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Compare contrast Comparing and contrasting of different stories helps to understand better the problems touched in them, their characters and authors purposes. Both chosen stories are about common people with their problems, who are looking for the ways to solve them. The comparing of the stories is made with the help of four elements of fiction: character, conflict, plot and setting. Character It is very easy to single out the main characters of two stories, because all the narration is concentrated around them.
The main character of A Worn Path is an old black woman Phoenix Jackson. She is very old and small and wears a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket. The main character of King of the Bingo Game is a black man. Unlike in the first story, where it is given quite a thorough description of the old woman, a reader knows neither about the mans age nor about his appearance, there is no even his name mentioned. Such presentation of two characters is not accidental. Phoenix Jackson is mainly described from the side of observer, whereas the man from King of the Bingo Game is described from inside, the reader experiences his feelings, his inner struggle.
Such description reveals the differences of two characters. Phoenix Jackson is a solid and whole-hearted person. She is not in conflict with herself and surrounding world. She speaks with animals, plants, people she meets. She is a strong person, but she is not ashamed to ask for a help, as understands that there is nothing wrong in it. Phoenix Jackson is not ashamed of who she is.
She has a certain goal and nothing can prevent her from reaching it. The character of the man from King of the Bingo Game is quite different. The description from inside gives an opportunity to look into what is going on in his inner world. His heart is full of fear, contradictions, uncertainty. He is conflict with himself and surrounding world.
He feels embarrassed of being a black man and he is afraid of other people. He cant find the way out of the situation he has got in and at the same time he doesnt want to ask for help. In a certain moment he even forgets his own name, and looses the realization of his personality. Who am I? , he screams. Readers know that he wants to win the price to save the life of a woman named Laura (perhaps his wife). But by reading the story it seems that his struggle for her life is the struggle with his own complexes and with other people: but this time himself controlling the winding and the sadness and the shame, and because he did, Laura would be all right.
Conflict Although the characters of the story are different, the conflict of the stories is the same: a person and the fate. The differences of the characters are revealed in their attitude to the fate and the attitude of the fate to them. In case of Phoenix Jackson, fate helps her: the woman finds money, manages to reach the city and get the medicine for her grandson. But the man from King of the Bingo Game seems to be helpless before his fate. Why is it so? The answer may lie in the characters attitude to their fate.
Phoenix Jackson has accepted her fate and follows it, she doesnt struggle with what has already happened and doesnt try to change that what cant be already changed but looks for the solution of the already existing situation. She has accepted the illness of her grandson. But it must be understood that she doesnt give it up as lost. She does everything that can be done in this situation. Her accepting of her fate helps her grandson more than the mans struggle with it. The man from King of the Bingo Game doesnt want to accept his fate and this leads to his struggle against that what has already happened.
And as it is impossible to change the unchangeable, he is helpless before it. He doesnt look for the real solution of the problem. And while Phoenix finally gets the medicine for her grandson, the man doesnt get anything, moreover it is unknown whether he himself will return to his wife and when it happens. Plot The plots of the stories can seem quite simple from the first sight: grandmother walking i to the town to get medicine to her grandson in A Worn Path, and the man trying to win the price to save the life of his wife in King of the Bingo Game. But both plots are much deeper than this. Both of them raise philosophical and social questions.
Both characters are trying to help the people they love but due to differences of their personalities they do it in different ways. Phoenix Jackson sets off in a journey. For such an old woman like she this quest is very difficult and dangerous. But Phoenix Jackson is determined to get what she wants. She manages to get rid of the bush that gets caught in her clothes, she passes by a scarecrow that has scared her, crosses a creek by a log, etc.
She finally gets to the town, where she is given a medicine to her grandson as a charity. The plot of this story is a journey that can be compared with the life itself. Author suggests how this long way can be passed. A person should be determined to get what she / he wants and not to be afraid to accept peoples help, as in this case they will really help.
A young hunter, a woman in the street, a nurse all they help Phoenix. The plot of King of the Bingo Game is different. Here the man wants to get the price to help his wife. The man is hungry and he wants to drink, that is why he doesnt refuse whisky, although he knows that he shouldnt drink it with an empty stomach. Perhaps, he is lack of determination, as he cant overcome this obstacle, which leads to fatal consequences, as when he gets an opportunity to win the price he doesnt manages to do it. The story A Worn Path has some kind of introduction: the description of the place, main character.
It also has some certain end as reader can definitely say what might happen next (Phoenix will go back home and when her grandson feel bad, she will set off to the town again). In King of the Bingo Game there is no introduction. It is even hard to understand first, where the events take place. The end is open here: there are plenty of variants of developing of further events. Setting In both stories setting is perfectly reflects both the characters themselves and the conflict of the stories. As Phoenix Jackson is a contrast to the man from King of the Bingo Game, the settings of the stories are contrast to each other too.
The calmness of nature, a bright frozen day in the early morning from A Worn Path everything suggests peace of both surrounding world and the inner world of the character. The dark hall of the cinema from King of the Bingo Game, the raging crowd, the screams that tore the main character from his very guts all this reflects the conflict of the man within himself and with the world and people, surrounding him. The setting of A Worn Path is changing in the story: first it is the road, then the city and then the room where Phoenix gets the medicine. In King of the Bingo Game the place reminds the same the hall of the cinema.
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Research essay sample on Save The Life Phoenix Jackson
