Stand by Me- Characters: Gordie

Stand by Me-

Characters:

Gordie Lachance

Chris

Teddy

Vern

Ace

Billy

Charlie

Eyeball

Denny Lachance

Mr. Lachance

Mrs. Lachance

Conflicts (established):

dead body of a missing boy is in the woods and the boys wish to see it.

Gordie is a quiet, meek boy whose loving older brother had been killed in a car accident and whose parents ignore and reject him.

Chris is strong and tough but his family has a background of heavy drinking and criminality, marking him with a negative impression.

Vern is overweight and cowardly, causing other kids to mock him.

Teddy is emotionally damaged by his abusive, war veteran father.

The older boys, led by Ace and Vern's brother Billy, torment the boys as they attempt to make their journey.

The young boys and the older boys race toward the body with an array of symbolic desires and ambitions represented in its recovery.

Important Places/Events

This takes place in Castle Rock, Ore, in the adult Gordie's house. An adult Gordie Lachance, the writer voiced by Richard Dreyfess, introduces an allegory about the summer of 1959.

This takes place in Castle Rock, Ore, in Vern's house. Vern overhears his brother and his hoodlum friends discussing the body of a boy out in the woods that had been hit by a train and killed.

This takes place in Castle Rock, Ore, in the woods. The boys set out to find the body of the boy in question, with Ace's crewing gathering in a car to following the walking boys on their question.

This takes place in Castle Rock, Ore, in the woods. The boys experience all sorts of misadventure as they attempt to near their destination. This includes being shot at by a curmudgeonly junkyard owner, being attacked by leaches during a seemingly leisurely swim in a lake and running across a train-bridge suspended across a gorge as a train bears down on them.

This takes place at the site of the body in Castle Rock, Ore. When the boys do finally reach the body, the older boys arrive almost simultaneously. When they do, Gordie pulls out a gun which he had stolen from his father. He points it boldly at the older boys and assures them that he will shoot if they don't leave. He protects the body and the purpose of the boys' quest.

Conflicts (resolved):

The boys do ultimately find and observe the body.

Gordie finds both courage in standing up to the other boys and catharsis in which the boy's dead body serves as some symbolic closure on the death of his brother.

Chris has behaved heroically and with the integrity of a real leader, helping him to define a break in his life from the mistakes and crosses of his family.

Vern finds strength and conquers his fears, especially in the sequence on the train tracks, where his obesity and slowness force him to dive off the bridge to safety. This helps him conquer his fears.

Teddy finds that he has value and respect from his friends, which helps to bring him some emotional solace.

The boys essentially prove themselves capable of standing up to the older bullies.

In discovering the body, the boys find resolution to a journey that revolved more on the lessons learned and experienced gained on the way there.

The Man Who Would Be King-

Characters:

Daniel Dravot

Peachey Carnehan

Billy Fish

Narrator (Kipling)

Conflicts (established):

Carnehan reveals at the start of the story that he and Dravot have gained and lost everything.

The two Britons offer their services to the village to which Billy Fish guides them, offering their services as military advisors and, due to valor in battle, quickly become mistaken for godly figures.

Danny ultimately becomes convinced of his entitlement to kingship, creating the core conflict in which he presumes an entitlement to pass laws and judgments, and to rule over the people of Kafiristan.

Peachey is angered by Danny's assumption of rulership. The two disagree strongly on a course of action, with the former desiring to return to Briton and the latter desiring to remain. They appear ready here to go their separate ways.

Roxana does not wish to marry Danny, fearing the consequences of marrying a god.

The natives find out that both men are actually mortal.

Important Places/Events

This takes place in British ruled India. Carnehan shows up at Kipling's news office looking deranged and homeless. Introducing himself to Kipling, he is quickly recognized. Carnehan sets the story in motion by beginning the narrative with the disclosure that he and his partner had years prior set out to modern day Afghanistan, become king and fallen from grace in just a few yeard time.

This takes place in British ruled India. Flashing back to the start of their journey, the film takes us to the news office several years prior, where Dravot and Carnehan have pledged loyalty to one another before beginning a journey to the regions of then-Kafiristan theretofore uninhabited by white men.

This takes place in the region just entering into Kafiristan. Arriving to the land beyond the Khyber pass, they meet Billy Fish, who had once been connected to a white expedition group now dead. Serving as their translator, his addition to the quest helps to make all other steps possible for the two men.

This takes place in the Kafiristan village. Once in contact with the village, the men offer their services as military advisors and soon roll into battle against an enemy village. When Daniel fights with an arrow planted in the bandolier strung across his chest, he is mistaken for a god by the villagers. This is confirmed by his ownership of a medallion which, though a gift from Kipling to him, was also a symbol of Alexander the Great.

This takes place in the Kafiristan village. Danny becomes the king of the village, believed as he is to be a holy man reincarnated. With Billy as his advisor, Danny presides over the people with the moralistic impulse toward modernization. The strong imperial overtones of British colonialism are clearly expressed through Danny's sense of entitlement.