Friendship Is More Than Just For Entertainment - 2160 Words

Friendship is something that every human being in this world craves and desires - the happiness of laughing with friends, having a shoulder to cry on when life seems rough, and the comfort of knowing that although you may be alone, you’re not necessarily lonely. Although some people prefer to have more friends, and some have less, it is clear to see that even in today’s society, friendship is more than just for entertainment. Similarly, characters in books, whether they be round and complex, or flat with ‘no mental or emotional development’ (Forster, 1927), will often have their closest friend or two with them, playing not only a role of supporting character, but giving the main character more depth, allowing for deep friend-to-friend†¦show more content†¦To begin an argument for this essay, the definitions of fantasy and realism genres must be noted. Timmerman (1983) describes the fantasy genre as â€Å"offering a parallel reality which gives us a renewed awareness of what we already know† – for example, â€Å"A child may well believe a report that there are ogres in the next country, while many grown-up persons find it easy to believe of another country†. (JRR Tolkien). However, realism is defined by childliterature.net as â€Å"depicting the world as it is, not as it could be†, with an absence of fantasy, magic and supernatural events. They often feature a common garden protagonist, rather than a heroic one. It is already clear to see the stark differences between the two genres. The books chosen for this essay are two fantasy books and two realism books. The fantasy books selected are Matilda, by Roald Dahl, selected due to fond past memories, and Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy, chosen as it has been on the â€Å"to read† list for quite a while now. The two realism books chosen to convey the theme of friendship are The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. These realism novels were chosen as their titles drew interest; along with