Analysis C

In the story "Smokers"by Tobias Wolff its about three teenagers that are at a boarding school named Choate. The narrator is a young boy who has a scholarship to the school. He is on the way there on a train and comes across another boy who has also has received a scholarship to the school. The narrator does not care for Eugene to much just because he feels he is the same as him, when Eugene asks to room with him he turns down the offer. He ends up getting put with a nazi named Jamie. Jamie ends up leaving becasue his mom died. Eugene gets put with a very wealthy boy named Talbot, which was the narrators dream to befriend a rich boy. The narrator takes advantage of Eugene to get closer to Talbot. Talbot is a very careless kid he does not care who his friends are. The narrator went to extremes to get Talbot to like him but Talbot overlooked it. Towards the end of the story Eugene happens to get kicked out of the school for being caught smoking although most of the kids there did, I think it was a coincidence. It was the narrators perfect chance to get closer to Talbot he was going to do anything he could. This story reflects on jealousy and I think it is a typical situtation, people trying to fit in and look cool because they are not comfortable with themselves or envy things other people have. Thats an everday situation you come across which is why I enjoyed the story because i felt I could really relate to it.

Analytical Response - D

In the story Smokers the narrator and the character of Eugene have some similarities and also some differences. One similarity that they both share is that they are both scholarship boys going to the same school. They were both smart and got a scholarship to go to the school. The narrator says that they “came from the same world” but however, the narrator did want to live like that anymore. He tried to change his appearance to look like a prep school boy. He dressed in the same clothes as them and wore his hair like they did. Eugene did care to be like a prep school boy. He was comfortable being who he was. Eugene wore what none of the other boys at the school wore. He wore belted jackets, white buck shoes, and Alpine hats with heathers stuck in the brim. Another similarity that both the narrator and Eugene have is that they are both friends with Talbot Nevin. Talbot was Eugene’s roommate and while at school the narrator and Eugene both formed friendships with him. A difference between the two characters would be how they went about becoming friends with Talbot. Eugene was Talbot’s roommate so they lived with each other became friends. Eugene did not have to try hard to be his friends since they lived in the same room. The narrator wanted to be Talbot’s friend mainly because of what he had heard about him. He wanted to be friends with rich people that would invite him to their house over vacation and Talbot fit this description perfectly. The narrator went to talk to Eugene one day and was introduced to Talbot. After that meeting, the narrator tried very hard for Talbot to like him. He would suck up to him and do whatever he wanted. He smoked with Talbot even when he didn’t want to just so Eugene wouldn’t have a special bond with Talbot that he didn’t have and also did Talbot’s homework. Another difference could be that the narrator was jealous of Eugene’s friendship with Talbot. Over one of the vacation breaks, Eugene went to Talbot’s house and was jealous because he wanted to be the person to go home with him over vacation. Also when they boys in the school had to pick new roommates for the next year, the narrator wanted to ask Talbot but found out that he was going to room with Eugene again. He was confused by it but had to accept it. One of the main reasons why the narrator was probably jealous of their friendship was that the narrator was trying very hard to be friends with Talbot, where Eugene was not trying at all and was a closer friend to Talbot.

Analytical Response C: "Smokers"

“Smokers” by Tobias Wolff is about the life of three teenagers at a boarding school named Choate. The narrator of the story receives a scholarship to attend Choate as does Eugene Miller, the kid he meets on the train to school. When the narrator first met Eugene, he was not very fond of him and thought he was strange. Eugene had asked the narrator if he would like to be his roommate, but the narrator lies and tells him he had already promised someone he’d be his. The narrator was actually lying but he did not want to room with someone just like him, someone with a scholarship. The narrator ends up becoming roommates with a Nazi lover named Jamie. Jamie is the schools troublemaker, but after his mother’s death, Jamie returned home and had not returned. The narrator then hears about Talbot Nevin and uses the fact that he is Eugene’s roommate to his advantage. He wants to become close friends with Talbot because he is the rich friend the narrator is looking for. Talbot and the narrator become friends and play tennis with each other, but they are not as close as Talbot and Eugene. Talbot brings Eugene with him with on his winter vacation while the narrator goes to his aunt and uncles house.  The narrator has a horrible time with his aunt and uncle because all he does is babysit. He even cried because he was so upset about being there when Eugene is away with Talbot. In his efforts to become closer friends with Talbot, the narrator writes four essays for Talbot to keep him from flunking English. For the following year at the school, the narrator wants to be roommates with Talbot, but Eugene and Talbot had already decided to remain roommates. Soon after, Eugene got expelled from the school due to smoking in his dorm. With Eugene gone, it gave the narrator the opportunity to become Talbot’s roommate, and that is exactly what he did.

This story tells about envy and how it overpowers a human’s reason. It was a good and easy read about a boy’s want to fit in at a school so bad, he would do anything possible. I would relate Eugene to Billy Bud. They both were overall good people and where able to judge their reason and generally pick the right choice rather than the one that most benefitted them. 

I think the character Jerry in Seinfeld is portrayed as a continent person. Jerry is found as one of the better characters in the show. He has better morals and usually keeps himself out of all the chaos and schemes created by his friends. An example of Jerry being a continent character is in an episode where Jerry, George, and Elaine were at a restaurant eating there was a bus boy who put the menus to close to the candles. The table ended up catching on fire because of the menus being to close, so Elaine and George went and started yelling at the bus boy and telling his manager to get him fired. Jerry in the meantime was staying out of it he felt bad for the bus boy because he realized it was accidental, this shows how he is a continent person because although he wanted to yell at the bus boy he didnt say anything because he knew that was the right thing. Although soemtimes Jerry gets himself into a incontinent character side he always gets back to being continent. The show has a lot of incontinent people portrayed in it such as Kramer and George, Jerry always seems to level things out or knock some sense into what is right or wrong. Usually in the show when Jerry will tell Kramer and them a story, thier first response will be get them back worse or something, but Jerry usually put the other persons feelings in mind before taking their advice so i would see him most portrayed as a continent character in the show, although I have only seen a few episodes.

Newman - Seinfeld

Newman is a character from Seinfeld who is often found at the heart of Kramer's schemes, and is almost always portrayed as an incontinent character. Newman is a good example of an incontinent character because he is not so vicious that he does not know right from wrong, he usually doesn't do the right thing, and his appetites are usually not in line with reason. One example of Newman's incontinance is when he is at the farmer's house after Kramer dumps him off and he starts to try to get on the farmer's daughter, who is beautiful. Newman is too weak to stop himself from trying to be with her and is promptly kicked out of the house and shot at by the farmer by trying to do so. Another example is when Newman says in his series debut, in season two, "I can't eat fruit; it makes me incontinent." Newman even admits to his incontinence, how sad.

George Costanza

George Costanza is most like the vicious character of Aristotle's 4 character types. One example of George being a vicious character is in the episode when he goes to a little boys birthday party. There is a fire in the apartment and instead of letting the children and elderly people get out first, George decides to run out first. While running out first, he pushes the little children down and out of his way and also pushes an elderly woman with a walker. This incident shows how George is a vicious character because he did the wrong the thing by not letting the children leave first and did not feel bad about it after.

Another episode where George shows his vicious character is when he and his girlfriend go to the "bubble boy's" house. They play a game with him and George asks the "bubble boy" a question from the game. The "bubble boy" answers correctly but the card says a different answer and it is a misprint so George does not want to give him the point. They begin to fight and the "bubble boy" starts to choke George and then his bubble pops. George does not think that he did the wrong thing and that shows how he is a vicious character.

A character from another show that George's character is like would be Homer Simpson because they are both vicious. Homer does many things that he does not feel remorse about and most of the time can not tell right from wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCru-0-mIC4

- video of George pushing people from fire.

Kramer- seinfeld

I believe that Kramer is a incontinent/soft. One example of this would be the example called revenge. In this episode Jerry goes to a laundrymat and when he gets his clothes back he dosent have some money that he left in his pocket and he believes that the man running the laundrymat took the money. After this Jerry tells Kramer the story and Kramer tells him to get him back and put a whole bag of cement into one of the washing machine and stall it up. I believe that Kramer does not do the right thing in this situation and is incontinent. I also believe that Kramer is thinking about himself and Jerry instead of also looking at the laundrymat mans point of view and saying to himself if pouring cement into a washing machine is the right thing to do. Another example would be the mall episode. In this episode Kramer parks his car in the mall parking lot but forgets after a while where he parked it. Throughout the episode Elaine, Jerry, Kramer, and Gerorge look for the car but cannot find it. By the end of the episode Jerry and George get caught for urinating in the mall parking lot and the group finally finds the car but when they get into the car it does not start. One person I would relate to from the show would be Newman because he usally is always in the act with Kramer but he also is a incontinent person. Also Newman does do some things that are right in the show but most are wrong and this is just like Kramer.

Elaine Benes

Elaine Benes is most like Aristotle's incontinent character. One example as to why would be the episode "The Engagement." In that episode, Elaine has problems sleeping at night because of a dog that does not stop barking. She then goes to Kramer and Newman for help, and they suggest dog-napping the dog. At first Elaine does not like the idea and knows it is wrong, but then she hears the dog barking and goes through with the plan. This describes her as an incontinent character because she is able to judge that it is wrong, but her own pleasure of sleeping causes her to do the wrong thing making her appetites not in line with reason.
Another example would be in the episode “The Slicer.” In that episode, Elaine’s neighbor goes out of town, but leaves her alarm clock set for 3:30AM causing Elaine to wake up. This annoyed her so she went to Kramer for help. He said how he once had the same problem so he blew his neighbors circuit. That is exactly what they decided to do, but then Elaine realized that with no power, the automatic feeder would not be able to give the cat food. This is an example of her being incontinent because her pleasure overcomes her reason.

I would relate Elanie to Chandler Bing from Friends. Like Elanie, Chandler knows what is right verses what is wrong, but often chooses the wrong thing because it benefits him more.