...Brokeback Mountain Annie Proulx Ennis is a man of few words, whose actions often speak for him. When Ennis meets Jack, he is saddled with responsibility, engaged to Alma, and at the mercy of a conservative Wyoming culture that has no place for a gay ranch hand. Yet Ennis has nowhere else to go and no other profession at which to try his hand. An orphaned high school dropout dependent on hardship funds and raised to be pragmatic, he is trapped in a life over which he has little control. Rather than run off with Jack and try to build a happy life, as Jack repeatedly suggests, Ennis considers the reality of it all: the violent opposition that would greet two gay ranchers living together, his marriage to Alma, his love for his daughters. The life he builds, which involves financial hardship and eventually child support, effectively prohibits him from escaping. Ennis is a prisoner of the life he has been born into. Without the financial wherewithal to escape, without any sort of community support for his sexual proclivities, and imbued with the belief that one must bear whatever one can’t fix, Ennis is fated to live out the rest of his life as a man who tasted happiness once but has never again reached that peak. Though it is Jack Twist who, we infer, is murdered by those who oppose his sexual orientation, it is Ennis Del Mar—living in his trailer, confined to a sad life on the broad, flat plains of Wyoming—who is the story’s tragic soul. Jack Twist Jack Twist is the more...
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...Caniel Snowball 6/17/15 The Shipping News is a story about letting go of the past, the pursuit of happiness and a bunch of knots. Annie Proulx’s clever use of symbolism and interesting array of characters cohesively make an impactful tale and string the storyline together. A theme of having a troubled past becomes clear as it tactfully explained throughout the story to project potential for the growth. Quoyle is the story’s main protagonist who has a mid-life crisis at 36 when his cheating wife dies in a car accident and his parents commit suicide. Proulx describes Quoyle’s past as one with many shortcomings paired with his awkward looking chin and size that encapsulate him in a shell of low self-confidence. His newly found Aunt Agnis appears in his life after his parent’s deaths to bring him to Newfoundland for a new start on life. Quoyle find love and courage in Newfoundland and comes to point where his wife’s death doesn’t haunt him. The aunt, a widowed hard alcohol drinking closet lesbian, throughout the book attempts to stay busy with work and making plans. Upon introduction, Agnis appears to be a flat character but progresses into a more complex character when Quoyle’s father’s incestuous indiscretions with his sister are revealed. The reader can retrieve a sense of how she fits the operating method of someone after a sexual assault. Agnis’s refusal to show weakness or vulnerability and constant need to show she is in control adds depth to her character. When Cousin...
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...AS/A2 English Literature B Student Guide A-LEVEL STUDENT HANDBOOK CONTENTS PAGE | | | |What we Expect of A-Level Students |3 | |Overview of the AS and A2 Course |4 | |Assessment Objectives |5 | |AS Marking Criteria |6 | |A2 Marking Criteria |7 | |Selecting and Studying Texts |8 | |Approaching Essays – coursework |9 | |Punctuation Guide |11 | |Glossary of Literary Terms |12 | |Reading List ...
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