“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.
Smile Smile by Raina Telgemeier is a book that talks about the challenges you can face during middle school. The author writes the book using her personal experience of 6th grade to high school. She is trying to let people know that there is many obstacles in life. A big part of your life includes you Middle School experience. The book’s character Raina Telgemeier happens to fall upon the many situations a Middle School can offer.
How does one become a man? Have you ever wondered if you are truly a man? In the novel, “The First Part Last,” the main character, Bobby, wonders if he would ever become a man. Bobby is a sixteen year old teenager who was careless and impregnated another teen named Nia. Bobby decides to raise the baby himself after the mother goes into an irreversible vegetative coma.
“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-.” This quote is from the poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar which is a poem about the struggle that Paul Laurence Dunbar’s family went through during their lives being enslaved. This quote represents the role that a mask can play in covering up true self. By wearing a mask, a person is covering up their unique features. Also, they are not letting anyone get to know them as well as hiding their persona from the public.
Such personification mirrors Dunbar’s use of figurative language, which relates the poems in more ways than one. Dunbar touches on human features such as cheeks and eyes in his poem but also uses a spiritual element to advance his point of view. Furthermore, “We Wear the Mask” was written in 1896; a period in American history that was post-slavery but still had widespread discrimination. The spiritual connotation within Dunbar’s poem can allude to African American churches and/or the hymns slaves sung on plantations. Nevertheless, the struggle of African Americans is a symbol of both presented
People act differently when they are with certain people than when they are alone. Some will call this act a “mask.” This metaphor is used because people cover up who they truly are or what they really feel with their actions; similar to the way a mask covers up a person’s face. This idea of a mask is explored in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” and readers can see examples of “masks” in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. People often wear masks to hide something about themselves that they are not proud of or hide their emotions and fears they do not want others to know.
For my final honors book, I read Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly which covered the stories of four women who worked at NASA: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. The women worked as human computers before some of them went into other areas in NASA. The book goes into depth about the scientific aspects of NASA while intertwining it with the stories of the various women and explains how it was due to the hard work of the all-black West Computing group and other black women at NASA that it was able to send astronaut John Glenn and rockets into space. I think Shetterly did a great job explaining the scientific aspects in a way that all readers would be able to understand it.
The poem I chose to analyze is We Wear the Mask, written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar in 1896. Its theme is about hiding our true feelings and emotions, and lying about who we are. When looking at Dunbar’s life history, and the political context at the time, we understand that he efficiently uses this theme in order to talk about how black people have to hide how they feel about their social status and the treatment they receive from white people. He conveys the theme to the audience thanks to a clever word choice. Indeed, he talks about “grin” and “smile”, using facial expressions as a description of the mask (Dunbar, lines 1 & 4).
The location that an individual resides in plays a drastic role in how they are perceived by others in society, according to Kincaid. In the reading, Kincaid states various times that “day to day you are not ugly” (Kincaid, page 199) which indicates that it is merely the location that re you in that makes you appear ugly. Kincaid clearly states that while one can acknowledge this, you can not change the way how you are perceived, therefore you must simply accept it and embrace it. Although The description “the people who inhabit the place in which you have just passed cannot stand you” (Kincaid, page 201) illustrates to this notion.
Everyone foresees a romance novel, about the typical boy that meets a girl and their love affair. Where the characters fall in love, and everything seems perfect. Filled with love poems, and making out on every other page. I really loved this book, and I found myself heated at the actions of some of the characters, and cried on multiple occasions. Maybe it’s because I’m a hopeless romantic, but the pages of this book were filled with drama, romance, and a jaw dropping secret.
THE BOOK OF LOVE REVIEW İn this book Sarah Jio tells about 6 different types of love. When jane was preparing to celebrate her 29’th birthday she receives a mysterious letter. In the letter is written address where she’s asked to go if she wants to attain a talent to see what true love is. Jane has been having eye sight problems since her childhood.
The Edge of Seventeen The Edge of Seventeen from writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig, is a very nice movie that related the story of Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), she interprets a generally miserable teenager in the new movie. She has a best friend in Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) but doesn’t get along with her uncaring and unsympathetic mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and has nothing in common with her brother Darian (Blake Jenner), who’s the most popular guy in school and the best at everything he tries. That and she longs for one of the boys in her school, who may or may not even know she exists. Nadine’s life is upended by a series of events. Her confrontations with her mother come to a head, she finds out Krista is in love with Darian and the two are
In the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, a man named Hale had found Mr. Wright lying in bed, dead while his wife, Mrs. Wright, sat in the living room as calm as could be. Hale asks Mrs. Wright “Has anybody been notified?” she responds with “No.” then he asks her “Who did this Mrs. Wright?” and she responds very monotone “I don’t know”(970).
For my piece I selected colors and flowers whose meanings could relate to both texts and their common theme. One side of the mask is yellow, bright,and happy, and one side is dark and evil. The flowers I chose for the happy side consisted of white carnations, cosmos, daisies, and lily of the valley. The white carnations symbolize faithfulness and innocence, this relates to how innocent Jackson’s description of the town was in “The Lottery” when she says, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth if a full summer day: the flowers were blossoming profusely”( The Lottery 1). The words “profusely” and “fresh” connotes that the town is a perfect, quaint little place that people would love to live.
Veil Of Tears Poems By Andrea Powell A Poem For My Brother I wear a mask every day Just to hide my hurt away. No one knows what I’m feeling; No one knows the pain I’m conceiving; I’m trying to heal.
