Useful Cases example essay topic

Throughout the novel Bless the Beasts and Children, by Glendon Swarthout, symbolism is used frequently to show a weakness in a character or to fulfill a purpose in the novel. The most apparent weaknesses in the bed wetters was their need for radios to help them sleep. The hats portrayed each characters personality and background in some cases. Also, The Box Canyon Boys Camp is in itself a symbol representing American society in general. The radios are the first case of symbolism shown in the novel.

They are used by each and every one of the bed wetters at night to help them go to sleep. To them it helps to imagine someone is right there with them when the radios are going. On some nights, like the one at the start of the novel each of them have their radios going full blast, this shows the fear each of them have at the beginning of the novel. The children aren't afraid of being so far from home or from their parents because each of them are plenty used to that. All of their parents go on trips away from home for long periods of time or when they are home just simply neglect them.

The radios help represent something being there for them when they are afraid because their parents never are. Towards the end of the novel when the boys are herding the buffalo out of the cages it is very easy for them to throw the radios at the buffalo without missing them. This was put into the novel to show to the readers that the boys no longer need the radios in order to sleep at night and that they will be fine on their own now because they can do things for themselves. At that point the reader knows that they will be fine on their own.

Hats were worn by all members of the bed wetters and each hat symbolized something about them. For Cotton his choice of headgear was a military helmet that he strapped under his chin when he was about to do something dangerous or "manly". He chose this form of headgear because he was very interested in Vietnam, which was going on at the time that this book took place. Cotton also intended on enlisting when he turned 17 with dreams of becoming a general. The Lally brothers each had matching bulky cowboy hats, showing that the parents just got them matching everything to save time. S hecker wore a golfing hat signed by Arnold Palmer, obviously showing his family has very important friends and no time for him.

Text wore and Africa ko rps hat probably because he had dreams of being in the military as well but maybe not for the United States. Lastly, Goode now wore a Hopi Headband. Much like with the radios, the hats are also thrown at the buffalo by the boys. They are obviously done with the hats and no longer want to bee thought of by them. They want to be known for being themselves and for setting all of the buffalo free from the preserve. The Box Canyon Boys Camp is used by the author to portray the misconceptions America has about its youth.

They use all physical activities like baseball, shooting, and riding to determine the boys standing and masculinity. This happens everyday in schools across the country, and even though the coaches at schools and the counselors at the camp don't make any selections based on this, every child makes it for themselves. This is shown in the book by the breaking up into cabins and groups. All of the Bed wetters have hardly any physical skills except for cotton in general and Lally 2 at horseback riding.

In schools groups are split up into the athletically talented and the geeks and nerds who are intellectually skilled. Even though none of the adults have made this selection based on skills they don't have to because the physical activities were set up by them and it works itself out on its own. Basically what Swarthout was trying to show by using Box Canyon Boys camp was that there should be many more definitions of how to determine masculinity and maturity. All of the symbolism used by Swarthout throughout his novel, Bless the Beats and Children, was portrayed very well and each form of symbolism performed its use very well. Although there were many more uses of symbolism, these are the three most noticed and useful cases used in the novel..