A Separate Peace: Responsibility Essay -- Essays Papers

A Separate Peace: Responsibility A responsibility is something for which one is held accountable. Often people say that one is responsible for one’s own words and actions; if something happens as a result of something one does one is responsible for it. But is it possible that something could be the result of various actions from different people who are therefore equally responsible, or is there always one person who is most responsible for the incident at hand? Such a situation where this question is relevant is present in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. In the novel, the main character, Gene, ponders his responsibility for the death of his best friend, Phineas or Finny. After reading Gene’s account of the events that led to Finny’s death the reader may observe that there are three people who are all partially at fault for Finny’s death. Gene, a classmate named Brinker, and Phineas all had something to do with the incident, but who was most responsible for it? Gene is probably the most obvious to blame for part of Phineas’ death. Gene clearly feels guilty, that is why he returns to the tree fifteen years after the fact, for some sort of closure. As Gene and Finny were about to jump from a tree branch into the river together, Gene shook the branch causing Phineas to fall into the river unexpectedly and hurt his leg. Later on, when Phineas re-injured his leg and was having it set in a routine operation, he passed away. The doctor said that it was p...

Sameness and Difference Does Not Matter

Sameness and difference does not matter if there is belonging Belonging is a key in managing effective relationships. When you belong somewhere or amongst a group of people, sameness or difference does not come into play as you are considered an equal. Nevertheless there should be somewhat sameness between the entire groups, so that there is a common similarity that connects the entire group together. Though the very notion that there could exist a place where difference does not count may seem ludicrous to some people but unless you’ve experienced true belonging, it is a difficult concept to put into words.Accepting and being accepted for your differences is critical in the subject of belonging and once past that critical stage your sameness and difference becomes irrelevant, now that you belong somewhere or amongst something. Sameness is the primary attitude needed to belong with either a group of individuals or a collection of groups. That sameness may be in physical form e g: Skin Colour, height, weight, physique etc.In this case, those African American people that had been poorly treated and subjected to nothing but being treated like second class citizens, due to the implementation of the Jim Crow laws in the southern states of the United States of America. Sameness not only exists on the outside of an individual, but also what’s on the inside of oneself and it could be religious beliefs, values, intellect and their take on what is wrong and what is right. Having the same religion as a fellow individual could help you belong, same goes for having similar values and believing in what is right and wrong.To further this idea, if you look around many of the friendships/relationships that occur, occur because individuals share a common or genuine similarity, hence being able to socialise and communicate properly, thus suggesting that it does matter that there needs to be sameness, however minimal, to belong In the â€Å"Member of the Wedding†. Berenice and Frankie have about being â€Å"loose† or â€Å"caught† in the world. Berenice says that we are caught in the sense that we are born black or white and cannot change that.Being a black woman, she knows that her colour traps her even more because of discrimination. Frankie sees how at the same time we are lost in our community because of our failure to connect or mix with other people and belonging. This moment serves as a powerful statement against the separation of the races and makes a pledge for unity, but ultimately coming to the conclusion that is does matter that that you need sameness to belong. Similarities are needed to develop and maintain a healthy relationship as both parties share something in common.However, that relationship or that need to belong could be overshadowed if there weren’t for a couple of differences that distinguishes the person from another. In going through the process of belonging, one must be able to display both similarities and differences in order to belong. However once that stage is reached, there is no need to show either a similarity or a difference as you become considered an equal among whom or the place in which you belong. Sameness and differences is not needed if there is belonging. However, they are needed to form that special bond which is belonging.Nobody is going to play the fool by saying that everyone is going to have a special link with each other despite the fact that they aren’t going to display their sameness or differences because that is simply not true. To belong is something everybody craves but not everyone does achieve that and it is only when you reach the highest stage that your attributes are no longer needed as the place where you belong has seen it all. Belonging is just not a want, but a need. We see people fly everywhere to discover the true meaning of belonging but unless you’ve experienced it, then it shall remain a mystery to those yet to d iscover it.

Comparing James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A...

Comparing James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place As divergent as James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are in style, they handle many of the same themes. Both stories explore hope, anguish, faith, and despair. While Araby depicts a youth being set up for his first great disappointment, and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place shows two older men who have long ago settled for despair, both stories use a number of analogous symbols, and lap over each other thematically. At the beginning of Araby, the narrator describes the streets lamps as lifting their feeble lanterns towards an ever-changing violet sky (227). The colour violet is both dark and rich. The sky,†¦show more content†¦It shows what there is. It does not search for what there might be. The old man sits in the shadow and looks down. Joyces character carries a chalice of faith through a maelstrom of mundane chatter (228). Hemingways sips a glass of brandy. To him, the mundane is not a distraction on the way to higher awareness, it is all there is. If one does not like it, one may numb themselves to it, or one may quit it. This old man will not listen to myths of meaning and comfort. He has gone deaf, perhaps out of not wanting to hear any more empty promises or stories that fail to hold up. Joyces boy has had his first crushing disappointment. Hemingways old man has had his last. There is no more looking up for him. His drink, his regular cafà ©, these are his comfort and his ref uge. Both these male authors constitute woman as the Other, a counterpart and compliment to some man, metaphysically or physically. In Joyces story, Mangans sister is the goddess in service of whom our junior Hero goes on his quest to the bazaar. Once arrived, the young lady who flirts with the English boys comes to embody his sense of betrayal. He has come all this way, and no one has time for him. That he came all this way for a girl makes it ironic that it is a girl he first speaks to and she gives him a cold welcome. It may imply that the comfort one seeks in the Church is not always there when you need it, or even that it is never really there: that it is a sham and a front. The women