My financial career analysis Essay

1) Introduction. A man of obviously inexhaustible talents, Stephen Butler Leacock (born December 30, 1869) slowly juggled being a brainpowerist, essayist, t from each oneer, political economist, lecturer, and historian. He received legion(predicate) awards and honorary degrees, among them the Lorne penetrate Medal the Leacock Medal for Humour was launch in his honor and has been awarded annu all(prenominal)y since 1947 to the best humourous book by a Canadian author. At the height of his move from 1915 through 1925, Leacock was undeniably the English-speaking worlds best-k presentlyn body fluidist. His pargonnts, Peter Leacock and Agnes Emma Butler, had been secretly married Agnes was tercet years older than her newfound husband. When Leacock was rough 7, his queen-sized family (ultimately ten br opposites and sisters) moved to Canada and colonised on a 100-acre farm. Despite backing a hard life on the farm, and having a charming but ambitionless alcoholic father, Le acock was fortunate in that his fret believed strongly in a serious education. With her devoted support and guidance, he did hygienic in school, and graduated in 1887 as Head boy from Upper Canada College. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1891. During this time, he wrote tragicomical articles for magazines for extra income. In 1900, he married Beatrix Hamilton, daughter of a favorable Toronto businessman.Her death from breast cancer in 1925 grieved him greatly, but he kept his curse private, and spearheaded manoeuvredraisers to aid cancer research. Among his professional accomplishments, Leacock was nominate to full professor at McGill University in 1908. He was similarly appointed William Dow professor of Political Economy and chair of the department of Economics and Political Science, a flummox he held for 30 years until his hale retirement at age 65. Leacocks fertile indite expressionssharp, playing periodny, and timelywere critically applaud ed and love by the public. He promulgated what galore(postnominal) consider his literary masterpiece, Sunshine Sk and so ones of a Little Town, in 1912. Leacock wrote two sensitive biographies fair game straddle, print in 1932, and Charles heller, His lifetime and Work, in 1933. In 1935, he published Humour Its Theory and Technique. He died of throat cancer in 1944, leaving his autobiography, The Boy I Left Behind Me, unfinished. It was published in 1946. But death did non sweep him from Canadas cherished memory. To mark the centesimal anniversary of Leacocks birth, the goernment of Canada issued a six-cent hurl in his honor in 1969. Leacocks power homes were declared historic sites, more than awards were heaped upon him posthumously, and in 1970,a mountain in the Yukons non much(prenominal) Elias range was named after him.2) The summary. The sketch absolveds cursorily with the narrators frank admission that marges and everything about them rattling him.He confesses to falling into a state of dear(p) idiocy at any undertake to transact business but is determined, now that he has more than fifty dollars in his pocket, to open an account. Timidly, he asks to speak to the film director. The theater director takes him into a private room, locks the adit, and proceeds to gibe the narrator of ut some security. Beca employment of the narrators air of confidentiality and distrust, the double-decker assumes he is a private emissary or that he has a large sum to invest. Learning that the narrator has except fifty-six dollars, he unkindly turns him over to a clerk. The narrator is now flustered, misplaynly walks into the safe, and is eventually led to the clerks window, into which he thrusts the bills. When aware that it had been deposited, the narrator quickly asks for a disengagement slip. Meanwhile he feels that people in the bank are staring at him, thinking him a millionaire. Intimidated and miserable, he quickly withdraws his fifty-six dollars and rushes out. The sketch concludes with the narrators observation that he keeps his bills in his knickerbockers pocket and his life savings in a sock.3) The structure. This dead figment with on-going tradition has handed-down elements of structure. The principle of harmony enables the reader to perceive the relationship amongst the mortal units. from each one incident contributes to the scholarship of that relationship there we can square off an ordered arrangement of the parts. This explanation is written in accordance with dramatic blueprint so it has the traditional structure of conflict, back-to-back action and resolution. This brainless story, though concisely in length and simple in faceization, also reflects its writers characteristics of narration and thought with its storey structure. We can be alert on a storys structure even as we read it for the first time, primarily by paying attention to repeated elements and recurrent details of action a nd gesture, of dialogue and description, and to shifts in didactics and compounds of focus. Repetition signals are principal(prenominal) connections to the relationships between characters, and connections between moods. Shifts in direction are often signaled by such visual or aural clues as a change of scene, a new voice, and a blank space in the textbook. They whitethorn also include changes in the time and place of action or alternations in characters entrances and exits, or in their behavior.Orthey may appear as changes in the pace of the story and in its food grain of language. The structure of stories can never be regarded as a matter of brusk enormousness The dapple is the carrier of the structure. The plot is the sequence of unfolding action, and structure is the conception or form of the completed action. social structure satisfies our need for order, proportion, and arrangement. A storys symmetry or balance of details may revel us, as may its alternating of mom ents of tension and relaxation. The short story requires the readers utmost attention, a focus of the mind on each detail like a lovely lyric poem. The structure of a traditional plot is essentially dramatic. There may be a geometrical tonicity to its plot structure. It follows Aristotles statement that a overture is stated, developed by arguments and finally proved. therefore a conflict, in this case intragroup within the character, is stated at the offshoot of a story, developed by a series of scenes, and resolved at the end. Each scene, incident, and its resolution, but most also learn its bit of significance in the procession that it occupies.So we can divide My monetary Career into 4 logical parts. The explanation starts from the very beginning of the text and continues up to the procedure with the deposit of a narrator. In its turn, the exposition consists of the series of complications meeting with the manager, stepping into the safe, formalization process. Then goes the key event, which is the withdrawal of the money by making a mistake in a cheque. It was the point of highest horny tension. The denouement is the last thoughts of the narrator, where he concludes not to agree any deals with a bank any more.4), 5) General atmosphere characters. The humor of the piece is achieved not only by the exaggerated situation but also by a skillful use of short clips of dialogue. The narrators psychological intimidation is intelligibly presented by an economy of detail in which the scene richly suggests more than it relates. It is a very left(p) piece that appeals to all ages. Perhaps as times change and we no longer refer to tellers as clerks at their wickets and we for take hold of what the Rothschilds and Goulds represented and our banking meet is reduced to online transactions, it will rick more difficult to identify with the situation of the briny(prenominal) character. But the basic empathy with the embarrassment of soul in an unfamiliar environment remains. When he asks to speak to the bank manager and adds a conspiratorial alone without fareing wherefore he does so, leading to a mis visualizeing, we understand. Weunderstand because its the kind of inexplicable thing we love we do ourselves when were nervously trying not to appear nervous. The other characters have no vivid characteristics.The only things were an accountant was a tall, cool devil, the manager was a grave, unagitated man. These lines show us that the narrator secure the bank clerks like something blurred and obscure. 6) The style. The most vivid characteristic is the usage of beginning(a) person perspective. Stephen Leacock uses the first-person perspective in his short autobiographical story My fiscal Career, and that is an effective narrative choice in comedian fiction. First of all, telling his story in first person is more interesting. It is largely much more interesting to get word psyche tell his own story than to hear him tell some one elses story. Readers would much rather hear him say I went to the bank the other day than soul I know went to the bank the other day. Even worse is A poke fun went into a bank, which is more for spoken (stand-up) prank than written comedy. Second, the readers know simply what the character (in this case, the author) is feeling as he fearfully walks into the bank, armed with years of distrust. While he could try to explain someone elses feelings, Leacock is surely able to share with us exactly how humiliating this experience was for him. Third, the first-person point of scenery adds credibility to the story.This is not just something that happened to mortal at some point in time at a haphazard bank this happened tohimand he knows the particulars and details which twain add humor and make the story believable. Fourth, no one is hurt by his humor except for himself. It is often self-conscious for readers to hear an author make fun of others somehow it is more humorous for us to know that the writer is making fun of himself, which gives readers the right to laugh, too. Finally, the story is told by a narrator, from the perspective of time, who can use humor to teach his readers the lessons he lettered. We could not know what someone else might have conditioned from this banking experience, but we can know what Stephen Leacock learned because it is his story. The story is full of puns and innuendos, especially the text is filled with allusions Pinkertons, Baron Rothschild and young Gould. many metaphors are used make a plunge, idiot hope struck me etc.7), 8) The mail idea personal evaluation. The main topic of My Financial Career is a confession of Leacocks phobia about banks. This humorous essay is one of his most customary pieces because many of his readers share his fear of broad, lofty institutions. Banks in Leacocks time were more affright places than most of them are today. In fact, it is attainable to do most banking without ever go into a bank. But Leacock picks out the aspects of the antiquated bank that were most intimidating. They had thick rock walls, high ceilings, uniformed and armed guards, exclude separating tellers from customers, and imposing vaults with incredibly thick vane doors. The men and women handling all that money were deadly serious and also laughable of any stranger. Leacock seems to have been most affright by the people in the bank. No doubt Leacock received many knifelike looks when he first went in to open his modest account. As with most humor and comedy, we laugh at him because we are truly laughing at ourselves. When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me the wickets rattle me the sight of the money rattles me everything rattles me. After his interview with the manager, Leacock rose to bestow the office.A big iron door stood open at the side of the room. cheeseparing morning, I said, and stepped into the safe. Come out, said the manager coldly, and showed me the other way. Personally, I must take up that Leacock wrote excellent and very readable biographies of Charles Dickens and bell ringer Twain. He must have been influenced by the humor pieces in which Mark Twain confesses some of his own foibles and idiosyncracies. unmatched of his best is about his feelings about barber shops. Another is about how he allowed a traveling salesman to put so many lightning rods and metal coils around his house that the big Victorian building attracted every hook of lignting in the county. Another very funny essay by Mark Twain deals with how he couldnt get a airheaded little jingle out of his mind until he passed it on to a friend, who was accordingly stuck with it himself. To my mind, Leacocks humor, like Mark Twains, is built on exaggeration. Leacocks style is unpretentious, personal, friendly, and informal like that of Mark Twain. Notice how short all of the paragraphs are in My Financial Career. Such short paragraphs and short sentences have eye -appeal.Leacock was an extremely ordinary writer at one time, both in Canada and the United States. He stratified with Robert Benchley and James Thurber as a customary humorist. He is not so come up remembered today. But humor essays can become dated quickly. As for the text, the main idea is even deeper as I could imagine. My Financial Career deals with the idea of the emasculation (made to not feel manly) of the individual by societal exceptions. The man feels forced topractice in banking which seems like a place of importance and masculinity. The individual fears of being emasculated or embarrassed because of his lack of wealth compared with mantic expectations leads him to perform idiotically and causes further embarrassment. The melody between the bank managers expectations (that he is someone of importance financially or for situational reasons) and the verity of what the man is highlights this unavoidable emasculation of the individual due to societal expectations.