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The importance of symbolism
Use of symbolism in everyday use
The point of symbolism
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Holes by Louis Sachar
Summary
I had just read a book called Holes by Louis Sachar, and was published
by Dell Yearling in 1998. This story is about an innocent boy named
Stanley Yelnats IV, whose name is very stand-out in his family,
because every man in his family has this name except they are spelled
differently from either frontward or backward. Stanley is a very
quiet boy. Therefore, he has no friends in school and tends to be
picked on because of his size all of the time. His family is very
poor, and it is very reasonable to blame this cause on their great
great grandfather. When Stanley’s great great grandfather was still
living, he had stolen a pig from a Gypsy, and as the result she had
pressed a curse on him and among his descendents.
Stanley is a very bad luck kid. He was mistakenly convicted for
stealing a pair of Clyde Livingston shoes. No one believes Stanley
that those shoes were falling on top of him out of nowhere. As the
result, the judge has given him two choices in which he’s either going
to jail, or will be sent to a boy’s detention center, known as Camp
Green Lake. Stanley, of course, decided his decision to Camp Green
Lake, where he thought he would make some more new friends and get to
do camping like other kids get to do.
Stanley learns his vision at the lake was totally different when he
finally arrived there. He found there is no lake, except it’s just a
wide abandoned desert with bunch of holes everywhere. Mr. Sir, who’s
a sunflower seeds addicted, gave Stanley an orange outfit just like
the rest of the other boys are having. Stanley learns the life at the
camp isn’t as simple as he thought it would be. In every early
morning, all of the boys through out the whole camp would have to
start digging holes that is must be 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide in the
hot desert with only one canteen fills with water until the late
evening. If any boy found anything interesting, he’s then must
reporting it to Mr. Sir.
Stanley makes a lot of new friends. Yet he’s only getting closer to
one boy whose name is Zero. Zero is a very quiet person. He doesn’t
talk much. He couldn’t read also. Therefore, Stanley has made an
agreement with Zero in which he would teach Zero how to read, and Zero
would dig holes for Stanley. Zero helps Stanley with the digging and
whenever they are having free time Stanley would go on and teach Zero
Teitz explains that the living spaces for the pigs are so small that they will trample each other to death, and piglets are unintentionally smashed by their mothers. Teitz asserts that, not only are the living spaces small, but they...
reacts to the crosser. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker’s first impression of the swamp
We turn back the clock as Welch draws on historical sources and Blackfeet cultural stories in order to explore the past of his ancestors. As a result, he provides a basis for a new understanding of the past and the forces that led to the deciding factor of the Plains Indian tribes. Although Fools Crow reflects the pressure to assimilate inflicted by the white colonizers on the Blackfeet tribes, it also portrays the influence of economic changes during this period. The prosperity created by the hide trade does not ultimately protect the tribe from massacre by the white soldiers. It does, however, effectively change the Blackfeet economy and women's place in their society. Thus, it sets the stage for the continued deterioration of their societal system. Although their economic value is decreased, women still represent an important cog in the economic structure. Indeed, women are central to the survival of the Blackfeet tribal community that Welch creates and in many ways this strength and centrality provide background for the strength of the women depicted in his more contemporary novels. Welch's examination of the past leads to a clearer understanding of the present Blackfeet world presented throughout his work.
"In the novel Buried Onions by Gary Soto, illustrates the trials and tribulations of a young boy named Eddie in the rural town of. Fresno,California. The theme of this novel is that you can't escape your past. One has to learn to accept it is a part of who they are and then move toward the future. Eddie, a young Mexican American, fights to make something of himself in Fresno, California. Coming off the death of his father, his best friend, and his cousin, he must fight a constant battle against negative community influences such as guns, drugs, lack of opportunity, and cultural stereotypes. On the ruff streets of southeast Fresno, Eddie is just trying to get by. All he wants is to forget his violent past, find and hold down a job, and walk the right path,But after his cousin's murder, Eddie finds himself slowly drawn back into the cycle of violence and going against the scrim of a city sweltering in the grip of poverty, crime, and unfulfilled dreams, this is a story of a young man struggling to survive in a world spiraling out of control.
The second little pig was building himself a house also, but he too, like his brother, was a lazy little pig that did not like to work much. He also decided to take the easy path of life, and make his home simply out of sticks. In no time at all, he finished building the cheap house. However, it too was insecure.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
The pigs were given larger amounts of food, and even lived in better conditions than the
John Hollander’s poem, “By the Sound,” emulates the description Strand and Boland set forth to classify a villanelle poem. Besides following the strict structural guidelines of the villanelle, the content of “By the Sound” also follows the villanelle standard. Strand and Boland explain, “…the form refuses to tell a story. It circles around and around, refusing to go forward in any kind of linear development” (8). When “By the Sound” is examined in regards to a story, the poem’s linear development does not get beyond the setting. …” The poem starts: “Dawn rolled up slowly what the night unwound” (Hollander 1). The reader learns the time of the poem’s story is dawn. The last line of the first stanza provides place: “That was when I was living by the sound” (3). It establishes time and place in the first stanza, but like the circular motion of a villanelle, each stanza never moves beyond morning time at the sound but only conveys a little more about “dawn.” The first stanza comments on the sound of dawn with “…gulls shrieked violently…” (2). The second stanza explains the ref...
In the short story “Cornet at night” by Sinclair Ross, Tom Dickson is a young farm boy who lives on a farm with his parents. He is very naive and has not had a chance to experience the outside world for his own. He knows only what he learns from the farm and school, but now that he gets to go on a small adventure on his on, he grows up in a variety of ways. One way in which Tom grows up is when he goes to town by himself. He has gone before, but with the security of his parents with him, and for a young boy to go to another town “eight miles north of here” is a large task for such a young boy, thus showing one way that he matures. To illustrate this, as Tom rolls into town with Rock he says, “I remember nothing but a smug satisfaction with myself, an exhilarating conviction of importance and
The book “A Long Way From Chicago” is an adventurous and funny story. The story takes place at Joey Dowdel’s Grandmothers farm house in the country. Joey and his sister Mary Alice were sent to their Grandma’s house during the summer because their parents had to go to Canada for their work. At first, Joey felt uncomfortable with his Grandmother because he had never met her before but eventually he got to know her and they became close friends.
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
Sidewalk is a book written by Mitchell Duneier, an American sociology professor at Princeton University, in 1999; where the book has gained a lot of favorable reviews, leading its winning the Los Angeles Times Book prize and C. Wright Mills Award. Similarly, the book had become a classic in urban studies, especially due to the interesting methodology, which was used by Duneier while he was conducting his research. The book is based on observations, participant observation and interviews, which gave the author the ability to live and interact with the book and magazine vendors on daily bases. Although, this gave him an insight into the life of the sidewalk, many methodological issues have concerned scholars and students of sociology since the day this book was published. Duneier had admitted during the book that he couldn’t be completely subjective while conducting his research and writing his book due to his involvement and personal relationship with people who work and live at the sidewalk, which raise the question, whether the research is still relevant if the researcher is only giving us an objective outcome?
The novel Upside Down, by Eduardo Galeano depicts the injustices and unfairness of several branches of the global society. The differences between the colonized and the colonizer as Galeano writes is always growing and so is the gap between rich and poor. The author challenges western and eurocentric minds as to why on average, countries in the northern hemisphere have a higher standard of living than countries in the southern hemisphere. At first as a reader I thought the writer was whining about the unfairness of the world, but it is the social opiates such as the false idea of capitalism and choice that keeps us in check in this so called democracy. The author forces the reader to open their hearts to a concept that today's capitalist, power hungry society has almost forgotten
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...