People make simple decisions every day: what time to get up, what clothes to wear, what book to read. However, we don’t usually stop to think deeply about those small choices. In the poem “I Go Back To The House For A Book” by Billy Collins, the narrator goes back to his house for something to read at the doctor’s office. However, another part of him does not go back to the house, and instead that part just sets off on his way. At first glance the poem may seem humorous and lighthearted or simply an unrealistic take on the repercussions of a small decision. However, author Billy Collins uses word choice in “I Go Back To The House For a Book” to force both the narrator and reader to grapple with difficult questions of true personality, mortality, …show more content…
The narrator states “another me that did not bother / to go back to the house for a book / heads out on his own,” (6-8). The phrase “did not bother” implies careless, thoughtless action - the man did not decide, he did not choose - he just simply “did not bother” to get a book. The speaker seems to look down on the other version of himself as someone who will be less educated as a result of not getting the book. The narrator’s dismissiveness is shown as he describes his other self as “a ghost in his ghost car” (11). The use of the word “ghost” suggests that the version of the man who left first is less corporeal and less important. If the “two selves” concept is not taken literally, it feels as though the narrator is internally scrutinizing his actions and imagining how others will judge him. The speaker continues to struggle in his relationship with his other self, describing his other self as “a good three minutes ahead of me — / a spacing that will now continue / for the rest of my life” (13-15). The difference in tone creates a confusing atmosphere - is the speaker celebrating the disconnect from his thoughtless, more ignorant self, a “ghost” he has escaped? Or is he mourning the loss of an essential part of himself, and the creation of an insurmountable three minute spacing? The narrator is conflicted about his true nature, and worries how others will view him, despite his …show more content…
The speaker seems to be relieved that there’s someone on his side, forging his life’s path ahead of him. However, the second description, “hound that pulls me along/shade I am doomed to follow”, is darker. In Greek literature, shades were spirits or ghosts. The speaker feels that he no longer has any agency, and whatever he does, he is “doomed” to be dragged along by the ghost of himself. If narrator is forever doomed to be pulled along by the shade, then the narrator will be pulled along the path the ghost forges for him. Although he was once a heroic scout, he is now a vicious hound, pulling the narrator through the dog park that is life. Just like all people, this path of life ends with inevitable death. The author
4: what makes Bechdel’s story interesting? What makes Bechdel’s story so fascinating is that she took what would have been an amazing novel and turned it into a comic book. Aside from the author’s lack of celebrity, she created a profound grippy story. Most autobiographies are written by famous people. Bechdal’s creativity as a writer and illustrator led her to capture thousands of satisfying details, with word and images, along with emotional truth and humor to produce this extraordinary first person autobiography herself.
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
In "Our Secret" by Susan Griffin, the essay uses fragments throughout the essay to symbolize all the topics and people that are involved. The fragments in the essay tie together insides and outsides, human nature, everything affected by past, secrets, cause and effect, and development with the content. These subjects and the fragments are also similar with her life stories and her interviewees that all go together. The author also uses her own memories mixed in with what she heard from the interviewees. Her recollection of her memory is not fully told, but with missing parts and added feelings. Her interviewee's words are told to her and brought to the paper with added information. She tells throughout the book about these recollections.
Susan Griffin's "Our Secret" is a study in psychology. It is a look into the human mind to see what makes people do the things they do and in particular what makes people commit acts of violence. She isolates the first half of the twentieth century and in particular the era of the Second World War as a basis for her study. The essay discusses a number of people but they all tie in to Heinrich Himmler. He is the extreme case, he who can be linked directly to every single death in the concentration camps. Griffin seeks to examine Himmler because if she can discern a monster like Himmler than everyone else simply falls into place. The essay also tries to deduce why something like the Holocaust, although never mentioned directly, can take place. How can so many people be involved and yet so few people try to end it.
The decisions that you make throughout life can make or break you; you just have to make the right ones. In Joyce Carol Oates story “Where Are Your Going Where Have You Been?”, the main character is Connie. Connie had an older sister but she was nothing like her. Her older sister always pleased her mom, and Connie did not care. Connie and her friend hang out and go to the shopping center or the movies. One day they decided that instead of going to the mall they would go to the diner across the street. She met a boy named Arnold. After that night everything started to spiral down. “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” demonstrates a teenager who decided to cross the road and become a woman.
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
There are always two sides to every story. The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, by Joyce Carol Oates is a prefect example of just that. In this short story, the main character is a fifteen year old girl, named Connie. The young adolescent has two sides to herself; one when she is at home and one when she is out with her friends. When Connie is at home, she acts childlike. However, when she goes out she tries to act like an adult by changing her clothes and the way she talks. She has an older sister who shadows her with her smarts, but Connie believes that she is more beautiful and worthy than June. June is twenty-two years old, very well behaved and is actually close with their mother. Connie not only struggles with her family, but also gets herself into a bind with a much older man named Arnold Friend. This story shows that there can be darkness even in the brightest places and that everything is not always how it appears to be.
Woven into the twisted short story by Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” stands a figure of demonic proportions; a man whose mere presence develops into an ominous fear, bringing with him a thickness of anxiety and an eerie sense of premature death. While her parents are away on a Sunday afternoon, Connie is approached by a strange man named Arnold Friend who is determined to seduce her and steal her away. Rather than use force, Arnold Friend insinuates his way into Connie’s mind and subdues her vulnerable and emerging sexuality. In the end, Oates indicates that he leads her to her death, whether spiritual or physical, and that his love is empty, but she is powerless against him. Within this novella lies a battle of wits between a young girl and a demonic man who is the metaphorical illusion of a fate – the fate of isolation and death.
In A Bird in the House, Margaret Laurence is able to incorporate many themes and motifs into her stories such as, war, tragedy, religion, and faith. Another theme that is also shown throughout the book is identity, both national and individual identity. National identity is defined as “ a sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, etc.” (“national identity”), while individual identity is what makes a person unique, it is what a person believes, thinks and feels. Sometimes in life identity gets mixed up and can become a confusing aspect of life. People are a product of their environment, which is a factor in shaping identity. The protagonist in the book, Vanessa MacLeod, witnesses and experiences both types of identity. She sees the influence of the Canadian national identity in her Grandfather Connor, Scottish heritage in her Grandmother MacLeod, Irish heritage in her Uncle Dan, which ultimately influence Vanessa’s personal identity.
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
Throughout many of Toni Morrison?s novels, the plot is built around some conflict for her characters to overcome. Paradise, in particular, uses the relationships between women as a means of reaching this desired end. Paradise, a novel centered around the destruction of a convent and the women in it, supports this idea by showing how this building serves as a haven for dejected women (Smith). The bulk of the novel takes place during and after WWII and focuses on an all black town in Oklahoma. It is through the course of the novel that we see Morrison weave the bonds of women into the text as a means of healing the scars inflicted upon her characters in their respective societies.
Nine patriarchs found a town. Four women flee a life. Only one paradise is attained. Toni Morrison's novel Paradise revolves around the concept of "paradise," and those who believe they have it and those who actually do. Morrison uses a town and a former convent, each with its own religious center, to tell her tale about finding solace in an oppressive world. Whether fleeing inter- and intra-racial conflict or emotional hurt, the characters travel a path of self-isolation and eventual redemption. In her novel Paradise, Toni Morrison uses the town of Ruby and four broken women to demonstrate how "paradise" can not be achieved through isolation, but rather only through understanding and acceptance.
DiYanni, , Robert . Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. 4th. New York: McGraw Hill, 1998. 408-413. Print.
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.