...answer “why” questions it answers “how” questions.” [1] Didion wondered why she suffered the emotions she suffered. She delved into the etiology of grief emotions, while neuroscientist like Panksepp study the pathogenesis. Didion suffers the sudden death of her husband accompanied by the illness of her daughter. These are traumatic and shocking moments for any human being. She did what was only natural for herself and sought the truth through investigation. I imagine as a writer she probably kept personal journals with notes regularly, so it was a natural response. The journey led to a masterpiece of narrative and literary techniques to tell a story about a very complex topic. I intend to analyze Didion’s etiological take on her emotions and compare it to the neuroscientific pathogenesis of her primal emotions....
Words: 555 - Pages: 3
...chapter focuses on the childhood memory of the narrator and author O’Brien, showing us his first love, Linda, and how she had a tragic death. This departure from the war narrative is not a distraction but a deliberate choice that serves to connect the pain of losing his first love, Linda, with a broader theme of trauma. Through this chapter, the narrator proves that trauma is a persistent force, deeply embedded in memory and integral to human experience. In "The Lives of the Dead” O’Brien reflects on the impact that Linda had on his life. This personal loss marked his first encounter with death, a theme that resonates throughout the whole...
Words: 715 - Pages: 3
...bring 24 years of experience counselling children and supporting parents. Parents seek me out for my highly specialized knowledge and skill working with children and their caregivers. I bring my extensive knowledge of child development coupled with my family systemic approach to parent-child challenges, children struggling with school related challenges like bullying, learning challenges, children with anxiety, OCD, Autism, and general developmental challenges. I work to understand the unique skills and abilities that each person possesses. The process of counselling helps to uncover these abilities for a child and parent. Treatment of a child can comprise of parental consultations, family therapy and individual therapy. In my counselling with children I may use talk, art and play to help your child learn new ways of copying. Kids love coming to see Bruce. I’d like to think it is just because kids feel comfortable with me, but it might also have something to do with the volume of child focussed activities in my office, from Lego to Egg chairs! I also offer an extensive set of resources for parents to help them support their children....
Words: 469 - Pages: 2
...Hughes paints a picture of himself as a little boy whose decisions at a church revival directly reflect mans own instinctive behavioral tendencies for obedience. A young Langston whose congregation wants him to go up and get saved, gives into obedience and ventures to the altar as if he has seen the light of the Holy Spirit. Hughes goes on to say: " So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I'd rather lie, too, and say that Jesus had come ,and get up and be saved ." In saying this, Langston has obviously overlooked his personal belief to meet the level of obedience laid out by the congregation. It leads us to fact that people may believe strongly in an idea or thought but will overlook that belief to be obedient. One can make a justified assumption that everyone in society has at one time or another overlooked his or her personal feelings to conform this occurrence whether it is instinctive or judgmental is one that each individual deals with a personal level. He was a young boy who wanted to see Jesus, who wanted to earn salvation, but when he couldn't see Jesus, when everyone else saw,he found himself in the terrible position of disappointing not only himself but everyone in his community.He finally "saved" himself by pretending to see Jesus . He was saved not by love of Jesus as a congregation or preacher intended but by pretending to be other that who he was. One wanders what would have happened if he didn't stepped forward? Would they have seen a frightened boy? It...
Words: 4848 - Pages: 20
...physical or emotional trauma by confronting it or by letting it go? Which between "remembering" or "forgetting" creates more private or social well-being? Or is there a third option? Forgiving - and is this even considered? Which provides "health"? What is "health" - freedom from trauma, management of pain? Can a "country" be seen as suffering "ill health"? Can a nation be diagnosed "healthy" or in "ill-health"? Does a "collective memory" embody collective guilt or collective innocence or collective amnesia? Funder's “Stasiland” provides a relatively balanced but personalised analysis of the rise and then demise of East Germany after 1945 and from Communist occupation to re-unification and democracy. Most potently, Funder "records" the personal testimonies (memories) of how both the victims and perpetrators she interviews were affected by such sweeping changes. As a journalist, while she may bias our interpretation towards the victims of the "Stasi" she does not glibly provide simple answers, but she does perhaps re-emphasise both the dangers of forgetting and the dread of remembering the past – the tyranny and fascism of Nazi Germany and the East German totalitarian regime which supplanted it - "to remember or forget— which is healthier? To demolish or fence it off? To dig it up or leave it in the ground?” Chapter 5: The Linoleum Palace: Funder has been touched by Miriam’s story. Returning to her Berlin apartment, Julia, her landlord, is removing more of her possessions from...
Words: 1831 - Pages: 8
...convey the trauma in war-stricken situations and the loss involved. Significantly differing from these sombre themes, William Shakespeare is able to convey his love and appreciation for a woman in My Mistress’ Eyes which conflicts with the self-hatred and resentment apparent in Jennifer Maiden’s stark Anorexia. Delving into personal emotions, a number of the poems express despair in conflict or, conversely, aim to portray an inner turmoil. The depressing atmosphere of Homecoming appeals to the reader by evoking a sense of despair. As the soldiers’ bodies are returned from war, Dawe explores the undignified treatment of the corpses, zipped “in green plastic bags”. Irony in the title alludes to the fact that the soldiers are not returning to a celebration and are unidentifiable, “piled on the hulls of Grants”. Gaining an emotional distance through the use of a third person voice, the poem enables the reader to view the tragedy in its entirety. Repeating “home, home, home” accentuates the emotional ties of the soldiers, a technique indicative of the monotony of the experiences involved in warfare. Equally, “telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree…the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry”, uses simile and metaphor to portray the coldness of death and spreading of grief throughout the community. The technique of symbolism applied in Homecoming evokes the pain of death through “dogs” and their haunting “howls”. They raise their “muzzles in mute salute” respectfully...
Words: 1810 - Pages: 8
...arguments usually question or celebrate the transgressive potentials of the book (Giroux; Mendieta), or address issues of masculinity brought into the fore by their literary and cinematic representations emergent in the same decade (Tuss; Friday). However, few, if any, have addressed the literary aspirations of the text and its author. Although none of the approaches to the thematic concerns of Fight Club are unjustified, in the argument that follows I will suggest that conclusions drawn and critical judgments passed have been hasty, and not only failed to take into account the formal aspects of story-telling, but that the narrative features of Palahniuk’s text have largely went unexplored, and constitute a blind spot of the reception. Critics condemning or acclaiming the novel, and, indeed, many a cultic reader of Palahniuk ignored Fight Club as a literary narrative, and have inadvertently been repeating the catchphrases of the text, either reinforcing or trying to undermine what they have understood as their meaning. I see the significance of Palahniuk’s fiction and the literary event of Fight Club’s publication in somewhat different terms. Palahniuk’s emphasis and continued insistence on minimalism suggest that his fiction is properly understood as belonging to a literary tradition whose evaluation remains troubled and, for a large part, unsettled. Nevertheless,...
Words: 7514 - Pages: 31
...Richard Russo’s memoir, Elsewhere, provides a son’s narration of a lifetime of adventures and tribulations with his mother, Jean. The piece also provides an ideal case study of development, experiences, challenges, and transitions across the adult phases of the human lifespan, thereby allowing for an application and analysis of adult psychology theories and concepts that are commonly presented in more objective and less narrative works. First, attention will be paid to the roles and relationships that Richard and Jean Russo establish throughout their lives. Then, cognitive aging and decline will be discussed in relation to Jean’s physical and mental health and her dementia. Richard’s role as Jean’s primary caregiver will be studied through...
Words: 1802 - Pages: 8
...ENGL124 Literature Analysis Nov.11 2014 The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid, set in the year following 9/11, constructed through a conversation between a Pakistani named Changez and an unnamed American in a café in Lahore.. The Reluctant Fundamentalist uses a variety of narrative strategies that contribute to the novel’s atmospheric world. This essay is going to focus on the metaphorical and symbolic techniques used in the novel and analyze the connection between them. It will also elaborate how does the metaphor relate to the first-person narrative in the novel and how do these two methodologies work together to derive the deeper meaning of the author’s intension. After analyzing the use of metaphor in the book, we could see better the real meaning and power of metaphor used in literature. The book is riddled with allegory and metaphor. Take names as the most significant example in the novel. First of all, let’s talk about the name “Changez”. While several reviewers have assumed that “Changez” is too obvious a name for a character in this situation, Hamid has pointed out that it doesn’t signify “change” but is instead “the Urdu name for Genghis, as in Genghis Khan.” He elaborates: It’s the name of a warrior, and the novel plays with the notion of a parallel between war and international finance, which is Changez’ occupation. But at the same time, the name cautions against a particular reading...
Words: 1749 - Pages: 7
...outline my Practice Learning Opportunity (PLO) setting including my role. It will then explore the social work process in reference to one service user which includes; preparation for contact, assessment, intervention, review, endings and an evaluation of my work. Within this, multi- disciplinary work will also be explored identifying its strengths and limitations. The assignment will outline legislation and policy that determine social work roles and responsibilities to service users such as The Human Rights Act (1998) and Transforming Your Care (2011). Furthermore the assignment will consider how knowledge, skills, values, anti-oppressive practice and professional codes of conduct such as the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) influenced my practice. My (PLO) is a community eldercare team, which provides a service for elderly people over the age of 65. The eldercare team works with service users, their families and professionals within a framework of anti-discriminatory practice to promote each person’s individual value. The aim of the team is to develop personal, social, health and greater independence for service users to enhance their strengths. Referrals are made by a range of professionals, including Gp’s, Hospital Social Workers and Self/Family referral. The eldercare team is situated in large town with a population of 59,607 according to NINIS (2011). Almost 17% (10,133) of this population is aged over 65, which is termed older people. My role within...
Words: 4500 - Pages: 18
...her brother and friends. They’re acting the history of the beheading of the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. The king had six wives, which constituted a rhyme to remember their fates. Lady Anne Boleyn, his second wife, was beheaded. The title can indicate the fate of the protagonist in Robin Black’s story. When her brother Terry’s ill, she’s felling separated from him, hence divorced. He dies and this symbolizes the “beheading” of Terry. The last destiny in the rhyme is survival, of this, she will survive. Even though she experiences the “divorce” and “beheading”, she will survive, and it’s not until she experiences the death of a friend of her son and she shares her inner pain with him, the feeling of survival takes part in her body. Sarah is shocked by her brother’s death and her reaction is reflected in the very simple and objective language and the structure of the short story. Robert Black wrote the story in a first-person narrative style in present and is mainly consisted of...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...Parental Grief Also, sometimes a parent's love makes them unable to let go. I've seen so many parents put their needs above their infant's because they just can't bear to suffer the grief of losing a child. It's heartbreaking when you can see parents in total denial and you know that the end will come one way or another but they just can't accept it. I don't know if that's the case here or not, but it's certainly a possibility. Parental Grief The theme of parental mourning has been a universal one throughout the centuries. In the literature on bereavement, writers repeat certain themes, thoughts, and reflections; they talk of the powerful and often conflicting emotions involved in "the pain of grief and the spiral of mourning; [they refer to] the heartbreak at the heart of things...grief's contradictions"; they speak of parents devastated by grief (Moffat 1992, xxiii). It is frequently said that the grief of bereaved parents is the most intense grief known. When a child dies, parents feel that a part of them has died, that a vital and core part of them has been ripped away. Bereaved parents indeed do feel that the death of their child is "the ultimate deprivation" (Arnold and Gemma 1994, 40). The grief caused by their child's death is not only painful but profoundly disorienting-children are not supposed to die. These parents are forced to confront an extremely painful and stressful paradox; they are faced with a situation in which they must deal both with the grief caused...
Words: 14595 - Pages: 59
...Paris je-taime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location-Paris, city of love. Twenty filmmakers have five minutes each-the audience must weave a narrative out of the twenty moments.An omnibus film concerning love,whether romantic,familial or existential. The twenty moments are fused by transitional interstial sequences and also via the introduction and epilogue. Each transition begins with the last shot of the previous segment, preparing the audience for a surprise, and providing a cohesive atmosphere. There is a reappearing mysterious character who is a witness to the Parisian life. A common theme of Paris and love fuses all. However, the fundamental objective of this paper is to draw similarities from the different aspects...
Words: 2356 - Pages: 10
...of conflict and how it relates to literature from the textbook or the story/poetry links provided under the requirements for the Literary Analysis: Conflict is opposing actions, ideas, and decisions that hold a plot together...the struggle that shapes the plot in a story. Chapters 1-7 of our text contain a number of stories and poems, each of which rely on at least one conflict. Choose two of this week’s assigned literary works and write about the conflicts presented in each of them. In 250 to 500 words Individual versus Society --- “Still she had come down the road toward the big white church alone. Just herself, an old forgetful woman, nearly blind with age” (para 3.1,2) --- appears to be the main conflict in Alice Walker’s narrative ironically, yet metaphorically named "The Welcome Table”. The theme coming across is that of racism, correct me if I am wrong, with the imagery/ symbolism of “the big white church” versus the lone black Elder. This is the story of an elderly African-American woman, who on a winter night wonders into a Caucasian church service, is by force removed from the service into the bitterly cold night, and walks away until she dies of hypothermia and exhaustion....
Words: 2568 - Pages: 11
...Transgressions of Transgender, A reading of I Am vidya: A Transgenders Journey by Living Smile Vidya Sajna Hameed Assistant Professor, Dept. of English St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth Introduction “There exists no prohibition that cannot be transgressed.” - Georges Bataille “Concern over a rule is sometimes at its most acute when that rule is being broken, for it is harder to limit a disturbance already begun.” - Georges Bataille Blurring the boundaries of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality has become a common denominator in defining personal identity in the twenty-first century. Exploding previous notions of these categories as fixed and static, artists today are taking an active role in exposing them as mere constructions. Nevertheless, transgressing these boundaries is still a delicate dance, and individuals who succeed in walking the line between identity categories occupy a precarious position. The purpose of this study is to explore the resistance strategies that trans-genders utilize when met with adversity and the ways that trans-genders see their trans identity as providing them with a form of strength and resiliency. Trans-genders are often analyzed from a pathologizing lens within the sociological and psychological literature. I wish to investigate the ways that trans-genders are currently pushing back against the oppressive forces that they encounter every day in hopes of increasing awareness of trans-genders resiliency and strength...
Words: 2861 - Pages: 12