In the short story “No One Is a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent the reader is introduced to a nameless female character. Throughout the story there are various descriptions that has great subtext to the relationship between the narrator and her lover Jack. One of the best descriptions in the short story is when the narrator is staring at Jack’s boot. The description Tallent uses makes the reader use one of their five senses, she makes the reader focus on the sense of touch. Tallent writes of boot’s frayed thread and scuffed toes. Another good description of the sense was muddy manure. The last part of the description is when the narrator gives a telling detail about the relationship between the two. She mentions that Jack has been wearing the …show more content…
Subtext is the underlying theme within the story. Subtext in this story comes from the character of Arnold Fiend who tries to convince Connie to leave with him. An example of dialogue with subtext is “Honey," he said, talking right through her voice, "Honey, I’m not coming in there but you are coming out here. You know why?" (Oates 7). What is being said here is a clear threat however he is not outright saying so. By Arnold telling her although he will not be entering the house sooner or later she will be going with him whether she likes it or not. Summarized dialogue also appears in the text. Summarized dialogue is when the Author wants to avoid unnecessary dialogue and holds dull material. An example of this type of dialogue is “You don 't want them to get hurt," Arnold Friend went on. "Now, get up, honey. Get up all by yourself” (Oates 9). Arnold does not have to explain to Connie that if she does go with him that he will kill her family and ruin her life. I think the reason the author summarized this part is because Oates wanted to establish the conniving techniques that Arnold showed in the beginning of the story. Arnold did not have to say that he was going to murder Connie’s family his simply threat was enough. Doing this also adds an element of mystery and suspense to make the reader wonder. He did not confirm that he was going to kill but do …show more content…
An unreliable narrator is when the character unconsciously doesn’t tell the entire story as we are seeing it from one pair of eyes. Although one could say that it’s an unreliable first person point of view. Yunior does not show any sign of trying to make himself appear better instead he is unreliable in the sense of how he is telling the story. “She has big stupid lips and a sad moon face and the driest skin” (Diaz 145). Yunior description of Nilda is exaggerating because he does in fact like her but does not want to admit it. By describing her in such a manner it reveals that he does not want the world to know he liked her. Additional example of the unreliable first person point of view. The focus of the story should be on Nilda but it is a way for Yunior to deal with the grief of losing his brother Rafa. By speaking about Nilda he is remembering of his brother through the time she spent with Rafa. There are a few examples to demonstrated this within the text to show Yunior unreliability. “It was only one summer and she was nobody special, so what’s the point of all this? He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone” (Diaz 150). Yunior for a split second shows the connection between the two people in his life. Although the first part of the sentence is about Nilda he connects it to the loss of his brother. That line establish Yunior’s unreliable story
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
The author uses foreshadowing to give the reader a little incite of how Arnold acts when Connie walks by his car with another guy. “It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn’t help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, ‘Gonna get you, baby.’ ”(Oates 1). A couple days later Connie was sitting in
In the opening sentence of this paragraph, two workers at the newspaper office are described. They are not, however, described as people though, they are instead said to be solely “two pairs of legs” (Porter 271). By describing solely this part of the people, Porter is drawing attention to a part of the body seemingly unrelated to newspaper writing. This gives the reader the impression that these two writers are either unskilled in the area or writing, or unimportant to the speaker. Interestingly, the legs are also described as, “dangling,” which paints the picture of a lifeless body. This could be perhaps indicating that these people are dead to her; both unimportant and unwanted. Porter then goes on to describe the legs as being “stuffed thickly into funnels of dark expensive-looking material.” The way in which this is described seems to imply that the fabric itself is strangling these legs that have now become representative of the speaker’s time at the newspaper. By describing the material as “dark” and “expensive looking,” Porter makes the writers at the newspaper appear to be both evil and fake. As Porter continues her description of the two writers, she notes how one of then was “oldish” and the other “youngish.” The vagueness in this description goes along with the feeling of universality in the writers that Porter has achieved by having them represented by a mere body part. Also, by having one writer be old, and the other young, the writers are closer to representing every man.
The book Revealing the Invisible was written by Sherry Marx, a formal teacher, who went in-depth to explore the racist beliefs of white female teacher education students. The book began with Marx talking about pre service teachers that focused on English-language learning school children (ELLs). During this course she discovered just how low the expectations her students had for ELLs students. Throughout her interviews she will explore more beliefs of white females and their thoughts about race, racism, whiteness, and the children they tutored.
Subtext is the unspoken or less obvious meaning or message in a literary piece. For example, Danforth was a powerful and proud man. Danforth had all the power to chose if a person is guilty or innocent. He thought he did a good thing to convict those people of witchery. Towards the end of the story, Danforth starts to realize that he was wrong about the people of Salem. He had the power to end the witch trials, but he did not because he did not want to be proven wrong. He was too proud and did not want the slander his name. Danforth choice to not end the trials ended a lot of people’s lives. The moral of this is that if people only think of themselves it can take a negative effect on other
In the short story “A Kind of Courage” by Ruth Sterling, the protagonist, Davy, is trying to win Ginny’s heart.
Humans are curious people, knowing how things work and knowing how things fit together has always interested our minds. When we are presented with an idea that we don’t know we want to solve it. That is exactly the purpose of mystery and detective stories. Mystery stories capture our attention and makes us strive to find out and understand the story and this is why we keep coming back to them.
The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas is a short story written by Ursula Le Guin. In her story, Le Guin creates a model Utilitarian society in which the majority of its citizens are devoid of suffering; allowing them to become an expressive, artistic population. Le Guin’s unrelenting pursuit of making the reader imagine a rich, happy and festival abundant society mushrooms and ultimately climaxes with the introduction of the outlet for all of Omelas’ avoided misfortune. Le Guin then introduces a coming of age ritual in which innocent adolescents of the city are made aware of the byproduct of their happiness. She advances with a scenario where most of these adolescents are extremely burdened at first but later devise a rationalization for the “wretched one’s” situation. Le Guin has imagined a possible contemporary Utilitarian society with the goal to maximize the welfare of the greatest number of people. On the contrary, Kant would argue that using the child as a mere means is wrong and argue that the living conditions of the child are not universalizable. The citizens of Omelas must face this moral dilemma for all of their lives or instead choose to silently escape the city altogether.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Generous Orthodoxy, he explains what generous orthodoxy is. The generous part of generous orthodoxy amounts to being open to making changes and seeing change as positive, and the orthodoxy points to a more traditional stance on values. Combined, these two concepts are ironic, because generally traditions aren’t changed easily, and the changes made aren’t always accepted by the community that stands behind those traditions. Gladwell also explains that to make a positive change in a tradition, the body that you are trying to change must be respected.
The book that I read was called The Stranger written by Albert Camus. The book is globally famous and was translated to many different languages and texts. The original was called L’Étranger which was written in French in 1942. The plot of this story involved a man in his late twenties or early thirties. The man's name is Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Meursault is notified that his mother had passed away in the nursing home that he occupied her to. Meursault’s income could not afford to take care of his mother any longer; therefore, he put her in a nursing home. Meursault took off of work and went to the nursing home where she passed away to pay his respects and attend the funeral ceremonies. When he arrived at the nursing home, the funeral director brought Meursault to his mother’s coffin. The director asked if he wanted to see her and he quickly replied to keep the coffin shut. Meursault sat in the room and nearly went through an entire pack of cigarettes while blankly watching his mother’s coffin. At the actual funeral, Meursault shows no signs of normal emotion which would normally be induced at such an event.
The story "Editha" by William Dean Howells and the poem "Reconciliation" by Walt Whitman are part of a true "national literature." They are both told in a way that only we as Americans could ever understand. They speak of war in all of its glory, and they speak of all of the pain left behind.
Oates’ use of the way Arnold looks and acts so similar to the devil, her use of the words on the car meaning something foreign and her subtle symbolism with Connie’s attire make the story’s theme of evil and manipulation stand out so much more. Connie’s clothing symbolizing
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
The Friday Everything Changed” written by Anne Hart describes how a simple question challenges the