Bringing Down The House By Ben Mezrich: Character Analysis

In the article, Birds and Bees, No Let’s Talk about Dollars and Cents, by Ben Stein, he successfully makes his point to inform his son that he needs self discipline to create human and financial capital to have a more stable life. The young boy has been living large his whole life and his father wants to help him keep it going by having self-discipline to make smart decisions so he doesn’t live in fear and insecurity. Ben Stein uses many anecdotes to get the point across to his son and the readers of the New York Times that people are capable of coming from nothing and turning into something with the willpower to make smart choices. With the use of anecdotes and repetition all throughout the letter, it allows Stein to utilize logos, pathos,

Dorian however caught up in his vanity, refuses to confess any of his sins. Even after committing the most heinous of acts in murder, Dorian resorts to opium addiction to cure his sole. He wishes to erase the act from his memory rather

Harry doesn’t understand the jealousy Ron feels towards him because Harry doesn’t view his fame as a good thing, which leads Harry to question Ron’s behavior. “‘Look,” said Hermione patiently, “it’s always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it’s not your fault,” she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. “I know you don’t ask for it … but – well – you know, Ron’s got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you’re his best friend, and you’re really famous he’s always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many….” (Goblet of Fire

Not only did the gang prevent him from finishing his studies, but from overall becoming a high-class man; as Ponyboy had announced to the rest of his

Holden’s obsession stems from his fear that he may become a phony one day. So, he spends the book running from adulthood by doing childish things and struggling to keep his life from changing. We see Holden’s fear of phonies shine throughout The Catcher in the Rye. Why does he have this fear?

For instance, in his childhood, Amir is constantly competing with Hassan for Baba’s attention and love. This leads to his lack of action when he witnesses Hassan’s rape. His regret for not interfering when it happened and hiding his misguided choice infect his mind even in his adult life six years later when he moves to America. With a few exceptions, people simultaneously embody evil and good in their life; Hosseini demonstrates this with Amir, who is convinced that he himself is evil, and spends most of the book struggling to redeem himself so he can finally realize he is not wicked after all.

However, it was also his past that haunted him. Due to his unknown background Gatsby retained a mysterious and even negative background. As a result, Daisy would not choose to be with Gatsby because Gatsby was not the man who benefitted her and it would ruin her image to leave Tom for Gatsby. The moment Gatsby realizes that Daisy will not be with him, his dream dies. Without any dreams to aspire to achieve Gatsby’s purpose in life becomes nonexistent.

Biff And Happy Loman Biff and Happy are both very much alike, their personality traits contain a lot of selfishness, laziness, arrogance and rather spoiled in many ways. Their father, Willy, want them to follow his footsteps towards the business world, but this plan fails for the reason that Willy let them get away with anything while they were in their early age. For instance, the flashback with his children shows his easy going with them. “WILLY (stopping the incipient argument, to Happy): Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he?

Through this conversation, the narrator gained respect and insight on Sonny's life in the times that he was not there. Sonny was cryptic in his speaking at first but eventually made it very clear to his brother and even said, "the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs" (89). The narrator does not have much to say, but ultimately blames all of this on the "vivid, killing streets of [their] childhood" (73), that neither of them had truly escaped. He once thought they both had, him by becoming a teacher and Sonny by simply not living in Harlem for years, but in this moment, he realizes that not much has really changed - they still faced those streets, the only difference now was that they knew what they inherit. Sonny convinced his brother to come watch him play - the narrator knowing he could not possibly say no.

Amir’s cowardice and selfishness is seen best in this same situation. Amir is paralyzed the moment he sees Hassan in the alley, surrounded by the bullies. He knows that Assef is about to rape his best friend. However, instead of standing up for him like a true friend would, he just stands there frozen. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world.”

The cycle repeated and Michael just got used to it even so he still yearned to be free and rebellious but because of his stupidity, he is nowhere with no one to save him. In one of the cruel beatings, he heard the gunshots and this time they were inching forward at a rapid pace. The general which oversaw everything smirked and told the officials to take Michael to a different location and they followed suit as the rebels slowly took the hidden strong hold. In the days of sitting, Michael wondered how the rebellion grew and if there was another leader which lead it. He did not mind of course for he wanted it to succeed and he could see it in the eyes of the officials and guards that they were terrified of the rebellion and they know that the government is losing the game of cat and mouse which they played with the rebilion.

He made Jeannette attempt to swim by herself until she learned how to without drowning. Moreover, he never wanted his family to get hurt, and slowly when his family began to scatter to New York City by themselves he became scared that the city will swallow them up and that they will end up like he did. Rex had the potential of being a good father to his children, but because of his alcoholism and gambling problem, he was unable to provide for his family a well suited life. Nonetheless, the children’s experience of moving around and not wanting to end up like their father molded their personalities to what we know of today.

When Slam transferred from Carver to Latimer he simply expected to be the starting guard on the team, although he hadn’t yet shown the type of attributes he could lead the team with(55). Slam first needed to prove he was starting material to coach Nipper. Also, Slam had been deceived by Ice, his best friend, and his drug dealings the entire story. Slam had always suspected Ice was into dealing, but Ice became sly and covered his tracks. When Slam found out, he felt well beyond betrayed.

Amir tried to make his father proud, but no matter what he did, it never seemed to work. He would listen to Baba about all of his rants, one of them being about sins. Baba sat Amir on his lap and told him "when you kill a man, you steal a life...when you tell a lie, you steal someone 's right to the truth" (18). Amir knew Baba felt strongly about the sin of theft, but he

Synopsis: In this chapter the protagonist, Mary Anne Bell, comes to be with her boyfriend Mark Fossie during war. When she first comes over she is a very innocent girl, but at the end of the chapter she is violent and addicted to war. Figurative Language: #1- (simile)“And over the next two weeks they stuck together like a pair of high school steadies.”