... | |Students who decide to write this type of essay should be aware of what is meant by the term ‘personal informed | |interpretation’. Think of this phrase as three separate words: | | | |‘Personal’ - What does the novel mean to you? How does it make you feel? This does not have to be a positive feeling - just | |because someone you know loves this novel above all others, does not mean that you have to! However, do not just write your | |essay in the form of a ‘rant’ - your reasons, whether you love or loathe the novel, must be reasoned and reasonable, but | |above all, personal. | | | |‘Informed’ - Your essay must demonstrate that you have understood the novel. In addition, you will be required to endorse | |this understanding with wider, relevant reading, showing that you have selected and studied appropriate texts in order to | |support your arguments....
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...Craft By writing the novel Little Bee from alternating perspectives of two characters, Chris Cleave created a way to both contrast and connect the lives of a Nigerian refugee and a middle class Londan woman. In order to make a distinction between the two narrators, Cleave uses different style choices to reflect the voice of each character. For Little Bee, Cleave uses lots of imagery, for example “The African girl they locked up in the immigration detention center, poor child, never really escaped. In my soul she is still locked up in there, forever, under the fluorescent lights, curled up on the green linoleum floor with her knees tucked up under her chin.” (Cleave 7). The way a character talks in a novel helps the reader get to know the character as much as a physical description. Reading Little Bee’s chapters, I learned quickly that she is a creative and empathetic character. Little Bee describes the world around her in a unique way, paying close attention to the struggles and emotions of others. Sarah O’Rourke has a...
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...(overall or structure summary for certain nonfiction pieces). The main character Beatrice lives in a future Chicago in where people are divided into factions based upon their personalities. Abnegation, for the selfless, Amity, for the peaceful, Candor, for the honest, Dauntless, for the brave, and Erudite, for the intellectual. When it comes time for the choosing day, Beatrice discovers that she is Divergent, a very special case in where a person is no set faction. After surprising her family with the choice of dauntless, Beatrice is sent into the initiation protocol for the faction. Starting with jumping onto a moving train. From that moving train she then must jump off of that train onto a roof, then down into a pitch black hole. After that part they must go through three initiation trials which she goes through and is injected with this serum thing that the eurdites activate to take control of the dauntless, all except the divergents who are surprisingly revealed to us that four and tris’ (Beatrice’s dauntless name) mother are. Then all of the action starts to kick in. We have death all around us. To get to the final control room to stop this brainwashing experience tris loses her mother and father. But after all that is said and done she meets four again who she is in love with near the end of the book and hop on a train leading into the city, which leads to the sequel book. This is super brief and I could right about another 3 pages if I had to since this book literally blew...
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...after. There is a fine line between being rightfully proud of accomplishments, and being over the top about how you choose to inform people about them. With this being said, often times being accused of being “too proud” can be a sign of jealousy on the part of the accuser. What is pride, a label or an action, or is it a flaw? Jane Austen carefully develops the aspects of her characters that could be deemed prideful in her novel, and in doing so, gives us clues as to her feelings about pride and what it really is. In the novel, Pride and Prejudice, the main characters, Darcy and Elizabeth, are the two most often accused of being too proud. The fact that Darcy is a well off, good looking young man makes him a likely candidate to be accused of being too proud. Every person that Darcy is “better” than is a person who could possibly accuse him of being too proud. Because of how Darcy’s first impression he made on Elizabeth made her feel, it is obvious that she has no intention of complementing him when she says he is too proud, but rather to criticize him. For her, telling herself and other people that he is excessively proud is the only thing she can do to somewhat hurt him and his reputation, after he strongly damaged hers. He thinks he is better than her, and dancing with her is something a man of his stature should not do. I use the word accused in reference to what people call Darcy because I think the meaning of the word “pride” itself has evolved since Austen’s writing. Nearly...
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...Name one person who doesn’t love another, it is not possible. In the novel, The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta survived off love while sent to the hunger games arena to fight for their lives .Also, in another novel, Anthem by Any Rand Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 lived in a dystopian society where love was forbidden where they lived. In the novels The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Anthem by Ayn Rand readers will see the main characters differences and similarities of how love bought them together. Have you ever heard the saying “love will make you do crazy things?” In both novels Katniss and Equality 7-2521 love made them do crazy things. “And you find yourself rooting for lovers who literally kill themselves to stay alive” Katniss and Peeta fought against twelve other districts just to stay alive. Katniss and Peeta were both from the same district, but was love enough to keep them both alive? Equality was born in a dystopian society everything was meant to be “perfect” so apart of their perfect life love wasn’t in it. Equality 7-2521 was a different boy. He was always smarter than the others but since everyone was the same he hid his advance knowledge that he had. “We wish to write this name. We wish to break but we dare not speak it above whisper.” For men is forbidden to take notice in woman.” This is the type of world characters from Anthem lived in. “I turn in to him. Put you somewhere you cannot get hurt. And when he kissed me people in the room actually...
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...Divergent Summary Introduction The dystopian novel Divergent was introduced to us by the main character, Tris. Tris was in her main faction, Abnegation She wears grey, she is selfless and cares about the people around her. On page 1, it says “There is ONE mirror in my house”. As being part of abnegation, your not suppose to attract attention to yourself or even look at yourself. Tris and her brother, caleb were getting ready for the aptitude test on that day and the choosing ceremony the next day. On page 2, Tris says to herself “And tomorrow, at the choosing ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them”. Once you turn 16, you go to the choosing ceremony to...
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...Name one person who doesn’t love another, it is not possible. In the novel, The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta survived off love while sent to the hunger games arena to fight for their lives .Also, in another novel, Anthem by Any Rand Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 lived in a dystopian society where love was forbidden where they lived. In the novels The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Anthem by Ayn Rand readers will see the main characters differences and similarities of how love bought them together. Have you ever heard the saying “love will make you do crazy things?” In both novels Katniss and Equality 7-2521 love made them do crazy things. “And you find yourself rooting for lovers who literally kill themselves to stay alive” Katniss and Peeta fought against twelve other districts just to stay alive. Katniss and Peeta were both from the same district, but was love enough to keep them both alive? Equality was born in a dystopian society everything was meant to be “perfect” so apart of their perfect life love wasn’t in it. Equality 7-2521 was a different boy. He was always smarter than the others but since everyone was the same he hid his advance knowledge that he had. “We wish to write this name. We wish to break but we dare not speak it above whisper.” For men is forbidden to take notice in woman.” This is the type of world characters from Anthem lived in. “I turn in to him. Put you somewhere you cannot get hurt. And when he kissed me people in the room actually...
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...Self-discovery Throughout one’s lifetime changes in a person’s views toward life are inevitable. Those changes can be seen as either positive or negative based on the experiences a person goes through. Some changes are seen as internal while others are seen as external. For instance, in Monkey by Wu Cheng-en and Candide by Francois-Marie Arouet De Voltaire, both authors are using their characters to portray self-discovery by having them go through a series of obstacles. As a result the characters changed their attitude toward life through the many obstacles that they had to undergo. Self-discovery is an essential part of a person’s life which can be seen internally or externally through a person’s characteristics and actions. The novel Candide is centered around the character of Candide who sets out on a journey to self-discovery in which he has “his eyes opened up to the true ways of the world” (www.associatedcontent.com). However, in this novel changes in Candide’s character can only be seen externally. Even though his opinions of the world change, he seems to hold on to the same essence throughout the entire story. At the beginning of the novel we see that Candide is very naïve and we also see that he only believes whatever he hears. Candide believes everything that Pangloss teaches him. Candide’s ignorance is shown when he sits with the Bulgars and says “You are quite right, it is just as Dr. Pangloss always told me, and I see clearly that everything...
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...Birdy, Karen Cushman, Bildungsroman II. Setting- The novel is set in a Medieval English Manor in a village called Stonebridge in the 1290s. Since the protagonist, Catherine, lives in a time period where women were seen as possessions and had no freedom, the book shows the daily struggles a young girl can go through. Throughout the Medieval times, it is known that the children needed to tune in to their parents and do what they needed as opposed to choosing a future for themselves. This book investigates the idea of ladies being sold off to the a qualified bidder and being tread as a lower to the men. Although Catherine was only fourteen years old, she faces potential suitors and goes through mischief in order to scare away...
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...In John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden, there is a reoccurring theme of good v evil that appears in all of the characters in this novel. Steinbeck believes that the story of good v evil is the only story in this world that all people struggle with and have to come to a conclusion about. All people will be faced with the final questions; was their life good or bad? Will people remember them as a good person or a bad person? Will their legacy live on or die with them? This struggle is fought by every generation who has to face the same ancient questions time and time again. Steinbeck believes that humans never have and never will learn from the past and overcome this but will continue to fight this battle for all eternity. The theme of good v evil is not of them as polar opposites but as the struggle between them. Every character in this novel struggles with this but some of them give up and decide to go completely one way or another. “But the Hebrew word, the word timshel— ‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on man. For if ‘Thou mayest’— it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not’” (Steinbeck 303). All the characters in this novel that believe in thou mayest struggle the most with good and evil because they know there is a choice and they can choose to go one way or the other. They do not just have to go one way because they think it is in their genes or because they are being pushed...
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...surrounded by other people. In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, he illustrates how the alienating actions of the migrant field workers cause the characters to become isolated and withdrawn, leading to desperation and extreme loneliness. Steinbeck’s story takes place in the depression era 1920s when racial discrimination and discrimination against the mentally challenged was more of a norm than an exception to the rule. Characters in this novel such as Crooks and George share the same longing and desire to not feel so alone and misunderstood. Each have been alienated by those around them for the differences they can not control; the color of their skin, how they choose to live their lives and the secrets that they covet, that alienation has led to isolation and the inevitable loneliness that follows. Crooks is the black stable hand that is caring, empathetic and intellectually sharp, however he has grown defensive and bitter from the years of segregation. In the 1920s being black meant that you were not treated as equal. Crooks was not permitted to bunk, eat or generally socialize with the other field workers. Steinbeck depicts this when Lennie enters Crooks’ room one evening “smil[ing] helplessly in an attempt to make friends” as his giant body filled the door (Steinbeck 68). From years of being shoved aside Crooks had built up a wall of defense, he responded, “You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room” as Lennie entered...
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...One wrong decision can change you in an instant, we live in a world where faulty judgement can affect the lives of others around you. It is important that everyday we try and evaluate decisions that benefit us, as well others. Innocence is something we are born with and can be defined as freedom from sin, moral wrong, lack of purity or corruption. However, things that we possess can also be lost and or taken away including our innocence. A novel that demonstrates a vast loss of innocence is in Lord of the Flies written by William Goulding. Innocence in the novel is present in many of the characters but slowly begins to deteriorate over time due to the lack of maturity and discipline from their lives, which is replaced with violence and savagery....
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...with rich and relevant examples to discuss within the twenty-five minutes you’re given for the essay section. Quite often, students end up using examples that are inappropriate or superficial, or they don’t know enough about the examples they’ve chosen to write about them in detail. The way to combat this problem is to create your own repertoire of examples that you are well prepared to write detailed paragraphs about. Then, when you read the prompt you’re given on the day of the test, you can simply choose the examples from your repertoire that are most relevant to that particular topic. (Of course, this method isn’t fullproof; it may happen that you are unfortunate enough to get a topic that your prepared examples aren’t really appropriate for. If that’s the case, don’t try to force your examples to fit the topic. The process of coming up with these examples and writing several practice essays will also help you learn how to come up with new examples on the fly.) As you create your list, think of people and events from history, literature, current events, and your own experiences and observations. Choose things that you either already know a lot about or are willing to do some research on in order to have a wealth of details available to incorporate into your essay. A CD-ROM or DVD-ROM encyclopedia is probably the most appropriate source...
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...wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. (Lee 112) She also agrees with this definition by demonstrating courage in these ways throughout the novel. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the three characters that demonstrate outstanding courage are Boo Radley, Mrs. Dubose, and Atticus. Boo Radley demonstrates noteworthy courage by making himself vulnerable to save Scout and Jem from Mr. Ewell’s attack. He makes himself physically vulnerable since he could have also been attacked, but exposes himself to save the children. He does not want to be seen or known, but briefly overcomes that fear when he hears the cries of trouble. This makes him feel emotionally vulnerable. He also indicates his courageousness by staying in the Finch house after the attack. He feels insecure around people but stays to ensure Jem’s safety. Finally, Boo expresses courage by admitting he was uncomfortable...
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...explaining the principle setting of the novel, Salinas Valley. This chapter does not just establish the geography and other physical feature of Salinas Valley, but also the nature of the people who lived there. “I have spoken of the rich years when the rain was plentiful. But there were dry years too, and the put a terror on the valley. … And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always this way.” (5). This quote is among the most important in the chapter book because it gives the reader a connection to the people living in the valley. It establishes that humans in the Salinas are the same as people all over the world. Human nature seems to ensure that during times of plenty people forget times of hardship while forgetting the times the prosperity...
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