Death Cure and The Last Question are a novel and short story of a speculative fiction genre, written by James Dashner in 2011 and Isaac Asimov in 1957 respectively. Each text uses a range of similar narrative techniques including setting, characterisation, atmosphere, context, and fundamental literary devices including simile and metaphor. The authors of Death Cure and The Last Question establish the setting, characterisation, and context to be integral to the communication of themes through building the mood and atmosphere of the novel in a way that allows the audience to infer messages about themes of each text. This essay will explore how the authors of Death Cure and The Last Question use contrasting themes in a setting, conveyed by the …show more content…
The Last Question uses multiple different characters, whom each face a common dilemma of reversing entropy in: “Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm… Zee Prime’s mind spanned the new galaxy… Man considered with himself” (Page 6, 8, and 10). This builds the text’s characterisation in conjunction to the use of atmosphere and mood in the setting to display the connection between characters and settings, which emphasizes the conveyance of themes in the text. Such a technique is used to convey the theme that “human unsustainability can lead to the end of humanity as we know it”. Whereas, in Death Cure each character possesses a differing range of qualities and psychological mindset, appearing in each character’s motivations and behaviours. The text’s protagonist, Thomas, highlights this through his friendship with Teresa, even after horrendous betrayals in: “Three of the closest friends he’d ever had. And WICKED had taken them all away...” (Page 322, Chapter 72), referring to the death of Teresa and the fact that WICKED had been responsible for the death of three of his closest friends. This uses the characterisation of the text to assist in establishing the tense atmosphere and mood of the setting, carrying the theme that “No matter their actions a friend always remains by your side in difficult times”. Subsequently, this shows that Death Cure and The Last Question each use differ considerably in themes expressed. Nevertheless, each text uses characterisation to accentuate the qualities and psychological mindsets of characters in a fashion that builds the atmosphere and mood of the
A character’s relationship to another character or their surroundings determines their behavior. In looking at these relationships in literature, it is possible to determine how characters are transformed with regards to the world around them. Global issues, societal hypocrisy, personal difficulties contribute to the ways in which characters react to situations they face. Insight into one’s priorities, or the world’s problems, causes the characters in Candide, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and The Metamorphosis to question their motives and change their ways of thinking in reaction to the defining events of their lives. The events transform the characters as well as their bonds with others.
People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
Throughout the novels we have read this semesters, one can makes observation that many of the characters from each novel have gone through fear whether it was due to racial strife or threat to life. We then see the characters go out and find their salvation or in some cases leave their homes before being faced with the consequences they have brought upon themselves.. Finally, most character are then faced with their fate in life where in most situation it is death or freedom. We see these variations first develop by author Richard Wright 's in his novel and movie Native Son. Each variations can been seen within different characters from both Cane and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. The variations are shape within
In three dynamic pieces of literature, the desperate yet hopeful characters gallantly endure the struggles of achieving their dreams as they experience the pain of desolation and the life-fulfilling happiness of a friendly companion. Through hostile resentment, the intense repulsion created by generations of territorial disputes tears apart two vengeful foes, Ulrich and Georg, in Saki’s captivating tale. Whereas in Remarque’s gory war novel, the pure terror of battle brutally slaughters the once innocent minds of soldiers as they undergo changes in their heart and soul within themselves. Although impervious to the influence of the reclusive residents tied to the ranch, as they quest for their shared aspirations, George and Lennie forge an invincible friendship in Steinbeck’s calamitous novelette.
reflects upon the theme of the novel. As it highlights the fact that if people in the society
In contrast, syntax provides a new perspective to the narrator s behavior as sentence structure draws attention to her erratic behavior. By her last entry, the narrator s sentences have become short and simple. Paragraphs 227 through 238 contain few adjectives resulting in limited descriptions yet her short sentences emphasize her actions providing plenty of imagery. The syntax quickly pulls the reader through the end as the narrator reaches an end to her madness.
end. This essay will further show how both stories shared similar endings, while at the same time
Thousands of cancer patients, or any terminally ill patients, wish for life in the end, nevertheless for Vivian, who states, “It is not my intention to give away the plot; but I think I die at the end” (Edson), she knows that may not happen for her. Wit’s conclusion has a great deal to say of peaceful death and salvation and is connected to that theme of “Salvation Anxiety” since Vivian is not afraid of her cancer, Vivian 's peaceful death, and Jason and Susie 's reaction to Vivian 's death.
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.
The purpose of this essay is to analyse and compare the narrative situations proposed by Franz Stanzel in the dystopian novels Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. For this aim, I am going to focus on the aspects focalization (reflection), relationship reader-narrator, narrative distance, knowledge, and reliability and demonstrate that they affect the interpretation of the novel by readers in a significant way. In the end, I will draw conclusions on how these techniques serve to alienate the narratives from their science fiction setting to set even more disconcerting issues about human’s existence.
"At the very end of the novel- what is represented as being important? Find two quotes to illustrate this".
With each analysis the reader gets a greater understanding of suicide and the mental state of those who commit it, as well as some of their motives. One could read only a single chapter of this book and gain a greater understanding than they previously had on the topic of suicide, but when one brings all the chapters together as a whole a much deeper understanding is obtained. Lester’s analyses start with diaries, using that of a girl he has called Katie as his first example. In this 14 page chapter he analyses her diary, not only comparing her to Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but using that comparison to show some of her motives and to make sense of them. It is this astute analysis that sets the tone for the rest of the similar chapters, in a way that is not boring but is not lighthearted in the slightest. The way that the whole book works together to give one insight on the topic of suicide makes it a useful resource for those who wish to understand it in a more in-depth way.
In the short story “Signs and Symbols,” Vladmir Nabokov entices the reader with the story of a concerned elderly couple who visits their mentally unstable son on his birthday at the sanitarium. This visit is further complicated by the son’s attempt to take his life, which compels the hospital staff at the sanitarium to prevent the parents from meeting their son. This circumstance then embarks on the difficult journey that life has been for this mother and father of their mentally deranged child. Nabokov provides a touching story to his readers and does this through: the illustration of the characters, the setting, and keeps the readers interest by presenting the story in a suspenseful way that it leaves the reader thirsting for more.
Death is, perhaps, the most universal of themes that an author can choose to write of. Death comes to all things; not so love, betrayal, happiness, or suffering. Each death is certain, but each is also unique. In Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote addresses several deaths, and each is handled in its individual fashion. From the manner of the death to its effect on those it touches, Capote crafts vignettes within the story to give the reader a very different sense of each one.
When writing occurs, the works are distinguished, but no unified meaning is deciphered. It is the option of the reader to decide whether a text contains an inherent meaning or the inability to find meaning at all. The Novella, Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon, allows the reader to determine meaning and to distinguish whether Balthazar’s generous approach possesses an underlying meaning. This concept is relevant to Barthes’s work, which criticizes the author’s intentions versus the interpreted context. The Death of the Author, discusses the theory of how an author enters his own death as the act of writing is taking place. This theory no longer allows the author to have definitive authority over the reader. To prevent “interpretive tyranny,” the reader must be able to separate a work from the inventor and conclude one’s own viewpoint.