Whether or not we know it, we as people are very picky, and opinionative. In everyday life as humans, we pick and choose things based on preferred criteria. Based on the features of the world around us we have become biased on the things, that do, and do not meet our criteria. Being the opinionative people we are, we set criterion for even the literature we read. Just as the world around us, books have unique characteristics that we either enjoy or could care less for. In the following paragraphs I will evaluate the stories “Blowing up on the spot” and “Virgo” and will compare them to what I feel they need. I will provide my own set of criteria for the short stories “Blowing up on the spot” and “Virgo” stating my likes and dislikes for the two stories and explain why I felt …show more content…
The main characters were not described at all and some sub characters were defined as “a fat coyote” (Walter 58) the ex-boyfriend and also his father as being a “big sloppy man” (Walter 59). Mentioning a coffee house and how the narrator first met Tanya here “in a coffee shop where I saw her reading her horoscope” (Walter 60), and I feel that the smell, or the layout of the coffee house would help me get into the story more. Where was she in the coffee shop compared to the narrator? What was the smell in the air when he saw her for the first time? The fathers home and the girlfriend’s apartment were also not explained. I felt like I was outside of the story listening in and not given any details on what the rooms could be visualized as. Even the description of the newspaper could have been better portrayed to help me visualize the setting for half of the story. In the end I felt like I was robbed of a better story full of “descriptions that prompt the reader to visualize characters in their setting” (Cassill 1706). Since this story did not describe its characters or the setting it did not meet my requirements for vivid
The world of English Literature captures the minds of millions of people worldwide. The stories that are read are new and old and continue to capture the attention of people even to this day. Each piece of literature can go in-depth into settings, themes, characterizations, have great styles and the thing most people enjoy... conflict. Most people don't understand or see the messages these pieces may have in them. Hidden sometimes within complex statements or meanings that the everyday person might not recollect. These "treasures" are waiting to be found and are gold waiting to be found.
Books: a group of blank white pages where authors record memories, reveal what they imagined, and take us along on a ride through their minds. These past few weeks, I had been reading two popular novels that did in fact take me on that journey: The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton, and Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. In no uncertain terms, I did notice that these two books could be compared to one another. Although these are two separate books, written by two different authors with separate journeys, they actually have great similarities and differences in the characters and plot.
Judging a book by its cover is like judging a person by the words that describe him or her. Some of them are accurate, but the physical being of a person can tell you a story untold. In Frank McCourt’s memoir Angela’s Ashes, the reader witnesses what the description of a single character can do to the voice of a piece. Frank’s use of pathos and characterization when it came to Angela, his mother, spoke volumes in his memoir, but when applied to the big screen, her character was amplified. It was then the reader realized that Angela’s true effect and purpose in Frank’s life was to be his main influence.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Critics view the books by Pullman and Ransom as examples of literary excellence. In order to evaluate this opinion it is necessary to discuss what aspects critics consider contribute to a good book and how these books illustrate them. The American Library Associate (ALA) uses the term ‘edubrow’ (Kidd, (2009) p158) to mean the middle ground of literature with an educational emphasis. This emphasis is at the centre of the criteria for a good book by increasing the experiences of the reader through varied language, dynamic themes, rounded characterisation with comprehensive plots. The critics favour works that involve the reader in a non-passive manner to gain insights into universal aspects of human existence like love, identity, revenge, sexuality and betrayal.
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Updike, John. "A & P." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. By X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. Boston: -Pearson, 2013. 17-21. Print
Walter introduces readers to his characters in such a way that it seems like a movie. He allows the characters personalities to grow as the novel progresses and they intersect with other characters. The main characters are Pasqual Tursi, Richard Burton, Debra “Dee” Moray, Alvis Bender, Michael Deane, Shane Wheeler, Claire Silver, and Pat Bender. These eight character’s stories provide the plot line to the book. Some stories are tragic and others hopeful, but all depend on one another at some point during the course of the novel. Walter shows how peoples lives can intersect...
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
The short story is in brief about the married couple Bill and Arlene Miller, who lives opposite the married couple Harriet and Jim stone. Bill and Arlene constantly see themselves in the light of the Stones' happy life. Bill is a bookkeeper and Arlene is a secretary, while Jim is a salesman for a machine-parts firm. In the story the Stones are going on a business trip combined with a family trip. Bill and Arlene are set to look after the Stones' apartment, feeding the cat, Kitty, and water their plants. In the Stones' absence Bill and Arlene show themselves from a side you normally don't experience from people that is to say the side that shows when you are alone with yourself with the minds curiosity. The story takes place over the course of 3 days. We have an objective third party storyteller and the entire story is written in the past with a few dialogs here and there. It is chronological and we don't experience any flashbacks or flashforwards. The language isn't advanced, the sentences aren't exactly long and there aren't any complicated words. That is probably due to the fact that the story takes place in an everyday life, in an everyday life environment and also in a very normal situation (it must be said to be normal to feed the cat and water the plants, when the neighbors are away). To sum up it is not a demanding text in terms of the length or the difficulty. We don't know where the story takes place or when it takes place. We don't even know how old our main characters are. Is it even necessary? Raymond Carver gets in stories a hold on themes like alcoholism, poverty, divorce and misfor...
Wilson, M. & Clark, R. (n.d.). Analyzing the Short Story. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.limcollege.edu/Analyzing_the_Short_Story.pdf [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].
In Julio Cortazar’s Blow-Up and Other Stories, the short stories Letter to a Young Lady in Paris, Continuity of Parks and Blow-Up demonstrate the theme of concealing reality. Cortazar uses closely intertwined imagery and symbolism throughout his short stories to conceal the overall message. In Letter to a Young Lady in Paris there is the allusion to repression of the main character as he writes about his continual problem of vomiting bunnies and his eventual suicide. The story Continuity of Parks, a man reads a story and finds out that he is a part of a dramatic love affair and becomes murdered by the main character in the novel, demonstrating repressed sexual desire. In Blow-Up, Cortazar uses careful imagery of the scene to conceal a larger story between a young boy and an older woman photographed by a photographer. These three individual stories both demonstrate the theme of concealment through the usage of symbolism and imagery.
Readers often come across two major types of fictions, commercial and literary. Commercial fiction entertains the audience meanwhile literary fiction focuses more on social conflicts. “The Destructors” by Graham Greene, is a short story that imparts that destruction can be a form of creation. It is an adventurous reading full of action that ends in the a destruction of a man’s home. In which a group of boys whom are apart of the Wormsley Common Gang are responsible. After a bombing in London people from different classes unite like Trevor and his family. Meanwhile, his mother believes to be better than everyone in the neighborhood Trevor tries to fit in. He becomes a new member of the gang takes over becoming the new leader, replacing Blackie.
In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the character, themes and moral principles found n the stories The Destructors by Graham Greene and The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence.
There seems to be a worrying pattern for the genre fiction authors that have gained mainstream appeal but lost control of their craft afterwards. But if anything, the forms of popular fiction have become the place for the more serious scholarly questions where the boundaries becomes increasingly endless to the writers. Despite the fact that “fantasy fiction is an alternative to realist fiction, not the alternative, they are nonetheless viewed as opposites, if not opponents” (Wilkins, 273). An author is the “meaning maker”, that recognises the purpose of writing and to construct and communicate a specific message between the author and the reader. For the author, popular fiction offers a wide range of freedom in style of writing that the literary fiction simply no longer does. Martin 's work has been described as riveting, channelling his creativity in creating a chronicle of complex story lines with gripping characters and engaging plot that is supposedly to be a gory feature in the fantasy genre. He often portrayed his characters as “unhappy or unsatisfied” and also troubled by their own violent actions, but still holds on to the idealisms in an otherwise chaotic and ruthless world. While some critics identifies his work as a "fantasy for the grown-ups”, others however might feel that there is a dark motive behind it. In the