...novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Diaz explores the concept of power. Through primary characters’ interactions with the government in the Dominican Republic, we learn that power is something people take advantage of, leading to terror and corruption. Some examples of power and control throughout the book is Trujillo, Abelard and Trujillo’s interaction, Beli’s interaction with Trujillo, and Oscar’s interaction with el Capitan. Trujillo is the man everyone fears and people try to stay away from; he’s the man in power and in control of everyone. We learn this from Yunior’s information that he provides about Trujillo and more specifically, from Abelard’s experience with Trujillo. Abelard, Beli’s father, was a doctor...
Words: 1382 - Pages: 6
...Oscar Pistorius, a runner who had both legs amputated at eleven months old once said, "You are not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have." As human beings we see disabilities as a bad thing. The disability was the only thing the brother from The Scarlet Ibis saw when he saw his baby brother, Doodle, for the first time. When the baby was born he was expected to die or never be able to do things that most kids would be able to do. The brother had resentment of Doodle and taught Doodle to walk, climb, and swim only because he was embarrassed to have a disabled brother. Doodle did everything he could to win his brother's pride and he never gave up. As the story goes on the brother sees Doodle not for his disability, but for his personality. Then one day a scarlet ibis fell from one of the trees, sick and injured the scarlet ibis passed away. Doodle buried the bird and sang to it. Later, after Doodle refused to do his daily training it started to rain. Upset with Doodle, the brother left him. When Doodle did not follow after him he went to look for him, only to realize Doodle had passed. Doodle's determination, kindness, and dependence on others, changed his brother's opinion on disabilities and that is more important to important to love...
Words: 586 - Pages: 3
...Analysis of the text: ``The Importance of Being Earnest´´. ``The Importance of Being Earnest´´ is a comedy written by Oscar Wilde in the year 1894. In the text, Oscar Wilde makes fun of the upper class in the Victorian Age society. The reason why he had written ``The importance of Being Earnest´´ was to irritate the Victorian society. He focused on the term bunburing, which means creating a false person or identity. The creation of a false person and the creation of a false identity take place in the text to masquerade the true intentions of the main characters, Jack and Algernon. There are five characters in this text; Algernon, Lady Braknell, Gwendolyn, Jack and Lane. Algernon, which is the owner of the house the story takes place in, is a bachelor who sometimes leaves London to help a sick friend of his. However, he is bunburying, since he has invented a fictive person, so he could get out off unpleasant situations, especially when it involves his Aunt, Lady Braknell. In this case, Algernon had invented a sick friend by the name of Bunbury, which is funny since the name suggests bunburing. Lady Braknell is the mother of Gwendelyn Fairfax and a perfect example of typical Victorian classism. She doesn’t want her daughter to marry Earnest, because she found out that he was an orphan. Her daughter, Gwendolyn, is in love with Earnest, who also loves her. Although she returns her affection towards Earnest, she is self-centered, since she desires only to marry a man named Earnest:...
Words: 1014 - Pages: 5
...The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, he has a mix of high and low culture, Spanish slang, and Standard English. Instead of Díaz straightforwardly advising the story to the reader, he makes a different approach by talking through the novel's storyteller Yunior. Yunior or “The Watcher” gives examination and analysis to the occasions he is handing-off in the novel. His dialogue regularly expresses code changing, changing quickly from an enthusiastic, loaded with successive use of foulness to...
Words: 1438 - Pages: 6
...for further studies in literature. He wrote the first Filipino novel written in English, "A Child of Sorrow", in 1921. He died in 1959. II. Setting Fertile Valley It is the home town of Lucio Soliman. Camilo's uncle lives here. It is where Lucio's family lives. Merry Town It is the home town of Camilo David. It is also where Felipa Garcia, Rosa Garcia, Pancho Ismael, Juan dela Cruz and Oscar Ramirez live. Manila It is the place where Lucio Soliman went to work. It is also where Lucio saved a mother and her child. III. Character Analysis Lucio Soliman He is the protagonist. He is a round character. He is slender and well-built with brown hair, dark clear eyes, and a gay and graceful demeanor. His face was oval and handsome in a truly manly fashion. He is calm pensive and poetic. Camilo David He is a flat character. He is a friend of Lucio Soliman. HIs home town is Merry Town. His uncle lives in Fertile Valley. Pancho Ismael He is the father of Rosa. He is a flat character. He is the corrupt governor of Merry Town. Oscar Ramirez He is a flat character. He loved everybody, if they also loved him. He was a patriot, but his patriotism was only for himself. He...
Words: 996 - Pages: 4
...Steven Miller April 9, 2013 Professor Thiele Intro to Fiction Sexuality in The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray alludes to homosexuality throughout the entirety of the novel. While homosexual relations between the characters are not directly discussed, the context and conversations between the characters points to homosexual relations between all of the male characters. Oscar Wilde, himself, was part of the Decadents movement at the end of the Victorian period. Decadents are known for undermining the mainstream Victorian ideals. There has been a significant change in society’s morals since the publication of the novel in 1891. A person reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in today’s culture may see nothing wrong about the context of the novel or the relationships between the characters within it but, at the time of publication, it was seen by society as an immoral book and even used in the trial against Oscar Wilde that resulted in two years imprisonment and hard labor. I will argue that using the characters of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, and Basil Hallward, Oscar Wilde supports the common Decadents belief that open sexuality in mainstream Victorian culture would make for a better, happier society. From the very beginning of the novel, homosexual relations are apparent through the conversation about Dorian Gray between Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. As Lord Henry questions Basil about the mysterious person in his painting, Basil’s odd obsession...
Words: 1467 - Pages: 6
...different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote an essay referring to these conflicts. Her essay made it possible to further examine these struggles. In works such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and “Family Stories From the Trail of Tears” Pratt’s essay makes it possible to deeply examine the clashing culture and gain insight into how it impacted the world today. Mary Louise Pratt’s essay is called “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She defines a contact zone as a space where two cultures wrestle with each other’s ideas and beliefs. She goes on to discuss how these contact zones have come to help shape society, and how the aftermath is world changing. Her essay provides an excellent analysis of what happens when two distinct cultures come into contact, and most importantly, how that affects others. She also examines the two phenomena that occur as a result of the Contact Zone. One sensation, authoethnography, gives the reader first hand insight into cultures. The other, transculturation, shows what happens after the contact zone. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes on an entirely new meaning with the help of Pratt’s tools of analysis. There are two distinct cultures, that of the Dominican Republic, and a less conventional science fiction culture. These two largely different cultures clash throughout the novel as Diaz does his best to...
Words: 1773 - Pages: 8
...Kate Chopin: Desiree’s Baby Kate Chopin, born Katherine O’Flaherty was an American writer who is best known for her major work The Awakening which was published in 1899. Chopin was born in St. Louis to her father an Irish immigrant, and her mother whom was of French descent. Although Chopin’s father died in a train wreck when she was four years old, she grew up surrounded by “loving, intelligent, and independent women” (Baym and Levine 420). At the young age of nineteen, Kate married Oscar Chopin and moved to New Orleans Louisiana. Less than a decade later, Oscar's cotton business failed and they moved to his family's plantation in the Natchitoches Parish of northwestern Louisiana, where Oscar “opened a general store and managed a family cotton plantation” (Baym and Levine 420). When Oscar passed away in 1882, the widowed Kate was left to raise her six young children on her own. Chopin chose to contribute to the local market and “fashioned a literary career out of her experience of the Creole and Cajun cultures she had come to know” (Baym and Levine 420). Chopin’s stories of Louisiana rural life earned her national recognition as a writer of local color fiction. In Desiree’s baby, Chopin’s ability to foreshadow and build up suspense allows the reader to engage in the doubtfulness and uncertainty which keeps the reader unaware. Desiree’s Baby is a story of love, mystery, and suspense. Published in 1893, Desiree’s Baby, was centered on the controversial subject of...
Words: 1504 - Pages: 7
...CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Background of the Study In our daily lives, we actually have gone through a lot of incident whether it is good or bad. However, we hardly draw the conclusion of the incident we have been through. We might fail to reach something we have been wanting so long, though the thing we desire is well-planned, yet the result is not like what we expect before. The point is that every time we are facing a problem, we should really pay attention and take the message of it. There will always be sort of a lesson in every single difficulty. Not only shall we find in our daily lives, but we could also find it while reading literary works, watching movies and suchlike. Reading literary works has interesting adventure in which an extra attention is needed to figure it out. For some people, reading novel or short story is more than just about looking for the beautiful story or the greatnesses of the story. Yet, there are some people who only read novel without a deep understanding. Usually the readers will be facing some questions which have something to do with the author’s intention making story. Common question coming out automatically after reading novel or short story is such what is the author trying to tell us in the story or what the moral lessons of the story is. According to Nurgiyantoro (1995:66) to know of what the author feels like to convey in the story is the main task of reading fiction work, it is either Novel or Short story. As a matter...
Words: 4043 - Pages: 17
...M&M’s Brand Case Study Update Prepared By: Alana Allred, Nate Matthewson, Arianna Mevs, April Seeley & Krystal Simpson 2008: History of the Organization Mars Snackfood U.S. proclaims Green the new color of love this Valentine’s Day. M&M’s used myths, rumors, and innuendo surrounding Green M&M’s Chocolate Candies. Ms. Green used her alluring ways to promote M&M’s Chocolate Candies as green interrupted the pink and red of traditional Valentine’s Day colors. After Valentine’s Day at the end of February 2008, M&M’s Brand introduced M&M’s Wildly Cherry Chocolate Candies marking the first time the brand used cherry fruit flavoring. M&M’s also released limited edition M&M’s Mint Crisp Chocolate Candies, in conjunction with the new movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 2008 also brought the announcement of personalized M&M’s Chocolate Candies. Consumers can now visit mymms.com and upload photos to be combined with custom messages creating personalized candies for birthdays, weddings and more. M&M’s Brand released Limited Edition Strawberried Peanut Butter Chocolate Candies to celebrate the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. M&M’s Brand releases Pretzel M&M’s. 2010: Orange Candy Spokesman becomes the new official M&M’s Pretzel Chocolate Candies Spokesman, featured in advertisements and on packaging with an x-ray image showing its pretzel center. 2009:  2012: Ms. Brown makes her debut during the Superbowl. Original Milk Chocolate...
Words: 5299 - Pages: 22
...Lottery” many of the villagers unconsciously support the cruel tradition of stoning one of its members for a better harvest b. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” Bassett and Uncle Oscar unwittingly attribute to Paul’s failing of health and considerable need to stay “lucky” 3) Ritual practices a. The lottery is conducted yearly to select the “winner” who will become the “sacrificial lamb” that will preserve the life of the village b. Paul madly rides his rocking horse on a journey to where “luck” is until he receives an answer for who the winning horse will be in the next race 4) Untimely Death a. Tessie is stoned to death after her husband selects the slip of paper that has the “black spot” and her family has to re-draw for the “winning” ticket b. Paul dies as a result of pursuing an answer for his greatest and most rewarding Derby gamble 5) Real World * “Jackson” declared the purpose of “The Lottery” had been “to shock the stories readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity found in their own lives” (p.250) * “Lawrence” demonstrates the pursuit of gaining material pleasures and the sacrifices one will make to obtain them In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” the reader is introduced to two characters who, while on...
Words: 1573 - Pages: 7
...<body Stoker also had a personal relationship to several third identities. As an Anglo-Irishman, he often proved to be too Irish to be truly English, yet too English to be merely Irish. This lack of an easy national identity is mirrored, as we shall see, in Stoker's own sexuality. It is difficult to label him as simply heterosexual or homosexual; at the very least, Stoker, like Harker, can be said to participate in a homoerotic lifestyle. Finally, and perhaps most influentially, Stoker saw a new definition of homosexuality based around the idea of a thirdspace become popular in the aftermath of his friend Oscar Wilde's trial and conviction in 1895. </body From <http://journals.sfu.ca/thirdspace/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/olson/66> <body Transylvania is also a site of gender inversion for Harker. Throughout his stay at the castle Harker is feminized. Dracula takes Harker's possessions from him, doling out food, money, and correspondence as he determines Harker needs it. Dracula also controls Harker's movements around the grounds and his access to the entrances and exits of the castle. Harker also notes his feminisation in his journal. He notices that he writes his journal, "sitting at a little old oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen" (36), and sleeps "where of old ladies had sat and sung and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad for their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars" (37). This...
Words: 733 - Pages: 3
...Biography An exuberant nonconformist and controversial playwright, eminent author Oscar Wilde produced critically acclaimed literary works that defined the essence of late Victorian England. Posthumously recognized for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and satiric comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde initially acquired criticism for his immoral and unconventional style of writing. Additionally, to his dismay, strife followed Wilde in his personal life as he was notoriously tried and incarcerated on allegations of “gross indecency” (homosexuality). Emotionally depleted post-imprisonment and stricken with poverty, Wilde was diagnosed with meningitis and died soon thereafter at the ripe age of 46. Born October 16, 1854 to father...
Words: 1243 - Pages: 5
...The Picture of Dorian Gray: Plot Analysis The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a fiction novel that tells about a man who goes through many trials and tribulations that test his sanity. The novel takes place in the late 19th century which is considered to be the Victorian era. The Victorian era was an era of great judgement and it really depended on your social class whether or not you would get treated with high regards. The contrast between middle-class society and the sins of the wealthy corrupted upper class played a huge role in the novel. Dorian Gray was considered to be of the higher class, therefore, he struggled with the madness that came with it. Dorian Gray was beautiful. So beautiful that Wilde made a point to explain to the reader how beautiful and good-looking he was. “Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair” (Wilde 11). Not only was Dorian Gray well respected, but he was quite the man to look at and everyone admired him. However, Dorian Gray had some of his own demons to battle with his quest to stay forever young. Having this impossible and selfish wish comes him transforming from a gorgeous innocent pure soul, to a full developed maniac. To continue, like many other novels, there’s other characters that have a great impact towards the main character. Lord Henry is the definition of a bad influence that impacted Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray does not have any parents because...
Words: 995 - Pages: 4
...From the Writer “Dorian Gray the Escape Artist” is the culmination of my work in my WR100 seminar, Fantasy at the Fin-de-Siècle. The final assignment was to create a research paper based on an interesting problem or paradox I had found in Oscar Wilde’s book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. For me, one of the book’s most fascinating elements was Dorian’s immature behavior; though he grows older, he never seems to “grow up.” At first, I investigated how my idea related to aestheticism and what Dorian’s immaturity showed about aestheticism; however, I could not find a solid way to prove my thesis. My greatest problem was being unsure of how writing a paper based on a research problem in The Picture of Dorian Gray constituted a researchable argument and not just a literary analysis. Hoping to gain a different perspective on the assignment, I met with fellow classmates to talk out my problem. It turned out that they were having the same issue with their essays, and through discussing my paper with them, I realized that my topic was too narrow to be easily supported by sources; the idea of Dorian growing older without growing up was interesting but could not easily be supported with sources outside the novel itself. With this in mind, I modified my thesis, claiming that though Dorian Gray demonstrates aesthetic behavior in The Picture of Dorian Gray, his fascination with artistic things serves less to pursue aestheticism and more to evade his dark past. In this manner, I argued,...
Words: 2321 - Pages: 10
