Silence Speaks Louder than Words in “Uncle Rock” “He’d be sitting there, eating with his mother, not bothering anybody, and life was good, when a man started changing it all” (285). This passage reflects how writer, Dagoberto Gilb, in his short story, “Uncle Rock,” sets the tone of Erick’s character as he narrates a story about a young boy who lives through the experiences of his mom’s relationships with men. Erick’s quiet demeanor serve as a form of detachment from creating a relationship with them. Emphasized by Erick’s silence and non-verbal actions, the quiet demeanor illustrate his disapproval towards the men in these relationships with his mom. Erick is a quiet boy who through his silence creates a detachment from the many relationships …show more content…
First, Erick “tighten[s] his jaw” and looks at his mom when the man mistaken his age (285). This would bother any child of his age. The lack of sensitivity toward Erick’s feelings, and disregard of his person, annoys him. Then, he reacts when he “drove” his fork into his eggs making them bleed (285). This non-verbal action notes what Erick thought of doing to the man. Although she later meets with him, this is clearly a signal of disapproval. In another occasion, Erick and his mom have dinner at the engineer’s house where the wealth and luxury is in full display, front and center, in the form of “two convertible sports cars” (286). In the engineer’s house, Erick feels out of place and reacts to this feeling by simply demonstrating restrain from enjoying the dinner with the engineer’s family. Gilb’s describes Erick “taking the smallest bites” so the family did not “think he liked ‘their’ food” (286). Clearly, Erick may enjoy other types of food, but by demonstrating that he likes their food, it would give a false impression of acceptance to those present, which Erick denies them by being quiet during dinner. On the other hand, Erick comes to terms with accepting Uncle Rock as a suitor to his mom when one of his non-verbal actions against another man favors him. There is a moment in the story where Erick gets rid of a note he receives for his mom from a baseball player. Erick does not share what happens with the couple. He simply denies one man from having a relationship with his mom and allows another man to continue being around them. This non-verbal action expresses a form of acceptance to Uncle Rock and allows the opportunity for him to pursue a relationship with Erick’s
In “Shout”, Dagoberto Gilb focuses his story on the emotions and mindset of his protagonist, a blue-collar laborer returning home from a hard day’s work in the extreme heat. While he looks to escape the toil of his labor, this man realizes that his home life does not provide the relief he desperately seeks and longs for at the end of the day. At home, the protagonist faces new set of burdens which are the complications of family life and the pressure of his main role as the provider of his household. Consequently, the author infuses a sense of volatility and instability in the story’s atmosphere, a mood that is ultimately symptomatic of the protagonist’s inability to separate the stresses of hard labor from his home life. By including these
focus on critiquing the oppressive power of patriarchy that is represented through the oppressive character of Uncle Phillip. The novel narrates the story of Melanie and her
The novel “The Chrysalids” by John Wyndham is about a boy named David who grows up in the oppressive society of Waknuk where changes are not accepted. Through Uncle Axel and his father, Joseph Strorm, he learns about the ignorance of human nature. This helps to guide him through life and develop his maturity. Hence, the author conveys that a father figure is an essential part of development in a child’s life.
For example, he does not hesitate to reveal the truths about his “alcoholic father.” Normally a father figure is a hero and someone every kid looks up to; however, the image of his father changes when the word alcoholic is used to describe him. Now instead of thinking of a role model, the reader can almost smell the old liquor stained drunk. It makes his father seem unreliable, irresponsible, and always hammered. Not only does McCourt describe his father negatively, but he continues by bashing his mother and referring to her as his “defeated mother.” Society paints mother’s as nurturing and sweet, but in McCourt’s point of view, his mother is weak and in a lost state. The two most influential figures on McCourt’s life are now seen as disappointing role models. Along with criticizing his parents, McCourt’s views on authority figures are negative as well; he describes the priests as pompous and his schoolmasters as bullies. Using the small alliteration “pompous priests” quickly catches the reader’s attention and directs them to a poor view of the priest. The word pompous shows that the priest was stuck up and all-important. Also, McCourt could have chosen any other word to describe his teachers, but “bully” leads us to believe that they were unfair, strict, forceful, and cruel—qualities we don’t like to associate with
Christopher’s mommy and daddy have departed for every extended time. Christopher's father known as ED has been doing such a delightful job taking good care of his child ever since he was his youngster. When years came by, Christopher happened to lose confidence and trust in his daddy because daddy has been dishonest to Christopher. This book is so-called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. This paper contains three literary elements. They are character, conflict, and symbolic. The only critical lens in this paper is feminist lens.
Love, one of the biggest aspects of human nature, affects everyone in different ways. In the novel by Stephen Chbosky, “the Perks of Being a Wallflower,” the main character Charlie, negatively affected by his loving relationship with his aunt Helen, develops many social issues. The novel, a coming of age story about overcoming many obstacles as a teenager, follows the main character, Charlie, and the challenges he faces. Throughout the story, Charlie struggles with the loss of his beloved aunt. When he begins High school, he has a harder time than the typical teenager for many reasons. His close relationship with his beloved aunt is the source of his companionship issues, depression, and insecurities.
Immediately in the first few pages, Pattyn, the narrator, openly asks disturbing questions to the reader such as, “Do you ever dangle your toes over the precipice, dare the cliff to crumble” (Hopkins 2). These first impressions of the protagonist allow the reader to infer that Pattyn has a damaged mentality. The reader is continuously presented with harsh narrations of her being constantly disciplined by her drunken father to care for her siblings by playing a motherly role. Pattyn’s life is continuously crushed by reality and burdened by her strict household. It is not until later in the novel- when Pattyn is forced to live with her Aunt J for the summer as a punishment- that she begins to discover happiness and self worth. She illustrates that, “Ever since [she] had been with Aunt J, [she] had learned things” (Hopkins 266). While with her Aunt, Pattyn was introduced to a whole new world of love and happiness; she has newfound relationships with her Aunt and a young boy named Ethan. For once, Pattyn feels wanted and valued. She goes from completely questioning her reason to live to having a genuine sense of self driven happiness. She was at an all time low in life and was able to find reason to live a fulfilling life. Hopkins, since the beginning of the novel, effortlessly captures the reader’s interest and presents them with an exceptional story centered on Pattyn’s overall character
Ultimately, Roethke’s use of negative diction influences one to believe that his poem tells the story of his abusive father. With the use of negative diction, the author is able to create a woeful and melancholy tone that paints multiple eerie images. After carefully analyzing the poem, one can conclude that the author tells his traumatic experience with his abusive father; Roethke is “beat” on his “head,” his “right ear scrape[s] a buckle,” and he “rompe[s]” to the point that pans begin falling. The author shares his experience as a dreadful memory, not a joyful dance with his father. Roethke uses negative diction such as “romped,” “death,” “whiskey,” “beat,” “scraped,” and “battered.” All these words have a negative connotation that illuminates
This scene takes place at the end of the conversation between Ellebry, Eric, and Dale. It would occur in this part of the story because this is one of the few times that Eric sees Dale not counting flashbacks. While Eric and Ellebry are there Eric asks Dale a personal question.
He also wants to have a family and life like ones on television. From the shows he learns the way white people dress up to eat, their politeness. A perfect life, compared to his. As he eats dinner, he replays the show in his mind, he notices that his family's "loud with belly laughs and marked by our pointing forks at each other." (29) He finds this different and wishes his family to change; he does so by asking his brother and sister to wear shoes to dinner. However, his family did not cooperate and continued their life as usual.
In This Boy’s Life, there are individuals that does not always from their relationship with other surrounding them. There are five main relationship shown in the book and one person in the relationship suffers somehow. In the first paragraph, I will explain the relationship with Rosemary and Roy, and Rosemary and Dwight. In the second paragraph, I will describe the relationship with Jack and Arthur and Jack and Dwight. Finally, I will explore the relationship between Rosemary and Jack.
This book explores the lifestyle of Randy Love, the last child of his household, as a reckless and ambitious character constantly trying at every opportunity to get better jobs that increase his prestige. His recklessness stems from his behaviours such as chronic alcoholism, sleeping around with various women and his lack of common sense. However, his irresponsibility and reckless gives his father fears that he may not complete his college education, hence his promise to his father. It also discusses his ordeals amidst various forms of seduction at different levels, some of which he didn’t have adequate control of himself. He is a character that sees people as stupid without common sense and a lot of women as objects of mere satisfaction :cry2: . He also has a selfish attitude. However, as things later dawned on him, he started to change ways towards the end of the book.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
‘And listen,’ said my father suddenly, from the middle of the staircase, in a voice which frightened me, ‘all I want for David is that he grows up to be a man. And when I say man, Ellen, I don’t mean a Sunday school teacher.’
All he does is drink and his parents do not seem to care. When Eric’s family finds out that him and Eva had a sexual relationship they are surprised. Of course, Eva and Eric met a bar with alcohol involved. They did not know what they were getting into so things just kind of happened. When Eric’s parents find out they are more shocked that he knew Eva and that it might ruin their reputation rather than him being drunk. Eric says to his mother “You don’t understand anything-you never did” (53). His addiction to alcohol is because his parents do not seem to care about him so he drinks his problems away. His addiction led him to getting Eva