Discuss the Quality of Life that the two Authors Lived in Order to Identify & Compare Their Writing Styles: The Lives and Times of Edgar Allen and Jane Goodall (Essay Sample)

The Lives and Times of Edgar Allen and Jane Goodall
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Introduction
The way a person interacts with the family, community, and the environment in the early years of their childhood has a powerful effect on the person’s perspectives on life. They affect the cognitive strength and resilience with which people face life. They also affect the way a person views and interacts with his or her environment. To demonstrate the differences in the lives of people who have been brought up in different backgrounds, this essay will analyze the lives of two literary icons, Edgar Allen, and Jane Goodall. Specifically, this essay will highlight the experiences that they had in their early childhoods, their career paths, and the way they portrayed their perspectives on life in their works. In doing so, this essay will demonstrate that a person’s immediate environment can influence their mental states significantly; permanently even.
Edgar Allen Poe
Allen Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. Soon after he was born, his father abandoned his family. His mother died two years later. Following his mother’s death, his sister and brother were separated from him to go live with their relatives. These events had a devastating effect on his life, making his childhood awful. Allen moved in with a tobacco trader, John Allan. He had an estranged relationship with his host, which made him resort to some hard choices about his life. Allen attended university in 1926 but was later forced to drop out of school due to lack of support from his host, John Allan, who declined to pay his school fees because Allen had got himself in debt due to gambling (Silverman, 1991).
Poe worked as an editor, a job at which he was successful. He was also wrote various pieces such as novels and newspaper articles. Poe would later get married to Virginia Clemm, but their relationship was short-lived as she died a few years later. Her death depressed Allen greatly and demotivated him from writing. At some point in his life, Allen Poe engaged in alcoholism and taking drugs. Allen led a humble life until his death. His real success in life was in his editorial life. His works were recognized after his death (Engel, 2012).
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall was born in 1934 in London, England. Her mother was a novelist, while her father was a businessman. She developed the love for animals as a child when her father bought a lifelike chimpanzee toy. Later in her life, Jane would pursue her love for animals and joined archeologist Louis Leakey in Kenya to study primates. The Leakey family paid for her education in London where she attained a Ph.D. Jane was married twice in her life and got one child. She also received political support from her former husband to carry out research on primates in Africa. Jane made various pronouncements regarding family and social life that were based on her interaction and research on apes. On one occasion, she stated that apes demonstrated human-like actions that demonstrated "the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community …" (Lumsden, 2011)
Jane continued to progress in her research. She engaged in activism for animal rights and even established a foundation that aimed at protecting the welfare of animals. In her books, she advocates for the protection of animals. Specifically, Jane was against using animals in medical research, sporting activities, farming, and in zoos (Lumsden, 2011). She continued with this activism for animal welfare throughout her life, especially concerning acts she opined were cruel to animals.
Similarities in Edgar Allen and Jane Goodall’s Lives
The lives of the two individuals demonstrate the value they had for social life, and the craving both had for love. Throughout his life, Allen sought love from all spheres of life but was not fortunate. In the end, the sadness, loneliness, and desperation were depicted in his works, which mainly consisted of graphic descriptions of loneliness and sadness. On the contrary, Jane lived a happy life, reaching most of the goals she had in life. The success she had at her careers advances prompted her to attempt to spread the love she had for animals to other people through activism. Most of her works advocate for the welfare of animals. The second similarity between the two literary icons was their love for writing. Allen and Jane were successful at conveying their thoughts through writing. Most of their books are known globally as they address real-life situations albeit from two different perspectives. Thirdly, Allen and Jane were diligent in their careers. Despite having an insufficient educational background, Allen was able to rise to the position of editor in a local newspaper and managed to improve the circulation of the paper. ...