The Crucible Fire Analysis

had to wear some old shoes that he had at home. Gold did not like this

For Benjy time blends together and his memories of the past often foreshadow the bleak future. His memory of Caddy with muddy clothes that she easily sheds suggests she may grow up to be rebellious and promiscuous. When Caddy runs away it is very similar to the events that lead her daughter, Quentin to run away and cause history to repeat itself. When the family goes on their daily carriage ride around the graves in the square, Luster enters a different way and this causes Benjy great distress. Benjy likes to go counter clockwise, or backwards which could indicate a fear of moving ahead in time. By erratically shifting between time periods, Benjy allows himself to become lost in memories with no hope of ever moving forward. Time fuses and creates a world for Benjy where time is irrelevant.

It is easy to take a look at someone and think you know their story, but first glances are often deceiving. This situation can be found in the book Fire by Kristin Cashore. In the book, a girl known as Fire is a human monster, and as the daughter of Cansrel, the infamous adviser of the deceased king that led the city of Dells into ruins, everyone is fearful of her like she was the plague. However, she seeks peace by using her monster powers for good by delivering pivotal information to the authorities of the Dells, like an official spy. Despite the conflicts in the story, there are numerous issues in the story that relates to my life.

In the early 1900s, America’s mostly rural society was transformed into a urban manufacturing nation. This dramatic metamorphosis caused a deeper chasm between the poor and the rich, but helped form a thriving middle class. American cities overflowed with millions of European immigrants willing to provide cheap labor that was the catalyst for a thriving economy. New York City became the largest industrial powerhouse in the United States because of the garment industry. Due to the availability of affordable factory made items, American culture became preoccupied with the acquisition of goods, and the concept of consumerism was born. Sadly, the poverty stricken population who lived in slums and worked in intolerable conditions suffered tremendously. The book, The Triangle Fire by Jo Ann E. Argersinger tells the true story behind the spark of change of the exploitation of factory workers within America. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and the key historical events that followed, there were many cultural and political changes in the United States.

     The next major character found in the book is Dilsey. And although the last section is from the author’s point of view, it revolves around Dilsey, the cook for the Compson family. She treats Benjy like a normal person and assumes that his needs are the same as the rest

Benjy constantly thinks of his sister Caddie who has long since left the family home but because he has no concept of time, he has no idea that she has been gone for many years. The third section is narrated by the greedy and neurotic brother, Jason. To Jason time is all about the present and he grabs every second as it goes by much as he does with the money that his sister Caddie sends to him in order to provide for her daughter who is under his care. The fourth and final section in the book, unlike all the others, is not told by one of the children but rather by an unspecified narrator. In this section time is shown as much closer to what ordinary people perceive it to be.

Just like Christ, Benjy is the ultimate judgment and he is even able to sense when Caddy has lost her virginity, although it hadn’t been stated. As an outcast of the family, his name is changed and eventually he is placed in an asylum. This status is symbolic in that he is disowned from a seriously mentally ill family, showing that he is the only one with some sense in him. Benjy is not suicidal, he is clearly not a misogynist, and he is not interested in having incest with his own sibling that is for sure—he is in fact the only sane family

Jonathan Kozol’s Fire in the Ashes is an honest depiction of the hardships and triumphs of families in the South Bronx, New York. In this book, Kozol introduces us to several Hispanic and Black families that he originally met in the Mott Haven/Martinique Hotel in the 1980’s and allows us to view their trajectory in the proceeding 25 years. By allowing the reader a look into the lives of these families, he provides us with a realistic depiction of the disadvantages families living in poverty encounter despite interventions from charity organizations and philanthropic donors. Kozol identifies that without “systematic justice and systematic equity in public education” (Kozol, 2013, pg 304) students in these impoverished neighborhoods will continue to lack the same economic opportunities that may potentially lead them out of the welfare system. Kozol emphasizes lack of stable housing, and unequal educational opportunities, as primarily conditions to perpetuating poverty. Despite the challenges that the families endure, Kozol is able to show that they are resilient.

She is the only one who is not concerned with maintaining a virtuous image and she is also the only child who is truly able to show love to others. Caddy often took on the maternal role for her younger siblings due to her mother’s cold nature and her father’s alcoholism. However, Caddy’s storyline revolves around her extramarital pregnancy and how that affects her familial relationships. The tension began when her mother found her kissing a boy. It was said that her mother “happened to see one of them kissing Caddy and all next day she went around the house in a black dress and a veil and even Father couldn’t get her to say a word except crying and saying her little daughter was dead and Caddy about fifteen then…”(93). Her mother’s extreme reaction and judgment only pushed Caddy further away from the strict, traditional values she was being judged by. In “The Evolution of Caddy”, Bauer writes “the love and courage of Faulkner’s Caddy are ultimately broken down by her family, leaving her with a destructive self image, which in turn provides the reader with a sense of ultimate doom” (40). Soon after, Caddy became sexually active and impregnated by a boy from town. No one in the family takes it well when they find out. Benjamin, the youngest child, reacted very emotionally. He said that, “Her eyes flew at me, and away. I began to cry. It went loud and I got up. Caddy came in and stood with her back to the wall, looking at me. I

Now in the literary story Benjamin has a grandfather who at the start was antagonized, became to enjoy his grandson’s company. It is a brief account of his grandfather but a meaningful one as this was the first one who gave him a sense of acceptance. The film version gave him acceptance through Queenie and we never get to know a grandfather; though one could say the patrons at the old folk’s home could have been grandparent surrogates for Benjamin. The patrons at the old folks home taught him many things but his experience living there taught him not to fear death and what loss was about which, in a sense, desensitized the character so that when Queenie passes he is not visibly upset.

Caddy is the sister of three brother; Benjy, Quentin, and Jason and her past basically

Moreover, Benjy is completely unable to fully recall his sister as who she truly is due to the fact that “truth is a matter of the heart’s response as well as the mind’s logic” (2). Vickery effectively identifies the distinct shift in Benjy’s remembering of Caddy and opens up the notion that Benjy may be depicting her as a seemingly holy being when, in reality, she strays from that description. Furthermore, Faulkner plays this idea out more in the simple recognition that Benjy is a mentally challenged adult who continues to cling to the sheer anguish that comes with Caddy’s absence, as well as her personal surrender to Dalton Ames. Ultimately, Caddy’s seemingly surprising disappearance—for Benjy, at least—began to further deteriorate the slim sanity that Benjy still possesses. He hung on to the superficially plausible idea that “Caddy won’t run away, of course [she] won’t” (Faulkner 42). Caddy’s revelation that she did not plan on leaving Benjy gave him enough hope to persistently endure the ills of the life he lives. Although he is unaware of most of them, he

Not long after, their baby, whom they named Ben*, was born. At first, all was well. But, like the last time they had joy, hardships followed. Within months,

In conclusion, from the beginning of the story Bennie has changed by gaining maturity. However, some people may say he changed he perspective on life and death. But, this is not the case because he already knew what was going to happen to his grandmother from the beginning of the story. This teaches us to get mature otherwise we are going to suffer a lot if we don’t gain the acceptance of losing a loved

This sets up reader’s understanding that the Compsons are not a cohesive, unified family. It shows how many voices and opinions are involved in everything Benjy does and how much he is around the entire family, making his thoughts very important to the novel because while he might not have been crucial to the actual situation, he was in the room listening.