Steffler's George Cartwright

Paper Summary:

This paper is a character analysis of Steffler's main character in "The Afterlife of George Cartwright". It focuses on the character's traits of unloving, wild, a corruptor and himself corrupted and how they change within the novel. Cartwright begins as a just young man in the army and becomes what he had always hated, a true corruptor of society.

From the Paper:

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters (Hemingway, 95). Steffler achieves the creation of a person in the character of George Cartwright by blending numerous personality traits. These traits can be both pleasant, and upsetting, and either creates distance or closeness between Cartwright and the other characters. In order to make the character more realistic Steffler creates a progression in some of these traits, to create the illusion of growth in Cartwright over the span of his lifetime. Paradoxically, everything Cartwright claims to hate he later embodies. This is not entirely of his accord; his early years in the army set up his adult characteristics. His development is from a man of pride and ambition, although rough and rugged, to an uncivilized corruptor of native society. His pride and ambition are spoiled when he realizes that it is wealth that buys you promotions in the army and not skill or hard work. He grows to become the man Steffler portrays as unloving, wild, and as both corrupted and as a corruptor. "

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