One of my favorite authors is Frank O’Connor. Frank O’Connor is a pseudonym of Michael Odonovan, born in Cork, Ireland in 1903. He grew up in an Irish provincial town. His published works include poems, plays, novels, translations, criticism.
Frank O’Connor was a real master of the short story. He could draw his readers into Irish life, showing his sense of humour and his compassion for human beings in their loneliness and their confusion. As you know a story’s success depends on how heroes are presented in the story. They can be presented through the character’s actions or their speech; through a physical description and through the opinions of other characters.
In the Frank O’Connor’s book “The Idealist” the heroes are presented through actions and conversations.
I think that each character must have a special quality that makes you remember him for a long time. The main hero – Delany – was truthful, frank, decisive. Gorman, his classmate was mean, dishonest and unpleasant. By the way of contrast the author managed to underline the romantic nature of Delany, who created his own world of things, people and ideas.
What impressed me most of all in Melonie, the teacher, it was his cruelty. He punished pupils with a cane. It goes without sign that the theme of the story is the relationships between pupils and a teacher. I think they were awful. Though Delany created his own world thanks to books, the real world turned out to differ from the imaginary one.
I shall now elaborate the fourth point of my talk. I sympathize (admire, hate, spoilt my impressions of the book) with the main hero because he didn’t give up reading, he continued reading books.
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