Our Mutual Friend Research Paper
Format MLA
Volume of 3 pages (825 words)
Assignment type : Research Paper
Description
The book is Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and this is the prompt: Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. https://my.noodletools.com/public/180222131050713547795075 This link will take you to a noodle tools list of 8 sources that must be used.
Research Paper Book Quiz
Prompt: Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The
character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example,
may choose to mislead0 others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a
crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written
essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception
contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
You need to answer the prompt using the following format. You need a quote from the
beginning, middle, end of the book. The other two quotes are your choice.
Quote: Book 1, Chapter 11: “Thus happily acquainted with his own merit and importance, Mr.
Podsnap settled that whatever he put behind him he put out of existence.”- Mr. Podsnap
How does it answer the prompt: Mr. Podsnap is deceitful towards himself. He allows his money
to blind him to reality. His comfortable life blinds him to the presence of inequality in England,
as show by his insistence that twelve people could not possible starve to death in the streets in a
single day in England. Even when it is proven to be true, he says that those people must have
brought it upon themselves. This contributes to another meaning of the work. That money is not
inherently evil, but it creates a euphora in which evil people live.
Quote: Book 4, Chapter 19: “I assure you, my dear,’ said Mr Boffin, ‘that on the celebrated day
when I made what has since been agreed upon to be my grandest demonstration—I allude to
Mew says the cat, Quack quack says the duck, and Bow-wow-wow says the dog—I assure you,
my dear, that on that celebrated day, them flinty and unbelieving words hit my old lady so hard
on my account, that I had to hold her, to prevent her running out after you, and defending me by
saying I was playing a part.”- Mr. Boffin
How does it answer the prompt: Mr. and Mrs. Boffin finally reveal that Mr. Boffin’s behavior
was an act to test Bella’s heart. This she passed with flying colors when she chose John Harmon
over Mr. Boffin’s money, which was still technically hers. This answers the prompt. Mr. and
Mrs. Boffin mislead Bella so she could prove her worth which translates to the meaning of the
book that those whose hearts are not swayed by money are the best of humans.
Quote: Book 4, Chapter 9 “I reflected—clearly reflected for the first time, that in bending my
neck to the yoke I was willing to wear, I bent the unwilling necks of the whole Jewish people.”-
Mr. Riah
How does it answer the prompt: Mr.Fledgeby has manipulated Mr. Riah into the position he is
in. Mr. Riah is the Jewish face of Mr. Fledgeby’s money lending business, giving Jewish people
a bad reputation as greedy, money hoarders. The deceit Mr. Fledgeby uses in tricking the general
populous into believing such a stereotype points back to the theme of the novel. That money
traps people in a euphora, like Mr. Podsnap; but their difference is that Mr. Fledgeby knows his
evil.
Quote: Book 2, Chapter 8: “I have made up my mind that I must have money, Pa. I feel that I
can’t beg it, borrow it, or steal it; and so I have resolved that I must marry it.”- Bella Wilfer
How does it answer the prompt: This is the reason the Boffins start to put on the act of being
corrupted by money. They could not bear to see her turn her heart to stone; to enter the euphoria
that money creates. The central plot of the novel as well as the meaning of the work as a whole is
set in motion in her words here. The central plot is the Boffin’s portrayal of the corrupting
powers of money in order to test and save Bella. The meaning behind the whole novel is that
money is not evil, but it is a catalyst in the creation of evil men.
Quote: Book 2, Chapter 13 “He [John Harmon] took his hat, and walked out, and, as he went to
Holloway or anywhere else—not at all minding where—heaped mounds upon mounds of earth
over John Harmon’s grave.”
How does it answer the prompt: John’s decision to stay John Rokesmith is deceitful to himself,
though in a less selfish way than Mr. Podsnap. John does not wish to re-enter the high society
that separated his father from he and his sister. He sees money for what it does to people,
especially what it did to Bella, and wishes to live amongst it no longer. He stays with the Boffins
of course because they are true and good people and later become intrical in helping John get his
wife back by redeeming Bella.
