This is an elegantly written memoir about the life of Greg Williams and his younger brother Mike.The boys live in Virginia with their parents who ran a rowdy bar for military people associated with the bases in Norfolk. Their father was a temperamental, brilliant, exceedingly charming, devious alcoholic. When his fathers marriage and business came apart in Virginia, Greg was about 8 years old, and Mike a bit younger. Their father moved them to Muncie, Indiana and left them with some of his relatives, who had no income and no ability to care for them. The striking aspect of this story is that during this move to Muncie, the boys learned from their father that he was a black man and that in Muncie, they, too, would be black.…
In the readings about men and women, there were two stories that stuck out for me. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and "Shiloh," by Bobbie Ann Mason. To me these stories had many peculiar similarities. I felt that there were so comparable that there seemed to be a true connection between these two novels.…
In both excerpts “ Ragged Dick” by Horatio Alger and “ The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the authors describe the life stories of their main characters and how they were trying to find a better life and achieve a good place in society. Both characters, Ragged Dick and Sylvia came from a very low class. They wanted to achieve success and feel confident about themselves. But it’s easy to notice that both characters are not doing anything for it, even though they dream about live changes.…
Next month I will publish a book about poverty in America, but not the book I intended. The world took me by surprise--not once, but again and again. The poor themselves led me in directions I could not have imagined, especially the one that came out of a conversation in a maximum-security prison for women that is set, incongruously, in a lush Westchester suburb fifty miles north of New York City.…
Kennedy, Lisa. "THE STORYTELLER. (Cover story)." Essence (Time Inc.) 38.11 (2008): 183. Academic Search Complete…
Though the short stories “A Rose for Emily” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” differ in plot, theme, voice, and many other aspects, both contain similar characters and settings. The authors of these highly acclaimed Southern Gothic works, have skillfully and eloquently created intricate characters and imagery that portray many elements of Southern life. Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” tells of the tragic events that take place during a family’s road trip to Tennessee, which ultimately ends in their unsightly demise at the hands of a notorious serial killer. Equally as morbid, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” takes place following the death of well-to-do woman Emily Grierson, as a town recounts her bizarre and insane behavior throughout her lifetime, and makes a gruesome discovery of a rotting corpse in her bedroom. Throughout both stories, O’Connor and Faulkner employ the use of various literary techniques, and successfully create typically southern atmospheres.…
William Faulkner's Southern Gothic short story, “A Rose For Emily” uses a slow cadenced, formal writing style to mirror the old fashioned values of the old south. The tale about holding onto old values mirrors in its own cadence and diction the qualities it attempts to undercut. This conflict between old and new is not unique to the tone of the work. The narrator’s use of the first person plural places the reader in a unique perspective through which we can voyeuristically gaze at the title character. The narrator's diction expresses both reverence and pity for “Emily.”…
The second half of the book follows Mr. Bragg's developing career and family. Mr. Bragg covered various events like the Miami riots, the Haitian atrocities, and the Susan Smith case among others for his job.…
When authors begin to develop a story, he or she takes ample time to ensure the story has some meaning or a message behind the wording. Both Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are examples of how authors tell stories that have an underlying message. Both Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorn use themes and much symbolism in their short stories show the fallibleness of human behavior and judgment.…
“Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.” -Welty…
Rick Bragg had a complicated and hard life. If he wanted something in life he had to work for it or just go without because his family was not wealthy at all. Rick tells about how his mother would starve herself just to make sure him and his brothers wouldn’t go without. Like many of the families during this time Rick Bragg didn’t have a lot of luxurious things like we do now. He would get treated differently at school by the teachers because they didn’t think he would ever graduate high school and become a successful man that he did. Rick Bragg’s journey in his career helps him to cope with the hardships, humiliations, and struggles of his childhood.…
Rick Sanchez is an insane genius scientist from the show Rick and Morty. He’s pessimistic and reckless, but he’s also determined and passionate in what he does, which is why I can most relate to him. The glass half empty outlook on life sounds unideal, but aspects like these need to be addressed to better and improve one’s life. Of course I try to see most things as optimistically as capable, but I can’t help but understand the negative point of view, the ‘what’s wrong in this picture’ aspect, and how current situations can be improved for future benefit. The pessimistic viewpoint gives me the opportunity to solve problems and uncover new possibilities.…
In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, the narrator, a citizen of the town, reinforces the characterization of Emily as he portrays her to be a crazy, mysterious, woman imprisoned in her own home. The story is written from the townsperson’s point of view, which allows for the reader to analyze the story from an outsider’s perspective. The significance of his point of view is it draws the reader to question Emily and her relationship with others both inside and outside her house. The gossip among the townspeople demonstrate the disconnect between Emily and the rest of society. For the purpose of this assignment, the narrator is male, although the story does not specify the gender. The narrator’s commentary portrays a state of ambivalence for Emily; a sympathetic embrace due to the series of unfortunate events in her life, yet the citizen’s pity regresses at times.…
In Edwidge Danticat’s “A Wall of Rising Fire,” majority of the towns’ people were viewed as low class. Working full-time always having to provide for the family with wage below poverty line. “Lili, was squatting in the middle of their one-room home, spreading cornmeal mush on banana leaves for their supper” (Danticat 72). For instance, in the 1800s through the 1900s industrialization and immigration brought poverty new kind and on a new scale to Eastern European immigrants. Danticat meets the same circumstances as Harrison Bergeron, being placed in a government control and determining to be free under a communist government “Near the sugar mill was a large television screen in a iron grill cage that the government installed so the shantytown dwellers could watch the state sponsored news at eight o’clock” (Danticat 76). This gives the reader the visual of how poverty was and showing the facts and outcomes if being “poor” or low class. “A Wall of Rising Fire” the level of socialism and class for Lili and Little Guy is not what it could be.…
From the early days of Richard’s childhood, Richard was always alienated from his environment. Even though he tried to distance himself from the prejudice all around him, the white people still tried to turn him into the stereotypical southern black person. However, throughout the story Richard is also alienated by his own people and perhaps even more then from the white people.…