The Light & The Dark
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The Light and the Dark is an interesting tale of friendship between two men who are immersed in the world of academia and British aristocracy. The story chronicles the pursuits of Roy Calvert and his friendship with Lewis Eliot. Roy has experienced men and women sexually, but his deepest bond has formed with Lewis, that is as deep of a bond as Roy can develop. Roy is a man alone who is eternally plagued by his bouts of depression and alternating burst of enthusiasm. He is searching for God and answers to life’s mysteries but comes to realize to experience a higher connection to the spiritual he must lose himself wholly. As such, he remains an observer at all times, whether happy or depressed whether alone or with others. Because Roy cannot tolerate the thought of growing old and losing his vitality he is plagued with depression which increases his isolation from the rest of the world-including his wife and closest friends. Roy’s only solution is to take up a pursuit which is the most risk-filled he can think of, flying bombing mission at night. He dies having lived a glorious youth without “tasting the tears of things”, what is perceived to be fortunate by some who eulogize him. The author uses many literary techniques to portray Roy’s story, a story of a man trying to reconcile mankind’s isolation and mortality by not opening himself up to others. Through the use of conflict, characterization and irony the author
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The way we see this dilemma expressed in Roy is through the author’s use of characterization. Roy cannot face his own darkest thoughts and his existential beliefs fully. He tries but he knows that to face them he will have to dwell in melancholy and deep despair. His character is strong enough to achieve this except he cannot share it with others, least of all those he most wishes to be close to. He is a man driven by his compulsion to find the truth and a man possessing great insight and conscious awareness, but, ultimately he is afraid. His characterization is achieved from the way he responds to his own internal demons and also the way he interacts with others. As Joan discovers once married to him, “He shut out parts of his nature from her: shut them out, because he did not want to recognize them himself. She knew that he was visited by desperate melancholy…She knew he was frightened at any premonition that he was going to be attacked again: she believed, as he wanted to, that they could find a charm which kept him in the light” (Snow 195). The problem is that Roy cannot come out of the darkness of his own thoughts, thoughts that make him feel there is no god and nothing to hope for in a cruel, unfair world
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Approximate Word count = 1205
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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