Challenges and Turning Points, paraphrasing help

1.  Both Paul in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and Jerry in“Through the Tunnel” set a challenge for themselves. What is the challenge for each,and what motivates each toward his goals? How are the challenges similar anddifferent?

Answer:

Both Paul in “The Rocking-Horse Winner”and Jerry in “Through the Tunnel” set a challenge for themselves, in “TheRocking-Horse Winner”, Paul challenged himself to prove to his mother that hehas luck, as his mother believes that if Paul is lucky, he will be able to earnmoney, thus resulting in his mother loving him. He thinks that if he takes onhis family's financial burden and responsibilities as well as solving theirproblems, his mother will appreciate him. Paul was motivated toward his goalbecause he was determined to achieve it and gain his mothers love and affectionas well as proving to her that he is lucky. In “Through the Tunnel”, Jerrychallenged himself to swim through the tunnel, the local boys were able to holdtheir breaths long enough to swim through the tunnel, which showed Jerry whathe was also capable of doing. He trained everyday to be able to swim  through the tunnel. What motivated Jerry washis determination to be like the local boys and be able to hold his breath longenough to swim through the tunnel, and to be able to gain the skills and havethe confidence he sees in the local boys. Both challenges are similar in a waythat the main characters both have challenges and goals in order to provesomething to someone, whether it is to prove it to themselves like Jerry orprove it to someone else like Paul, that they are capable enough to succeed andachieve their goal. The difference is that their motives are very different.Paul wants to show his mother that he is lucky in order to gain her affectionand love whereas Jerry wants to swim through the tunnel in order to prove tohimself that he is as capable as the local boys are, as well as swimmingthrough the tunnel symbolizes the transition from childhood to adulthood forJerry. Jerry loves his mother very much, and feels connected to her, though, heis forced to transition into adulthood. Even though he wants to leave hismother behind and become an adult, he still wants her to always be there forhim.

(7 points)

2.  Racism is important to the setting and context of both“The Train from Rhodesia” and “Poison.” What do the stories reveal about thepower of racism on both sides of the racial divide?

Answer:

Racism is definitely a very important to the settingand context of “The Train from Rhodesia” and “Poison”. In “The Train fromRhodesia”, the train is full of rich white citizens, they are brought intocontact with the native people, but also the train separates them from thenatives. There's a young woman on the train who comes to notice how horriblythe white passengers' behavior is and sees that they are taking advantage ofthe native people. The native artists are compared to “performing animals”, thewhite passengers do not consider the natives as humans, which force the nativesto act as though they are actually “performing animals” when both the white andnative travelers are human beings. Classifying people into groups and treatingthem as inferior to others and separating them from other so called “people ofsuperior race” prevents people from seeing the other members in our society. In“Poison” the snake represents the racism of Harry as well as the racism of thewhole nation. Even though the mutual fear of the snake temporarily unites Harryand the doctor, the racial separation which exists between the two worsens.When everyone comes to know that the snake does not exist, the doctor isconfused whether the snake ever existed, and asks Harry just that, whichgreatly angers Harry, causing him to lash out and call the doctor a “dirtylittle sewer rat”, this, obviously shows that Harry believes he is superior tothe doctor. This kind of racism causes a lot of fear for the characters in thestory. Even though Harry has military power to protect him he believes that heis not strong, but instead, very weak, which could be caused by the fact thathe lives with the oppressed. Doctor Ganderbaj also feels a sense of fear and weakness,since he is part of the oppressed race he thinks that his profession of being adoctor could be at stake if he does not save Harry's life. We can really feelthat the author wants to make it clear that if racism exists people will beunable to profit from the great things which can happen if both the oppressedrace and the superior race connect, and that both sides will suffer if racismexists.

(6points)

3.  In several of the stories in the unit, the turningpoint results from an intense building of suspense. Choose one of the storiesand describe how the author builds intensity and suspense.

Answer:

I believe that “Poison” has the most suspense, theauthor takes about ten whole pages to come to the point when the doctor pullsthe sheet, the author builds of suspense by adding a lot of details andcreating tension and also by setting the scene. The author sets the scene thatit is late at night and it is dark outside, when Timber enters the room he seesHarry laying on the bed, sweating. Harry starts whispering to Timber, although,the readers are clueless as to why Harry is acting this way. The author tellsus what happens when the doctor arrives with great detail and even adds whatthe “blue vein” looks like on Harry's arm which shows the reader that the storyis very suspenseful. The author explains in detail about what the doctor isdoing to Harry, for example, the author talks about the chloroformadministration to Harry for a good two pages, which makes the readers curiousas to what will happen next. The author uses tension to make the story moresuspenseful, he shows that Harry is getting annoyed of laying down on the bedfor such a long period of time. Towards the end of the story, we find out thatthere was never a snake under the sheets, which is a plot twist as the readerswere expecting a very strikingly dramatic end to the story.

(6 points)

1.  Describe Eveline’s conflict and the turning point inher life.

Answer:

Eveline could not decide whether to stay and keep hermother's promise or to leave and marry her love, Frank. Eveline writes afarewell letter before she wants to leave home to marry Frank, but as soon asshe is leaving, she perceives her situation as contradicting between her wantsand her duties. This conflict in the story leaves her confused, although, theturning point in the story occurs when she is at the train station, where shehas no choice but to decide whether she wants to leave and be with the man wholoves her, or to stay at home with her chaotic family.

(6 points)

2.  What does the story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” sayabout the theme of responsibility and neglect. Explain which character isneglectful of his or her obligations and which character consequentlyundertakes unnecessary responsibility as a result of that neglect. Explain thefinal outcomes of the both the neglect and the misplaced sense ofresponsibility.

Answer:

Paul's mother is neglectful of responsibility and lovefor her children. This leads Paul to feel obligated to do them himself, as inhis mind, he believes that if he puts himself in charge of the family'sresponsibility, his mother will respect and love him much more. But, instead,he puts the financial burden of his family on his own head, which leads toterrible consequences for Paul. Abandonment of responsibility can lead children, just like Paul, into doing verydangerous things in order to gain their parent's attention and affection.Because Paul craved his mother's love and affection so much that he went to anextent of gambling, which is something fatal for his state of mind.

(8 points)

3.  Think about the young women in “Eveline” and “TheTrain from Rhodesia.” Reread the final sentence in “Eveline” on page 135. Thenreread the young woman’s response after her husband gives her the lion in “TheTrain from Rhodesia” on page 158 (the sentence that begins “She was looking…”).

What do the two women have in common? Explain your answer, using the stories assupport.

Answer:

What the two women have in common would be that theywere both very affected by their surroundings, they showed warmth and sympathyto those around them. In addition to this, they have very high morals whichmake them selfless and benevolent. In “The Train from Rhodesia”, the woman feltwistful when her husband purchased a gift for her for an absurdly low price,instead of being delighted, she opposed to her husband taking advantage of anold man's riches. “She threw the lion onto the seat”, shows her true feelingsabout the present which her husband gave her, which was taken from selfishnessand dishonesty. However, Eveline also chose her high morals over happiness,although the unhappiness and sorrow she faces at home, she decided to stay homeregardless as she was unable to leave her father, and break her mother's promise.Both these women chose their morals and chose to do whats right over their ownpleasure and happiness.