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The importance of the study of history
The importance of the study of history
The importance of the study of history
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Genre Analysis; Historical Fiction
The Great Railroad Race by Kristiana Gregory In Dictionary.com the website states that Historical Fiction is “The Genre of Literature, film, etc, comprising narratives that take place in the past and are characterised chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of historical events and personages.” Historical Fiction is that genre where you can read a story and learn about a true event all at the same time. There are so many excellent characteristics in Historical Fiction that make this genre so popular. In this story the author uses a great setting and great character actions to display a stable Historical Fiction novel.
The author, Kristiana Gregory used a setting to portray
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“I’m still in the attic, writing on top of this old trunk. Except for this little milk stool to sit on, there is no furniture up here just boxes and crates… A few minutes ago Joe and I leaned out the window to look down at the garden… Our “rockies” are beautiful at this hour, purple in the fading light.” In this citation Libby is saying that their family can not afford any nice furniture to sit on or write on. This also tells readers that Libby’s family lives near the Rockie mountains, from this citation we can discover that Libby likes the Rockies and she thinks they are beautiful. As Libby looks out her window, she can see beautiful sights. This citation goes with the setting because Libby is again telling what her home life is like and what she looks at everyday. In all, the author did a very nice job of using very detailed words to describe the setting of The Great Railroad …show more content…
She makes the characters do realistic tasks back in the day that we do today. Here is when Libby is washing dishes: “Later after they both tucked Joe into bed, I washed our plates in a pan or hot, soapy water, then dried them.” This citation is after the family eats dinner and Libby is cleaning up. Her family does not have enough money to eat good quality food so they normally eat cheap food. This relates with Historical Fiction because today we wash dishes too, you would think that they washed dishes differently in the old times but that is not the case. Libby must also be very helpful, since she is doing the dishes. The parents are also tucking Joe (who is a little kid) into bed, most parents today do
The Appalachian Mountains in the nineteenth century landscapes are often depicted in a grand, glorious, and often spiritually uplifting form. The Hudson River School artists painting in the romantic style engages viewers to tell a story through naturally occurring images as well as interior knowledge of the times at hand.
Mrs. Carrington leads the reader through the plains skirting the Rocky Mountains as she describes the land. Most notably she re...
The novel “The Orphan Train” written by Christina Baker Kline is a fictional portrayal of a young girl who migrated to America from Ireland, and found herself orphaned at the age of ten in New York City in the year 1929. The book tells the story of the pain and anguish she suffered, and the happiness she would later find. From the mid 1850’s through the early 1900’s there was an surge of European immigrants just like Niamh and her family who came to America in search of a better life. Unfortunately, most were not as prosperous as they had hoped to be. As a result, many poverty-stricken children were left orphaned, abandoned, and homeless. They roamed the streets looking for food, money, and refuge by any means necessary. Since there
In 1863, the overall enormous construction project, The Transcontinental Railroad, began with the tracks forming from the Central Pacific to the east of Sacramento, where it was completed. The Union Pacific Railroad started building their railroad in 1865, while the Central Pacific Railroad started in 1863. “Congress granted both railroads large tracts of land and millions of dollars in government loans” (The First Transcontinental Railroad 116).
The main genre of Gates of Fire is historical fiction. Historical fiction “is a fiction whose setting is sometime other than that in which it is written” (Harmon 250). Pressfield bases the story directly off of events from the past. The Spartans existed and the battle at Thermopylae actually happened.
After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).
In Annie Proulx’s work Close Range she tells stories that emphasize the rugged landscape of Wyoming and how it has shaped the characters in her short stories. In the short story “A Lonely Coast” Proulx uses the Narrator and her friend Josanna Skiles, as the models for what life is like for a single woman in the rugged, masculine, male-dominated culture of Wyoming. Josanna’s boyfriend Elk functions as the personification of the state of Wyoming, pushing Josanna to her limits until she snaps, just like the landscape of Wyoming pushes its residents to the point that they either leave or die there.
The collection that I decided to research was the Soule Family papers. In this collection the context was a lot to do with the railroad that George worked for. A popular topic that was discussed in a lot of the family’s papers was the weather. In the writings of George and Ada, there were a lot of talk about snow, and how cold it was while they were living in Grand Forks and Harvey. George particularly talked about on the railroad that there would be enough snow piled up that it would make the trains get stuck. Ada’s writings were mostly about day-to-day tasks like chores, homework, and again how cold the weather was in North Dakota during February and the winter months. The Soule family collection captured the life of North Dakota in the late 1890s like a picture, the severe weather, and the hardships of money. North Dakota is a very hard working state and is comfortably ordinary place to live and that’s what this collection captured best.
Steinbeck begins the story by creating a serene mood when describing the setting. He illustrates how the Salinas River looks, and stating that “the water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees—willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool” (1). Steinbeck’s word choice alone (“twinkling,” “golden,” and “fresh and green”) makes the setting appealing to the reader. The peaceful mood is created through the way he closely describes every detail; the images that the reader follows are animated and picturesque. He uses such a long sentence with semi-colons, commas, and dashes to make the passage flow smoothly, as opposed to choppy. The run-on like syntax he uses creates a comfortable feeling, showing that the Salinas River and everything surrounding it is an undisturbed area; the...
The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small portion of his writing helps to illuminate a major theme of the Romantic poets, and can even be seen in contemporary writings of today. One such work is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This story follows two characters, Inman and Ada, who barely know each other and are forced apart by the Civil War. As Ada waits in North Carolina Appalachia for Inman to return home from three years of battle, Inman decides to abandon the war effort and journey across the Southern states to reach his beloved.
When reflecting and writing on Eiseley’s essay and the “magical element”, I balk. I think to myself, “What magic?”, and then put pen to page. I dubiously choose a kiddie pool to draw inspiration from, and unexpectedly, inspiration flows into me. As I sit here in this little 10x30 foot backyard, the sky is filled with the flowing gaseous form of water, dark patches of moist earth speckle the yard, the plants soak up their scattered watering, and the leaves of bushes and trees imbue the space with a sense of dampness from their foliage. As my senses tune into the moisture that surrounds me, I fill Braedon’s artificial pond with water. I stare at the shimmering surface, contemplating Eiseley’s narrative, and the little bit of life’s wellspring caught in Brae’s pool. I see why Eiseley thought the most abundant compound on the earth’s surface is mystical.
Genre of the Narrative: The book is written as a satire in that it pokes fun at many themes and ideas in literature. The film follows suit with witty jokes and memorable quotes.
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
The Bystander at the Switch case is a fundamental part of Thomson’s argument in “Trolley Problem.” The basis of her paper is to explain the moral difference between this case, which she deems morally permissible (1398), and the Transplant case, which she deems morally impermissible (1396). In the Bystander at the Switch case, a bystander sees a trolley hurtling towards five workers on the track and has the option of throwing a switch to divert the trolley’s path towards only one worker. Thomson finds the Bystander at the Switch case permissible under two conditions: