Antaeus Essay, Research Paper

In the story “Antaeus,” by Borden Deal, the main character T.J has three capabilities that make him different from his friends. First of all, T.J. is a very intelligent boy. His new city companions did not maintain the wisdom T.J. has about the world and how to deal with people around. T. J. is also a receptive boy, a soft-spoken person who feels an attachment to the land. Finally, T.J. is a tenacious boy who sticks to his plans once he starts it and who would reject to the idea about destroying what he has created.

From T.J. s own words and actions and through the narrator s observation, the reader learns that T.J. is smart and unique. It was T.J. s idea to build a roof garden, and he figures out how to build it. He knew how to speak to other people, persuading them to do what he wanted them to do. For example, he informed the other boys to find sand and carry it up to the roof. The narrator stated, T.J. was smart enough to start in one corner of the building, heaping up the carried earth two or three feel thick, so that we had an immediate result to look at He did not want to plant grass, but the other boys kept on telling him how great it would be to play on it and to have picnics. T.J. still wanted to plant crops, but he was smart to give in. He always knew when to give in the narrator in the story states. He knew how to motivate the other boys and knew when to compromise. When the building owners came up and asked what they were doing, T.J. then suggested that the boys were actually trying to pretty up the roof. That shows that T.J. can think fast when dealing with adults.

Sensitively is what also makes T.J. unique among the others. The building owners told him that they were going to have the garden removed from the roof. T.J. could not stand that a stranger was going to tear down what they had worked on exhaustingly for weeks. He decided to let out his anger on destroying the garden himself. After the garden was destroyed, he wanted to go back home where he once lived. The reason he wanted to build a garden was to bring back the country feeling to the city. He did not want to give up his country life. He has an olfactory sense of spring. He can sense spring coming by the smell of the air.

T.J. was very determine to finish the garden. He worked harder than the others did. The narrator says, T.J. kept plugging alone on his own He really wanted to finish the garden. After the garden had been destroyed, his desire was to get back to the country where he came from, and build a whole new life there. Growing crops was his life. He lives on it. He wasp determined to bring back the country feeling to the city. If he could not have that, he would go back to the country.

In conclusion, the character T.J. plainly displays several qualities that set him apart from his companions. His exceptional knowledge of the world and of how to relate to people is indisputable in his capability to plan and devise the roof garden and stipulate with the other boys on the preferred crops. Correspondingly, he acts with a quick wit when the adults perceive the garden. Through the character s observable emotional connection to the earth and the seasons, T.J. emerges as a very sensitive person as well. T.J. s brawny outing to complete the garden coupled with his contumacious importunity that he and the boys destroy it themselves illustrate that T.J. possess a greater sense of determination than his peers. T.J. s final acts of fleeing the city for the comfort of the land he loves makes complete the impression that he stood alone among his companions as a highly intelligent, sensitive, and determined young person.