Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller provides an insight on the desperate times of the economy when tobacco selling was the one crop that made ends meet. Fuller justifies the prose by creating a plot filled with tension that portrays the poor, economic struggles of a family through a first person narrator. Alexandra Fuller writing techniques depict the prose through language and characterization; it shows the harsh economy the narrator’s family is dwelling with. Alexandra Fuller begins the prose with the introduction of the characters. Fuller introduces the anticipation of the family as the tobacco buyers approach. The speaker is well aware of the importance of selling their tobacco and goes to all measures to help her …show more content…
Fuller is able to show through the use of word choice that the mother is feeling needy and anxious to gather the attention of the buyers, which implies that the family is facing an economic struggle, and it also shows that selling tobacco is not the easiest job, and desperate families with low income are willing to do the job. On the contrary, Fuller presents the father as a stern and reserved character. Through the use of dictions, Fuller illustrates the father of the narrator as an ordinary man who is not worried if his tobacco sells or not: “Dad nonchalantly stands, resting on one leg, like a horse at rest. He looks …show more content…
The use of word choice in the following lines, “None of us look at the other farmers and their families, who are also hovering with palpably jittering nerves over their bales” (13-14) present the tone of the prose. Fuller exposes through lines thirteen and fourteen the anticipation and tension spread throughout, not only the narrator’s family, but all families. The tone further implies the economic troubles the lower class families are suffering with; Fuller conveys that the speaker is living in an era of economic trouble. Also, Fuller uses adjectives to reflect the apprehension the father of the narrator is dealing with and sets the tone by doing so: “Dad waits until the buyers are out of earshot then whispers to Mum in a soft, warning voice, ‘Steady, Hold it,’ in the way he would talk to a fretful animal” (18-19). Fuller displays that the father is filled with caution and anxiety and refrains from making it noticeable to anyone besides his wife. Lastly, Fuller displays the difficulty of tobacco selling through dictions. Fuller justifies the protagonist to observe the work her mother does to help with the selling of the tobacco by stating, “Mum will spend hours, until her fingers burn with the sticky yellowing residue of the leaves, resorting and rebaling the leaves in the superstitious belief that a new presentation might bring a healthier price” (28-30). Fuller
Specifically, the grandfather in this poem appears to represent involvement with nature because of his decisions to garden as he “stabs his shears into earth” (line 4). However, he is also representative of urban life too as he “watched the neighborhood” from “a three-story” building (line 10). The author describes the world, which the grandfather has a small “paradise” in, apart from the elements desecrated by humans, which include “a trampled box of Cornflakes,” a “craggy mound of chips,” and “greasy / bags of takeouts” (lines 23, 17, 2, and 14-15). The passive nature of the grandfather’s watching over the neighborhood can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, most of them aligning with the positive versus negative binary created by the authors of these texts. The author wants to show the reader that, through the grandfather’s complexity of character, a man involved in both nature and more human centered ways of life, there is multifaceted relationship that man and nature share. Through the also violent descriptions of the grandfather’s methods of gardening, the connection between destructive human activities and the negative effects on nature is
6. The first section of this essay focuses on the background stories of Alexie’s father and his childhood. It presents the beginning of Alexie’s habit of reading in an amused tone, showing a lighthearted image without mentioning the hardship he has experienced. However, Alexie starts to divide this passage in paragraph
terrors of slavery in “From Letters from an American Farmer.” In order to bring persuasive
The student may find it useful to begin the paper with the following quote from the novel:
...ve interest was free born and wished to marry her. However, after Harriet?s attempts to pursued her master to sell her to the young neighbor failed she was left worse off than before. Dr. Norcom was so cruel he forbade Harriet anymore contact with the young man. Harriet?s next love came when she gave birth to her first child. Her son Benny was conceived as a way to get around Dr. Norcom?s reign of terror. However, this is a subject that was very painful for her. She conveys to the reader that she has great regret for the length she went to stop her Master. Along with her own guilt she carries the memories of her Grandmother?s reaction to the news of her pregnancy. Clearly this was a very traumatic time in Harriet?s life. In light of these difficult events Harriet once again found love and hope in her new born son. ?When I was most sorely oppressed I found solace in his smiles. I loved to watch his infant slumber: but always there was a dark cloud over my enjoyment. I could never forget that he was a slave.? (Jacobs p. 62)
In addition, chapter five creates a clear image of the devastation that the farmers faced and their hatred for the "monster" bank. This interchapter allows the reader to experience the passion that the farmers have toward the land and the choices they had to make concerning betrayal of their own people. It presents the reader with a broad prospective of what is happening to the tenant farmers before ...
The narrator’s father is being freed from slavery after the civil war, leads a quiet life. On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather is bitter and feels as a traitor to the blacks’ common goal. He advises the narrator’s father to undermine the white people and “agree’em to death and destruction (Ellison 21)” The old man deemed meekness to be treachery. The narrator’s father brings into the book element of emotional and moral ambiguity. Despite the old man’s warnings, the narrator believes that genuine obedience can win him respect and praise.
In “Barn Burning,” the author, William Faulkner, composes a wonderful story about a poor boy who lives in anxiety, despair, and fear. He introduces us to Colonel Satoris Snopes, or Sarty, a boy who is mature beyond his years. Due to the harsh circumstances of life, Sarty must choose between justice and his family. At a tender age of ten, Sarty starts to believe his integrity will help him make the right choices. His loyalty to family doesn’t allow for him to understand why he warns the De Spain family at such a young age. Faulkner describes how the Snopes family is emotionally conflicted due to Abner’s insecurities, how consequences of a father’s actions can change their lives, and how those choices make Sarty begin his coming of age into adulthood.
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
William Faulkner elected to write “Barn Burning” from his young character Sarty’s perspective because his sense of morality and decency would present a more plausible conflict in this story. Abner Snopes inability to feel the level of remorse needed to generate a truly moral predicament in this story, sheds light on Sarty’s efforts to overcome the constant “pull of blood”(277) that forces him to remain loyal to his father. As a result, this reveals the hidden contempt and fear Sarty has developed over the years because of Abner’s behavior. Sarty’s struggle to maintain an understanding of morality while clinging to the fading idolization of a father he fears, sets the tone for a chain of events that results in his liberation from Abner’s destructive defiance-but at a costly price.
The story of “Life in the Iron Mills” enters around Hugh Wolfe, a mill hand whose difference from his faceless, machine-like colleagues is established even before Hugh himself makes an appearance. The main narrative begins, not with Hugh, but with his cousin Deborah; the third-person point of view allows the reader to see Deborah in an apparently objective light as she stumbles tiredly home from work in the cotton mills at eleven at night. The description of this woman reveals that she does not drink as her fellow cotton pickers do, and conjectures that “perhaps the weak, flaccid wretch had some stimulant in her pale life to keep her up, some love or hope, it might be, or urgent need” (5). Deborah is described as “flaccid,” a word that connotes both limpness and impotence, suggesting that she is not only worn out, but also powerless to change her situation; meanwhile, her life is “pale” and without the vivid moments we all desire. Yet even this “wretch” has something to sti...
Fanny grew up in a large, ever-growing household, where quiet was so hard to come by. In the Price household, Fanny was the opposite of her family. She was timid and shy; they were rambunctious. Fanny as already started to form her own demur. When Fanny arrives at Mansfield Park, there is so much space that Fanny easily finds peaceful places. In Mansfield Park, her cousins provide the fluid movement around her lull. Fanny’s principles become the only conscience in Mansfield Park.
It is a serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seem subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of importance to take place.... ... middle of paper ...
Alexandra Fuller and Pan Macmillan’s extract from, Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, explore the roles of the family dynamic and their roles within the family. This is a first person narrative, written from the perspective of one of the daughters. As well, this passage describes the event of selling bales of tobacco in a market setting. This passage develops the roles of the narrator, the mother, and the father, through techniques such as animal imagery, body language, diction, punctuation, as well as structure.
fragment of literary text is evaluated according to its aims, goals and questions which are proposed. Another aspect of my discussion will incorporate selected citations taken directly from the novel, which are utilized by each scholar to support his or her c...