Eleanor Eldin: A Short Story

730 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Narrative essay on migration

Eleanor Eldin was 21 when she decided to leave the city. Her whole life she had lived with the adamant believe that the trees and dirt and bugs were things to be avoided at all costs. She found comfort in the sound of traffic and the gum glued to the sidewalk. The skyscrapers were old friends and and the thick air was blanketing, infused with the breath of thousands of people like her. Even the loneliest person could find company in anonymous city life. Eleanor studied marketing, specifically the mass communication of advertisements. At age 18 she was offered an internship at a major advertising corporation, which later became her full time job. As an intern, she was exposed to the most positive sides of the industry while the circumspect …show more content…

She had no plan, no goal and nothing she wished to gain. She was another lost soul that cities chew up and spit out. Somehow she knew this and the stereotypical nature of her situation was almost embarrassing. It was while she was cleaning out her office, she discovered her future. A bird hit the window next to her desk. She realized later it had served as a sort of presage, a warning of demise. She turned in time to see it flutter desperately on a broken wing, before tumbling to its death. It turned into a black dot on the sidewalk far below, and she watched as a passerby stepped over it, taking no …show more content…

She searched in the bushes and up and down the block but it was gone, probably collected by the boy they paid to do such things. Eleanor looked back at her building as she walked down west avenue. She was struck by the ostentatiousness of it. The windows, polished to an deadly shimmer and the somehow opalescent metal siding gave it an eery glow. It was repulsive, a false image of perfection, of superiority and in that moment it terrified her. The comfort she once felt was replaced by disgust for her city. She had ignored the oil in the roads leaking into the sewers, the miasma from the dumpsters and rubbish heaps and the filth littering the streets and now she watched horrified as she saw her home in its true

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Pulse By Josephine Birdsell

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the

    Read More

  • How Does Petry Use Figurative Language In The Street

    492 Words  | 1 Pages

    In this passage “The Street” by Ann Petry, Lutie Johnson’s relationship with her urban setting is expressed using figurative language.  Lutie allows us to walk with her and experience one cold November night near the streets of seventh and eighth avenue.  The relationship between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting is established using personification, imagery, and characterization.

    Read More

  • No Hope for the Children in There Are No Children Here

    1324 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ...

    Read More

  • New York vs. Willow Springs in Mama Day

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    The soft island breeze blows across the sound and the smell of the sea fills the air in Willow Springs. Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Lower Manhattan the smell of garbage and street vendors’ hotdogs hangs in the air. These two settings are key to Gloria Naylor’s 1988 novel Mama Day where the freedom and consistency of the Sea Islands is poised against the confinement of the ever-changing city, two settings that not only changes characters’ personalities but also their perceptions. On the surface the two places seem to share no similarities and represent different aspects. There are, however, some similarities, among which is the effect of the setting on the characters. Naylor demonstrates through the characters Cocoa Day and George Andrews that a person’s surroundings affect the way they behave and either allows or permits them to believe in certain aspects of life, especially in respect to believing in magic or logic.

    Read More

  • Biography of Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since birth, her father and grandfather were humungous influences in her everyday life. Her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine and her grandfather was the infamous William IX, otherwise known as William the Troubadour. Her grandfather is known for his poetry, singing and entertainment, giving him the title as the earliest known Troubadour. Her mother, Aenor de Châtellerault, dying when Eleanor was just eight years old, was a big behavioral enforcer when Eleanor was young. Yet, once her mother died, Eleanor and her sister Petronilla had little restrictions in their young lives. Around the time her mother died, they had many activities passing throughout their exciting childhood. Sewing, playing instruments, singing and dancing, embroidering and even horseback riding, which was typically a boy’s pastime, was done often. She would go on tours with her father, which consisted of traveling around the duchy of Aquitaine, greeting the citizens of their beloved duchy, and delivering good will and good services. Though it was unusual of women to be famous at the time, little Eleanor was more than loved by all who inhabited Aquitaine. The entertainment and personality of her grandfather, and her close relationship with her father, as well as the liveliness that the throne radiated throughout the duchy and in her childhood, contributed to her outgoing, outspoken personality, which was very taken note of though all of her life...

    Read More

  • Ann Petry: The Street

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout life, many find themselves in difficult situations that cause them to become discouraged and doubtful of the future. The 1940s is an excellent example of when many Americans were facing uncertainty in their lives. Although the events of the Stock Market crashing and the Great Depression had come to a halt, many of the affected Americans were still dealing with the destruction they caused. Many other events like this, small or large, have affected a multitude of people throughout time. Ann Petry, author of the 1946 novel The Street, metaphorically explains the impact of these difficult times and how different people react to them. She evaluates the effect of negative events occurring through the object

    Read More

  • Historic New York and Its Diversity

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... who settled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where we could see packs of books telling the stories and experiences of past immigrants. I felt the rush and the excitement that characterize the city, but I also couldn’t get enough of the multiple cultures in New York. One would spend days and weeks in the “City that Never Sleeps” but still, it would take many more to truly experience every aspect of it or understand how the diverse ethnicities were able to survive and succeed there.

    Read More

  • Creatures On My Mind

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    suffering. She thought about ending the beetles life but couldn’t put herself through it. I

    Read More

  • Summary Of Peter Straud's Short Story 'Houses Without Doors'

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    As if imputing a memory or direction of which the mind should, must take, instead of, may take. To be viewed as the cities citizens, and governments, wish for outsiders, to view them; as they view themselves. Written by John C. Tibbetts, a review of the main body of work, “Houses without Doors” in which, “A Short Guide to The City” was published within, Mr. Tibbetts said, “A Short Guide to the City” are, in Straub’s universe, violent responses to fragmented identities.” This is one of a few reviews, writings, this reader totally agrees

    Read More

  • Sherwood Anderson’s Expression of Sexuality and Loneliness

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Living in Ohio for the majority of his life, Sherwood Anderson based many of his stories on city life in Ohio. Anderson’s short stories were influenced by not only his surroundings, but also by his life-shaping events that occurred in his youth. Throughout the stories “Sophistication” and “Hands”, Sherwood Anderson expresses his astute knowledge of loneliness and isolation in relation to the protagonists’ sexuality, while also differentiating the root of these emotions in each character’s lifestyle as he continues through life and overcomes its obstacles.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Stephen Crane's, Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

    2477 Words  | 5 Pages

    Today in modern America, it has become almost impossible to avoid the tales of horror that surround us almost anywhere we go. Scandals, murders, theft, corruption, extortion, abuse, prostitution, all common occurrences in this day in age. A hundred years ago however, people did not see the world in quite such an open manner despite the fact that in many ways, similarities were abundant. People’s lives were, in their views, free of all evil and pollution. They assumed they lived peaceful lives and those around them lived the same flawless lives untouched by corruption as well. Many were too blind to see beyond their own homes and into the lives of others who dealt with a more unfortunate fate. Those being the ones who lived in poverty, abuse, and other harsh conditions which were finally exposed to America in 1893 by a 22-year old college free lance writer who simply wished to show things as they appeared to him: bitterly real. Stephen Crane was America’s first realistic writer who exposed the realities of the slums, tenement living and other unfavorable conditions to a very naïve American audience. Through hard work and his great devotion to the examination of the darker side of life Crane finally was able to publish his novel in which explored his experiences of the New York slums. Through his great use of dialect, irony and realism in his novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Stephen Crane is able to accomplish his goal of creating a

    Read More

  • The Double Characters in Wuthering Heights

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dawson, Terence. Physical and Psychological Settings: The Polarized Houses in Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'. 7 Nov. 2000 .

    Read More

  • Descriptive Essay: New York City In The Late 19th Century

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    I had been advised by every person I know to stay out of the alleys, but I’m called to them. The alleys have personality. They are alive, not massed produced like the tall skyscrapers. Manhattan is full of personality from its parks, historical buildings, and graffiti. Although New York is filled with personality I always felt that the alleys had a story to tell. An alley had seen so many secrets and if it could only talk it would tell stories that would keep even a golden sailor entertain for hours on end.

    Read More

  • The Culture of Consumption: Production of Space

    1324 Words  | 3 Pages

    street in Syracuse, New York (Winders, 2011). It will look at how the built environment of

    Read More

  • A Negative Place

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shell lived in Queens, a part of New York City that was unfamiliar to me, but I enjoyed it's quiet streets. We arrived at Shell's house around three o'clock in the afternoon. Shell lived in a high rise complex; in a one bedroom apartment. The place was very neat, spacious and sparsely furnished. We sat around the floor on pillows, listening to music and talking. Shell prepared some drinks for the three of us, serving them with fruits and ladyfinger sandwiches. I thought this was very elegant.

    Read More

More about Eleanor Eldin: A Short Story

Open Document