Comparative b/w Larry
The path to self-realization can take many routes and come in many different forms. Both Larry's Party by Carol Shields and Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood deal with this central idea. Both novels revolve around one main character, Rennie in Bodily Harm , Larry in Larry's Party and their individual paths through life. Both authors use similar character relationships and methods of symbolism to show the two very different paths of their character's lives towards self-realization. Rennie is a headstrong young woman who refuses to categorize herself in anything she does. She always tries to do the opposite of what she is feeling, doing exactly the contrary to what is expected of her. Larry however is a statistic, he goes with the flow and does exactly what is expected of him in life. He takes what he is given. In comparing their two lives to pendulum, normalcy being at the apex of its swing and the nodes being just the opposite, Rennie constantly tries to push against the pendulum while Larry swings with it. Although their paths are both very different, their lives come to two very similar yet dissimilar conclusions. Two incredibly diverse events, a dinner party for Larry and a revolution imprisonment for Rennie, allow the c
Both novels are written in the same style of writing. Not only are they both always in the third person of one specific character, but it is a very distant third person. The author uses the present tense to describe actions that have happened in the past. It is a very simplistic form of writing, as if to convey the ordinariness of both characters. "Still, Rennie refuses to feel guilty about anything, not even the beggars"(Atwood 72). "Now Larry's spending his evenings drawing up plans, and as his 2H pencil moves over the drafting board..."(Shields 106). This creates a very distant view of the characters, never allowing you to become too attached to them. Rennie Wilford, the main character of Bodily Harm, on the other hand follows a totally different path through life. Rennie's background is very similar to that of Larry. She was born in Griswold, Ontario, again being a very typical Canadian town. Although Griswold is much smaller than Winnipeg(Larry's hometown), Winnipeg shares many "small-town" aspect with Griswold making both Rennie and Larry's childhood habitats very similar. Bodily Harm catches up with Rennie's life as a young woman. The action during the novel itself only takes place during about a one-month time frame of Rennie's life, however her thoughts, dreams, and remembrances encompass her entire life in a rough chronological order. At the opening of the novel, Rennie is a young Toronto journalist. She has no aspirations to be a star and is content with doing what she does. She hates covering articles that deal with mainstream trends or fads, but instead prefers trying to create non-existent trends by fabricating them in her articles. "Rennie liked to write pieces on trends that didn't really exist, to see if she could make them exist by writing about them."(Atwood 25). By doing this she is resisting the pendulum, pushing against the norm, versus Larry who would have merely wrote an article on the latest pop-culture fad. Rennie's path to self-realization begins with her contracting breast cancer. This is followed by a nasty break-up with her boyfriend of several years (because of the breast cancer), falling into hopeless love with her married doctor, and her house being broken into. The intruder stole nothing, merely left a length of rope on her bed, scaring her to the utmost degree. This is merely the beginning of the downward spiral of Rennie's life. She then decides to vacation, but instead of choosing a mainstream Carribean island, Rennie again bucks the trend and chooses the unheard of island of St. Antoine. When she arrives, she finds herself in an island broken apart by a revolution. She befriends Mr. Minnow, a man on one side of the revolution and becomes romantically involved with Paul, a sort of hit-man for the other side, thus entangling herself deep in the island's politics. Rennie's stay at the island continues her life's downward spiral, beginning with something as minor as the selection of a "non-mainstream" hotel and ending with being thrown in jail and watching one of her island companions be beat to death. Rennie's constant refusal to "fit in" with her stereotype back home makes her "unique". On the island however, a dangerous island far removed from ways of American culture, Rennie's behaviour causes her a great deal of grief as it is constantly mis-perceived by the natives of this island. Her constant insistence to do the opposite of what she should (including not returning home at the outbreak of the revolution) is the catalyst for her downward spiralling life. Both authors also use very similar inter-character relationships to exemplify their characters. There are three main relationships in each novel; one with a very normal and average partner, one with an extremist, and a comforting, accepting, more casual one. In Larry's Party the normal and average relationship is with Dorrie, his first wife. Dorrie is a very boring person. Their relationship was
Some common words found in the essay are:
St Antoine, Harm Rennie's, Larry's Party, Rennie Toronto, Dorrie Beth, Court Maze, Stu Dot, Talking Daniel, Inc Larry's, Larry's Rennie, dinner party, larry's life, bodily harm, rennie's life, relationship jake, larry's party, downward spiral, center maze, life spirals, larry's marriage, center maze occurs, life spirals downwards,
Approximate Word count = 2959
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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