A Son of the Circus

he Future is determined by one’s action in the present, So when given a chance to look at the future, people will want to come back to the present, and change their actions for a better future. In the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooge, the main character, is a wicked and grumpy man to start with. As four ghost visits him, with the ghost of future as the most influential, Scrooge becomes a caring, joyful man. While the all the ghosts are important in the development of Scrooge, but none more important than The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He shows Scrooge of the consequences , and makes Scrooge acknowledge the alteration of his behavior. Although The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the most influential spirit, some might argue that the previous spirits are more important. The first spirit was Jacob marley, he doesn’t have a lot of influence on Scrooge’s change, except for warning him about the spirits yet to come. The ghost of christmas past makes Scrooge regret his actions, and the The Ghost of Christmas present gives Scrooge human emotions, like happiness and empathy. While all the spirits have affected Scrooge in some way, the Ghost of Christmas past shows Scrooge a past that could not be changed, and the The Ghost of Christmas Present, shows Scrooge things that is happening.On the other hand, The Ghost Of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge that he could decide to change his future by modifying his behavior. The ghost shows him that if he change…

Life is filled with many unexpected situations, nothing ever goes as expected which is the definition behind Thomas Hardy’s quote. The quote reads, “Nothing bears out in practice what is promises incipiently”. Thomas Hardy’s quote relates to a numerous amount of events in A Prayer For Owen Meany mostly with how John’s life starts to unravel. The way John Irving wrote the novel has a unique chronology in the way that the novel tends to skip through different parts of John’s life. A Prayer For…

Kyle Kennedy Nordsiek Honors American Literature 12 October 2015 Expectations Versus Reality in A Prayer for Owen Meany Throughout A Prayer for Owen Meany, events often do not play out as the characters originally intended or predicted. This motif – that “nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently” – is one of the most important motifs in the novel, and it is realized through several major events. Three components of the book are significant examples of this motif: Johnny’s…

Throughout the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving writes a story about two boys growing up and learning the works of the world. The protagonist, John Wheelwright, is narrating the book about his life as an adult and sharing details about his childhood. In his childhood, he writes about his closest companion, Owen Meany. Owen leads John to become an anti-American, pessimistic, all girls private school teacher in Canada. As John is going through college and Owen is serving the Vietnam war…

God’s Instrument After years of typing away on his antique typewriter for hours on end, the Oscar winning storyteller John Irving triumphantly finished his seventh novel A Prayer For Owen Meany in 1989. The emotional tugging that the novel forces upon its audience made it one of the most read novels of the 20th century (McCarthy 2). This humorous yet heart wrenching tale tells of an unlikely friendship between two boys just before the Vietnam era. As a time full of war, death, and lost hope;…

let the boys go to that circus in town tomorrow.” It also shows in the second paragraph where she said this and William did not answer. It states, “she usually divined his arguments and assailed them one by one before he uttered them.” It also said in the third paragraph, “His sisters in Virginia had often said that only a quiet man like William could have ever lived with Hester Perkins.” These statements, in these paragraphs show the boastfulness of Hester regarding whether or not her sons may…

romantic relationship. Without this order, the affect of letting their children go to the circus would not be as important. Without describing the changes that occurred within their relationship, the title of the passage itself would have no meaning. The story begins with the one-sided dialogue between Hester and William. Based off of what she is saying, it can be inferred that William disagrees that their sons should go to the circus. She is introduced as a very talkative woman, while William…

Optimism is important in realizing one's true potential, and it is important to have when times are tough and everything seems hopeless. Both Jenny from the short story “Circus in town” and Chris Gardener from The article “Happyness for Sale” experienced this. Jenny has hopes and dreams that cannot be financially met by her parents, and Chris went through homelessness with his young son where trying to live was a struggle in itself. Without the optimism both Jenny and Chris possess, they could…

In the passages “Circus in Town” by Sinclair Ross and “‘Happyness’ for Sale” by Jia Lynn Yang, optimism plays a significant role in the character’s lives. Both passages show the hardships of two different characters, and how despite the rough circumstances they were put in they found a way to create a better life for themselves by being optimistic. Not only did the character’s positive attitude on life help them make a better environment for themselves, it also aided them in surviving the…

What do people from a circus documentary, characters in a realistic fiction story, and children migrating to safer places all have in common? They all have dreams. Whether it’s moving into a new house or trying to find one’s place, they all have dreams. Some people don’t think dreams are possible to achieve but, they are. Although dreams are different, all someone needs to do is four things. To begin, people need perseverance to achieve their dreams. In the documentary “Circus Without Borders”,…