“Shells” by Cynthia Rylant is a realistic fiction short story about a boy named Michael who has to live with his Aunt Esther after his parents die. In the beginning, Michael is sad and grieves his parents. He has to live with his Aunt Esther because she was the only one who would take him. Soon, Michael buys a pet hermit crab to keep him company. His aunt tries to get closer to Michael by trying to have something in common with him.
Symbolism In the novel, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, she uses a lot of symbolism. One example of this is the recurring importance of rain. The novel is set in the Great Depression, which plays a large role in how her life is played out throughout. Billie Jo’s father is a white wheat farmer, struggling due to the lack of rain for his crops.
Decisions do not change your chance. In Night, a Memior written by Ellie Wiesel in 1958, a young boy by the name Ellie Wiesel suffers through the Holocaust with his father Shlomo Wiesel. Ellie Wiesel first experiences the Nazi party after being evacuated from his house and put in a ghetto. At this time Jewish people did not know the motive of the Nazi party. After being in the ghetto for a few months Ellie, his father, his mother, and sister where forcefully taken from their home and put in concentration camps.
In the short story “Both Sides of the Fence,” by Teresa Bateman, the main character, Alberto, conveys the theme that you must look on both sides of a fence in order to making decisions through his thoughts, actions, and speech. In this story, Alberto attempts to prevent people in his pueblo from benefiting from his tree that was left for him by his family. As the story progresses, he suspects his neighbor from purloining his apples, but then realizes his wrongdoings and his foolishness. Through his character transitions, Alberto helps reveal the them that he has to consider both sides of the argument in order to put up a proper argument.
Shells by Cynthia Rylant is a Realistic Short Story about a 14 year old boy lost his parents. One day Michael comes home with a Hermit Crab and names it sluggo. Both Michael and Aunt Esther like Sluggo. Aunt Esther and Michael love Sluggo so much, they go out and get more Hermit Crabs. Aunt Esther and Michael are closer because of Sluggo.
Extended out to most children is the hand of a parent offering a warm hug along with warnings of danger to their children. This is what any fit parent would do. However this is not always the case with all parents. For example in the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rose Mary and Rex Walls are not fit to be parents because they don’t give their children what they need and have an unstable relationship. Jeannette and her siblings live off of what their parents can afford when they have sufficient money but they don’t use it to give them what they need.
In Allan Levine’s article “How a Summer Camp Taught Me What It Means to be Jewish in North America,” Levine highlights his personal experiences of how attending Camp Massad, a Jewish summer camp, positively influenced him growing up as a Jew in North America during the 1960s. Levine wrote this article to educate and reminisce on the importance of Jewish summer camps to Jewish youth and culture. Levine defines and explains jargon specific to individuals who have attended Jewish summer camp to ensure those unfamiliar with the topic understand his points. An example is when Levine explains the meaning of the phrase “Ruach,” meaning spirit, a term familiar to those who have attended Jewish summer camp. Levine draws on personal experiences to convey
In the 1980’s, many Indio’s were sexually assaulted, tortured and killed during the Guatemalan civil war. Gabriela, the main character in “Tree Girl” by Ben Mikaelsen, is a survivor of the Guatemalan civil war. Gabriela, a 15-year-old girl living in a small Guatemalan canton, experienced unspeakable things such as the deaths of the people in her canton, the witnessing of the pueblo massacre, and the fear of being caught by soldiers on her journey to Mexico. There are many important lessons to learn from this book, including how hope allows you to see past hatred. As you read through the book you learn similar lessons to the extent of what Gabriela had learned.
Rise of the dead A superpower is seen as a fictional feature since it is very unrealistic of obtaining such element, however I can always dream. If I could have any superpower it would be to communicate the dead. Whereas, with this ability I will improve the world by giving the people a more reliable justice system, and it shall bring about personal comfort. First, communicating with the dead will solve any mysteries.
In the book Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Lauren’s views on the world change throughout the book. When she goes from a safer life than others to living on the streets with no knowledge of what to do, she must reevaluate her beliefs. In the beginning of the book, she is very morally right, but towards the end she does what she must do to survive. As she lived more on the street, her views became more flexible, and she gained a deeper understanding of life on the street. Her views are also heavily influenced by outside forces that she grew up with.
The execution of Eric Edgar Cooke will never equate to the lives that were destroyed by his brutality. The genre of crime has been challenged within the biographical novel, Broken Lives, written by Estelle Blackburn. This text revolves around the crimes of Eric Edgar Cooke and the wrongful incarceration of John Button and Darryl Beamish. Within the text, the crime genre has been challenged due to the portrayal of the legal system, as the police and legal system are not idolised within the text. This was conveyed through the use of expository conventions, such as emotive language and selection of detail.
I have to say I love my job… and that job is to review books. However, this task can become difficult because sometimes I do not want to read books that are boring and do not grasp my attention. But a job is a job and I am required to review all types of books. Fortunately enough, the book I was asked to review was pretty interesting.
In the Handmaid’s Tale culture is seen through the handmaid’s religious actions, status, and norms. Having to learn different rights as a human can be difficult and these women have to adapt to the certain norms of being a handmaid. They have to get use to wearing the same outfit every day and sleeping in a bed that’s not theirs. Offred explains how everything she has to wear is red (1998:8) She doesn’t get to pick what color she wants to wear each day. They are being forced to wear long skirts with wings around their head in order to prevent them from being seen or from looking at things they are restricted from.
The word “memoir” comes from the French word “memoire” meaning memory. Memory is the way people recall things good, bad, or indifferently. Memory can also affect the way people look at things and the decisions they make. In the memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson draws close attention to the way in which memories impact her life and the lives of others in good and bad ways. Woodson brings to life a couple of bad memories that largely affected her life.
Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl, was first performed in 2003, and retells the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of his wife, Eurydice. The play has a limited cast of only seven characters, although is focused on the characters of Eurydice, Orpheus, and Eurydice’s father. The setting is a single set resembling both the land of the living and the underworld. Unlike most plays Eurydice is split into three movements, which is comparable to the structure of music.
