The Imperialist
In Sara Jeanette Duncan's novel The Imperialist, she introduces to the reader a character by the name of Alfred Hesketh. The introduction of this character comes during the Elgin delegation visit to England. He becomes fast friends with Lorne Murchison. It is Duncan's purpose to further develop the ides of an international theme with his presence. Hesketh represents, in the beginning, the ideas and beliefs of England. Although he has these beginnings, we soon find out that he is more like a blank slate then a book of information. Upon his arrival to Elgin, Canada we see that his thoughts and beliefs are easily transformed, in part by Lorne himself. Duncan finds Hesketh's character to be a sturdy one, with some holes but none the less his contributions to Canadian politics seems to be important, albeit a small one. Alfred Hesketh is a young man, only one year older then Lorne Murchison. Lorne had never met anyone quite like him. Hesketh was in a unique condition. He comes from a wealthy family, though he has no money of his own. He is smart, with a good public ad university education behind him. Although he wasn't as bright as some of his classmates he knew that there was more out there in the world for him then simpl
Unfortunately for Lorne, he seemed to have over estimated Hesketh's similarity in his own views. Lorne naturally assumed that because Alfred was entertaining the thoughts and ideas of Imperialism he was gazing towards the same goal as himself. It seems as though Lorne has be mistaken in the extent of Alfred's intelligence and commitment to the ideas. Perhaps it was because his mind was so open to new ideas that he grabbed so quickly onto the political views of Lorne. This quick acceptation of his political ideas pleased Lorne, because it felt that he had preached his case so well, that an intelligent logical man such as Alfred had seen the reason and joined his school of though. It seemed, to Lorne at the very least that Alfred Hesketh was quite on track with the good, solid ideas of Imperialism. Perhaps this was because Mr. Hesketh himself was from England and was in a position to better understand the reasoning behind Imperialism in the new country of Canada. In contrast to Lorne's quickness to like Alfred, others seemed to be a bit more sceptical, and rightly so. Even Dora, whose views could only be considered superficial and shallow at the very most, thought that perhaps "He might be all that he seemed, and then again he might not."(197) Much of her second thought came from the idea that he was a complicated Englishman that was so deep. (197) Lorne's sister Advena saw Mr. Hesketh as "fairly intelligent and anxious to be pleasant." (200) Lorne's other sister Stella almost hits the nail on the head when she offers her opinion: "Mister Alfred Hesketh may pass in an English crowd, but over here he's just an ignorant young man, and you better not have him
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1130
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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