Im reading the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. In this book the main character, Chief Bromden, a half indian son of a chief, is in a pschiatric ward run by nurse Ratched. it is a dull boring place until a new patient, McMurphy, arrives.
     In this story the world is viewed through the Chief's eyes. he can hear, but acts like he's a deaf mute. The fact that the Chief doesn't speak gives makes you feel as if you are actually in the story. And because he doen't really speak, you are a silent observer, a witness.

     Even though Kesey uses the Chief's inner voice to explains thing to you, you feel like you are a patient in the ward. This is furthered by the fact that the Cief has dreams and nightmares and visions. Because you feel like him, and he sees these things, you see them, too. And you feel the horror, and disgust of these visons. Some of these visons, though are memories. And thrugh thoe memories you feel the pain of what was lost and realize the logic of the Chief.
     Overall the fact that you're seeing the world through an inmate's eye's makes you see what is really going on in the ward, and you know how all the patient's feel. Nurse Ratched and her staff's view are mostly excluded. It's a good example of how an excluded view makes you see things a different way.

Catch 22 social issues

In catch 22 Joseph Heller excludes people's points of view for one chapter then explains them in the next. so no one's view is really excluded. I think Heller chose to do this because he wants to show how everyone thinks, and how different people are affected catastrophes, such as war.
For instance he shows how the main character, Yossarian thinks. he shows how he wants to run from the war, and hates it and doesn't believe it should continue, and why can't someone else who wants to fight fight instead of me. but he can't leave.
then Heller shows us a very patriotic character who believes in fate and how its our duty to fight and that we will die when we die, and you can't change that. he gives a background for this man to try and show how this man's views came about.
Heller is trying to show to us the way a very drastic thing happening like war affects people, and how things cause conflicts and open up differences in society and people.

Justice in The Lord Of The Rings

in the lord of the rings, fate and justice play a huge part. everything happens for a purpose and people get what they deserve. if you are a good person, and persevere against danger and evil for the greater good, good things will happen to. if you are the evil, then bad things will happen to you. it is like tolkien created his own perfect way things happen, a more perfect version of fate.
take sauroman for example. he was once wise, but grew hungry for power and tried to take over landswith an army of evil. in the real world, dictators take over countries all the time. sometimes they are deposed. sometimes they are killed. but alot of the time dictators just keep on ruling, and people are unable to stop them, for fear of consequences.
but in Tolkiens world people can do something about these problems. the good guys, Gandalf and Aragorn and everyone else, stop sauroman's armies. he is defeated. Merry and Pippin convince treebeard and his ents to stop sauroman, who has oppresed them and destroyed their forests. the good guys win. what doesn't always happen in the real world happens in the lord of the rings.
one of the reasons people like the lord of the rings is that it gives the feeling that anyone, even a small hobbit, can do good and bring about justice. in the real world it's almost impossible even for governments and organizations to fix all the problems in the world.

Hard Things and Social Issues About The Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers

The lord of the rings may be a fantasy novel, but it still has many issues that connect to the real world, such as themes of the loss of the environment.
In the lord of the rings one of the characters in the second book, which is the one I'm reading, is Treebeard, a talking tree who is a shepherd of the forests. The evil wizard sauroman is destroying his trees. This is one of the more obvious examples of Tolkien presenting the issue of protecting the environment.
Some less obvious ways Tolkien shows the loss of nature is how during the course of the story all the elves are leaving. The elves represent nature and the forest and in the real world nature is disappearing . Tolkien believes that nature is being destroyed and he is showing us this by the fact the beautiful things in middle earth are leaving or being destroyed.

The Phantom Tollbooth: Life Lessons

     The Phantom Tollbooth is filled with life lessons and author's intrusions, a little like charlotte's web. in fact the whole book is like one giant author's intrusion, disguised under a veil of interesting characters and a magical quest.
      For instance look at the forest of sight. (heh). Anyway, if you examine the cities of illusions and reality you can see a very important life lessons. the city of reality disappeared because no one payed attentions to it and went around staring at the ground walking as fast as possible. the life lesson is that you must stop once in a while to pay attention to your surroundings. otherwise it will be like they don't exist. ( i found out that at the time Norton Juster was living in Brooklyn at the time and may have been inspired by the way people act in new york city, a little like EB White)
     Another example is the Which's tail and Azaz's cabinet. the Which used to advise on how many words to use, but became miserly and used too few and ended up in the dungeon. the cabinet use too many, and are annoying and get screamed at. Juster's telling us to treat words with moderation and use just enough to get the job done.
     Many children's books such as the phantom tollbooth and charlotte's web teach kids little life lessons. great author's like teaching children and want to impart some life lessons on them.
  

Archetypes Post

     I think Charlotte is a mentor archetype.Charlotte shows all the signs of being the mentor archetype. the mentor archetype is  someone who assists the hero in some way, and symbolizes wisdom, knowledge, and experience.
     Charlotte obviously helps wilbur, in several ways. most clearly she helps him by saving his life. She spins webs that say how cool he is, and the farmers see it and decide not to kill him because they think its a miracle. But she also helps him mature as a person. she is there to guide him toward the more grown up path, like when she calms wilbur when he is freaking out about the idea of him dying.
     Charlotte symbolizes wisdom, experience and knowledge. she symbolizes wisdom by always being wise, calm, and collected. even when she knows she will die, she is calm and accepting. she symbolizes experience by the fact that she knows more about things then wilbur, because she is experienced. she symbolizes knowledge by knowing so much and so many little facts, from leg sections on a spider to the queensborough bridge.
     she can be called a hero archetype as well, but i think charlotte is more a mentor then a hero. she acts that way in order to teach wilbur how to be the hero, and towards the end wilbur acts more heroic.

Connecting Annotations Response

     I've noticed that all the characters are very un-caring about death. They tend to be very blunt when saying they, or someone else is about to die.
     Like when the old sheep walks up to Wilbur and tells him he will be turned in to pork. he does not care that Wilbur will be very hurt. he is just telling Wilbur how it is. they tell the truth without worrying about other's feelings. like when charlotte says to wilbur she's about to die, very calmly. and when the goose accepts the fact that his egg is dead.
     I think E.b. White is telling us that what comes comes and we must except it. Death is a part of the world, just like everything else. In fact a lot of the story is Wilbur learning to cope with what comes. In the end he excepts Charlotte's death, and the circle of life continues in Charlotte's children.

Charlottes web response.

 

"I just realized that there are no evil characters in this book."

     There are no evil characters in this book. For instance the Zuckermans are going to kill Wilbur. but they're portrayed as a nice family. Mr Zuckerman is a decent, jolly man. Mrs Zuckerman is a kind, mother-like woman. the Arable parents, who sold wilbur off in full knowledge that he would eventually be killed, are even nicer. Mr Arable is very patient and wise. Mrs Arable is caring and a little overbearing, but not evil.

     Templeton is the most evil character. he is cruel and greedy and uncaring. but he doesn't directly do anything bad to the protagonist, Wilbur. In fact he helps save his life several times. In most other books he would be the antagonist and would do everything he can to hurt Wilbur. But E.B. White made him just another character, and even like able because of his extreme evilness. He is so irritable, and uncaring of others, its funny.

     There isn't really any antagonist, either. what they're protecting Wilbur against is the fact he will be killed for ham around christmas, not really any person. just an idea. Mr Zuckerman is the one who'll do the deed, but he is not really that connected to it in the book.

     Maybe E.B. White is saying that everyone has a role in life. The Zuckermans are people who kill pigs, among other things. that is how they live. it's not evil what they do, just a way of life. The Arables sell pigs. it's what they do. everything and everybody have a role in the circle of life.