Mr McCallister And His Dislike For Tracy example essay topic

Tracy Flick, George Washington Carver High School's overachiever, is at it again. She belongs to almost every club, and holds office in most of them. She is a stereotypical nerd in school, straight A's, and is constantly trying to get to the top, and stopping at nothing to get it done. Now its time for the election of the student government, and Tracy Flick is running unopposed for class president. For the good of the school and humanity in general, McAllister finds her an opponent. Mr. McCallister, an American history teacher at Carver High School specializing in civics, and current events, will do anything in his power to stop her from winning the election.

He persuades Paul, an injured and dimwitted football star, to run against her. Tracy could be considered a protagonist because of her hard work, and wanting to succeed, however, in the story she is an antagonist, a neutral term for a character who opposes the leading male or female character, who in this case is Mr. McCallister. As the story progresses you see Tracy starting to dislike Mr. McCallister and his dislike for Tracy grows even stronger. After a janitor discovers two of Tracy's votes crumpled up in Mr. McCallister's trash can, Tracy's dislike of Mr. McCallister grows even more. The main conflict that appears in the story is man vs. man (woman). These conflicts include Mr. McCallister vs. Tracy and Paul Metzler vs. Tracy for the election.

Tracy is also considered a round character. According to the definition in "The Norton Introduction to Fiction", a round character is a complex character, often a major character, who can grow and change and "surprise convincingly", that is acting in a way that you did not expect from previous behavior. The new behavior then becomes possible even probable and "realistic". Tracy changes her attitude several times in the movie.

Tracy's character develops and changes from a friendly, polite role model student, then to a competitive character, and finally to a character seeking revenge on Mr. McCallister. Eventually McAllister, who stresses ethics in his classroom lectures, gets so caught up in defending his point of view that he becomes as self-absorbed and unethical as Tracy. The author also uses stereotypes that relate to the characters personality. Tracy Flick's stereotype is the overachiever at GWC high. Her personality and the way she handles her everyday business shows that she doesn't like to fail and wants to be the best she can. She also falls into the stereotype of the overachiever by coming to school early and always being the first to raise her hand, having to maintain the highest grades, involvement in other activities in school, she demands perfection of herself in everything she does.

Her main physical characteristics are conservative in dress and neat in appearance. Overall, Tracy Flick is a stereotypical overachiever at GWC, who is determined to win the election for class president. Although her intentions seem harmless, she is one of the antagonists in the story who also fits the description of a round character. When Tracy wins, she not only wins the election, but she prevails over the main conflict in the story, the man vs. woman fight with Mr. McCallister, also with Paul Metzler.

"Election" may be about high school on the surface. But it's really about lurid ambition and the lies we tell ourselves and each other in order to succeed.