To Sail Beyond the Sunset Characters

This Study Guide consists of approximately 9 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

To Sail Beyond the Sunset Characters

This Study Guide consists of approximately 9 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of To Sail Beyond the Sunset.
This section contains 504 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the To Sail Beyond the Sunset Short Guide

Heinlein's success with characterization has always been mixed. As critics have long noted, most of his protagonists conform to a basic pattern; they are highly competent individuals (men, women, or aliens) who have mastered the skills to survive and flourish in a hostile universe. Profoundly individualistic and skeptical of all authority, they are yet willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of their community.

Cynical and cantankerous, they retain a deep, if selective, sentimentality.

Heinlein is generally quite successful with his protagonists, who, gifted with something of his own voice, are witty, allusive, and prone to folksy, even corny humor. They generally share his remarkable gift for explaining how things work, of making what could be dry lectures into fascinating discourses.

And he skillfully depicts a mentor relationship — the wise old man (or woman) explaining things to a gifted, but as yet naive, individual.

Those who dismiss...

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This section contains 504 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the To Sail Beyond the Sunset Short Guide
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To Sail Beyond the Sunset from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.