This is a summary of “A Christmas Story” by Annie Dillard. Every Christmas there was a massive dinner held in a seemingly never-ending dining hall. It was lavish and spacious with a table that was as long as a river and was decorated with many different table cloths and decorations. The ceiling of the hall was covered in chandeliers and the floor was filled with different groupings of people: the sick and injured, the children, to those who wanted to dance or participate in games or various others who gathered in separate sections throughout the hall.
Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson”, is more than just a vivacious story about a girl in poverty out of place in a high-end toy store. Instead, Sylvia’s transformation, the change in both her mindset and attitude, is clearly seen throughout the length of the story, especially after Miss Moore’s trip to the toy store. Toni Cade Bambara wrote “The Lesson” as part of her short fiction collection, Gorilla, My Love that was published in 1972 (Wikipedia). She is a social activist most recognized by her African-American experiences in her writing. Bambara was born in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City (Toni Cade Bambara Biography).
When one first reads “The Chase” by Annie Dillard they are enjoying a childhood tale taking place in the heart of the winter where Dillard creates a detailed play by play action of an event that contains a great message while also incorporating different tones that corresponds to the pace of the story. An important aspect to this short story is the theme of never giving up and giving “all or nothing.” The reader can see this theme from the beginning where Dillard talks about her experience of playing football with the guys. “It was all or nothing, if you hesitated in fear you would miss and get hurt” (Dillard 114). Dillard also shows this message through her soft tone in the beginning, “Some boys taught me to play football.
In the book “Killers of the Dream” by Lillian smith there are several ideas that are brought forward that really demonstrate that the author exaggerates the true situation and the state of affairs in the south. In the context of the book, the south was experiencing serious crisis when the whited propagated segregation against the blacks and other low class whites. The paper contains the author’s thesis and a summary of the author’s primary points. Additionally, the paper examines whether the authors account is incomplete, questionable or cases where the account does not make sense. The social profiling that resulted was regrettable and brought serious repercussions to the society in general.
One of the main protagonists, Mama, is telling her son the reasons for what she did to help her family’s struggle. She says, “When it gets like that in life-you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger....” (588). The character Mama gets a check from the insurance company for $10,000 dollars due to her husband’s death and she doesn't know what to do with it. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama is motivated to/by the chance to get her family a house.
The late 19th century was a monumental era for the city of Paris. As the city kept growing and increasing in popularity around the globe, the city itself was being modernized from its dated medieval layout. These modernizations had a direct impact on the culture of the city, the lifestyles of its inhabitants, and the prominence of the city across the world. Paris’ inhabitants were as social as ever, and often enjoyed themselves at cafés and bars. This modernization acted as a perfect catalyst to support the surging wave of capitalism across Western Europe.
In most novels the first chapter sets a few of the novel's major themes. An exquisite example of this is the novel The Jungle. The book begins with a family moving to AMerica in the early twentieth century to live the American Dream. THe Jungle’s first few chapters were a series of unfortunate events which were the family being stolen from. They were stolen from by businessmen to the police officers.
There are many rights and wrongs in society today. In a book I have read, Belles, by Jen Calonita it shows many of those things that society judges you on. This novel can influence a change in society in in many ways. In Belles, a girl named Izzie, who is about 15, moves in with her long lost dad who is a very famous person. People start writing stories about how he is a horrible man because he ditched his daughter and girlfriend when Izzie was born.
Whereas, in the novel Red Queen, the story is starting within the middle of a scene. “I hate First Friday. It makes the village crowded, and now, in the heat of high summer, that’s the last thing anyone wants. From my place in the shade it isn’t so bad, but the stink of bodies, all sweating with the morning work, is enough to make milk curdle.” Rather than summing up the plot, this introductory sentence is illustrating only the beginning.
American Childhood is a short story written by Annie Dillard. In the story Dillard recounts her childhood from the age of five until she got in high school, all while growing up in 1950s America. One of the recurring themes in the narrative is maintaining happiness even in adulthood. By recounting her childhood as a model for building and keeping this often elusive happiness, Dillard seeks to show how adults, too, can approach the world with childlike awe, as opposed to the common experiences of giving up on childhood dreams, abandoning childlike awe and becoming part of a saddened mob of usually bitter individuals.
It can lead someone to have motivation and truly care about what they do. It can lead someone to go the extra mile and even love what they do. In a scenario that is general to many people, specifically passionate high school students, this can be a good thing because passion leads to better grades, better quality school work, and essentially a better future. On the downside of that, some students take that to heart, they create this
The book started out by introducing us to the characters, mainly Robert Cohn and onto Jake Barnes, who was one of Cohns really good friends, and Lady Brett
“The Chase” is about an adult chasing some kids, but Annie Dillard makes the story transition from throwing snowballs to “wanting the glory to last forever” and how the excitement of life at one moment can affect someone in the future to show that the excitement of life will always be there even when one is no longer a kid. The story starts with a group of friends, imagining how a game of football goes and continues with the encounter of a stranger. From throwing snowballs at his car to him chasing them till they couldn’t run anymore. The whole experience will change the way she looks at adults. “We all spread out banged together some regular snowballs, took aim, and, when the Buick drew near, fired.
One of my favorite creative works is a book called Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. I read the book back in the sixth grade and I fell in love with it instantly. The genre of the book is mostly fantasy and it also focuses about life and death. It is about a privileged girl named Winnie Foster, who ran away from home, meeting a family, The Tucks, who can live forever. Their secret is their own water spring supply in their
It motivates and encourages us to overcome any obstacles and to continue to try even without results. Ambition has shown itself in my life as well. Recently I achieved all A’s and B’s for semester grades, and this was no piece
