Dead Man Walking is a nonfiction book written by Sister Helen Prejean which details her world of being a spiritual advisor for inmates facing the death penalty. Sister Prejean first became the spiritual advisor for Elmo Patrick Sonnier who was being executed for his role in the murder of two teenagers. After she went through the execution process with Sonnier she became the spiritual advisor for another man and became a well-known abolitionist. This piece chronicles Sister Prejean’s passage through the execution system and her experiences along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Man Walking and Sister Prejean is a wonderful writer. I was drawn into the book from the beginning and I did not want to put it down. The piece helped to strengthen
This book was an interesting read. Normally I do not go for the type of grief that is deposited in the book. I usually like happier books. This book is very detailed about the grief process, and I believe will help people deal with grief and loss.
I enjoyed that the book challenged some of the biggest problems in our legal system, or even society as a whole. There is still a lot of racism going on, and this book was not afraid to exploit that. I enjoy those kinds of readings. They are the things that will eventually spark a change and shed some light on the problems that are happening right now.
The book was very inspiring and I think it covered a lot of great information. Something that Joanne Crutchfield managed to do very well was paint vivid pictures with her words. Everything was so detailed and descriptive, I was really drawn in by that. The use of imagery made the topics more relatable in a sense. I also liked how the book touched on the topic of mental health. Mental health issues affect everyone however, in the black community those health issues go unnoticed or unattended to. The Author shared her story of depression and how she dealt with it. I thought that aspect of the memoir was great, I think that it was wonderful that she shed a light on mental health. On the other hand the book was a little difficult to follow with the way the chapters were set up. Other than that I thought the book was good and I really
In the novel, Saving Grace, author Lee Smith follows the life of a young woman who was raised in poverty by an extremely religious father. In this story Grace Shepherd, the main character, starts out as a child, whose father is a preacher, and describes the numerous events, incidents, and even accidents that occur throughout her childhood and towards middle age, in addition, it tells the joyous moments that Grace experienced as well. Grace also had several different relationships with men that all eventually failed and some that never had a chance. First, there was a half brother that seduced her when she was just a child, then she married a much older man when she was only seventeen, whose “idea of the true nature of God came closer to my own image of Him as a great rock, eternal and unchanging” (Smith 165). However, she succumbs to an affair with a younger man that prompted a toxic relationship. What caused her to act so promiscuous and rebel against everything she had been taught growing up? The various men in Grace 's life all gave her something, for better or worse, and helped to make her the person she became at the end of the novel.
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
The novel “The Scarlet Letter” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and is probably the book for which he is most famous. He was a prolific writer and wrote many short stories, a few collections, and several novels during his writing career. Nathaniel Hawthorne was injured as a child and became an avid reader and decided that he wanted to be a writer. Though he was a lackluster college student, after graduation he returned to his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts and began his writing career in earnest. Not only did Nathaniel Hawthorne have one of his ancestors who had been one of the three judges involved in the Salem witch trials (of which he was not too proud, but it probably helped his career because it was depicted in his writings), but also he had many influential friends to include President Franklin Pierce, Henry David Thoreau (Author), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Poet), Herman Melville (Author) and he had actually rented the “Old Manse” mentioned in “The Scarlet Letter” from Ralph Waldo Emerson (Essayist). The “Scarlet Letter” is a work of non-fiction, but the preface is loosely based on Hawthorne’s actual life due to the fact that he actually did work at the Customs House in Salem and did lose his job there, which gave
In the short story, “Until Gwen” by Dennis Lehane, it starts off with the main character named Bobby who is getting picked up by his father from prison with a stolen Dodge Neon. His father wasn’t alone, he brought himself a company and it was a hooker named Mandy. We got a sense of who his father was, a “professional thief, a consummate con man” (647). We don’t know why he was in prison until the rest of the story slowly reveals the flashbacks he has with his girlfriend Gwen and the incident prior of going to jail. Bobby has no sense of who he is or where he is from because there no proof of record of him such as a birth certificate. After meeting Gwen, his life has changed and felt the sense of belonging into the world he is living in. Bobby’s
I thought that the book A Lesson Before Dying was all right overall. I think Ernest Gaines did a good job with the plot but the idea of the book was not to interesting to me. A book about a black man becoming a man on his way to the electric chair is a very dull plot to me. I give Gaines credit for making the book semi-interesting even though the plot was terrible. Personally after reading Things Fall Apart and Song of Solomon I was looking for a little more action in this book. Those two books were ten times better than A Lesson Before Dying so I can say that I was probably expecting too much.
...plot twists. For instance, Keven Roose was the last to get a print interview from the late Jerry Falwell and the article Roose wrote was handed out during the funeral. It is a little ironic that Kevin Roose wrote the article in order to gain a better understanding of the late Jerry Falwell for his novel. I believe the author successfully gave an unbiased account of the evangelical lifestyle. The novel included a range of evangelical Christians which demonstrates that it would be ignorant and wrong to group all of these individuals in one group based on religion. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the author reacted to opinions he did not agree with, specifically the constant homophobic remarks which were rather insulting as he has many gay friends and gay family members. Therefore, I would recommend the novel because it has interesting content and a reasonable length.
...ecommend reading this book is because the book takes some important themes in our lives. The book is probably the best book to read since the last decade. The story is kind of fascinating through its characters and human emotions.
“Following Footsteps of a Killer.” New York Post (Nov. 2002): 124: Proquest. Web. The Web.
The main characters described throughout Meridian are each contributing factors to the social overtones; and this helps the reader to fully understand the talent of Walker and her approach to social matters regarding the exploitation of violence in the races and the backbreaking guilt Meridian carried day to day. Nearing the end of the novel, the realization of strength versus weakness, and the effects that humanity has on each other induce Meridian to overcome her problematic, physical barrier and reach acceptance of herself as well as others around her; “All the people who are as alone as I am will one day gather at the river. We will watch the evening sun go down. And in the darkness maybe we will know the truth” (pg 242).
In The Shawshank Redemption, a film directed by Frank Darabont, Friendship is a prominent theme that is explored throughout the story of Andy Dufresne, Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding and their imprisonment and subsequent friendship. Darabont uses a range of techniques in this film to convey that theme of friendship, such as lighting, dialogue, music/score, Camera angles, mise-en-scene and camera shots.
When it comes to David Fincher’s adaption of Gillian Flynn’s novel, Gone Girl, it’s important to remember the famous quote, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” When I first watched the movie I experienced very odd emotions. For example, I went from wanting to find Amy’s “kidnapper”, to wanting her husband Nick Dunne prosecuted for her murder, to finally rooting her on for the hell she made him go through due to his infidelity.
Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.