Book Breath: Character Analysis

Improved Essays
“He was going to drown, and there was nothing he could do but watch and then try to hold his breath. Breathe.” This goes on inside Xander’s head while his baby brother disappeared and reappeared. It’s about the panic of a big brother with his little brother. The Puritans would not approve of the book Breath, because of the elements of witchcraft, women in power and sinful characters.
The Puritans would oppose the book breath because of the element of witchcraft in the book from their point of view. They’d see the four horsemen from the bible Famine, War, Pestilence and their leader Death. They’d see everything being part of death as a sign of the devil. They’d also think that Death’s horse was a witch’s familiar because it could talk like
…show more content…
Suicide is a sin in the bible and in Breath Xander is in a coma. After a party where his best friend makes out with the girl he’s fallen hard for he runs out drunk. He ran outside and got in his car in a fit of depression at seeing the betrayal he decides it's not worth living anymore and goes to drive into a tree but at the last minute something in him changes and he slams on the brakes crashing into the tree still. Death is an immortal being and after years of searching he loses all hope to find his soulmate. In his lowest he decided to fight his life cycle and he goes to do one last job before ending it all. Xander wanting to live and to keep the world he knows safe tries to convince the suicidal death not to jump from his balcony.
Finally the Puritans would protest the novel Breath because women held high positions and back then that wasn’t really common. In Breath Xander's mom is well respected but after getting drunk he decides that it's not worth listening to and yells back at her, his father then yells at him for talking that way about his mother and she sends him to his room. War or Missy is a very violent and strong women who is also Death’s woman and lover. She’d act passionately and would put all she had into her work.
Sinners, authoritative woman and witchcraft are all reasons the book Breath would be protested by the Puritan people. The puritans would destroy the book breath because it goes against everything they believed in back then at the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In 1692, Puritans in colonial Massachusetts faced an interesting event called the Salem Witch Trials. The first sign of witchcraft was discovered when two girls, Elizabeth and Williams were having “fits.” The local doctor blamed their unusual movements on the supernatural. Satan worried the Puritan community because they believed that they always had to behave to go to heaven. Whether puritans were in or out of their home, they believed the devil was always watching them which is why they were always cautious towards their actions.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vowell was very interested in the way the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony lived their lives. Their group is best remembered for two of their banished heretics: Roger Williams, a founder of Providence, Rhode Island, and Anne Hutchinson, the earliest preacher of a theory of the "Jesus is my personal savior" of American Protestantism. Without the some of the theological disputes of the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, the modern-day America would not have the same prospects. American exceptionalism takes on a huge role in The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. The recognition is that if the Puritans were chosen by God, they would also be punished by Him if they do not uphold our part of the covenant.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” “I am going to go to sea-you may go home if you think proper.” This is a quote from “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.” August's one of the main characters who said it to Arthur before getting on the boat. The puritans would approve of the novel because of the characters portray of self-reliances, Hardworkingness, and that men held authoritative power.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. How did the Salem witchcraft trials reflect attitudes toward women and the status of women in colonial New England? The Salem witchcraft trials, according to author Carol Karlsen, reflected attitudes towards the status of and attitudes towards women in Colonial New England. In these colonies, women were held in relatively high regard, but much was expected from them. Although families and wives were highly valued in the Puritan culture of New England, Puritanism reinforced the idea of almost total male authority.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Women's Rights Dbq

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The years between the American Revolution and the Civil War saw a lot of change in the ideals of woman hood. Women's roles in not only society, but also family life began to change, and these changes fostered the emergence of "republican motherhood" and "cult of domesticity". Women's lives changed drastically, reforms for women's rights, more specifically for the education of women, and mothers began to stay home to care for the kids. Before these times women had very few rights, more than slaves, but certainly less than men. The idea of women's rights was now beginning to develop, especially in the wake of blacks beginning to earn their rights.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Puritan Dilemma Imagine living in a world where someone’s own personal and religious life was being affected by that of the country that they lived in. In most cases that was not a life they wanted to live, and some people looked for a way out. In the case of the Puritans of England, they willingly sailed across three thousand mile Atlantic Ocean, for a chance to set up a settlement where they could live and worship the way they believed was the right way without the pressures of the crown. Puritanism was the belief that the Church of England should be purged of its hierarchy and of the traditions and ceremonies inherited from Rome. Putting this aside it demanded more of the individual than it did of the church.…

    • 1461 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Angry God Ethos

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The pathos expressed by Jonathan Edwards was extremely convincing to the puritans due to the way he provided hope and imagery to the puritans on how their daily life actions might led them into a heaven or hell. But is there really a heaven or hell after our life, or is it all just a big myth that people choose to believe or not? Could something as simple as playing games as a little kid really deny you entry to heaven. All the sacrificed to people’s daily lives that are being made really going to pay off? If there a world to exist after our lives is all said and done with.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Damned Women Summary

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, Elizabeth Reis thoroughly discussed how the Puritan religion played a role in shaping the lives of the Puritan individuals. Puritanism had stressed women as having the role of only obeying their husband and tending to both the children and the household. Women who followed the Puritan religion were supposed to abide by the standards determined by God; those who did not abide were condemned as the ones who were found to be greatly possessed by Satan and were the ones who had been accused of participating in witchcraft. Therefore, the gender stereotypical ideals that Puritanism portrayed had been a key factor in why Puritan women were more likely to be possessed by Satan and accused of witchcraft.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “You can never tell who the mountain will allow...and who it will not.” The novel Peak is about a 14 year old boy named Peak Marcelo who travels to mt. Everest with his somewhat estranged father Josh, because he had trouble with the law in his home new York because he was climbing a skyscraper. Peak realizes later in the book though that his father only took him in because he wanted the boy to be the youngest to climb mt.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine riding bikes with your friend when he suddenly disappears for a year. That is what happened to Chris in the novel shift. Two lifelong friends Chris and Win go on a bike ride after graduation. Win disappeared during their journey and was not seen again until college starts. The Puritans would absolutely adore the novel Shift due to its strong family values, men taking charge, and it's plain writings.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Not-So-Silver Lining The stigma of mental illness is as follows: crazy eyes, a lot of violence, mood swings every two seconds, and not a lot of friends and family to help. But, there are multiple factors and explanations for why a person is the way they are, and why they developed the mental illness that they did. Pat Solitano, a middle-aged white man with a lot of great qualities, was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He had a wife, a great job as a high school history teacher, and was living comfortably in the middle class.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 16th and 17th centuries, a group of English Reformed Protestants sought to purify the English Catholic church being labeled the “puritans”. The Puritans had to flee Europe because they were being persecuted for their religion, arriving in colonial Salem, Massachusetts creating what would be the “New Jerusalem”. Ironically, Salem was the very place where the Salem Witch Trials took place where more than 200 were accused and 20 were executed. In the play, “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, many believe that religion is the primary cause of the chaos in Salem. However, religion is not the primary reason rather it being based on the person.…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gender Roles In Candide

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Voltaire’s Candide: Women’s Role in Society Women during the 1700s, the time period during which the novel is set, understood they had very little power; and it was only through men that they could exert any influence. Women at this time were seen as mere objects that acted as conciliation prizes for the gain of power and their sole use was for reproduction. Maintaining the duty of tiding the home and looking after the children, no outlet for an education or a chance to make a voice for themselves. Men acted as the leading voice in society, making all substantial decisions for women. The hierarchy of genders was ever so present and was based on the physical differences between men and women.…

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Possible Short Answer Questions for the Scarlet Letter The Puritans in the story where very judgemental. If something bad happened, in their eyes, there is no forgiving it. No, I would not call her a hero, but she did endure a lot of attention that women in the 1800s would not normally go through.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Messenger Essay “In order for a text to be successful, characters must undergo meaningful change” In The Messenger, novelist Markus Zusak records the experiences of Ed Kennedy, the protagonist, as he undergoes changes that enable him to find himself, giving his a life a purpose. As the novel begins, Ed is a lazy and underachieving teenager who drives taxi-cabs for a living. Ed is laid back with little life aspirations.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays