In his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King says, “It is possible to overuse the well-turned fragment […], but frags can also work beautifully to streamline narration, create clear images, and create tension as well as to vary the prose-line.” (133) Though he doesn’t blatantly state it, King describes the use of constructive solecism. Constructive solecism can be defined as the use of a grammatical mistake in speech or writing in order to convey a message that wouldn’t get across if it had been written in the confines of proper grammar. Cage the Elephant, E.E. Cummings, and Daniel Keyes utilize the use of constructive solecism in their respective works, and by doing so they redefine the idea of having to have one’s work fit into the grammatical norm. The song “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant has an obvious use of solecism in the title, and its usage also continues through the song’s …show more content…
Charlie Gordon, who is a mentally disabled adult subjected to a surgery that increases his mental capacity, writes the novel in journal format. Throughout the first few chapters of the book, Charlie’s writing is comparable to that of a child first learning how to write: he uses run-on sentences and has trouble with subject-verb agreement. In order for the book to have been written with proper grammar, the narrator of the book would have had to been someone other than Charlie, which defeats the key purpose of the book, which is to understand how the surgery affects Charlie’s life. Keyes’ use of solecism juxtaposes Charlie before the surgery, post-surgery, and the deterioration of the beneficial effects of the surgery towards and during end of the novel. Without the use of solecism, the readers would not be able to fully understand how the surgery affected Charlie not only intellectually, but also socially and
Killer Angels, written by Michael Shaara, takes place in Gettysburg in the year of 1863. Prohibiting slavery in the states that did not yet become states triggered the start of the Civil War. Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay was where the war was triggered by the Confederate Army opening fire on the federal garrison and forced it to surrender. For three long years, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia delayed attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac. All principal confederate armies surrendered by the spring of 1865.
Finally, within the syntax of the novel, Sedaris has interlocked various arguments together with the choice of his words. He skillfully crafts a very sarcastic and humorous piece through applying an argument that is intermingled with generalizations. Thus, it means that the syntax is direct and declarative. For instance, the author states that the teacher is exhausting him with her foolishness and is rewarding her efforts with barely anything but pain. However, the syntax that the author used in some parts of the essay can be said to be confusing because he is fond of changing the topics or employing a different approach of transition in order to make his point of view clear to the readers. This is evident because at some point of the story, he would insert the earlier events or apply metaphors to describe a given occurrence.
Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “2BR02B” a doctor named Dr. Hitz came up with the idea of population control to solve the world’s problems. A man named Edward Wehling Jr. is in the hospital because his wife is having triplets. In order for the family to keep the babies, they must find three volunteers willing to die to maintain the population, because the government is controlling the right for the citizens to have however many babies they want to have. The power of the government is described by prohibiting overpopulation.
In the history of the United States, there have been many wars like Civil War. Civil War is a war in the United States between the North and the South. In “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara is explained of the fogginess that often accompanies warfare. This novel talks about the period of June 30th, 1863 through July 3rd, 1863 when civil war was happening. It is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg, three years into the Civil War. The Killer Angels is also a story that at times questions what the Civil War was about. The Civil War was a war fought over slavery and the North made their own way to South by imposing the South. Slavery was the main reason what got the Civil War started in the South and separation between South and North was stronger.
The novel Makes Me Wanna Holler discusses the problems of the black Americans from an insider’s prospective. When I say black Americans, I mean from the cultural issues, fatherhood, family, and how blacks working class families are anything, but lazy. Nathan recalls his troubled childhood, rehabilitation while in prison, and his success with the Washington Post. The novel helped me understand the mindset of black males and why some choose to be affiliated with gangs. Additionally, I learned that bouncing back from a hardship time help you regain strength because Nathan went threw a lot. However, I did not relate to the novel, but I understood the concept of it. The title of this book speaks out loud about the inner struggle that he encounter.
The year was 1960 when Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published. It was an immediate success even winning the Pulitzer Prize. The novel was the first published piece for Lee who was not widely known. The story itself was set in the American South during the Great Depression, which Lee was from and lived during that time. The story examined the angst of childhood, morals of society, racism, and the concept of perception.
In the short story “The Reach,” Stephen King addresses the fact that in life there is a constant fear of death, but when confronted with it is easier to accept when someone has seen many deaths and knows that they are dying themselves. The narrator of the story knows that she is dying and, being an elder, has seen many deaths. We reach this conclusion when she questions the love she has for others and no longer cries when others die around her anymore. She has seen many deaths in the years and can only accept that death is inevitable and a part of life. Mostly everyone she grew up with has passed on already.
Only Stephen King could write such a spellbinding tale of a bunch of boys doing nothing but walking.
“The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” This is an excerpt from “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz”, a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeat’s. Eva and Con were two sisters whose beauty had entranced a young Yeats. They are remembered in the poem as “Two girls in silk kimonos, both/beautiful.” As both girls become active in politics and the women’s suffrage movement they become exposed to the corrupted reality of life. The problems the two sisters endure eventually strip away their physical and spiritual beauty. Yeat’s poem indicates that time brings new and bad experiences. Experiences that strip beauty and innocence away from people. This is a recurring theme in the classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is a 1906 novel written to show the harsh conditions and the unfair treatment of immigrants in Chicago and other industrialized cities. The book starts off at a traditional Lithuanian wedding, called a Veselija, in a hall near the stockyards of Chicago called Packingtown. Sinclair opens with the wedding of, Lukoszaite and Jurgis Ruckus, to show the reader how the immigrants are mistreated even at ritual event. Some guest at the wedding eat and drink without ever paying for it and the saloon keepers cheat the families on beer and liquor, by charging them more than what they actually had consumed. The Saloon Keepers often served the worst of the swill and automatically the reader is told to not trust or antagonize
Mark Twain once stated, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” (Brainy Quote). Despite the imaginative challenges children are faced with in reality, they are able to cope with the advantage of time and mental resilience. Stephen King in his essay, "My Creature from the Black Lagoon" from the Wake Tech English 111 Reader, compared the idea of imaginative strength in children and in that of adults to see who would better fit the horror genre audience. Stephen King recalls one particular time from his past that sends shivers down even the hardest of spines.
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
The Shack, a New York Times number one bestseller, written by WM. Paul Young published in 2007 is the redemptive story of a man named Mack who was driven away from his relationship with God and pushed into a “Great Sadness through an unexpected loss in his family. When invited to reopen a deep wound and revisit the fateful events that severed his ties with God, Mack rediscovers who God is and his place in his life. He lets go of grief and restores his broken heart. Through this story of Mack’s devastating loss and his restitution, Young illustrates that times of pain, suffering, and confusion result in hope, forgiveness, and self renewal through a relationship with God.
Divergent is set in a futuristic Chicago were everyone is separated into 5 sections of Chicago. Throughout the story the characters take trips to the Ferris Wheel of Navy Prier, the Hancock building, the Willis (formally Sears) Tower, and Millennium Park.
“Evil has always existed, the perfect world that most people seek will never come to pass and it’s gonna get worse (Richard Ramirez).” These words from a convicted serial killer perfectly describe the world today because it seems that as time goes on, people become more vicious. This is incorporated into the book Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams, when a 17 year old girl named Ruth was kidnapped by a man named Jerry. He took Ruth to the woods, and though she managed to escape him, she still remained lost in the woods with no way to get home. With Jerry at her heels, she plotted ways to escape the woods, but until she figured out how to leave, he was still a constant threat to her. The growing lack of empathy and fear throughout