...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...
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...Lies pervade our surroundings,. Our society exhibits a preference for embracing falsehoods over confronting the somber or crucial truths. Would you prefer to learn that an hour of your existence has been forfeited due to unmet demands, or would you rather be assured that all is well? Consider the notion of an individual striving to shield you from the realm of deception and unveil the veritable world. This individual is none other than the Harlequin. While these inquiries may seem peculiar, they hold significant value for introspection. Society often shies away from confronting harsh realities, opting for untruths over stark truths. In the narrative of "TickTock Man" by Harlan Ellison, the marginalized stratum resists acknowledging their subjugation,...
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...as this passage “As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last.” The paragraph seems to be very musical as the way he puts his sentences together, the way he describes his neighborhood is really lovely. The fact that his writing seems musical is very suitable for his story specifically because it features music, and its one of the central themes. His writing certainly has a musical beat to it and he shows how technique and plot can come together and create a narrative. To add, At one point Sonny speaks in a letter from his prison...
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...Narrative Essay Rough Draft Philosopher Suman Rai once said, “You are the sum total of your life experiences. The more you experience the more interesting your life story gets.” In other words, a person’s individual experiences ultimately bind together to create the collective soul of his or her beliefs and moral values. I have found that people learn life lessons and develop values more from their first hand experiences, than they ever could from being lectured. In example, it is from a personal experience in the seventh grade, that I learned to judge a person not on the quality of their appearance alone but rather by their words and actions. To begin, it is important to understand that I am a visual learner. I tend to process and rationalize...
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...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,...
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...physical burdens that each of them carried, O’Brien unfolds how these men had no choice but to fulfill their patriotic duty. As the leader of the platoon, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross goes through an inner conflict between love and duty, carrying his orders in his mind and Martha in his heart. But how far can war or following orders, impair the human side of compassion and love? Although, soldiers become men at war, O’Brien focuses in a story where war makes men emotionally handicap, leaving mental scars that may never heal. The story is told by a third person’s point of view, however, O’Brien includes a touch of his personal experiences during the war where he spent a year in Vietnam (Hicks). As Josiah Bunting said, “The things he carried into war are very different from what he carried away from it” (Bunting) expressing O’Brien’s experience at war and how his experience as a soldier would convince readers to believe that the different traumatic moments really happened. Although his personal experiences are counted as relevant, some critics consider his storytelling to be “nothing new about trying to tell war stories- that the “truths” they contain “are contradictory”, elusive and this indeterminate”. Kaplan goes on saying that “representation includes staging what might have happened in Vietnam while simultaneously questioning the accuracy...
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...Exploring the Use Literary Techniques in Bossypants To create a striking and memorable story, authors often use literary devices to bring a text to life. Literary devices help eloquently express one’s feelings while also playing to the reader’s emotions. In Tina Fey’s Bossypants, several techniques applied help successfully create a notable work of literature. Her use of literary devices proves to be effective as shown through the irony, humour and flashbacks. Irony is often used by authors to add an element of humour to a simple narrative; Tina Fey’s use of verbal irony helps effectively convey her story. An example of this is when she says: “…I took a personal inventory of all my healthy body parts for which I am grateful: wide German hips that look like somebody wrapped Pillsbury dough around a case of soda” (Fey 25). This is verbal irony as Tina Fey expresses an opinion that is opposite of what she actually means; wide hips are not considered healthy. Her use of irony adds interest to the plot while also making the text more human to readers. By proving that she is not perfect, her story becomes more relatable. A successful story is one that is easy to connect to. Situational irony also contributes to effectively conveying her story. This is evident when Tina and her husband go on a cruise to avoid planes but end up having to fly home anyways due to several problems aboard the ship. Situational irony adds a comedic feel to the story, which breaks down barriers between...
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...young mother penniless. Though her mother had doubts about the Marquis being an appropriate match for her daughter she remains silent because she too felt that money would definitely make her daughter happy and provide her daughter the security that was lacking all her life. The suitor was never doubted, neither his appearance nor his age, nothing deterred either of the female characters in both the old or the new tale. In both the cases neither the family nor the girls doubt or grow suspicious about the strange disappearance of the wives, with no bodies ever being found, multiple times. He called himself a widower and everyone accepted that as a decent excuse to be remarried. Though all the wives were women of great beauty, wealth and personal accomplishments. Yet their disappearance goes unreported and unnoticed. Even more strange is the new wives eagerness and willingness to marry a man who has neither age nor appearance. It was only his wealth that the girls and their families were attracted to be it a noble woman or a seventeen year old poor pianist, and that is what is used to lure the women into the trap. Nothing about his behaviour raises doubts either as he unabashedly displays his immense riches, to his wives friends and family. The hasty marriages, the girls travelling alone to their husband. The journey a metamorphosis , a journey from girl hood to womanhood , a journey from obscurity to security. “the pounding of my heart mimicking that of the great pistons ceaselessly...
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...Source: Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northrup (Auburn, N.Y., 1854) The purpose of Solomon Northup’s book was to share his detailed account of his experiences of his enslavement to rescue from 1841 to 1853, Twelve Years. Solomon Northup was born a free man in 1808 to an emancipated slave named Mintus Northup, who was originally enslaved to the Northup family in Rhode Island. Solomon grew up working on a farm alongside his father had many valuable skills. He was a farmer, carpenter and raftsman who could read, write and play the fiddle/violin. He married a cook of mixed race, Ann Hampton when he was 21 and fathered three children. He described the beauty of the free life he lives and how much he enjoys spending time with his family and earning a living through his many trades. In 1841, he and his family were living in Saratoga Springs New York where he was approached by two men who offered him generous wages as a Violin player in the circus, Solomon didn’t object and left with them immediately thinking he would be back very soon before anyone could miss him. Before leaving New York for the circus show, they insisted he gathered his free papers then travel with them to Washington D.C where those two men gained his trust, took him to a bar to have a few drinks and then drugged his drink which left him staggering, barely coherent, and violently ill. He awoke the next day, shackled in pitch darkness in a slave pen robbed of his free papers. “Alone, in utter darkness...
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...population is of African descent and dominate the political landscape, but the minority dominates the economy. Although class and color distinction are very important in society, there is minimal tension over race (Charles 2009) Identity, as well as self-esteem is often thought to be the reason behind skin bleaching. Slavery was an extremely traumatizing experience for the Africans. They were brainwashed into believing that the values of the British communities were more important than that of their own. It was back then when Africans through socialization began devaluing their identity and began having negative attitudes towards themselves. Skin bleaching is believed to be the contemporary evidence of the lingering psychological scars of slavery in particular and colonization in general. (Charles 2003) Theoretically, this study will concentrate on the...
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...The health industry has developed so many different ways to treat patients with varies health conditions, helping individuals and families. As awell as, many action are influenced and shaped by culture and society, lifestyles, media and artistic and literary production. Breastcancer is one very well know topic, a better understanding of this topic which define the disease itself and its sufferers. I will aim to explain the specifically of breast cancer and breast cancer bodies. Part of the challenge of this project, and indeed is to point out breast cancer issues is still not found in major histories ofphotography, or even anthologies of womenþs photography. Itstradition lies inx-rays, MRIs and collections of medical photographs designed forthe purposes ofdocumentation or instruction, or, alternately, in scattered exhibitions or collections. This history has only very recently been reclaimed and written differently by women photographers and writers, and feminist academics and activists. I have deliberately chosen two photographs whose subject involves some type of writing literally on the bodyas a way ofconcentrating my discussion of the issues involved when photography attempts to process or project experiences of breast cancer, or shape publicperceptions ofthe disease. In this essay, which is part of a more extensiveinvestigation, I will begin some readings focusing on how two women's work incombined image andtext points to desire and agency. The photographs...
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...What do I want? Consider the role that the narrative/performance have in the questioning the true nature and real origin of the monstrous within the National Theatre’s 2011 production of Frankenstein. How? Dear’s narrative approach will be explored in relation to the problematizing and redefining of the monstrous; the shifting of the perspective to the created creature rather than that of the creator and the subsequent effects this has on an audience’s perception. The impact of the performance approach taken will also be considered: how the actors shared body of Frankenstein and his creature, the result of their alternating both roles, raises further questions creating various and yet carbon copies of the monstrous. The focus of this analysis...
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...overbearing desire to love and protect her children in the present. Unwilling to relinquish her children to the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma that she endured as a slave, she tries to murder them in an act that is, in her mind, one of motherly love and protection. Sethe, however, does not understand that her swift decision is conveyed as selfish and overbearing in the minds of her family and community, suggesting that her maternal instincts were poorly communicated to the people around her. The ghost of Beloved (Sethe’s murdered daughter) haunts her until her living daughter, Denver, assumes a maternal role of protection and love. Morrison uses the haunting past of slavery to reveal that Sethe’s scarring experience with personal abandonment may be the reason she cannot fully communicate with her daughters and correctly assume the maternal role in her family. The inability for parents to effectively nurture their children first occurs in Sethe’s life when she realizes that her own mother may have abandoned her on the slave plantation. She remembers that her own mother was hanged, but she does not know the circumstances that prompted the lynching. Sethe wants to believe her mother would never have fled her and that she was as devoted a mother as Sethe herself is. In some way, Sethe enters into the world questioning if she ever was loved as a baby. Her perplexity drastically affects her choices when trying to nurture her own children that are born later in the...
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...BELOVED Toni Morrison ← Analysis of Major Characters → Sethe Sethe, the protagonist of the novel, is a proud and noble woman. She insists on sewing a proper wedding dress for the first night she spends with Halle, and she finds schoolteacher’s lesson on her “animal characteristics” more debilitating than his nephews’ sexual and physical abuse. Although the community’s shunning of Sethe and Baby Suggs for thinking too highly of themselves is unfair, the fact that Sethe prefers to steal food from the restaurant where she works rather than wait on line with the rest of the black community shows that she does consider herself different from the rest of the blacks in her neighborhood. Yet, Sethe is not too proud to accept support from others in every instance. Despite her independence (and her distrust of men), she welcomes Paul D and the companionship he offers. Sethe’s most striking characteristic, however, is her devotion to her children. Unwilling to relinquish her children to the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma she has endured as a slave, she tries to murder them in an act that is, in her mind, one of motherly love and protection. Her memories of this cruel act and of the brutality she herself suffered as a slave infuse her everyday life and lead her to contend that past trauma can never really be eradicated—it continues, somehow, to exist in the present. She thus spends her life attempting to avoid encounters with her past. Perhaps Sethe’s fear of the past is...
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...Purpose: What do I want the student to do? In this course, we will explore the two most commonly used forms of writing for college students: expressive writing and academic writing. Expressive writing captures what is important to the writer. In order to succeed, writers must understand themselves. Such writing is deeply personal. Expressive writing is designed to prepare students for writing outside academics—communicating feelings and observations, beliefs and opinions, community and individuality—all skill sets that will enable students to succeed in any discipline or career path. From a learning perspective, expressive writing is often an easier form of writing than academic. It allows students to begin working with such concepts as language, reasoning and mechanics while working with material they find worth discussing. In this assignment, I want students to carefully examine both themselves and their community. What makes their community unique? What is their place within the community? How did their unique, individual personality take shape? Project Overview: How do I want the student to do the assignment? Component One: Personal Students will choose to write on one of the following three topics: • One’s sense of place (observation) • One’s place within a community (ethnography) • One’s relationship to an event from the past (memoir) Observation Students will write a “detailed description” of a local place that they know well (meaning:...
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