Chemistry by Graham Swift, Snowdrops by Leslie Norris, and finally
Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit by Sylvia Platt.
How do the authors of the anthology deal with the subject of change?
In this essay I am comparing three stories together.
These stories are ‘Chemistry by Graham Swift’, ‘Snowdrops by Leslie
Norris’, and finally ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit by
Sylvia Platt.’
I will investigate how the stories are similar and different, and also
how they come across to the reader.
I will explore the techniques they use and how each author deals with
the subject of change.
‘Chemistry’ is about a boy recalling his childhood and that sees an
‘invisible’ bond between himself, his mother, and his grandfather. He
uses the boat to symbolise the bond, and when the boat sinks, the bond
is broken.
We see things as the boy saw it, recall the boy’s thoughts and
emotions of how he felt towards his mother’s lover Ralph.
‘Snowdrops’ is from another boy’s memory, where it outlines two
different worlds, the adult world, and the child world. The boy is
excited by the thought of seeing snowdrops that his teacher Miss
Webster was taking them to see. He is excited of seeing the flowers as
he believes they are magical. The boy finally sees the flowers and
feels depressed because they are not exciting at all.
‘Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit’ is set from the eyes of a
girl, who always thought her Uncle Frank was like superman, and has a
lovely life until a few incidents ruin it for her.
The poor girl is heartbroken as she is blamed for an accident that
happened which she had nothing to do with. She finally realises that
her Uncle Frank (her Superman) will not always come to her re...
... middle of paper ...
...fying statement
‘Today Miss Webster was going to show them the snowdrops growing in
the little three cornered garden outside the school keepers house,
where they weren’t allowed to go.’
This makes us think ‘Who is narrating?’ ‘Who are them/they?’
In Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit the poor girl is shown the
real images of war, and her own mind would not let her look away ‘I
blocked my ears to muffle the sound of the men groaning, but I could
not tear my eyes away from the screen.’
In conclusion I believe that the authors are very successful in
writing these stories and in my opinion each story is well structured
and planned.
Each story was very easy to read, quite short but informative.
These stories were very interesting to read; the authors give a whole
new aspect to “Short Stories” and have shown me a new way to write
short stories.
Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Marshall Bruce Mathers’ “Mockingbird” both contextually illustrate the undying love and compassion between a father figure and his offspring. In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette anxiously believes that there is a monster under her bed. This results in her father, Rex Walls, taking her with him to try and find the monster under her bed so that they could face such a frightening beast together. They then check all over the house and end up going outside and Rex is bravely yelling and calling out this monster and Jeannette ends up joining him too. Eventually, after a lengthy period of time yelling at the monster, they ultimately decide that the monster is just a figment of Jeanette’s imagination. By calling out the monsters name, it is blandly obvious that Rex wanted to show Jeannette how to face her fears and confront them. Rex and Jeanette sit down and Rex explains to her “That [is] the thing to remember about all the monsters, Dad said: They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run. All you have to do, Mountain Goat, is show old Demon that you’re not afraid” (Walls 36). This quotation emphasizes the fact that the monsters that Jeanette perceives and the fear that she experiences, while lying in bed, is only a delusion created in the confines of her mind. In doing this, Rex Walls demonstrates the characteristics of an excellent father by demonstrating the compassion and love that he has for his child. Rex establishes this notion by teaching her life lessons, such as facing her fears, which prove to be helpful later on in the novel, as they assist Jeanette when she is in an anxiety provoking situations. The persona of a great father figure ...
Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop For this paper I will be discussing three poems. They are Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop. I will be examining the common theme I found throughout the three poems. I found that to be how the relatives teach lessons to their relation of a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching.
Poetry is used to send a variety of messages, either through its imagery, meaning, or by the poetic devices used. Each and every poem has something special and unique to offer to the reader, as long as the reader looks deep enough to find it. “Lone Bather'; written by A.M. Klein, and “The Swimmer'; by Irving Layton both offer such messages to the reader. At first glance, these messages seem surprising similar, but after further examination they are in fact strikingly different. The similarities are most evident in the imagery and use of poetic devices, however there are some cases where they are contrary. Meanwhile the differences are most obvious in the meaning, but due to the general similar themes of the two poems, some similarities are found.
There are people existing among us with a special trait or characteristic that makes them stand out above the masses. They are “heroes” in a sense, who perform great acts of sacrifice and promote hope when it seems that the last drop of faith has evaporated from one’s soul. These individuals remind us of saints who walked before us, healing and caring for the sick and destitute when no other man dared. Author, Tracy Kidder (2004), brings to the forefront the noble deeds of a modern day saint, Paul Farmer, through his writing in Mountains Beyond Mountains. He illustrates how a single man can lead nations toward healing, even in the midst of war, turmoil, limited resources, or “mountains” of bureaucratic red tape. Although the book tells a story about Farmer’s life, academic achievements, and global contributions toward curing infectious diseases, the main theme, as illustrated by the book title, is that no matter what a person does, there is always more to be done. Beyond the hills and valleys of Farmer’s journey, Kidder (2004) provides scenes of leadership styles along the way. Is a leader born or is leadership learned? A review of Paul Farmer’s mission, through the eyes of the author, may provide insight to support both philosophies.
In Night by Elie Wiesel and Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow, the reader witnesses the purpose of hope in one’s life. Wiesel and Doctorow fabricate their works around the trials and tribulations one suffers and what causes one to persevere to continue living. Elie and Blue, characters in the works, experience a life full of suffering and destruction. Even through this, they both live on with a purpose unknown to the reader, and perhaps unknown to themselves. Elie and Blue live on, but to no avail it seems, as both authors end their works with an ultimate destruction of the lives of their characters. However, Wiesel and Doctorow express that Elie and Blue persevere through their lives entirely as a result of hope. These authors suggest that suffering will exist in everyone’s life, and amidst this suffering one often searches for meaning. As Elie and Blue demonstrate, hope determines one’s meaning and purpose in life. Wiesel and Doctorow prove that one’s hope defines one’s existence; however, that hope only masks the futility of life, through the presentation of Elie and Blue’s construction of hope, destruction of hope, and adaptation of hope.
Murder is a reprobate action that is an inevitable part of war. It forces humans into immoral acts, which can manifest in the forms such as shooting or close combat. The life of a soldier is ultimately decided from the killer, whether or not he follows through with his actions. In the short stories The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty and Just Lather, That's All by Hernando Téllez, the killer must decide the fate of their victims under circumstantial constraints. The two story explore the difference between killing at a close proximity compared to killing at a distance, and how they affect the killer's final decision.
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
Sharon Olds states "In her bright helmet / she looks at me as if across a great distance" (Olds, 506). The helmet exemplifies the imagery that Olds uses to show the warlike tone in her poem. In modern day wars people see pictures of Cruise missiles and Stealth Bombers on CNN. However, when asked what they envision when they think about war, some will talk about guns, knives, helmets, and fires. As Olds talks about her daughter, she realizes that there is an impending battle yet to come. This battle, too, will be about possession. When her daughter sits in the barber's chair, Olds realizes that her daughter will soon reach her teens. The teenage years are a time when parents battle over cars, boys, and other rights with there children. The children and parents will fight over haircutting rights. As Olds reports, her daughter "has been to the barber, that knife grinder, / and had the edge of her hair sharpened" (506). Knife grinding and sharp objects are another image of war. Soldiers must be sure that their instruments are perfectly sharp if they want to win the war. The first time Olds things about the upcoming battle occurs during the warlike image of the haircut. These first warlike images set the tone of the rest of the piece.
conception of her encounters highlight her fixation on a kind of lived fantasy blinding her from
The concept of belonging and how it’s conveyed is through the connections to people, places, groups, communities and the wider world. For someone to feel that they belong, they must feel the support of friends and family. Barriers also exist for people not to belong to a group or society and can lead to negative repercussions. This is explored both in Jane Harrison play “Rainbows End” and “The Little Refugee” by Anh Do and Suzanne Do. Both texts explore the stages of a physical connection to a place, while being alienated, from the desire of not being accepted for being different of unalike.
It is evident that the occurrence of war throughout history has made a lasting impression on soldiers and civilians alike. This has been expressed over the years through different works of literature. The cost of war to the individual is illustrated in “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, and “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick because each story shows some element of mental, emotional, and physical toll.
she behaved in the manner that she did. She also explains that "the war going on in the world is for the further enslavement of the people." Goldman works to point out that "the fight began in Australia and conscription was there defeated by the brave and determined and courageous ...
In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Shares the same message behind the concepts of Choices, Dreams and Tragedy. First, both literature shares the same theme known as Choices. The poem by Robert Frost, Narrator said “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by,” As the reader can see this poem centers with the choices. The path in this poem can seen as just ordinary road, however Frost actually represents these roads as the life choices. And he decided to take the one less traveled by. Same goes for Christopher McCandless. He didn’t choose the ordinary road just like other else. And rather, he chose the less traveled path to “experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.” (page 37) Second, both written works
In the story, The Natural, certain characters and events are portrayed in a distinctive way that makes this story unique to other books and shows the typical writing style of the narrator. The author uses a repetitive writing technique that is impossible to overlook. The writer of this book is able to catch the reader’s eye with his concept of the importance of beautiful description. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, uses great imagery that makes the story appealing.
In Lee Ann Fisher Baron’s “Junk Science,” she claims that the “food industry with the help of federal regulators” sometimes use “[a science that] bypasses [the] system of peer review. Presented directly to the public by…‘experts’ or ‘activists,’ often with little or no supporting evidence, this ‘junk science’ undermines the ability…[for] everyday consumers to make rational decisions” (921). Yet Americans still have a lot of faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 65% of Americans are “very favorable” or “mostly favorable” of the FDA. When it comes to what people put in their bodies, the FDA has a moral obligation to be truthful and transparent. The bottom line of the FDA’s myriad of responsibilities is to help protect the health of Americans. Deciding what to eat is a critical part of living healthily, and consumers must be able to trust that this massive government agency is informing them properly of the contents of food. While the FDA does an excellent job in many areas, it has flaws in other areas. One of its flaws is allowing the food industry to print food labels that are deceptive, unclear, or simply not true (known as misbranding). This is quite the hot topic because a Google search for “Should I trust food labels” returns well over 20 million results, many of which are blog posts from online writers begging their readers not to trust food labels. HowStuffWorks, a division of Discovery Communications, published an online article whose author claims that “[the food industry] will put what they want on labels. They know the game….” While the food industry is partially at blame for misbranding, the FDA is allowing it to happen. If a mother tells her children that it is oka...