Ernest Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls Essay Example for Free

Ernest Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls Essay There is a lot of symbolism in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ernest Hemmingway characterizes the inner struggle that exists in men who engage in war. The motivations and passion begin to erode, leaving desperate men in a struggle about which they no longer feel strongly. As the novel progresses, the characters of Robert Jordan and Maria grow with the love they have for each other and the progression of their ideas about war. This growth carries them through the novel and eventually through very different paths. The character of Robert Jordan is brought to new depths of character when he meets Maria. Jordan liked to remain by himself, and he had no concern about dying on the battlefield. Additionally, the character Maria is at first a meek, traumatized victim of abuse in a prison camp. When Jordan and Maria meet, they change dramatically. Jordan’s love for Maria heals her from the wounds she suffered at the hands of men back in the prison. At the same time, Jordan comes to value his life more when he has new feelings evoked by his unity with Maria. Together they make plans to make a life with one another back in the United States, and that becomes the inspiration that carries Jordan through the war. Hemmingway’s genius for metaphorical depictions is further described by the a emotionless Robert Jordan, who has entered the war after leaving his professorship back in the United States. He takes up the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, and his genius working with explosives earns him a higher position. At the start of his service in the war, he believes in the cause very strongly, but at the novel’s beginning, he has become worn down and disillusioned with the cause. The distinction between the Republican cause and the Fascist cause have blurred and he begins to wonder if both sides aren’t actually the same. His continued service in the war is almost robotic, he is no longer impassioned to the cause on either side. At the novel’s conclusion, Robert Jordan faces death, the denouement of his internal conflict being resolved as he finally is able to identify himself – not as a man of whose function lies only in his ruminations but rather, a man who acts on his instincts. He has been involved this war for too long despite becoming disillusioned long ago. He is tormented by the things he has done, but he ultimately realizes he needs to forget the past to refrain from making mistakes in the present. He focuses on his love for Maria and at the moment before his death, he is at peace and finally feels a connection with the world around him. The first metaphor was the snowstorm that occurred in May and hampered the progress of guerillas as they set out to detonate explosives on the bridge. The character Robert Jordan watches the snow whipping around him and describes the scene: â€Å"it was like the excitement of battle except it was clean† (Hemmingway, p186). He enjoys the fact that the snow and weather in general is beyond his control – unlike the war he is currently enduring. He is also glad that the hindrance of the snow can completely disable man’s technological innovations and stratagems for taking lives. The snowstorm is a foreshadowing element used in reference to the upcoming deaths of El Sordo and his band. It is the snow that leads the fascist soldiers on their trail and eventually leads to their demise, destroying any reinforcements for Jordan’s troops. The wildness of the snowstorm is mirrors the chaotic ending in which the soldiers run around aimlessly. Another metaphor in this novel is the bullfight. Bullfighting is referenced in the novel as a direct parallel to the senseless violence in war. The bull represents the powerful force and the matadors represent the bravery of men. In these fights, death may result but it is a minor risk for the ultimate reward of honor. Joaquin long dreamed of becoming a bullfighter, and when he tells this to his fellow guerillas, he suffers much ridicule for being too afraid to go through with his dream. This condemnation is indicative of the valor that men must have, putting their fears behind them and face death without flinching. Finito was described as cowardly – a matador who was terrified, but inside the ring, he had the courage of a â€Å"lion†, looking the bull in the face and confronting it (Hemmingway, p185). For Whom the Bell Tolls is a story about the hardships of war. As Robert continues through the war, he undergoes many changes and has his entire perception of the world changed through the lens of war’s devastation. At the end, a gentle peace takes hold of him as the character matures to his height of spiritual connectedness, and this is quickly followed by his death, the ultimate p

Mans Ability to Adapt as Evidenced in To Sir With Love :: Movie Film comparison compare contrast

Man's Ability to Adapt as Evidenced in To Sir With Love    In the novel To Sir With Love various human characteristics are portrayed. Of these, the idea that humans are able to adapt and change their way of thinking seems to be demonstrated throughout the story. In the novel, both the teacher, Braithewaite, and his students end up going through many changes that ultimately result in their coming to change their way of thinking about each other. In life, as in this fictionalized account, the ability to adapt to the world around one's self is a very important trait. In my own life, this has occured on many occasions. Thus, it can be said that to be able to change and adapt ourselves and our ways at looking at things to our to our situations we are truly at advantage.   In the story, Braithewaite begins with a set of preconceived ideas about his students. He expects them to be unintelligent, rough, racially intolerant children with no future-hardly deserving of his respect. But, as he sees later, they are are the total opposites of his of his initial ideas. This is gradually shown through their actions, such as such as the students all going to visit the house of their black friend during his crisis, or their learning to treat each other with respect;they learned to address each other as their last names, inthe case of the boys, and "Miss", for the girls. For the students,they learned to respect and really learn from their teacher,something they had never cared to do before. Braithewaite helped them to break out of the the pattern of intolerance and roughness that society had placed them in. They began to respect themselves and then to respect others. In short, it was obvious that both the teacher and his students were able to adapt their way of thinking to their advantage;they did not get stuck in their original set of preconceived notions about each other. This is a key point of the novel, this idea that people can change their ways.   In my own experiences, I have ended up changing my ways as I have become wiser.

Blood Brothers – Development Task

For our coursework, we created several scenes and performed scripted pieces from the play ‘Blood Brothers' by Willy Russell. I shall discuss some of the main scenes we created/performed and what mediums and elements we used to improve them. The first scene I'll discuss is where Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons are arguing over who'll keep the twin. We used various mediums and elements of drama to help us put the scenes from page to stage. I have listed how we implemented elements of drama and what effects they gave below: Content- We produced this scene directly from page to stage, except we added thought tracking to it- two extra character characters that spoke their thoughts. We used the stage directions to produce movement and facial expressions which were the main content of the scene, including the dialog. Actions- We used various different actions both from the script and improvised. These ranged from Mrs Johnstone cleaning at the start, to Mrs Lyons waving her arms in argument. We did this to give the effect of emphasising Mrs Lyons' frustration and madness and to add more visual interest for the audience. It proved very effective as it made the scene more dramatic and evocative. Climax- The climax in our piece was near the end where Mrs Johnstone swears on the Bible to give a twin to Mrs Lyons. We built up tension which lead to this by increasing volume and the tone of frustration in our voices. Reece whom played Mrs Lyons used a more pleading tone whereas I used a more frustrated tone. We did this because we wanted to engage the audience throughout the scene with the build-up of tension and emotion. Contrasts- We created a clear contrast between the characters Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone as shown on the script. These contrasts where presented in social class, which we portrayed through our differently accented voices. Also the dialog of the script suggested their contrast as Mrs Lyons had more authorative lines. In order to develop the contrast in characters further, we also had different postures to connote the contrast of status. I had a more relaxed posture and Reece had a more formal withdrawn posture. We did this to create an interesting conflict in the scene for the audience. Symbols- The only symbolism we used in this scene was the Bible prop. In the script, Mrs Johnstone swears on the Bible. This symbolises a binding contract, especially for her character as she is very superstitious. We used lighting to mark the moment of this symbolism. Willy Russell may have used symbolism in this scene to add tension and interest for the audience as this reveals that an event is going to happen later on in the play. We could have added more symbols to the scene to create more tension. Now I shall explore what mediums of drama we used in this scene to take it from page to stage and develop it further: Costume- We didn't use a particular costume as it was easier to change to different scenes and characters. We maybe should have used costumes that represented their class to show a visual contrast between the two characters. Sound/Music- We didn't use any music in our scene as there wasn't any scripted, however we used a heart-beat sound effect to mark the moment of madness when Mrs Lyons was pleading. We could have used music when Mrs Lyons pleads for the twin to mark the moment and add emphasis on her character's madness more effectively. Space & Levels- We kept spread out on the stage to use space effectively, and we incorporated the use of levels to show a visual contrast in status of the two characters. Mrs Johnstone was generally lower than Mrs Lyons throughout the scene to connote her lower status. Voice- Our voice intonation of anger and frustration built up throughout the scene to add more interest and contrasting moods from the beginning of the scene to the end. This use of voice gave the effect of showing the emotions of our characters clearly for the audience. We rehearsed this scene by initially reading through the script as our characters and using voice intonation to add emotion to the lines as we read them out. We used the explorative strategy of thought-tracking to explore the inner-characters that weren't shown in the script. Then we used the stage directions to take it from page to stage and add movement and gestures. We then added our own improvised actions etc. to develop the scene further. We made the decision of having two additional characters that represent Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons' thoughts to reveal them more effectively to the audience. We also decided to use a heart-beat sound when Mrs Lyons pleaded to show the audience the madness of her character and signify it. I think that the performance of this scene went well as our characters came across as we and the playwright intended. We made our emotions clear for the audience as we portrayed them through our gestures, use of voice etcetera. However, to improve this we could have used music at specific points such as when Mrs Johnstone swears on the Bible so as to mark the moment and add even more emotion to it. We demonstrated that Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone had a good relationship initially, and how it deteriorated throughout the scene by using more infuriated expressions and vocal tones.

Dinosaur Crafts - A Collection of Fun, Dinosaur-Themed Crafts and Projects