Once and Future King
In the novel The Once and Future King by T.H. White there is a boy nicknamed Wart. His real name is Arthur Pendragon, son of King Uther Pendragon. Merlyn had him raised by Sir Ector. Wart lived in Sir Ector's castle with Kay; Kay is two years older than the Wart and would one day become a knight. Wart would be Kay's squire because he was not living with his proper family. The Wart was like a degraded son where, regardless of his talents, would never take Kay's place in becoming a knight. Little did he know that something would be within his grasp in the future. Merlyn ends up as his tutor after eating with him, and Wart experiences many things that Kay never would. The Wart is transformed into many different creatures as part of his first rate education. He learns numerous things over the years of tutoring. As a fish, Wart is told "there is only power," and "only Might is Right," as spoken by the king of the moat. From this experience Wart learns that the water has its own dangers. It is like the movie Godzilla where size does matter. The bigger fish has power over the smaller fish. Regarding his species, kings have power over his peasants and servants. Most kings are like the pike and only believe and seek power. So
me kings see their power as a tool to help their people and treat them fairly. After becoming a Merlin, the Wart learns that your feet are the most important. The other hawks he meets say this because any damage to a hawk's foot is a damage to it life. Wart learns that the feet are very important to hawks as well as humans. Without any feet people cannot stand at all. They cannot walk up stairs, raise themselves up onto a horse, or defend their castle. They would stay in the castle and be taken care of for the rest of their lives. From his experience as an ant, Wart discovers that it is much like life as a human being. There is the queen and her ants of different classes. Each class has a certain task and those ants would be expected to complete the task. That's like Wart's life. There is King Uther Pendragon and his soldiers and peasants. Each of these groups have their own job and they are expected to do that job. For example, the king's soldiers are expected to protect his domain from invasion. His servants of the castle are expected to serve him and his guests. One thing in particular that the Wart notices is that there are only two classifications that an ant uses: done and not done. This is very simple, but it can be too confusing. Something may be close to done or less than half done, and it would be classified as not done. You cannot really measure your progress accurately with this system. Wart learns that ants are much like humans where they fight for food or boundaries. Their fighter ants are like a king's army. They go in and one colony will come out victorious. This kind of stuff happens all over the world between different groups. As a wild goose, the Wart learns there is only one element: wind. Wind can change everything for a bird. It could help you get to your destination faster, or it can hinder your progress and exhaust you. To humans the wind comes and goes and they are never really part of it. It does not hinder or speed up their progress; therefore, the wind is of little importance to humans. Wart learns from Lyo-lyok that killing another of their own kind is disgusting, but it is okay to shed blood over natural enemies. He also learns what a boundary is and Wart learns that geese do not have any boundaries except for their
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1545
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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