John Fowles - The Collector “The Collector” by John Fowles deals with a man’s obsession with a woman that turns to kidnap and eventually death. What attracted me to this book was the unusual topic of obsession and intriguing title. In my review I intend to study how the writer, John Fowles, portrays an obsessive personality - though Frederick’s actions, dialogue, and his changing relationship with his obsession Miranda. The book is set around the two main characters of Frederick and the girl he is obsessed with Miranda and is mainly set in Sussex around the middle of the 20th century. His obsession with Miranda begins in his hometown where he merely watches her from afar but she then moves away to London to go to college so his obsession dies away. After winning the pools, however, his obsession takes a new turn. He moves to London, on the advice of the ‘pools people’, where he sees Miranda again and his obsession grows once more. Once in London he starts to develop a fantasy to capture Miranda but never really intends to act upon it until he come across a house that fits perfectly into his fantasy. The buying of this house then encourages him to carry out his fantasy and kidnap her. This book is arranged in an unusual way. The first chapter is told from the view point of Frederick of the capturing and after the capture of Miranda. The second chapter is in diary form; this is told from Miranda’s point of view. In this she recounts people and events from before she was captured and also describes her escape attempts. This chapter is very good in letting us see how Miranda perceives the events that are happening to her and provides a contrast to Frederick. The third is back to Frederick’s point of view and is about Miranda’s illness, Frederick’s attempt to help her and his reactions. The fourth chapter is very short and is about Frederick finding Miranda’s diary, chapter two in the book, and realising that she never felt anything but resentment for him. It also introduces the idea that he may do it again for a comparison. Frederick, looking back on his experience with Miranda, tells the book in the form a dialogue with the reader. The writer, Fowles, demonstrates Frederick’s obsessive personality through his actions. One of these is the way he marks down the viewing of Miranda in his diary.
The futuristic story begins by familiarizing the reader with this house that can do pretty much anything a normal family would do, such as cook, clean, and read. Every hour a mechanical voice box stops to announce the date, weather, or event that is happening at that particular time. “There Will Come Soft Rains” is arranged chronologically, giving the effect that everything is in order, but the more you read the more you realize it’s not. At a point in the story, the mechanical voice box recites a poem by Sara Teasdale, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, about how even after human extinction the nature and animals will still remain unaffected. Even though the house is no longer occupied by anybody it still continues to carry out its day to day activities with
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
Superficially the characters Clarissa Harlowe and Miranda seem, not only to be extremely different, but complete opposites. Clarissa is an exemplary model of virtue and goodness. Samuel Richardson presents her as a chaste and innocent daughter. She is forced from her duty by a conniving brother into the arms of a manipulative man. She is the victim. Miranda is the villain of The Fair Jilt. Aphra Behn portrays her as a woman who knows what she wants and will do anything to get it, including murder. Miranda has no regard for family and is driven only by her desire for quality. On first reading, it seems that Miranda is manipulative and Clarissa is being manipulated. However, if one looks closely at these two characters, it becomes clear that they have a great deal in common. Both women are strong, intelligent and independent. Lack of parental control influences both of them, as do the inheritances they both receive from deceased family members. The characters of Clarissa Harlowe and Miranda, although strikingly different, are also revealingly similar.
The book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass can be interpreted in many ways. It is an autobiography that details Douglass’s experiences while he was enslaved. However, it is evident that he has been forced to censor the content of his narrative. Douglass mentions more than once that he is not able to say everything he desires. Moreover, on the surface the book is about the harshness of his life as a slave, but on a deeper level Douglass uses irony to give a compelling criticism of the institution of slavery. In his account he gives sarcastic descriptions of the privileges the slaves receive and what it looks like for slaves to be treated well. Nevertheless, both techniques of writing are effective
...neglected technology are still present in nature. The house stands alone in a scorched land, surrounded by ruins, remnants of other buildings and homes. Animals also exist in nature without humanity, however in poor conditions. The foxes, cats, and sparrows search for food and shelter from the home; the family dog dies from radiation poisoning and starvation. Nature also takes over inside of the house because the house functions by mechanical animals such as the mice, rats, and snakes. The children’s bedroom features an artificial jungle with mechanical animals and synthetic environments. This shows that even though mankind is gone, technology cannot live and eventually nature will start taking over again. In the end, nature prevails over technology. A tree falls on the house causing the fire which is a basic, natural force and a symbol of true destructive power.
In relation to the novel, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s disobedience ultimately sparked his freedom. Being introduced to the “heart-rending shrieks” from his aunt at such a young age, slavery implanted a long-lasting effect on his life. Often times, when one experiences a painful memory in the manner such as watching a family member hit until they are covered with blood, sparks a fire to stand up for what is right in the back of their mind. Douglass carried those visions of his aunt along with him his whole life, as well as his own repulsive
Use of technology is expanding from day to day, more things in life are depending on machinery. Machines are meant to bring us a comfortable life, and technology is meant to enhance our living standard, yet. Half a century ago, Ray Bradbury issued an enlightenment in the short story “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rain”. In E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”, a similar enlightenment is made. Both edify people that things will go wrong when technology is dominant over humanity; our dependence on technology lead people lost humanity, lead people lost control of human creation, and eventually lead humanity to devastate. The didactic works at the level of form in Bradbury, while in Forester is works at the level of content.
Bradbury’s use of personification in “There Will Come Soft Rains” also exemplifies the intricate relationship between humans and technology. For instance, he writes, “At ten o’clock the house began to die” (Bradbury 4). When the house truly starts to die, the readers begin to feel confused because everything it has done has been entirely methodical. The houses aspiration to save itself joint with the dying noises evokes human sorrow and suffering. The demolition of the personified house might convey the readers to sense the deep, penetrating grief of the situation, whereas a clear, detailed portrayal of the death of a human being might merely force readers to recoil in horror. Bradbury’s strong use of personification is effective because it
Due to the fact that this story is written in the first person point of view readers are not given much opportunity to truly know the thoughts and feelings of the other characters present in this story also. For example, in the chapter titled Ambuscade readers are introduced to Bayard father John Sartortis. Who appears to be a kind, hardworking man who fulfills all of his manly duties as a father, son and boss? But upon closer examination of the text the reader discover this characterization to be somewhat false because although Bayard see his father in this manner one of his slaves does not. When leaving the Sartortis property Loosh a slave ask Miss Rosa about the whereabouts of her son and why he wasn’t around to provide and take care of his family during a time when they needed him most?
the humans doom and feel indifference towards the house. If one were to read Bradbury’s words
This is Clegg trying to manipulate the reader into thinking that he was in the right of the actions he was doing, and Miranda was just so ungrateful. This stems back to the overarching idea of Clegg trying to paint the picture of him abducting Miranda is completely normal. But through reading the first part of the story there’s this underlying suspense added when he tries to act normal throughout the abduction situation, we know that he isn’t going to treat Miranda with “kindness” for the whole duration of kidnapping her because Miranda isn’t going to want to be kept captive against her will. Miranda tries to escape multiple times through trying to carve her way out, through trying to get attention of a car passing by, and of trying to hurt Clegg with a garden tool so she could escape. This leads Clegg at the end of the story when Miranda feels that she has pneumonia that this is just another of her tricks to escape and he leaves us with this suspenseful line “What I am trying to say is that it all came unexpected. I know what I did next day was a mistake, but up to that day I thought I was acting for the best within my rights” (120 Fowles). This is the most suspenseful line throughout the whole first part and it arises so many questions: What came
The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
As it was mentioned before, the novel is about a young lady whom belong to a common laborers family existing in Manchester in 1839, amid a
... represents his ultimate downfall. By the end of the novel, Nelly, the narrator, is well read, even commenting that she ‘could not open a book in the library that [she had] not looked into.’ (ch. 7). She even manages the finances of the house, which, when this book was written would have been strictly a male-only affair. Having previously only taken over the narration from chapter four onwards from Lockwood, who is condescending about local people, again showing a great challenge to male dominance by narrating almost the whole story.
To site a specific incident, Marianne describes her opinion of Edward Ferrars- her sister’s interest- as being very amiable, yet he is not the kind of man she expects to seriously attach to her sister. She goes on to find, what in her opinion are flaws, that Edward Ferrars reads with little feeling or emotion, does not regard music highly, and that he enjoys Elinor’s drawing, yet cannot appreciate it, for he is not an artist (15).