the course of this book and he uses it to describe the actions of others and not himself. Before Holden
judges others, he should take a look at himself and see his faults. Throughout all the encounters with
different people in the book, he is easily the phoniest of all the characters. Perhaps Holden can be
explained better by Corbett, "Holden is himself a phony. He is an inveterate liar; he frequently
masquerades as someone he is not; he fulminates against foibles of which he himself is guilty; he
frequently vents his spleen about his friends, despite the fact that he seems too be advocating the need
for charity"(443). Holden has a dreamy look on life, he dreams of retaining his childhood and
remaining the way he used to be. This idealism explains why he is close to his sister Phoebe and why
he was so close to his brother Allie. He does not want anyone to fall off the cliff into adulthood, he
wants them to remain in the rye and if they go to fall off he will catch them. He is displayed as a true
Peter Pan. Not wanting to grow up was Peter's main reason for living and so was Holden's. Holden
was Peter Pan in his own sense, but he stands out from Peter Pan in many ways, and that is why he is
The Catcher in the Rye.
Jack London - Martin Eden
Jack London, prestigious author of Martin Eden writes his opinions into his work. Aspects of different
societies are prevalent throughout his work and the class struggle between different classes of
characters is apparent in his writing. Although not an autobiography much of his writing can appear to
include his personal views on life. Martin Eden, the protagonist created by London begins as a petty
seaman works his his way to the upper class of society. Through self-determination and self-education
he is able to become a member of the bourgeois. Writers with styles similar to London in that they all
write in the same style in that shows the struggle of the poor and their climb to the upper class only to
see that it reveals a faux ideal. Alice Hoffman author of Here On Earth appears to hold many of the
same beliefs as Martin which are seen throughout her novel.
Martin Eden was forced to make his own living. Eden was never given anything and had to work to
gain everything he wanted. Everyday struggles included finding the simple necessities of food and
shelter. As a poor sailor, Eden looked around and saw the ideals of the bourgeois. Through the eyes of
Eden the Bourgeois were the educated, wealthy, and were what Martin desired to become. He dreams
of becoming educated and belonging to the upper class; ultimately he finds one small connection that
opens up a new world to the once struggling seaman.
Although later disproved, his first impressions of this class were seen from an outsider's view as
perfect. 'Here was intellectual life, he thought, and here was beauty, warm and wonderful as he had
never dreamed it could be.' (p. 40) Martin comes into contact with a family that introduces him to this
new world. The Morse family was all Martin dreamed of, he viewed them, as them part of a perfect
society and Ruth was the focal point of it.! Ruth was heavenly like a flower; her culture and
sophistication stimulated him.
Introduction to this new class surprised Martin. The library, a new idea to him, becomes his new
haven. Although he lacked both the time and money necessary for a traditional education between
sailing he began his way to self-education. In the beginning Martin was separated from Ruth because
of their class difference, but as this yearning for education developed he and Ruth become involved.

'He wasn't of their tribe, and he couldn't talk their lingo was the way he put it to himself. He couldn't
fake being their kind.' (p. 51) Although he wasn't born any with any of these 'privileges' he made it his
business to strive to fulfil what he thought was the better society. Through his studying he soon
developed a love for writing and although he was still a sailor he continued to develop a passion for
something new to his mind. Discovering the world of writing and literature he was able to take himself
places he had never dreamed he would be. His climb to the upper class was a big struggle for him in
his life. Martin's first attempt at becoming a part of the society was a failure. At first his etiquette
wasn't good enough and he was too opinionated and looked down upon by guests of the Morses'.
Martin's writing transcends him into a new person. Martin's transformation allows him to understand
that things are not cracked up to what they appear to be. When he achieves opulence, Martin feels as if
he is still not accepted as a true member of the elite. He believes that he is still the same Martin Eden,
his fame has only changed his image not his character. 'Martin bethought himself of the numerous
occasions on which he had met Judge Blount at the Morses' and when Judge Blount had not invited
him to dinner. Why had he not invited him to dinner than? He asked himself. He had not changed. He
was the same Martin Eden. What made the difference?' (p. 437) The truth of the upper class is revealed
once Martin becomes accepted as one of them. Martin becomes disgusted and as he was once looked
down upon, he begins to look down upon the members of the 'upper class.' Throughout literature this
common rejection can be found. In Alice Hoffman's, Here On Earth Hollis is similar to Martin Eden.
This is the same rejection that Hollis experiences at the hands of Hank and their eronics. The age-old
argument of new money vs. old money is a central theme throughout literature. At one point another
prominent author, F. Scott Fitzgerald remarked to Ernest Hemingway, 'the rich are different from you
and me.' As Hollis and Martin Eden are to the respective rich, they can never be truly accepted into the
bourgeois society. Hover, their dedication to assuming the identity of the rich causes them misery and
sorrow and eventually leads to a tragic death. Martin Eden's perseverance and hard work were both a
let down and a pickup it was a double-edged sword. His laboring leads to his eventual success and his
emotional downfall.
London explores a key question; Is it worth the trouble to gain prestige and wealth but to lose your
livelihood? Through Martin Eden London explores the struggle between classes. Specifically London
explains the yearning of the poor to be rich and the steadfastness of the rich to be unacceptant of the
'nouvelle rich.' This struggle is apparent as barriers continue to exist in the struggle between classes.
John Steinbeck - Infinity Mirror
"Tularecito" is a myth about truth. Tularecito, just a character of that myth, is the focus for this glossed
over fable. Steinbeck draws on this form of genre to present the idea that we are all a part of what
happens to others, based upon our nature.
The image presented of Tularecito is that of a demon, an idiot savant, a boy with a gift from God, and
that gift's cost. He is a freak, a dangerous misfit, an innocent who does not need the constraints of
reality. Tularecito is a test. The test is one of moral caliber. It is a test of the souls of the characters who
overshadaow Tularecito.
Pancho is a man that is both holy and sinful. His purfunctory act of church going becomes true belief
as alcohol demons induce him to halucinate a deformed boy into an outcast from hell. He looks into
his mirror and sees himself, becomes shaken, reforms.
From Pancho's employer, Franklin Gomez, we get a cold hard look into society. We see a mother,
knowing her son is to be hated and feared, and perhaps possibly killed, cannot face killing her son with
her bare hands.
She leaves the killing to exposure to the elements, enying herself a look into Tularecito.

Franklin adopts Pancho's demon, and Tularecito transforms into a disadvantaged who has been gifted
with talent. Tularecito becomes a man at the age of six, "The boy grew rapidly, but after the fifth year
his brain did not grow any more," To Franklin, Tularecito is grace, and graceless. He is talented in all
things of any physical strength, and well proficient in the creation of beauty, and an artist in the care
for life of nature. The touch of Tularecito brings beauty, and life, and love to the world, until he
becomes enraged, (should anyone endanger what came from the touch of his hand). Franklin looked
into Tularecito's mirror and saw what Tularecito was. Authority views come from several directions.
While one teacher sees Tularecito as a Pavlovian dog, needing to be trained, the other sees him as an
idiot savant, needing only to be pushed into harmless fantasy. This leads a third view of Tularecito, one
of a simple minded killer that needs to be locked up for his own good.
Tularecito is viewed as less than human from the start. His name means "little frog", and his physical
disabilities are seen by all, causing fear.
Tularecito is a noble savage. Dangerous to look at but hiding the soul of God, hf is intimidating, a
creator, and dangerously tempermental. As Steinbeck weaves his tale, it is obviously full of metaphors
on the basic belief of our society that everything must be forced into a plausable category, fit for
inclusion into the human race. Tularecito should never have gone to school. He would have been
happy living at home, simple as he was. In the end society takes Tularecito and makes him a monster.
Since monsters are not allowed into human society, Tularecito goes looking for a different society that
he does belong to.
Unfortunately this society doen not exist. Tularecito has no control over his perceptions of reality and
fantasy. He searches for a world of fantasy, and in his efforts, he creates a hole. When this hole is
covered up, it confirms Tularecito's belief in fantasy. Tularecito creates another hole, and waits for his
fantasy to show.
Tularecito has only one flaw. He believes that what he created should not be destroyed. Whenever this
happens, should it be school, work, or fantasy, Tularecito defends his creations with the only thing he
can understand, violence. It is not like true, calculated violence, but very much like a motor nerve
reaction. He reacts with pure emotion and pain, and eventually he kills.
Steinbeck tells an interesting story with Tularecito as a mirror. In fact, all the characters in the story are
mirrors. As we look at them we see how we measure against them. But Tularecito is a mirror with an
infinity of sides. He is a tool for testing human beliefs, one of which is that sometimes, it is better to
leave things alone than to try to force them into our mirror image of how they should exist.
John Steinbeck - Essay on Loneliness
"Of Mice and Men" essay on Loneliness is a basic part of human life. Every one becomes lonely once
in a while but in Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men", he illustrates the loneliness of ranch life in
the early 1930's and shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from
loneliness. Steinbeck creates a lonely and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses names
and words such as the town near the ranch called "Soledad", which means loneliness and the card
game "Solitaire" Which means by ones self. He makes it clear that all the men on the ranch are lonely,
with particular people lonelier than others. In the opening chapter, Steinbeck introduces the idea of
loneliness and men who work on ranches living temporary lives, with no aim in life. Steinbeck uses
the setting to convey these ideas. As they were walking along the path, it is described as " a path
beaten by hard boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by
tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water" (p.18) This
creates a setting and shows how men who work on the ranch have had temporary, isolated and lonely
lives. He also writes "an ash-pile made by many fires" (p.18) This shows that many men must have

walked through this road to enter a lonely and miserable life, moving from ranch to ranch finding
useless work. I think all the people living in the ranch are lonely. This proves this where Steinbeck
describes the bunk house where all the workers sleep. "Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box
with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for personal belongings of the occupant of the
bunk." (p38) The way Steinbeck describes the bunkhouse indicates their lonely lives. Also by only
having two shelves for their personal belongings shows their lonely insecure lives.
However, there are particular people in the ranch who have lonelier lives than others. The loneliest
person on the ranch has to be Crooks, who suffers from extreme loneliness because he is black and he
is living in a ranch and the surrounding area which is very racist. He lives by himself, because the
other men do not like him. He does not take part in any of the social activities in the ranch and is left
out completely. He is so lonely that he turns to books, which soon becomes boring and he will become
lonely again. He is so desperate for company and for someone to talk, even though he does not really
show it. When Lennie comes into his room he just talks and doesn't care if Lennie is listening or not,
because he is so desperate. Crooks says to Lennie "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" (p.105)
This shows that he desperately needs a friend to talk to and he is at the point where he is becoming
emotionally sick of it. In a way this point made by Crooks shows that George and Lennie support each
other from being very lonely, even if Lennie is as thick as an ape, he still disables George from being
lonely. George and Lennie have something which all the men on the ranch envy and that is friendship.
Crooks calls Lennie "nuts" and does not believe that Lennie will own his own land with George and
Candy. He exclaims "An' never a God damn one of `em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants
a little piece of lan'. It's just in their head." (p.106) This shows that he has no hope for the future and
that he has no belief in men from that ranch going to heaven or a better place.
Crooks is probably the loneliest character in the ranch with Curley's wife. There are two characters
that we never get to know the name, they are the boss and Curley's wife. The boss does not seem to be
friends with any of the men, maybe to keep his place as higher than everyone else, or in case he has to
sack one of the workers. However, there is prove that he is not friendly person as he does not seem to
understand friendship between two people. Such as where George told The Boss tat they travel
together, he replied "What stake you got in this guy? You takin' his pay away from him? (p.43) This
show that nobody understands friendship, as it does not exist on the ranch. Curley's wife is controlled
by her husband, who does not let her speak to any of the men on the ranch, which leads her into being
lonely. Even though Curley's wife is mentioned frequently, we never know what her name is. This just
shows how people do not care for others, leading to loneliness. I think all the men do not consider her
as a normal human being, but and object. None of the men are to scared to talk to her in case Curley
becomes jealous and wants to start a fight. She has no female friends on the ranch, so the men are her
only option, but they do not want to become friends with her.She spots out Lennie and wants to start a
friendship with him as all of the others fear Curley and will have nothing to do with her. She says to
Lennie Think I dont like to talk to somebody ever once in a while? This shows that she is trying to tell
Lennie that she desperately needs to talk to somebody as she hardly does ever talk to no-one because
they do not listen to her. I do not think that She should be as lonely as she is, because she has a
husband, but he ignores her and just goes out to Cat houses once in a while, where she is not allowed
to go anywhere, but stay in the house. I am given the impression that she is living in two lives. In
reality she is living in a boring ranch, with no companionship in isolation. However, she also believes
that she would make it to the movies one day. She says to Lennie "I aint used to livin like this. I coulda
made something of myself... maybe I will yet "(p.124) Because she is so lonely, she wants to think of
herself as having a future ahead of her, but of course she doesn't.

when Curleys Wfe is Killed by Lennie, Steinbeck describes Curley's wife as a pretier figure. He writes
"..the meanness and the plannings of the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her
face." (p.128) This shows that now Curley's wife is dead, she now looks happy and has escaped from
her loneliness.
Curley's Wife is not the only one with a dream future, Crooks wishes he could be educated in the
future, but like he said, "never a God damn one of `em ever gets it". Also Candy has a dream of
owning a future farm with Lennie and George. Candy is an old ranch worker who is disabled due to an
accident in the past. He is now a swamper, who's only companionship was his dog, until Carlson
shoots it for him because it is old and useless, just like Candy. Later on in the book, he wishes he
should have shot the dog himself, which is similar to the tragic fate with George and Lennie later on in
the book. When his dog dies, he searches for new friendship as he does not want to grow older and
older being lonely. He hopes George and Lennie will become these friends, as when he overhears them
talking about their dream ranch he offers his savings into that farm, and makes George and Lennie's
dream begin to turn into reality.
" `S'pose I went in with you guys. That's three hundred and fifty bucks I'd put in... How'd that be? "
(p.87) This shows that he is fed up of being in a place where he is not wanted. He knows that he is
going to get sacked soon, when he is no use at all, and he will have no place, no friends and no life to
turn to. That is why he is sacrificing his savings into a farm, which he could live the rest of his life in,
in peace and comfort. Candy's desperate attempt to be a part of their dream shows us the amount of
loneliness that exists for him.
I believe all the other characters on the ranch, such as Whit, Carlson, Slim and Curley, are all also
lonely, but they seem not to care. Curley, however, even though he has a wife, seems to be lonely. Not
very many people like him as he is not a very nice man. He wants to keep his place on the ranch by
looking down on people, and by keeping his wife away from the other men. This has led for him to
have no friends. This is probably why he goes to a brothel with other ranch men, as you have to be
lonely to go to a cat house.
George and Lennie seem to be two lonely men. George has to always keep an eye on Lennie and
therefore Lennie is a burden to him. Lennie on the other hand is lonely, but he is too dim to
understand. He seems to live in his own world, and evolves everything around whether it pleases
George or not. But they have something that all the other men have not got, and that is a true
friendship. Lennie is there for George to keep sane, while George is there to help Lennie. George likes
to talk to Lennie most of the time about their dream ranch. He says to Lennie that guys like us are the
loneliest people in the world but he comments on themselves "With us it aint like that. We got a future.
We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.." (p.32) This just shows that they both enjoy
talking to each other, making each other happy. But later on in the book, George loses Lennie, as he
kills him himself. When one of the members of a friendship is removed, there is much misery. When
Candy lost his dog, he kept thinking about him. He felt he should have shot his dog himself, not a
stranger. When George had to shoot Lennie, he felt terrible. He had just shot his best friend, his only
friend in the world. Because of this, he has to live the rest of his life alone and knowing that he killed
his only friend. But I think he did the right thing. I think it shows their strong friendship. George did
what was best for himself and for Lennie, a she could not watch Lennie die miserably in pain, getting
brutally killed by George. He wanted George to die peacefully, thinking about the thing he loves about
the most-rabbits. He knew Lennie would have died in slow and cruel way if he left it for Curley.
After George killed Lennie, it seems that he would have a better life without him, but really he would
have a worse life and would turn out like the other ranch workers. He will suffer from loneliness and
will have no true friends. Of course, his dream will never come true as he could not precede with it

without Lonnie. I think the simple moral to the story is Every body needs someone to talk to in order
to survive. Curley's wife died because she had no one to talk to. Crooks says he feels sick sometimes
because he is so lonely. It is obvious that he will not live a happier life and will probably die soon. And
Candy, he is old and lonely and is associated with his dog. stein beck writes he will go into the same
direction as his dog, which is probably true. It is obvious that all the workers on the ranch will die a
sad and lonely death, mainly because they had no friends. If this book taught me anything, it`ll have to
be, every body needs a friend to talk to, no matter what race, sex or age, you have to have
companionship to prevent you from suffering from loneliness.
Of Mice and Men - The theme of loneliness
"Of Mice and Men" is a skillful novel, which deals with the theme of `outsiders', that is, individuals
who do not fit into the mainstream of society. The novel portrays this idea of loneliness throughout
John Steinbeck's stimulating and exciting novel.
There are several clearly identified themes running through the novel. The loyalty and friendship
which exists between two men, George and Lennie, and the hostile environment of America during the
American Depression. But, the main two themes of `Of Mice and Men' were loneliness and prejudice.
Steinbeck raises questions in the mind of the reader that the novel would be based on loneliness. The
first line read "A few miles south of Soledad". This is a clever idea by Steinbeck as "Soledad" means
loneliness in Spanish. The title "Of Mice and Men" may be seen as a warning for the whole novel as it
came from Robbie Burns's poem "To a Mouse" which translates as `no matter how well be plan the
future, things often go wrong'.
The setting of Steinbeck's novel is very important because the date when the novel took place was in
1929, around the time New York Wall Street stock market collapsed, resulting in the dollar becoming
worthless. Unemployment was high at this time and men had to move around a lot looking for work,
which meant they were never in one place long enough to form any relationships, so this was a very
lonely existence.
Steinbeck shaped the ranch where George Milton and Lennie Small worked in as an isolated and
primitive place. Steinbeck uses his personal experience as a ranch worker to describe how the working
men at the ranch felt in the novel. George says that "ranch workers are the loneliest people in the
world and don't belong nowhere".
Steinbeck also portrays loneliness through characterisation. He uses sexism, racism and ageism to get
his message across.
One example of this is when George meets the old, decaying Candy and his antiquated dog, he tells
him about the "black" man called Crooks. Candy stated to the inarticulate George "give the Stable
Buck hell. Ya see the stable buck's a nigger". This was typical of 1930's America as black people were
thought of as inferior to white people. This suggests that Crooks was friendless. He has his "own bunk
in a separate nigger room" and "he scattered personal possessions around the floor; for being alone he
could leave things about". Crooks is obviously suffering from racial discrimination as he is the only
black man on the ranch and is not allowed in the bunkroom with the other men because of his colour.
He therefore, had a very lonely existence.
Steinbeck also uses Candy to portray loneliness. The disconsolate Candy becomes lonely after his
beloved dog was shot. The men in the ranch describe the dog as a "stinking hound" and an "old
b******d". Candy feels dejected as he says "I wish somebody would shoot me when I become
useless".
This proves that Steinbeck describes Candy as lonely character.
Perhaps the loneliest character, which Steinbeck creates in the novel, is Curly's wife. She is the only

female in the ranch and although she is married, you never witness the distinct couple of Curly and his
wife together; they are always searching for each other. Curly's wife is lonely and, as a result of this,
she was endlessly trying to make friends with George and Lenny. She tries to convince Lennie to
speak to her despite what George was declaring. Curly's wife remarked, "You can talk to me, don't
listen to George". But, Lenny didn't agree with what she has to say. Another piece of evidence, to
suggest that Curly's wife is lonely is that she had no name! This proves that no one ever stays long
enough to get to know her. Curly's wife also flirts with the male workers of the ranch to seek attention.
The workers think she is a "tart" but she is an insecure, lonely woman and this is shown when she tells
Lennie "I never get to talk to anyone, or else, Curly gets mad". My personal opinion is that Curly's
wife married Curly for company, not for love.
Steinbeck illustrates Slim to say to George and Lenny "I've never seen a couple like you two before. It
is not normal in this area". You never read about Slim in abundance which must also indicate he is a
lonely character.
Another example which Steinbeck uses to illustrate why these men are lonely was when Whit
describes that he has a friend who was in a magazine; he said, "Do you remember Bill Tenner. He
worked here three years ago?"
This emphasizes how these ranch workers never developed relationships.
Steinbeck uses George and Lennie as a contrast because they are the only people to have anyone to
talk to. To demonstrate this, Lenny exclaimed "But not us because.........because I got you to look after
me and you have got me to look after you and that's why".
The last line that Steinbeck wrote read, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys". Curly
isn't used to being with someone for so long as he does not understand why they were depressed.
In conclusion, John Steinbeck expertly portrays the theme of loneliness in "Of Mice and Men" in an
interesting and original manner. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
Of Mice and Men - The Struggle
"Of Mice and Men" is a book about two men and their struggle to achieve their dream of owning a
farm through their companionship. The two men are completely different, one being a retarded fellow
(Lennie), and the other, a typical ranch hand (George) who travels with him. On the path to achieving
their dream, they run into obstacles, but stick together, stressing the importance of true friendship.
Steinbeck wrote this book to tell us how important it is to have a friend to share your life with.
The book starts off set in Soledad, which, when translated into English means "lonely". But when
Lennie and George are together, they are anything but lonely. They share a friendship so great that if
either person dies, or both are separated, they other could not survive. Their friendship is a true one,
where they share their lives together, benefitting from each others company. "Guys like us, that work
on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They
come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing
you know they're pounding in' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead
to....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that give as a damn about us.
We don't have to sit in no bar room blow in' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them
other guys gets in jail then can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. But not us! An' why?
Because.....because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why."
(p.13-14) Because of the extent of Lennie and George's friendship, they go beyond the mere sharing of
words. George and Lennie share a dream of owning a farm, due to their friendship with each other.
Their friendship makes this dream possible, because if there were only one person, there would be no
one to share the dream with, it would be just a silly old thought, and not a serious possibility. "With us

it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us......O.K.
Someday--we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres
an' a cow and some pigs and' An' live off the fatta the lan, An' have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about
what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter
and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that,
George." (p.14) In the third chapter of this book, Candy is center of attention due to his dog, which
Carlson wants killed. Candy is an old man who has no one to talk to or keep him company besides the
dog. To him, the dog was more than an animal that smelled, it was a companion to share life with.
When Carlson tells Candy he wants to kill his dog, Candy is hesitant to answer. Candy stalls, and
finally gives in to Carlson's request. He had this dog for his whole life, and now that it was gone,
Candy would be abandoned without a friend. Out of this loneliness, he jumps on to Lennie and
George's dream, giving practically everything he has to them, stressing the importance of friendship
and sharing your life with a friend. "Tell you what' s'pose I went in with you guys. Tha's three hundred
and fifty bucks I'd put in. I ain't much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden
some. How'd that be? I'd make a will an' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain't got
no relatives nor nothing." (p.59) In this book most of the people had no one to share their life with as
intimately as George, Lennie, Candy and his dog did, leaving themselves with a void which they tried
to fill in. Take for example, Curley's wife. She had a husband, but he was never there to spend time
with her, so she went in search of someone to talk to. What Curley's wife needed was a companion or a
friend which she could spend her life with because even though she was beautiful, she didn't have
anyone to spend her life with, therefore resulting in her unhappiness. "Think I don't like to talk to
somebody ever' once in a while? Think I like to stick that house alla time?" (p.77) Through out the
book Steinbeck uses many characters to emphasize a message which he wants to get across to us. By
looking at the situations which George, Lennie, Candy, and Curley's wife were in, we can conclude
that Steinbeck wrote the book to tell us how important it is to have a friend to share your life with.
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
Do you have an unrealistic dream? In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the main
characters in the story each had a dream in which they were unable to carry out. Taking place during
the Great Depression era in the United States, these individuals struggled to survive. The theme "It is
better not to have big dreams in life because they are too difficult to attain and you end up bitterly
disappointed and unmotivated" was brought up and proven true by them. Lennie, Candy, and Curley's
wife's dreams, like "the best laid schemes o'mice an' men gang aft a-gley, had been led astray. Lennie's
dream had been shattered when his craving for soft materials caused him to commit a crime. Lennie
dreamt of owning a farm and a little house with George, and most of all, tending some rabbits. Seeking
employment and asylum at Tyler Ranch, Lennie longed to have a feel of some soft materials.
However, being a feeble-minded man, and having a childlike understanding of his enormous strength,
the result was tragic when Lennie broke the neck of Curley's wife while feeling her soft hair. His first
thought after the incidence was that he would no longer be able to tend the rabbits. He did not realized
how serious this mistake of his was. It had cost him not only his dream, but his life as well. The only
piece of land that Lennie ended up with was his grave. Because of Lennie's fault, Candy's dream of
having a share of George's farm became unrealistic. Candy was among the ones who could hardly
manage the struggle to survive during the Depression. His age has robbed his usefulness, so he was
more than happy to take part in the plans of George and Lennie. Their dream farm was always on
Candy's mind. He went on to figuring about how they could earn money off the rabbits, and their lives
then. However, he discovered what Lennie has done, and saw that the farm which has once seemed so

real is now gone. Curley's wife dreamt of being a movie star and regrets marrying Curley. Having
encountered an actor when she was fifteen, she was told that she was a natural in acting, but her
mother forbade her to pursue her dream. On the same night that she met another actor, she met Curley.
When no letter came from the actor, she marries Curley. However, she has always wanted to make
some achievements and loved attention. She constantly wandered around looking for trouble. When
she was killed by Lennie, she was not able to go after her dream anymore. Lennie, Candy, and Curley's
wife were not capable of having their dreams come true, but were full of hope. A problem got into
each of their way, which they have not the power to solve. They have shown how big dreams often
cause tragedies, and are unrealistic.
Oedipus the King and Odysseus
A good leader is known by its influence, commands, and strong will. Odysseus in the Odyssey by
Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, and Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles, translated by
Robert Fagles; both characters demonstrate strong leadership by characterizing traits towards strength,
courage, nobility, confidence, and great insight. These two different personalities prove similar
characteristics toward a good leadership developing their knowledge and power differently towards
themselves and their public.
Odysseus, the protagonist of the odyssey, has defining characteristics traits of a Homeric leader
developing power, bravery, dignity, a thirst for glory, and confidence in his authority. His most
distinguishing trait, however, is his sharp intellect. Odysseus's quick thinking helps him out of some
very tough situations. He fought among the Greek heroes at Troy; he struggled to return to his
kingdom in Ithaca. Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope and father of Prince Telemachus.
Though a strong courageous warrior, he most re-owned for his cunning. He is a favorite of the goddess
Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but a bitter enemy of Posedium that gives him a tough time
achieving his goals.
Oedipus, the protagonist of Oedipus the King, is a man of swift action and great insight. At the
Opening of Oedipus the King, he proves his qualities that make him an excellent ruler who anticipates
his subjects' needs. He becomes a king of Thebes before the action of Oedipus the king begins. He is
renowned for his intelligence and his ability to solve riddles. He saved the city of Thebes and was
made its king by solving the riddle of the sphinx, the supernatural being that had held the city capture.
Yet Oedipus is stubbornly blind to the truth about himself. His name's literal meaning ("swollen foot")
is the clue to his identity. He was taken from the house of Laius as a baby and left in the mountains
with his feet bound together. On his way to Thebes, he killed his biological father, not knowing who he
was, and preceded to marry Jocasta his biological mother, not knowing who she was either. But
Oedipus swiftness and confides continue until the very end by his interrogation, and motion trying to
keep pace with his fate, even if it goes well beyond his reach.
These two leaders distribute same traits and approach as when referring to ruling. For example: in the
beginning of the Odyssey, Odysseus was not much alert into his ruling because he was long lost, but
his journey back home gave him more strength. As he immediately approached his city, he used his
intelligence in hiding his identity to figure the wrongs that had happened in his absence. As soon as he
figure his plans, he took over using all his powers and sending the idiotic to the places they deserved
to be because of the damage they caused Odysseus and his family. In Oedipus the king, Oedipus used
all his powers at the beginning in solving the riddle and saving Thebes, after he had used all his
strength he then found out the absurd tragedy of marrying his mother Jocasta and killing his father. At
the end of Oedipus the king he finds his peace, giving his trust to Theseus. Giving up his intellect
powers he continues to precede his normal life in peace.

These two authors seem to have different meaning of a strong leader in ruling its nation. Homer's ideal
ended in a fairy tale hero, in a dramatic and humorous journey coming to save his kingdom, and
having a happy ending in achieving the right goals. Sophocle's design of the myth aroused with a
larger intellectual and emotional reaction, with his strong intelligence saving his city, and came to a
strong and powerful start, giving the reader the notion of a clever leader. But as he arose from his
leadership, giving up because of the discovery in his personal striking life, did not give him an ending
of a good ruler.
Christopher Marlowe - His Contribution to English Literature
Christopher Marlowe: what did he contribute to English literature and how is his writing reflective of
the style of the times? Christopher Marlowe contributed greatly to English literature. He developed a
new metre which has become one of the most popular in English literary history, and he revitalised a
dying form of English drama. His short life was apparently violent and the m an himself was
supposedly of a volatile temperament, yet he managed to write some of the most delicate and beautiful
works on record. His writing is representative of the spirit of the Elizabethan literature in his attitude
towards religion, his choice of writing style and in the metre that he used.
Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 the son of a Canterbury shoemaker and was an exact
contemporary of Shakespeare. He was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, and Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. He became a BA in 1584 and a MA in 1587. He seem s to have been of a violent
nature and was often in trouble with the law. He made many trips to the continent during his short
lifetime and it has been suggested that these visits were related to espionage. In 1589 he was involved
in a street brawl which resulted in a man's death. An injunction was brought against him three years
later by the constable of Shoreditch in relation to that death. In 1592 he was deported from the
Netherlands after attempting to issue forged gold coins. On the 30th of May 1593 he was killed by
Ingram Frizer in a Deptford tavern after a quarrel over the bill. He was only 29 years old. During the
middle ages, culture and government were influenced greatly by the Church of Rome. The
Reformation of Henry VIII (1529-39), and the break of ties with that church meant that the monarch
was now supreme governor. This altered the whole balance of political and religious life, and,
consequently, was the balance of literature, art and thought. The literature of Elizabethan England was
based on the crown. This period of literature (1558-1625) is outstanding because of its range of
interests and vi tality of language. Drama was the chief form of Elizabethan art because there was an
influx of writers trying to emulate speech in their writing, and because of the suddenly expanded
vocabulary writers were using (most of these new words came from foreign languages).
Marlowe's plays comprise The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage (possibly with some collaboration
from Nashe), Tamburlaine parts one and two, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, Dr. Faustus and The
Massacre at Paris. Up to the time of Tamburlaine, written in 15 87-8, there had been a few so-called
tragedies. Of these, the best known is Gorboduc, first played in 1561, and apparently popular enough
to justify its printing a few years later, although the play was "a lifeless performance, with no character
of enough vitality to stand out from the ruck of the rest of the pasteboards." With Tamburlaine,
Marlowe swept the Elizabethan audiences off their feet. The Jew of Malta, written after Tamburlaine,
begins very strongly, with the main character a commanding figure of the same calibre as Tamburlaine,
and the characterisation is better rounded than Tamburlaine's. Sadly the play comes to pieces after the
sec ond act, and it has been speculated that another less talented author revised the ending. Edward II
is unexpected in that the main character is a neurotic weakling, instead of a dominant figure like Henry
V. Even though the characterisation is clumsy, it is yet a dramatist's treatment, and one can see that
Marlowe has moved towards creating a more developed character. Marlowe thus breathed new life

into English tragedy, and paved the way for the greatest English dramatist, Shakespeare. It is quite
possible that without Marlowe's contribution to English tragedy, Shakespeare would never have at
tempted such an unpopular style and he would not be canonised as he is today. The Tragical History of
Doctor Faustus is surely the pinnacle of Marlowe's achievement. The subject no doubt appealed to
Marlowe. In no other play of his, nor in the majority of English literature, is there a scene to match the
passionate and tragic inte nsity of Faustus' last hour on earth.
Faustus used to be placed as the play immediately following Tamburlaine, yet a discovery by Dr. F. S.
Boas led to the conclusion that the play cannot be dated before 1592. This was because the English
translation of the German Faustbuch was not published until 1592, and though it is possible that
Marlowe saw the manuscript before publication, the evidence suggests that Dr. Faustus was written
after Edward II. This would mean that instead of making a massive jump in quality from Tamburlaine
and The Jew of Malta to Dr. Faustus, and then reverting back to Edward II, Marlowe wrote
Tamburlaine and The Jew and felt that he had not really set his genius and so casts back to the type of
these earlier plays and far surpasses them in dramatic poetry. Faustus tells of a man who sells his soul
to Satan in return for twenty-four years of knowledge and power. The protagonist, Dr. John Faustus,
instead of sharing his gift with others, fritters his years away until the in last scene he realises the
grave m istakes he has made. The scenes where Faustus uses his power for practical jokes are in stark
contrast to those where something meaningful happens to him. There are three places in the play
where Marlowe's genius can be seen illuminated by perfection of m etre and rhetoric; the scene where
Faustus conjures up Mephistopheles, the scene in which he speaks to Helen of Troy and Faustus' last
hour on Earth. It has been suggested by some that Marlowe only wrote these three scenes and the rest
was added by someon e else. However these are probably the same people who think Marlowe and
Shakespeare are the same man. Even so, these scenes were unmatched in their word play and metre
until Shakespeare. This play is timeless because its subject matter is still interest ing today and because
the force of Marlowe's conviction cannot help but invoke emotions in even the most soulless of critics.
Possibly Marlowe's greatest gift to English literature was his metre. Marlowe was the real creator of
the most famous, most versatile and noblest of English measure, the unrhymed decasyllabic (ten
syllables) line called blank verse. Blank verse or iambic pentameter as it is known was first used
twenty or so years before Marlowe, however it was intolerably monotonous. The metre comes from
the Greek Iambic trimeter, which was a twelve-syllable line with six feet. The experimenters were
perceptive enough to see that the more slowly moving English language would require five feet
instead of six. The result was such lifeless pieces as this from Gorboduc: Your lasting age shall be their
longer stay, For cares of kings, that rule as you have ruled, For public wealth and not for private joy,
Do waste man's life, and hasten crooked age, With furrowed face and with enfeebled limbs, To draw
on creeping death a swifter pace.
They two yet young shall bear the parted reign With greater ease, than one, now old, alone, Can wield
the whole, for whom much harder is With lessened strength the double weight to bear.
This piece is unbelievably tedious, and without a sensitive ear like Marlowe's, blank verse would never
have been the great measure that it is. What Marlowe did was to revise the internal structure of the
single line. In some lines he substituted an iamb (- / ) for a spondee (- - ), a tribrach (/ / / ) or a dactyl (/ / ) in certain feet, which made each line more interesting and versatile. Als o, while having a few
lines strictly conform to the norm, he created lines with four, three even two groups of sounds. By
using these devices, Marlowe transformed blank verse from a stiff and monotonous to a varied and
flexible metre, as can be seen in Fa ustus' invocation to Helen: Was this the face that launch'd a
thousand ships? And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?- Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.The first line is regular, with five feet and five stresses. The second has the same number of stresses,

but the grouping of the words is irregular. Whereas the third is completely irregular. It is Marlowe's
greatest gift to English literature that he ma naged to develop a metre which gave the author more
creative freedom than any other before or since. Marlowe's writing is reflective of the spirit of the
Elizabethan age in a number of ways. His subject matter and characters in his plays often question the
validity of the church. He has been criticised for being an atheist, for example he was accused of
blasphemy in his portrayal of Helen in Dr. Faustus She is seen as a goddess who has the power to
cleanse Faustus' soul, even though God cannot. She is more powerful than the virgin Mary, and the
fact that Marlowe presents the proposition that God is inca pable of redeeming Faustus' soul farther
aggravated the church. This new thinking about the church is part of the spirit of the Elizabethan age
due to King Henry VIII's reformation. In many Elizabethan plays, the main character is a merchant of
some sort, due to the rise in power of these middle class businessmen. This can be seen in many plays
of Shakespeare, as well as Marlowe's The Rich Jew of Malta. Also the protagonists in Mar lowe's
plays are often similar to Everyman, particularly Dr. Faustus, except that these characters are
individuals, and not mankind in general, in that the character learns something which is important to
the audience as well. The Everyman plays were writ ten shortly before Marlowe's birth, and again this
re-characterisation by Marlowe is a reflection of the spirit of the times in his works. Lastly, the fact
that Marlowe used iambic pentameter, as well as having drama as his writing style is representative of
the Elizabethan age. Although these were contributions to English literature, Marlowe really set the
trend for this age, and many cont emporaries of his used these techniques. In that sense, one of
Marlowe's contributions to English literature was that he defined a lot of the aspects of Elizabethan
literature. Marlowe's revolutionary use of literature is both representative of the age, a s well as a
contribution to English literature.
Marlowe contributed greatly to English literature. His works are excellent on their own; though he also
revitalised the tragedy as well as developing blank verse, one of the most beautiful, flexible and
versatile of metres. His work is representative of the spirit of the Elizabethan age in that Marlowe used
drama as his chief form of writing, his subject matters were demonstrative of this age, for example the
loss of belief in the church, and he wrote in iambic pentameter which became very popular before the
end of this age.
Henrik Ibsen - Life and Carreer
Henrik Ibsen was born at Skien in Norway on March 20, 1828. When he was eight, his father went
bankrupt. This event made a deep impression upon him. After they went bankrupt, his family moved to
a small farm north of the town where they lived in poverty. Henrik was forced to attend a small local
school. He received a substandard education. In 1843, the family returned to town. Unfortunately they
were still poor. Ibsen came from a very dysfunctional family. His domineering father was an alcoholic
who found solace in alcohol. His quiet mother found comfort in religion. He used them as a model for
his plays. The blend of an overbearing husband and a submissive wife made appearances in his plays
Brand, A Doll's House, and Ghosts. The bitter character of Hjalmar Ekdal in The Wild Duck was based
on Ibsen's father. When he was sixteen, he moved to Grimstad to work for a druggist. He had wanted
to become a doctor, but game up on the idea after he failed Greek and Math on his! University
entrance exams. Medicine was not his only ambition. He also wanted to be a painter.
In 1850, Ibsen entered the first of his three writing periods. His romantic period went from 1850 to
1873. The greatest works from this period are the Brandand Peer Gynt Most of the plays that he wrote
during these years are romantic historical dramas. Lady Inger of Ostraat was a romantic drama with
intrigue. The Vikings of Helgeland was a simple and sad tragedy. The last play of the Romantic period
was Emperor and Galilean. It is similar to Ibsen's other play Catiline because it showed his impatience

with traditional attitudes and values. In both plays he showed sympathy for historical characters who
were famous for being rebellious.
Ibsen became the stage manager and playwright of the National Stage in Bergen in 1851. He worked
there for six years. In 1857, he moved to Christiania (Oslo), where he became director of the
Norwegian Theatre. He neglected both writing and the theatre. He plunged into social life with his
literary friends and drank heavily. In 1858, Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen, with whom he had one
child, Sigurd Ibsen. This was a marriage that was often as misunderstood as the marriages of Ibsen's
dramas. At the age of thirty, Ibsen saw his first performances of Shakespeare in Copenhagen and
Dresden. Shakespeare's work convinced Ibsen that serious drama must strive toward a psychological
truth and form its basis on the characters and conflicts of mankind. Ibsen and his friend Bjrnstjerne
Bjrnson founded "The Norwegian Company" in 1859. After the Norwegian Theatre went bankrupt in
1862, Ibsen was depressed and broke. As a result, he was sometimes seen drunk on the streets of
Christiani! a. His success with The Pretenders in 1863 inspired him to write several poems. Ibsen
became bitterly disappointed with current political events, especially Norway's failure to help the
Danes in their war against Prussia. In 1864 he left Norway. After he left, he spent most of his time in
Rome, Dresden and Munich. He was supported by a pension from the Norwegian state and income
from his books. In 1866, he had a significant breakthrough with his play Brand. In his speech to
Christiania students in 1874, Ibsen said, "All I have written, I have mentally lived through. Partly I
have written on that which only by glimpses, and at my best moments, I have felt stirring vividly
within me as something great and beautiful. I have written on that which, so to speak, has stood higher
than my daily self. But I have also written on the opposite, on that which to introspective
contemplation appears as the dregs and sediments of one's own nature. Yes, gentlemen, nobody can
poetically present that to which he has not to a certain degree and at least at times the model within
himself." In 1877, Ibsen entered his second period of writing with his play Pillars of Society. Ibsen
wrote a series of plays dealing with social problems, such as A Doll's House and Ghosts. He also wrote
a series of plays dealing with psychological problems, such as The Lady from the Seas and Hedda
Gabler. He wrote eight plays during of this period and both originated and perfected the problem play.
The term "problem play" refers specifically to the type of drama which Ibsen wrote beginning with
Pillars of Society in 1877. In these plays, the emphasis is on the presentation of a social or
psychological problem. These plays deal with contemporary life in realistic settings. The symbolism
that existed in Brand and Peer Gynt is almost gone. Ibsen presents his themes or "problems" to the
audience with realistic characters and straightforward plots. In his plays, Ibsen deals with the theme of
individuals trying to find themselves in the face of established conventions. Two examples of thi! s are
Nora in A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler. Ibsen also used a "retrospective" approach in A Doll's
House and. The major events occur before the curtain goes up. The plays concern the way the
characters dealt with these past events. The themes in A Doll's House made Ibsen the enemy of
conservatives everywhere. The idea of a play that questioned a woman's place in society and
suggesting that a woman's self was more important than her role as wife and mother, was
unprecedented. The play caused outrage in many government and church officials. Some people felt
that Ibsen was responsible for the rising divorce rate. Some theaters in Germany refused to perform the
play the way Ibsen had written it. He was forced to write an alternate "happy" ending in which Nora
sees the error of her ways and doesn't leave. The play became popular in Europe despite its harsh
criticism. It was translated into many languages and performed worldwide. The controversy
surrounding his play made Ibsen! famous. Hedda Gabler was another experiment for Ibsen. Instead of
presenting a social problem, he presented a psychological portrait of a fascinating and self-destructive
woman. After a twenty-seven-year self-imposed exile, Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891. In October

1893, Ibsen's wife Suzannah, returned to Italy due to a recurring problem with gout. While she was
gone, Ibsen found a young lady companion. She was a pianist named Hildur Andersen. Hildur became
a constant companion on visits to theatres, lectures, and galleries. He later gave her a diamond ring as
a symbol of their union. He wrote to her after his wife returned home from Italy. Ibsen and his wife
had marital problems after she returned. He discussed his marriage with an old friend Elise Auber.
According to Halvdan Koht, "[Ibsen] was clearly disturbed about his own marriage and spoke to Mrs.
Auber about it. He had many conflicts with his wife at this time, and on occasion his anger was so
extreme that he threatened to leave her. These outbursts were only momentary, and he knew that they
would never separate." Ibsen's third period of work started after he returned to Norway. It was referred
to as the Symbolist Period. The plays in this period contain elements of defeat. The Master Builder
deals with an aging architect who succumbs to defeat. John Gabriel Borkman is about a man who
sacrifices his love to become rich. Ironically, the title of Ibsen's last play was When We Dead Awaken.
In 1900, Ibsen suffered a stroke. He never completely recovered from his stroke and was an invalid for
the rest of his life. Despite his medical setback, he was a fighter until the end. When he was coming
out of a coma in 1906, the nurse commented that he appeared slightly better. Ibsen replied "On the
contrary!" Sadly, he died a few days later.
Pastoral vs court life in As You Like It
Life in the countryside is associated with tranquility, closeness to nature; it is a pure life, inferior to life
at court.
City life is viewed as a decadence form, as the court was the political center. Pastoral life is a
Utopia, an Eden, as theres no hierarchy, it is an equalitarian society of utopian dimensions, an
idealized world, characterized by honesty and simplicity, has nothing to do with power, it is not a
world of flattery, but it is an exile for Duke Senior, as he loses his status.
The Forest of Arden represents not only life in wilderness, a natural life, but Arden is a penalty:
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam (2.1, 5), it is the world after Adams fall, as Duke Senior
has to endure the seasonal change, while court represents civilized life, it is superior. Duke Senior,
however, welcomes winters chill because, unlike the flattery of insincere courtiers, it leads him to
self-awareness.
The ideas on Duke Seniors philosophizing, Sweet are the uses of adversity/ Which, like the toad,
ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; / And this our life, exempt from
public haunt,/ Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,/ Sermons in stones, and good in
everything(2.1,12-17), are based in Stoic thought. He is gracefully stating platitudes, discoursing
on a theme. The Duke may also refer to the fact that Arden may have a jewel, as toads were
believed to have a pearl in their head which held great virtues. In the countryside the world is still
enchanted, there can man find also elements of city life as tongues, books in the wilderness.
Nature is here ones school. Life in nature is preferable because the harshness or not so bad at
plotting, it lacks luxury, it is an abstinent life, a virtuous world, it has a plurality of perspectives.
The duality between the two worlds is represented by the difference between Corin who
represents the pastoral life and Touchstone who represents the court. Corin embodies the
simplicity of a virtue, of truth, of honesty, he is a religious person. He reasons plainly, this is
where he takes his source of his happiness.
Touchstone embodies the carnavalesque tradition, which belongs to the court life, he is a twister of
words, he keeps contradicting himself and has a bad logic, while Corin has common sensical logic
and he lacks money.

Shakespeare highlights the benefits of the life in the forest which are seen as relative to life at
court as well as the contrast between the formal world of the court and country life in Arden,
concluding As You Like At as an exploration of real versus ideal.
Edgar Allan Poe's Biography
-part IEdgar Allan Poe was born at 33 Hollis Street, Boston, Mass., on January 19, 1809, the son of
poverty stricken actors, David, and Elizabeth (born Arnold) Poe. His parents were then filling an
engagement in a Boston theatre, and the appearances of both, together with their sojourns in
various places during their wandering careers, are to be plainly traced in the play bills of the time.
Paternal Ancestry
The father of the poet was one David Poe of Baltimore, Maryland, who had left the study of the
law in that city to take up a stage career contrary to the desire of his family. The Poes had settled
in America some two or three generations prior to the birth of Edgar. Their line is distinctly traced
back to Dring in the Parish of Kildallen, County Cavan, Ireland, and thence into the Parish of
Fenwick in Ayrshire, Scotland. Hence they derived from Scotch-Irish stock, with what trace of the
Celtic is doubtful. The first Poes came to America about 1739. The immediate paternal ancestors
of the poet landed at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1748 or a little earlier. These were John Poe and his
wife Jane McBride Poe who went to settle in eastern Pennsylvania. This couple had ten children in
their family, among them one David who was the grandfather of the poet. David Poe married
Elizabeth Cairnes, also of Scotch-Irish ancestry, then living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whence,
sometime prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution they moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
David Poe and his wife, Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, took the patriot side in the Revolution. David was
active in driving the Tories out of Baltimore and was appointed "Assistant Deputy Quartermaster,"
which meant that he was a local purchasing agent of military supplies for the Revolutionary Army.
He is said to have been of considerable aid to Lafayette during the Virginia and Southern
campaigns, and for this patriotic activity he received the courtesy title of "General." His wife
Elizabeth took an active part in making clothes for the Continental Army. David and Elizabeth Poe
(Sr.) had seven children David, the eldest son, becoming the father of the poet. Two sisters of
David, Eliza Poe (afterward Mrs. Henry Herring) and Maria Poe (later Mrs. William Clemm)
enter into the story of the poet's life, the latter particularly, as she became his mother-in-law in
addition to being his aunt. With her he lived from 1835 to 1849.
Young David Poe was destined for the law, but as previously mentioned, he finally left his native
city to go on the stage. His first professional appearance took place at Charleston, S. C., in
December, 1803. A dramatic notice of this performance in a local paper describes David Poe as
being extremely diffident while
". . .His voice seems to be clear, melodious and variable; what its compass may be can only be
shown when he acts unrestrained by timidity. His enunciation seemed to be very distinct and
articulate; and his face and person are much in his favor. His size is of that pitch well fitted for
general action if his talents should be suited to sock and buskin. . . ."
This is perhaps the only direct evidence extant of the physical appearance of the poet's father. No
pictures of him are known to exist. His histrionic powers were at best very limited. He continued
to play in minor parts in various Southern cities and in January, 1806, married Elizabeth Arnold
Hopkins, a young childless widow, also an actress, whose husband had died but a few months
before. Elizabeth Arnold Poe became mother of Edgar Allan Poe.
Maternal Ancestry
The young widow whom David Poe married in 1806 had been born in England in the spring of

1787. She was the daughter of Henry Arnold, and Elizabeth Arnold (born Smith) both actors at the
Covent Garden Theatre Royal, London. Henry Arnold died apparently about 1773. His widow
continued to support herself and her child by acting and singing, and in 1796, taking her young
daughter with her, she came to America and landed in Boston. Mrs. Arnold continued her
professional career in America at first with considerable minor success. Either immediately
before, or just after arriving in the United States, however, she married a second time, one Charles
Tubbs, an Englishman of minor parts and character. The couple continued to act, sing, and dance
in various cities throughout the eastern seaboard and the young Miss Arnold was soon noticed on
the play bills appearing in childish roles as a member of the various troupes to which her family
belonged. Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs disappeared from view about 1798 but the career of Elizabeth
Arnold, Poe's mother, can be traced accurately by various show bills and notices in the
newspapers of the different cities in which she played until her death in 1811. It was during her
wanderings as an actress that she married C. D. Hopkins, himself an actor, in August, 1802. There
were no children by this union. Hopkins died three years later, and in 1806, as previously noted,
his widow was married to David Poe.
The couple continued to play together but with very minor success. They had three children.
William Henry Leonard born in Boston in 1807, Edgar born in Boston in 1809, and Rosalie at
Norfolk, Va., probably in December, 1810. Due to their poverty, which was always extreme, the
first child, Henry, had been left in the care of his grandparents in Baltimore shortly after his birth.
Edgar was born while his parents were filling an engagement at the Boston Theatre. In the
summer of 1809 the Poes went to New York where David Poe either died or deserted his wife,
probably the former. Mrs. Poe was left with the infant Edgar and some time afterward gave birth
to a daughter. A suspicion was afterwards thrown on the paternity of this last child and on the
reputation of Mrs. Poe, which played an unfortunate part in the lives of her children. It is safe to
say that it was unjust.
From 1810 on, Mrs. Poe continued, although in failing health, to appear in various roles in
Norfolk, Va., Charleston, S. C., and Richmond. In the winter of 1811 she was overtaken by a fatal
illness and died on December 8th in circumstances of great misery and poverty at the house of a
Scotch milliner in Richmond. She was buried in the churchyard of St. John's Episcopal Church in
that city two days later, but not without some pious opposition.
Mrs. Poe was survived by three orphaned children. Two of these, Edgar and Rosalie, were with
her at the time of her death and were cared for by charitable persons. Edgar, then about two years
old, was taken into the home of John Allan, a Scotch merchant in fairly prosperous circumstances,
while the infant Rosalie was given shelter by a Mr. and Mrs. William Mackenzie. The Allans and
Mackenzies were close friends and neighbors. The children remained in these households, and the
circumstances of their fostering were, as time went on, equivalent to adoption.
Frances Keeling Valentine Allan, the wife of the Scotch merchant who had given shelter to the
"infant orphan Edgar Poe," was a childless woman who had been married for some years. The
child Edgar appears to have been a bright and attractive little boy, and despite some reluctance on
the part of Mr. Allan, he was soon ensconced as a permanent member of the household. Although
there is some evidence of an attempt on the part of paternal relatives in Baltimore to assert their
interest in the child, the young boy remained as the foster-son of John Allan in Richmond, where
he was early put to a school kept by a Scotch dame and apparently later to one William Irwin, a
local schoolmaster. There is every evidence that his early years of childhood were spent in happy
and comfortable surroundings. Mrs. Allan and her maiden sister, Nancy Valentine, who resided in
the same household, were peculiarly fond of their "pet." He seems, indeed, to have been somewhat

overdressed and spoiled as a very little boy, a propensity on the part of the women which the
foster-father tried to offset by occasional but probably welltimed severity.
In 1815 the family sailed for England on the Ship "Lothair," taking Edgar with them, After a brief
stay in London they visited Scotch relatives, the Galts, Allans, and Fowlds, at Kilmarnock, Irvine,
and other places about Ayrshire. A journey was made to Glasgow and then back to London in the
late fall of 1815 when Edgar was sent back to Scotland at Irvine. There for a short time he
attended the Grammar School. By 1816, however, he was back in London where his foster-father
was endeavoring to build up a branch of his Richmond firm, Ellis and Allan, by trading in tobacco
and general merchandise. The family resided at Southampton Row, Russell Square, while the
young Edgar was sent to a boarding school kept by the Misses Dubourgs at 146 Sloane Street,
Chelsea. He remained there until the summer of 1817. In the fall of that year he was entered at the
Manor House School of the Rev. Mr. John Bransby at Stoke Newington, then a suburb of London.
At this place be remained until some time in the spring of 1820 when he was withdrawn to return
to America. The young Poe's memories of his five years' stay in Scotland and England were
exceedingly vivid and continued to furnish him recollections for the remainder of his life. He
seems to have been a precocious and somewhat lordly young gentleman. A curious and vivid
reminiscence of these early school days in England remains in his story of "William Wilson." It is
significant of his relations with his foster-parents that the bills for his English schooling are
rendered for Master Allan. There can be little doubt that at this time Mr. Allan regarded him as a
son. Other evidence is not lacking.
John Allan's business ventures in London had been unfortunate. He returned to the United States,
arriving in Richmond in August, 1820, considerably embarrassed, a condition in which his partner
Charles Ellis was also involved. Assignments of real estate were eventually made to satisfy
creditors. The life of the Allan family, however, continued to be comfortable. Edgar was sent to an
Academy kept by William Burke, later by Joseph H. Clarke, and attended by the sons of the best
families in Richmond. At school the young Poe excelled in languages, oratory, amateur theatricals,
and attained a notable prowess in swimming. He appears to have attracted the attention of his
masters and elders by his brilliance and to have been well liked but somewhat aloof from most of
his playmates. At a very youthful age he began to write poetry, his first verses dating from his
early teens. About 1823 he became intimate in the home of a schoolmate, Robert Stanard, whose
mother, Jane Stith Stanard, took a tender interest in the brilliant young boy, an affection which
was ardently and romantically returned. It was to this lady that Poe afterwards addressed his poem
"To Helen," beginning...
"Helen, thy beauty is to me"
Mrs. Stanard soon went mad and died. The tragedy was undoubtedly taken to heart by Poe to
whom it came as a great blow shocking him significantly. He is said on somewhat questionable
authority to have haunted her grave in the lonely cemetery by night. There is no doubt that he
continued to cherish her memory as long as be lived.
Be that as it may, however, by 1824 the young poet who had been addressing the girls of a
neighboring female academy in juvenile lyrics found himself fully embarked upon the troubled
waters of a more adult life. Mrs. Stanard had died; his foster-father John Allan was in precarious
financial straits; Mrs. Allan's health was rapidly failing; and there was domestic dissension of the
most serious kind in the household. John Allan had from time to time indulged in extra-marital
relations. Some of his natural children were then living in Richmond and the knowledge of this in
one way or another seems to have become known to his wife. Her sorrow was great. During the
visit of Lafayette to Richmond in 1824 young Poe, who was an officer in a cadet company, acted

as an escort to the old General. This gave him a new sense of his own dignity and importance and
at the same time he appears in some of his contacts about the town with more adult companions to
have learned of his foster-father's mode of life. At home Edgar took the part of his mother, and a
quarrel, which through various ramifications lasted for upwards of a decade, now took place
between Poe and John Allan.
The situation was peculiarly exasperating to all concerned and the conflict dramatic.
Mr. Allan, it appears, had at the time of the death of Mrs. David Poe come into the possession of
some of her correspondence. What was in these letters no one will ever know as they were
afterwards destroyed by Mrs. Clemm at the request of Poe himself. There may have been some
compromising matter in them. At any rate, in order to insure Edgar's silence as to his own affairs,
Mr. Allan wrote a letter to William Henry Leonard Poe in Baltimore, complaining of Edgar in
vague terms accusing him of ingratitude, and attacking the legitimacy of the boy's sister Rosalie.
The effect of this letter, and there may have been others, was evidently very disturbing to both the
sons of Elizabeth Poe. Certainly it must have drawn the lines much tighter in the Allan household
in Richmond. Three years later we find Henry in Baltimore publishing a poem entitled "In a
Pocket Book," which shows every indication that the doubts about his sister's legitimacy had gone
home.
Rosalie Poe about this time began to show distinct signs of arrested development. She never fully
matured, and though she continued to be cherished as a daughter by the Mackenzies who had first
sheltered her, she remained at best a sorrowful reminder of the past to her brother Edgar. She
outlived him by many years, finally dying in a charitable institution in Washington, D. C.
The death of Mrs. Stanard, the financial troubles and consequent irritability of John Allan, the
disputes and counter charges in the household, and his own doubtful position there for he had
never been adopted and his dependence on charity was constantly reiterated all of this proved
an uneasy background for a young and ambitious poet. In addition there are indications that Mr.
Allan as a practical Scotchman bad little or no sympathy for his foster-son's ambitions in the realm
of literature.
In 1825 Mr. Allan's financial straits were amply relieved by the inheritance from his uncle William
Galt of a large fortune. He found himself in short, a very wealthy man. The whole scale of living
of the family now changed to a method of life consonant with their better condition. A new house
of considerable pretension was purchased, and in this large and comfortable mansion, situated at
Fifth and Main Streets in the City of Richmond, a round of entertainments and social functions
began despite the failing health of its mistress. Poe accompanied the family to the new house. His
foster-father withdrew him from Mr. Clarke's Academy and had him prepared for the University
of Virginia which under the patronage of Thomas Jefferson had but recently opened its doors.
On a street nearby lived a little girl by the name of Sarah Elmira Royster. Poe frequented her
parlor where they sang, and drew pictures. Elmira played the piano while Edgar accompanied her
on the flute, or they walked in the gardens close at hand. Henry Poe is known to have visited his
brother in Richmond about this time and to have accompanied Edgar to the Roysters. Before
Edgar left for the University he was engaged to Elmira. The affair, however, was not made known
to the adults of either household.
In February, 1826, Edgar A. Poe matriculated at the University of Virginia. He was then only a
little more than seventeen, but his manhood may be said to have begun.
His position at the University was a precarious one. As the "son" of a wealthy man he had a great
deal of credit and Poe himself was prone to live up to the reputation. On the other hand his fosterfather appears even at this time to have been so alienated from his ward that he provided him with

considerably less than the amount necessary to pay his way. The young student made a rather
brilliant record in his studies but also fell in with a somewhat fast set of youths. In order to
maintain his position he began to play heavily; lost, and used his credit with local shopkeepers
recklessly. It is at this time also that we first hear of his drinking. The effects of a very little
alcohol on Poe's constitution were devastating. He appears to have been a brilliant, but rather
eccentric and decidedly nervous youth. Another cause of strain at this period was the unhappy
"progress" of his love affair. Mr. and Mrs. Royster were evidently aware of the fact that young Poe
was no longer regarded as an heir by his foster-father. They had, of course, soon learned of his
love affair with their daughter and now brought pressure to break off the match. Poe's letters to his
sweetheart were intercepted; Elmira was forbidden to write; the attentions of an eligible young
bachelor, A. Barrett Shelton, were pressed upon her, and she was finally sent away for a while into
safe keeping. In the meantime Mr. Allan was informed of the financial difficulties of his ward
whose indebtedness is said to have totalled $2500. His anger became extreme, and upon the return
of Poe to Richmond to spend the Christmas holidays of 1826, he was advised by his guardian that
he could not return to the University.
The opening weeks of 1827 were spent in Richmond in the most strained relation between young
Poe and Mr. Allan. Poe's career at the University had no doubt been very unsatisfactory. On the
other hand Mr. Allan's anger was implacable and extreme. He refused to pay any of his ward's
debts of honor, or any other debts, thereby reducing the proud spirit of the youngster whom he had
raised as his son to despair. The young Poe was pressed by warrants. His foster-father used the
opportunity to insist upon his reading law and abandoning all literary ambitions. On this rock
apparently they finally split. A violent quarrel took place between them in March, 1827, at the
conclusion of which the young poet dashed into the street and went to an inn whence he wrote
demanding his trunk, personal belongings and clothes. Several letters passed between the two
without a reconciliation being effected. Their mutual grievances were rehearsed and Poe finally
concluded, despite his utter destitution, to work his way North to Boston, then the literary capital
of the United States. Mr. Allan it appears tried to interfere, but his wife and her sister seem to have
supplied Poe secretly with a small sum of money by means of one of the slaves before the young
man set out on his travels.
Under the assumed name of Henri Le Rennet he left Richmond with one companion, Ebenezer
Burling, and reached Norfolk, Va. Here Burling left him while Poe went by ship to Boston where
he arrived almost penniless some time in April, 1827. He did not, as has so often been asserted,
even by himself, go abroad. The dates of his known whereabouts taken from letters and
documents at this time definitely preclude even the possibility of a European trip.
In Boston there is some obscure evidence that Poe attempted to support himself by writing for a
newspaper. It is certain, however, that while in Boston during the spring and summer of 1827 he
made friends with a young printer, one Calvin F. S. Thomas then newly embarked in the trade, and
prevailed on him to print a volume of verse, Tamerlane and Other Poems. The printer does not
appear to have known Poe by any but an assumed name. The title page of the little volume
proclaimed the work to be "By A Bostonian." The bulk of it, probably due to Poe's inability to
recompense the printer, was apparently destroyed or suffered to lie in neglect. Only a few copies
of it got into circulation and only two obscure notices appeared. Poe himself seems to have
secured scarcely some for personal use. In the meantime the author of this unknown but now
famous little volume was reduced to the greatest extremity. Totally without means and too proud
or unable to appeal to Richmond, he finally as a desperate measure enlisted in the United States
Army on May 26, 1827, under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry. He was assigned to Battery

"H" of the First U. S. Artillery and spent the summer of 1827 in the barracks of Fort
Independence, Boston Harbor. At the end of October his regiment was ordered to Fort Moultrie,
Charleston, S. C.
The ensuing two and a half years form a curious interlude in the life of a poet. Poe spent the time
between November, 1827, and December, 1829, doing garrison duty as an enlisted man at Ft.
Moultrie, S. C. The fort was located on Sullivan's Island at the mouth of the harbor. The young
soldier had a good deal of spare time on his hands which was evidently spent in wandering along
the beaches, writing poetry, and reading. His military duties were light and wholly clerical, as he
had soon been noticed by his officers better fitted for office work than for practice at the greatguns. Of this period, and of his doings and imaginings, the best record is the "Gold Bug," written
many years later, but replete with exact local color and scenes. Poe's duties evidently brought him
into close contact with his officers. He was steady, sober, and intelligent; and promotion ensued.
We soon find him listed as an "artificer," the first step out of the ranks. He himself, however, felt
that his life was being wasted and some time in 1828 correspondence was resumed with his fosterfather in Richmond, the purport of which was a request for reconciliation and a return to civil life.
Although Poe's letters were touching, appealing, and penitent, his guardian was obstinate and the
youth remained at his post until December, 1828, when his regiment was ordered to Fortress
Monroe, Virginia.
Seeing that his guardian would not consent to having him return home, he now conceived the idea
of entering West Point. Some of the officers of his regiment, a surgeon in particular, became
interested, and influence was brought to bear on John Allan. On January 1, 1829, Poe, still serving
under the name of Perry, was promoted to Sergeant-Major of his regiment, the highest rank open
to an enlisted man. His letters home became more insistent and to them were now added the
prayers of Mrs. Allan, who was dying. She desired to see her "dear boy" before she expired.
Strange as it may seem, John Allan remained firm until the very last. He finally sent for his fosterson, then only a few miles away from Richmond, but it was too late. Mrs. Allan died before Poe
arrived home, and despite her dying request not to be buried until her foster-son returned, her
husband proceeded with the funeral. When Poe arrived at the house a few hours later all that he
loved most was in the ground. His agony at the grave is said to have been extreme.
Mrs. Allan had extracted a promise from her husband nevertheless, not to abandon Poe. A partial
reconciliation now took place and Mr. Allan consented to help Poe in his plan to enter West Point.
Letters were written to the Colonel of his regiment, a substitute was secured, and the young poet
found himself discharged from the army on April 15, 1829. He returned for a short period to
Richmond.
Poe remained only a short time at "home." He secured, largely through his own solicitation, a
number of letters of influence to the War Department. Armed with these, and a very cold letter
from his guardian who averred, "Frankly, sir, do I declare that he is no relation to me whatever"
he set out about May 7th for Washington where he presented his credentials, including a number
of recommendations of his officers couched in the highest terms, to the Secretary of War, Mr.
Eaton. A long delay of almost a year occurred, during which his appointment to West Point was in
doubt.
During most of this period, May, 1829, to the end of that year, he resided in Baltimore. His fosterfather supplied him from time to time with small sums just sufficient to keep him alive, and
remained cold and suspicious of his good intentions as to West Point. In the meantime young Poe,
after being robbed by a cousin at a hotel, sought shelter with his Aunt Maria Clemm, the sister of
his father. In the household of this good woman, who was from the first his guardian angel, Poe

found his grandmother, Mrs. David Poe, Sr., then an aged and paralyzed woman, his brother
Henry, and his first cousin Virginia Clemm, a little girl about seven years old. She later became
the poet's wife. During this stay in Baltimore Poe exerted himself to further his literary name.
Shortly after his arrival we find him calling on William Wirt, just retired from active political life
in Washington, author of "Letters of a British Spy," and a man of considerable literary reputation.
Poe left with Wirt the manuscript of "Al Aaraaf" and received from him a letter of advice rather
than recommendation. The incident, however, shows that he had then on hand the manuscript for a
second volume of poems. These consisted of several which had appeared in his first volume, much
revised, and some new ones.
He now went to Philadelphia and left the manuscript with Carey, Lea and Carey, a then famous
publishing firm, who demanded a guarantee before they would print it. Poe wrote to his guardian
asking him to support the little volume to the extent of $100, but received an angry denial and
strict censure for contemplating such an action. By July 28th he bad, however, apparently
arranged for publication of the volume in Baltimore and wrote to Carey, Lea and Carey
withdrawing the manuscript. Through Baltimore friends and relatives he was enabled to reach the
ear of John Neal, then an influential Boston editor, and the forthcoming work received some
helpful notices in the September and December issues of the Yankee for 1829. The book itself,
entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems, was published by Hatch and Dunning in
Baltimore in December, 1829. Somewhat mollified by this success and the notice it attracted, but
much more so by the assurance that his foster-son was about to receive his long delayed
appointment to the Military Academy, Mr. Allan permitted Edgar to return to Richmond where fie
stayed from January to May, 1830, at the "big mansion." His life in Baltimore had been a povertyhaunted one, and the return to his former mode of existence was undoubtfully a welcome one to
Poe.
Mr. Allan, however, had his own private reasons for desiring to have his ward out of Richmond as
soon as possible. He had resumed intimate relations with a former companion after the death of
his wife and was now expecting an unwelcome addition to his natural children. Quarrels with Poe
were renewed. After a peculiarly bitter one Poe wrote a letter to a former acquaintance in the
army, a sergeant to whom he owed a small sum of money. In this he permitted himself to make an
unfortunate statement about his guardian. The letter was later used by the man to collect from Mr.
Allan the amount due him and was the final cause of Poe's being cast off.
The appointment to the Military Academy was received at the end of March. The examinations for
entrance were held at West Point at the end of June, and in May Poe bade farewell to his guardian
and left for the Military Academy, visiting his Baltimore relatives on the way. On July 1, 1830, he
took the oath and was admitted as cadet at West Point.
Poe' remained at the United States Military Academy from June 25, 1830, to February 19, 1831.
There can be no doubt that the military career was distasteful to him and that be had been forced
into it by his guardian in whose fortune he might still hope to share. Mr. Allan, however, regarded
his duties as fulfilled, with Edgar provided for at the public charge, and was glad to have him
away from Richmond. On the day that Poe entered West Point, his guardian was presented with a
pair of natural twins for whom he later on arranged in his will. This did not prevent his marrying a
second time, nevertheless, and the new relation made him more than ever inimical to his foster
son.
Edgar Poe continued to perform his duties creditably at the Military Academy when all hope of
any help in the future from Mr. Allan was shattered by a letter from Richmond which disowned
him. The soldier had presented to his guardian the letter written by Poe a year before, and the rage

of Mr. Allan was extreme. Realizing that all hope of a competence from Richmond was now at an
end, Poe decided to take things in to his own hands and leave the army forever. As he could not
obtain Mr. Allan's consent to resign he went on strike and neglected to attend formations, classes,
or church. He was court martialled and dismissed for being disobedient. While at the Military
Academy he had arranged with Elam Bliss, a New York publisher, to bring out a third volume of
poems to which the student body at the Academy had subscribed.
In February, 1831, he went to New York. He was penniless, illy clad, and nearly died of a "cold"
complicated by internal ear trouble, after reaching the city.
Forced to eat humble pie he again appealed to his guardian, but in vain. He remained in New York
long enough to see his third volume off the press. It was entitled Poems, Second Edition, and
contained a preface addressed to "Dear B.," a person unknown, in which some of the young
author's critical opinions, largely 'taken from Coleridge, were first set forth.
After attempting abortively to obtain letters of introduction to Lafayette from Col. Thayer, the
Superintendent at West Point, in order to join the Polish patriots then revolting against Russia, Poe
left New York and journeyed by way of Philadelphia to Baltimore. He arrived in the latter city
some time about the end of March, 1831, and again took up his residence at Mechanics Row, Milk
Street, with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. His brother Henry was then in ill
health, "given over to drink," and dying. The next four years were spent in Baltimore under
conditions of extreme poverty. Poe was still obscure and his doings for much of the time are very
vague. A few facts, however, can be certainly glimpsed.
During most of the Baltimore period Poe must have followed the life of a recluse. He now began
to turn his attention to prose and was able to place a few stories with a Philadelphia publication.
His brother Henry died in August, 1831. Edgar continued to live with the Clemms. The household
was poverty stricken, he himself was not in very good health part of the time. What the family
lived on is not clear. Attempts were made to interest Mr. Allan once more in his behalf but in vain.
No relief came from Richmond except upon one occasion when on account of a debt contracted
by his brother Henry, Edgar was in danger of being imprisoned. Mr. Allan sent a belated response
which was the last that Poe ever received from him. Poe is known to have paid ardent attention to
Mary Devereaux, a young girl who lived close by. He was refused, and horsewhipped the girl's
uncle. At this time he also frequented the houses of his relatives, the Poes, and Herrings,
especially the latter, It was then, too that he was hard at work perfecting his art as a writer of short
stories, and upon his only drama, "Politian."
In October, 1833, he competed for a prize of $50 offered for the best short story submitted to a
Baltimore paper, The Saturday Visitor. The prize was awarded by a committee of well known
citizens to Poe's "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle." It was his first notable success and marks his
emergence into fame. The cash was grateful to his necessity, but a more important effect of the
contest was the help given to the poverty stricken young poet by John P. Kennedy, a gentleman of
Baltimore of considerable means, a kind heart, and a writer of parts himself. Mr. Kennedy by
various timely acts of charity and influence set Poe upon the way to fame. He, Kennedy, enabled
Poe to place some of his stories and introduced him to Thomas White, the editor of the Southern
Literary Messenger, published in Richmond, Va. Poe now began to contribute reviews, and short
stories to that periodical and was finally invited in 1835 to come to Richmond as an assistant
editor. In the meanwhile Mr. Allan had died, in 1834, and there was no mention of Poe in his will.
Two ill-advised trips to Richmond by Poe himself between 1832 and 1834 had only succeeded in
further estranging his former guardian and the Allan family. They remained embittered to the last.
In July, 1835, Poe left Baltimore to take up his new editorial duties in Richmond.

As an editor, considered purely from the aspect of the desk and chair, Poe was a decided success.
Subscriptions began to mount for the Southern Literary Messenger. Mr. White might well have
been satisfied. He was a kindly man and well disposed. It is significant of Poe's inability to let
stimulants alone that within a few weeks after arriving in Richmond he found himself discharged.
He returned to Baltimore and there married secretly on September 22, 1835, his first cousin
Virginia Clemm. She was only about thirteen years old at the time and the secret marriage was
caused by the opposition of relatives to so early a union. Poe now applied again to Mr. White with
promises to abstain, and was reinstated in his old position upon good behavior and with a fatherly
warning. Mrs. Clemm and her daughter Virginia followed Poe to Richmond and took up their
residence with him in a boarding house on Capitol Square.
Poe remained in Richmond as assistant editor to Mr. White on the Southern Literary Messenger
from the autumn of 1835 to January, 1837. During his connection with the paper its circulation
increased from 700 to 3500. It attracted national attention, and it is safe to say it was initially due
to Poe that it became the most influential periodical of the South. Its reputation was afterward
maintained and increased by other men of considerable journalistic ability.
The task of the young editor ranged from purely hack work of a frankly journalistic nature to
contributions to literature. He wrote poems, book reviews, general and particular literary criticism,
and short stories both serial and complete. The book reviews varied from comment on Coleridge's
Recollections to references about others such as Mrs. Sigourney's Letters to Young Ladies, in
short from well reasoned and often trenchant critiques to mere notices with a slight critical
comment. Some of the poems which had previously appeared in the volumes of poetry already
alluded to were republished considerably revised. This was following out a policy of more or less
constant revision and republishing in redacted form which Poe continued throughout his career.
Among the most notable of the new poems to appear at this time were, "To Helen," "Irene," or the
"Sleeper," "Israfel," and "Zante."
The general tone of literary criticism in the United States at the time Poe began to write for the
Southern Literary Messenger was either perfunctory, fulsome, or dull. The comment of the young
man in Richmond was interesting, disturbing and refreshing. His frequent severity elicited reply
and remark, and though he aroused antagonism in some quarters, his presence on the scene and
the trenchancy of his style became more and more evident. A number of the stories which Poe had
prepared for "Tales of the Folio Club" in Baltimore before receiving the Saturday Visitor Prize, he
now published in the Messenger. Such stories as "Metzengerstein" attracted considerable notice,
as they well might, and added not a little to his reputation. In some of them a marked morbidity
was even then noted and deprecated. Such deprecatory, comment, however, did not prevent their
unique fascination from being felt. Under the title of "Pinakidia" the young editor also published
at this time a collection of curious gleanings covering a wide field of interest which were taken
from his commonplace book. Many of these he used again later in the Democratic Review under
the title of "Marginalia."
-part IIPoe was described about this time as being "graceful, and with dark, curling hair and magnificent eyes,
wearing a Byron collar and looking every inch a poet." The earliest known portrait of him dates from
his early days on the Messenger and shows him with sideburns and a slightly sardonic cast of
countenance for so young a man. Even at this date he was evidently somewhat fragile and delicate. His
complexion which later became quite sallow is described as having been olive.
Of his private affairs the most important event of the Richmond epoch was his second marriage to his

cousin Virginia. The reasons for this appear to be sufficiently obvious. The first marriage in Baltimore
had been clandestine with Mrs. Clemm as the only witness. It had been opposed by influential
relatives and had never been made public. All explanations were obviated by a second marriage in
public, nothing was said about the first affair, and on May 16, 1830, a marriage bond was signed in the
Hustings Court of the City of Richmond which described Virginia Clemm as twenty-one years old.
She was, as a matter of fact, less than fourteen years of age at the time, and appeared to be a child. The
wedding took place in a boarding house kept by a Mrs. Yarrington, in the company of friends, a
Presbyterian divine by the name of Amasa Converse officiating. After a simple ceremony the couple
left for their honeymoon which was spent at Petersburg, Virginia, at the house of a Mr. Hiram Haines,
editor of the local paper. Poe was back in Richmond before the end of May, 1836, at his desk on the
Messenger. Mr. White had promised him an increase of salary later on.
After his marriage, indeed for some time before, the poet's correspondence with relatives and friends
shows that he was desirous of setting up housekeeping. The plan followed was to solicit funds for Mrs.
Clemm and Virginia in order to establish a boarding house. Although some small aid, "loans," were
obtained, the scheme fell through, and the little family moved to a cheap tenement on Seventh Street,
where they seem to have remained until the end of their stay in Richmond.
Poe continued his editorial work and from his observation, experience, and ambition began to evolve
in his mind a scheme of which the beginnings can be traced back to Baltimore. It was his hope to
establish and to be the editor of a great national literary magazine. That Poe was one of the first men in
America to understand the possibilities of modern journalism from a magazine standpoint there can be
no doubt. From then on until the end of his story it was the darling scheme of his life. Misfortune and
his own personality, rather than the theories of journalism which he entertained, were responsible for
his failure to realize his ambition.
He now began to think of going North to establish the new publication, a move which his growing
reputation and the constantly increasing friction with his editor-in-chief served to hasten. Poe was
brilliant but unsuited to work in a subordinate capacity. Mr. White in all justice must be said to have
been patient. He was, however, patronized upon occasions by his versatile young editor, and there are
also indications that in the fall of 1836 Poe had once more fallen from grace, and in spite of his wellmeant promises to White, was again resorting from time to time to the bottle. In addition to this he
seems to have been restless. Taking advantage of contacts which he had made by correspondence in
New York with such men as Professor Charles Anthon, John K. Paulding, the Harper Brothers, and
others, he decided to remove to that city.
Consequently in January, 1837, he wound up his affairs with the Southern Literary Messenger and Mr.
White, and taking his family with him left for New York, They appear to have arrived there some time
about the end of February, 1837, and to have taken lodgings at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Waverly
Place, sharing a floor with one William Gowans, a bookseller, who was of considerable service to
Poe.
Before leaving Richmond, in the summer of 1836, Poe had made some attempt to have the stories
comprising the "Tales of the Folio Club" published in volume form. The manuscripts had been left
originally with Carey and Lea I in Philadelphia who kept them for some time under consideration but
had finally returned them, minus one story, to the author in February, 1836. Poe then mailed to J. K.
Paulding in New York who submitted them to Harpers. The result was another refusal. Paulding had
written to Poe, however, when he returned the stories, suggesting a long title in two volumes, a very
popular format. Out of this suggestion had grown a long story of adventure, shipwreck, and horrible
suffering in the then unknown southern hemisphere. It was called "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym" and was finally accepted by Harpers, who published it in 1838 in the United States. Wiley and

Putnam produced an edition in England where it was later pirated. This was Poe's first book of prose
although his fourth bound volume, three volumes of poetry having preceded it. The story appeared
serially in the Southern Literary Messenger even after Poe had severed his editorial connection. It
purported to be written by Arthur Gordon Pym himself and the real author was mentioned only in the
preface. The type of adventure story which "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" closely followed
was popular at the time. Poe merely allowed his imagination to deal with familiar material found in
such books as "The Mutiny of the Bounty", "Morell's Narrative of Four Voyages to the Pacific", and
the like. His immediate interest in the Antarctic seems to have arisen from the preparation then being
made by one J. N . Reynolds for a government expedition to those parts. Nathaniel Hawthorne was
also interested in the same scheme, which, however, came to nothing. The success of the book was
small and brought the author very little fame and less cash.
A short while after arriving in New York, Poe, Virginia and Mrs. Clemm moved to a small house at 13
Carmine Street, where Mrs. Clemm took boarders in order to make a living. Poe was receiving near
nothing at all. It was a period of financial panic and literary work was almost impossible to obtain. The
Poes were accompanied to their new domicile by the bookseller Gowans who seems to have
introduced the poet to a number of literary people but with small result. The poverty of the family was
now extreme. Despite this, nevertheless, Poe continued to write. The chief items which can be traced
to this first rather brief sojourn in New York are a review of Arbia Petraea in the New York Review,
edited by Dr. Hawks, "Siopea Fable," published in the Baltimore Book in 1839, and a tale called
"Von Jung, the Mystic," which appeared in the American Monthly Magazine for June, 1837.
The plans for starting a magazine of his own would at that time, owing to the financial depression,
have met no response. Poe, indeed, was unable to obtain even a minor editorial position or sufficient
hack work to enable him to exist. His doings at this time must forever remain somewhat obscure.
Probably through Gowans he was thrown into contact with James Pedder, an Englishman of almost
neglible literary ability but a kindly man. Pedder about this time was engaged in establishing for
himself magazine connections in Philadelphia, where his sisters resided. Through him it seems quite
likely that Poe was induced to leave New York and to move to Philadelphia, then the great publishing
center of the United States. At any rate we find him in Philadelphia about the end of August, 1838,
boarding together with his family and James Pedder at a lodging house kept by the sisters of the
Englishman on Twelfth Street, a little above Mulberry (Arch). Poe was soon definitely engaged upon
two literary projects, the editing of a text book on Conchology and the now long deferred publication
of his collected tales.
Shortly after the arrival in Philadelphia Poe moved nearer the downtown publishing and engraving
shops to a house at Fourth and Arch (then Mulberry) where he continued to reside until September 4,
1838. He was now engaged in editing The Conchologists First Book, or a System of Testaceous
Malaciology, a school text to which he lent his name. It was purely a piece of hack work and has
nothing to do with the creative or artistic writings of Poe. Among collectors the volume is now much
sought after. At least nine editions are known to exist, the first was published in April, 1837, by
Haswell, Barrington and Haswell. Poe wrote the preface and the introduction, and was assisted in his
arrangement of the text and illustrations by a Mr. Isaac Lee and Professor Thomas Wyatt. Bergman, De
Blainville, and Parkinson are quoted, and Cuvier heavily drawn upon. The beautifully engraved plates
of shells were pirated from The Conchologists Text Book, a work by an Englishman, Captain Thomas
Brown, to whom no credit was given. Poe was afterwards attacked for this and accused of plagiarism.
The truth is that the custom of pirating material for school texts was then almost universal and very
little blaim can be laid upon Poe. He received $50 for the use of his name as editor. In the series of
Poe's bound works this was the fifth.

This school text was merely a financial transaction. Poe now turned his attention to publishing his
short stories. Arrangement was made to bring out his collected tales under the title of Tales of the
Grotesque and Arabesque in two thin volumes. They were published in December, 1839, by Lea and
Blanchard of Philadelphia, The title page bore the date 1840. The author received no royalty for his
work but only a few copies to distribute to his friends. The publisher assumed the risk, not a very good
one, for the volumes sold very slowly. There were fourteen stories in the first volume and ten in the
second, which total comprised all the tales published up to that time by the author and "Why the Little
Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling," not appearing till later. This was Poe's sixth venture with a
bound work, none of, which had been to any extent successful from financial standpoint.
In the meantime Poe had secured a position with William E. Burton, the publisher of Burton's
Gentleman's Magazine. Mr. Burton was an Englishman, an actor at his best in broad farce, a theatre
manager, and a journalist. To this magazine Poe contributed book reviews, articles on sport, at least
five notable tales and a few poems, "To lanthe in Heaven" being the most notable of the latter. It was
in Burton's that "The Fall of the House of Usher," "William Wilson," and "Morella" appeared. At the
same time Poe was in correspondence with several literary figures among whom Washington Irving
was the most prominent.
Poe's connection with Burton did not last long. There was considerable friction between the two. At
one time Poe withdrew but was prevailed on to return. His salary was small, his work uncongenial,
and somewhat spasmodic. He was again in ill health whether due in part to the use of stimulants is not
certain. At any rate he and Mr. Burton could not agree. The latter sold his magazine to George Rex
Graham in October, 1840, and Poe was retained by the new editor, one of the most able journalists of
the time. Owing to ill health Poe did not assume his duties on the new magazine, Graham's, until
January, 1841, when traces of his pen are plainly evident on its pages.
He was then living in a little brick house at the junction of Coates Street and Fairmont Drive,
Philadelphia, where he had moved, probably in the fall of 1839. It was from this dwelling that he
issued in the fall of 1840 his "Prospectus of the Penn Magazine, a Monthly Literary journal to be
edited and published in the city of Philadelphia by Edgar A. Poe." In this prospectus Poe's theories of a
magazine are made quite clear. He hoped to receive enough subscriptions to provide funds to launch
the undertaking. A considerable number of persons subscribed but the affairs of the prospective editor
were in such a condition that he was forced to abandon his plan in order to take a salaried position
with Mr. Graham. The Penn Magazine was consequently deferred while Poe took a desk with Mr.
Graham at $800 a year.
The success of Graham's Magazine was phenomenal. The subscriptions rose from 5000 to 40,000 in
about eighteen months, the increase being due to Poe's able editing, to the number of articles and
poems secured by his soliciting notable writers to contribute, and to the policy of Mr. Graham who
was lavish in his illustrations and very generous in his fees to authors.
The period of Poe's association with Mr. Graham which lasted from January, 1841, to April, 1842, was
the most financially easy period in his life. His earnings were small, but sufficient to keep him and his
family in some comfort. It was at this time that he developed the tale of ratiocination and published
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and other stories of crime and its detection. He became also
interested in cryptograms and their solution, and in 1842 published in the Dollar Newspaper for June
20th of that year his story of "The Gold Bug" in which the solution of a cipher is a component of the
plot. For this story he received a prise of $100. Some of Poe's most reputed work appeared in
Graham's and attracted considerable attention. He now began to become widely known as an able
editor, a brilliant and severe of thrilling tales, and a poet. His connection with Graham, however, was
of short duration. He was impatient of his subordinate position at a small salary, hopeful of starting his

own magazine, and also given to drink. In April, 1842, his "irregularities" caused Mr. Graham to
employ Rufus Wilmot Griswold, the most noted American anthologist of his time, and a very able
editor, in place of Poe. Finding Griswold in his chair one day, Poe left the offices of the magazine and
never returned although he continued to contribute to it from time to time.
He soon set up as a free-lance, wrote where and when he could, attempted to obtain a government
position in the Customs House at Philadelphia through friends in Washington, and again tried to
launch his own magazine now projected as The Stylus. He was almost successful, but a visit to
Washington in March, 1843, when he became unfortunately intoxicated and exhibited his weakness
even at the White House, blasted his fondest hopes. Even his, best friend, F. W. Thomas, a minor
novelist and politician of the time, could do no more for him. Misfortune from now on dogged his
steps.
His wife Virginia was dying of tuberculosis and had frequent hemorrhages. He himself began to resort
to drink more than before. There is also some evidence of the use of opium. He was sent to Saratoga
Springs to recuperate and returned to Philadelphia where he nearly died of heart failure. At this time,
1844, the Poes were living at 234 (now 530) North Seventh Street, Philadelphia, in a house still
standing. Here, although visited by many loyal friends, among whom were the novelist Captain Mayne
Reid, George Rex Graham, Sartain the engraver, Louis Godey, the editor, F. 0. C. Darley, an illustrator,
Hirst, the poet, Thomas Clarke, the publisher, and others, Poe himself experienced the pangs of
poverty and despair. He was in correspondence with James Russell Lowell and other notables, but
unable through various causes, largely due to his temperament and his physical condition, to cope with
the world. Sometime in the fall of 1843 he made an abortive attempt to issue a new edition of his tales
as The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe. There was a small edition in paper covers to be sold at 12
cents, but No. 1, containing "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Man that Was Used Up,", is
the only one of the series known to have appeared, although one copy containing the first tale only is
known to exist. This is the rarest of all Poe items from a collector's standpoint. The little paper
pamphlet was the seventh of Poe's works. It brought the author no returns.
Reduced to the direst necessity, and finding all avenues closed to him in Philadelphia, he now
determined to return to New York. Mrs. Clemm was left behind to close up the house, and on April 6,
1844, taking his invalid wife with him, Poe set out for New York City. He arrived there the same
evening with $4.50 in his pockets and no definite prospects.
Poe and his invalid wife found shelter in a humble boarding house at 130 Greenwich Street. In
immediate need of funds he turned one of his favorite tricks and wrote a false news story for the New
York Sun, later republished as "The Balloon Hoax." Such hoaxes were "popular" at the time and
indulged in by newspaper editors. The story was clever, is notable even now, and fooled thousands at
that timemuch to Poe's delight. The money so earned enabled Mrs. Clemm to come over from
Philadelphia and join the two in New York. Leaving his family at the Greenwich Street lodgings, Poe
then boarded alone for a time with a Mrs. Foster at number 4 Ann Street. During the spring and
summer of 1844 he managed to scrape enough together by hack articles, some of which appeared in
the Columbia (Pa.) Spy, and Godey's Lady's Book, the Ladies' Home Journal of the day, to exist
himself and just barely keep his family.
Virginia's health grew steadily worse and in the early summer of 1844 the whole group moved out to
the country to a farm located on Bloomingdale Road at what is now Eighty-fourth Street and
Broadway. The farm was owned by a kindly Irish couple with a large family, the Brennans. Here for a
few months in what was then a charming rural solitude in the beautiful Hudson Valley, Poe seems to
have enjoyed a brief period of peace. During this interval he composed "The Raven," or rather put it
into final form, as the poem is known to have been in existence in earlier versions as far back as 1842.

The idea of the raven itself was taken from Barnaby Rudge. During the summer Poe carried on a
correspondence with James Russell Lowell who was writing a brief biography of Poe for Graham's,
and with Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers, a Georgia poet whose work undoubtedly influenced the Raven's
author.
By autumn the poet was again destitute and Mrs. Clemm now exerted herself to secure him some
salaried work. She called on Nathaniel P. Willis, then editor of the New York Evening Mirror and
persuaded him to employ Poe in a minor editorial capacity. Sometime in the fall of 1844 the family
again moved to a town lodging at 15 Amity Street, New York City, where they occupied a few rooms.
Poe continued to turn out considerable hack work for Willis and also through the columns of the
Mirror found opportunity to call attention to himself, to notice Miss Barrett's (later Mrs. Robert
Browning) poetry favorably, and to involve himself in an unfortunate attack upon Longfellow known
as the "Little Longfellow War," with various reverberations. By the end of 1844 Poe was ready to
sever connection with Willis who remained his firm friend until the end. Through the good offices of
Lowell, Poe had been put in touch with some minor journalists about New York who were ready to
launch a new weekly to be called The Broadway Journal. Upon this paper Poe was retained in a more
important editorial capacity than Mr. Willis could offer him.
In January, 1845, Poe's poem "The Raven" was published annoymously in the Evening Mirror in
advance of its appearance in the American Whig Review for February. It created a furor, and on
Saturday, February 8, 1845, Mr. Willis reprinted it over the author's name in the Evening Mirror. Poe's
reputation immediately took on the aspects of fame which it never afterward lost. It is safe to say that
no poem in America had ever been so popular. The poet continued to edit the Broadway Journal in
which he carried on the Longfellow controversy, reviewed books, published and republished his
poetry, wrote dramatic reviews and literary criticism, and reprinted many of his stories now more
eagerly read as coming from a famous pen. He was also preparing to become owner of the Broadway
Journal and for this purpose went into debt, in the meanwhile quarreling with Briggs, one of his
partners.
He now too began for the first time since early Richmond days to lead a less lonely life and to go
about in a semi-literary and artistic society. Poe was much seen during the winter of 1845 in the
"salons" of various writers and minor social lights of New York who were known as the literati.
Through Mr. Willis he met a Mrs. Fanny Osgood, the wife of an artist of some note and a minor
poetess, with whom he soon struck up an intimate if not tender friendship. He followed her about to
such an extent that she was finally compelled through the scandal involved and on account of her own
tubercular condition to go to Albany. Poe pursued her there, then to Boston, and thence to Providence,
R. I., where on a lonely walk late one evening be first saw a Mrs. Helen Whitman to whom he
afterwards became engaged. The second poem called "To Helen" celebrates this meeting.
Lowell visited Poe in New York in the spring of 1845 and found Poe slightly intoxicated in his
lodgings at 195 Broadway, whither he had lately moved. In July, Dr. Chivers also visited him and saw
him at times much under the influence but nevertheless with the characteristics of genius about him.
Poe's affairs despite his growing fame did not prosper. He contributed a series of articles to Godey's
Lady's Book on the literati of New York. They were personal sketches combined with the obiter dicta
of the author and a dash of literary criticism that caused considerable stir at the time and in one or two
cases involved Poe in undignified quarrels. The "Literati Papers" do not belong to Poe's more serious
literary criticism but are essentially a contemporary and easy comment on persons he knew, most of
them obscure.
At the end of 1845 despite his desperate efforts, the Broadway Journal failed, leaving its editor and by
that time sole owner, in debt, despondent, and in ill health. Virginia, his wife, continued to decline and

was nearing the grave. Poe was once more without means of support. In the meantime he had again
moved his lodgings to 185 Amity Street. An unfortunate lecture at Boston in the fall of the year had
provided an opportunity for Poe, then in a serious nervous condition, to make more or less an
exhibition of himself. The affair was taken up by his enemies in New York and made the most of. All
this served to add to his depression. Despite such, however, he had succeeded in bringing out in June,
1845, Tales, a collection of his stories selected by E. A. Duyckinck, an able editor, and published by
Wiley and Putnam. This was followed in December, 1845, by The Raven and Other Poems, a selection
of his verse produced by the same publisher. In the series of Poe's work issued during his life time
these two constituted the eighth and ninth books respectively. The Tales were in some cases bound in
two volumes, and both outputs achieved a minor success. At the same time Poe was known to have
been at work on an anthology of various American writers which occupied him from time to time for
several years. It was never published, although some fragments of the manuscript exist.
Poe's affairs and Virginia's health now once more necessitated a move to the country. While Poe
traveled to Baltimore to lecture in the spring of 1846, Mrs. Clemm and Virginia again went to stay at
the Bloomingdale farm. A few weeks later we find the entire family at a farm house on "Turtle Bay,"
now Forty-seventh Street and East River. The stop here was brief. Poe rented a little frame cottage at
Fordham, then a small village about fifteen miles from New York, and to this the family moved at the
end of May, 1846.
In the puny cottage at Fordham, still preserved as a relic in Poe Park, New York City, the poet and his
benign mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Clemm, experienced together the extremes of tragedy in poverty,
death, and despair. The summer of 1846 was embittered by a violent quarrel with one T. D. English.
whom Poe had attacked acidly in the "Literati Papers." English now "replied," and after a personal
encounter with Poe, accused the latter of forgery in the New York Mirror. Poe sued the paper and
recovered damages for a small amount in February, 1847.
Poe's health was exceptionally bad, his wife continued to sink rapidly, and he himself could neither
write much nor obtain employment. During much of the time Mrs. Clemm by various artifices and
wiles kept bread in their mouths. She both borrowed and begged, and was even reduced to the
necessity of digging vegetables by night in the fields of neighboring farmers. With the arrival of cold
weather the visits of friends and curious persons from the city ceased and the Poes were left alone to
face the rigors of winter without fuel or sufficient clothing or food. Under these inflictions Virginia
sank rapidly. She lay in a bed of straw with her husband's cloak wrapped around her and a pet cat on
her bosom to help provide warmth. In December, 1846, the family was visited by a friend from New
York, Mrs. Mary Louise Shew, who found Virginia dying and Poe and his "mother" destitute. Through
her kindness, and a public appeal in the papers, the immediate wants of the family were relieved and
Virginia enabled to pass away in comparative peace at the end of January, 1847. She was buried at
Fordham but afterwards removed to the side of her husband at Baltimore.
After the death of Virginia, Mrs. Clemm continued to nurse Poe, who gradually returned to a
somewhat better state of health. In this Mrs. Shew assisted until finally compelled to withdraw, due to
the emotional demands of her patient. Helped by his friends Poe once more began to appear among the
living. At Fordham he had written Eureka, a long "prose poem" of a semiscientific and metaphysical
cast which was published in March, 1848, by Geo. B. Putnam of New York. This was the tenth and last
of the poet's works published during his life time, although an "edition" of his tales dated 1849 is
known to exist. The nature of Eureka forbade its being popular. Poe now took to lecturing after a trip
to Philadelphia in the summer of 1847 when another lapse in drink almost proved fatal.
The end of his life was marked by the publication of some of his most remarkable poems. "The Bells,"
"Ulalume," "Annabel Lee," and others, and by his infatuation with several women.

During various lecture trips to Lowell, Mass., and Providence, R. I., he became acquainted with Annie
Richmond and Sarah Helen Whitman, the former a married woman, and the latter a widow of some
literary reputation and considerable charm. After a visit to Richmond, Va., in the summer of 1848 in
which he tried to fight a duel with one Daniels, the editor of a Richmond newspaper, and again lapsed
into drink, he began to pay court to Mrs. Whitman, making several visits to Providence and carrying
on a fervid correspondence. He finally obtained her reluctant consent to marry him on his promise of
refraining from the glass. Poe, however, now in a sadly shattered state, was also "in love," or so
dependent upon the sympathy of Mrs. Richmond that in an attempt to put an end to his impossible
emotional problems he tried suicide by swallowing laudanum in Boston in November, 1848. The dose
proved an emetic and he survived.
Next day in a state bordering upon insanity he appeared in Providence and begged Mrs. Whitman to
carry out her promise. She, it appears, hopeful of perhaps saving him from himself was about to marry
the poet but the opposition of relatives and another lapse from sobriety on the part of Poe, finally
brought about his dismissal. Greatly chagrined he returned to Fordham the same evening to the
comforting ministrations of poor Mrs. Clemm who was reluctantly preparing to welcome a bride.
Poe attempted to hush the matter up and to carry it off with some bravado. News of the affair was
noised about, however, and caused considerable scandal. He now threw himself into writing with
renewed activity, meanwhile continuing his correspondence with Mrs. Richmond. Misfortune
continued to dog his steps. Magazines which had accepted his work failed, or suspended payment, his
health again gave way, and Mrs. Clemm was compelled to nurse him through delirium. Finally
somewhat recovered, but a mere ghost of himself, he undertook to revive his scheme of a magazine,
The Stylus, and with funds furnished by a western admirer, E. H. N. Patterson, he set out for
Richmond, Va., in the spring of 1849, hoping to obtain help there from old friends. Mrs. Clemm was
left behind in New York at the house of a poetess in Brooklyn who was under obligations to Poe.
On the way to Richmond, Poe stopped off in Philadelphia where he again came to drink and wandered
in a distracted state. Finally he was rescued from prison and the streets by some faithful friends who
raised sufficient funds to send him on his way.
Warned by what bad been a near approach to death in Philadelphia, Poe strove with all that was in him
to refrain from wine, and for some time succeeded. In Richmond he was able with the help of old
friends and others, who now recognized both his weakness and his genius, to stage a brief "come
back." He delivered lectures at both Richmond and Norfolk with great success, appeared with applause
and dignity in society, and was finally, after some difficulty, once more able to obtain the promise of
his youthful flame Elmira Royster-now Mrs. A. B. Shelton, a widow in good circumstances, to
marry him.
Preparations for the wedding went forward; the date was set. For a while it looked as if the romance of
the poet's youth with Elmira was to be rewarded by her hand and a considerable dower in middle life.
Letters were written to Mrs. Clemm announcing the state of affairs, and Poe was ready to return to
New York in order to bring her back to Richmond for the wedding. There can be very little doubt that
in all these plans, Poe saw not only the return of his "lost Lenore," but a comfortable old age provided
for Mrs. Clemm, shelter from the world, and escape from poverty. At the very last he wrote Mrs.
Clemm saying that he still loved Mrs. Annie Richmond and wished that "Mr. R." would die. With this
letter, one of the last he wrote, the curious story of his affections ends with contradiction and
ambiguity, as it began.
Taking some little cash which had been received from the proceeds of a lecture given shortly before
his departure, Poe left Richmond very early in the morning of the twenty-third of September, 1849.
The evening before had been spent with Mrs. Shelton and the marriage had been set for October

seventeenth. Poe had not been able to refrain entirely from drinking while in Richmond and he was
undoubtedly in a an abnormal condition upon his departure. The testimony shows, however, that he
was quite sober at that particular time.
He traveled by steamer to Baltimore and arrived there on September twentyninth. Exactly what
happened to him in that city cannot now be ascertained. An election was in progress, and the
preponderance of evidence points to the fact that he began to drink and fell into the hands of a gang of
repeaters who probably gave him drugged liquor and voted him. On October third he was found by Dr.
James E. Snodgrass, an old friend, in a, horrible condition at a low tavern in Lombard Street.
Summoning a relative of Poe, Dr. Snodgrass had the now unconscious and dying poet taken in a
carriage to the Washington Hospital and put into the care of Dr. J. J. Moran, the resident physician.
Several days of delirium ensued with only a few intervals of partial consciousness. He called
repeatedly for one "Reynolds," and gave vent to every indication of utter despair. Finally on Sunday
morning, October 7, 1849, "He became quiet and seemed to rest for a short time. Then, gently, moving
his head, he said, 'Lord help my poor soul.'" As he had lived so he diedin great misery and tragedy.