Windows to the Soul
Many Characters in the novel Grand Avenue, by Greg Sarris, are wearing masks. Masks that conceal themselves and their culture in an attempt to fit into the world that has enveloped their history and stifled their heritage. The key to these masks is the eyes. The eyes of the characters in the novel tell stories.
The dispair of the Native Americans is first shown in The Magic Pony when Jasmine, the voice of the story, describes her Aunt Faye’s eyes.
“Her eyes looked dark and motionless, like she was seeing something she didn’t want to see and couldn’t look away from'; (p.4)
Faye, like many inhabitants of the novel, seems helplessly focused on the sordid history of her family and the poison that seems to infect their very souls. She is obsessed to the point of madness and this poison is best described by Jasmine when she comes upon Faye the morning of Faye’s decision to create order out of the chaos that has been her life.
“I realized talking about it was useless when I saw her eyes.
The fearful person I had seen behind her bright eyes the past few weeks had come out now; she was that person.
She had told stories to save herself - now she was telling them to excuse herself. Hatred. Jealousy. Anger. Evil.
All I had seen in my mother’s and my aunt’s eyes at different times were here in Faye’s.'; (p. 23-24)
After doing her best to fight the poison that curses her family, she finally succumbs.
Jasmine describes her cousin Ruby’s eyes as being “a million miles away'; (p.7). But when Ruby’s mind is set on saving the pony, her determination comes shining brightly through.
“Her eyes were like a pair of headlights on the highway, staring straight ahead, zooming past me.'; (p.18)
Ruby has found a purpose, a cause. All of her will is focused on achieving this goal. For her, saving the pony from the slaughterhouse is a way to retake a part of her that was lost in the very same slaughterhouse when she went to work for Smokey, the local pimp.
In another story, Ruby’s eyes still exhibit an innocence and exuberance of youth. Slaughterhouse is a story told by the voice of Frankie, Ruby’s teenage boyfriend. The story begins with Frankie describing her eyes “pretty as the nighttime sky';. (p.51) But later in the story, Frankie notices a change in Ruby.
Writing a story is pretty difficult. Writing a short story is even harder, there is so much that has to be accomplished; in both commercial and literary fiction! The plot, the structure, whether it has a happy, unhappy, or indeterminate ending. There must be artistic unity, chance, coincidence, rising action, climax, falling action. Most importantly there must be characterization. Characters make the story! “anyone can summarize what a person in a story has done, but a writer needs considerable skill and insight into human beings to describe convincingly who a person is” [page 168]
Through the terrifying events she experienced as a child and her parents’ miscommunications, she begins to realize how her mother tried to protect her from the mistakes that she made. Lena does not truly accept this at first, but ultimately discovers that she should strive to do better.
The literary devices used in the literary essay are description, definition, examples, narration, compare and contrast, cause and effect, classification and division. On the other hand, the short story uses narrator, setting, characterization, plot and perspective. Lastly, both the literary essay and short story convey life-learning lessons. “In Groups We Shrink” sends the message through examples and description while “The Lesson” uses narration and
“Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night-sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.” This elaborate simile creates a mental image of the natural beauty of the young princess, Irene, by comparing her eyes to the night sky. The simile also parallels the depth of Irene’s soul to the dark, endless night sky.
The Eyes are the terrifying and aggressive secretive enforcers of the law. The Eyes symbolize God and how he is always watching, they are always watching as well. “I wonder who told them. It could have been a neighbour, watching our car pull out from the driveway in the morning, acting on a hunch, tipping them off for a gold star on someone’s list. It could even have been the man who got us the passports; why not get paid twice? Like them, even, to plant the passport forgers themselves, a net for the unwary. The Eyes of God run over all the earth.”(65). This symbolism is an important feature of the book because it creates fear for the citizens of Gilead. To the citizens it symbolizes a higher authority that is capable of doing great harm and is always watching. “We aren’t allowed inside the buildings anymore; but who would want to go in? Those buildings belong to the Eyes.” (166). The fear that the Eyes add to the story line reminds the reader how aggressive and evil the government of Gilead is, that the characters of the novel have such strong fear towards these people. From this the characters weaknesses are apparent. For example the main character Offred is a strong woman who does not express fear, though when you hear her talk about the Eyes you see a part of her weakness and fear peak through. In addition a feature that the Eyes bring to the novel is suspense. Whenever the characters see the van with the
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream be otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role in the lives of African Americans, who pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This occasion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart, and Miller 466).
The importance of costume in the theatre cannot be rated too highly, for it is not only an outward and immediately visible medium of expression for the actor himself but it is significant of the dramatic values which he is suppose to portray (Brooke, 1). The colors, texture and shape of a costume can create a feeling of the character that the actor may not be able to portray. There is not any definite information on what exactly the Greeks used for costumes because so much time has elapsed since the original records were taken. Most information is based on the different artifacts that were found, such as paintings and pottery. Sometimes hints of what was worn could be found in the plays themselves.
In conclusion, hunger is a constant, chronic pain distressing many children. Famished children should have become a thing of the past a long time ago. The thought may seem impossible, but the world produces enough food to feed everyone. In the world as a whole, per capita food availability has risen from about 2220 kcal/person/day in the early 1960s to 2790 kcal/person/day in 2006-08, while developing countries also recorded a leap (2015 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and
... advertisement” (Fitzgerald pg. 160). Wilson understands the symbolic meaning of the eyes and how they truly do watch over all the corrupt, shameful things the main characters do.
Another aspect of Laura’s personality, which is portrayed by the glass menagerie, is her extreme fragility. At first, Laura calls this “a blessing in disguise” – that he has made her normal. But when he reveals to her that he is engaged to another woman, her hopes are shattered, just like the unicorn’s horn. Now the unicorn is just like all the other horses, therefore, she decides it is more fitting for Jim than it is for her.
In the novel Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a character named Beatrice also known as Mama, has many dynamic traits. Mama is a religious woman who respects and highly prioritizes her family. Mama’s husband Eugene becomes more abusive toward her children and herself which causes her to lose her unborn baby. In Mama’s mind and heart, she knows she has to protect her children so she makes the decision to poison Eugene. Mama’s character changes throughout the book, as she first starts as a very quiet and caring character but as Eugene’s abusiveness increases, it develops her into becoming a perpetrator that caused her to be very depressed.
Looney Tunes, a popular cartoon from the 30s to the 60s brought many children hours of entertainment, with its entertaining plot and hilarious antics, which people of all ages enjoyed. In many of its early episodes, there were many times Native Americans made appearances. Many of the characters go off of the stereotypes that had been passed down from the 18th and 19th centuries. In this paper, I focus on the images of Native Americans in the children’s classic cartoon, Looney Tunes, while also exploring the interactions and portrayals of the Native American characters. With a closer look at how the stereotypes surrounding Native Americans from the 18th and 19th centuries continued to thrive into the 20th century, this reveals how these stereotypes were embedded into a person’s mind from a very young age.
...r debts were based on deception, and she is too scared to tell her husband anything, adding another lie to the web she has entangled herself into. A tragic character to the end, she even has to lie to get the arsenic, saying she has to kill rats but in all reality she wanted to kill herself.
Deficiencies of macronutrient and micronutrient adversely affect growth, body composition, muscle strength, intelligence, body development and quality of life in the pediatric age group.
Each of the essays included an original version, followed by a revision memo, and last but not least a final revised version of the essay. After we completed an essay, the professor would grade our original essay and give feedback on how to further improve on our final revised essay. We then would have to take his corrections into consideration and write 2 paragraphs on how to fix our mistakes called a revision memo. The first essay we were asked to write an “Argument Description”. For this essay, it was required for the students to find the writer’s primary and secondary claims of a particular essay chosen from the Best American Essays book and describe how they work. Secondly, we were asked to write an “Argument Analysis”. In this essay it required the same work as the “Argument Description” essay, but we were asked to find the implications about the claims stated. The next essay, Professor Stuart asked us to write was a “Genre Analysis”. The “Genre Analysis” essay required us to develop an argumentative analysis that explains the expectations of the assignments. This specific essay required us to explain the strategy and process, and evaluate how we had to adapt to the assignment. Our final essay for this course was called an “Argument in Literature”. The “Argument in Literature” essay required us to compose an argument analysis over one of the course readings and give an evaluation of the ideas