...“By comparing the 2 texts you have studied, how do they reflect the concerns of their time?” Texts are shaped by the concerns of their time and the comparison of texts provides an extensive insight into these ideologies. With the consideration of Chinua Achebe’s novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ (1958) and Niki Caro’s film ‘Whale Rider’ (2003) in tandem, the similarity in their didactic principles of the condemnation of ethnocentrism explores the impact of European imperialism upon Ibo and Maori societies. Both texts also criticise the suppression of females in the patriarchal view of the tribes, emphasizing the significance of gender recognition and together, they delineate the concerns that arise from 1900s colonialism Within Things Fall Apart (TFA), Achebe reprimands the subservience of traditional Nigerian Ibo culture through colonialism in the context of the nation’s independence in 1960. Presenting the loss of traditions resulting from imperialism, Achebe deliberately includes William Yeats’ “The Second Coming” in the epigraph to the novel as a foreshadowing of the imminent collapse of the Ibo tribe, thus immediately establishing the Greek tragedy convention. His use of proverbs where they are the “palm-oil which words are eaten” is an allegory that captures the intricacy of Ibo language, emending the European portrait of a ‘savage’ Africa which was a notion popularized at the time by Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” (1899). Furthermore, Achebe juxtaposes the Ibo’s...
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...jealous of the things they have or the talents they possess. However, in John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace, rivalry is amongst best friends, Gene Forrester and Phineas. In his novel, Knowles uses the protagonist, Gene, to show how betrayal can ruin friendships, using many techniques including: foreshadowing, figurative language, and symbolism. Foreshadowing is a technique that is used throughout the book. Gene is always in his own competition with his friend Phineas. For example, Gene states, “There was no harm in envying your best friend a little,” (Knowles 25). In most cases, envying what your friend has or can do is very damaging and can completely ruin a friendship. This shows that their relationship is not very solid, and his envy is part of the reason it is breaking apart. On the other hand, Phineas does not know that Gene is jealous, so he assumes Gene’s competitiveness is just friendly. He then says, “We were the best of friends at that moment,” (Knowles 18). When Gene says this, it foreshadows that something will go awry in their friendship, even though it seems as if they are fine right now. Since this is so early in the novel, this quote helps readers to be more aware of what they are reading and helps draw...
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...Briana Eng 201 Final Paper 20 April 2015 Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher: Literary Elements Exemplify Gothic Style As the Romantic Movement swept through nineteenth century American literature, Edgar Allan Poe emerged as one of the central literary figures of the Romantic era. Along with other authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe’s Romantic style of writings often introduced his readers to the dark side of literature present during the time. As Poe sets out to explore and expose different elements of darkness within humanity, he familiarizes his readers with the experience of fear and horror that are so commonly present throughout his works. As a result of the recurrent themes of fear, horror and mystery that he elicits through his writings, Poe is often credited as one of the most important writers of Gothic fiction, an extension of the romantic style of writing. While most of his works of fiction are told from the perspective of a first person narrator, in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher he implores the use of the peripheral narrator to introduce his readers to the many elements in the story that exemplify his distinctly gothic style. By allowing readers into the mind of the narrator, Poe gives his audience the opportunity to discover, analyze and interpret different key literary devices used to highlight important characteristics that classify the gothic style of writing. Utilizing the peripheral narrators experience with mystery and suspense allows...
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...English Literature Summer Reading Things fall apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe. In the novel of things fall apart there are many characters that stand out, such as, Okonkwo, Nwoye, Ikemefuna, Mr. Brown and more. One substantial character is Ezinma - The only child of The main character Okonkwo,'s second wife, Ekwefi. As the only one of Ekwefi’s ten children to survive past infancy, Ezinma is the center of her mother’s world. Their relationship is atypical—Ezinma calls Ekwefi by her name and is treated by her as an equal. Ezinma is also Okonkwo’s favorite child, for she understands him better than any of his other children and reminds him of Ekwefi when Ekwefi was the village beauty. Furthermore, he wishes that Ezinma were a boy because she would have been the perfect son. In the novel "Things Fall Apart" there are many themes and backgrounds, such as fear, sin and traditions. But the most frequent is respect/reputation. Reputation is extremely important to the men in the novel. Personal reputation is publicly denoted by the ankle bracelets men wear, which signify the number of “titles” they have earned. Reputation is based on merit – men gain reputation through bravery in battle, skill at wrestling, and hard work as seen through the size of their yam harvest. Reputation earns men positions of power and influence in the community as well as numerous wives. Okonkwo, the novel’s protagonist, is extremely concerned with reputation because he grew up with a...
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...Countee Cullen 1. The metaphor of the dark tower is significant because it represents a foreshadowing of the slaves eventually rising up in the future, while the white people will fall apart. It could also be a representation of a connection that the slaves made to their future. They knew that even though the white people had all the power and control over them at that point in time, they knew that it wouldn’t be like this forever. 2. The last two lines represent the underlying message that the slaves are aware of, which is that their conditions and struggles will not always be this way. They know they will not always be slaves, and that some day they too will have their opportunity to rise up against the white people that treated them so poorly for the entirety of their existence. 3. The title of “Incident” is ironic because to the boy, the situation he experienced was something much greater than an incident, but rather consumed a great amount of his thought. Between May through December, the boy is completely consumed with what seemed to be a minor encounter between two children of different races. So to call it something so insignificant as “Incident”, when it was so much more than an incident to him, makes the title ironic. 4. After reading this poem, I realized that the influence you have and the way you act towards other people is much more important and effective on them often then you are aware of. The one memory that the boy remembers is an insulting...
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...Romeo and Juliet is the most epic love story of all time. It is said they were destined to fall in love, or maybe just destined to fall. Romeo and Juliet were two star-crossed lovers whose story played out in Verona, Italy. Romeo was from the family of the Montagues, whom are long-time enemies of the Capulets, the family from which Juliet came. Romeo crashed a party thrown by Capulet, Juliet’s father. At the party, he met Juliet, and they fell in love instantly. As destiny would have it, they get married, but the fateful, whirlwind love affair ultimately leads to the untimely deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence, Romeo’s priest, is often falsely accused of being responsible for the double suicide that ended the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet. However, all of the major events that lead to the deaths...
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...short stories the reader is allowed to assume any of the possible details to fill in the missing parts of the story. It is not until the end that the reader understands that the characters were giving away the ending the throughout the story. Along with the relationships established, the dialogue and simply executed actions of the main characters the story begins to unfold. The family and friends that are closest to the main character tends to make the story. In both cases of “The Lottery” and “ The Rocking Horse Winner” the extras of the short stories help to reveal the main characters real attitude, honest behavior, and their transparent emotions. In “The Lottery” it is evident that the characters closest to the main character can easily fall in line with the rest of society; in “The Rocking Horse Winner” family and friends can do all they can to help and still not be enough. In “The Lottery”, Jackson begins by setting the up the events that will inevitable come to pass. A few characters are introduced towards the beginning but who they are is not as important as their actions. Following the imagery of the location Jackson introduces Mr. Summers, one of the most prominent characters. As described in the short story, Mr. Summers is the head of the town activities; he seems to have...
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...The film Valkyrie takes place during World War 2. The film covers the events of the July 20 plot. The main character of the story is Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg. The story follows him from the beginning of the story when he gets recruited to the cause. He then meets other committee members such as Dr. Goerdeler, and Witzleben. There Stauffenburg comes up with assignation plan. Their first attempt at the plan fails but they get another attempt ot try again. The second time they try the bomb is placed and the plan looked like it worked with the bomb exploding in the meeting room with Hitler. They then mobilize the Reserve Army and attempt to take over Berlin. However their blast did not kill Hitler and he was alive. Their plan then falls apart and most of them get arrested. In the end they all end up dying of execution or suicide. The main purpose of this film was to inform people of failed assignation attempt on Hitler. Many people probably did not know of this before watching this movie like myself and this movie...
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...documents 14-27 Lagos Standard http://www.humanosphere.org/podcasts/2014/12/chat-ebola-nurse-kaci-hickox-misuse-quarantine/ http://news.mpbn.net/post/1-year-later-reflections-kaci-hickoxs-quarantine#stream/0 2B Technology - War of Worlds, it has helped. Things Fall Apart - It helped decrease Defoe - Lack of scientific information caused the whole rats things, and information/printed press. Hurt Technology - War of Worlds→ Was ineffective against superior tech or nature itself. Things Fall Apart - Caused hubris, and less empathy. Less empathy→ More human disaster Johnstown Flood - Hubris → underestimating nature This course presents several examples human disasters and explores many concepts through them. However, one the most important concepts in regard to this class is the role of modernization, and whether or not it has helped or hindered human being in dealing with disasters. Modernization has helped humanity progress in many ways, such as healing diseases and decreasing global poverty. However, modernization has it’s dangers, and its costs, and if kept unchecked, can lead to the degradation of human society. Examining Johnstown Flood, Things Fall Apart, and War of the Worlds shows that modernization increases human hubris, destroys fundamental institutions, and if not kept in check, wipe out or transform humanity for the worse. Johnstown was a town which was at the industrial peak of it’s time, being described as “new,rough, and busy...
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...Scene I of Macbeth is used by Shakespeare to introduce the concept of tragedy and to set the tone for the rest of the play. The first thing that is the audience is drawn to is the thunder and lightning presented in the opening stage directions to the play, presenting inclement and ominous weather alongside the appearance of the witches, the instruments of darkness. The audience will already be aware of the significance of this use of the thunder and lightning as Elizabethan audiences often attributes violent weather with supernatural forces, which are embodied by the Three Witches here. This created a great sense of fear in Shakespearean audiences, as they were very superstitious and afraid of the supernatural. Right at the start of the scene we are made aware that we will see the witches once more, with the first witch asking her companions ‘when [they] shall...meet again/ in thunder, lightning or in rain’, again emphasising the role of the weather in presenting them as ominous and sinister characters, perhaps also suggesting that they have powers to control the weather, as is seen later on in the play. This weather is symbolic of the chaos that the witches will bring into Macbeth’s life, as it is they who set him on the inevitable path that leads to his demise by planting the seed of greed in his mind, as well as preparing us for the crimes that Macbeth commits later on in the play. However the first witches’ limiting choice of weather conditions in which they are to meet...
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...In this chapter the family stops for gas and water, the man owning the place first had to come out and ask if the family had any money to buy something with because so many people did not. The man explained that people came by and they did not have enough money for gas so they would attempt to trade the man things like shoes for gas instead. The family later finds two women and they help them get back on their way to California and end up sharing two cars with them for the journey. Another reference back to the family bond theme is when Granpa dies. The family bond is loosening with the loss of Granpa and the addition of these two new women. The Joad’s individual family is becoming replaced by a community idea of family instead of just them. The idea is established in this chapter that the people need to work together against the businesses so that the businesses do not...
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...Kite Runner vs. Poetry Key quotes: “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” – Baba says this to Rahim Khan as a comment on the behaviour of Amir. Through this he identifies Amir’s greatest flaw: cowardice. It is this trait that leaves him desperately craving Baba’s love, and ultimately leads to be letting Assef rape Hassan. It also foreshadows Amir’s return to Kabul in search of Sohrab; the test of Amir’s character also tests whether Baba’s statement is true. “Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended” – This sentence appears towards the start of chapter five and indicates the fall of the monarchy and the descent of Kabul (and indeed Afghanistan) into political instability. The peaceful world Amir knows, made possible by Baba’s wealth, turns into one full of violence and uncertainty. It ultimately leads to Baba and Amir fleeing the country. “There is a way to be good again” – Rahim Khan says this to Amir over the phone when trying to encourage him to come to Pakistan and in the dialogue this appears like an afterthought. It reveals that Rahim Khan knows the truth about what Amir did to Hassan. It also ties into the theme of redemption, allowing the reader to believe that by returning to the Middle East, Amir will be given the opportunity to break the cycle of guilt he is trapped in. “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but...
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...readers to pay attention and demands them to use their thoughts to interpret the underlying messages his short stories are conveying. In East, West, it is obvious that the stories from the East are very different from the West. The East has a more realistic approach about life situations while the West introduces this notion of foreign and the idea of escape from life itself. It might have been Rushdie's goal to achieve these two different themes, but from his personal background, it appears that this story mirrors his life issues. He is conflicted between these two separate junctions-East and West-and cannot find a way to joint them well-although he tried to do so by introducing the stories from the section East, West. These stories are not a success; they were lacking the much needed balance the characters were in search of to feel complete. Their endings left a trail of sadness. One would think with the joining of East, West, peace and belonging would finally come, but it is as if there's no conclusion or solution to this problem. Some of the short stories in East,West section finished without the audience knowing the destiny of the characters. The Courter truly expresses Rushdie's feelings about being foreign and the realistic aspects of culture clashes are also included in this story. The characters' names, Certainly-Mary and Mixed-up only appeared as nicknames given by the children in this story, but they were actually symbolic meanings behind the East, West themes. Certainly-Mary...
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...The Restorative Power of Nature Throughout the entirety of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, tensions between the natural and unnatural were the ultimate driving forces as the story unfolded. The overarching theme most apparently found throughout the novel is Nature and its relationship with man. Shelley juxtaposes the revitalizing power of Mother Nature with the dreadful portrayal of the man-made creation of the monster. This harsh juxtaposition drives the reader to consider the effects of crossing boundaries of the natural world. Romantic writers, like Mary Shelley, often depicted Nature as the most unadulterated and pronounced force in our world. Mary Shelley uses a great deal of natural imagery in Frankenstein, which is apparent even at the very beginning of the story. Early on, she establishes that Nature and all of its grandeur will play a major role throughout the entirety of the novel, “the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible; its broad disk just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour” (Shelley, 5). While Shelley attempts to convey the profound power of Nature, she also contrasts this central theme with the characterization of Victor. Nature and its relationship with man is the leading cause, and resolution, for almost every conflict found in this novel. In regards to Romanticism’s notion that Nature...
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...CARIBBEAN E XAM I NAT I O N S COUNCIL 6010 CARIBBEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE® EXAMINATION *J1601219020* 12 JANUARY 2016 (a.m.) J1601219020 FILL IN ALL THE INFORMATION REQUESTED CLEARLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS. TEST CODE 0 1 2 1 9 0 2 0 SUBJECT ENGLISH B – Paper 02 PROFICIENCY GENERAL REGISTRATION NUMBER SCHOOL/CENTRE NUMBER NAME OF SCHOOL/CENTRE CANDIDATE’S FULL NAME (FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST) DATE OF BIRTH D D M M Y Y Y SIGNATURE __________________________________________________ *0121902001* 0121902001 Y 0121902002 E PA G TH IS W RI TE ON T DO NO *0121902002* TEST CODE FORM TP 2016010 CARIBBEAN E XAM I NAT I O N S 01219020 JANUARY 2016 COUNCIL CARIBBEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE® EXAMINATION ENGLISH B Paper 02 – General Proficiency 2 hours 10 minutes READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. 1. This paper consists of TWELVE questions, arranged in THREE sections as follows: Section A: DRAMA Questions 1 and 2: Shakespeare Questions 3 and 4: Modern Drama Section B: POETRY Questions 5 and 6 Section C: PROSE FICTION Questions 7 to 10: Novel Questions 11 and 12: Short Story 2. Answer THREE questions only, ONE question from EACH section. 3. You MUST write in essay format and develop ALL your responses fully. 4. Write your answers...
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