At some point in our life, there would be a time to ask ourselves: what is the true meaning of destiny, the word always associated with fate? Can it be controlled by humans or changed? Is it something that is decided already by the heavenly forces or is it a work-in-progress? The definition of this word is subjected to changed from person to person due to the differences in culture, religion, personality, character, and such. However, regardless of how a person defines the word, they will experience a chain of events leading to the discovery of their own fate.
PLOT SUMMARY AND THEME OF THE NOVEL: Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan is the story of how Magnus Chase, a son of the Norse God Frey, meets his untimely demise at the hands of the fire giant Surt after learning of his heritage. After being revived in the Norse afterlife, Valhalla, Magnus is taken back to the world of the living to fulfil his destiny as being the harbinger of the Wolf. Along the way Magnus meets many mythical creatures including: a talking goat, a deaf elf, and a tall dwarf. In the end Magnus and his new found friends rebind the Wolf Fenris and defeat the fire giant Surt. The Theme of Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer is that when things are at their worst it can always get better.
“All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil.” - Anon. You may not realize this, however this quote is surprisingly true. An example of this can be found in the novel, “Before We Were Free” by Julia Alvarez, where the protagonist Anita, is living with her family in the Dominican Republic lead by El Jefe, the antagonist. Throughout the novel, several conflicts occur between Anita (and her family) and El Jefe.
In the book An Invisible Thread, the author often provides examples of parents that have a poor quality of parenting. First there is Laura’s father Nunziato Carino, who’s a bartender. After he is done with his shift, he would often come home drunk and yell at his son, Frank who is Five. Frank will quickly hide under his bed sheet as his father dammed his name again and again. This happened frequently and every one would hide in their rooms as unfortunate Frank takes his father’s heavy word beating each night.
Nightjohn, a novel written by Gary Paulsen, takes location throughout one of the finest periods of prejudice and racism in American records. Nightjohn is the story of a young slave lady named Sarny. Within the book, Sarny meets any other slave named Nightjohn, he teaches Sarny a way to study and write. Ultimately, after Nightjohn is punished for coaching Sarny, he runs away, however, later he returns to complete coaching Sarny. Sarny failed to accept the fact that she was a slave or the unfairness in opposition to her prevent her from learning.
In the novel Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, the setting is critical both to develop the plot, as well as to convey the author’s message. Bel Canto tells the story of a large multi-national group of mostly wealthy and powerful people, taken hostage by a small band of poor South American political activists. The captors strike at a party, looking to kidnap the unnamed country’s President, in the midst of an opera performance being held in the Vice President’s luxurious home. Throughout their four-month confinement, the hostages’ and terrorists’ relationships are transformed. As might be expected, they begin as adversaries.
A Lesson After Dying “I turned from him and went into the church. Irene Cole told the class to rise with their shoulders back. I went up to the desk and turned to face them. I was crying.” (Gains, 256)
The Rebellious Daughter: Analyzing the Theme of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan explores the deep familial emotions between a mother and her daughter. Jing-Mei’s mother had left China to come to America after losing her family, and had been raising Jing-Mei in America with her second husband. Despite her mother’s grand hopes for Jing-Mei to become successful in America by becoming a child prodigy, Jing-Mei did not share the same opinions.
Is a warning label necessary if the reading has some traumatic events? In David Perry’s article, “Should Shakespeare come with a warning label?’ Perry explains how some readings have traumatic events that may cause the reader to feel uncomfortable, which concludes that “universities have debated putting warning labels on violent, abusive scenes in literature.”. An example of a reading with a traumatic event is “In the Roman poet Ovid 's "Metamorphoses," one of the great works of Western literature, King Tereus of Thrace rapes his wife 's sister, Philomena, then cuts out her tongue. In "Titus Andronicus," Shakespeare references Ovid with an even more grotesque rape and mutilation, while including multiple acts of murder, torture, and cannibalism.”.
The human condition is full of paradoxes and double meanings. We can commit the most shocking and terrible acts, but we can complete the most virtuous and honorable feats. Ishmael Beah describes the appalling and violent behavior he and other children exhibited toward the human life during his time in the Sierra Leonean civil war in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. Beah also details the forgiveness and kindness of complete strangers that helped him become the man that fate meant him to be. Homo sapiens are complex creatures brimming with irony and surprises.
“The Veldt”, by Ray Bradbury, is a short story that contains a series of events where the children, Wendy and Peter, are constantly being spoiled with the use of technology. Their parents, George and Lydia, bought a technology filled house, which contains devices that do almost everything for them, including a nursery for the children. The nursery’s walls transform and display different environments, of which reflect one’s thoughts. The children, however, are caught using violent content inside the nursery so their parents threaten to take away all technology, including the nursery. The children become upset, throw temper tantrums, and end up locking their parents in the nursery, left there to die with hungry lions.
“The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” The American Author, Ursula K Le Guin has written many novels and short stories in the past. She is most famous for her science-fiction novels and works. “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” is a short story based in the utopia city of Omelas. Le Guin tries to convey the idea of being able to live in a utopia only at the sacrifice of a young child’s innocence.
All the three works of group three extend the novelties of group two. “Ecco mormorar” and “S’andasse Amor” adventure the florid writing in them, while “Memtr’io mirava” shares its move to distant harmonic areas. However, there are two traits that are very difficult to define that unite these madrigals; one is an ability to bring to music the syntactic and meaning organization of text and a structural coherence of a rigor which is unknown to Monteverdi’s earlier works. All the listed characteristics and especially the last one, are exemplified in the “Ecco mormorar l’onde” which happens to be Monteverdi’s most famous madrigal of the second madrigal books. The texts of “Ecco mormorar l’onde” is a fourteen-line that illustrates the pastoral dawn, a sort of landscape poetry in which Tasso shined .
The New and Lonesome Normal Joyce Oates’s “Hi Howya Doin” depicts the violence that has captured and encapsulated today’s culture. The un-deemed murder of an innocent jogger in the end of this story validates and justifies the fear that so many individuals feel. In Oates’s short story, “Hi Howya Doin”, the protagonist is depicted as a “Good-looking husky guy six-foot-four in the late twenties or early thirties, Caucasian male…..solid built as a fire hydrant, carries himself like an athlete, or an ex-athlete” (214). Through the police report, giving the description of the protagonist, Oates foretells his surprising fate at the beginning of the story which in turn, creates tension and suspense for the reader as the protagonist goes about what
The tragic novella of Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton focuses on adultery in rural New England. Stressing the importance of relationships, the narrator tells the story of Ethan Frome, a man searching for love. Despite being married to his cousin Zeena, he only views this civil union as a moral obligation. Then, he ventures into an adulterous relationship with Mattie Silver, and begins to understand what love is really about. The author often focuses on a red pickle dish, a treasured wedding gift, which unexpectedly shatters.
