For the last essay assignment I am thinking I am going to do a character analysis of Clayton Riddell from The Cell. My reasons for choosing him are pretty simple, I really loved reading The Cell and I think that since I spent more time with this character than any other this semester this should be the easiest character to write about. Clay struggles with many issues and also serves as a mirror of the common man, the reader, allowing us to place ourselves in his position and winder “what would I do?” Clay must choose between his own best interests and those of his child, he also struggles with the concepts of defeat and loss. When reading this book I often marveled at how calm he always seemed to be and how well he was able to process what was happening around him. I immediately thought of all the true life stories you read of people saving others lives and they always say “I just did what had to be done” again and again Clay just always did what had to be done.
Was Clay a hero? That is an interesting question because in reality there weren’t many things that he did that were extraordinarily heroic to be honest. His most heroic act was that he just continued to carry on regardless of how chaotic the world got around him. The astounding cast of supporting characters often did the heavy lifting and without the insight that they provided it is most likely that Clay would never have made it to the end. For those of us that are parents I think we can truly agree and say Clay did what any good parent does, he put him self in harm’s way to take care of his son. What is so heroic about that?
2 comments:
I did not read the same novel as you, but your ideas for essay five make me wish I would have. There is one think you say in the end that I must disagree with. Putting yourself in harm's way to protect your child is more heroic than you perceive. To a child, a parent is always his/her hero because they are the only person there to take care of him/her. Everyone has there own definition of hero which is why so many scholarship essays (etc.) often ask questions such as: who has had the greatest impact on your life and who would you consider to be your life's hero... It's all in your viewpoint.
I think that that is the secret to King's ability to write characters so well that we fall in love with them. He stays true to life, and most of his protagonists aren't exceptional human beings; they're normal people that we, the readers, can relate to. I think it's a very good choice of topic, because you can transition it into talking about the larger scopes of both altruism and of the heroism of surviving. I think King is fascinated with people surviving, even without fantastic, heroic deeds. In many of his stories, his protagonist is a normal person, forced into an insane situation, and the story is of that "non-hero's" survival against extraordinary odds. You might even contrast the character of Clay with Bernie from "Night Surf", who survives without any altruistic motives or deeds, and the dad from "The Boogeyman". The latter, in particular, is a serious foil to Clay, because he literally does the opposite of what Clay does--he sacrifices his children for the sake of his own survival.
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