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The WhistleSubmitted by SJackson on April 17, 2008

•   Category: English

•   Words: 7 ! Pages: "

•   Views: 108

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“You pay too much for your whistle.” We as humans often invest too much in things that are

in reality worthless and in turn contribute to our unhappiness. This is portrayed in “The

Whistle” by Benjamin Franlin through his personal e!periences both as adult and a child. "s

what we give up really worth what we receive# That is too often not the case in many

di$erent circumstances. %o matter what the situation the basis and the concept is still the

same.

  “&y brothers' and sisters and cousins' understanding the bargain " had made' told me " had

given four times as much for it as it was worth(" cried with ve!ation) and the re*ection gave

me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.” "n this anecdote referring to when he

was seven years old and bought himself a whistle you see how the fact that he invested toomuch in the whistle which in the end made him unhappy. +owever when you thin of this

story don,t thin of a little Ben buying a whistle' thin about the underlying message behind

it. The message or lesson that Benjamin learned at that age is something that he carried

with him for the rest of his life) he learned that he paid “too much for the whistle”. "n other

words' all the money that he spent on the whistle did not mae much of a di$erence

because it still wasn,t worth as much as he paid for it which was very disappointing and

upset him. +e' at this instance had sacri-ced all of his money for the one whistle and it

wasn,t that valuable to begin with.

 The lesson that Ben Franlin learned as a little boy he carried with him throughout his adult

life as well. +e also spoe of a man who sacri-ced his time and practically all of himself for

something not worth much which in this case was the favor of the courts. “When " saw one

too ambitious of court favor' sacri-cing his time in attendance on levees' his repose' his

liberty' his virtue' and perhaps his friends to attain it' " have said to myself' this man gives

too much...

$%E &%'S$(E )short story by James *ald+in

$+o hundred years ago there li-ed in *oston a little boy +hose name

+as *en.amin /ranklin

n the day that he +as se-en years old, his mother ga-e him a e+

pennies

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%e looked at the bright, yello+ pieces and said, 3&hat shall ' do +ith

these coppers, mother43

't +as the irst money that he had e-er had

35ou may buy something, i you +ish,3 said his mother

3And then +ill you gi-e me more43 he asked

%is mother shook her head and said: 36o, *en.amin ' cannot gi-e you

any more So you must be careul not to spend these oolishly3

$he little ello+ ran into the street %e heard the pennies .ingle in

his pocket %o+ rich he +as

*oston is no+ a great city, but at that time it +as only a little to+n

$here +ere not many stores

As *en.amin ran do+n the street, he +ondered +hat he should buy Should

he buy candy4 %e hardly kne+ ho+ it tasted Should he buy a pretty

toy4 ' he had been the only child in the amily, things might ha-e

been dierent *ut there +ere ourteen boys and girls older than he,

and t+o little sisters +ho +ere younger

&hat a big amily it +as And the ather +as a poor man 6o +onder the

lad had ne-er o+ned a toy

%e had not gone ar +hen he met a larger boy, +ho +as blo+ing a

+histle

3' +ish ' had that +histle,3 he said

$he big boy looked at him and ble+ it again h, +hat a pretty sound

it made

3' ha-e some pennies,3 said *en.amin %e held them in his hand, and

sho+ed them to the boy 35ou may ha-e them, i you +ill gi-e me the

+histle3 3All o them43

35es, all o them3

3&ell, its a bargain,3 said the boy9 and he ga-e the +histle to

*en.amin, and took the pennies

(ittle *en.amin /ranklin +as -ery happy9 or he +as only se-en years

old %e ran home as ast as he could, blo+ing the +histle as he ran

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3See, mother,3 he said, 3' ha-e bought a +histle3

3%o+ much did you pay or it43

3All the pennies you ga-e me3

3h, *en.amin3

ne o his brothers asked to see the +histle

3&ell, +ell3 he said 35ou-e paid a dear price or this thing 'ts

only a penny +histle, and a poor one at that3

35ou might ha-e bought hal a doen such +histles +ith the money '

ga-e you,3 said his mother

$he little boy sa+ +hat a mistake he had made $he +histle did not

please him any more %e thre+ it upon the loor and began to cry

36e-er mind, my child,3 said his mother, -ery kindly 35ou are only

a -ery little boy, and you +ill learn a great deal as you gro+ bigger

$he lesson you ha-e learned to;day is ne-er to pay too dear or a

+histle3 *en.amin /ranklin li-ed to be a -ery old man, but he ne-er

orgot that lesson

E-ery boy and girl should remember the name o *en.amin /ranklin %e

+as a great thinker and a great doer, and +ith &ashington he helped

to make our country ree %is lie +as such that no man could e-er

say, 3*en /ranklin has +ronged me3

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How does the style and character of the Ishiguro's narrator control the reader's

experience of the novel? To use the termnology of Gerard Genette, Stevens is an

intradiegetic narrator. n intradiegetic narrator is a narrating spea!er who is "oth

outside and inside the events "eing narrated. #hen a novel has such a narrator, it is

important to consider what meaning and affects are produced from the relationship

 "etween the $two$ characters. In Ishiguro's novel, what is the relationship "etween the

narrating Stevens %the Stevens of &()* and the narrated Stevens %the Stevens of the past events*? How does the process of concealment and revelation of !nowledge in

the novel function within the space "etween the two Stevens's?

ny first person narration also possesses what is called the narratee++the imaginary

su"ect to whom the narration is directed. How is the narratee constructed in the text?

#hat is the relationship "etween the narratee and the reader? -oes the intimacy with

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which the reader is given information a"out Stevens force a certain complicity with

Stevens' own acts of self+deception and self+denial?

The implied author  is a concept of literary criticism developed in the twentieth century. It is distinct from

the author  and the narrator .

The distinction from the author lies in that the implied author consists solely  of what can be deduced from

the work. The implications of the work may paint a rather different picture of the author than might be

deduced from their real life. (Author  Saul Bellow once observed that it was not surprising, with all the

revision that goes into a work, that an author might appear better on the page than in real life.

The distinction from the narrator is most clear in ironic works such as ! A "odest #roposal!, where the

narrator cheerfully offers his proposal, but the implied author is not as aware as $onathan Swift or the

reader of the horror of what is proposed.