The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham is a great novel in my opinion. It occurs in the future but it focuses on prejudices, intolerance and torture, issues that exist now and will always exist as long as we do. I believe the novel has a very important message for readers today. In the novel, The Chrysalids, and in reality presently, many human rights are being violated. First off, child abuse and torture is a major factor in the novel. Secondly, the intolerance towards the women of Waknuk, and how they are treated. Lastly, the deportation of people to other countries around the world, and other area's of Labrador.
The first issue that is a major concern in the novel, is the torture and abuse towards David, and other members in the novel. Every minute in the United States, children are physically and sexually abused, murdered, maimed, and emotionally scarred. David, the narrator of the novel, has encountured this abuse more than once. David is tortured numorous times, by his father, Joseph Strorm. This brutality would continue, until Mr. Strorm received the information he demanded. It would continue on for hours, until David could not handle it anymore, until the answers Joseph Strorm wanted, were beaten out of of him. No child, anywhere in the world, should have to experience such cruelty. Over 67% of children with disabilities are induced by physical abuse. These numbers are very shocking, but what is every more unbelievalbe is the fact that these children are suffering in...
The Kingdom of Matthias by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz is a story of the rise and fall of a religious cult established by Robert Matthews (Matthias). Within his kingdom, Matthias and his followers, abided by Matthias, believes of the subjugation of women by men. Even though at the time the cult was in existence the United States was experiencing two great movements that urged the forward progression of women, the Market Revolution and the Second Great Awakening. Two women in particular are mentioned in Johnson and Wilentz’ book that were really suppressed by Matthias and his subjects. One was Isabella van Wagenen, the slave that worked in Mount Zion and even Matthias’ own daughter Isabella Matthews Laisdell. The Kingdom of Matthias reveals the 19th century experienced the presence of an oppressive “prophet” known as Matthias who tyrannically degraded women through cruel treatment, sexual advances, and belittling them in a society that was starting to notice the inclination of women’s rights, all of these violent and atrocious acts eventually lead to the downfall of Matthias’ kingdom.
The Cone Gatherers written by Robin Jenkins covers many topics. The two topics I shall mainly focus on are the eventual insanity of Duror the gamekeeper and also his evil towards Calum and Neil, the two cone gatherers. As I read the book, I discovered that Duror was an evil and disturbed human being who was driven to insanity by his hate towards the cone-gatherers.
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
Within every story of tragic events there is always a visible spark of hope. The novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is a story of great despair and tragedy yet with hope prominently noticeable. The protagonist, David as well as his companions face various challenges, which result in double edged swords exhibiting despair throughout; however, nearing the end the desperation breaks apart letting hope shine through.
The author is attempting to teach the readers that no one should treat people this badly. David is an innocent child and does not deserve his bad childhood. David does not even do anything wrong, and his mother continued to treat him like an object. Pelzer succeeded in telling how cruel the mother is. He also teaches that people can be cruel to each other, and that it is important to teach people that kindness can go a long way. The whole book discusses his childhood. Pelzer wrote some sequels to tell the rest of his child life for the interested readers.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
This work documented the human experience in a light that I would not have seen it had I only read the books assigned to me in class. The themes in this book and how they were portrayed helped me to be able learn symbolism a bit better and also to understand my own life more clearly.
The poem “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant reveals a very unusual aspect of nature. While most people think of nature as beauty and full of life, Bryant takes a more interesting approach to nature. He exposes a correlation between nature, life, death, and re-birth. Using nature as a foothold, Bryant exercises methods such as tone, setting, and imagery in a very intriguing way while writing “Thanatopsis.”
The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas is a short story written by Ursula Le Guin. In her story, Le Guin creates a model Utilitarian society in which the majority of its citizens are devoid of suffering; allowing them to become an expressive, artistic population. Le Guin’s unrelenting pursuit of making the reader imagine a rich, happy and festival abundant society mushrooms and ultimately climaxes with the introduction of the outlet for all of Omelas’ avoided misfortune. Le Guin then introduces a coming of age ritual in which innocent adolescents of the city are made aware of the byproduct of their happiness. She advances with a scenario where most of these adolescents are extremely burdened at first but later devise a rationalization for the “wretched one’s” situation. Le Guin has imagined a possible contemporary Utilitarian society with the goal to maximize the welfare of the greatest number of people. On the contrary, Kant would argue that using the child as a mere means is wrong and argue that the living conditions of the child are not universalizable. The citizens of Omelas must face this moral dilemma for all of their lives or instead choose to silently escape the city altogether.
2. The first reason for this thesis stems from the point of view used in the story. The point of view exemplified is one of third person, more specifically one who is omniscient. The story’s message could not be conveyed from the first person, due to the fact that virtually everyone in the writing at hand is not only unable, but unwilling to figure out the true nature of their surroundings.
Why did so many people, young, old, sick, wealthy and even convicted felonies had to experience firsthand of the worst evil man could ever pursue to one another. What was the point? Surely there have been many explanations, but those did not answer mine. I understood why the prisoners questioned their faith in God, I probably would have to. On the contrary, not even prayers to God could stop such evil. It criticizes the acceptance of human rights. This story puts a strain on trusting others. The individuals in this novel had a redundant encounter. It maddens me to the core. The hardships of what they had to go through, just for survival gives me grief. The story overall makes me feel distressed from every angle of the
The book The Translator tells the story of a brave man, Daoud “David” Hari, who came face-to-face with genocide. It is a perspective that is rarely ever seen and tells us of events that we hope to never see. Time and time again, David makes the choice to stand up for what he believes in – despite everyone and everything around him trying to force him in the opposite direction. David helps many people in many different ways, but he is so successful at doing so because he knows his role. He knows what he is good at and what he can do, because of this, he is very good at helping those in need. In the back of the book, we are asked a few different questions:
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
One is struck by the extreme cruelty and hardship he faced while only an emotionally vulnerable child and adolescent. As Wright generalizes his own experiences to show how the society functioned at the time, one may wonder how many individuals were crushed by similar circumstances.
John Steinbeck uses symbolism to give alternate meanings to his short story “Chrysanthemums.'; A symbol is a device used to suggest more than its literary meaning. He uses these symbols to look further into the characters and their situations. The character Elisa has a garden, which is more than just a garden, and the chrysanthemums that she tends are more than just flowers. There are actions that she performs in the story, which also have other meanings.