Chapters 1-2 Summary William Armstrong’s novel, Sounder, takes place in the home of a Southern American sharecropper in the nineteenth century. In the beginning of the book, it describes an image of the father petting his dog, Sounder, in the pouch. The boy asks his father where he first got Sounder. The father explains how Sounder came to him along the road when he was a pup. The boy loves Sounder and thinks no other animal in the world can replace him. He thinks the most impressive thing about Sounder is its bark. It echoes so loudly, clearly, and musically that everyone in the neighborhood can hear it. Then the father tells the boy that they will go hunting with Sounder if it is not windy tonight. After the conversation, the father and the boy go inside where the boy’s mother prepared dinner. The father, the mother, the boy, and three younger children eat together. It is windy after dinner, so the father goes hunt by himself without Sounder and the boy. The mother then shells kernels of walnuts for extra money for the rest of the evening. The boy, with nothing to do, starts dreaming about the Bible’s story his mother often tells him. He dreams about having a flood and all the houses are floating on water then fall asleep. When he wakes up, he notices something he has only smelled twice in his life, ham. The boy notices that his mother is humming as well; she always hums when she is worried. After eating the ham for breakfast, his mother begins mending his father’s overall. At night, the boy feels lonely and keeps wishing to learn to read. He always wishes he can read so he won’t be lonely all the time. After a few days, the family is still eating from the ham bone. At dusk, three white sheriffs enter the cabin and arrest the f... ... middle of paper ... ... packs the boy sandwiches for the journey. The boy has seen people in striped suits riding in wagons to hard labor before, so he knows what he is looking for. He begins wondering around trying to find men in striped suits working. His journey was a failure; however, he ends up finding newspapers and magazines to practice his reading. The stories in the papers are never happy and they made him afraid. He thinks the stories from the Bible that his mother tells him are stories best. He reminisces how his mother tells him stories from the Bible about Joseph and David. Every time he goes searching for his father he remembers the story about King David hearing the wind and knowing that God is always near. The boy wasn’t afraid with David near. As he reminisces, he falls asleep and he thought he heard Sounder rising out of his great throat, riding the mist of the lowlands.
Brewster’s visions continued, leading to his belief that his mission was to transcribe the “lost books” of Esdras, an ancient Israelite prophet. These visions were instigated by an angel, who decided that the best way for the Lord’s word to be transcribed would be through a boy about the age...
...ography book. But had been from one end of the country to another. One wholly dependent on money for life, the other indifferent to it. But those were the meaningless things. Their similarities were profound. Both were vitally interested in Macon Dead’s son, and both had close and supportive posthumous communication with their fathers” (139). They are very different in personality, but they both want Milkman, Pilate wishes to teach him love and culture, and Ruth wishes to keep Milkman at her side. These characteristics lead Milkman along his journey, both as hindrances and as salvation, and without these juxtaposed mother-figures in Milkman’s life he would not have a well-rounded character and growth which is brought from his struggles brought by his mother, and his triumphs from Pilate.
The story I will be writing about is called “The Orphan Boy And The Elk Dog”, the textbook does not give a name of who wrote the story. A boy named Long Arrow was born deaf, his trib thought he was dumb so they abandoned him and took his only family, his sister, with them. On the way to trying to catch up to them there was a loud snap in his right and left ear, he could hear everything so clearly. He caught up with his tribe and an old man named Good Running took him in.
Once upon a time, castles watched the seas and pigs could fly. Often, when we are young fairy tales are read to us to offer happy endings in a world of darkness. They give us one specific ending and put our minds at rest knowing that Belle found her Beast. In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman Dead is not afforded the luxury of his journey having one specific pathway of going through life. Milkman’s story can be seen as a fairy tale with elements of good and bad. His world is trapped in a bubble, and it is not until the fairy tales of other people and books end that he becomes his own fairytale. He finds himself through the twists and turns of his own story. Because of the magical elements within Milkman’s life,
Christ is implemented in myriad texts as a source of light in a fallen world and to justify the plot that good shall ultimately triumph evil. Authors create a parallel between the character and Christ in hopes to deepen the sacrifices by emulating Christ 's actions and wisdom. The man represents Christ in many ways such as being in continuous agony. He is always coughing his lungs raw and taking care of the boy over himself. The man is wise and spouts many wise aphorisms such as “You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget (McCarthy 12).” McCarthy 's world is a disgusting dump with burnt corpses and it’s hard to forget what you have seen there. The man and the boy use a humble mode of transportation all the way up to the coast. Their mode of travel was on foot with a cart which parallels Christ traveling on foot with a pack donkey. Jesus Christ also calls himself the good shepherd, and his followers are his sheep. He does not drive his followers but leads them. The sheep depend on their shepherd for guidance just as the boy depends on his father for survival. The boy will always follow the man as the boy says, “I believe you. I always believe you. I have to (McCarthy 185).” The boy believes that the man will guide him and not abandon him just like how the sheep trust in their shepherd. The most
The story is about the childhood of one of the most famous American writer, Mark Twain, who is also known as the name Sammy. At the beginning of the story, Sammy was with his family on the trip from Salt River to Florida for making a house-rising. It was really a big work picnic. The women took along great baskets of food while the men rolled logs and built the new house. On the following days, his mom brought her children to Uncle John’s store for buying new clothes. Sammy seemed disappointed with the dark calico his mom chose. Therefore, he began to cry and forced her to choose the bright striped fabric. Finally, they showed up in the party as a handsomest and brightest of all as his mom agreed with him. On the way, Clemens’ family had new members which was the new kittens. Sammy and Margaret chose to give them Bible names “here’s Peter and there’s Paul”, “this one is Simon”, “that one over there shall be called Methuselah, who live so long”. While crossing the river in the steam boat. Sammy was really angry because the bad treatments of the slave owners to their own slaves. Sammy reached Bear Creek after that. Unfortunately, he fell to the river while trying to shoot a frog. As luck would have it, some slave boys in a boat came by before Sammy fell back into the river and save him. They soon became friends together and enjoyed talking together. Sammy didn’t have good day at school he was spanked by his teacher. Therefore his mother decided never send him to Mrs. Horr’s school again. In summer, Sammy was sent to Uncle John to live. He learn a lot during summer through Bible stories that Aunt Hanna told him every night. The Clemens’ new house was now finished. Sammy also had a new beautiful new neighbor, Laura, who dreamed to be ...
Wilson, M. & Clark, R. (n.d.). Analyzing the Short Story. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.limcollege.edu/Analyzing_the_Short_Story.pdf [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].
when a boy was to become a man, he was sent to find his protective spirit. First, h...
...a fresh positive mind which helps them to survive. The boy is young and it’s hard for any child his age to understand the reality of life in certain situations that is why the man consistently attempts to help the boy understand what they are going through and what it is going to take to survive.
“But he resolved he would not die, even with a half-dead body, because he wanted to come home again.” As the father was arrested, one of the deputies shot Sounder because he ran after the wagon taking away his master. The prison quarry the father worked at later exploded and he was granted remission and returned home. One of his shoulders was out of place, he could not speak properly, and one of his legs was inoperative. It dragged when he limped and it was very difficult and painful for him to move it. Sounder came home after a long time of healing himself in the woods. He was “the living skeleton of what had been a mighty coon hound.” He lacked an eye and an ear, and one of his shoulders had shattered. When Thornton Wilder was writing Sounder,
According to C. Wright Mills’ “The Promise”, he feels that an individual’s life and how they act is based on the society and what is happening around them at that time. Mills states in his essay that the sociological imagination helps us understand each individual’s background, lifestyles, and habits and/or traditions. It also allows us to understand the influence society may have on a person and how “historical” events led to it. Based on what he wrote, to understand this “imagination” we must be able to connect a person’s public or personal issues with the events happening within society during that time. According to this a person may act differently depending on their religious beliefs, whether or not they live within the city or the suburbs, etc. For example Mills argues that if a person’s “values” are not threatened then they would be in a state of “well-being” but, if their values were threatened then they would go into some sort of “crisis”. If Mills means “values” as in a person’s “standards of behavior” then this is happening today in our society with the LGBT equal rights movement. Many people feel that being homosexual is not a “standard behavior” and that it is perhaps a sickness. They feel that men should be with women therefor many have gone into a “crisis” and have begun belittling the gay community or bullying them due to the fact that they feel that this is not how an individual should be. Another example is homelessness; a person can be homeless due to a fire destroying their home, being kicked out, being unable to care for themselves due to being mentally ill, developing a heavy drug habit and losing their home due to trying to support the habit, or perhaps some sort of depression. Looking at it without un...
Anxiously, villagers rush to the scene to help the young boy, only to be derided by him. After multiple incidences with the young shepherd, the villagers stop coming to help him, assuming it is just another hoax. After the villagers decided they had, had enough of the boy’s lies, is when he needs them most. One day a wolf actually was attacking his flock. He screamed for help in dismay, only to realize that his past perfidious claims, ultimately lead to the massacre of his flock.
As the narrator stays for the night he becomes curious about this shepherd, who lives all alone in this stone house, and decides to stay for a while longer. The shepherd, after being widowed, had decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, tree by tree. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, makes holes in the ground and plants acorns that he had collected from far away into those holes.
narrated by a boy of the age of six, who actively takes note of the
Adam, a corporal officer, starts as man who works everyday to catch the ‘villains’ of society, but is not spending enough time with his family, especially his son. He favors his nine year old daughter over his fifteen year old son. Adam views his daughter as a sweet child, and his son as a stubborn teenager who is going through a rebellious stage. However, when his daughter is killed in an accident, his perspective of family changes. In his grief, he states that he wishes he had been a better father. His wife reminds him that he still is a father and he realizes that he still has a chance with his son, Dylan. After his Daughter’s death, he creates a resolution from scriptures that states how he will be a better father. Because of the resolution he creates, he opens up to and spends more time with his son. By th...