“Sticks” is a seemingly simple story about an average American family. What is unusual is the metal pole – a “kind of crucifix” – that the father has placed in their yard, which serves as a skeleton for various, and increasingly bizarre, decorations. (Saunders 1196) The narrator describes the pole as “Dad's one concession to glee.” (Saunders 1196) The father in the story is overbearing, averse to showing any emotion aside from anger, and frugal in the most extreme sense of the word. He stood over his children, monitoring the amount of ketchup that they used, and even “shrieked at Kimmie for wasting an apple slice” on Christmas Eve. (Saunders 1196)
The pole begins as a way to express his enjoyment of holidays and other events, and eventually
The clip ‘Trouble with Evan’ narrates the struggle of a boy named Evan that puts his stepdad Mike and his mother Karen through stress because of his ill manners. Despite him being at a tender age of 11 years and in 6th grade, his mannerism is worrying because he is already engaging in morally unacceptable activities such as shoplifting, smoking, and gross disobedience, bullying other children and even stealing from his parents. Therefore, this puts his parents under severe psychological stress as they try to figure where their parenting is going wrong in a bid together to make him grow morally upright (Henning, 2016). Evan’s behavior was also straining his relationship with his parents and this stressed the parents as they tried to figure out different ways in which they could once again improve their relationship with their son. In addition, the clip revolves around trying to uncover the mystery as to what could be causing Evan’s unacceptable behavior.
...f frustration in Willy for his lack of success by depicting with a descriptive language the homes surrounding the house: "solid vault of apartment houses" another proof of the house's and the family's fragility.
Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is most vocal about his sorrow for losing his daughter. However, his initial reaction was much different. Upon hearing that Susie’s ski hat had been found, he immediately retreats upstairs because “he [is] too devastated to reach out to [Abigail] sitting on the carpet…he could not let [her] see him” (Sebold 32). Jack retreats initially because he did not know what to do or say to console his family and he did not want them to see him upset. This first reaction, although it is small, is the first indicator of the marital problems to come. After recovering from the initial shock, Jack decides that he must bring justice for his daughter’s sake and allows this goal to completely engulf his life. He is both an intuitive and instrumental griever, experiencing outbursts of uncontrolled emotions then channeling that emotion into capturing the killer. He focuses his efforts in such an e...
In the short story “The Ledge”, Stephen King exemplifies the effect pride and authority can have over the actions a character will take. The protagonist, Mr. Norris’, main conflict is confronting his lover, Marcia’s, husband. Because of this conflict, his goal is to leave the penthouse with his freedom, Marcia, and the money. As a result of the situation they are in, both characters take certain actions that reflects their power over the other.
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the great American Novel with its unorthodox writing style and controversial topics. In the selected passage, Huck struggles with his self-sense of morality. This paper will analyze a passage from Adventures of huckleberry Finn and will touch on the basic function of the passage, the connection between the passage from the rest of the book, and the interaction between form and content.
Gift-giving nowadays is no longer an act of kindness, but rather a political measure, taken to ensure one’s status with one’s acquaintances. While the general feeling of "goodwill towards men" still pervades the season, albeit filtered through television and municipal decorating projects, there is a great tension that precedes the actual Christmas holiday itself. I remember Christmases of my youth as enjoyable times, to be sure, but also as times when it was best to stay clear of my mother, who was inevitably in
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
Living in the Chicago Southside, Walter’s family faces some harsh living conditions. Even as much as fifty cents becomes a luxury option for the couple. This is depicted when Travis, Walter’s son, says “This is the morning we supposed to bring the fifty cents to school”, while Ruth, Walter’s wife and Travis’ mother, responds abruptly with “Well, I ain’t got no fifty cents this morning” (p.1295). In this excerpt, the author is emphasizing on two details about the Youngers: first, the value of frugality and the situation that even little money cannot be spent for wants, such as education; second, the family’s financial condition is highly unstable, because Hansberry accents that in a certain morning the famil...
Nicky’s father took his son out with the intention of having him look for a pumpkin and bringing it back home. Not at all did he suspect to encounter anything more but indeed he did. Nicky and his father went looking for a pumpkin at as place that he describes as “a piece of land so devoid of life and interest that from January to October, I’m certain, no one sees it at all”.
The Clutter family portrayed the American dream for all people in Holcomb, as they are described to be almost the perfect family, or dream family. The Clutters are a strong family of 6 with a well liked father and mother, and successful children. Their family is well known throughout the village of Holcomb and are the most idolized. Mr.Clutter represents what every man should be, as he was “the community’s most widely known citizen” and
While the Burnells talked of their doll house they showed their cruel and prejudice nature by excluding the Kelvey children from the group. “And the only two who stayed outside the ring were the two who were always outside, the little Kelveys. They knew better than to come anywhere near the Burnells.” The way the people treat the Kelvey family is less than equity. They gossip of the Kelveys creating rude remarks of their outer appearance and making up harsh tales of them and the father of the young children. “Many of the children, including the Burnells, were not allowed even to speak to them. They walked past the Kelveys with their heads in the air, and as they set the fashion in all matters of behavior, the Kelveys were shunned by everybody.” The people handle the Kelveys as though they are rodents that take their disregarded clothing and scraps from their tables. They may think of them as rodents by how they wear clothes made from table cloth, curtains, or the second hand clothes from the rich families’ homes. Even the aunt of the aunt of the Burnells shooed the Kelveys away just as though they were unwelcome animals. The children of high society ranked
“I am a large, big boned woman with rough, man-working hands” Mama describes of herself in the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Mama, who additionally takes the role of narrator, is a lady who comes from a wealth of heritage and tough roots. She is never vain, never boastful and most certainly never selfish. She speaks only of her two daughters who she cares deeply for. She analyzes the way she has raised them and how much she has cared too much or too little for them, yet most of all how much they value their family. Mama never speaks of herself, other than one paragraph where she describes what she does. “My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing” (Walker, 60). She does not need to tell readers who she is, for her descriptions of what she does and how her family interacts, denotes all the reader needs to know. Although Mama narrates this story rather bleakly, she gives readers a sense of love and sense of her inner strength to continue heritage through “Everyday Use”.
“the brass chains on his wrist”, and also “wedged between two rocks”. These two quotes display the imprisonment the father had experienced his whole life, and his desire to want something more in life other than just fishing. The second quote reveals how he was stuck between his desires and his responsibilities. These three points in this short story all display the importance of choice in a
Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told of a young boy who traveled south with a runaway slave, Jim, after escaping his father by means of a fake murder. In the myriad of misadventures, Huck observed many things, learned about himself and about the southern society, and dynamically changed as a person. Twain satirized the gullibility and the underdeveloped moral compass of the average southerner. Through this satire and characters in the novel, he discusses numerous topics including racism, treatment of the black population, of the female population and many more. The two most prominent themes that ran throughout the book included religion versus superstition and morals. Twain portrayed superstition as morally superior to Christianity through instances of Christian hypocrisy and that the actions of superstitious characters, including Huck and Jim, tend to be the ‘correct’ ones. In doing so, it demonstrates the religious hypocrisy, as well as general behaviors, of southern society.
In the short story, “The Semplica Girl Diaries”, George Saunders describes a world that reflects similar aspects of the American Life, however focuses more on materialistic ideals. The narrator, a forty year old man, describes the struggles of life as a middle class family who lives among a community of wealth, especially for his pre-teen daughter among her affluent peers. A central sign of money within the community are lawns, particularly, the SG’s or Semplica Girls, young immigrant women who hang across yards on a micro-line that runs through their heads. Saunders, through conflict within the narrator and between him and his daughter about these SG’s, uses satire to comment on how the mistreatment of oppressed persons is easily ignored because