Alter Egos free essay sample

Gene was quiet, smart, and envied Finny, while Finny excelled at sports, was outgoing, and did not envy Gene. Gene admits his envy that Finny could get away with everything, while he couldn’t. â€Å"I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little. † (Knowles 18). â€Å"†¦His immortal soul and corrupt body, good and evil struggling within his person for possession of his soul. † (191). The Naguasmett and Devon River are alter egos. The Naguasmett was dirty and Gene only swam in it in the winter session while the Devon River is clean and Gene swam in it in the summer session. I had never been in before; it seemed appropriate that my baptism there had taken place on the first day of this winter session, and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight. We will write a custom essay sample on Alter Egos or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page (Knowles 78). â€Å"Perhaps the commonest form of the Alter Ego archetype is that in which an individual is believed to have a counterpart, or double. † (189). The winter and the summer sessions are alter egos. The winter session is cold with death, war, and stress in it, while the summer session is full of friendliness and youth. â€Å"In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school. The early snow was commandeered as its advance guard. † (Knowles 84). â€Å"In another form, the individual soul is thought to consist of several parts, separate but linked†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (189). World War II is an archetype because it has two sides. One side of the war is that it was a trick played on the nation by old men. In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school. The early snow was commandeered as its advance guard. (Knowles 84). The other side of the war was that it was an actual event that many people sacrificed their lives for their nation in. To enlist. To slam the door impulsively on the past, to shed everything down to my last bit of clothing, to break the pattern of my life that complex design I had been weaving since birth with all its dark threads I yearned to take giant military shears to it, snap! bitten off in an instant. The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me. (Knowles 92). The archetype that represents the war â€Å"The belief that the soul can be duplicated magically by fashioning an image of the individual is universal† (189). Leper is an archetype. He is portrayed as a hero, but he is also seen as someone who ran away from the war and almost got sent out of being in the war. In this quote it is shown Leper was portrayed as a hero â€Å"In the silences between jokes about Leper’s glories we wondered whether we ourselves would measure up to the humblest minimum standard of the army†¦ We were all at our funniest about Leper and we all secretly hoped that Leper, that incompetent, was as heroic as we said. † (Knowles 101). In this quote, Leper is shown talking to Gene about his hallucinations during his training for the war. â€Å"That was when things began to change. One day I couldn’t make out what was happening to the corporal’s face. It kept changing into faces I knew from somewhere else, and then I began to think he looked like me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Knowles 184). â€Å"Since primitive man also believes that he is surrounded by spirits, some good and some evil, it becomes difficult to distinguish between cases in which an individual is thought to be dominated by one part of his soul at the expense of the others and cases in which he is believed to be the victim of influences from without. † (189). The tree is an archetype. It represents Finny and Finny’s death. What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me? (9 Knowles). It also represents the summer session and fearlessness. â€Å"I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten. † (Knowles 34). â€Å"Frazer explains another widespread theory of the soul that visualizes it as being neither shadow nor reflection but as a creature ‘with the same features, the same gait, even the same dress as the man himself. ’† (190).