Okonkwos Foil - 849 Words

Diana DeBernardis, 5 Mr. Rosenberry Honors English 11 December 19, 2012 Okonkwo’s Foil â€Å"Opposites attract.† This is a very clichà © quote used by physicists and other scientific personnel, but it rings true in many different ways. In literature, the correct term for a character that sets off or enhances another character by contrast is called a â€Å"foil.† Pairs of characters that are foils to each other have very opposing views and personalities, but their presence with each other illustrates the qualities in a better light. The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a fictional novel which includes a main character named Okonkwo. Okonkwo has some very distinguishing features about him, but the fact that he has a foil in the novel†¦show more content†¦When Okonkwo explains to Obierika how he would strive to have a son like his because he is so strong and mighty, Obierika answers with a very pacifying response. â€Å"‘You worry yourself for nothing,’ said Obierika. ‘The children are still very young.’† (Achebe 66). This passage shows that Obierika is not so concerned about power and supremacy. Because of the contrast in Obierika’s traits, he is definitely a foil to Okonkwo because Okonkwo is very strong-minded, dogmatic, and hot-tempered. If something does not go his way, Okonkwo will do something very irrational about it. When Okonkwo asked his second wife where his third wife, Ojiugo, was he became angered because his second wife lied to him about Ojiugo’s whereabouts. â€Å"He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily† (Achebe 29). Okonkwo’s rationale of beating his third wife was in very poor judgment because he beat her during the Week of Peace. The Week of Peace was a week among the tribes where there was supposed to be no violence. This shows that Okonkwo has a very short temper and he does not tolerate nearly as much as Obierika can tolerate. Not only does Okonkwo differ from Obierika in the fact of their personality traits, but Obierika is a foil to Okonkwo because of Okonkwo’s hunger for power. Okonkwo himself was known as the most powerful man in his village because he threw Amalinze the Cat, who was a great wrestler who hadShow MoreRelatedChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart916 Words   |  4 Pagesthe foil character. This character is the complete opposite of the main character. Usually, a foil goes through the same events as the main character however he will see things differently and have a different opinion. The purpose of this character is to shed light on the main character, and to show how things could work out differently if the main character would have thought differently. In the novel â€Å"Things Fall Apart† by Chinua Achebe there are multiple characters that could serve as foils forRead MoreTheme Of Racism In Joseph Conrads Heart Of Darkness1008 Words   |  5 Pagesangry that he cant do any thing when a group of Christians come and change things in the villages. Through character foils, diction and irony, Achebe develops the theme that a persons race should not factor into his characterization. First, Achebe uses character foils to shows that just because you are a certain race, it doesnt mean that you are a certain way. A man from Okonkwo’s village said looking at Okonkwo was like â€Å"‘Looking at a kings mouth,...one would think he never sucked at his mothersRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1341 Words   |  6 Pagesand divine wonder. Achebe emphasizes this difference to sardonically address how white men deemed their actions benevolent. 4.) Title The title belongs to a line from William Butler Yeats’s â€Å"The Second Coming†. Throughout the book, events such as Okonkwo’s decline in power and the arrival of white men reflect modernist ideas presented by the poem. Both literary works explore a breaking down of social norms and its psychological effect on people. 5.) Setting Achebe’s novel takes place during the 1890sRead MoreList Of Major Characters In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1345 Words   |  6 PagesFall Apart by Chinua Achebe Historical Date the Book was Published: 1958 List of Major Characters: Okonkwo: Main character, leader, power hungry man, tragic flaw leads to downfall Nwoye: Okonkwo’s son, joins Christianity, Okonkwo believes he is weak and unworthy, feels outcasted from community Ezinma: Okonkwo’s favorite kid, understanding, Okonkwo wishes she was a boy Mr. Brown: White missionary, brings peace and understanding to the Igbo people, builds schools and hospitals 4. List of Minor Characters:Read MoreThings Fall Apart and the Case Against Imperialism1433 Words   |  6 Pagesto achieve greatness as defined by his culture? How does he differ from Western heroes? What are Okonkwo’s strengths and weaknesses? 3. Describe Unoka, Okonkwo’s father. What are Okonkwo’s feelings toward Unoka, and why? How does the example of his father shape Okonkwo’s character and actions? Would Unoka be viewed differently in a different culture? 4. What do the early descriptions of Okonkwo’s success and Unoka’s failure tell us about Igbo society? How does one succeed in this cultural contextRead MoreAn Exploration of Proverbs in Things Fall Apart by Achebe Essay974 Words   |  4 Pagesthe dwarf wall of the barn. He [presses] the trigger and there is a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children.† This proverb sheds light on Okonkwos tragic flaw which is he always suppresses his feminine side. The proverb means that when you balance your feminine and masculine sides, you will be successful. Okonkwos problem is he was afraid of being thought weak so he always relies on his masculine side. Because he doesn’t listen to his feminine side, when he murders IkemefunaRead MoreCommentary on Passge (Page 124-125) of Things Fall Apart by Chnua Achebe1162 Words   |  5 Pagesis the sin of murder. While he is attending a funeral for a man named, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, Okonkwo’s gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son. Killing a clansman is a crime against their earth goddess, thus, Okonkwo and his family are sent into exile, being forced to go back to his motherland of Mbanta. The men of the family who have experienced the loss in this accidental death burn Okonkwo’s houses and kill his animals to cleanse the village of his sin of murder. Th ey do thisRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1617 Words   |  7 Pages In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the characters Ikemefuna and Obierika are used as â€Å"foil characters,† and reveal pertinent traits of Okonkwo’s true nature. The traits of Ikemefuna and Obierika contrast the traits Okonkwo, and allow the reader greater insight into Okonkwo’s fear of emasculation and his trepidation for the transformation of Igbo culture. Both Obierika and Ikemefuna accentuate the abhorrence Okonkwo has for becoming epicene and opprobrious like his father. Obierika also is skepticalRead MoreOkonkwo And Nwoye Analysis807 Words   |  4 Pageswas not as manly as he should be, and that he was quite lazy. Nwoye’s behavior began to change when Okonkwo brought Ikemefuna into the family. â€Å"Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, who was two years younger, became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything. â€Å" (Achebe 35) In the novel , Ikemefuna was well admired in Umuofia, and was also Nwoye’s foil character. He knew everything that a person could possibly know, and taught Nwoye that laziness isn’t the answer. Nwoye’s change in behavior stoodRead MoreEssay on Gender in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart1881 Words   |  8 Pageswe are not privy to the psychological workings of Okonkwo’s mind we are made aware of his blatant physicality that is projected outward in all directions in effect incarnating him as his society’s ideal of manhood. It is this attitude and manner that develops into an overbearing masculinity. On more than one occasion we are alerted to the fact that Okonkwo’s adoption of the manly ideal is excessive. Obierika seems to have been conceived as a foil to Okonkwo so that his attitude indicates the possibility

Communicating Through Numbers in Toni Morrisons Beloved...

Communicating Through Numbers in Beloved Humanity uses numbers as a way to communicate beyond words, evoking ideas more readily than words alone are able to. All religions and cultures have significant numbers that communicate an essence or idea more quickly and completely than words can. It is in this manner that Toni Morrison uses numbers in Beloved. Significant numbers occur starting with the first symbols of the text and the words on the pages before the body of the text starts. 124. The first thing to appear, and we already have a significant number. Sethe has four children. The third one is dead. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 remain. Another number that stands alone in its significance is twenty-eight. Twenty-eight†¦show more content†¦Rather than tell Sethe with words that trying to kill her children was inhuman, Paul D uses numbers: You got two feet, Sethe, not four (165). There are thirty women that arrive to remove Beloved. Thirty is a symbol of justice and order, according to Marianne Schimmel. When schoolteacher arrives with his party, they are described as the four horsemen (148). In fact, the only time a number occurs by itself as a sentence is to describe them: All the while it was coming down the road. Four. Riding close together, bunched-up like, and righteous (157). Each of these is a powerful symbol, though none of these numbers recur in the text, at least not with these meanings. Two is duality, a pair, a division. It is also a unity, two halves of the same whole. Sex is expressed in many cultures as a duality, the yin and yang, father sky and mother earth. In Beloved, twos, fours, and even twenties occur in situations related to sex and children. Baby Suggs has eight children (209), four girls, four boys. Sethe has four. Two boys, two girls. 124 has two stories, and Sethe and Paul D have sex on the second floor. At Mrs. Garners wedding, they ate four sheep (59). From the two buckets of blackberries he picked, Stamp Paid put two into the mouth of four week old Denver (170). At Baby Suggs revival, after talking about your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, the crowd sings in four-part harmony (89). Such a performance

Bureaucracy free essay sample

The following case, Wichita Confronts Contamination, involves a vast polluted underground lake containing hazardous industrial waste. The site is located in the heart of the downtown, Wichita business district. The contamination was spreading about a foot a day and it was feared that water quality deterioration and serious health issues would result. The City Manager, Chris Cherches, is faced with the responsibility to draft a plan to resolve the crisis. The following details the process and the dynamics.. During the period of 1990, the down town business district of Wichita, Kansas was experiencing economical hardship due to the skyrocketing oil industry and the nationwide real estate slump. At the same time, the local leaders were in the process of developing strategies for urban renewal and new investments that would stimulate economic growth. They estimated $375 million would cover the entire revitalization project. In the wake of all this activity, they discovered hazardous chemical waste had been detected in some private and industrial wells in downtown Wichita. The Banking industry got wind of this and put a damper on granting loans for real estate. In June 1990, a local manufacturer, Coleman incorporated, approached the legal department about a contamination problem he discovered in the fall of 1988. Panic struck†¦. and it all hit the fan†¦. when the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, acting on behalf of the Environment Protection Agency, reported that Wichita was sitting on an underground polluted lake -dubbed the Gilbert and Mosley site.. The site was four miles long and one-and one half miles wide. The polluted aquifer was right beneath the â€Å"center† of the business district. The parcels affected had an estimated value of $86 million. This six-square mile area included major banks, hotels, homes and industrial headquarters. During the investigation, (KDHE) discovered a chemical degreaser used on metal was found at Coleman’s â€Å"headquarters† at the north end of the site. Question? Who is the responsible party? City Manager, Chris Cherches developed a comprehensive report that estimated to clean the aquifer could cost about $20 million and take as long as 20 years. Chris Cherches presented his report to the (KDHE) and they had two recommendations: Either the companies responsible could clean up the area, or the state would rank the site for National Priority List, the first step toward activating â€Å"Superfund†. Initiated in 1980, a Superfund site is a toxic waste site that falls under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program. Superfund sites are areas contaminated with hazardous material left by corporate or government entities whose operations may have moved. The federal government launched the landmark Superfund program to wipe out the problem. Under the Superfund law, passed by Congress, companies and other parties found responsible for polluting sites are required to clean up the areas or pay the costs for cleanup to the (EPA). The National Priorities List (NPL) is the EPA’s list of toxic waste sites that the agency has determined present a significant risk to human health or the environment. (2) In addition, KDHE’s report identified 508 other area businesses as Potentially Responsible Parties under Superfund law. Even more threatening, if the financial institutions made real estate loans in the Gilbert-Mosley district, they too could incur Superfund liability. As a result, all lending activity was halted. A local developer, David Burk, lost investors because it suddenly became impossible to sell property in that area. As the threats of uncertain liability arose, and the lost of real estate sales, the county appraiser’s office was receiving request for property reduction. Devastation was all over the place†¦with property values going down, groundwater issues, there would be no need for urban redevelopment. City Manager, Cherches had to quickly weigh his options and develop a plan as soon as possible. His first priority was to begin cleaning up the aquifer and second, convince the financial institution to resume lending in the Gilbert-Mosley area. He believed that as long as property values remained at their quota, then the community core could be salvaged. The next urgent order of business was to convince Coleman and others to take charge of the Gilbert-Mosley site because it was a business dilemma. A â€Å"potentially responsible party† or PRP, is a company, organization or individual that the EPA determines possibly played a role in the contamination of a Superfund site. This includes parties involved in generation of the waste, and parties involved in transporting it to the site. PRPs can also include past and present owners of the land or facility, and past and present facility operators. In his research, City Manager, Cherches discovered that groundwater contamination had also occurred three years earlier at a smaller site known as 29th and Mead. The same rhetoric occurred regarding this particular site†¦. banks stopped lending, property values lowered 40 percent , and the city came in agreement with Coleman to pay for the initial (EPA’s) Feasibility Study. However, during that period, negotiations were stalled and the state placed the site on the National Priorities List resulting in years of real estate entanglement. Cherches did not want to repeat â€Å"History† given this experience since time was the essence. There were more than 500 other PRP’s and Coleman was denouncing full responsibility for the over-all contamination. Therefore, the city was in a horrific stance on agreeing who was responsible for what. If there were no agreement resolutions, then there could be no quick clean up action and the Banking industry would not resume lending until the contamination issue had been resolved. The next option and far less appealing was to allow EPA and the Superfund to become involved in the project. (3) If they became involved, the cost of cleaning up Gilbert-Mosley would be astronomical. Cost not limited would include: oversight contractor cost to monitor the work flow of the regular contractor, polluters faced administrative cost of EPA itself and prolonged multi-party litigation cost. In as much, EPA was allowed to charge punitive charges as a means of replenishing their fund and the Superfund law called on EPA personnel to charge their time to the private firms. The Superfund is desperately short of money to clean up abandoned waste sites, which has created a backlog of sites that continue to menace the environment and, quite often, the health of nearby residents. Initially, the program was funded by a tax on polluters, which fed the actual â€Å"Superfund†, a pool of money used to pay for the clean up sites whose polluters were unknown or unable to do the work. But the tax law expired in 1995, under a Republican-controlled Congress, and the $3. 8 billion that had accumulated in the fund at its peak ran day in 2003. As a result of the funding shortage, site clean up plans are stretched out over longer periods of time because there isn’t enough money to get them done quickly and still pay for other ongoing cleanups. Currently, fund-led cleanups are paid for with taxpayer money and any money recovered form PRPs. Accordingly, a number of construction completions have been delayed on purpose. City Manager, Cherches knew that involving the Superfund would be a massive undertaking of funding and lost of momentum. Steps to a typical Superfund cleanup could take up to 10 years of which seven years are spent on study assessment, legal proceedings and creating a remedy before the actual cleanup begins. Mayor Knight consulted with other mayors about his contamination problem and they warned him to avoid Superfund. Manager, Cherches decided to reject both options presented by the (KHDE) and to develop a platform for the city of Wichita to take full responsibility for the Gilbert-Mosley cleanup. Wichita began to develop strategies and create various mechanisms to encourage the banks to start lending in the contaminated area again. The key was to find a way to â€Å"finance† their massive clean up problem. Cherches had to prove to the state and the EPA that he could dead lock funds to support what could be a 20 year project. He knew that Coleman would pay as much as possible, but recouping clean up cost from the other polluters was uncertain. Therefore, Cherches developed a powerful alternative to impose a statewide tax that would spread the burden to the broadest number of constituents. (4) Wichita City Council was not in favor of committing tax dollars for such an arduous task. Before the city of Wichita could undertake this project; they had to be determined to make this work long before a commitment from Coleman and other major contributors was settled. No one knew of any city stepping in to accept liability for a contamination problem it had not caused. The central business district in Wichita could not afford to wait any longer. The success of the plane would depend on â€Å"Intergovernmental Relations† meaning cooperation from †¦. the city manager’s office, the city council, the county commission, the school board, lenders, constituents, Coleman, KDHE, the state legislature, the governor and the EPA. KDHE had warned the city that if a cleanup plan had not taken shape, the state would recommend that EPA take over. If Wichita was unable to solve it, then the inevitability of â€Å"Superfund† was pending. City Manager, Chris Cherches quickly set up a tax increment finance plan that would raise funds for the redevelopment district. Once the improvements were in place, the difference between the old and the new property assessments would create a higher value increment that would be used to pay for the revitalization program. This program is defined as a â€Å"decrement plan†. They would â€Å"devalue† all the property in the Gilbert-Mosley area by 40 percent and then immediately raise values back up to their pre-contamination level believing that the city would restore lost value. The difference would be set aside to finance the cleanup. Cherches round table negotiations with the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, city council, the public and the EPA were all in favor of his concept. The next order of business was to convince bankers to resume lending. The bankers soon became allies with Cherches because they too would have been held liable for the cleanup as well as losing the value of their Gilbert-Mosley investments. The catch, bankers were reluctant to resume lending until they had some legal protection in place from cleanup liability. The city devised a document called, â€Å"Certificate and Release for Environmental Conditions† to protect and release property owners, businesses, banks and residents from any Superfund cleanup liability. All anyone had to do was just apply to the city for this document. The banking industry embraced the idea of the certificate, but they wanted the city to receive firm assurance from the (EPA) that they wound not take over the Gilbert-Mosley site and override the agreements with KDHE and Coleman or push through to make changes in state law used for long-term projects. (5) With all minds in agreement, EPA agreed and the city followed all requirements, but with (KDHE) acting as the primary oversight agency. All the city had to do was report to regularly to the EPA on its progress. Although no written documents were signed, Morris Kay, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, guaranteed that as long as the city was operating according to agency requirement, Superfund would not intervene. At the last minute, the city learned that a Kansas state law called â€Å"Cash Basis-Budget† designed to ensure fiscal responsibility would not allow local government to commit operating revenues beyond one year. The city needed an exception and an amendment to TIF law because they had to be able to commit funds raised over a long term period. The Gilbert-Mosley project was a 20 year effort and they needed those funds to contract with (KDHE). To get approval, the decision would be in the hands of the city legislatures who met only from January through April. Noted from previous settings, the legislatures were very antagonistic and hard to convince. Matters didn’t get any better when both the county assessor and the state property director declared the city’s tax increment proposal as unworkable†. In its place, three County Legislators who reviewed the city TIF bill, enacted an amendment that allowed municipalities to earmark 20 percent of a specially created TIF annual property tax for environmental cleanups. It functions like the decrement plan. Each year 20 percent of property tax revenues would go toward ground water clean up for the next 20 years. On March 26, Wichita signed a decree with (KDHE) outlining the oversight responsibility and explaining how the Certificate of Release would come into play. On April 23, Coleman signed an agreement to pay $1 million for the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility study and to pay all cleanup cost for the area where he was the main polluter. In addition, he agreed to split cost with the city in a second area where he was a contributor to the contamination. Coleman acted in good faith because if he Gilbert-Mosley site became a Superfund, he would have been subject to higher cost and endless third party litigations. Surprisingly, one week after Coleman signed his contract, the Kansas Legislators approved the city TIF bill. Finally, on May 14, several banks came in agreement to lend on the security of real properties within Gilbert-Mosley as long as they had obtained a Certificate and Release for Environmental Conditions. One year after the Certificate and Release program began, the business district in the Gilbert-Mosley area returned to normal. (6) In conclusion, the sharing of responsibility and power between Kansas and the government is an example of check and balances. It would be difficult for any one system to make rational decisions to benefit activities or to design any coherent changes in the system itself†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦it requires Interdependence, Complexity and Intergovernmental Bargaining. Power is shared. Instead of one branch controlling decisions about policy, it must be mutual and accommodating. The style of decision making is one of bargaining under conditions of conflict among the participants. The participants in government have different interest to serve and objectives to seek: yet one cannot succeed by acting unilaterally.

Year of Wonders Essay Essay Example

Year of Wonders Essay Paper Background of the novel: 1. William Shakespeare wrote most of his known dramas between 1589 and 1613. and died in 1616.2. Elizabeth I was succeeded by James VI of Scotland ( going James I of Great Britain upon his crowning ) . in 1603.3. Between the old ages of 1649 and 1660. during the English Civil War. England had no sovereign ; alternatively. the state was temporarily ruled by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell as a military/parliament. 4. In seventeenth Century England. many people believed that enchantresss were abound and were the cause of a assortment of otherwise difficult-to-explain behavior amongst people ; if a individual were found guilty of witchery. they were sentenced to decease by hanging. We will write a custom essay sample on Year of Wonders Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Year of Wonders Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Year of Wonders Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer 5. Puritans were those of a peculiar division of the Christian religion. differing notably from other subdivisions in largely their positions on morality. which they believed to be improbably of import – and pursued down to the finest degree of item – and the construction and mode of their worship ( eschewing the intervention of outside beginnings. such as swayers of the land. into faith. and non seeking felicity by normal agencies. taking it alternatively from their belief that they were moving harmonizing to God’s will ) . 6. ( I couldn’t reply the first portion of this inquiry. as after seeing multiple versions of the book’s screen at that place seems to be no repeating phrase to see as a ‘subtitle’. ) Historical Fiction: 1. While some people may keep the outlook that historical fiction would be based on facts and research. painting a realistic image of its scene. I would state that such an premise is non. or at least should non be. normally present ; historical fiction is labelled as ‘fiction’ for a ground. and as such is grounded excessively much in alternate world. taking excessively much to supply amusement instead than information. to be considered an accurate. researched portraiture of its scene. Of class. there are exclusions – Year of Wonders. in portion. being one – but even that does non supply a realistic adequate image of its clip and topographic point to do the outgrowth of such an outlook of factual proviso going platitude in the genre seem a good thought. 2. I believe that an author’s ability to determine their stuff into an effectual and prosecuting narrative holds a higher place of importance than their willingness to adhere to historically accurate happenings ; if the writer aims to steep their audience in the narrative. so every other facet of the book is secondary to that end. In the same manner as one would be unwise to try to compose a good book about a purposefully deadening premiss or character. there is small point in keeping historical truth if such care detracts from the amusement of the piece. Even if the purpose is non amusement. but instead the conveyance of a peculiar subject. the same logical thinking applies – there is small to no ground in keeping historical truth if the subjects being presented could be done so far more efficaciously without such truth. 3. Although it is evidently of import in any medium to avoid anachronic happenings that could take away from the narrative. I do non hold that the ‘anachronisms’ in Year of Wonders could be classified as such. in that they do non look to be genuinely anachronic at all. By this. I mean that the attitudes of the chief characters do non look incredible. even sing the book’s puting. as any epoch will ever hold those who think otherwise – so. if non for this. this outgrowth of persons traveling against the position quo who may obtain the rare opportunity to act upon others. mankind’s common values would neer hold changed since its origin. Each of the characters in inquiry seems to hold been written with adequate account of their ain values and attitudes that they are justified. even within the context. While these fortunes are surely unlikely. they are non impossible. and trying to name those two things one and the same is kindred to labelling twenty-four hours the same as dark by the mere fact that they lie following to each other in the rhythm of clip. Reading the Novel: 1. It would look that the ground for which Geraldine Brooks gave the name Year of Wonders to her novel is that. despite the annihilating effects of the pestilence on Anna’s life. there genuinely were ‘wonders’ that happened for. and about. her in that twelvemonth. She grew closer than she of all time may hold expected to a good friend ; she salvaged many an guiltless life with her ( albeit shaky at first ) willingness in being a accoucheuse. which finally led to her happening what she believed her true naming ; she witnessed her town’s sacrificial act of goodness. saving guiltless bystanders from sharing in Eyam’s wretched destiny ; and. finally. she managed to happen felicity. emerging from that most seeking twelvemonth scathed but still really much alive. re-starting her life anew and settling down with two healthy. happy kids to name her ain. 2. Here is a list of my initial feelings of the characters in Year of Wonders: * Anna – A miss whose artlessness was taken from her by that which she has experienced. looking embittered and disillusioned with the universe around her but standing as a strong pillar of kindness in malice of that. To those familiar with the nomenclature – for I can believe of no better term for Anna’s character – she seems at first ( and throughout the narrative ) to be a ‘Mary Sue’ . * Michael – A once-great adult male driven into an about catatonic province by the events of the pestilence. * Elizabeth – An unpleasant adult female. spoilt to the point of unbelievable greed and selfishness by the fortunes of her upbringing. * Jamie – A kid like any other. energetic and speculative. * George – Good and kindhearted. to the degree that these qualities become leery. * Jane – A priggish and serious immature miss. seting her spiritual positions above all else in her life to a possibly obsessional extent. * Sam – Dull. yet sort ; a simple adult male. content with his life. * Tom – A typical babe ; along with Jamie. he is the topic of his mother’s devotedness and love. and much of her ground for life now that Sam is dead. * Elinor – Kind and carefree. yet brooding and devoted ; Anna’s image of flawlessness. * Mem – A adult female weathered by the universe. demoing built-in goodness behind a more crabbed outside as she remains to be given to a small town of people who think none excessively extremely of her. * Anys – A immature miss demoing the same Weltschmerz. disposition and consciousness as her aunt. though whose morality is possibly more tarred due to her selfishness. her bluntness and her neglect for typical values. * Stanley –Similarly to Jane. a individual who treats worship and morality as being about synonymous with life itself. * Aphra – Self-absorbed to the extreme and paranoid towards any outside forces in her l ife. * Lib – A representation of a typical miss of the Middle Ages. functioning as a foil to Anna’s more progressive character. * Colonel Bradford – A selfish. ill-mannered adult male. holding grown accustomed to mistreating the power granted to him. * Miss Bradford – A typical rich adult female of the times. sing her wealth as a item of high quality. * Robert – A roving immature adult male of high-toned birth. seeking simple amusement after go forthing his place town of London. * Mary – An everyday adult female on face degree. desiring merely a field and happy life. * Surgeon ( s ) – [ Grouped together because they are of identical dispositions ] Fearful work forces. seeking non genuinely to assistance others at critical points but instead to derive a stock of money from their work and remain in safety themselves. * The Sexton – A hard-working old adult male. seeking simply to make his responsibility in a most hard clip. * Brad â₠¬â€œ Though non peculiarly evil. a superstitious. desperate and stupid adult male. * Faith – Much the same as her male parent. Brad.* Urith – The same as Brad.* Martin – Same as above.* Maggie – A hard-working. honest peasant adult female.* Jenny – Same as above. * Brand – A cautious adult male. but one who has goodness within him. * Jakob – Kind and suiting. despite his hard batch in life. * Josiah – A cruel and angry adult male non afraid to utilize his strength to acquire his ain manner ; like his married woman Aphra. he seems to reject anything other than the construct of ego. * Sally – An wholly guiltless victim. her decease looking representative of that which makes the villagers start to abandon their religion. * Kate – Another desperate. simple peasant adult female. seeking safety but throwing off ground in an effort to make it. * Merry – Like Sally. Merry is a below the belt victimised kid. but unlike her. Merry appears to stand for hope and strength. * Alun – A gruff adult male. set in his ways. but with a good sense of right and incorrect. * Randoll – A simple villager with a good bosom. * Henry – Another field villager. of a gruff and unpleasant disposition himself. but angered back into caring about morality by Josiah’s actions. * Lottie and Tom – Desperate parents who have suspended their incredulity of the supernatural in a vain effort to protect their kid. * John – A adult male whose already-fragile head snapped from the fright and heartache of the pestilence. spurring him to reckless action. * Urith – Meek ; locked up in concealing due more to fear of her hubby than of the pestilence. * James – A saddening old figure. his religion tested by his continued endurance while more meaningful lives pass off in forepart of his eyes. * Mrs. Bradford – A fearful adult female. whose subservience to her hubby is so great as to excel her attention for her child’s life. * The Innkeeper – An honest. fair-minded adult male with a good sense of justness. * Ahmed – Refined. sort and accepting. 3. Brooks’ descriptions of the small town and countryside are used to make suspense by portraying the alteration from a normal. absolutely functional town to a broken wreck ; references of laughter. of playful kids and of the sounds of work. are replaced by a fateful silence. while the town itself becomes overgrown and filled with decay. The ground that these scenes – scenes of a once-lively town reduced to an image of decease – create suspense is that. no affair where the characters focus. they will be presented by a reminder of the ruins around them. demoing them merely how close they are to that destiny themselves. 4. The positions developed by Brooks throughout the narrative seem to unite into one chief subject – a willingness to oppugn the position quo. to demo that the current province of things may non ever be for the best. This is shown through category divides ( oppugning whether the affluent genuinely deserve their privileged position. as evidenced by the selfishness of the Bradfords ) . comparative gender equality for the times ( as both work forces and adult females play a important function in halting the terminal state of affairs from being even worse ; if. as was typical of the times. merely the work forces had been allowed to make up ones mind on issues – and. for illustration. Anna and Elinor had non been able to take to move as accoucheuses – the decease toll may good hold been higher ) . and the firm finding to comprehend the pestilence as a spiritual happening instead than a natural one ( which. by concentrating eyes in the incorrect way. probably caused th e loss of many lives ; if the true ground for the pestilence had been discovered earlier. more effectual countermeasures could hold been taken ) . This general subject. and its constituents. reflects modern-day attitudes instead accurately – recent society has surely become more unfastened to altering the position quo. and such things as gender equality and decreased outlooks of faith seem to hold worked instead good in altering society for the better. 5. Contrast between characters can be seen between multiple braces in Year of Wonders. Anna seems to hold four chief contrasting characters. each of a different sort – foremost. she and Aphra are contrasted in their desires. with Anna’s being mostly for the well-being of other people while her stepmother’s are selfish. Michael Mompellion could be considered the 2nd contrast to Anna. as he is an ab initio strong adult male weakened by his tests and losingss while Anna’s seem to function merely to beef up her resoluteness in the terminal. Anys is the contrast to Anna’s 3rd specifying characteristic ; while Anna is a instead traditional miss despite her single ways. and hides much of her true ego and her sentiments inside. Anys’ positions would non look wholly common in our twenty-four hours. and she has small reserve about talking her head bluffly. Finally. Anna’s state of affairs – that of a strong. surpassing adult female. hidden behind the mask of a cautious. commonplace miss – is opposite to that of Elinor. who appears in Anna’s eyes to be a near-flawless adult female radiating energy but is internally scarred and in convulsion. Elinor. with her changeless kindness and equal intervention despite her high-toned household background. has another contrasting character of her ain in Elizabeth. the rich girl of the William bradfords who abuses her power and thinks merely of her ain desires. One more outstanding contrast is between Colonel Bradford and Michael – while both being intelligent work forces. the Colonel seeks to use this intelligence merely to protect himself. whereas Michael aims to help those around him. The Structure of the Novel: 1. It seems that flashback has been used here for a battalion of grounds ; it allows for a more direct before-and-after contrast to demo the development of her character throughout the twelvemonth ( by virtuousness of snarling from one to the other ; in a gradual build-up. the alterations would be less noticeable ) . it reveals the inevitable terminal of the narrative so as to put an accent on the book’s characters and puting instead than its plot’s branchings. and it creates a sense of wonder as to merely how events transpired within the focused-upon twelvemonth to make such alteration as can be seen. 2. While get downing with a flashback is. as antecedently explained. effectual in puting up a assortment of waies to put the foundation for stating a narrative. it is non a solve-all solution for storytelling ; some facets of the narrative can non be satisfactorily fleshed out without the reader holding some pre-established cognition of the characters. puting and such things. and so I imagine that is for this ground that Brooks decided to revisit this clip. 3. While I am non certain on this fact. it would look that the in-between 13 chapters of the narrative were so narrated in chronological order ; if this is non the instance. so I would possibly state that the signposting to demo this mistiming was deficient. Leaf-fall. 1666: Apple-picking Time: 1. Key character interactions and citations in this gap chapter are: * Anna’s devotedness to the deteriorated Michael Mompellion. bestiring wonder as to what led to the state of affairs. * Michael’s heartache and resentment over the loss of Elinor. * The cold. vindictive attitude held towards Elizabeth as a member of the Bradfords. * The reference that Josiah ‘loved the pot more than his children’ . * Elizabeth being ‘sour-faced and spoiled’ . * ‘His manus is on the bible. but he neer opens it’ – Michael’s spiritual wonts contrasting with his tattered religion. * Anna’s motivations in caring for Michael. demoing her devotion of Elinor: ‘I do it for her. I tell myself I do it for her. Why else would I make it. after all? ’ * Michael’s cold narration of a transition from the Bible. demoing farther his heartache from the loss of Elinor and his feeling of treachery from God: ‘Your married woman will be like a fruitful vine within your house ; your kids will be like olive shoots around your table†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 2. I think that Brooks chose to utilize first-person narrative because it would look that the narrative she seeks to state is chiefly one of a individual girl’s character development ; while third-person authorship allows for a greater range of focal point on multiple characters or a wider narrative. the first-person position tends to let the author to more accurately portray the nuanced ideas of an person. and so it seems more adjustment for this intent. Another possible ground is that this subjective first-person narrative. shown through the imagined eyes of Anna Frith. paints the emotions and feel of the puting better than a first-person narration may pull off to easy make. 3. Archaic and dialect words contribute to the narrative by making a more realistic scene ; in a similar manner to the aforesaid illustration of mistiming ( an antediluvian Roman have oning a ticker ) . the story’s sense of pragmatism would be broken if the occupants of a little. seventeenth century British town were to talk merely as we do today. 4. Aside from the stated phrases. noteworthy marks of decay. loss and disenchantment in this chapter are: * ‘The courtyard hadn’t been swept in a sennight. It smelled of decomposing straw and Equus caballus urine. ’ * ‘If there’s one thing I couldn’t stand any longer. it’s the aroma of a decomposition apple. ’ * ‘†¦sometimes I feel that I’m be givening merely another in that long emanation of dead. ’ * ‘My neighbours’ bungalow was empty. the Hedera helix already crawling across the Windowss and the Grey lichens crusting the Sillss. ’ * ‘ [ Nature ] has taken less than a twelvemonth to get down to repossess its topographic point. ’ 5. Some illustrations of analogues between the physical devastation of the garden and the religious devastation of Michael are: * The thought that Elinor would be regretful to see what had become of her garden ; merely as it has been dirtied with weeds. so excessively has Michael’s spirit been corrupted by his choler and heartache. and Elinor would be most saddened to see what had become of this once-strong adult male. * In relation to the old point. Anna comments. ‘I expect she would understand why it is so’ . * Anna besides comments on how cipher could truly reconstruct Elinor’s garden back to its former glorification. pulling comparings to how – no affair what attempts Anna or any others may do in bettering Michael’s province of depression – they could neer be given to him with the same accomplishment as his married woman could hold ; he could neer return to being the steadfast bastion of strength that he was when he stood with Elino r’s support. 6. It does non. to me. seem that Anna’s comparative stableness in the face of Michael’s mental prostration indicates a message of feminist resiliency ; regardless of Brooks’ purpose. the two merely seem to be different people. defined in this facet by their characters instead than their genders. This position is supported by Aphra’s autumn into perverse insanity. which surely contained no message of adult females being inherently strong. 7. Examples of the complexnesss of Anna’s character shown in this chapter are: * Her prioritising of compassion above tradition – ‘A retainer has no right to remain. one time she’s dismissed. But I did stay†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ( Page 4 ) * Her hesitancy to allow any life be in demand. unhappiness or danger – be givening to the Equus caballus ( ‘I kept chattering. quietly. as I used to with the kids when they were scared or hurt. ’ ( Page 5 ) ) . non desiring to draw out the works ( ‘like me. so brimming of terminations that they can non bear to twist even a scrawny sapling from its tenuous clasp on life. ’ ( Page 12 ) ) .