...for his short mystery and horror stories. “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” were two short stories written by him. Both of these stories consist on some sort of paranoia, obsession, and death. The “TBC” and “TCOA” are stories being narrated by the ones that have committed the crime of the story, such as murder. On the “TBC” the narrator is a man that with time turned into an aggressive, alcoholic, obsessive person. The man’s name was not revealed on the story. On the other hand, the narrator of “TCOA” was Montresor. This man was seeking revenge. Montresor stated “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (“Amontillado” 144). On both stories the narrators kill someone due to their obsession. These two short stories written by Poe had similar altercations but different outcomes; such as Montresor never getting caught for what he did and the man from “TBC” got sentenced to the death penalty for the crime he committed. The story of “The Black Cat” talked about how this man murdered his wife due to his obsession with the black cat. This man had a cat named Pluto. As he was growing older his personality was changing. He turned into an alcoholic and aggressive person. All of his pets run away except the black cat. One day the man arrived home and saw the cat and stabbed the cat on the eye, he then killed the cat by hanging him. The man did not feel remorse for what he had done. Days later...
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...The new girl: “The New Girl” is a story about a narrator and his friend Allison. They are best friends and both live on Prospect Street. Prospect Street was a white, lower-middle-class neighbourhood. One day a new black family moves into Prospect Street and the story describes the meeting between the narrator, Allison and a new black girl. The story takes place in the USA, on a hot, bright summer day. The narrator is eight years old and Allison is ten years old. They are the only children in the neighbourhood. In their first meeting with the black girl the narrator and Allison are quite different. The friends are riding their bikes, when the narrator sees the new girl in the middle of the road. The new girl is laughing and the narrator is the first one to see her. The narrator smiles at the girl and the girl smiles back. When Allison sees the black girl, she says: “Get out of here, nigger”. The narrator is quite positive in his attitude, and Allison is quite negative. When the narrator sees the way Allison is reacting against the black girl, he is changing his attitude too and says: “Niggers are stupid”. The narrator is happy when he first sees the new girl in Prospect Street, because he then can get a new friend. There are not so many children in the neighbourhood to hang out with. The narrator smiles at the new girl, because children do not naturally have anything against other human beings. Children do not have prejudice against other children. The negative way Allison...
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...Racialism And Ethnicities in “Country Lovers” and “What it’s like to be a Black Girl” Racial background and ethnicities are represented in the short story “Country Lovers” and the poem “What It’s like to be a Black Girl”. Both this short story and this poem have a main character or protagonist black female. Both of these women deal with to some degree of discrimination because of their race. Racism is something that we see, hear, and experience in our everyday lives. It may be something that we do not speak about, just like in the short story “Country Lovers “. The short story entitled “Country Lovers” was written by Nadine Gordimer in 1975” (Clugston, 2010). This short story is about a forbidden love between a young black girl named Thebedi and a young white boy named Paulus Eysendyck; which took place on a South African farm. The main characters Paul us and Thebedi were raised together since they were kids. Paulus was a white boy and Thebedi, a black girl. The two of them played together and spent much of their childhood days with one another. As time passed they begin to grow up and the distances between the two also grow apart. Paulus Eysendyck was the son of the farm owner and Thebedi’s father worked on Mr. Eysendyck’s farm. They both knew they could not be together publicly. Throughout this short story there are many dramatic effects. The first takes place when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school “This usefully coincides with the age...
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...The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm The apartheid era in South Africa caused a separation between black and white people. The white people had the upper hand, because they had a way stronger financial background, which enabled them to employ black people to work for them. The black people were therefore undermined, and they worked as slaves. This problem is processed in the short story “The Journey to the Brothers’ Farm”, in which we are introduced to a girl named Annelie. She lives in South Africa, and has experienced terrible things, where she has experienced apartheid at first hand. The composition of the story is very interesting as it is build up in two parts. The part written in italic contains a statement received by the Tweekopfentein Police Station, and contains the things that are important to cover the police investigation and nothing more. The part written in normal typing contains a story of the whole course. It is a special way of building a short story, and it works very effectively, because you become aware of the fact that a criminal act has taken place. The first part of the story contains a description of her childhood. A lady named Miss Kotzee reads a story about a girl called Dulcina, a beautiful girl with white skin, flaxen hair of the purest silk, and fine bones. As she has read the story Annelie starts to wonder whether if she can obtain same fortune herself. She therefore asks Miss Kotzee if she can: “Do you think a prince would ever want to marry...
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...Analyses of Black Cat Do you believe that some mistakes drag you into another life? or Would you like to torture something? Maybe, life will make you some errors and you will accompany it or you will make your own way. Edgar Allan Poe narrates a situation in which making dilemma and concluding murder, feeling of guilty, and addiction in his story Black Cat. Edgar Allan Poe, (born January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He was 34 when the story Black Cat was produced. The Black Cat was first produced in the United States, The Saturday Evening Post on August 19, 1843. As the story begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator pens “...the most wild, yet homely narrative...whose events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed him.” The story, which is whole text, has many adaptations. For example, Universal Pictures made two films titled The Black Cat, one in 1934, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and another in1941 starring Lugosi and Basil Rathbone. Both films claimed to have been "suggested by" Poe's story, but they don’t resemble to the story. The middle segment of director Roger Corman's 1962 anthology film Tales of Terror combines the story of “The...
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...Throughout the semester, Professor Henderson has opened student’s minds to a plethora of short stories and videos, but two stories really struck out to me. The stories that challenged my thought process the most were Ernest Gaines’s short story, “The Sky is Gray,” and James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues.” “The Sky is Gray,” by Gaines, is a story around the theme of growing up too soon, from a young man’s perspective. The protagonist, James, is a young child who has to grow up too soon due to his father being away in World War II. James’s mother, Octavia, forces him to give up his childhood in order to help his family survive in the harsh world. On a cold and weary day, James accompanies his mother on a trip into town. While on this...
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...Divorced, Beheaded, Survived by Robin Black Essay The text “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” is a short story written by Robin Black in 2010. It deals with the theme “death” a specifically engages in how death affects our relations. The short story contains mental and social issues connected to losses and the generational recurrence of these. “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” shows how a woman’s life was changed because of her brother’s death and how she is still affected as an adult. The main theme in the short story is depression caused of a death. The following essay focuses on the structure and symbols in the short story. “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” is about a 40-year-old mother - Sarah, from whose the point of view is told – therefore a first person narrator. The woman looks back upon an essential episode in her childhood when her older brother became sick and died. The setting is also important in these realizations. The story takes place in Manhattan in the present, but the setting of Sarah’s childhood home is described positively with a sense of calming familiarity. “Day after day, dusk really, in the time between school and dinner, in the small, untended yard behind my childhood home…” When we see at the setting the exiting aspect is to see at the lack of details in the description. The result of this is that the focus of the story becomes the emotional way Sarah experiences and creates a deeper understanding of death and all it’s terrible consequences. The emotional...
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...Have you ever thought about how you were going to present yourself in a certain situation, but then when face to face with that situation, you react in a completely different way than expected? We can see this sort of pattern in both the poem, ‘Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol and the short story, “Big Black Good Man” by Richard Wright. When we compare these two works of art, we are able to see how both of these authors use literary elements such as theme and metaphor to help get their point across and engage their readers on an emotional level. These two works and their literary techniques play a significant role as they tell of a time where not everyone was treated with equality. It is time to end these unethical and corrupt habits. The poem,...
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... “All short stories begin with a point of view” (Moose,2000). The theme in ‘Country Lovers’ is how racial segregation and social differences affect people’s lives. Country Lovers is a short story about a black girl and a white boy who grow up in the same town. The setting of the story is in South Africa. At the time this story happens, South Africa was under a strict apartheid regime. The girl works on the farm that belongs to the boy’s family. Her name is Thebedi, and His name is Paulus. Thebedi is a very good person, but she lives in very hard circumstances. Paulus is a generous rich boy, but he is also selfish and ruthless. The two kids were friends into adulthood. “They were not afraid of one another, they had known one another always (Gordimer,1975).” When it was time for Paulus to start school, they hardly seen each other. Only when Paulus returns for the holidays. When Paulus turned 15, he began meeting other girls. He met a girl at a wedding, they had slept together. Even though Paulus meets girls other than thebedi, he buys gifts for her. When Paulus returns home for the holidays, the two meet at the river where they once played as children. They sit on the river bed and talk about school and how it is to be away. One day during summer...
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...In the short story, Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin there is a sense of karma and consequences that are used in the story wrote that. The story explores the problem of a man’s pride overcoming the love he has for his wife and race. In the short story, Desiree’s baby by Kate Chopin the character Armand Aubigny is racist, in denial and mean. In the story, Armand is a slave owner in Louisiana. In addition, the historical background puts race and heritage into the story as the key points to be seen and understood. The theory that I am applying in my story is that of Cultural Studies. The cultural studies theory concentrates on how and the way a particular subject relates to a social class, ideology, gender, ethnicity, and nationality. Armand Aubigny’s environment and childhood influences his lifestyle and beliefs to accept racial discrimination as common. By owning a family name that represents a boastful heritage “that is the oldest and proudest in Louisiana,” and a place in society as a plantation owner, Aubigny has superiority over the blacks (Chopin, n.a, 2). Therefore, Aubigny, confident that he is a white, a male, and a master in control automatically looks for a black mother Desiree, his wife to blame as soon as he realizes his son resembles a quadroon one quarter black. Because of his regular habit of racial prejudice, Aubigny betrays his loved ones and undergoes the trauma of receiving the news that his family is black. Armand Aubigny is like the other men in his family and...
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...ethnicity. Theme: “The Racial Conflict and Discrimination In The Welcome Table And Country Lovers.” I want to explore the difference lives’ of these two woman was face with, and the way the narrator made me feel while I was reading the story of two black woman. Two strong black women that face all types of problems life had to offer them. These two stories shows feeling, pain, hate, and disappointments in Country Lovers and The Welcome Table. Both of these women had to struggled with their emotions and all they had to go through. Both stories are told in third person omniscient point of view, you can tell by the way the narrator describe the characters and how they’re feeling in both story. “The Welcome Table,” the old woman had her faith to guide her. To carrier her through the hard times. All she wanted was just to attend church. There is a rascal tension centered on both of these stories, in “Country Lovers” the black woman in this story was a pretty black woman fell in love with someone she grow up with a white man, she had a baby for him. This paper will explain every little details concerning The Welcome Table and Country Lovers. “The Racial Conflict And Discrimination In The Welcome Table And Country Lovers” Every story narrows a broad underlying idea. Shaped in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete. That’s how themes are created. The theme is a representation of the idea behind the...
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...The Lottery The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The story sets place in a small town in New England. Every year a lottery is held, in which one person is to be randomly chosen to be stoned to death by the people in the village. The lottery has been practiced for seventy-seven years by the townspeople. By using symbolism, Shirley uses names, objects, and the setting to conceal the true meaning and intention of the lottery. The names of each character in this story hold significant meaning to the lottery. The name "Delacroix" is an example. In" The Lottery," Shirley explains "the villagers pronounced this name 'Dellacroy'." According to Nathan Cervo "[I]n French, 'Delacroix' means "of the Cross'" (Cervo). Incorrect pronouncing this word provoked the Christian symbol of martyrdom. Another the exam is the name "Summer." summer is, as Amy A Griffin describes, "a time usually associated with cheerfulness" (Griffin). In "The Lottery" Summer is the name of a businessman who is responsible for conducting the Lottery. Ironically, Mr. Summer is assisted by Mr. Graves--the word "grave" usually represents for death. By naming the conductor of the Lottery Summer and Grave, respectively, the author implies that there will be an unfortunate event during the summer. Altogether, the symbolic names above play a role as a forewarning note of an unfortunate outcome of "The Lottery." As well as the character's names, each object in...
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...Fiction short stories consist of a few named characters that make use of the plot in a far lesser degree than a novel. Short-story plots deal with the most basic conflicts, and they show how those conflicts build tension and lead to climatic moments throughout the story. The setting focuses on where the story takes place, how believable the setting makes the story, and what mood the setting creates. The setting is also able to use symbols or create expectations that ultimitly turn around in the end. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell uses various details to enhance his description of the setting, creating a vividly mysterious image. In addition, he builds tension between the two main charcaters which altimately leads to the...
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...As the Time Draws Near This analytical essay will provide an analysis and interpretation of american writer Eowyn Ivey’s short story “As the Time Draws Near” (2012). The readers are introduced to the main character, Piper, who grew up in Alaska but later moved away. The short story follows her at a time when she has returned to Alaska in order to spread her dead father’s ashes under a particular spruce tree. She has a lot of thoughts about death and she is almost obsessed with it. Death is the focal point and theme in this short story. It raises questions such as what happens when we die? And what is death really? The story tells about our short time on earth and how fear of death can stand in the way of living life fully with all the experiences the current moment offers. This essay will focus mainly on setting and the father’s outlook on life. Furthermore this essay will also include an analysis of the symbolism in the short story. At the beginning the description of the nature in Alaska is a vivid portrayal followed by a number of incidents where people have been killed in or by this nature. Piper’s father is one of these people, he “falls out of the sky.” (p. 1, l. 10) Her father with the name Red lived his life like it was an adventure. The description of the landscape appears in the same way - like a never-ending adventure. The tundra is a big and open landscape. The mountains, the glaciers and the snow continues into infinity. The same infinity that Piper’s father...
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...class, including two college educated aunts, and several generations of pharmacists. The Lanes often told autobiographical and fictional stories while she was growing up, and Ann began writing short stories and plays while she was still in high school. Following family patterns, Petry graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, but she was unhappy “counting pills,” she later said, because she had aims to be a writer. She married George David Petry and moved to New York to fulfill her aim to be a writer. According to Petry herself, the content of her early fiction was heavily influenced by the inner city life she witnessed as a reporter, social worker, and involved community member. She quickly found work as a journalist. Her early years in Harlem were fueled by involvement in progressive political causes and membership in a community of activists, labor leaders, visual artists, actors, and writers. Despite working closely with self-identified Communists, Petry never affiliated with the party and resisted efforts to enlist her as a fellow traveler. She maintained her distance, and managed to be quite a loner in the midst of the city’s crowd. Harlem inspired Petry. The legendary black neighborhood provided the imagery, drama, incidents, and language for a body of work that included journalism, essays, and short stories, as...
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