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Gender roles shaped in literature
Gender roles and literature
Gender roles shaped in literature
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In "The Demon Lover," by Elizabeth Bowen, Kathleen Drover returns to London from her house in the country in order to gather some things that she and her husband had abandoned during the bombings of the war. It is a humid, rainy day in late August and her once familiar street is now mostly deserted. The caretaker of her house is supposed to be out of town for a week and her arrival is assumed unknown. Mrs. Drover enters the old musty house and discovers a letter addressed to herself and it is marked with the present date. Curious to know if the caretaker is back in town and a little annoyed by the letter seeming to have no urgency in being mailed to her, she proceeds upstairs to her old bedroom to read it. In utter shock and complete horror, Mrs, Drover realizes that the letter is from her dead fiancé from twenty-five years ago. The letter is written in a threatening tone and is very vague but refers to a promise that she made to him and it is apparent that he plans to meet with her at the "agreed upon hour" to fulfill the promise. She can not remember what promise she had made was nor had any idea of what time he intended to meet, but she, in a panic of terror, flees the house. She proceeds to go to the town square where she might be safe and hails a cab. Mrs. Drover gets into the cab that almost seems to be waiting for her and as the driver turns to look back through the partition her jaw drops open and she proceeds to scream and helplessly beat on the glass. The driver then speeds off onto the deserted street and takes her away. We are led to believe that the driver is indeed the demonic lover that has captured her and going to force the promise to be fulfilled. Through this bone chilling suspenseful story, Bo...
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...etter it starts to rain outside and the reader senses an even more unsettling feeling as she is unable "to go on kneeling with her back exposed to the empty room, so she rose...to sit on an upright chair whose back was firmly against the wall." This reminds the reader of the well known fear of something lurking in the shadows to attack. Throughout the story the reader is given more and more information that continues to heighten the level of suspense. These elements build the solid foundation for the fearful tone that builds along with the story. We, as the reader, think that she is safe in the cab and we feel a sense of relief only to be jolted by the fact that the demon is the driver. We want this wife and mother to escape the evil clutches of the demonic lover and once we believe she is safe we get slapped with the truth. The good guy does not always win.
Diane Urban, for instance, was one of the many people who were trapped inside this horror. She “was comforting a woman propped against a wall, her legs virtually amputated” (96). Flynn and Dwyer appeal to the reader’s ethical conscience and emotions by providing a story of a victim who went through many tragedies. Causing readers to feel empathy for the victims. In addition, you began to put yourself in their shoes and wonder what you would do.
Catastrophe strikes in Gettysburg are both Union and Confederate soldiers alike are slaughtered by the thousands. Seven soldiers lie dead at the infamous Devil’s Den after the battle of Gettysburg, with their Springfield rifles and hats lying next to their contorted and lifeless bodies. These men came from all across the nation to fight in the Battle of Gettysburg; New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Georgia. Taking control of Devil’s Den during the second day of the battle, July 2nd became a priority for both sides, as its boulders give an excellent position to sharpshooters looking to take out officers over long distance. The cover provided by the large boulders also resulted in close quarter combat, brutal up close bayonet and hand to hand
During the story the author often uses foreshadowing to give hints to the reader of things that will happen in the future. When the story starts, a storm is coming on a late October night. The storm symbolizes the evil approaching the town. Usually it seems a storm would resemble something dark and evil, because a stormy night is always a classic setting for something evil. At the climax of the story, Charles Halloway reads a passage ...
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
The struggle between good and evil, the rewards of Heaven, and the consequences of sin are all Christian themes shared in the works of Hildegard, Dante, and Milton. While their works vary in style and substance, they are informed by a common religious background and understanding. Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum, Dante’s Inferno, and Milton’s Paradise Lost all have a common character in Satan. Satan in both the Ordo Virtutum and Inferno appears in a significant, but limited role. In Paradise Lost, Satan is a primary character and expresses a full range of traits and provokes a wide range of responses from the audience.
Plot: Woman gets call at work from her father, telling her that her mother is dead. Father never got used to living alone and went into retirement home. Mother is described as very religious, Anglican, who had been saved at the age of 14. Father was also religious and had waited for the mother since he first met her. They did not have sex until marriage and the father was mildly dissapointed that the mother did not have money. Description of the house follows, very high ceilings, old mansion it seems, with chimney stains, it has been let go. Jumps in time to narrators ex-husband making fun of narrator fantasizing about stains. Next paragraph is the father in a retirement home, always referring to things: ‘The lord never intended.’, shows how old people have disdain for new things, the next generation appears to be more and more sacreligious. Shows streak of meanness when ‘spits’ out a reference to constant praying, narrator claims he does not know who he is talking to, but appears to be the very pious mother. Following paragraph jumps back in time to when narrator was a child, she asks her mother constant questions about her white hair and what color it was, mother says she was glad when it wasn’t brown like her fathers anymore, shows high distaste towards her father, the narrators grandfather.
Didion’s diction conveys the “unnatural” feelings gnawing at her insides, which lead her to believe a storm is coming. Not only id there “tension” and “screaming”, but there is this idea that, “Anything could happen,’’ Didion’s disturbed diction creates a rather spooky tone and spirit within the text. The audience can better understand the “eerie absence” in the air because she uses every synonym of eerie possible. Her word choice and the details given imply that she dreads the storm and even more she dreads, “The [baby’s] frets,” and, “The maids [sulking].” She fears the cries and screams so much that it leaves her syntax simple and her mind almost absent. “[She] knows it because [she can] feel it,” with the baby and maid. Her unnatural mood causes her thoughts to be short and fragmented. Didion’s dismayed spirit is shown through her diction of
...d both of them do not quite understand what being saved actually means. In the end, “when she saw the man’s face twisted close to her own (367).” the grandmother realizes that she and The Misfit are both on the same level and she is no worse than the latter. Almost like taking a look into a mirror and pondering upon one’s own reflection. The story takes a quick pause, when the author writes the line, “His voice seemed to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instance (367).” What were the thoughts that went through the grandmother’s head? What happened during the “instance” that changed the grandmother’s view on her beliefs? The sole purpose of the phrase drowns a reader with questions and uncertainty. The story makes a final closure with The Misfit’s remark on how his source of happiness by performing violent acts brings “no real pleasure in life.”
So what does all this mean? To use as an analogy, let’s take a boxer for example. He is going to train for the upcoming fight. He is going to study his opponent, watch his moves, look for his weak points, and practice his own technique, because he seems to know what he is up against. He is going to train, train, train and train some more.
Reading a novel is an active experience. Opinions are formed and changed during the course of a plot. Not knowing what is going to happen next, or what is lurking around the corner, can provide the same sort of fear in a novel that is present in a scary movie. Brown's use of first person narration may have exposed some bad judgement in the characters, especially Clara. Her ever-changing views and assessments of Carwin, however, play a large part in maintaining the suspense of the story. It is the use of first person narration that allows us to see Clara's judgement of Carwin for what it is, without the help of an omniscient narrator. As a result, the story is able to capture our attention and instill us with fear.
The author selects techniques of diction such as connotation, repetition, and onomatopoeia, to establish the fear is the overall excerpt. He manipulates connotation to enhance the mood. As the character is driven about the midnight landscape by the mysterious coachman, he notices the “frowning rocks” hanging over the road, a “ghostly flicker” of blue light which he cannot explain and off in the distance the “long agonized wailing” of dogs. The word “frowning” allows us to see that this is no happy setting, even the rock that cannot feel is frowning and not smiling. The author uses the word ghostly to describe the flicker of light. Light usually portrays a saving or some sign of hope. By using ghostly as a descriptive word, he makes it seem supernatural or like it’s faintly there. If he wanted this to be a sign of hope he could have worded it a flickering light, but he did not causing the character to feel fright and no hope. The utilization of repetition by Stoker applies reinforcement to the atmosphere. Throughout the excerpt the narrator continues intensifying the effects by also repeating phrases such as “another and another.” By repeating these words the reader is being reminded of the alien emotions and surroundings of such a strange place. The use of intensifying repetition strengthens the negative connotation words following directly before or afte...
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.
...narrator then "buried the axe in [his wife's] brain" our deepest fear come true (23). The walls of the home, that normally represent happiness, reverse and become horrifying. The repetitious abuse breaks the wife, ever so silently, and she loses a piece of herself each time. Every cycle of abuse takes the wife lower and lower into the cellar, until one day, there is nothing left of her. Down she goes, until she is physically, emotionally, and spiritually annihilated.
Mankind lives in a physical, tangible, material world, which is influenced by the invisible, spiritual world around us. The present day spiritual world is just as existent as it was nearly two thousand years ago when Lord Jesus walked the earth. The Old and New Testaments reveal to us from time to time, glimpses of this spiritual world. These Testaments provide us with the most factual information regarding Satan. Unfortunately, many have been misinformed and do not thoroughly comprehend Satan’s origin and what his purpose concerning the spiritual and physical world. There is a great need to set the record straight regarding Satan especially in our hour with its present angel craze, channeling and a belief in spirit guides. I chose Satan as the subject of my paper because I am one who does not thoroughly comprehend who he is and what his purpose in both the spiritual and physical world is.
Mira - As a young adult, when one is asked not to do something, the allure of doing said thing is often greater than it was beforehand. This idea, can be found in young adults across the nation, and perhaps across the world; one thing prevalent to this idea of ‘doing something rendered as taboo’ is the concept of ‘Forbidden Love.’ Therefore, while the poems I chose to be presented in this anthology do pertain to the forbidden love ideal, they focus more on the life of the individual- when said ‘forbidden love’ has fallen apart, and the individual is left standing in the remnants of what they once had. With the presented poems: Just Friends by Lang Leav, Bad Luck Card by Langston Hughes, and Rubies by Carly Taylor, the ashes and consequences of a fallen 'forbidden love' are evident.