...TEXTS AND COMPOSERS: Tim Winton’s – On Her Knees Topic: Importance of Dignity: Every person in this world is dignified in their own way; whether it is their riches, power, friends, family or even the smallest and most insignificant things, alot of things bring pride and dignity to one’s self. ”Pride” is an essential part of life as it gives self esteem and a feeling of self importance. Good morning/afternoon classmates; today I’ll be talking to you about the importance of dignity within Tim Winton’s “On Her Knees”. “On Her knees” is a powerful story that teaches and reinforces Tim Winton’s view of the true meaning of dignity. He accomplishes this through the use of “first person” making the text seem like an auto-biography of Carol, making her personal experiences seem more authenticated. Whether this story may be based on a true story or not, many of the occurrences within this short story are great examples of “The Importance Of Dignity”. Carol (the mother of Victor), quits her job as a specialized employee in a medical office, and instead becomes a maid to pay off her son’s law school fees. Victor during these troubled times feels guilty but most importantly feels that Carol’s dignity is devalued, perhaps even destroyed due to the fact that she cleans other peoples houses “on her knees”. Victor does not understand how Carol could do things to such an extent, despite having done so for his sake, as he understands that it is hurting his mother’s pride as a once respected...
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...- On Her Knees analysis “On Her Knees” is a short story written by Tim Winton the year of 2004. Its key themes are family, proof and pride. The setting of “On her Knees” is supposed to be in New Zealand since Tim Winton is from New Zealand. Most of the story takes part in this wealthy woman's home where the cleaner there is the narrator's mom. The house contains a lot of 'knick-knacks' and normal modern/expensive stuff that wealthy people own in their houses. The year of the story is probably the same year as it was written, in 2004. The main characters in this story is the narrator, Victor, and his mom who is a cleaner. Another character which is not actually 'live' in the story, but since they are both in her house cleaning, we learn a lot about this 'snobby' rich woman which in fact doesn't look so mean as she seems to be in the pictures of her in the house. Victor is a young adult in University who is very skeptic about things, especially rich people who he for sure is not really fond of. His mother is a very friendly but also a hard-working mom regarding cleaning all of these rich peoples houses. She is very proud of her fame, and has a lot of pride for what she does. The plot of “On her Knees” is about the narrator and his mom who cleans for a living. In the story, the boy's mother gets a note from one of the rich women she cleans for saying that she suspects that the narrator's mom stole her $500 earrings and that she is fired but that she first needs her to clean...
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...On her knees "On Her Knees" is about dignity: about maintaining dignity and understanding the true meaning of dignity. The narrator supposes his mother's dignity is devalued, perhaps destroyed, because she works on her knees cleaning other people's houses. This is especially true since she used to have specialized employment in a medical office. The narrator is himself pursuing his dignity at law school, feeling that externals, like employment, provide the basis for dignity. In connection with this feeling, he loathes to see her lower herself and disregard and degrade her own dignity. He equally loathes to lower his dignity to help her. One day her dignity--and his understanding of dignity--is put to the test when she is accused of stealing a pair of $500 earrings from a householder form whom she cleans. Metaphorically yelling and screaming all the way, the narrator helps her do an all-out four-hour cleaning job for the angered householder's home. The missing earrings are found when he vacuums under the bed. His mother deduces what must have happened so that the earrings were carelessly tossed to the floor with candy wrappers, and she cries silently when his back is turned: "I heard her blow her nose." The narrator finally understands true dignity when his mother refuses the money offered by the householder. As proof that he understands that dignity is from one's inner being and not related directly to one's knees, he digs the earrings from the kitty litter box where he...
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...BAKER Contents Foreword by James Moore 1. How Did Bush Happen? 2. Poppy’s Secret 3. Viva Zapata 4. Where Was Poppy? 5. Oswald’s Friend 6. The Hit 7. After Camelot 8. Wings for W. 9. The Nixonian Bushes 10. Downing Nixon, Part I: The Setup 11. Downing Nixon, Part II: The Execution 12. In from the Cold 13. Poppy’s Proxy and the Saudis 14. Poppy’s Web 15. The Handoff 16. The Quacking Duck 17. Playing Hardball 18. Meet the Help 19. The Conversion 20. The Skeleton in W.’s Closet 21. Shock and . . . Oil? 22. Deflection for Reelection 23. Domestic Disturbance 24. Conclusion Afterword Author’s Note Acknowledgments Notes Foreword When a governor or any state official seeks elective national office, his (or her) reputation and what the country knows about the candidate’s background is initially determined by the work of local and regional media. Generally, those journalists do a competent job of reporting on the prospect’s record. In the case of Governor George W. Bush, Texas reporters had written numerous stories about his failed businesses in the oil patch, the dubious land grab and questionable funding behind a new stadium for Bush’s baseball team, the Texas Rangers, and his various political contradictions and hypocrisies while serving in Austin. I was one of those Texas journalists. I spent about a decade trying to find accurate information on Bush’s record in the Texas National Guard. My curiosity had been prompted by his failure to adequately...
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