Reexamination of Killadelphia through an allegory lense
Introduction :
“The fall in Killadelphia. Outside is the color of corn bread and blood” (Asante pg3).Corn bread the color of yellow and blood the color of red. These two colors are what your typical green leaves turn once they have lost their chloroplast. The purpose of this essay is to examine BUCK a MEMOIR by MK Asante and his use of Allegories to help give the reader a visual on what it like to be a young Buck. While reading this book there are many things that are typically seen to be “good” that is often colored with a paintbrush and dipped in pain. The author Asante does his best to tell his memoir in away to reach out to the younger generation. Asante talks about remaining
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I feel something I’ve never felt before: purpose. (pg202) Malo was kicked out of many different schools from Friends to Fels but it was Crefelder where Malo found his new path that would change his life for the better. His words at first felt trapped just like he did for so many years. “trapping my words like water under an ice block”( pg202) I feel like he so much to say so many experiences he wants to write but he doesn’t know where to start. His first word he wrote down was BUCK. BUCK: a fashionable and typically hell-raising young man. After writing the definition of a word that has explained who Malo felt he was he was able to allow the first wall of writers block to fall. He started to write after the usual school hours “Yup he’s still in there, writing. Been in there for hours.” Said Frank the janitor. Malo was able to take his painful experiences and turn it into a blessing that will later save him. “Writing is just like the streets: don’t hide anything at the beginning, don’t reveal anything until the last possible moment.”(pg 231) Malo perfected his life on the streets and applied the same hustle thought ganger member “drive” to the good side of him turning his whole life
The essay “Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” by E. Shelley Reid discusses a key point in writing that the writer should be passionate or have a connection to their writing. For instance, Reid states that there are three main principals that writers should follow when writing. In her work, E. Shelley Reid wrote, “Write about what you know about,
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
Symbolism has been seen as a very important role in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good country people”. Flannery O’Conner has written several short stories portraying herself as a Catholic writer who attacks religious views being opposed, though uses the fundamentals of nihilism portrayed through Hulga (Joy), the main character of her story. She uses multiple frank descriptions and the usage of different types of symbolism to get the audience to understand her main points. The use of names and an artificial leg give a vivid description of the main character and her views towards nihilism. O’Conner’s symbolistic usage of names, name change and an artificial leg all link the main character’s nihilistic philosophy of life which leads to her
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride, and his mother Ruth’s life. It explores their childhood—when they were both embarrassed by their mothers—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themselves for who they are. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story using dual narration. This technique further helps contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of belonging that derives from his multiracial family. By using two different narrations, McBride gradually establishes his identity and by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringings, in the end they came together, and understood each other’s perspective.
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride and his mother Ruth’s life, through their childhood—when they were both embarrassed about their mother—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themself for who they are and became proud of it. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story by using dual narration which further helps to contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of self that derives from his multiracial family and through the use of two different narrations, McBride slowly establishes his identity. Plus by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringing, in the end they come together and understand each other’s perspective.
Many times in life things are not as they seem. What may look simple on the surface may be more complicated deeper within. Countless authors of short stories go on a journey to intricately craft the ultimate revelation as well as the subtle clues meant for the readers as they attempt to figure out the complete “truth” of the story. The various authors of these stories often use different literary techniques to help uncover the revelation their main characters undergo. Through the process of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately convey the significant revelation in the short stories, “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations.
As a result, their lives changed, for better or for worse. They were inexperienced, and therefore made many mistakes, which made their life in Chicago very worrisome. However, their ideology and strong belief in determination and hard work kept them alive. In a land swarming with predators, this family of delicate prey found their place and made the best of it, despite the fact that America, a somewhat disarranged and hazardous jungle, was not the wholesome promise-land they had predicted it to be.
Heaney emphasizes the importance of the experience of Blackberry picking by using diction that relates to sensory imagery and human urges. He describes the flesh of the first berry of summer to be “sweet like a thickened wine” a beverage with a taste that lingers—just as he describes the blackberries to, as they “Leave stains upon the tongue.” As if the first harkened that the best was yet to come, he jumped at the chance to be drunk on blackberries, for the one taste had left him with a lust and hunger for more. Driven by something deeper than the simple desires of their younger years, they went “out with milk cans, pea tins, jam pots” without a thought to the many dangers, "the briars that scratched and the wet grass that bleached their boots." And they emerged with berries “burning” in their containers, their palms sticky as with blood with the reference to Bluebeard when he murdered his wives. Clearly this childhood experience is no a mere description of play. The metaphors and diction, especially those which relates to the sense, show that this experience touched the young Heaney at a different level.
Through O’Connor’s religious background, the audience must closely analyze the true message of her story through her symbolism. Her shocking and grotesque ending of the short story challenges individuals by questioning what is good and what is evil. O’Connor’s symbolism found in her setting and main characters truly embody her view of modern society. She uses these elements as a representation for the realistic paths individuals struggle to choose between: the path involved in sin concerning money, good looks, and pride or the path towards God concerning morals, values, and respect for humanity.
For this purpose, he compares The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with The Heroic Slave. The author reveals the main difference between the works is their representations of nature. The first work shows the author's negative attitude toward nature, in which he perceives it as a serious obstacle to the freedom. In turn, The Heroic Slave reflects other political ideas of the writer and focuses on the fact that nature and access to the land can be a source of inspiration in the struggle against
Young Goodman Brown goes into the forest at first with only a small expectation of what he is going to experience. Of his fellow Puritan society he sees the bad seeds as well as supposed men and women of the utmost regard. He sees virgin girls filled with reverence and innocence, and even members of the church present at the devil’s ceremony. This causes Young Goodman Brown to question his entire upbringing and trust in his society. It creates...
Irony plays an inexplicable and majestic part in the conclusion of The Awakening. One can say with confidence that in a story a protagonist, or heroin in this case, is expected to fulfill a happily ever after ending not only from a repetitious guarantee but from the incisive determination by such character, whom through hardships, earned it. Edna Pontellier...
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
'Young Goodman Brown,' by Hawthorne, and 'The Tell Tale Heart,' by Poe, offer readers the chance to embark on figurative and literal journeys, through our minds and our hearts. Hawthorne is interested in developing a sense of guilt in his story, an allegory warning against losing one's faith. The point of view and the shift in point of view are symbolic of the darkening, increasingly isolated heart of the main character, Goodman Brown, an everyman figure in an everyman tale. Poe, however, is concerned with capturing a sense of dread in his work, taking a look at the motivations behind the perverseness of human nature. Identifying and understanding the point of view is essential, since it affects a reader's relationship to the protagonist, but also offers perspective in situations where characters are blinded and deceived by their own faults. The main character of Poe?s story embarks on an emotional roller coaster, experiencing everything from terror to triumph. Both authors offer an interpretation of humans as sinful, through the use of foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism and, most importantly, point of view. Hawthorne teaches the reader an explicit moral lesson through the third person omniscient point of view, whereas Poe sidesteps morality in favor of thoroughly developing his characters in the first person point of view.
Throughout all of her moralising (a word which I use divorced from its modern negative associations) Byatt writes extremely expressively, bridging the gap between flat text on a page and vivid mental imagery; her short stories are compelling in a way that makes the reader curious, engaging our interest in what is to come. This is the essence of the storyteller's art. Even were it not to be her message, one could not come away from this collection of Byatt's work without the feeling that here, within these words, stories and constructs of art that there was an internal logic which offered a positive alternative to the negativity which seems to be a feature of this dispossessed age; a sense of purpose and innate meaning that channels and releases us, "as though the [emotion] was still and eternal in the painting and the [soul] was released into time." (p230) And be touched by it.