In this essay, I will refer to three short stories. These stories are: “Through the Tunnel,” “Two Kinds,” and “The Censors.” The main characters are: Jerry of “Through the Tunnel,” Jing-Mei of “Two Kinds,” and Juan of “The Censors.” In all three of these stories, the main characters are trying to achieve something. Jerry tries to swim through an underwater tunnel. Jing-Mei wants to rebel against her mother, who wants her to become a child prodigy. Juan tries to find a letter he sent to his friend before “the censors” do. All of them try to achieve their goals using different methods. Below you may read more about each individual character. Jerry is the main character in “Through the Tunnel.” Jerry and his mother are on vacation near a beach. The reader gets the idea that it is somewhere in France because the “natives” are speaking in French. While at the beach, Jerry sees some boys diving into the ocean and coming back up. At first he’s not sure what they are doing, but then learns they are swimming through an underwater tunnel. He decides that he, too, would like to swim through the tunnel. He starts to practice keeping his breath and swimming. Eventually, he gets very good at both and decides to try to swim through the tunnel. After the second time of trying, he achieves his goal. he swims through the tunnel successfully one day before he and his mother go home. Jerry was very self-disciplined and achieved his goal. He was the most successful of the three characters I will mention. For example, the story says “...he would do it if it killed him....” This shows how very dedicated he was to his goal. He realized the importance of his goal and worked hard to achieve it. Jing-Mei is in the... ... middle of paper ... ... censors it like all the rest of the letters. He is executed the next day. I feel that Juan was so obsessed with the power he gained from his job that he lost sight of his goal. He really did not succeed at anything. He was the least successful of the three characters mentioned in this essay. All of these characters tried to achieve their goals. I learned that those who put the most time and effort into their goals do not always succeed. Juan put more time into his goal than anyone else, but was the least successful of the three. I think the main thing I learned is that even if you’re the hardest worker, you will not achieve your goal unless you also keep your priorities straight. We should never become so obsessed with power that we lose sight of our goals. People should always work towards their goals and never let anything get in the way of them.
In “Proofs,” a sixteen year old boy narrates his father crossing the border between America and Mexico. To begin, Rodriguez says, “He wanted books. He had none. You are lucky, boy” (415). This referred to when the father had nothing and how the son is fortunate to have a better life than his dad did. Throughout the essay, Rodriguez has small segments in which the son and the father have
Many times in life things are not as they seem. What may look simple on the surface may be more complicated deeper within. Countless authors of short stories go on a journey to intricately craft the ultimate revelation as well as the subtle clues meant for the readers as they attempt to figure out the complete “truth” of the story. The various authors of these stories often use different literary techniques to help uncover the revelation their main characters undergo. Through the process of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately convey the significant revelation in the short stories, “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations.
Near the end, when he walks into his room he falls to his hands and knees and looks
Maurice was angered by this but chose to perform his duties completely and even though he used to arrive late, angry and tired for the game, he transformed his aggression into motivation and scored the winning goals that clinched the victory over their only unbeaten team.
In these essays, the authors are telling a story about the characters life. The stories are directed towards the audience to express the kind of pain and suffering the characters went through to learn and apply what they had been yearning for.
Conflict is an important part of any short story. The short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” contains three major conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself. In this essay, I intend to explain, prove, and analyze these three struggles.
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
In the story the main character, Juan, stresses about a letter he sent to a lady that can get him in serious trouble with the government involving death as a punishment.This piece of evidence shows the lack of care the government gives to their community. Another piece of evidence that shows the lack of freedom/privacy is that every letter sent in their system has to be examined carefully. In other words, it shows that they have no rights to send personal letters to someone else which is important to the idea of freedom, or the lack of it. This also gives the reader a hint that maybe they take this job seriously for hiding their secrets or making sure no one goes against the government
Imagine you’re a mother of a Union soldier during the Civil War. You get a letter from your son in the mail, from the US Postal Service. You’re overjoyed to hear about your son’s adventures from battle. You pick up the letter and you begin to read… All you see is a few scrawled words that are irrelevant to the rest of the letter. His letter has been censored. Censoring letters was a defensive strategy used ...
him to keep trying his hardest and to not let anything or anyone get in his way.
him when he could have just died from a heart attack, which he had requested.
The idea of freedom can be seen throughout Collection 2 in our textbook. Freedom can be seen in the short story “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela when it talks about the freedom of speech. Addition to that, an article “A People’s History Of The 1963 March On Washington” by Charles Euchner shows freedom in its article when it talks about the segregation occurring to colored men. Lastly, freedom is shown in the graphic novel “Persepolis 2: The Story Of A Return” by Marjane Satrapi as it shows high restriction.
Authors of great stories often use good technical writing skills. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two short stories: Where Are you going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates and Hills Like White Elephants by Earnest Hemingway. The comparison and contrast will be done based on their use of plot, point of view and character development.
out on the water for days, all alone, trying to catch the giant marlin. He continuously thinks of
all of the adversity, he managed to keep his optimistic outlook and his diligent work