Character Analysis: Myth Or Bust

The Second Chance Cycle Second chances are very hard to get, but when they are given, they should be appreciated and valued. Many of the characters in The First Stone have impactful second chances that they may not fully appreciate at first. As they live out their second chances Reef, Alex, and Leeza go through major personality change that they may not realize for a while.

Arn Chorn-Pond is the main character in the book “Never fall down”. At the start of the book we meet Arn as a kind and slick person, but later when he and his family gets forced to follow Khmer Rouge. Under these four years he becomes a man and learn to hide his emotions. From kind, slick and a young boy that doesn’t know much, he becomes an intelligent, kind man with the heart on the right place and a real fighter.

The book, Between the Shades of Gray, takes place during World War II. The character Lina is arrested and deported by the NKVD following the annexation of Lithuania. She was then forced to provide labor in order to survive the extreme conditions of the Stalin’s camps. Her ability to cope, her relocation, and the death of her mother contributes to her development and survival.

1.The Laramie Project and Fifteen Years Later was the most tragic, intense books of the summer session. The story revolves around Matthew Shepard, a well-liked, successful college student. He was killed because of his sexual preference. Laramie, Montana is a small, rural, close-minded community. Citizens with different sexual orientations are condemned and, “Locked in the closet.” The most important moment in the play occurred during the interview with Aaron Kreifels. He felt compelled to ride his bicycle on a dusty, unfamiliar road. “I didn’t know where I was going. I was just sort of picking the way to go, which now…it makes me think that God wanted me to find him because there was no way I was going

“I get by with a little help from my friends” - The Beatles. Friendship is a key essential that helps one overcome any challenge in life. Friends provide guidance to develop one’s identity. In the novel If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth and the movie Wonder, the theme of friendship helps the main characters develop their identity as confident people through maturity, acceptance and loyalty.

A Lesson Before Dying A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines tells the story of a black man, Jefferson, with unequal rights, being accused of killing a white man. Although, the accusation was far from being right, he is a black man, and blacks were treated unfairly. Throughout the journey of the trial, Jefferson and Grant became very close, and they both learned a lot from each other and the trial. Grant learns the lesson of being a man, because he develops feelings, and becomes humble.

Stealing food and using it to feed someone is an example of what is used throughout the fictional novel, A Long Way From Chicago, copyright date 1997. Joey and Mary Alice visit Grandma Dowdel’s home from Chicago every summer. Each year for seven years they learn that kindness can be shown in different ways. Similarly, Grandma Dowdel displays acts of kindness by stealing, cheating, and lying however in the end, changes the peoples’ lives for the better. Richard Peck uses the events of his novel, A Long Way From Chicago to convey the universal theme, kindness can be shown in many ways.

All refugees, the circumstances notwithstanding, face immense hardship throughout their lives. In time, these hardships give way to new opportunities, dreams, and perspectives, as even in the face of suffering, one always retains their intrinsic self. Kim Ha, the protagonist in Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, experienced this through her family’s daring escape from war-torn South Vietnam. Consequently, Inside Out and Back Again serves as a fitting title for her story.

The book Beyond The Pale is about Two ordinary people (Travis Wilder and Grace Beckett) who get transported to this new and magic filled world that resembles earths medieval times. With there new found powers they hope to save this new world from its impending doom. (The pale king and his iron heart followers). I choose to write about Grace for my character analysis because I admire her intelligence, her cleverness, and her independent nature. Grace is intelligent because she always had a plan.

Grace has been told for more than half her life that she was crazy. Her mother’s death that she witnesses was an accident, there was no scarred man, and there was nothing she could do to change what had happened. But Grace knew they were wrong. With the help of her friends Noah, Megan and Rosie, she managed to discover that the scarred man was Dominic, the first love of her mother, who was there to kill her mother, but chose instead to stage her death. Grace came down just as Dominic was taking the picture, and picked up the gun that was lying on the floor. Firing blinding, she missed Dominic and shot her mother instead. The traumatic moment of shooting her mother was blocked from Grace’s mind as it was unable to handle what she did. Her family tries to protect her from this, saying it was an accident, trying to get Grace to stop pushing. When pushing too hard, Grace discovers the truth of what happened that night, and what she did, and with the

Spending time in jail can really change a man. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying by award-winning author Ernest J Gaines, the story is about a young man with a challenge of a lifetime. Grant one of the main characters is given a task of changing a man. The novel takes place in Bayonne Louisiana, where the Civil Rights Act has not yet taken place. Segregation was still an issue at this time, and many of the characters throughout the novel face segregation head-on.

The Trials of Joseph R. He wore diginity as a star wears heat perpetually long-sleeved with monogrammed tie-bar a Stetson-hatted man with nineteen moods. My Kristallnacht-refugee Opa hauled his own smashed aspirations which paled like embers of fireflies. He was already my magician when I became his: Chinese checkers reshaped into chocolate leaves while standing on ceremony in ever-prismatic light.

I was pleased to have attended a lecture cosponsored by the Ethics Center, the Fresno State office of the president, the Fresno Bee and Valley PBS. The lecture began with Dr. Castro recognizing a few leaders on campus, including a past Fresno State president, Dr. John D. Welty and campus volunteer Mary Castro. Dr. Castro then mentioned a few things about Mr. Brooks stating that he is a columnist for the New York Times and an analyst for the PBS “News Hour” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Dr. Brooks also teaches at Yale University, one the finest university in the country. Dr. Castro continued by saying that he learned that Mr. Brooks office hours are from 9am to 1pm and how “cool” it sounded to him. I was surprised how many people attended the event. I was fortunate to find a seat. David Brooks mentioned how he has some remote roots in the Central Valley because his father grew in Chowchilla, CA but Mr. Brooks grew in New York.

Will-power and determination plays a major role when it comes to people accomplishing goals and performing the tasks they are given. When a person possesses these two qualities they are motivated, focused, will not give up easily, determined along with many other things. The word determination is defined as, “the act of coming to a decision or of fixing or settling a purpose.” Will-power is, “the strength or will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans.” In the short story A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, the main character Phoenix carried out the meaning of these two words throughout the whole story. She had experienced many road blocks during her journey, but she did not let them stop her from reaching

Authors in many instances use the main elements in the story such as setting and narrative to prove a point in the story. For example, writers often use characters, their actions, and their interaction with other characters to support or prove a theme. In the short story “Our Thirteenth Summer”, Barry Callaghan effectively uses characters to develop the theme that childhood is fragile and easily influenced. One of the ways that Callaghan makes effective use of characters to develop the theme is by describing the tension between Bobbie and his parents. This usage of characters supports the theme because Bobbie’s childhood is no longer free to do what he wishes, but has to bow down to his parents’