The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip. …show more content…
The way it is written is so vivid and it gets her point across so much more effectively than simply stating the fact. Lamott writes “Metaphors are a great language tool, because they explain the unknown in terms of the known(77).” Her statement reigns true to much of her writing in this book. She uses metaphors to explain the feelings that writers have to those of us who are not writers. Her metaphors often times refer to a part of her childhood that clue the reader into who she is. The book contains an entire chapter entitled “School Lunches” and she really does talk about school lunches for the entirety of the chapter. This chapter that could have been rather boring, was one of my favorites. Lamott relates the pressures and anxieties of school lunches with the pressures and anxieties of being a writer. “Here is the main thing I know about public school lunches: it only looked like a bunch of kids eating lunch. It was really about opening our insides in front of everyone. Just like writing is (34).” She goes on to list the “Do’s and Don’ts” of elementary school lunches and almost each one of them brought back that memory of perfecting my lunch box in elementary school and it creates a broader understanding of what it is like to be a writer. The metaphors that Lamott uses are perfect for the scenario and they are what turned a book about how to write into a humorous, and almost philosophical
Catherine is like a bird stuck in it's cage. If you hold the bird in it's cage it will want to fly out of it even if you were to put food inside. However the Bird that was not kept in its cage then it will walk right inside and eat the food. In the book, Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, Catherine is the main character and is forced to do and deal with many things. Throughout the novel she is to deal with every situation to the best of her abilities and she makes the right choices, except when she doesn't. Three situations or problems she faces with courage and Determination are, she is forced to marry Shaggy Beard, Deal with the wrath of her Father, and try to avoid her lady lessons.
Kristjana Gunnars suggests that “Canada is an unhappy country. No, better still, the Prairies are unhappy. Canadian women are especially unhappy” (Gunnars 122). In Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House, the women are indeed unhappy. In the end, however, it is the women who triumph because of their solidarity. The men, due to their solitary states, are unable to maintain their traditionally powerful roles. In these short stories, the men appear to be the leaders of the household, but the women have the greater but subtler power. The men do not lend each other support, while the women are often willing to lend each other a shoulder to cry on. Thus, because of their bluntness and solitariness, the men in A Bird in the House are dethroned from their traditional seats of power in male-female relations, male-male relations, and in female-female relations where their absence is not missed.
Art and literature work independently of each other, however, they can be linked together to help a reader or observer understand in new ways and create new possibilities. Within this context, the perspective of Jacob Lawrence and the authors address that it takes work to build the ideal society and family. However, the authors give the stark reality of both society and family demonstrating that our reality is nothing like the ideal.
“On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft” is not written in the traditional textbook format. The structure of this book works as an educational tool is because it offers a personal look at how writing has affected one successful novelist's life. Each section of the book contains something important about the craft of writing. The book also includes a great deal of about the personal impact writing has had on Stephen King's life.
As Stephen King instructed in his book On Writing, “Murder your darlings” (King 197). This quote has the potential to be deemed as unusual advice, but when seen from the perspective of a writer, it could be very valuable in keeping one’s writing interesting or delivering the unexpected to the reader. Similar to this guidance, King offers many tips and tools to better one’s writing technique and also informs the reader of how his writing career began and thrived. As I reflect on the content found in On Writing, I have discovered that, through this book, I have learned of ways to become a better writer and grow through the lengthy writing process.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
Margaret Laurence 's novel A Bird in the House is a collection of independent and intertwined short stories written from Vanessa MacLeod 's point of view. As an adult looking back on her childhood, the protagonist examines how she, and essentially everyone in her life, experiences a sense of entrapment and a need to escape. Because the author begins and concludes the novel with the Brick House, the major theme of escape is shown to have developed in Vanessa as she matures through childhood and adolescence and becomes an adult.
Has anyone ever doubted you, or put you down for your past. Well, Koly and Tree-ear were. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park and Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan are two great historical fiction novels that depict the life in the shoes of the main characters. The Main character in A Single Shard is Tree-ear, a young orphan that lives under a bridge, wishing for nothing but to become a Master potter like Min. Tree-ear goes through life, a innocent boy, while the world throws everything it has at him. On the other hand, the main character of Homeless Bird is Koly, who is a young girl that is married off to a sickly young boy with no hopes of a future. After his death she carries a widow's burden and has no place to go. Even through the intense
Every individual cares about how they appear to others; their shape and in this informal, narrative essay titled Chicken-Hips, Canadian journalist and producer Catherine Pigott tells her story on her trip to Gambia and her body appearance. In this compelling essay the thesis is implicit and the implied thesis is about how women are judged differently on their appearance in different parts of the world, as various cultures and individuals have a different perception on what ideal beauty is. In this essay Pigott writes about her trip to Africa specifically Gambia and how upon arriving there she was judged to be too slim for a woman. She goes to write about how differently she would be judged back home by mentioning “in my county we deny ourselves
978 1978Mr. WhitbyEnglish 106 November 2017Picture Perfect PenguinsWhen I read this writing prompt, I wondered how Rosemarie Keough almost died taking a penguin’s picture. Perhaps she was standing on the edge of a cliff and either fell off (and was somehow rescued) or almost fell off. Perhaps the penguin attacked her and tried to kill her, although I don’t believe that that is a normal behavior for penguins. Perhaps the time required to take the photo resulted in her getting caught in a snowstorm, which are very bad in Antarctica as I understand it. These are all possible reasons for this statement, although I don’t know which one is accurate. To tell this story I will select my favorite: the attacking penguin.Rosemarie
Why does Harriet Bird shoot Roy Hobbs? This is the core question in the book, The Natural, by Bernard Malamud. Harriet Bird, the woman who shoots Roy Hobbs, covers less than one tenth of the book. However, she is definitely a major character since she affects Roy’s entire life. Malamud depicts Harriet as a special and mystical woman. Such portrayal creates tension throughout the novel. The suspense is formed as the author describe the costume and behaviors of Harriet Bird. The suspense draws the attention of the readers while making the novel novel more intriguing and fascinating.
Anne Lamott has an amazing ability to connect with the audience. With use of personal experience and scenarios to be able to connect with the reader using rhetorical techniques such as ethos and pathos. Although her use of vulgar terms may tend to turn off readers, giving her points less impact.
"At the centre of Artemis Fowl is a 12-year-old criminal mastermind from North Dublin who attempts to raise money by holding a leprechaun to ransom. Artemis is an anti-hero with definite edge. Eoin says he has always been attracted to dark characters, from Moriarty in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to Darth Vader. “I had the idea of creating an anti-hero,” says Eoin, “a boy who was witty and sarcastic, always out for his own good. Once or twice he is mistakenly accused of a noble motive but, in fact, he’s always in it for the money." Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for
In today’s society, individuals have the need to feel superior in situations where they do not necessarily comprehend the circumstances. In order to have a sense of normality, they make up explanations to compensate for their lack of knowledge. The characters in Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds” take on this style of thinking when a plethora of birds mysteriously appear in the sky. The main character, Nat, warns his family and neighbors of the deadly potential of the birds which was demonstrated to him one afternoon. Once the birds begin to attack, Nat and his family must proceed to protect themselves. With reason and logic thrown into the air, the characters in the story fill themselves with false confidence in order to convince themselves that
Many experts would agree that there are different stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are stages that many grief stricken people must endure to manage life after a traumatic death. The story, “The Fly,” by Katherine Mansfield has only a few characters in it, but those few characters show the different stages of grief. The characters illustrate how different the grieving process is when the circumstances of the deaths are the same.