Ellen Goodman, the author of the short story, “Company Man.” The story was all too real and relatable. Something that can happen and tear apart the best of families. A father or mother constantly working, over working, and becoming so involved with their job that their family begins to live in the shadow of their everyday thoughts. This man Phil fell victim to what some may consider a type of disease, addicted to work. “He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning (Goodman par. 5).” Not surprisingly, Phil also died from his overzealous working lifestyle at a still young age of 51 years old. Little did he realize, he was dispensable.…
I believe that the theme/lesson of the story is that when you really want something and you don't get it then don’t go and blame it…
The book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck taught me many different interesting facts and knowledge about the human brain and how humans work together in society. There was a couple main facts and points in the book that were useful and that I could use to better myself. I often tend to be hard on myself about many different things on an occasion. In chapter two, I learned that failure is often necessary for success. I learned about the child Robert Martin who failed getting into a prestigious preschool.…
Later, the author uses anecdotes of Phil’s family and details about his personal life to show how much time he spent at work and how it affected his family, furthering Goodman’s resentment toward Phil and what he represents. “A company friend said, ‘I know how much you will miss him.’ And she [Phil’s wife] answered, ‘I already have.’” Because Phil was rarely at home and spent most of his time at the…
Dr. Dweck is writing from a psychological context. Her observations prove that a person’s mindset can deeply influence the behavior.…
So I will let it alone and talk about the house.”(Perkins Gilman) In this quote we can examine another form of content in the story “ The Yellow wallpaper”. Control is a major thing that happens in this story. Her husband controls her every move. This is why she goes crazy in the end. He pushes her over the edge and causes a woman to crumble. When we are pushed down so far, it is hard for us to stand back up and fight. She had no more fight in her and let the ways of husband in.…
You see it in everyday life; many ordinary people have very difficult decisions to make that will shape their life. For example, Ann from “The Painted Door” is shown as a protagonist because of the way her character is, she is very lonely, depressed and sad and what she does because of these feelings affects her life tremendously. Paul, from “Lamp at Noon”, is also shown as the protagonist because he is doing his best to support his family and make a living for them, but gets no appreciation for it. The protagonists, antagonists and secondary characters shape the story and each character influences the story in a tremendous way. The two stories illustrate similarities in character to show that loneliness can have a huge impact on life and promote bad choices.…
The Narrator experiences a heart attack that slows him down considerably. The Narrator is married and thinks about his wife Vera, who is nearly his age, but because she still has her health she has gone off for several weeks to hike the Appalachian Trail and gets to enjoy many other activities that he can't partake in. The fact that the Narrator is at home quite a bit gives him time to dwell on subjects that he might not have given so much attention to if he still had his health.…
As a child, we are more inclined to indulge in selfish behaviors. When we want something such as food or nurturing we expect to get it immediately regardless of the situation of the people around us. As babies grow up, a majority of them tend to come to the realization that selfishness just results in conflict. This is evident in the stories The Open Window, Like the Sun, and Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket. These three stories clearly depict that when characters begin to lose consideration for others and act in a selfish manner, conflicts tend to arise, and it often does not end well.…
(A) Hope, goals, and dreams are all things everyone has. Whether it's realistic, or impossible all human beings retain hope, goals, or dreams.(B) In the following paragraphs you will learn how the two psychological articles, “ How We Lose Hope and How We Get It Back”, and “ The Will and Ways of Hope”, support the reasoning for hope, goals, and dreams in three very different films. The three films, Of Mice and Men, the documentary War Dance, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, are all material that represent the struggles and gains from having hope, chasing dreams, and setting goals. (C) The examples will help support the thesis that hopes, dreams, and goals allow people to keep a positive attitude toward life.…
Sometimes it takes a near death experience to realize what is important in life and what is not. A person is amid choosing whether to help out a family member in trouble or to complete a certain task of his own. The person selfishly goes to complete the task. One can refer that it was wrong to not help the family member. No matter what, family should be the number one priority and that is a prominent theme in "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" by Jack Finney and a similar theme may be seen in Double Daddy by Penny Parker and Diary of a Mad Blender by Sue Shellenbarger.…
A mindset is the view a person adopts. Whether their abilities and characteristics can change, the growth mindset, or whether they are set in stone, the fixed mindset. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist, analyzes the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset “care so much about how smart they will appear that they often reject learning opportunities” (Dweck 2) instead of wanting to achieve their full potential. Other people, the ones with a growth mindset, seek for higher achievements in learning, wanting to develop their knowledge capacity. It’s either they give up on their selves or learn from their setbacks and try again. A person with a fixed mindset believes that they are born with…
Touching the Void is an inspiring story about the power of the human will. To my surprise, the film left me emotionally spent as it touched on the issues of friendship, mortality and survival. I am sure many of my classmates will agree that it is an amazing story. But, for me, the thing that makes it truly inspirational is the way that Joe never gave up. In this brief paper I intend to show how Self Determination and Goal Setting theory influenced Joe’s inspiring story of survival.…
The central idea of this story is escapist. It was entertaining and I felt sorry for the husband in the end even though he spent the whole story trying to kill his wife. The theme of the story is blame. The husband blames his wife for his unhappiness, so much so that he thinks that he would be better off if she was dead. I think that a lesson from this story would be to not blame others for your unhappiness, because most of the time it is probably something inside yourself causing the…
Passage (a) is a narration of a woman’s day of life. It is almost impossible that the woman only realize she has been working so long for nothing in return, metaphorically like a dog “faithful and loving” mentioned in the passage. The woman and the dog had lot in common and the passage starts off with “one day” just as sudden like this, that “she judged her husband daily now in a silent rush, making up for years of suspended disbelief, of retreat” suggesting the idea that she may have had enough and want to escape from this harsh reality. “She shelved, randomly, heaps of books she would once have circumspectly moved aside and dusted” But it just seems that she is not willing to do this anymore, not again, because she has grown tired of all these. Moreover, if her husband had noticed her hard work all these years, “he did not speak”, not even a thank you.…