Every war is hard to survive. In the end of Milkweed, a historical-fiction book written by Jerry Spinelli, Misha gets married, has a kid, his wife leaves him, and he grows up a mirthful life with his daughter and granddaughter. Milkweed’s ending may have not been joyful to every reader-or every character- but in the end, Jerry Spinelli did a prodigious job illustrating what it was like in the will of survival of the
The Creighton’s had so many people they knew and loved in war. Two biological sons, and adopted son, and their children’s schoolmaster that their daughter was in love with, to be exact. In this story, so much goes on that messes up their family. Two sons go to fight for the Union, along with their schoolmaster, and one goes to fight with the Confederates. Their father, Matt, had something like a stroke or heart attack, and is not allowed to work anymore.
The novel tells a story of an unnamed man and his son in who struggle to survive in this horrific environment. I feel that the language in the novel is verbose. McCarthy is blunt in his descriptions. He uses repeated struggles and similar scenes forcing the reader to share the tough experience of the characters. I agree with the author that The Road is the picture of a post-apocalyptic world.
The Vietnam War is going on in the background of the novel and affects a character called Jeffrey. Jeffrey is a young Vietnamese boy. His family is not welcome in the small town of Corrigan and are abused and bullied. In the novel Jeffrey’s mother gets hot water spilt on her because the ladies husband died in the
Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.
Throughout the characters of her first novel Wise blood, O’Connor depicts what kind of living has those who pass through spiritual suffering. Their spiritual dilemma will lead them to struggle from displacement during their lives. Beside the displacement suffering, their lives will end in a very tragic way. For example, Insoon Choi marks the main character of wise Blood Hazel Motes “a quintessential displaced person” (174) because he has spiritual suffering. Choi mentions that he was not only displaced from his native land, but also from the whole
As we still have yet to fathom what my brother and I will become, I learn to understand the extraordinary sacrifices you and Dad have made to make sure that both me and my brother will succeed in a new world. Over the summer as I read the Glass Castle ,I realized how important determination truly was. Although you have faced hardships such as the death of both your parents, Jeanette, the author of the memoir, had a father who disappeared and a mother who lacked decency to feed her kids. Even though your parents were efficacious unlike Jeanette’s, you two were both determined to take control of your future. With a strong sense of determination to get out of dilapidated West Virginia like you had to from Greece, Jeanette states that, “I was
The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.
The novel is set in the year of 2025, where the world is overrun by corruption, greed, criminals, violence, famine, thirst, slavery and division. The main character, Lauren Olamina, narrates her life and journey in the novel. Lauren describes the horrendous and corrupt world around her and notes of the population’s response to the violent acts. Lauren views the world around her when she
Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.
In Cormac Mccarthy's novel, The Road, the overall outlook on humanity and life is negative. Death, fear, and sadness consumes humans lives. Mccarthy mainly writes about how darkness has taken over in this apocalyptic world in The Road. The apocalypse has unrooted many humans making them live in harsh ways, even turning them into cannibalistic animals. Some events make the father and son live in fear.
Ashen Alleys to the South A country in desolation, few humans remain, and nature in complete shambles. Under the cover of ash clouds, setting retains the tone of “The Road.” It not only sets the backdrop of the novel, but continually affects the father and son. Their surroundings cause physical, psychological, and even spiritual issues. Without the daunting background, Cormac McCarthy could not have created such a compelling story with characters that drive our hearts to the breaking point.
I was in an unfamiliar country and yet I’d never felt more at home. For that single week I spent in my country, I met cousins I didn’t know I had, I learned how to cook, and I learned to value the fact that the city always has electricity. I was also able to see where my parents had inherited the strength and resilience they so carefully taught me to have. They exhibited these qualities as I was growing up, when they struggled to pay bills and learn the American way of life. We didn’t know where our next meal was coming from, but, similar to my grandparents, their laughter never ceased and the sounds of merengue never died down.
He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.
Flannery O 'Connor was born in Savannah Georgia on March 25, 1925, as an only child. Her mother had to assume most of the responsibility of raising Flannery because her father died of lupus when she was fifteen. Flannery attended the Georgia State College for Women, and then went to the State University in Iowa where she received her master in Fine Arts (Gooch). Flannery’s life was very short, died at the age of 39, as she struggled with lupus, the same incurable disease that claimed the life of her father. O’Conner family was devoutly Catholic, which would influence her work and her outlook in life a great deal.
