One thousand kisses and One Sax Rohmer presents many great works throughout his writing career and “The Curse of a Thousand Kisses” was no exception. Some biographical information will lead readers to believe that his stories co-relate to his own life and experiences. In this story Rohmer presents someone who is cursed and the only way to reverse it is through a thousand, willing, and unknown of the curse true kisses. Rohmer reminds his readers that generosity, common curtesy, and caring for somebody else can make you a better person as well as others. The readers analysis of the story “The Curse of a Thousand Kisses” presents the use of literary elements together with Sax Rohmer’s history to give their own reflection. Sax Rohmer was born …show more content…
Grainger left to never be found, until one quite evening. There was a man casually staying at the same Continental in Cairo, two years later after the disappearance of Saville Grainger. One night while heading to his car, the hotel visitor was approached by a tall native, dressed in white and so muffled that only the eyes were visible. The man handed him a package and disappeared to never be seen again. Once presented with the package the recipient then goes back to his room to open and tell the story of the what the package contains. Inside the package it contained the story of Saville Grainger’s disappearance from the day he left until the day of the writing from Grainger himself. The climax within the story of “The Curse of a Thousand Kisses” would be when Grainger knocks over an old woman in the streets of Egypt. Due to another man’s careless nature it caused Grainger to knock the woman off her feet forcibly creating an awkward moment changing Grainger’s life from then on. Forced to help the woman to her feet and exchange words Grainger got one look at the old woman and received immediate repulse. Rohmer gives great imagery describing her as having an appalling ugliness to her. Having the face of a deceased woman who had been dead for centuries, skin yellow and shriveled, with a mouth …show more content…
In the beginning, internally Grainger is faced with many questions within himself as to who he is, the fate he is destined for, and if he is living his life’s true purpose. Facing those internal conflicts Grainger also leaves his identity such as his everyday characteristics behind when he is never to be seen again. Many things he grew a repulsion towards in his before life were new pleasures to him now on his journey through life. One of the most important of those changes was the lust for another kiss, and the new feeling of wanting a woman. Externally Grainger is faced with the conflict of figuring out the meaning of the lapis-luzuli and what it means for him being the recipient of the heart and the bestowal of the cursed old woman’s last
Main theme: How a person deals with drug and alcohol addiction while in an institution
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
"What lips have I kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay While reading "What lips my lips have kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, I realized many things about myself. The first thing was that I, after thinking I would never be able to decipher one word of poetry, actually could. I also found that I was able to enjoy it. Another thing was that the narrator (whom I felt was a woman- no man could portray these feelings like a woman) and I had strikingly similar feelings. There happened to be many other amazing findings, but these two were the first and most important to me.
Allegra Goodman was born in Brooklyn New York in 1967, but she grew up in Honolulu, where her parents moved and taught at the University of Hawaii in 1969. She received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Stanford University. Ms. Goodman began writing short stories in high school, and the summer after she graduated in 1985. Now, she has published two short story collections and six novels. The Other Side of the Island, which was published in 2008, describes how the world was controlled by Earth Mother after eight years of the Flood, and what the Greenspoons, especially Honor, did while they were living in the Colonies on Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. On one hand, Earth Mother and the Corporation were protecting and providing citizens with the new weather, the Enclosure; on the other hand, they were trying to control everybody from Unpredictable and defeat the Forecaster and his partisans. Ms. Goodman wrote the book while she suffered from the heat wave in Boston. She realized that everywhere around her things are attached air conditioners: her house, her car, and shops. People didn’t live in the real world anymore; she even wished there were air conditioned streets as well. Therefore, she started with that concept: “All this happened many years ago, before the streets were air conditioned. Children played outside, and in many places, the sky was still naturally blue.”
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
Love has many definitions and can be interpreted in many different ways. William Maxwell demonstrates this in his story “Love”. Maxwell opens up his story with a positive outlook on “Love” by saying, “Miss Vera Brown, she wrote on the blackboard, letter by letter in flawlessly oval palmer method. Our teacher for fifth grade. The name might as well have been graven in stone” (1). By the end of the story, the students “love” for their teachers no longer has a positive meaning, because of a turn in events that leads to a tragic ending. One could claim that throughout the story, Maxwell uses short descriptive sentences with added details that foreshadow the tragic ending.
In Under a Cruel Star, Heda Margolious Kovaly details the attractiveness and terror of Communism brought to Czechoslovakia following WWII. Kovaly’s accounts of how communism impacted Czechoslovakia are fascinating because they are accounts of a woman who was skeptical, but also seemed hopeful for communism’s success. Kovaly was not entirely pro-communism, nor was she entirely anti-communism during the Party’s takeover. By telling her accounts of being trapped in the Lodz Ghetto and the torture she faced in Auschwitz, Kovaly displays her terror experienced with a fascist regime and her need for change. Kovaly said that the people of Czechoslovakia welcomed communism because it provided them with the chance to make up for the passivity they had let occur during the German occupation. Communism’s appeal to
A small free kiss in the dark is a book written by Glenda Millard in 2009, the book shows the story of a young boy during the war. Also based on war, tomorrow when the war began, is a movie released in 2010, about a young group of people who return home from a camp to be confronted with a war. Both the book and the movie have similar characteristics and differences between them.
An author is successful only when the readers are able to comprehend the underlying lessons and morals which s/he is trying to inculcate in their psyche. Packer is well-aware of these irrefutable facts and has ensured that the key elements of the narrative: plot, language, setting and characters are compatible with one another and convincing enough for the readers. The vocabulary utilised by Packer is at a level where the reader can imply the meaning within the context without having to resort to a dictionary. As the plot proceeds, the characters mould their behaviour accordingly, which gives a natural feel to the story. Frances’ feelings are similar to the women of her time and the expression of human emotions is instrumental to gain the reader’s empathy and understanding. Early Morning, Lonely Ride is an immortal story because of its pertinence to today’s world. The harassment of women is a disturbing trend which continues to haunt women’s minds and make them scared of going outside unaccompanied. “You filthy little animal…Don’t dare touch me” (Packer 186): these words of reprimand are still used by women of all ages in their defence and protection. The perception of women as sexual objects has not been eradicated from the society’s mindset. In the deeply
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
In his book “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores what it means to be a black body living in the white world of the United States. Fashioned as a letter to his son, the book recounts Coates’ own experiences as a black man as well as his observations of the present and past treatment of the black body in the United States. Weaving together history, present, and personal, Coates ruminates about how to live in a black body in the United States. It is the wisdom that Coates finds within his own quest of self-discovery that Coates imparts to his son.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
Throughout the story, The author leads the reader through the different stages of a hidden love affair. Like in every love story the romance starts out being perfect, the best thing in the world, then it changes into something that the lovers are ashamed of. At the end one of the lovers becomes tired of waiting and leaves. The person left behind will be always hopeful that one day the loved one will come back.
The Play "Sure Thing" from David Ives examines the endless variations of boy meets girl and the ensuing pick up lines. The central theme throughout the play displays a few varieties of a possible conversation that end with a ringing bell that symbolizes a fresh start and a second chance to make a good impression.
A Love Affair in The Storm by Kate Chopin Kate Chopin's "The Storm" is a short story about a brief love affair that takes place during a storm that has separated Calixta from her husband and son. The title "The Storm" is an obvious reference to the storm outside, but more importantly to the love affair that takes place. The title refers to nature, which is symbolically used again and again in the story. Chopin uses words like "somber clouds", "threatening roar", and "sinister intentions" to describe the approaching storm. Later in the story those same words in reference to the storm outside, will also be represented symbolically to the storm brewing inside with the love affair.