Juliana B.

English 10 Honours

How Relationships Help One to Develop – Which Story Shows It Better?

Many authors and poets throughout history have explored the topic of relationships and how they may help one to develop, and each book, poem, or story sheds new light on the subject, but the main question remains: Which literary work better shows one’s development through relationships? Although both the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee explore this topic, To Kill A Mockingbird better demonstrates how much relationships positively affect the characters and how Scout and Jem grow through their strong bond with each other. In Of Mice And Men, however, the effect of the lack of relationships on the characters is shown. The novella does not directly demonstrate how bonds with other people may help to strengthen belief and confidence in oneself, as well as build trust in others. Both literary works are set in the 1930’s in the United States of America, and both involve small communities of people, although Of Mice and Men is set mainly on a farm in California while To Kill A Mockingbird involves characters in a small town in Alabama.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout have a unique brother-sister bond. Throughout the book, Scout grows up while having Jem on her side, which shapes her as a person because she sees how Jem changes over time. Scout always reads between the lines of what Jem says and does, and interprets it in her own way: “Jem wanted Dill to know once and for all that he wasn’t scared of anything: “It’s just that I can’t think of a way to make him come out without him gettin’ us.” Besides, Jem had his little sister to think of. When he said that, I knew he was afraid” (Lee, 17). Scout understands how scared Jem is through what he says, even though he never directly states that he is afraid. Similarly, Jem also changes throughout the story, thanks to the bond he has with Scout, because he sees a different perspective through her. Having Scout by his side really helps him to develop, even if he never openly admits this and even calls his sister “annoying” at times. For example, when someone fills their special hole in a tree with cement, through trying to comfort Scout, Jem comforts himself: “ […] on the way to school he ran ahead of me and stopped at the tree. Jem was facing me when he looked up, and I saw him go stark white. “Scout!” I ran to him. […] “Don’t you cry, now, Scout, don’t you worry –” he muttered at me all the way to school” (Lee, 83). Had Scout not been with him through everything, he might not have been able to deal in tough times with the things that happen to him.

Opposite from what To Kill A Mockingbird teaches the reader about one’s development through relationships, Of Mice And Men demonstrates the effect of isolation and loneliness. Steinbeck effectively shows how isolation from society affects a person through the character Crooks: “Lennie smiled helplessly in an attempt to make friends. Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room. […] Nobody got any right in here but me”” (68). Crooks lives in a small room all by himself and gradually becomes accustomed to loneliness, which makes him hostile towards any visitors. He is not used to friendly people and is wary of anyone that wants to talk to him. Another example of the effect of loneliness on a person is Curley’s wife. Through her we see that when one has no relationships, he or she cannot develop or progress in life. Of course, she is married to Curley, but in the novella, they seem to be very distant from each other and do not want to communicate. They both want more human interaction. “ […] You bindle bums think you’re so damn good. […] -Sat’iday night. Ever’body out doin’ sompin’. Ever’body! An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs – a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep – an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else” (Steinbeck, 78). She complains indirectly about being lonely because she does not have anyone to talk to and nowhere to go on a Saturday night.

These examples show that To Kill A Mockingbird better presents the positive effect that relationships can have on a person because while Of Mice And Men demonstrates how much isolation and loneliness can negatively impact a person, TKAM shows how much friendships and bonds with others can help one to grow. Harper Lee effectively presents to the reader how relationships help a person to develop through a variety of characters, such as Boo Radley, Jem, and Scout. “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives” (373). This perfectly explains the bond Jem and Scout have with Boo Radley, and how much it helped all of them to understand what friendship really is. As well, in To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many more characters for other characters to form relationships with, while in Of Mice And Men, the few characters are much more isolated from each other and the rest of the world. They are limited in their choices of friendships and bonds, and which people to interact and not to interact with. “[…] Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other”(Steinbeck, 35). When Slim says this, he gives the reader a new thought on isolation and loneliness, as well as why some people do not form relationships and therefore cannot progress and grow.

In conclusion, To Kill A Mockingbird better demonstrates how much relationships positively affect the characters because the novella Of Mice and Men shows the direct opposite: the effects of isolation and loneliness on a person. The novella, as opposed to To Kill A Mockingbird, does not directly demonstrate how important relationships are in one’s development. The reader sees how, through the bonds between Jem, Scout, and Boo Radley, the characters help each other, but Curley’s wife, as well as Crooks, show the reader what isolation can be and how it may affect people. Both stories, whether directly or indirectly, present the idea that humans cannot develop without relationships with others.

EA567

By Juliana B.

English 10 Honours

Block A

Creative Writing Assignment

Chapter 1

Elma shut her eyes as the countdown began. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Blast off! The rocket shot through the air, launching so fast that it was gone and no longer visible in a matter of seconds. Elma kept her eyes closed. She knew that if she opened them, she would not be able to take in everything that was happening around her.

Finally, after about 10 minutes, she dared to open one eye, then the other. In front of her was the control panel, with its many buttons, levers, and other instruments that she did not know how to use. She had gone through training, but Elma was known for being a little forgetful, so she had only fully memorized the location of the Emergency button.

Elma decided to take a peek into the porthole, and was she astounded! L-32 was moving rapidly away from her, and beyond that there seemed to be nothing but blank, dark space. Suddenly, she felt scared. Why couldn’t she have stayed home? Then, she felt proud. Being the first to go to space was such an honor! But the fear was creeping up on her again, wedging its way between the mounds of pride she had for herself and her home and taking over, spreading like a plague. Elma didn’t know what to do. It had seemed so, so cool to go to space, but what would she do now that she was up, already so far from L-32 that it hurt to look back at it?

Then she remembered her mission: she was going to a planet they’d named EA567, one of the many mysteries that had not been uncovered for a long, long time. It was very easy to spot EA567 from L-32, as it was fairly close, a mere 384 400 kilometers away. Elma didn’t know much, but she did know that this was closer to her home than any other space object.

They had never been able to go anywhere from L-32, until one day they finally built a rocket and announced that they would be choosing someone to be the first to go to space. Elma got into the contest fairly easily, as many were too scared to go. The lucky individual was chosen partly by chance, but, of course, also by skill. Elma believed she won because she did an astounding job on the Math and Computing portion of the contest, as well as the Psychological Testing in Extreme Environments portion, even though she did poorly on the Practical portion, where she had to be in a spaceship control room simulator. Nevertheless, she was chosen, and now, as she was flying in the rocket, she thought back on all of this and reminded herself both how lucky and at the same time how vulnerable she was. Who knew what she would find in outer space and on EA567?

***

2 days later, Elma found the rocket rapidly approaching EA567, now a huge sphere looming in front of her. She could still see L-32, but it was now a small ball from this distance. She looked through the front illuminator. In a few hours, she would land on EA567 and discover what was on this mysterious space object. It was covered in patches of color, which Elma found bizarre as L-32 was plain and solid-colored. She felt scared, but there was definitely no turning back now. What if there were aliens on EA567? What if they weren’t very friendly? What if her spaceship collapsed and she wouldn’t be able to come back home? These thoughts raced through her head as she got closer and closer toward her target.

An hour and a half later, Elma was right above the surface of EA567, looking for a spot to land. She observed very peculiar things: there were masses of green and blue on the surface, covered by white, fluffy formations. As she got closer and closer, she saw through the clouds (as this is what they’d called the white formations back on L-32) that there were spots of gray as well. All of this was very strange and new to Elma. She had never seen anything like this! Her view opened more and more. Elma decided on an empty green spot on the surface of EA567 as her landing base. She realized that the planet was a lot bigger than L-32, about 50 times the size, and that it would be impossible for her to explore EA567 as much as she wanted to before she had to go back. Elma was now 5000 feet from the ground, heading straight for the green spot that she had chosen as her landing base. Then she noticed something that almost made her lose her grip on the controls. There were moving objects everywhere. There was life on EA567.

Chapter 2

Ar looked onto the screen in front of him. It was showing EA567, which was getting closer and closer by the minute. Another screen showed the side of a rocket, and yet another the inside of the control room, where Elma was sitting.

So far everything was going well. In fact, everything was fantastic! As far as he could see, the surface of EA567 was covered in living things, something he did not expect. Ar smiled to himself. Sending Elma on this mission had been a perfect choice: she was so naïve and obedient that she would do anything to please him. Ar’s smile turned into an evil grimace as he thought of what this trip of Elma’s would bring for him. He couldn’t even imagine all the power he would have! The whole galaxy, no, the whole universe would know about him, say his name trembling, fear him, but also respect him.

Suddenly, Ar was brought back from his dreams by a frightening thought: what if Elma failed on this mission she didn’t even know she was on? What if she found out what he was doing and did something to him, preventing his rise to power? No, he reassured himself, she won’t find out. She’s a clueless little thing, with no knowledge or control of anything.

He looked back to the screen, which gave him a full view of EA567’s surface. He decided to inspect the species living there to learn as much as he could about them before defeating them and taking over. Ar thought it would be easy, as the inhabitants of the planet seemed almost lifeless – they moved by putting two hideous things in front of what he assumed were their bodies one by one and advancing forwards. They each had big lumps on top that they occasionally turned side to side. A couple were raising their lumps and staring at the approaching spaceship. There were also strange things bigger than the aliens that moved around them at high speeds. Ar tried to figure out how they moved, but couldn’t see anything evident from what the screen was showing. He switched to looking at the scenery.

There were massive grey structures growing out of the ground, it seemed, and he could also see very interesting green things that he could not fully describe, smaller than the grey structures but also creating a sense that the aliens liked to either build or grow huge things. This was all very new to him, and he was excited to begin his work on EA567 immediately. Of course, for now, he’d have to start it through Elma, but as soon as he could, he would fly out to EA567 himself to complete his master plan.

Ar smiled to himself again, but this time, it was more of an evil grin, and much more confident. He was going to be Ar, the ruler of the universe. And it would all start on EA567.