Descriptive language in the stories “Boys & Girls”, “Cat in the Rain”, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and the poem “A Far Cry from Africa”. Descriptive language is a literary tool used by many great writers. We clearly see this in the stories “Boys & Girls”, “Cat in the Rain”, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and the poem “A Far Cry from Africa”. Through the use of metaphors, imagery, similes and symbolism, the authors present their issues more effectively. We see that in all these stories, descriptive language is used to demonstrate how a characters identity predicament can lead to overall crisis.
“Boys & Girls” by Alice Munro is about a girl that struggles against societies ideas of how a girl should be. She tries to become the opposite of the conventional role that society has set in place for women but is in many ways restricted. Critic Marlene Goldman writes, “This image of the enclosure and the concomitant distinction between inside and outside (indoor and outdoor) recur throughout the text.” I would agree with this quote. We see in the story that women are kept on the inside where they are restricted as oppose to the outdoors, which in many ways represent freedom. While the girl loved the work outside she hated to do the ‘woman’s work’ inside. She disliked her mother for making her do it, and believed that her mother only made her do it because she didn’t like it. She didn’t like anything about this work. “She hated the hot dark kitchen, and thought that work was endless, depressing and unimportant.” Her yearning for the outside represents her need for freedo...
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...rk: Longman, 200. P.1231-33
Patterson, Linda. “I Met History Once, But He Ain't Recognize Me” Winter 1987. 21 Apr. 2008
Goldman, Marlene. “Boys & Girls” 1990. 21 Apr. 2008 http://galenet.galegroup.com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/servlet/LitRC?locID=cuny_nytc&srchtp=ttl&c=2&stab=512&ai=U13024837&docNum=H1420022933&bConts=4199103&vrsn=3&TI=boys+and+girls&OP=starts&TQ=TW&ca=1&ste=57&tab=2&tbst=trp&n=10&wi=1096969
Lindsay, Clarence. “Cat in the Rain” Fall 97. 21 Apr. 2008. http://web.ebscohost.com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=107&sid=eda3b0f8-a907-4284-845e-7745e9a7e100%40sessionmgr109
“ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to
The difference between men and women is a very controversial issue, while there are obviously physical differences; the problem is how the genders are treated. It is stereotypically thought that the men do the labor work and make all the money, while the women stay in the house, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. While this stereotype does not exist as much in the 21st century, it was very prevalent in the 1900s. By using many different literary tools such as character development, symbolism, and setting, Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums challenge this controversial topic of the treatment of women versus men in the 1900s.
Women and men are not equal. Never have been, and it is hard to believe that they ever will be. Sexism permeates the lives of women from the day they are born. Women are either trying to fit into the “Act Like a Lady” box, they are actively resisting the same box, or sometimes both. The experience of fitting in the box and resisting the box can be observed in two plays: Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House”. In Hansberry’s play, initially, Beneatha seems uncontrolled and independent, but by the end she is controlled and dependent; whereas, in Ibsen’s play Nora seems controlled and dependent at the beginning of the play, but by the end she is independent and free.
Initially, Costello explains that the language in the novel perfectly encapsulates the vernacular used by teenagers in the time period the book is set in. In order to support this statement, Costello mentions a plethora of reputable sources that also share the same belief. He even acknowledges reviewers with contrasting opinions by explaining that they did not agree that the book’s language was authentic because of how obscene is. Costello then uses this information as a base for the rest of his arguments within the paper.
Throughout history, authors have incorporated figurative language into their novels to create an even more interesting experience for the reader. For example, “Trino’s Choice”, by Diane Gonzales Bertrand. This story features a teenager who faces small issues like social awkwardness, and bigger issues too like hiding from a gang. At the beginning of this story, Trino finds himself hiding from a gang because he witnessed them committing a crime. While telling Trino’s story, the author uses figurative language to create mood, and the voice of the narrator, and distinct character.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe includes syntax throughout the story. The author’s purpose of incorporating syntax within a story is to attract attention to specific parts of the story that might be a sign of foreshadowing or symbolism. In addition, a writer will include syntax to catch the reader’s eye of significant ideas like a theme of the story. As an example, in paragraphs 8-12, Poe incorporates the use of specific punctuation
The author uses dark and obscure references to make the boy's reality of living in the gloomy town of Araby is more vivid than ever. He uses dark and gloomy references to create the mood or atmosphere, then changes to bright light references when discussing Mangan's. sister. I am a little girl. The story expresses its theme through the setting, the characterization. of the boy and his point of view as the narrator.
In her story, Boys and Girls, Alice Munro depicts the hardships and successes of the rite of passage into adulthood through her portrayal of a young narrator and her brother. Through the narrator, the subject of the profound unfairness of sex-role stereotyping, and the effect this has on the rites of passage into adulthood is presented. The protagonist in Munro's story, unidentified by a name, goes through an extreme and radical initiation into adulthood, similar to that of her younger brother. Munro proposes that gender stereotyping, relationships, and a loss of innocence play an extreme, and often-controversial role in the growing and passing into adulthood for many young children. Initiation, or the rite of passage into adulthood, is, according to the theme of Munro’s story, both a mandatory and necessary experience.
In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that everyone can related to. The story is about a mother telling her daughter what to do, what not to do and how to do things. Kind of like society or parents or a friends of what to do. There has also been always been expectations of what to do and how to do things in life regards of gender, nationality or religion. The male has he’s duties and the female has different duties. However, in the typical society today, a person is supposed to graduate from high school and go straight in to an Ivy League university, to get a degree in a field of study that makes lot of money. While working a person must save money for that dream big house with the white picket fence. At the same time, you have to look for that perfect spouse so you can have the big beautiful dream wedding. After the wedding it’s the romantic honeymoon to Bora Bora. After a couple years the baby comes, and you are a happy family. Typically, that is what parents teach their children of what is what is expected of them.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” she tells a story about a young girl’s resistance to womanhood in a society infested with gender roles and stereotypes. The story takes place in the 1940s on a fox farm outside of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada. During this time, women were viewed as second class citizens, but the narrator was not going to accept this position without a fight.
What does it mean to be a girl according to society? How does society see it? In many countries, a girl is seen as powerless, uneducated, and too emotional to handle a man’s job. For example, women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive. In the past, writers used to describe a woman’s role as the victim of many forms of discrimination in the United States of America. In other words, women were only involved in things that men thought were not important. For instance, women did not have any other role than being a housewife. They had to stay at home, watch the children, be responsible, and do all the chores. Nonetheless, American women got their freedom earlier comparing to other countries in the world. Now they are more independent, more educated, and they have more civil rights. However, there are still some inequalities in the workplace for women. Some women get paid less than men doing the same job. Even more, there is more competition among women because they compete with each other to see who is prettier, or who gets more attention from men. Students can learn connotations and themes about the different ways women are being affected by the mass media, society, and their parents by reading "Cinderella " by Anne Sexton, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oates, and ''Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid.
Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” is a story about a girl that struggles against society’s ideas of how a girl should be, only to find her trapped in the ways of the world.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
In the first part of my paper I will give a short introduction about how the language is applied in novels and what the role of humour is. After that I will examine the two novels concerning their languages. In the third part I will put the emphasis on the differences and the similarities between the two books. Finally I will draw my conclusion.