Death Is Only One Breath Away How Michael Brock Changes in The Street Lawyer - Literature Essay Samples

Once people realize that death is very real, and that any breath that they take could be their last, they change. A prime example of this is Michael Brock in John Grisham’s The Street Lawyer. Michael began the story as a workaholic whose main priority was to bill as many hours in his office as possible. After a traumatizing experience in which he was nearly killed, he became a completely different man. Michael’s near-death experience changed him from a workaholic to a kinder man who was less focused on work, and eventually to a selfless street lawyer. Michael Brock began the story as an egotistical workaholic whose top priority was billing as many hours in his office as possible. Although he was married, Michael left no time for his wife, prioritizing his work over her. He said, â€Å"I worked 15 hours a day, six days a weekbilling lots of hours is more important than a happy wife† (Grisham 32). Michael is clearly a workaholic, working 15 hours six days a week and leaving only 9 on a daily basis for normal activities. The average person works about half of the time that he does. He not only prioritizes working, but he says that it is more important to him that his wife’s happiness. This qualifies Michael as an extreme workaholic, with little in the way of a life outside of his office. Although Michael began the story as an extreme workaholic, he was still susceptible to a change in character, as evident by his reaction to a near-death experience. While working at the firm one day, he and a few co-workers were held hostage by a homeless individual by the name of DeVon Hardy. He could have killed them all that day, but they all managed to escape unharmed, including Michael. After this traumatizing experience, his perspective on life changed. Michael explained his change through this quote: â€Å"In the old days, Claire’s absence for the weekend would have given me guilt-free grounds to live at the office. Sitting by the fire, I was repulsed by that† (Grisham 73). Coming face-to-face with death in the hostage situation helped Michael to understand that spending all of his time working was ridiculous, as it was meaningless. His reputation as a workaholic faded, and he began to spend less of his time at the office and used that time to help others. One ex ample of this was when Mordecai Green, as street lawyer, called Michael asking if he would volunteer at a homeless shelter. He said, â€Å"‘We’re short on manpower. Do you have a few hours to spare?’’The shelters and soup kitchens are packed, and we don’t have enough volunteers’’Okay, where do I go†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Grisham 73-74). Michael’s willingness to spend his time helping out at a homeless shelter instead of billing hours at the office is a tremendous change from the beginning of the book, when he spent all of his time at the office. His near-death experience changed him from a workaholic who spent most of his time at the office to a man who was willing to spend his time elsewhere, helping others. After he began to spend more time away from his office, Michael Brock became a selfless street lawyer, and showed that by sacrificing his old lifestyle in order to help others. he had spent that last few years of his life with a fancy car, lots of money, and an expensive apartment, before settling for much less to become a street lawyer. â€Å"‘How much is the new salary?’ ‘Thirty thousand a year†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Grisham 138). Michael Brock’s selflessness is shown by the fact that he took a $90,000 pay cut to work the much less glorious job of being a street lawyer. However, he also needed to be very flexible in order to work his new job. He was working for homeless individuals, so he worked free of charge, something that was hard to do in many instances. The book reads, â€Å"We decided to take things one day at a time. Megan would drive Ruby to a suburban Motel, one I would pay for, and deposit her there for Sunday night† (Grisham 327). Michael gave up his money and his time to help Ruby, a homeless drug addict, get a safe place to spend the night. This showed his true new self, being selfless and working a street lawyer. By the end of the story, Michael was a selfless street lawyer, changed from being a workaholic, as evident by everything that he gives up just to help others in a more meaningful way. Throughout John Grisham’s The Street Lawyer, Michael Brock changed from workaholic to a man who spent his time helping others and eventually to a selfless street lawyer. Near the beginning of the book, Michael was working 15 hour days and had no time for anything else. However, after his traumatizing experience with DeVon Hardy, Michael took some time off of work and spent it by volunteering at homeless shelters. His experiences at these homeless shelters changed him, and he grew to love helping the homeless, a trait with eventually had Michael quit his job to work as a street lawyer. His selflessness was shown here because he took a $90,000 pay cut and worked in much less favorable conditions. Through a near-death experience, Michael changed from being a workaholic to volunteering his time away and eventually to becoming a selfless street lawyer.

Transcendentalism as Perceived in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Free Essay Example

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates the injustice and ignorance of the antebellum south through the eyes of a young boy named Huck and his journey with an escaped slave. Twains critiques Romantic theories of the time as an untrue and dangerous way to view society. Instead, Twains critique of southern society is primarily influenced by transcendentalist philosophies. Through the character of Tom Sawyer, Twain reveals his distaste for Romantic philosophies and literature during the nineteenth century. Tom is an affluent boy who derives most of his knowledge out of pirate-books and robber-books (8). Toms inspiration from these books leads him to make an unnecessarily dangerous plan to free Jim from captivity, even when he knows that Jim is already legally free. Tom refuses Hucks much simpler plan because its too blame simple(233). Tom doesnt really care about freeing Jim, he wants to live out his whims of adventure and danger from the books he reads. Toms inspiration from Romantic novels leads to his dramatic and careless actions. Twain uses Toms actions to show that the very idea of the adventure itself is skewed. Romantic scenarios like rivalries, murder, and risky rescues are only enjoyable and exciting within books. In reality, they are devastating to the people involved. The novel itself is, in fact, an adventure. Huck and Jim encounter a number of dramatic and seemingly unlikely scenarios, such as murder, Huck miraculously stumbling upon Toms aunt and uncles house, and Huck escaping a number of life-threatening experiences. One could argue, that due to these events, Twains novel is actually very Romantic. Twain, however, does this on purpose. The events that occur in the novel do not appear as grand adventures with heroes and villains. Instead, Twain chooses to present the antebellum south as he sees it. As a place where foolish family rivalries turn deadly and people gather in mobs to carry out lynches. Twain shows that to the victims of violence and ignorance, life is anything but an adventure. Twain d epicts society as corrupt and cruel, whenever Huck and Jim step from the raft into society, they meet trouble. As the novel develops, the audience begins to see Jim for who he is as a person-a humble and extremely tender man. However, when Huck and Jim step into society, Twain reminds his audience of the sharp contrast between who Jim is and how society sees him. When Huck lies to Toms aunt by telling her that his raft crashed and killed a slave in the process, she expresses relief, as sometimes people do get hurt(221). Twains depiction of Jim as a person, capable of complex thoughts and emotions, falls in line with his transcendentalist philosophies. Similar to Twain, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau called for men to ceas[e] to hold slaves (Civil Disobedience). Huck and Jim also watch a man named Colonel Sherburn shoot and kill the town drunk for insulting him. A mob then marches up to Sherburns house in the hopes of lynching him. Sherburn laughs at the mob and tells them that they are cowards incapable of lynching a man as long as its daytime and [theyre] not behind him (146). Sherbur n delivers a scathing critique of southern society. Unfortunately, even he, cannot escape corruption and violence. In contrast to the evils of society, Twain depicts nature as a sanctuary for Huck and Jim. They are both outsiders, and they find solace in nature and in each others company. They love being outside in the cool and fresh breeze and in everything smiling in the sun (118). Huck and Jim express joy in the wild delight [of] the presence of nature an emotion shared by Ralf Waldo Emerson, a notable transcendentalist (Nature). According to Emersons, nature is what separate[s] between him and vulgar things. This separation from society allows Huck to see that Jim is mighty good and cares as much for his people as white folks does for theirn (155). Twain argues that this isolation that Emerson describes, is the only way for Huck to perceive Jim in a true way (Nature). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are not so much an endorsement of transcendentalism, as they are a lens into which the audience sees society and human relationships. Twain presents society as being permeated by a kind of ruthless carelessness.