Write a critical analysis of the passage from A Handful of Dust
starting is mummy coming back today? (p55) and finishing I've been
carrying on anyhow this week (p 57), showing how far you think it
typical of Waugh's methods and effects in the novel.
The passage starts with John Andrew, the most innocent person in the
novel speaking. He is questioning the absence of his mother and
waiting eagerly for her return from "monkey-woman's party". His father
reassures him that she is sure to be back that very day. John Andrew
points out that Brenda would not have seen Thunderclap for four days,
this is sweet as he misses the point that she has not seen her own son
for four days either! It shows how attached little John Andrew is to
his horse, as if he were in his mother's shoes he would not be
desperate to get back to his mother but to his horse. We know that
Brenda and Tony do not play a big part in John's life, he has a nanny
and is close to the stable boy, and sees him as a role model.
It is clear to see that Tony had been suffering with from loneliness
and missing Brenda by his reply to the stationmaster, "I've been
expecting her every day". The two have a little chat while they wait
for Brenda's train to arrive. The stationmaster refers to Brenda as
"Her ladyship", a title she certainly does not live up to on her
jaunts to London. She herself admits it when she sees that the two
have come to the station for her "I don't at all deserve it"
Waugh puts a brilliant little speech together for John to tell his
mother on the way home. It is very amusing as it is written as a child
of his age would speak. It has little punctuation and is one very long
sentence containing lots of different information about the p...
... middle of paper ...
...time she is done Tony is agreeing to the flat.
I found there were two main points which sprang to mind, regarding
Waughs methods and effects in this piece. Clearly this story of
marital betrayal relates closely to Waugh's personal experience and he
seems to be remarkably generous towards Brenda. Her behaviour is
clearly compulsive; "I've found a flat" and she is outspoken "I've
been carrying on anyhow this week". Waugh remains very compassionate
in his attitude to the faithless Brenda and allows no sign of anger in
Tony, which would have been well-justified, he just says "no harm done
then."
Also, this passage has a great range of ironic implication and it is
in parts exceptionally funny; the irony of Tony reacting to Brenda's
confession of "carrying on madly with young men" by inferring that
buying a Pekingese would have been far worse is pure farce.
The Emancipation of the once enslaved African American was the first stepping stone to the America that we know of today. Emancipation did not, however automatically equate to equality, as many will read from the awe-inspiring novel Passing Strange written by the talented Martha Sandweiss. The book gives us, at first glance, a seemingly tall tale of love, deception, and social importance that color played into the lives of all Americans post-emancipation. The ambiguity that King, the protagonist, so elegantly played into his daily life is unraveled, allowing a backstage view of the very paradox that was Charles King’s life.
“Often fear of one evil leads us into a worse”(Despreaux). Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux is saying that fear consumes oneself and often times results in a worse fate. William Golding shares a similar viewpoint in his novel Lord of the Flies. A group of boys devastatingly land on a deserted island. Ralph and his friend Piggy form a group. Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things such as their environment, personalities and their own minds contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show. In the end they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear.
Humans have an instinctual response, emotionally and physically, on fear towards danger or any unpleasant situation. When one is not in their right, conventional state, they become too concentrated towards the danger in front of them, thus leading to vicious outcomes. These may affect the person himself or to the one he is in opposition to. Fear stimulates the lost of individualism and encourages a group mentality to one another. The book “Lord of the Flies”, written by William Golding, manifests fear all throughout the book which directly triggers the savage acts the boys commit themselves . When one is scared, they are prone to create groups to disperse the fear and accompany it, or in the case of Simon’s death, the loss of individualism, a creation of a group mentality, is an and
J.D. Salinger conveys The Catcher in the Rye’s meaning by combining three of the novel’s elements: Holden’s personality, resistance to having guidance in his life, and actions. Primarily, he uses Holden, The Catcher in the Rye’s protagonist, as an example of a teenager who has failed to develop during the essential period of youth. Additionally, he uses the characters of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini to act as voices of reason to Holden, while also showing Holden’s missed opportunities in life when he does not take their advice. Lastly, Salinger utilizes Holden’s desire to act both older and younger than his age to show the dangers that come with poor decision making, as well as their consequences. The main purpose of Salinger’s novel, The Catcher
There are few novels that have the ability to shed light on historical context while simultaneously tell a captivating story. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck does an excellent job of telling a fascinating story and juxtaposing the historical importance of the time period. Set during the great dustbowl of the 1930’s, Steinbeck wrote this evolutionary tale to inform Americans across the country about the hardships faced by those who were left destitute by the natural disaster. Although the subject of the novel is the social and economic climate of America during the dust bowl, Steinbeck described different themes to illustrate how impactful the incident truly was. The dustbowl not only left thousands homeless, hungry, and poor, it also altered the social dynamic of the United States. Family dynamics changed, new prejudices developed, and religion became more prevalent. Through the themes of race, religion, gender, and class Steinbeck immerses the reader into the time of the great dust bowl. The reader becomes a 1930’s destitute farmer, who is looking to support his family in any manner possible.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
Out of the three wonderful narratives given, the best one is “Stepping Into the Light” by Tanya Savory. While “Shame” by Dick Gregory is an interesting read, it is the weakest out of the bunch. The story had no clear setting, to many extra details, and a lengthy exposition. “I Became Her Target” by Roger Wilkins was a better executed story, even though it still had some flaws. This piece lacks any figurative language, but it was to the point and had clear organization. Thus, Tanya Savory’s piece was the best. It was easy to follow, used a constant symbol, and used some stories from others to make her point. So using narrative styles and elements in the best way, Tanya Savory wrote the better story.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher, the character Roderick Usher exhibits severe mental illness. Most of Poe’s writings are psychological in nature. The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of this. Poe’s life was filled with many tragic events. The unpleasant outcome of his early years resulted in a great Gothic Romantic writer. He is a master of writing psychological thrillers, adding suspense and mystery in his stories. The topics of his writings are a concoction of unpleasant, austere, and grotesque things, thus the reader can be left feeling squeamish and susceptible. We are drawn into Poe’s stories by our intrinsic human nature of curiosity and intrigue. This paper gives examples of Poe’s literary style as we examine Roderick’s metal state through his words and appearance.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
In the book Ask the Dust by John Fante, the main character Arturo Bandini, is a 20 year old Italian American from Colorado who comes to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a famous writer. Arturo is very talented and can become the next big writer but faces many obstacles that stop him in his tracks. Things like his own immaturity and desire for acceptance impair his ability to achieve his dream. In the beginning of the book, Arturo is very immature and lets his desires get the best of him, but at the end of the book he becomes more objective and mature. The growth of Arturo is astounding and can be separated into stages of development. He comes to a realization that you can 't just be stuck up on something but you have to be able to move on.
The “Dust Bowl Odyssey” presented an initial perspective of why families migrated from drought-ridden, Dust Bowl, areas to California. Edward Carr cautions, “Interpretation plays a necessary part in establishing the facts of history, and because no existing interpretation is wholly objective, on interpretation is a good as another, and the facts of history are in principle not amendable to objective interpretation” (Carr, 1961, p. 31). Historians had to separate the prejudices, assumptions, and beliefs of the times in order to have a more objective reasoning of the migration. The migration had valid evidence that supported against the theory of the Dust Bowl being the only contributor. Rather there were other historical contributions to
"He would come back some day; they couldn’t make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact. He wasn’t young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldn’t have wanted him to be so alone."
For my Literature Circle assignment I read the novel entitled The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger.Taking place in the 1950's, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most popular American books of all time, though, its hero is not really a hero at all. Main character Holden Caufield, is a 17 year old, disproved and misunderstood, classic "screw-up", who does poorly in school, loses his team's equipment, and takes an impulsive trip to New York. Distraught by the death of his 11 year old brother Allie, Holden wanders around his birthplace of New York, reconnecting with old friends and making new enemies. The main conflict of this novel is Holden transitioning into an adult and trying to cope with his brother’s death. One main theme displayed all throughout this novel would be depression. For the duration of this novel, Holden spends his time alone, and even if he is in the company of other people, you hear his thoughts of being depressed. Most of this depression is derived from his brother’s death, but there are many other things accountable for his mental issues. Although much of this novel was just Holden’s opinions and thoughts, I found this novel to be very interesting and thought provoking.
In times of war it is quite common for people to start questioning their values and their actions and be unsure of the path they are taking. This is common because to protect our values we often are told that we have to take actions that conflict with those values. One example would be how to protect our liberties we must sometimes restrain those liberties during treacherous times. However, the ultimate question is whether or not going against the very values we stand for is a hypocritical and wrongful action plan. Bruce Springsteen approaches this very issue in his song “Devils & Dust”, from the CD with the same title, and he subtly criticizes how the United States is betraying its values.
“Spunk,” by Zora Neale Hurston, is a short story about a man who appears masculine and fearless claiming another man’s wife, but the tables turn by the end of the story. The short story begins with Spunk, the main character, walking off with Lena Kanty. Joe Kanty knows about the affair, but is too timid to confront Spunk.