Essay writing focus

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Morris and Wendy Stemmer are increasingly wealthy. The family owns one of the most profitable businesses in Britain, lives in a sumptuous country house and basically seems to have no problems at all. At least we suppose that such people enjoy life to the maximum. The Stemmers however harbor a dark secret from the past. Their daughter drowned when swimming in a pond in the company of her elder brother. Though the boy was not to blame for the accident, the father charges him with murder and disavows his son. Joel turns into a “remittance man”. He is provided with lump sums of money and an apartment. He could virtually enter any university, acquire any job, travel around the world…, his father would have paid for everything. But the man confines himself to his posh apartment. He stays in his darkened room day and night wearing sunglasses and gradually sinks into insanity. After a near-death experience Joel is haunted by a ghost, which he believes came back with him from a heavenly city. I find it one the direst secrets in the book. We witness a man who is going progressively mad. We realize that his condition is largely due to the accident that took place long ago, which makes it even more monstrous. Egoism of the father reluctant to grin and bear his daughter’s death kills his other child. If both parents had spoken to Joel to help him clean slate, he could have had a different happier life.

Another character of the book is a fifty-year-old bachelor Eugene Wren. Eugene owns a swanky art gallery and lives in a tastefully decorated exquisite Chepstow Villas house. He is eccentric, obsessively secretive and surprisingly obsessive-compulsive about petty things for a man of his standing. He is continuously developing addictions and doggedly grappling with them. This even sometimes seems ludicrous. One of his most shameful addictions is that to sugar-free sweets, which he feels embarrassed about, still holds dear. He grows belligerent, regards other people’s care and concerns as intrusion into his private life, which even threatens to derail his wedding to Ella. Unlike Morris Stemmer, Eugene Wren manages to discard blinkers and sets out new priorities, which saves his wedding.

On the other end of the social spectrum we can see Uncle Gib. Uncle Gib is a reformed burglar, who spent about twenty years behind the bars. He violated the law scores of times, literally drove his wife to grave, but got religion in prison, repented of his misdeeds and eventually grew into an Elder in the Church of the Children of Zebulon. The man is always in the public eye at the Church. He is held in respect by the flock, which acknowledges his righteousness, wisdom and firmness of his moral views. As other perishes Uncle Gib had to divulged his past, in order to be accepted by the Church. The congregation seems to have condoned all his misdeeds, but the man prefers to disguise them. He enjoys his new status and tries to foresee everything, that can undermine his successful future. He is even ashamed of his relations (Lance and his friends), and so tries to keep their existence secret.

Other, less public, characters of the book seem to lead a more honest and open life. Ella works conscientiously, gives herself to others fully and withholds nothing. Lance, who should apparently be more secretive, through his occupation, keeps nothing to himself as well: he eagerly reveals details of his frauds almost to everyone he knows.

And so, although all people have their secrets, the darkest fears appear to hide in the brightest places.

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All of the main characters live on or within the distance of Portobello in London and the book explores how their lives are intertwined with one another. Portobello is famous for its bright, breezy and bustling market and at the same time it focuses the empty, sad and grey lives of most main characters. Let’s attempt a dogged and fearless expedition into the darkest corners and most secret recesses of each character’s lives and idiosyncratic obsessions.

The protagonist of the novel is Eugene Wren, a wealthy, middle-aged art dealer whose secretive personality jeopardizes both his sanity and his relationship with, and eventual engagement to, Ella Cotswold, an attractive general practitioner ten years his younger. He is secretive and one of his secrets is associated with an addiction. It takes a disproportionate toll on his time and effort to struggle with many other addictions. Having managed to conquer alcoholism, heavy smoking, and overeating, he has a new addiction which is also his greatest secret. Eugene gets hooked on a special brand of sugar-free sweets which he wants to conceal from his fiancée. He finds himself unable to give up an addiction to low-calorie sweets. The course of his consumption of the sweets goes up and down. At times he believes he is conquering and combating it, at times he compares his obsession to his love for Ella, from time to time some humiliation overcomes his craving for Chocorange while at other times this craving overcomes his darkest fears of being humiliated.

His obsession is gaining momentum. When the couple decides that Ella should sell her flat and move in with him, he starts inventing excuses and lies so as to be alone just for the time it takes to suck a sweet and to get rid of the sweet smell on his breath afterwards. Extremely ashamed of his habit he buys, hoards and consumes the sweets secretly.

He can’t even imagine what will happen if Ella discovers his addiction. He knows that he is soon to marry Ella, he knows he must try to give up Chocoranges, but his attempts at first quitting cold turkey and then phasing them out both prove futile. He is afraid of their relationship being broken up after his main secret is revealed.

His darkest fears can be also related to the point whether his love for Chocoranges is much stronger that his love to Ella. If we look at the actual reason why he has an initiative to consume there sugar-free sweets, we could see that he does it for a reason. He is prone to gaining weight and the only foolproof excuse for him is to gobble Chocoranges. Tides of righteous frustration well up inside him and it impinges very seriously on him. Needless to say, every other person could have his/her own idiosyncrasies and for Eugene a whimper of protest is his weight and the reason why he decides to consume low-calorie sweets is to cut down his weight to a minimum. They contemplate their marriage and want to register their relationship and he would like to shed his weight. “He had what he called the fat bridegroom dream. He was standing at the altar in a morning suit, marrying Ella, and when he looked down to take the ring out of his pocket all he saw was his huge paunch. He said nothing of this to Ella but pretended to be indifferent to weight…”. He is anxious not to succumb to deception with Ella. That is another fear hidden in this personality. Since there might be a distinct whiff of scandal lingered in the air he decides to tuck this information away at the back of his mind for future reference.

At the beginning their relations are gaining momentum as well as Eugene’s addiction is progressing. He isn’t capable of cutting down on the intake of the sugar-free sweets because the stream of satisfaction wells up inside him when he consumes these sweets. However, they both entertain some hopes about their blissfully happy future. Ella finally discovers his addiction and confronts him with it. In a state of shock at having his secret revealed, Eugene, to Ella’s disbelief and dismay, breaks up the relationship, cancels their wedding and sinks into depression. Mental distress leads to physical instability and he goes down with a two-week flu during which he realizes on recovery, he has not once thought of Chocoranges. The addiction has passed but not his love for Ella, a feeling which is reciprocated. He understands that how miserable it is to be alone and how desperately he misses Ella. This is the brightest example of the darkest fears that can hide in a protagonist living in the Portobello Area.

Full of promise, yet full of danger the market attracts Joel Roseman, weird wearer of dark glasses with a secret anguish in his past that has struck despondency into his heart (the accidental drowning of his little sister which he inadvertently caused and which led to his father driving him from the family home). His life has taken a very different turn. He finds life better in darkness. Joel’s obsessive need comparably differs from Eugene’s addiction and it is associated with the need to withdraw from the world into fantasy, to screen himself from the world. The socially isolated Joel subsequently engages Ella as his private doctor and she visits him a few times at his darkened apartment. He manages to disclose the reason of being plunged into the darkness to Ella. Ella is the only person he could share his feelings and the darkest fears that are deep in his soul. After a near-death experience he is haunted by his imaginary friend, Mithras. As the book progresses Joel’s mental health deteriorates alarmingly. Basically he is afraid of light because Mithras could become truly visible. He hates his presence and it prompts him to a suicide attempt. It is not an attempt to kill himself (as he discloses to Ella) but to recreate his near-death experience and take Mithras back to where he belongs. But after that failed suicide attempt Joel feels lonely because he couldn’t see him. Joel gradually descends into madness and treats himself as Mithras. He seems to be happier in his new identity than ever.

The next character is Lance Platt, an unemployed, lazy scoundrel who believes that society owes him a decent living. Lance lives on the benefit. Always strapped for cash and on the lookout for money-making schemes, Lance decides to resort to crime and having rejected kidnapping cats as more challenging than expected, he turns into a burglar. His first attempt is to grab some money from Eugene Wren who one day comes across a sum of money and advertises his find on a local telegraph pole in an attempt to find its owner. Lance decides to get benefit from it. Unfortunately for Lance, by the time he calls round, Eugene knows the identity of the real owner – Joel Roseman – a young man who is currently recovering in hospital from a heart attack.

Another step relates to the episode when he takes advantage of the meeting with Eugene Wren to find his house and then burgle it. Then he proceeds to make two attempts into Eugene’s neighbour’s house (Elizabeth Cherry) while she is away on holiday. This person is obsessed with conjuring unimaginable fortune out of thin air and typically in the Portobello Area.

The last character I’d like to discuss is Gilbert Gibson who has been a little paranoid about the idea of having a house and getting a better deal out of everything that has transpired. When his house has been set on fire by Fize and Ian, he decides to keep a low-profile in order to take money from the insurance company down the road. He now has money from the insurance on his burnt-down house and a new home and family. He builds a new house in a very prestigious area and charges accordingly (at exorbitant prices).

To wrap it up, the point I’d like to make is that obsessions are not conquered but are at the most exposed or unwillingly faced often leaving protagonists in a heightened state of anxiety and readers with a greater feeling of unease.

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I’d like to hit the high spots across the plot of this book in order to analyze it thoroughly. The first part of the book focused on the events and facts featuring the idiosyncrasies of each member of the Winshaw family.

The story began with Tabitha’s accusations against Lawrence of killing Godfrey who was shot down over Germany. She claimed that she had heard Lawrence speak in German in his office still no one believed her. Then she was positive that the time was ripe to delve deep into the history of her family. She couldn’t tuck the information about her family at the back of her mind for future reference any more.

Michael Owen appeared to be a suitable writer of proven experience and ability. He was offered a peculiar commission to have the dogged and fearless expedition into the darkest corners and most secret recesses of the family history.

Hilary Winshaw was a well-known newspaper columnist. Henry Winshaw was a politician famous for his backstabbing tactics. Dorothy Winshaw was a farmer who mistreated her animals and utilized mass production in order to enhance her profit. Roddy Winshaw ran an art gallery. Thomas Winshaw worked for a bank and made enormous investments in film making, in the burgeoning industry, while peeping on the closed sets. Finally, there was Mark Winshaw who sold weapons to Saddam Hussein.

Michael was tasked with the project still didn’t finish it. Tabitha hired Findlay Onyx, a private detective who tracked Michael down to help him reveal what hidden agenda the Winshaws were obsessed with. As Michael began to find out more about the Winshaw, Fiona became terminally ill and died. Mortimer Winshaw also died and Michael was called to the reading of his will in order to document it in his history.

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Speaking of the plot I can fully agree with the position of the author of the book - Jonathan Coe – he showed the real life in Britain with all its sins and ills, with its deceptions and frauds conveyed through the Winshaw family. Each of its members is an egocentric, self-centered individual who cares only for financial gain. And each of them pursues a selfish lifestyle. Take for instance the farm owner, Dorothy, who is obsessed with breeding chickens, feeding them with genetic products and she is always trying to sell as much meat as possible with the lowest possible production cost. Henry is the most vivid example of a corrupt politician, I suppose. As for Roddy Winshaw, he is an Arts dealer who is bent on profit which he can make out of exhibitions without knowing anything about art. It is apparent that the author expresses his criticism with irony and he is highly vocal in his condemnation of the Winshaws, the leeches and backstabbers that are punished at the end of the book in a macabre way.

The thing we need to look at is that Coe raises several issues in the book: geed and money, movie-industry, love, dreams and reality. I enjoyed that the author managed to combine all the concerns in a cruel, nasty and at the same time beautiful narration, it seemed that we were in the film ourselves.

Types of Characters

See protagonist / antagonist below

Main characters are central to the story and are typically fully developed.

Minor characters display few personality traits and are used to help develop the story.

A round character is a character who shows varied and sometimes contradictory traits.

A flat character is a character who reveals only one personality trait is called.

A stock character is a flat character of a familiar and often-repeated type.

A dynamic character changes during the story.

A s tatic character remains the same throughout the story.

*Round protagonist

Широкое использование the protagonist of the company?

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