Flight By Sherman Alexie: The Cruelty Of Life

In today’s world, many different people from many different backgrounds and countries hold certain values close to their hearts. Though different values are held close to different people, people always have held values close to them. A major value that people around the world hold close is courage. A major reason that people hold courage close is because people who have courage are often looked up to. In today’s world however it seems that many people undervalue courage.

Flight written by Sherman Alexie is told in a first-person narrative by its protagonist Zits. He is a 15-year-old half-Native American orphan. Zits has a long history of abuse by the people around him, self-esteem issues, and a long list of past delinquencies. As one reads the novel, it looks as though many of Zits issues stem from his father 's abandonment before birth and his mother 's death when he was six years old.

There are people in life who crave thrill and adventure; who feel their life is missing something. Some people choose to climb Everest to fulfill this. Desperate to summit, to experience a view beyond words, people risk their lives to get a sneak peek at the top of the world. Although Everest is the world’s highest mountain, it is also the world’s highest open grave. In Jon Krakauer 's Into Thin Air, eight climbers lose their lives; the most dead in one year. Andy Harris, Anatoli Boukreev, and Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa, are all examples of why it is not worth risking your own life to save the life of another.

No matter what we do, there will always be consequences. In Sherman Alexie’s book, Flight, a fifteen year old half Native American boy named Zits struggles with many difficult topics, one of which is the theme of revenge. Zits travels through time and lives in different bodies to experience the world from different angles throughout the book. In one section of the book, Zits is in the body of a young Native American boy. He witnesses death and sees the horrific consequences of war. In one particular scene as the Native American boy Zits explores the theme, revenge as an endless cycle.

“We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts… For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for

"Through the Tunnel" by Doris Lessing illustrates the journey of a young boy named Jerry trying to swim through a tunnel in an ocean rock. In the beginning, Jerry is starting an oceanside vacation with his mother, when he sees the rocky bay, he's immediately intrigued, and the next day he asks his mother if he could go by the rocks. When he gets there, he sees foreign boys swimming around by the rocks. As he dives with them, he notices that they were swimming through an underwater tunnel, and he's immediately determined to do that himself. So, he asks his mother for goggles, and trains his breath vigorously. After hard work and many nose bleeds, he finally does it, and is overrun by positivity after accomplishing the task. This short story gives great messages about determination.

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.133-138) He’s stating the futility of life after the death of his father and taking of his throne. This scene takes place soon after he learns about his misfortune. He’s driven further into insanity when he learns that the man who stole his

In 1932, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping electrified the country. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was eventually tried and convicted for the murder of young Charles Lindbergh, Jr. Hauptmann pleaded his innocence right up until his execution in 1936.

¨Because I don't live in either my past or my future. Im interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.¨ page 87 -

An Analysis of The World's Cruelty After reading journalist Leonard Pitt's article entitled, "Sometimes, the Earth is Cruel", I saw the disaster in Haiti in a whole new light. What is on the surface an article based on the terrible earthquake that shook Haiti on January, 12, 2010, is in actuality a riveting, eye opening piece of human re-evaluation. An article that looks beyond ordinary human conventions and presents a broad picture of who we truly are and how we truly operate. The overall theme, however, is present in the first line; Sometimes the earth is cruel and Leonard Pitts expresses this through his description of the Haitian people's actions after the earthquake, his language comparing the Haitian people with nature and his overall response to the way Haitian people responded to their unfortunate tragedy.

In the essay “The Things with Feathers That Perches in the Soul “, Anthony Doerr asks “What lasts? Is there anything you’ve made in your life that will still be here 150 years from now? Is there anything on your shelves that will be tagged and numbered and kept in a warehouse like this?” (Doerr 97). The idea the author is trying to imply there are things in this world that will fade. Creations you make will get lost but what stops your creations from fading you. You need money and effort to keep your valuable items functioning. Like how Jerry keep fixing the house every year to keep it standing. Then Daughter Of the American Revolution collected $173 to move the house and reroof it. Soon a fundraiser came to raise money to restore the house.

Francis’ life is one filled with death, destruction and general unhappiness worse than the average person living during the same time

One may say that McCandless’ violent childhood is what caused his downfall. McCandless may have even had the right idea, separating himself from his family, but due to his fragile state of mind he may have gone to too much of an extreme. He ended up taking the policies and principles of transcendentalism too far, which is really what resulted in his death. A concept that transcendentalism goes strongly against is materialism, a principle that may have saved his life. He was so anti materialistic in fact, that he refused to even have a phone or form of communication, this ultimately could have saved his life. Another principle taken to an extreme was intuition and self-reliance. As Chris traveled around collecting money for Alaska, he was also

It is delineated by natural inclination that people sympathize with others who undergo an unfortunate circumstance or event. However, this type of behavior is dependent on how one uses prior knowledge to judge whether someone is worthy of sympathy. The idea that people tend to draw conclusions based on other people’s decisions and character remains as one of the many underlying themes in literature. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, Amir’s character is considered worthy of sympathy by his redeeming actions towards the end of the novel, his good intentions toward Baba, and his ability to empathize with others.

This shows that he is not thinking of his doing, he was not a “Victim of fate” only, but a “victim of passion”. What he seems to care about is just knowing the truth under any circumstances, even if it caused the destruction of