50-500-500 Essay
Ricardo Roman
AP English III
9/24/15
In the ''Los Angeles Notebook'' by Joan Didion describes the Santa Ana's wind and its effect by emphasizing the wind's ability to change human behavior before during and after the winds presents, Didion does this by demonstrating supporting detail and imagery. Didion also expresses all of her ideas in first person view and in the present tense. Didion supports an eerie, ominous and dark mood by presenting it with strong imagery and detail, by stating ''My only neighbor would not come out of her house'' and ''Her husband roamed the place with a machete''. Didion also demonstrates personal recollection to assist with the eerie, ominous, and dark mood by stating ''The Indians will throw themselves into the sea with the bad wind blow.'' Didion references other cultures by comparing the Santa Ana winds to the foehn wind. The Santa Ana winds or the foehn wind can dramatically change people's behavior and causes people to commit crimes and suicide. Didion supports this by stating ''in Switzerland the suicide rates goes up during the
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Didion first personifies the Santa Ana winds as a negative, and evil force of nature “ There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension”. When Didion explains that the air has unnatural stillness and tension, it paints the picture of the impending end for Los Angeles by giving the Santa Ana winds some adjectives that describes the wind which creates character for the wind. Didion establishes personification throughout her story, in order to create a increasing sense of danger which amplifies the mood . Each personification shown gives the Santa Ana wind different human like characteristics to make it seem alive than just a simple
The Santa Ana winds cause people to act more violently or unruly and makes others irritable and unhappy to a great extent. Joan Didion explains to the reader about how the Santa Ana affects human behavior in her essay “Los Angeles Notebook.” Through the use of imagery, diction, and selection of detail Didion expresses her view of the Santa Ana winds.
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
Joan Didion uses words such as ‘eerie’, ‘depression’, and ‘unnatural’ bringing an unsettling and serious tone. Didion reflects this uneasiness on the people and how as Santa Ana nears, it affects them. “I have neither heard, nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks (Didion).” As Santa Ana looms closer the people living in the area get a strange sensation, almost self preparing themselves for the worst. Linda Thomas however describes the atmosphere in a different light. Thomas uses words such as ‘undisturbed’, ‘undamaged’, and ‘natural’ bringing a more casual and normalized tone. “I awoke to air so dry that the graze of my nightgown against the down comforter created tiny orange sparks… And as I make the drive to work, I find myself beneath a smoky sky the color of fire (Thomas).” The self knowing that Santa Ana is there, just like with Didion, but there is no strange feeling present. It is almost as if the presence of Santa Ana is not bothering and
Originally published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores the circumstances and conventions of the Black middle class, a group that has experienced both scholarly and popular neglect. In the Acknowledgments section of this work, Pattillo details the mentorship she received as a graduate student from William Julius Wilson at the University of Chicago. She recounts that Wilson often encouraged his students to extend, and even challenge his scholarly works, and that this urging provided the impetus for her research on the Black middle class (xiv). The challenge Pattillo (2013) refers to, becomes quite apparent when comparing her work to Wilson’s 1980 piece, The Declining Significance of Race. In this work, Wilson (1980) contends that in the industrial/modern era of the United States, class has surpassed race to be a salient factor of social stratification. He supplements his argument by referencing the progress and achievements of the Black middle class, relative to the “economic stagnation” of the Black underclass (p. 2). Pattillo (2013) offers a
For the first two paragraphs, ominous and abstract diction, such as “uneasy”, “ominously”, and “roamed” is used to describe “the victim's” feelings towards the wind (paragraphs 1-2). This creates a tense, uneasy tone that hints towards the idea that the winds are supernatural. Her diction changes as the third paragraph progresses. Here, it goes from supernatural tone to one of well researched analysis. This is assisted by the use of specific terms like “foehn”, “surgeons”, and “ions”, which are words that are not ominous, but specific and scientific. It is also a turn in tone from the mystical “folklore” paragraphs into ones that are not speculative. The overall mood of the remains ominous and uneasy, despite the fact that the cause of everybody’s discomfort is disclosed to some degree at the end. Because this disclosure is not very thorough and people’s reactions are so strange, the mood stays the same as the tone of the first two
The wind becomes almost human like from its physically described features-- such as its hands-- that seemingly reach out to others as they pass by. Violently blowing through the street, the winds actions are given strong diction, such as “pried,”
For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.
Joan Didion in her essay, “On Keeping a Notebook”, stresses that keeping a notebook is not like keeping a journal. Didion supports her claim by describing entries that are in her notebook. The author’s purpose is to enlighten the reader as to what a notebook is. The author writes in a nostalgic tone for those who are reading the essay, so that they can relate to her. She uses rhetorical appeals; such as flashback, pathos, and imagery to name a few. By using these devices she helps capture the reader’s attention.
Alice Walker has distilled some of the most controversial literature of her time. Her work has been the foundation for many colored writer's ambitions as well as many others. Her work has stroked passion and evoked a copious amount of different emotion among not only Americans but people around the world. Her story The Color Purple is a prime example of the essence of her persona and the messages she tried to portray. Walkers ideas embedded into this story great strike the souls of Americans, even to the point where this story is being banned from high schools around the country. Jacqueline Bobo states in her book, “This analysis will show
Have you ever loved a place as a child, but as you got older you realized how sugar coated it really was? Well, that is how Jacqueline Woodson felt about her mother’s hometown and where she went every summer for vacation. The story, When A Southern Town Broke A Heart, starts off with the author feeling as if Greenville is her home. But one year when she has 9 she saw it as the racist place it really is. This causes her to feel betrayed, but also as if she isn't the naive little girl she once was. By observing this change, you can conclude that the theme she is trying to convey is that as you get older, you also get wiser.
Sinclair Ross uses vivid imagery of nature to reflect and influence the emotions of his characters in his short story The Lamp at Noon. The wind is a powerful force that changes with the emotions of Ellen and Paul. Sinclair describes the wind as two separate winds: "the wind in flight, and the wind that pursue[s]" (Atwood/Weaver, 74). Like the wind in flight which cannot escape the wind that pursues it, Ellen cannot escape her isolation. The wind in flight always returns to "quake among the feeble eaves, as if in all this dust-mad wilderness it knew no other sanctuary" (74). Ellen is also forced to seek refuge within her small home, which is also the place where she feels the most secluded. The wind outside often contrasts the silence that is encased inside. During an argument between Paul and Ellen, there is an uncomfortable silence, "a deep fastness of it enclosed by rushing wind and creaking walls"(76). This noise around them makes the silence within even more uncomfortable. Paul later finds the silence comforting when he is in the stable. It is described as a "deep hollow calm within, a vast darkness engulfed beneath the tides of moaning wind" (78). The silence protects him and brings him relief from the dangerous world outside. Unfortunately, the walls seem to weaken against the powerful wind, and "instead of release or escape from the assaulting wind, the walls [are] but a feeble stand against it" (78). Paul begins to understand what Ellen is feeling, and the wind screams like Ellen's cries. As he thinks of ways to restore the land and make Ellen happy, the wind starts to slacken. For a short moment, he feels relief. When he returns to the house, he realizes that Ellen is gone. At this point, the wind whimpers and moans as if it knows Ellen's isolation and Paul's despair. The imagery of the wind is used by Sinclair to intensify the characters' emotions and help the reader understand what the characters are experiencing.
“Wallflowers” by Donna Vorreyer is a piece that truly makes one ponder over the slightest things the average human being overlooks every day. When one typically hears the word wallflower, one tends to think of those people standing on the wall at a party, just minding their own business. They do not say much, rather they stand around and take in all that is going on around them. It is seldom that they are noticed because they are so quiet and shy that they keep to themselves, but they still hold onto those hopes that the light will shine on them one day. Every person needs at least a bit of attention from someone every once in a while, whether they like to accept the fact or not. Therefore, the moral of the poem is that everyone has a place where they belong in this world; whether it be with those that pretend
Irving uses imagery to help readers imagine the past and also impact the theme of supernatural. Irving writes, “The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; star shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head” (Irving 3-4). Once again, Irving makes a reference to the hessian soldier, the Headless Horseman, which brings back the past of the revolutionary war, he does this by using imagery in explaining what he looks like. This also ties in with the theme of supernatural. Irving also describes, “ There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land” (Irving 1). This helps us readers imagine the atmosphere and the theme of supernatural within the town. The mentioning of the hauntings brings up the past once
“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” ( http://thinkexist.com/quotes/sylvia_plath/)
The way that the city is encountered at night can be compared with to how it is encountered at day in the poems ‘Prelude’ and ‘Morning at the Window’. The city is described similarly to each other. In ‘Preludes’ the streets in the morning as are described as “sawdust-trampled” (II, line 16) which is reminiscent of the description of the “sawdust restaurants” (line 7) in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. The “waves of brown fog” (line 5) in ‘Morning at the Window’ parallels the “yellow fog” (line 15) in ‘Prufrock’. An eerie tone of ‘Morning at the Window’ is created through the repetition of ethereal language throughout the poem. The fog tossing up faces from the street gives an impression of ghosts or spirits. The use of the word “twisted”