Synthesis Essay: The Fall of a City / The Sounds of The Hollyhocks
The importance of childhood
The upbringing of a child might just be the most important task there is. The way a child is raised, treated and the situation at home during its childhood take a huge impact on the rest of a child’s life. It affects not only one’s emotional stability, but also physical and mental health can be affected by one’s childhood. Sometimes the lack of love and support, harassment or other more severe forms of abuse can be found just next door without anyone knowing. It is not always obvious that a child is suffering, and it doesn’t always have to be abuse or the lack of love that take a negative effect on a child. Sometimes parents/guardians themselves don’t …show more content…
In “The Fall of a City” the protagonist, Teddy, and his imagination are severely affected by just this phenomenon. Things like for instance overprotectiveness can also cause ‘damage’, by making one feel trapped or unfree. Since William Cornish Ranson aka Bill Ranson aka “Rock Hudson” (page 7), the protagonist of “The Sounds of the Hollyhocks”, had such an overprotective parent, in his case his mother. Also, he showed symptoms of this negative influence even later in life. While the “The Fall of a City” deals with how a child is affected by lack of love/support and harassment during its childhood, “The Sounds of The Hollyhocks” deals with the negative effects these circumstances can have throughout one’s whole life, as well as how it affects one’s personality. Both stories “The Fall of a City”, by Alden Nowlan, and “The Sounds of The …show more content…
One could describe it as some sort of mental sanctuary. This place or these people are created by one’s subcontinents to help find solutions to one’s problems, give one a break from one’s life, or just have someone to talk to. In Teddy’s imagination for instance, he is “his Majesty King Theodore I … [reigning over] Kingdom Upalia” (page 42). This imaginary world of his lets him escape his everyday life, as well as his aunt and uncle, who seem to not be supportive nor loving/caring enough. Upstairs in the attic, where he built this kingdom out of cardboard and paper, he is the King and he makes the rules. Downstairs on the other hand, his aunt and uncle have the control and Teddy is supposed to just “mechanically … [obey]” (page 43). In Upalia he even defeated his uncle, who in his imagination is Zikla the Duke of Anders, as we find out when “Teddy [looks]at his [uncle]… and [reflects] on his resemblance to Zikla” (page 43). Also Bill Ranson seems to escape the torment of his mother and his trauma about his wife’s death, by fleeing into his imaginary world. But in some cases, people become so obsessed with their imaginary world that they can’t tell it from reality. Bill seems to be one of these cases. He is caught between his imaginary world and reality. He finds comfort in the world that he has created, where he is safe from harm and his