The barber had the chance to kill him with the razor when he was shaving near Torres’ Adam’s apple. The barber thought about slitting his throat with the razor but stopped himself when the following thoughts came to his mind. For example, he stated “a blade like this doesn’t fail. It is my best. But I don’t want to be a murderer, no sir.
One of the recurring themes of Anne Fadiman’s novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the cultural unawareness that is present, not only the American perspective, but the Hmong perspective as well. This is evident in the recountment of a Hmong American that returns to visit Ban Vinai, a refugee camp in Thailand, after establishing herself in the United States. Most of the book is written with a focus on the Western doctors lacking understanding of Hmong language, customs and culture which in turn made it difficult for them to treat patients such as Lia. They struggled to explain procedures, while practical to them, appeared harmful and life-threating to the Hmong.
Broken Chain by Gary Soto is one of the two stories that I picked, the other being Seventh Grade still by Gary Soto have lots of differences and lots of similarities you notice only when you compare them. Both Broken Chain and Seventh grade have many thing alike, even though they are two unique stories. Both have the main characters ,Victor and Alfonso, who want to impress a girl they know and like. But still they run into some hard times trying. They embarrass themselves in the process too.
Dana Gioia builds his argument an interesting way. The use of ethos and logos really helps the reader feel like this is important and should go do something about the problem. The use of logos in this article makes the reader realize the severity of this problem. "Literacy readers are markedly more civically engaged than non readers, scoring two to four times more likely to perform charity work, visit a museum, or attend a sporting event. " This quote shows that literature readers are more socially and civically active through the use of credible facts.
Lawrence Teft III Rough Draft Imagine being sent to a camp for “troubled boys” but walking out doing something you’ve never done before. Lawrence Teft is portrayed as the reckless bad boy who ends up playing as a second leader in Glendon Swarthout’s novel Bless the Beast and Children. Lawrence Tefts careless attitude is what got him sent to Box Canyon Boys Camp in the first place. Teft’s parents pay more attention to their money then they do him. Due to that he can get away with a lot.
In Hernando Tellez’s short story, “Lather and Nothing Else”, Tellez successfully creates suspense throughout the story, a story about a barber and his dilemma of whether or not he should kill his enemy, who also happens to be his client. The story is entertaining yet suspenseful from using a variety of strategies to create suspense throughout the story. Tellez uses two main methods throughout the story, first person point of view and the two main conflicts introduced in the story. Since Tellez uses first person point of view it makes the reader feel like they are the main character himself. The reader goes through the main character's thought process, making readers wonder what the main character is planning.
Jean Laffite was an American patriot, a famous pirate, and, a traitor to all. Laffite has spied for Britain, Spain, and America. Jean betrayed all but America. He was one of the best spies the united states had had at the time. He could hire other people to do his spying instead of risking his own life, but he did it all by himself.
In his short story collection We Live in Water, Jess Walter echoes the theme that people are products of their environment, despite any effort to escape the adversities that hold them back. This theme clearly appears in the opening story, “Anything Helps,” where a widowed and homeless man, Bit, tries to recover from the death of his wife by making amends with his estranged son. This devastating yet heartwarming story shows how one man goes to great lengths in an attempt to change his life. Walter also exposes the theme in the most prominent piece of the collection. The story “We Live in Water” provides a flashback and flash-forward structure by following Oren Dessens, a man who cheats on his wife and has conflict with the worst man in town and describing the journey of Michael, a lawyer returning to his hometown expecting to find his absent father, but instead, ends up learning more about himself
For this assignment, I decided to read Dry by Augusten Burroughs. Augusten Burroughs, started off from being one of the best advertising suffers from alcoholisms and his book goes into great deal of his journey that eventually led to his recovery. Burroughs, divides his memoir into two parts. In the first part of his book, consists of four chapter. Here we read about how he goes from being one of the top advertisers in New York to later ending up in rehab.
The collapse of France during World War II was as abrupt as it was unforeseen. A major work of art that reflected the provocative history of France during the German occupation and the lives of the captives was that of Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Française, a book she wrote in 1941. The French women that were portrayed in the novel come from different backgrounds and played different roles. The roles that these women depicted in the book were roles that women in reality played; roles that they didn’t necessarily choose, but rather was forced upon them by the French society and the circumstances that the war has brought upon them. Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 to a wealthy family, and like most prominent Russian-Jewish families, hers had made the transition to French life impeccably (Kaplan 4).
“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurtson exemplifies the amount of disrespect and domestic abuse a woman can handle. It also demonstrated how some males view women in a distasteful and unsatisfied way. Gender and sexuality can initiate most of the specific tactics of domestic violence that can dehumanize an individual, especially women. Zora Neale Hurtson’s character, Delia Jones, demonstrates how women can transition from being inferior to becoming superior in a domestic relationship. The story opened with Delia washing clothes for white people on Sunday, and Sykes verbally abused her for dishonoring God because she was washing clothes that belong to white people on the Sabbath day.
The three texts, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen and Civil War Journal by Louisa May Alcott share the common theme of importance of an individual’s contribution during the Civil War. The main character, Joby, from “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh’ contributed to the Civil War by leading the whole army of soldiers into battle. Charley from Soldier’s Heart contributed during the Civil War by volunteering to fight in the war, as a soldier. Louisa May Alcott, the main character and author of Civil War Journal aided the wounded soldiers, as a nurse. Therefore, these three stories all bring the significance of an independent’s Civil War contribution to life.
In the short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston, she tells the story of a hard-working woman named Delia Jones and her abusive, cheating husband Sykes. Delia and Sykes are drastically different characters. Delia is an honest, church going woman, who cleans white people 's laundry to make ends meet and Skyes is a low-down womanizer who uses his wife 's income to support not only himself but also Bertha the woman he is having an affair with. After years of putting up with her husband 's mistreatment, Delia finally holds her ground. She defends her job with a skillet.
Morals and were to draw the line play a big role in Steven Millhauser’s short story The Knife thrower. The story starts in media res. A first person plural narrator introduces us to Hensch the knife thrower, hence the title, and the fact that he is coming to their town. Hensch is not just a normal knife thrower, he have stepped boldly over the line never crossed by any other knife thrower before. He have made a reputation out of disreputable things and induced the art of the artful wound, the mark of the master.
Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.
