This is an explorative essay on the theme in Patricia Grace’s novel Potiki that ‘telling and retelling stories is an important and valuable part of being human’. An important theme in Potiki is the enduring idea that creating and sharing stories as a central part of being human is important. It is a significant theme because the novel is heavily imbued with Maori culture, in which the stories and spoken teachings are given prominence, and also because it is a popular belief that people need narratives
societal boundaries through adultery and murder. While the wider thematic concerns of both books differ, however both authors use the ghost figure to represent a repressed historical past that is awakened in their narrative retelling of the stories. The ghosts facilitate this retelling of stories that give voice to that which has been silenced, challenging this repression and ultimately reversing it. The patriarchal repression of Chinese women is illustrated by Kingston's story of No Name Woman, whose
figuratively in an existential cell, both Molina and Valentin are wards of a police state and are therefore powerless to change their circumstances. But the novel is really about how spiritual freedom is cultivated and made manifest by Molina's retelling of his favorite movies. Because the substance of the films is first filtered through Molina's perspective, his perversion of the characters and plots reflect his own progression from an oppressed prisoner to a heroine who freely chooses the path
follow them their entire life. This is also the case in “Mule Killers”, where a father tells his son about the memories he has of the year his son was conceived and his relationship to his father. The narrator of the short story is a son who is retelling the story his father is telling him. Therefore the point of view is limited to the son, and the main character is the father. In the story we meet three import people who are from three different generations. A grandfather, his son, and his son.
mythology. Sophocles, however, knowing that his audience is aware of the outcome of the play, utilizes that foreknowledge to create various situations in which dramatic irony plays a key role. Through his use of irony, Sophocles manages to avoid simply retelling an old tale, though the audience is knowledgeable of the story's end they are intrigued by the irony present in the story. “ It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live
Beauty is written by Robin McKinley in 1993 which is a retelling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is about a girl named Honour who moves from the city into the country with her family with her horse Great Heart and the rest of her family. One day, Beauty’s father comes home and tells her about how he had tried to pick one of the Beast’s at the Beast’s palace. Since the Beast had caught him, the father’s punishment was to
controlling ideas. These ideas, centered around the concepts of family, history, legends, and storytelling, fluidly intermingle and build upon one another as the work progresses until one notion, above all others, is clear: that the telling and retelling of stories and legends is not only a great power, but a great responsibility. In this collection of poems, the poet consciously accepts this responsibility as a reteller of stories, thereby appropriating to herself the power to strengthen familial
Alternate Endings in Anouilh's Medea To what purpose does Jean Anouilh alter the central conflicts and characters in his retelling of "Medea"? In the classic play, Medea escapes without punishment and we are told as an audience it is not our place to question the motives and/or actions of the gods. Within the framework of modern, psychologically rendered characters and in the absence of supernatural meddling, Anouilh attempts not only to question the motives but to posit answers to the open
Old Man and Old Woman as Marital Guide "Old Man and Old Woman," a retelling of a Native American myth by Chewing Blackbones, a Blackfoot Indian, should serve as a lesson to all couples in how a good relationship works. In today’s society there is a great need for people to understand how to make their relationships successful. As the divorce rate gets higher every year; small children have begun to think that getting a divorce is something that is normal and to be expected. This story shows
By the ninth century people all over were telling the fabulous tales and romances about Arthur and his kingdom. The common people heard them sung by bards, while in the court poets wrote different versions. In each retelling the speaker would select certain details for emphasis and introduce new elements, so that the story could be adapted to the particular time and audience. Although most historians believe that there actually did exist an Arthur, they differ on how major his role was on influencing
Translating Cultural Subtext in Modern Korean Fiction Translation as an Act of Bridging Two Cultures Literary translation can be described in many ways. In the first place we can think of it as retelling, in that we take a Korean story and tell it in English. In retelling the story we make it public. This means we have an audience, either readers of our translation or listeners of a public reading of that translation. Public readings are an important way of disseminating a translation.
named Marlow remarks to his friends that the land they’re standing on was once a place of darkness and an uncivilized wilderness. This contemplation leads him to remember an incident in his past when he commanded a steamboat on the Congo River. When retelling his story, Marlow is a young man anxious to see the unexplored African jungles. An influential aunt in obtains an position as captain of a Congo steamer for Marlow. But when he arrives at the Company's Outer Station in Africa, he's faced with a horrible
Mary Rowlandson was born in a Puritan society. Her way of was that of an orthodox Puritan which was to be very religious and see all situations are made possible by God. She begins her writing by retelling a brutal description of the attack on Lancaster by the Natives. Rowlandson spends enough time interacting with the Natives to realize these people live normal, secular lives. She had the opportunity work for a profit which was not accepted when she lived as devout Puritan women in Puritan colony
something is either lost or regained. Another point that was shared throughout the short stories was the focus on the struggles of the women in Haiti. Lastly they all seem to weave together the overarching theme of memory. It's through memory and the retelling of old stories and legends that the Haitians in Danticat's tales achieve immortality, and extension to lives that were too often short and brutal. The first story "Children of the Sea" is between two people in love: a young man on a rickety boat
Man and Nature in Norman Maclean's book, Young Men and Fire Norman Maclean's book, Young Men and Fire, recreates the tragedy of the Mann Gulch fire. His ambition to have this lamentable episode of history reach out and touch his readers triumphs in extolling the honor and respect deserved by the thirteen smoke jumpers who died. This book is a splendid tribute to the courageous efforts of such men, as well as a landmark, reminding mankind to heed the unpredictable behavior and raw power of nature
himself as lawful and just. In the lawyer’s estimate, the reader is to view him as having not only made an effort to "save" Bartleby, but as a man who has himself changed for the good, ethically speaking. What the lawyer fails to acknowledge in his retelling of events is his inability to communicate with Bartleby not because of Bartleby’s shortcomings, but because of his own. The lawyer’s perception of "man" is tainted, for he does not view people as individuals, but as tools -- as possessing a usefulness
The French Revolution began in 1789, which caused an uprising against the political and social ways of the aristocracy. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens takes place in the midst of the Revolution even though Dickens wrote the novel about 60 years after it ended. Dickens obviously favors the French peasants and wants the reader to see the Revolution from their point of view, using different literary elements to do so. Foreshadowing is one of the main and most prevalent elements Dickens uses
novel with a great many direct and indirect allusions to the literary culture of his times, so it seems appropriate to look back at his story - both the novel and the 1945 film version - in this way. In many ways, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a retelling of the Faust story. A temptation is placed before Dorian, as with Faust, and he falls for it--offering up his soul to get it. In fact, one of Faust's principal wishes is also to remain young. Faust and Dorian also each seduce a young woman, then
Individuation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain is, undoubtably, the most varied of the Arthurian characters: from his first minor appearance as Gwalchmei in the Welsh tales to his usually side-line participation in the modern retelling of the tales, no other character has gone from such exalted heights (being regarded as a paragon of virtue) to such dismal depths (being reduced to a borderline rapist, murderer, and uncouth bore), as he. This degree of metamorphosis in character
which is popularly believed to be the correct alignment for which a person should live their life according to. On the left, is evil; that which is the cause of most human misery, and prevents peace on earth. In John Gardner’s book Grendel, the retelling of the ages old story Beowulf, further blurs the line between good and evil. Circumstance and perhaps a confused view of reality allow the monster, Grendel, to conceivably defend his evil beliefs. In order to better understand evil, using Grendel