The purpose behind a writer’s work is as diverse as the writer themselves. It is safe to assume that a writer of a fictional novel has a different purpose than a writer of a nonfiction book. This is the case with Tobias Wolff and C.S. Lewis. Both well known authors, Wolff and Lewis have completely different styles of writing, and therefore, different purposes behind their writing. Wolff’s memoir, This Boy’s Life, and Lewis’s Mere Christianity are quite different, yet they both reflect their respected author’s purpose. Despite being so different from each other, Wolff and Lewis do share some common ground with other writers and essayists, such as Joan Didion and E.B. White. Each author's purpose as well as their audience are made evident through their connections with the essayists. Not all writers have the same duty for writing, yet their duty tells a lot about their writing itself as well as the intended audience. Wolff wrote This Boy’s Life as a memoir, recounting his childhood and his struggles for a specific reason. It is written in the first person, which gives the memoir the feeling of a reflection. In the text, he reflects on his childhood by retelling it for an audience. However, the memoir is as much for the audience as it is for Tobias Wolff himself. While writing, Wolff explored his own mind, looking …show more content…
Wolff did not write This Boy’s Life at first for anyone else, but only for himself. He uses the memoir to reflect on his problems and to explore his reasoning and perhaps why everything occurred the way it did. Through reading, the audience can learn alongside Wolff. He uses personal stories that are real, and that not only gives Wolff credibility but also emotional ground, connecting with the audience in that way. After reading, the audience might be driven to reflect on their own pasts and to explore the questions they have
The author clearly shows how his childhood effected his adulthood, making in a living example of what he is writing about allowing the audience to more easily trust what he is writing about. Instead of using factually evidence from other dysfunctional family incidences, the author decides to make it more personal, by using his own life and comparing family ideas of the past to the present.
While nonfiction has many sub-categories as a genre, most outline a person overcoming adversity to complete a goal. This idea is displayed in Richard Wright’s Black Boy, and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Both books tell the story of an ultimate goal and the path to achieving this. Richard Wright and Chris McCandless both have virtuous and negative qualities, but they ultimately achieved their goals.
Two great men, two exact opposite points of view, when it comes to the question of a master creator. These two men would have a profound effect on the life that we live today. Freud who was born to an orthodox Jewish family in the mid 1800’s was born into a lower class family his father was in the wool trade. The collapse of the family business moved him and his family to a Vienna, Ghetto. Freud would later become the voice of science in a logical and philosophical battle. The latter would be author, C.S Lewis; Lewis grew up in a religious home as well, being born 42 years after the birth of Freud. Lewis’s parents were both educated individuals. Lewis’s father was a lawyer and his mother a mathematician. These men would both face their own unique challenges and tribulations. One man would embrace the idea of atheism and the other would unwillingly submit to theism.
The late Steve Jobs in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University eloquently traced the imprint of a calligraphy class he had taken at Reed College years before to the creation of today’s worldwide standard in computer typography. Esteemed architect Frank Gehry can trace the imprint of his college job working in a museum to his current success, and moreover can trace the imprint of a different piece of art to each one of the buildings he has created. President Bill Clinton can trace the imprint of witnessing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “I have a Dream” speech to his decision to devote his life to politics. However, in regards to the novelist and tracing the imprint of their work, it appears the dominate voice echoing through the pages of their novel is life experience. Two such novels that trace their imprint from life experience are Sister Carrie by former newspaper reporter Theodore Dreiser, and The Day of the Locust by screenwriter Nathanael West.
Clive Staples Lewis, often referred to as C.S. Lewis, was an apologist, theologian, philosopher, and author whose literary works captured hearts and minds. Lewis applied his intellectual ability and creative genius in each of his publications. Primarily known for his best-selling series, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis wrote several other books for the defense and explanation of Christianity. Clive wrote in such a way that not only grabbed the reader’s attention but helped them to better understand the depths of the faith.
Something that many memoirs have managed to convey are the deeper meanings that life holds. One of the many beloved memoirs, the published work “Night,” by Elie Wiesel, is able to indicate that. Elie Wiesel is able to tell us through his published work the torment he suffered in his youth. He tells us about his experience in the concentration camps where he and his father were forced into manual labor in inhumane conditions and the cruel abuse of the Nazis. The author is able to proclaim to the readers through the characterization of the despotic Nazis and many other people in his memoir, as well as the words that he choose to represent those tyrants, that evil existed.
Kluger states that this theme is a central focus in literature written about the holocaust, and which are most important in the novels and movies. This book isn’t like most other books, as it is brutally honest, demanding the reader to have certain thoughts and discussion. Throughout the memoir Ruth has recollections of her isolated Jewish
The boy does not feel comfortable sharing his own work with others, so instead, he uses other people’s work and calls it his own. In society, he is an outsider. He is not wealthy, like most people at his school, and is Jewish at a Catholic school. The boy is so afraid to share his work, which leads him to submit writing that doesn’t truly describe his feelings or beliefs. He cuts out certain topics in order to remain fairly anonymous. He says that “he could see [him]self” but “[he] didn’t want anyone else to” (36). His desire to hide himself portrays his lack of self identity. He does not want anyone to really understand who he is, because he is afraid of what they will think. Wolff depicts the boy as someone who is searching for truth in his life, because of his lack of
This Writer's Life We are all influenced by the world around us, and have unique, individual experiences that affect our personality. In the same way, an author is influenced by his past when he writes. Therefore, the more you know about the author, the better you can understand the messages of the author's work. Wolff influenced American literature by exploring his difficult childhood in a memoir, This Boy’s Life, and through his other short stories which greatly influenced himself as a person and a writer. From a very young age, Wolff’s parents shaped Wolff to the writer he is today both in positive and negative ways.
To blow up, lose it, boil over. Anger is a sin that so affects our lives that often we can’t bear to name it. In his chapter on anger, Guinness points out both the areas it may be lurking in our lives and what our response to this vice should be. Guinness does this by showing us how the little things reveal our true character and our need to follow the second greatest commandment wholeheartedly. When we are not what the world considers an “angry person” we often fall prey to the notion that our struggle with this vice is either non-existent or minuscule.
C.S. Lewis begins his book, “Mere Christianity”, by introducing the Law of Right and Wrong or the Laws of Nature. This, however, arises a question. What is the Law of Nature? The Law of Nature is the known difference between right and wrong. That is, mans distinction between what is right and what is wrong. “This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that everyone knew it and did not need to be taught it”(18). Lewis relates the law to how we treat others. We treat others the way we want to be treated and if they treat us poorly in return we become agitated and annoyed with them. He states that we become a society of excuses when something goes wrong. He goes on to say that we want to behave in a certain way when in reality we do the opposite of what is right or what is wrong. We are humans and humans have primal instincts. We are all capable of using our instincts to do right or wrong. Lewis uses an example of a drowning man to prove this point. When one sees a man in trouble two desires or instincts kick into play, to save the man or ignore him because the situation at hand could endanger you. However, there in another impulse that says help the man. With this comes a conflict of instincts. Do you run and forget about it or do you jump in and help. Most people will help even if the situation is going to endanger their life. This is just one way of seeing moral law. The right in a situation will mostly always prevail over the wrong. “Men ought to be unselfish, ought to be fair. Not that men are selfish, nor that they like being unselfish, but they ought to be”(30). We are creatures of habit and logic. Lewis believes that the moral law is not taught to us rather known by us instinctively. He also believes that the law is real. The law is our behaviors in life via good or bad. Lewis states, “there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior”(30). This opens Lewis to believe that the natural law is both alive and active in mans life today. Lewis goes on to say that the law must be something above mans behavior. He begins to relate this to the creation of the world.
Altogether, this is a book to be read thoughtfully and more than once. It is about an unusually sensitive and intelligent boy; but, then, are not all boys unusual and worthy of understanding? If they are bewildered at the complexity of modern life, unsure of themselves, shocked by the spectacle of perversity and evil around them - are not adults equally shocked by the knowledge that even children cannot escape this contact and awareness? & nbsp;
When encountering a good book, many emotions, ideas, and places feel intertwined with your current life. When one gets connected with the time period and the important elements within the text a new realm of possibilities opens. Each individual piece of writing has the power to convey anything the author would like elaborate on. It could inspire change or reaffirm beliefs. The delivery could take place in many different ways such as a narrative, biography, diary or journal.
“In my estimation a good book first must contain little or no trace of the author unless the author himself is a character. That is, when I read the book I should not feel that someone is telling me the story but t...
In literature, it is evident that each author has their own technique of writing. Although many authors are inspired by other writers, no two authors are alike. Each writer offers something to literature that is unique and their own. As a result, each author has their own view on what successful writings should do. Willa Cather explains in her essay, “The Novel Demeuble” her thoughts of what a successful novel consists of, and includes a few authors who represent both successful and non successful novels and in her novel, The Professors House helps meet the criteria she delineates.