Fantasizing is a way for one to, even if just for a moment, escape the sometimes harsh realities of the world. Many children have imaginary friends, created by their own thoughts to make the world around them seem just a little more exciting. Fantasies, whether from a novel or our own mind, can make the world seem like a place of endless wonder, but it is when one is unable to distinguish the fantastical world from the real world that this fantasizing can become dangerous. The Centaur Plays Croquet by Lyle Saxon contains two stories in one. Firstly, the surface story of Ms. Ada Weatherford Calander who stumbles upon a centaur in the woods. But, if we look under the surface, we can see the story of Saxon himself living as a gay man in Louisiana, …show more content…
Ada Weatherford Calander. From a young age Ada was always intrigued in the unknown, wandering out into the woods for hours at a time. Disregarding all the “normal” activities a young girl at this time should be learning, such as sewing, cooking, and housekeeping. When she is much older, she stumbles upon a centaur with whom she becomes, somewhat unnervingly, infatuated with. But is this centaur really there or is he simply a figment of Mrs. Calander’s imagination? To her, he is very much real. She tries her best to tame this creature, “she even dressed him in her husband’s shirts, vests, collars and ties…” (Dixon 341). Although Mrs. Calander gave this centaur all of her attention, he does not belong in the home, he does not belong dressed up like a man, pretending to be something he is not. He soon abandons Mrs. Calander and this act is “the real beginning of [her] insanity…” (Dixon 345). Her reality and her fantasies have blended together as one, and as Saxon so effortlessly shows us, this blending of the true and the false soon turns out to be very precarious for Mrs. …show more content…
Just as Ada had never really fit the role that society expected her to, Saxon also lived a life that, at the time, was far from “normal.” Even today, there is still much debate over things such as gay marriage and topics related to sexual orientations other than heterosexual, but especially back in Saxon’s time, these types of relationships were something that were highly looked down upon. Just as Ada was forced for a while to repress her untamed side, starting with marrying her husband who held “considerable local reputation” (Dixon 340) to attending extravagant parties in New Orleans, Saxon was forced to repress this side of him, just as many gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered etc. people have to do for fear of being outcast from
In addition to lobbying politicians, Pat wanted to change local attitudes so, taking advantage of her popularity as a guest speaker at Rotary, Lions, Toastmasters and other local groups, she made gay equality her subject at every meeting she spoke at, and convinced many locals previously unconcerned by the matter, of the injustices faced by the gay and lesbian communities. “I was so angry that gays were treated differently. We are all equal and should be treated the same. It is unfair and unjust to be judged as a person on your sexuality” she said.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
Fantasies, which are defined as fanciful or extravagant notions, ideas, or suppositions are things he often does while on his mission to victory. During the late afternoon hours, he would frequently climb into his foxhole and read his received letters from a girl named, Martha, that he absolutely adores. She sent him letters that he guarded with his dear life and kept secretly hidden from the other men. They weren’t by any means “love” letters, but he often imagined they were just for the spite of things. Jimmy read those letters every day and every night, paying no attention to what was going on around him, just focusing on Martha. Although, letters were the main source of his absence from the world around him, he would often imagine romantically, trips into the white mountains of New Hampshire while holding the letters in his hand. He would sometimes taste the flaps, knowing her tongue had been there (Obrein, “Carried” 272). Jimmy began to pass his days more quickly by trying to keep up his hope, while thinking about being with Martha, somewhere in a beautiful place, alone, with nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Jimmy received a pebble in one of the letters from Martha, which she picked up off the Jersey Shoreline just for Jimmy as a good luck charm. He carried the pebble in his mouth most of the time. While on other occasions, he would often slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along, the shoreline, with Martha, carrying nothing (O’brien, “Carried” 275). He fantasized daily about Martha; He wondered who she was with, and what she was doing. Although, Jimmy carried Martha’s pebble with him continuously, he began to carry much more than just a pebble in his mouth.
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
...." Studies In The Literary Imagination 36.2 (2003): 61-70. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Anglo-Saxon women are objects who are gifts to generate a fragile peace. Bloody combat between men attempting to earn fame embodies the Anglo-Saxon era. But does history include women? No, in fact, most women in the epic poem Beowulf are unworthy of even a name. Men trap women as objects; those who rebel become infamous monsters in society’s eyes. Because Anglo-Saxon men view women as objects, they are unable to control any aspect of their lives--no matter if she is royalty or the lowest of all mothers.
Love can influence people in mysterious ways, the underlying cause is promise, that there is hope for something greater than oneself. We also see how this can create a chasm between family members. The fact of the matter is, love can stem from various situations, memories, or personal thoughts. There are some forbidden marriages that turn out to be a good thing, there are also parents who want give a home to an unsuspecting child they never knew they wanted. Certain situations determine who a person is through the experiences they are given and the feelings that are felt from it. Most of the stories that have come along are giving to us with an example of separation, a longing for love, an outcome that may or may not be beneficial in the long
Carter, Albert Howard III. "If on a winter's night a traveler: Fantasy and Reading." Italo Calvino: Metamorphoses of Fantasy. (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1987) 125-137.
His adept style of writing washes skillfully through the book as the adventures of Norman Felskin, Betsy Poldosky and Julio Velasquez progresses. Albeit, while the book does not have the expected flow, like other books of fiction, his words do flow with ease and paint vivid images that stimulate the reader's curiosity as well as the
‘Some idea of a child or childhood motivates writers and determines both the form and content of what they write.’ -- Hunt The above statement is incomplete, as Hunt not only states that the writer has an idea of a child but in the concluding part, he states that the reader also has their own assumptions and perceptions of a child and childhood. Therefore, in order to consider Hunt’s statement, this essay will look at the different ideologies surrounding the concept of a child and childhood, the form and content in which writers inform the reader about their ideas of childhood concluding with what the selected set books state about childhood in particular gender. The set books used are Voices In The Park by Browne, Mortal Engines by Reeve and Little Women by Alcott to illustrate different formats, authorial craft and concepts about childhood. For clarity, the page numbers used in Voices In The Park are ordinal (1-30) starting at Voice 1.
White may have only written three children’s books, but he still made a huge contribution to children’s literature. Each story teaches a moral and forces the reader to look beyond initial appearances when judging a character. White does a great job making his stories seem so believable and letting the reader almost enter their world through his keen eye for detail and his character-revealing dialogue. White uses anthropomorphism, the giving of human qualities to animals, to advance his themes. This approach enables the fantasy to come to life, allowing him the artistic freedom to develop the characters and their dialogue as the story unfolds (Schongar).
The parallels in Golding’s own life and his book allow the reader to have a new understanding of Golding and how he relates to the book. Golding’s many life experiences gave him the knowledge he needed to be able to relate to fictional children as an adult. In the beginning of his career, Golding had no steady job; in fact, once he graduated from college after switching his degree from science to English, he had already considered being an actor, a poet, or a pianist as a career (Dirda 2). He soon discovered he was n...
In this paper I will argue that the novel, The Horse and His Boy (Lewis 2002) is not only a story of adventure but self-discovery, told through literary tools that provide a deeper meaning.
She attempts to accustom herself to living in a medieval society where women were believed to be inferior, a piece of property who need to depend on men to survive. CC befriends four women of that era who also uphold a stereotyped view of females and their role. “She remembered how cold and judgmental Isabel had been when they had first met, but CC had thought those days were over, that Isabel and the other women had begun to care for her as she had them” (Cast 248). This quotation depicts how CC diminished her old- fashioned friends’ mindset about women and how the women have become emotionally tied together. CC managed to help the women accept that they are not worth anything less than men, and transformed their outlook about CC’s courage and independence from a negative prospect to a positive prospect. The old women now care for CC as if they were family by maintaing their new belief that women demonstrate more power and strength together. The importance of this theme is to convince real world women that they are strong and are equal to men, and to change the views of bigoted people out there who emphasize the stereotypes of
Let’s Pretend. Reading should be a normal part of every family’s life, and summer is no exception. Set aside an hour each day for “story time.” Reading can be a great way to jumpstart imaginative play. Instead of merely reading t...