...Carina Braun Ms. Breuer – 8 Book Review 18 October 2012 11/22/63 by Stephen King I have always loved Stephen King and his disturbing ways of writing. After reading 11/22/63, I was amazed at all the different types of writing he is capable of. I first fell in love with Stephen King’s ways after watching the movie It and later reading the book. I have continued reading his books and watching his movies as they are always spine-chilling, exciting, and very creative. I was over-joyed at the thought of him writing a book about one of my favorite periods in history, the 60’s. My parents gave me 11/22/63 the Christmas of 2011. I started reading this book right away. It begins with a 30-year-old man named Jake. He’s a high school English teacher in the year 2011. Almost every night he eats at Al’s Diner where he knows the owner, Al. Al is about 45 years old and full of life, but one day Jake suddenly notices he’s becoming very sick and weak. Turns out Al has been traveling back in time to the year 1960 and experiencing time back then. Al opens up the opportunity to Jake of going back in time, as Al is now developing cancer. Al gives Jake the mission of going back to 1960 and stopping President John F. Kennedy from being assassinated. Along the way, Jake finds himself changing the future as we know it. He ends up in some tricky situations, such as lying about where he comes from and falling in love with a girl with a messed up past. It’s not an alternate reality sort of book,...
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...------------------------------------------------- The Shining Mountain Summary: The story is about a young girl, called Pangma-La, and her father, who was a famous mountaineer and had climbed many mountains. When Pangma-La’s father got a baby-daughter, he named her after a great big shining mountain he ones had climbed, so that she could stand tall and proud. One day Pangma-La’s father decides that he and his daughter should climb a mountain together, so Pangma-La starts training and all is going well. Pangma-La finally has a chance to stand tall and make her father proud. On the way to the top of the mountain Pangma-La meets an old Sherpa woman, she offers Pangma-La to carry her sack, but Pangma-La says no, so the old Sherpa woman disappears. The next time the old Sherpa woman shows herself to Pangma-La, she again offers to help her. This time Pangma-La says yes. The Sherpa woman reveals herself to Pangma-La three times in the story, the third time and last time Pangma-La gives her heart to the old Sherpa woman, and Pangma-La disappears. The old Sherpa woman is actually a hag, and transforms Pangma-La into a swan as a lesson to her father, so he could see that he was pressuring his daughter to much. The hag shows Pangma-La’s father how Pangma-La really feels and that all his high expectations towards Pangma-La are killing her. Pangma-La’s father sees what he has done to his own daughter, and tries to kill himself by throwing himself over the mountain edge. But just...
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...Stephen King: Two Books, One Story In 1974, the world was first introduced to Stephen King through the publication of Carrie. Since then, King has released over fifty-four novels, short stories and essays (King, Written Works). His themes are vast and touch such subjects as aliens, telekinesis, life in prison, trucks coming to life, and the end of the world. In 1999, a car accident almost ended Stephen King’s life. After his recovery, he published five novels that were received with poor sales and unkind reviews. When Under the Dome was released in 2009, it showed that Stephen King was returning to a formula that worked so well for him in a previous book called The Stand. To understand these two books, one must first understand their author. Stephen King was born September 21, 1947. His father abandoned his mother, older brother, and himself when he was two (King, Writing 3). His mother, Ruth took a succession of poorly paid menial jobs, leaving her sons in the care of various relatives. Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. He attended college at the University of Maine, and that is where he met his wife Tabitha, who was also a student. In 1970, he graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a B.A. in English, and his first child was born. Stephen worked as a high school English teacher for a few years in Maine while he started writing his first novel Carrie. Carrie was an instant hit and an overnight...
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...During the novel ‘The Child in Time’, the main character Stephen experiences a great deal of loss and/or grief. When one experiences grief, they experience it by going through five stages. These stages are as follows, (not necessarily in chronological order), disbelief, yearning, anger, depression and acceptance. With these two points in mind, I shall be producing an essay that examines how Stephen experiences these five stages through times in the novel. Disbelief, this is defined as the inability or refusal to accept that something is true or real. Stephen under goes this first stage of grief during a very imagery rich part, in the beginning of the novel. He loses Kate in the supermarket and when he goes home to tell Julie, he cannot believe that it has actually happened, he is still in shock. From this we are able to establish that Stephen is about to embark on the long journey through grief. I find it interesting that McEwan situates Stephen undertaking disbelief towards the start of the novel. I feel that he is foreshadowing to the readers that Stephen is going to be a character, which leads a rocky life, through loss of many things. Yearning, the word portrays Stephen’s craving for something in the novel consummately. I would describe yearning as having an intense feeling of longing for something. That ‘something’ for Stephen is two very important people in his life, Kate and Julie. We know that Stephen longs for his daughter. There is no specific reference needed from...
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...1. | Question : | Please choose the best mechanics correction for the sentence below: “To thine own self be true”, says Polonius to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s tragic play. | | | Student Answer: | | “To thine own self be true” says Polonius to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s tragic play. | | | | “To thine own self be true,” Says Polonius to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s tragic play. | | | | “To thine own self be true,” says Polonius to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s tragic play. | | | | “To thine own self be true”, Says Polonius to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s tragic play. | | Instructor Explanation: | For information on how to correct a mechanical error with a quotation, visit the Ashford Writing Center https://awc.ashford.edu/grammar-punctuation-quotation-marks.html | | | | Points Received: | 0 of 1 | | Comments: | | | | Question 2. | Question : | Please choose the best mechanics correction for the sentence below: In The Writer in All of Us, author June Gould (1989) tells writers that the process of revising an essay allows them to “see with new eyes.” (p. 121). | | | Student Answer: | | In The Writer in All of Us, author June Gould (1989) tells writers that the process of revising an essay allows them to “see with new eyes (p. 121).” | | | | In The Writer in All of Us, author June Gould (1989; p. 121) tells writers that the process of revising an essay allows them to “see with new eyes.” | | | | In The Writer...
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...Both “Knocking” by Rick Hautala and “The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King are masterfully crafted horror stories that lead readers on a psychological rollercoaster. The authors are able to generate such a detailed and in-depth atmosphere that it causes readers to picture themselves in the terrifying situations that they have devised for those reading. Through the evolution of “monsters”, point-of-view and atmospheric conditions which help to create a mood that engulfs readers both King and Hautala are able to write brilliant horror stories. “Monsters” do not have to be literal to create an enjoyable piece of horror fiction. King and Hautala are both able to create thrilling stories by utilizing fear of the unknown and exploiting the reader’s own fear. In “Knocking” Martin Gordon has become overcome by his fear of the unknown and can’t leave his house. The “monster” created by Hautala exists only in Gordon’s head and it is the fear that something could possibly be out there waiting to get him. “His eyes felt like they were bugging from their sockets as he watched…and waited…wishing that the knocking would stop and the person would go away and leave him alone.” At this point I knew that the monster was psychological because without any proof that anyone is there Gordon becomes convinced that someone out to get him and won’t think logically about what else it could be. It seemed to me like Gordon wouldn’t allow it to be anything else. Fear the “monster” has crept into Gordon’s...
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...a young handsome man, who wants to surprise a girl named Norma by giving her some flowers. The story takes place in New York on a beautiful day in May 1963 where everything seems lovely, but it turns out that the young handsome man ends up killing a random girl, who he thinks is Norma, in a narrow lane in New York’s streets. The main character in The Man Who Loved Flowers is described as a handsome young in love. In the beginning of the story he seems like a guy whose life runs perfectly, he is suited up, he is in love and he just seems like a stand up guy “He was dressed in alight grey suit, the narrow tie pulled down a little, his top collar button undone. His hair was dark and cut short”. There is nothing suspicious about him. Stephen King tricks the reader into thinking that it is a perfect evening; maybe the young guy is going to propose to this Norma? “He reached into his coat pocket and touched something in there. For a moment his ace seemed puzzled, lonely, almost haunted, an then, as his hand left the pocket, it regained its former expression of eager expectation.” But when the young man finally meets this girl, who turns out not to be Norma, we find out that Norma has been dead for ten years. I believe that the young man ones has had a lover named Norma, who he thought was the only one but she died and he was forced to live on with that, but couldn’t accept it. Therefore he is now walking around in the streets of New York buying flowers to random people and when...
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...In like manner, Scary stories also truly play a huge part in humans not turning into a bunch of airheads, and witnessing terrifying events help release fears without having to be in danger. The catch? Many teens can’t handle as large amounts of daunting experiences as others. To begin with, almost every child is told a kind of eerie tale from the time they were born. So, think the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, whose traditional stories could give anyone the creeps. Even well-known authors like Stephen King and Ramsey Cambell are influenced by a select few children’s stories. For example, in the original story of “Cinderella,” the stepsisters cut off their feet so that they are able to fit into that enchanting glass slipper. Even so, that sounds awfully grotesque. "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christen Andersen...
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...Gothic fiction combines the emotion of love, despair and horror. The genre continues to be a very successful genre of literature today and is widely used today for both entertainment and education purposes. For two centuries, G has gripped and frightens readers of different ages. During the eighteenth century England, Gothic had become synonymous with the Middle Ages. It was a period perceived as chaotic, unenlightened and superstitious. “Renaissance critics erroneously believed that Gothic architecture was created by Germanic tribes and regarded it as ugly and barbaric. This erroneous attribution continued through the eighteenth century.” (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/gothic/gothic.html) Horace Walpole first introduced this genre of literature in The Castle of Otranto in 1764. In the following years, successful gothic-inspired novels were published such as The Monk (1796), Frankenstein (1818) and Dracula (1897). Gothic stories often involve: - Gloomy weather - The appearance of the supernatural - The psychology of horror and terror - Spooky structures (castles, abbeys) - A sense of mystery and dread - The appealing hero and its villain - The heroine in danger - (Usually) a strong moral closure. The Gothic element in Jane Eyre emphasizes the mystery and the supernatural through the dark, gloomy settings and violent events, which raises a horrific atmosphere. Mr. Reed's ghostly presence in the red-room, Bertha's mysterious laughter in the attic, and...
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...A Monster’s Intrigue Think many would enjoy running for their lives from the clutches of a monster? No, obviously someone would not want that. It would be terrifying, however, there is a large following of monster stories and darker ones. When I ask others for their opinion of this oddity, most were forced to scour their brains for any semblance of an answer which made sense. The reason that so many are infatuated with monstrous fiction and cinema is because the monsters are often interesting biologically, they provide complex and conflicting emotions, and often times the protagonist of the story is more complex than in normal stories. This is especially true when faced with a horrifying monster! Monstrous entities in darker stories can be immensely intriguing, depending on their physiology and abilities. This potential they have plays a role in their intrigue as well. Powers such as mind control or immortality further push them away from humanity and make them much more unique, which we cannot find in nature. Often times these creatures are humanoid, but they have different degrees to which they appear this way, all of which are interesting and unique in their own ways. A hotly debated topic is what it means to be human, to gain insight on this we can look at the stories of serial killers, to Dracula, to the beast folk, to inhuman demons. These traits cause these monsters to be fascinating to viewers and continue dragging them back to this genre. Due to how disparate these monstrosities...
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...“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones” (Stephen King). This quote by Stephen King means that us as humans make up these fictional horrors that scare us half to death to make the horrors of real life seem as though they were nothing. That in essence the horrors that we create in our heads or write down on paper are only a distraction or a diversion that allow us to deal with real life problems, and to make them seem as though they were only 2 feet tall when in reality they’re bigger than the monsters that want to grab your ankles in the night. To summarize, if this quote is true then Stephen King’s life must’ve been quite frightful considering all of his stories leave chills up the spines of its readers. Subsequently, Stephen...
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...The only way to know if you're afraid of something is if you do it. Fear is a kind of imagination, our fears can instantly switch to worlds of danger and disaster. Comparing how fear felt before something scary, and how it felt after is called transformation. It’s only through that comparison, again and again, that you get better at going through things like a haunted house or trail. You have to have some other feeling that you trust more than the fear. In what ways does transformation play a role in stories meant to scare us. Why do we do things such as go through a haunted house, or read a scary book, or even watch a scary movie, why? Are we curious as to how we react? Or are we looking for someplace to put our fear? If you really think...
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...Horror stories are most thrilling for your audience when you include elements of tragedy, atmosphere, and suspense. This is because they do particularly well at putting an audience on edge. For the pretense of your story, it is best to use a tragic initial incident or a series of grave missteps. This method will effectively enthrall your audience, but unnerve them as well. If you're lucky, it might just irritate them too, in the sense that the characters will have made incredibly stupid mistakes. For example, Charlie walked towards the creepy whispering noise. Doing that specifically hooks the audience effectively, and makes them want to read more. They will also likely feel a sense of impending doom after the incident, for if that was...
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...them, however. Their true fear comes from the sheer amount there can be at one time. It’s because of the zombie why we have so much gore in horror today. They sparked the introduction of gore and special effects and verged away from the horror of only mere silhouettes and cut-away screeches. Special effects would soon become one of the biggest things in horror (“The Birth of the Zombie Genre”). The zombie trend, like all things, must eventually come to an end and with its downfall came the rise of a new trend: demonic/supernatural possession. The main reason this trend became as popular as it was, was because of the brilliant movies The Exorcist and The Omen. Another inspiration to the movies of this generation would be the famous author Stephen King. He contributed to the horror genre with his enticing scary tales, which a handful got movie adaptations of. Some of the earlier films would include The Shining and Carrie, with both depicting supernatural phenomenons (Kantilaftis). Horror would soon verge into a fan favorite sub genre called the slasher film. They were most popular throughout the 1980s and produced many great films with lots of sequels (Burton). Great examples of this would include: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The main plot through each of these movies revolves around a killer chasing and killing each of their victims one by one in many creative ways (Kantilaftis). My favorite way that I have seen somebody die...
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...The novel, Good Kings Bad Kings was an easy and interesting book to read. I found it hard to put the novel down and I ended up reading the book in one day. After reading the novel Good Kings Bad Kings, I researched the term “crip” which was frequently used by one of the characters in the book. Through my research, I discovered that disabilities activists use the term in opposition of its original and oppressive meaning. Furthermore, I discovered that the author Susan Nussbaum is a wheelchair user after a car hit her at the age of 24. The novel is based on a group of children and young adults all diagnosed with an intellectual and physical disability. The children in the novel lived in an institution called the Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center (ILLC). ILLC was an understaffed, poorly run institution managed by...
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