In The Invention of the World, Jack Hodgins invites us to consider an alternative dystopia in which fantasy and reality converge to create sense and constance in an otherwise chaotic existence. Unleashing an arsenal of characters in two parallel worlds, Hodgins attempts to uncover the mysteries of people, and he delves into the paradoxical genre of magic realism, a term coined by Franz Roh in 1925, to achieve this. Focussing on characterization, The Invention of the World offers sufficient surrealism to provide fictional entertainment, whilst cleverly grounding his mythical tale in a relatable reality inspired by history and realism. Specifically, Hodgins offers a lens into the lives of a number of characters. Arguably, Maggie Kyle and Wade Powers achieve contentment on their pilgrimage to Ireland through self-reflection and internal enlightenment; conversely, Kineally and Becker, seek to achieve their constance through the manipulation, exploitation and dependence on other people in their lives. Hodgin’s novel traces the journey of these characters and evokes consideration of the effects of our choices on the long-term equilibrium of our existence and self-enlightenment.
From the beginning of the tale, the motif of travel predominates. As Becker “[waves] your car down the ramp onto the government ferry...” (vii) we are not only introduced to the setting, but also the idea that Becker has a certain authority and inclination to control that journey. As Becker researches, documents and attempts to quantify the tale of Donal Keneally and his rise as founder of the “Colony of the Revelation of Truth”, we learn of his dissonance and inability to find contentment. Becker’s energy on the pilgrimage “[was] wild with trying to take eve...
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...17). With Wade’s turbulent waters eventually settled by Maggie, this resonating re-birth enables both characters to realize a happiness that can only be found within.
To conclude, Hodgins’s entrancing tale merges fact with fiction, magic with reality, and chaos with romance. While Becker and Keneally ultimately fail in their attempts to create, using pride and ambition as fuel towards constancy, Hodgins creates a poetic final scene in which Wade and Maggie Powers symbolically unite in matrimony, ironically wed by Horseman, Wade’s sagely nemesis, amongst the chaos of thrown insults, wielded chainsaws, food fights and terrible music, Maggie is, significantly, able to “[stand up, beside her husband, ready” (353). Through the magic of myth, Hodgins teaches us to find a place where we can be satisfied, enjoy who we are, and appreciate the important people around us.
...seems to have endured the most in his life. Not only did he spend his youth caring for his sick mother and then wife, but he now must live in the painful memory of how his life could have been if the accident never happened. The end of the book leaves the readers saddened and frustrated. Though the novella began with a plotline seemingly leading to an ending as cheery as that of Snow White, in the end, this beautiful maiden turned sour. In this storybook tragedy, “the lovers do not live happily ever after. The witch wins” (Ammons 1).
Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995.
The folktale begins with introductions to Bartholomew and King Derwin, the potential “hero” and “villain.” The first several pages emphasize the great contrasts between their lives; Bartholomew is poor and feels insignificant versus the King’s wealth and mighty self-image. With such opposite lifestyles, Seuss must create a...
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on 11 February 1847. He died in Orange, New Jersey on 18 October 1931. It can be said that Thomas Edison was one of the most influential people of the 19th century. Thomas Edison was responsible for many inventions that influenced America to become a more modernized country. His inventions are some of the most important inventions to date. Some examples of his inventions are the iridescent light bulb, carbon microphone, and the Kinetoscope or movie camera. Thomas Edison was a prism of history.
And it is in those pages that we find a hero of our own. Moll Flanders, born to a convicted thief, was orphaned the day she was born as the state carried out the sentence of death put upon her mother. Moll landed at the foot of the Church, learning how to read, to pray and to fend off hypocrisy and the groping hand of the priest in the bargain. Leaving the Church in an unorthodox manner, Moll bounced from home to home, finding herself too much for some and too little to ward off others. Along the way, she learned to laugh and to limp because of the kindness and cruelty that abound in our worlds. It was in the kindness that Moll found herself bound in love to an unlikely artist and it was in that union Flora was conceived.
The literary works of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka have created environments in which the characters are implanted into ludacris and gloom filled realities. The characters are in absurd situations with no explanation of the events that are happening, or going to happen. The question stands, why did these authors place the characters in these destroyed worlds with no hope of resolution? I argue that the history of the authors and the environments in which they lived has a direct correlation to the charactaracters and the dark writing styles of the authors. To relate the characters and environments of the stories to the authors lives, one must first take a look at the history of the authors as well as characters. Looking at the lives of Beckett and Kafka at the time these stories were being written can help to determine the mindset and styles of both authors and how they relate their own real life problems to their characters fictional settings.
People today have been over powered with 21st Century technology. Now-a-days people don’t have enough energy just because of the new technology. Let’s go back in time and think about eye-catching inventions in the old times and how it changed the world and everyday life. The telephone! Imagine, a world without smartphones but only speed-dial phones. Yes, those are the kinds of phones that are very popular long ago but the question is “How does the new invention change our daily lives?” For one thing, it would take you about 3-5 minutes just to make a phone call an plus, it is not at all portable. Mainly, telephones back then are way different from telephones today.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction". Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke U.P., 1995. 163-190.
...mes in both cases; however, it is through these experiences that the characters are equipped for situations which are rooted in reality. Both protagonists approach their leap out of fantasy in differing ways. Don Quixote’s death reveals that once fantasies are let go, the person lets go. Alice on the other hand is prompted to cling to her fantasy for the rest of her life. Through this, both Carroll and Cervantes show that fantasy is a vital part of growth and living. Growth is presented as something which does not absolve an individual from their fantasies but rather, embraces them. Fantasy is a medium without which the human race would cease to be ‘human’ because it is true that every man and woman was once a boy and girl living out their fantasies; paradoxically, it is the surrealism of fantasy that allows man to understand himself and his role in the real world.
The parallels that have been presented show that there are not just similarities in the tale and the Wife’s life, the prologue and the tale are the real and the ideal way that the Wife sees her world. She, like many women of her time and ours, wants control over her husbands and will do what it takes to gain it. She tells us how she gained control over her husbands, even when it lead to the oldest trick in the book, withholding “pleasures”. Then she backed up her desire for sovereignty by telling us in her tale that it was not just herself who wanted this dominance, but every woman wants the same, even if they don’t know it. Finally she idealizes what she wants from a husband with the tale of the knight and the hag. If only it were as simple as the tale told.
What Edward R. Murrow meant was that television was a great thing if used correctly, if not it was useless.
A civilization is the starting point of a society. Civilizations have existed for millions of years and are the basic unit of structure for a society. Civilizations were the base of great societies such as Egypt and Rome. If not for civilizations these societies would not have flourished or even existed.
Historically, innovation by individual inventors has completely transformed our economy with the growth of new occupations and organizations. Innovation is a key determinant of a successful society. In the absence of inventors, humans could never have progressed from the times of the cave men. The discovery of light has, since the beginning of time, played a curtail role in the evolution of humans, creatures and plants. Fire, as a source of light, has not only produced new ways for creating and decimating things but it untimely crafted a new lifestyle. With fire, humans could illuminate their surroundings after the sun had gone down. With fire, they could investigate new areas of the world that they had not been able to explore before. Ultimately,
From Ancient Mesopotamia came a revolutionary tool that has crystallized the world into the complex civilization it is today, the wheel. The wheel has commutated the very way we live and think about the world and all credit goes to Ancient Mesopotamia for providing this life changing invention. Wheels are everywhere we look and in places that you wouldn't even think. Wheels are used everyday in some way or another and come in many sizes and innumerable different materials and purposes. This prodigious invention has helped ancient Mesopotamians work, move, and live and still helps us today.
Lewis Carroll may have created a whole new world for his Alice to explore, but Flaubert had the harder job. He had to replicate the world that everyone knows, taking time to explore the very details that make this world real and tangible. Whether it be dust accumulating on furniture, everyday people plodding through mud to get to work, or nagging mothers, Flaubert details images and impressions that most overlook, but which truly constitute reality. Emma tries her best to ignore this reality, but it confronts her insistently, reminding her daily of all the things she dee...