...Progress Does Not Always Lead to a Better Life Life, in the primitive sense of the word, means moving through time towards inevitable death. Progression, by definition, means development towards a destination or more advanced state. Life in the emotional aspect explores love, and with love there will always be shortcomings and complexities. Progression, life, destruction, and love are themes in the short story Mule Killers by Lydia Peelle. The short story is a story within a story, and it is first person narration from the point of view of a son retelling the story of his father and his grandfather. The story thereby tells the stories of three different generations of men. The setting is in Nashville Tennessee, the time period is not certain but from the events and descriptions it appears to be during the brink of industrialization. The element of progress in Mule Killers is seen in the family’s life story, the father’s effort to reach adulthood, and - as a parallel story - industrialization; progress is portrayed not only in the stories of the father and grandfather but also in the depiction of the development of the society. In the very beginning, it is clear that the main character’s father has a hard time time coping with his emotions, particularly his immaturity, and striving to progress to a stable future. In the first paragraph where the author introduces the character, the son’s father, he describes him as: “my father has his father’s height, and he carries it...
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...Mule Killers by Lydia Peelle This is a story about unrequited love and its consequences and the change from child to adult. Time changes and life goes on. Whether people accept the changes and might takes advantage of the possibilities given to them, but people make mistakes, especially when they are young and in love. Will it be a bump on the road or will it change the direction they are heading. These are some of the themes that the short story “Mule Killers” is dealing with. Mule Killers is told by a narrator, who is telling the story of his father meeting his mother. It is a son telling about his father telling his son what happened the year he was 18 and the mule killers came. So the story takes place in two times, the present where the father and the son are picking asparagus in the garden and the past where the life of the father was changed for good. It all takes place in a farming area in America at the time where modern machinery reached the farms in Nashville. Tractors started to take over the farm and were therefore setting mules out of work. The narrator’s grandfather “…goes to Nashville and buys two International Harvester tractors for eighteen hundred dollars, cash…” (Page 9, line 13-14) The father is in the sons telling an 18-year-old teenager meaning that he is a little uncertain and confused about growing up, and with small ability to express his feelings towards other people. The uncertainty and suppression of his feelings will later in the short story...
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...Mule killers The story is named Mule killers and is written by Lydia Peelle, it was first published in Epoch, 2004. The theme in the story is growing up, unrequited love, generation shift and consequences. All the themes are, more or less, related to the narrator’s father, whom is telling about his early adolescent life where he had to cope with gradually losing his grip on what he wants for himself and instead being forced by the narrator’s grandfather to take responsibility for his actions. You do not hear much about the narrator himself except that he is the outcome from the father’s and the nameless girl’s affair and he is twice the age at the time in the story than his father was, the year of the mule killers. However you also get the impression of that he is a careful listener and watches his father very closely and therefore notices details so he can practically imagine what his father tells him and do not tell him. The narrator’s father is the main person of the text, because it is him we hear about the most. When the father was in his eighteens he fell in love with a girl named Eula Parker, while he was too shy to tell her for a long time he ended up asking Eula and her friend out for a soda, though Eula refuses her friend accepts. The Father convince himself that Eula really wants him, when his date and himself meet Eula at the local drugstore, however when Eula actually just had a quick errand and leave again the confusion in the fathers heart drive him to...
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...Mule Killers The developing world is something, which can be difficult to deal with, particularly when you are used to doing something you know how works. In the present world, development is something everyone is facing each and every day, and people nowadays are used to it. A few centuries back in time, people were not used to this kind of development, people tended to like how things were at that time. People at that time were more conservative than they are today. Our generation is a part of a period where things are useless if they are more than 15 years old. The reason why our mentality today is set like this is most likely because we grew up after the industrial revolution, and because of that industrialism has become a part of our life. Back in time, people must have had a difficult time changing everything. The short story “Mule Killers” is written by Lydia Peele. This is a story within a story and as often seen in short stories there are a very limited number of characters. But as usual these characters have a major influence on the story. This whole story is focused around the narrator and the two main characters, which are the father and the grandfather. As I have written, it is a story within a story, the father is looking back in time. He is telling his son what happened when he was 18 years old and the mule killers came, while they are picking asparagus. It is not told specifically where it is taking place, but we are told that the city they live in is located...
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...Mule Killers Most people would say that love is a concept which will always be a mystery to man, because it is so changeable, and therefore it will always be able to fool and distort man’s thoughts. Love can both be happy and miserable, and this makes it very powerful and therefore able to control the entire behavior of a person. Throughout a lifetime people will unavoidably experience things that will have a certain impact on the individual’s personality as well as further development. These experiences will often become memories that will follow them their entire life. Being introduced to a world of adulthood is one of these experiences expressed in Mule Killers by Lydia Peele. The narrator is a son whose father reveals secrets from his youth while they are doing an asparagus garden together. Our protagonist is therefore the boy’s father. The setting is the agricultural landscape of America. The use of mules suggests the agricultural side of America as well as the slaughtering of the mules suggests the arrival of modern machinery. In the story the father is a teenager and he is confused about growing up and at the same time he, like many teenage boys, has a difficult time expressing his feelings. In the beginning of the text his feeling are described “trying hard to keep certain things stuffed deep inside his chest: things like fear, sadness, and uncertainty. He expects to outgrow all of these things very soon, and in the meantime, he works hard to keep them hidden.” He...
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...Mule killers The story begins in media res, the narrator starts telling the story right away without an introduction. The narrator is telling a story he is being told by his father, i.e. he tells a story in the story, and therefore it has a multiple point of view. It changes between a first person narrator and a third person narrator. It is an omniscient narrator, he is a messenger used to tell the story of his father and in some places in the text there appears comments from the narrator, for example: “It doesn’t matter; I can imagine it” (ll.49). We are in that way allowed access to his thoughts. The story takes place nearby Nashville, Tennessee in the beginning of the 20th century, when the tractors replaced the mules and thereby killed them. “My father (…) has his father’s height, and he carries it apologetically” (ll.7). Since he is carrying his height apologetically, it seems as if he has a hard time to live up to his father; he is not yet able to be the man that his father is, or so he thinks. When he sees his father crying under the tree he realizes that he also has emotions. He doesn’t understand why he is crying until many years later when he is in the garden picking asparagus with his son. The father is telling his story to his son when they are in the garden, a garden that used to be the mother’s garden. Since her death no one has taken care of it and now it is described as a blasted plot where nothing can grow, except for the asparagus. The garden could be a...
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...Mule KillersEssay by Ali Kemal Taspinar The short story, Mule Killers, by Lydia Peele takes place in a little town, probably near Nashville. While plucking asparagus in a garden, overgrown with weeds, with his father, the narrator is retelling the story of how his father and mother met. The father tells the narrator about his unhappy youth, his relationship to his father and the unrequited love he felt for Eula Parker, and why he was forced to marry the narrator’s mother. In an attempt to flatter and make Eula Parker jealous, he kisses the onion pale haired girl whom he had just invited over for a soda, because Parker had denied his request. Instead of seeming jealous and green she; smiles...: a smile with no jealousy hidden behind it at all (l. 38). The father and his date leaves the drugstore, where after the narrator is conceived; ... he skips the part of the story where I come in. It doesn’t matter; I can imagine it (l. 48). The story centres on the transitions that the main character, the narrator’s father, makes from youth to adulthood. For example from innocence to responsibility, how mules are replaced by tractors and the transition from a bachelor/lad to becoming a husband, a father and a man. The three most important characters in the story are the grandfather, father, and the narrator, which all are of different generations and beliefs. Our point of view is narrowed down because it is the son who is retelling the story, and hereby you don’t necessarily get the...
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...Essay of ''Mule Killers'' by Lydia Peelle By growing up and entering a world of adulthood, you automatically experience both positives and negatives sides of life, you may have not known in the innocent childhood most kids have known. In “Mule Killers” by Lydia Peelle the troubles of a young man is described as well as the consequences of his actions are portrayed, and made a huge influence on the rest of his life. Throughout a lifetime everyone face situations where one has to make choices without being able to know the consequences. Sometimes people make decisions without even being aware of it.. Some choices can have an influence on life's path and the consequences of making choices can therefore be fatal and frightening. To close a door can sometimes be the opening of another – another path in life. In the story the father is a teenager and he is confused about growing up and at the same time he, like many teenage boys, has a difficult time expressing his feelings. This becomes evident in this paragraph: “She is going to walk out the door and leave them here to their sodas and silence. At this point my father, frantic, takes hold of the girl on the stool next to him, leans her in Eula’s direction, and kisses her recklessly, right on the mouth”. Here he has gotten himself into an uncomfortable situation because he has chosen to make Eula jealous instead of telling her how he feels. This disability has the consequence of making the pale-haired girl pregnant. This creates...
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...“Mules and (Wo)men” In the post-civil war era, although discrimination continued, blacks were essentially free and attempting to forge and secure their newfound citizenship. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston depicts a small black community named Eatonville in central Florida during the 1920’s, trying to create their own place in society. The novel illustrates the pervasiveness of society’s patriarchal values, where women and their intelligence, especially black women’s intelligence was equated to that of “chillun and chickens and cows”(Hurston 71). Janie, the main protagonist, grows up in this oppressive patriarchal society, but still believes that she deserves a life defined by self-actualization and emotional fulfillment. Hurston powerfully portrays a black woman’s unconventional journey of self-love through effective use of literary techniques such as metaphor and personification. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses natural imagery to metaphorically depict Janie’s growing awareness about marriage, men and desire. The reoccurring symbol of the pear tree reflects Janie’s feelings throughout the novel. For example, in Janie’s youth she observes and experiences the bees’ interaction with the pear “tree in bloom” (Hurston 11). Her soliloquy about the interaction she witnesses represents a sexual connection full of erotic energy, passionate interaction, and blissful harmony. In response to what she has seen, and because she was raised to believe that a physical...
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...Adventures in Fugawiland Fugawiland: a land full of hardworking hunters, dedicated mothers, learning children, many animals, and lots and lots of land. Fugawiland is in between the border of Lake Superior and the Highlands. There were 25 different sites in Fugawiland, but we were only given information on 10 different sites. The areas in which the citizens of Fugawiland lived permanently were either by the shore or by a river in sites F, Y, R (shore), P, I, W, and C (river). About twice as many people lived in sites by the shoreline compared to people who lived by the river. Site F contained the largest amount of Fugawilanders, about 45 people. A way to estimate the number of people living at a site is to multiply the number of houses by five because the huts in Fugawiland likely housed 4 to 6 people-leaving the average number of people per hut at five. Sites Y and R were tied for the second to most sites with the largest amount of people living I them with about 40 people in each site. In the sites that were located closer to a river, there was much less people. Site I had the most people living there, about 25. In each of the sites by the river and shore where the people lived there were only 2-4 graves per site. Most likely, the majority of the people got buried at site X, the largest site that archaeologists dug up in all of Fugawiland, located in the plains. This is because site X contained the most amount of graves and bundle burials-19 graves and 40 bundle burials...
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...Thanksgiving My best Thanksgiving was in 2013 when me and Mr. Quinn went hunting for a whitetail deer. He said the deer is bigger than both of us combined so I’m going up to snipe it. Uncle Quinn took the bottom while I took the top of the tree. I fell asleep but woke up about 2 minutes later. Mr. Quinn was yelling on the radio, “take the shot”. It’s in the field. “Shoot it”. Just as I was aiming it, a squirrel, Asher B, jumped in front of the barrel of the gun blocking my view. I jumped down from the tree and tried to shoot the deer again but my gun jammed. The whitetail deer walked right pass me looking at me as if to say hi. It gave me a snooze. A moose came out of nowhere. It started talking to me. I’ve heard that voice. It was Aaron. A baby moose walked up and started talking. It sounded like Palmer. She said put that gun and knife down. A groundhog came out of the ground and spoke to me. It was Emily speaking. After that, a bat flew from the sky. This was David. It flew so low that it bit me. I started running fast until I was out of breath. A wolf came out of the cave and said to me that killing is a sin. It was Logan. I said, “no, it is not a sin”. I kept running until a turtle appeared out of the water. It sounded like Asher G. He said put them down, please. I ran even faster after seeing the turtle. I stopped near a tree when a bunny hops out of the forest. It looked at me with its poor eyes. Those eyes wanted to say something to me. It was Sandra. She said...
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...special alright, but for the worst. John and his wife were talking, when John had to go to the men's room. John was standing over the sink washing his hands. He suspected he was alone, but then out of nowhere someone came up from behind him and wrapped a rope tightly around his neck. He struggled and fought but his attacker was too strong. As John's face turned from pale to purple, he hit the ground. That same night, Karen was in her bedroom. Her long, luscious hair flowed as she walked, over to one of her drawers, searching for her favourite outfit. Not knowing her fate she turned around to meet the edge of large dagger, stabbed twenty four times. Blood everywhere. She yelled for help, but by the time her neighbours came, her killer was gone and she was dead. Now the police...
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...BRAMPTON – Derick Stall, age 34, kills Brad Williams, his employer on 13th Street. It all happen on Monday June 1st, 2015 at 12:27am. Brad was suffocated to death by a matress and then its body was chopped and was put under the floor by Derick. The reason why Derick killed Brad, his employer, was that Derick was bothered by his eye. Derick planed his death 7 nights before, but he didn’t come to kill him because he wasn’t tempted by Brad’s eye. But on the 8th night, Brad woke up by a sound, when Derick saw his eye, he jumped on him and threw him under the matress. During this process, Brad yelled once. The scream was heard by Brad’s neighbour, Wendy. Wendy reported to the cops ‘’ I was woken up by a loud scream. I believe it...
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...Glencore’s bad international practices As the world is enduring a serious financial crisis, big businesses have been challenged as never before. Protesters have been demanding a fairer form of capitalism. People want more socially responsible companies and genuinely popular capitalism. The case discusses one of the world’s most powerful conglomerates in the world which is Glencore. As it was recently introduced in London Stock Exchange, Glencore was questioned about its international practices. It is a commodity giant specialized in raw materials. The multi-billion dollar commodity giant is accused of profiting from child labor in several mining exploitation in the Congo, moreover, claims say that it is paying the associates of paramilitary killers in Colombia. An investigation proves that children as young as ten are working in the Glencore-owned mining concession and some confidential documents show a Glencore subsidiary made payments to the suspected associates of paramilitary in Colombia. In the Congo, while international law prohibits anyone under 18 working in a mine, many of the miners were under the legal age. Although Glencore says it stopped operating in the mine since 2008, because of the collapse in the price of copper, it still owns the concession. Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg said the mine had been taken over by local workers without its permission. He said the child miners were part of a group of freelance miners who "raided our land in 2010… against all...
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...Cristian Uribe The war without end, selfishness, nothing to do against death and the scars of the war in Men without women In this essay I’m talking about the main issues present in the following short stories in Men without women by Ernest Hemingway (1928): In another country (25-29), Hills like white elephants (29-33), The killers (33-40) and Now I lay me (83). In another country is about a wounded American soldier recuperating from an injury by receiving treatments from machines in a hospital in Milan, Italy. Machines. With him there’s an Italian major receiving treatment for a shriveled hand. There is a strong optimism of a physician employing the new machines which is contrasted with the skepticism of Italian major who, disbelieving in the machines, nevertheless comes regularly for therapy to his hand. That daily attendance is interrupted only with the sudden death of the major’s wife. The machines were new, as result, the narrator and the major were trying them. And although they both didn’t trust in the machines they were under their treatment because they really wanted to recover. The major wanted to be his wife and the narrator probably wanted to clean his pride because his wound and medals were “fake”. What I think can be infer from the text is that even if the machines have success healing the soldiers, the war for them won’t end because is not just facing enemy on the front line but also picking up the pieces of their damaged lives and facing the prospect...
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