The book Old School, by Tobias Wolff, is about a boarding school in New England. At this school, there are many students as a well as teacher that try to find the meaning of truth in life. Alfred North Whitehead, a western philosopher of the 19th and 20th century, believes that, “there are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. ” This quote is saying that all truths have small lies in them, and that if one tries to act like there is no lie, then he/she will get themselves into trouble.
Although this definition is arguable, throughout the book many people that have issues with the truth prove Mr. Whitehead’s statement to be true. One of these characters who struggles with the whole truth would be the narrator of the book. The narrator is one of the best writers in his class and wants nothing more than to win a private meeting with one of the famous authors that visits his school. With two failed attempts to win the contest and only one chance left to win the narrator begins to panic.
He tries to read other stories for inspiration and comes across a story called The Summer Dance written by a girl named Susan Friedman from another. As he reads this story, he realizes that The Summer Dance was truly his life story. The narrator is so convinced that the story was his own, he changes some of the facts and submits it into the school writing contest. This leads the narrator into big trouble, because he has also partly lied in the sense that he copied someone else’s paper, and ends up getting kicked out of the school for plagiarism.
The Term Paper on Outline for a Story Book
I propose to design a book for children 7 to 8 years old. In this modern world of technology, books are set aside in favor of computers and other highly technical gadgets. The innovation of computers has pushed man into heights of advancement but the need for leisure stays untouched in his heart. A good book read at leisure brings this kind of comfort and relaxation and the best time to inspire ...
Another time that this quote was fitting to the narrator was when he was walking down the hallway whistling a Nazi marching song behind a man named Gershon. Little did the narrator know that Gershon was Jewish, and he thought that the narrator was whistling the song to him to belittle him. Gershon then told the headmaster of the school what had happened, and the narrator was sent to speak with him. The narrator did not know how to explain the misunderstanding he had gotten into and tries to tell the headmaster that he had know idea that he was whistling a Nazi march song.
The narrator also debates even telling the head master that he is also Jewish since this fact would clearly exonerate him. Because he does not want to be seen as an “other” at his school, he only tells half of his true excuse, leaving out the fact that he is Jewish. Pretending that his half-truth is a whole truth gets him into trouble with the head master and Gershon who now think less of him. Lastly, a person that has a conflict with telling the whole truth is Dean Makepeace. His problem began when he told the boys at the school that he had fought in World War I, was a medic, and received a wound.
This story was exactly the same as what had happened to a famous writer named Ernest Hemingway. Because these two men stories’ where so similar, people assumed that the Dean Makepeace had met Hemingway while in the hospital and that they had become good friends. Because this false belief gave Mr. Makepeace status that he would have not have gotten otherwise, he decided to stay quite about the issue. According to the book on page 181, “he didn’t see this as a lie so much as a dozing off in his attention to the truth. ” Mr.
Makepeace’s story supports what Alfred North Whitehead said, because his silence is a half-truth. What makes it a half-truth is that he has not spoken any truth but at the same time he has not told a lie. Mr. Makepeace then “plays the devil” by remaining silent and puts himself into a position where he ends up having to quit the job that he loves. In life, one of the hardest things to do is to be completely truthful with everybody. Mr. Whitehead even believes that doing such a thing is difficult. Because it is most likely that people cannot always tell the whole truth to others, they must stay true to themselves.
The Essay on How Has James Cameron Presented And Adapted The True Story Of The Titanic For The Cinema
How has James Cameron presented and adapted the true story of The Titanic for the cinema? The Titanic was a gripping story written by James Cameron in 1996. It is a re-write of what happened in 1912, and it tells the story well, and it has many realistic features, and to make the story even more impressive, James Cameron adds a love story to the equation, and the story is a success, which is very ...
Although the narrator lied to everybody else by plagiarizing, he stayed true to himself by writing a story that he believed was his story. Dean Makepeace also stayed true to himself by realizing that by staying silent, he was lying and left the school to escape his lie. At the end of the book, the narrator completed his dream of becoming a writer and Dean Makepeace completed his dream of going back to the job he loved. This shows that in life if you stay true to yourself, you will not play with the devil.
