...The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, published in 1945, and The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, and published in 2001, both focus on a teenage boy going on an adventure. The adventures each boy face are very different but also have many themes in common. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of school and decides to stay in New York for a few days before the end of the semester, he discovers many things and has many new experiences. In The Life of Pi, while Pi and his family are moving to Canada from India by boat, the boat sinks in a storm which leaves Pi alone on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger. After many challenges and difficulties Pi eventually does make it to Canada where he lives out his life. The thing that makes these two...
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...writer in 20th century America. In 1939, she finished her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. It is this novel that launched a 22 years old girl to fame. As early as the 1940s, the western literary world began the criticism about Carson McCullers and her works. At that time, a large majority of the researches used the method of New Criticism. Through a close reading of the texts, they tried to analyze the internal structure and the poetic character of her works. Those new critics did not pay attention to the connection between the novel and the personal experience of the author. And they did not find the profound social significance behind...
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...Loneliness: The quality of being unfrequented and remote; isolation. Being lonely can change a lot about a person. In a way, loneliness can define who someone is. Even the strongest person can crumble under the wrath of loneliness. Many characters in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck have experienced times of extreme loneliness. One of the characters, Lennie Small, often feels very lonely. Loneliness drives Lennie to believe that he isn’t wanted by George, his companion. “If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.” (Steinbeck 12) This quote shows that Lennie often feels as if he is unwanted by George. Lennie offers to go away and live in the hills where he wouldn’t bother anyone, including...
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...theme of guilt vary in their degree of literalness, but the speaker’s remorse remains steady. “Those Winter Sundays” represents the memories of a child as considered by the perspective of an adult. The resulting conclusion is one of guilt and regret that the speaker failed to thank his father for the sacrifices he made to the family. The opening stanza of this poem describes the father’s Sunday morning routine before work. The poet utilizes imagery and sensory descriptions to represent the toll that difficult labor took on the dedicated father’s body and spirit. “With cracked hands that ached,” the father lived a life of sacrifice as he dressed in the cold and worked six days a week. Less literal, but equally important, is the indication from this stanza that the speaker’s family was monetarily poor. The necessity to work diligently six days a week and the inability to heat the house throughout the night support the likelihood that this family struggled to meet basic needs. The final line of the first stanza clearly represents the poem’s theme of guilt: “No one ever thanked him.” Here, the speaker clarifies that he was not the only family member that failed to express their gratitude. While the father woke and dressed in the frigid temperatures, he started a fire before calling the speaker to rise from the warmth of bed. Skillfully harnessing the power of auditory sensory descriptors, the...
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...Florianne At some point in life everyone breaks away from one another. When someone leaves you behind it can create emptiness and loneliness and it will always be easier for some than for others to handle the feelings that can occur. The short story Florianne by Daniel Woodrell is a fascinating story showing, from a father’s perspective, what a father goes through when his daughter becomes a teenager. On the surface Florianne is about a father, Henry, being upset because his daughter, Florianne, is missing. He worries that someone has taken his daughter. Throughout the story he tries to find her and is constantly suspecting everyone around him to have kidnapped her (p.40, l.21). The narrator is being worried about his daughter and blames his surroundings for the loss. In the ending of the story the father recollects the memories of the missing daughter’s mother. The girl’s mother left the father and daughter years ago. The mother gave several reasons for leaving the father, among was that he was too much the same day in and day out: “I was too steady for her taste, too regular, too much the same one day to another.” Irrespective of age almost everyone in some point in life breaks away from someone close to them to form and create their own life. The loss of the narrators daughter begun before she went missing. On page 42 there is a description of his daughters transformation from a girl to a teenager: “That meant so much to her, to finally have a figure clothes looked good...
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...The older waiter’s perspective was seeing this defenseless, hopeless, lonely man, witnessing how this old man struggled to make it through the day, owning to the fact that he probably saw himself in him. Even though, not much is said about the older waiter’s life, he became significant because of how he constantly was consciously towards the old man, for that reason he tended to be queried, “What did he want to kill himself for… How did he do it?” (Hemingway 380). The older waiter did not discriminate the old man for his wealth due to the fact that he could relate to the old man; this is what many people struggle with, they become so unaware that do not take notice of the world they live in. Being prejudice towards other people by what they have, and by their appearance. This is what prevents a person to guide or advise someone that could benefit from it, however, through experiences and age people become alert. For instance, like the older waiter whom overcame his natural default setting, though, “[S] staying alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constants monologue” (Wallace 2). The older waiter knew that there were people like the old man that were stuck...
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...Often question which style of art is more appealing between representational and abstract. I believe both art types have distinctive ways for them to be appealing. Representational artwork displays actual objects or subjects or people from life. There are subcategories which fall under representational art which includes Realism, Impressionism, Idealism, and Stylization. Abstract art is often misinterpreted and the main objective is to take subjects from life but present in a different way we view our reality. Abstract artwork often showcases lines, shapes, or colors. There are subcategories which fall under abstract art which includes Minimalism, Cubism, and Precisionism. One Representational I enjoyed viewing was “Landscape with Lake and...
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...The passage from the novel “We Were the Mulvaneys” by Carol Joyce Oates is a remarkable flashback into Judd Mulvaney’s childhood. Although the speaker of the passage is an older Judd Mulvaney, the use of juvenile diction allows an “eleven, or maybe twelve” (40) year old child’s perspective to tell the story. The struggle Judd Mulvaney faced as a child is his identity in the world. This struggle is emphasized by the dramatic use of repetition, which sets the tone of little Judd Mulvaney to hopeless. The tense of the story, the use of repetition, and the emphasis on the meaning of life creates a young character’s thoughts as he transitions into adulthood. “That time in our driveway, by the brook” (1) immediately sets the time to the present tense and the subject to a memory. Through the use of flashback, Oates is able to show how the character has developed from that point in the past to the present. Also from the first sentence, it is apparent that the speaker, Judd...
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...Scrooge was excluded ever since he was a boy. As he grew up, he started to isolate himself from society, and bought a cold, dark, and lonely house in which people wouldn’t enter. Dickens also used Robinson Crusoe to show how miserable an excluded life can be. Charles Dickens employs symbolism to reinforce the theme of social exclusion in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge was initially excluded by his father from his own house. Scrooge was kept away from the home and stayed at school even during Christmas time. The Ghost of Christmas Past showed Scrooge a scene of him as a little boy, watching all the other children have fun during the holidays with their families....
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...Dhal Wayne Lorenzo October 12, 2012 ENG251 Symbolism in A Rose for Emily What if you had a life full of people that only saw you as just an object for your entire life? Having to suffer loneliness through your entire life and having everyone you ever loved and cared about leave you as you pass into the next life. A rose for Emily is just the story that sets you in a setting that shows you the true colors of everyone around you and how everyone one in your life truly viewed you. From the beginning this story follows Emily and her life in her town within her home. With this story and all its symbols and clues, what really stood out is the setting. Her home is the biggest symbol in her life because that is where her whole life is set and that's where important events were experience, all the way to her death. As we explore this major symbol in this tragic story we can see may different reasons why her home is important. From the beginning of her life, with her father purchasing her home, to how she lived and was talked about by the townspeople, to her passing where she lost all her loved ones in a tragic lonely ending. From the beginning, the story is told by a number of perspectives and are always going back to Emily's home. Her home was once one of the most envious homes around in their town because of its size and looks. Like the text describes “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily...
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...resilience. Some factors include a positive outlook on life, spirituality, active coping, self-confidence, learning and making meaning and acceptance of limits. Developing and maintaining a positive outlook on life includes finding something to laugh about, calming and comforting yourself, recharge yourself before the next situation. It is also important to take time to relax and have time to yourself. An example of doing this is incorporating spirituality in your life by ways such as praying, meditating, or relaying on a value system or a set of guiding life principles. Active coping includes never giving up on trying to solve problem and seeking help when you need it. Being confident means expecting that you can handle the problem and knowing you will be able to bounce back from the stressful situation. Looking for meaning in the experience and understanding that bad things can and do happen to anyone. Accepting your limits means putting things into perspective and realize you will have times of joy and times of sadness. Through practising these factors, mental resilience will be a skill you will accomplish. 3. To destroy your resilience all you basically have to do is look at the ways of building your resilience and do the opposite. Do not connect with other people or yourself. Ignore help, always think theirs no light at the end of the tunnel, and feel no confidence about yourself. Always putting yourself down, being lonely, neglecting your body and mind and always in a constant...
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...exploitation (take advantage of someone) and impotence (powerlessness) for many Nigerian women. (They suffer also under the burden of stereotypes, both from the African and American perspectives.) In America, Akunna is lonely and desperate. She is exploited by her uncle and suffers from a sense of powerlessness. The new life in America: (leads to loneliness and desperation) : In “ The thing..” the narrator (Akunna) tries to build a new life in America but she endures a great deal of adversity and anxiety., She feels lonely, isolated, displaced and alienated . As Adichie suggests, this is a rather typical experience of Nigerians in America. She also feels anxious because she cannot adequately support her relatives in Nigeria as they would expect. Symbol: The ‘think around your neck” becomes a symbol of anxiety. Akunna is gripped by fear. She feels utterly powerless. She feels that she lacks control. p. 119 “At night, something would wrap itself around your neck, something that very nearly choked you before you fell asleep.” p. 125 “the thing that wrapped itself around your neck, that nearly choked you before you fell asleep, started to loosen to let go”. Firstly, what is she anxious/worried about? She is worried about her new life. She is lonely. She is not familiar with the western customs and lifestyle. Life becomes a battle for survival. The manager, Juan, offers employment but at reduced rates. Akunna has to battle against the stereotypical impression...
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...A.) The Walls siblings show loyalty to each other by keeping close ties as well as encouraging one another. They always have each others backs and are very loyal in many different situations throughout their life. I think that overall they have a very close relationship and that is why they get along with one another as well as protecting each other. A great example from the reading for this journal entry is when Jeanette tells Erma that she is a pervert. “Lori gave me a hug when she heard I told off Erma” (Walls 143). Another instance that describes the sibling’s loyalty to one another occurred in Battle Mountain when Billy was persistently bugging Jeanette about being his girlfriend. I thought it was neat when the siblings tagged together after Billy made a scene while shooting Jeanette with a bb gun when she refused to be his girlfriend as well as doing things with him. “‘I told you you’d be sorry,’ Billy said to me and pulled the trigger. It felt like a...
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...What life was like in the early days of white settlement in Tazmania To explore this question I will contrast between the thoughts of both the aboriginals and europeans. I will also use the English Passengers characters Peevay and George Baines, Baines for the white European settler's perspective of the time and Peevay for the aboriginal's perspective. George Baines arrived in Tazmania and almost immediately begins commenting on the landscape, "wilder and less formed" "tangy scent" and a "strange land." This is the antithesis of what would be seen in England where he came from, an industrialised nation with railways, factories, extreme poverty, big cities, etc. The word "wilder" suggests that he sees the land as uncivilised and that as a citizen of a nation like England it is his duty to go about his business on the island and civilise it. This would have been what many europeans would have thought about somewhere like Tazmania and "less formed" implies that Baines sees the land as bare and untouched. Peevay, on the otherhand, recognises that the Europeans are thinking like this, thinking about taking over, "Ghosts came to our lands." The aboriginals have lived and wandered on the land of Tazmania for many years and have raised their families there for centuries so, as we can understand now, they saw Tazmania as their home and their land. Therefore, Peevay and other aboriginals believe that the europeans are here to take over by all means necessary. Peevay describes the land...
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...I think the author’s grandmother was a lonely lady who was deprived of love. From the first stanza, it stated that she ‘watched her own reflection in the brass’, with the words ‘own reflection’ signifying that she was alone, and she was probably a lonely person. Also, the first stanza also said that she was trying to prove that ‘there was no need of love’ when she stared at her own reflection in the brass. This shows that she was trying to tell herself that it was all right to be lonely, that she was comforting herself in her loneliness and deprivation, that despite the fact that there was no one around her to care for her or love her, she wouldn’t care—when the fact was, she did. The fact that she had to prove to herself that ‘there was no need of love’ shows that she didn’t quite believe it herself, and that she was secretly pining for her family’s and granddaughter’s love and concern. In the third stanza, it was stated that she kept things in a ‘long narrow room’ which smelt ‘of absences where shadows come’. This gives a lifeless tone, and the word ‘absences’ shows that there was there was a certain air of abandon, that she felt companionless. There was also a line that says the place smelt old, of ‘things too long kept shut’, and one of these ‘things’ might be her feelings of being lonesome and even deserted. I think that the author’s grandmother is strong at will and emotions too. The poem has given much evidence that she was lonely and there was a lack of concern of people...
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