Whilst in the library skimming through the books, one in particular caught my eyes, Room by Emma Donoghue. The book’s dark colours and large red lettering with a child in the background gave a feeling of evil, not unlike that of the horror movie Insidious, and suggested the book had a horror or supernatural theme to it. Audrey Niffenegger, famous of course for The Time Traveler’s Wife amongst other popular novels, praised Room, saying that it’s ‘a book to read in one sitting.’ This combined with Room being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010 and Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller increased my expectations significantly, and cemented it as my choice for this assessment. I read this book for enjoyment however, I must admit I was eager to finish it, which resulted in irrational irritation with the characters and detrimentally affected my response and interpretation of the book. I realised that there are four sections to the book; present, ‘unlying’, dying and living. The titles of these four sections reminded me of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly; the caterpillar is represented as present, ‘unlying’ represents the truth that the caterpillar is not himself, dying is where it transforms into a pupa and lastly living where it turns into a butterfly. This foreshadowed the protagonist’s undergoing some changes through his life as he steps out into the living world. The first half of the story is told from the protagonist Jack’s perspective, who is a five year old boy. I was able to relate to Jack’s habit of referring to objects in third person and also playing with toys while telling a story, all of which reminded me of myself when I was young. The love and help he gave his mother furthered my appreciation for him, however a... ... middle of paper ... ...cters' actions and values surreal and more irritating without the understanding of the context. The contemporary reader approach impacted my expectations of the book Room by Emma Donoghue; also my beliefs and values heavily affected my interpretation of the text, as I resisted the author’s intention. Works Cited Barthes, R. (1977). Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana Press. Beach, R. & Myers, J. (2001). Inquiry-based English Instruction: Engaging Students in Life and Literature. New York: Teachers College Press. Cheng, C. (2014). Reader-Centred Reading. Fish, S. (1980). Is There a Text in this Class?: The Authority of Interpretive Communities. London: Harvard University Press. Rush, O. (1997). The Reception of Doctrine: An Appropriation of Hans Robert Jauss' Reception Aesthetics and Literary Hermeneutics. Rome: Gregorian Biblical BookShop.
In the short story “Eleven,” through the continuing use of first person, readers become emotionally attached and acquire a firsthand experience during Rachel, the main character’s, plight and not simply a perspective of the story from another character’s point of view. Since Cisneros incorporates first person repeatedly throughout the story with no change in point of view, the reader is able to grasp Rachel’s true thoughts and feelings. “…I'm crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I'm not. I'm eleven and it's my birthday today and I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms” (Cisneros 37). Point of view considerably impacts the reader’s
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play written by Sarah Ruhl premiered at the Berkley Repertory Theatre in February 2009, and later premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center in November of 2009. Taking place at the dawn of the age of electricity around 1880 in a wealthy spa town on the skirts of New York City, this play follows the events taking place in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Givings. Mr. Givings is a scientist and a doctor, treating women for hysteria out of his home by using a clinical vibrating machine to induce paroxysms, or what we know today as orgasms. These induced paroxysms are strictly scientific, and are believed to release any congestion in the female womb, which is understood to be the cause of these hysterical symptoms. His wife, Mrs. Givings, quickly becomes curious about her husbands work, which remains under lock and key, in the next room. As Catherine follows her innocent instincts and her undying thirst for knowledge and human connection, she realizes her desire to find true intimacy with her husband. The result of her investigative work to find this intimacy is her first experience with the vibrating machine. It causes her whole world to shift upside down. Sarah Ruhl exposes the play’s thematic issues through this shift in Catherine’s world, and the experiences of her other characters. Through repeating her theme of lightness and darkness, in various manners and forms, visually and textually, Ruhl paints a metaphor for the prevailing struggle of moving forward, embracing social practices and new technology, and preserving current practices. Through this identified struggle, questions arise about the importance of the child in the home and the child’s influence on the structure of marriage, the sep...
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Tracy Chevalier is unusual in having taken a specific painting and created a construction around it. How does she build a convincing impression of the characters and their circumstances in this unusual household on Papists Corner in Delft. between 1664 and 1676? Tracy Chevalier is unusual at having taken a painting, a Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer and her story gathered around it.
By way of example, This Boy’s Life reads like the work of a writer who understands that he’s in fact “surrounded by stories” (Wolff 271). Additionally, its novelistic style and details have been altered in order to give Wolff’s memoir a fiction shape. Furthermore, much of the book was written in scenes, and dialogue which Jack felt it was due to his “good memory” (15). Not to mention that, “most of the people” Jack “lived with repeated themselves a lot” which allowed him to remember how certain characters spoke, and behaved while writing the memoir (26). Wolff’s book is entirely different from his brother’s Geoffrey’s book, which takes on a completely different view.
The narrator begins to analyze every aspect of the room and is thoroughly intrigued by all it has to offer. To show her obsession, she use hyperbole to suggest that she has “spent hours in trying to analyze” the strange odor in the room, which is peculiar activity for any human being. In her eyes, objects in the room begin to be perceived with the qualities of real people. Gilman personifies the pattern on the wall as having a “broken neck and two bulbous eyes,” which fascinates our narrator’s imagination immensely. The human-like qualities of the wallpaper create a bond between our narrator and the room, adding to her obsession. Again, Gilman personifies the wallpaper as she shows these “absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere,” which enacts a strong sense of security and uneasiness in our
In the 1950’s, young Jack Wolff struggles to find himself and his place in society as he and his mother travel across the country; running away from hostile situations, towards the hope of a better life. Tobias Wolff graces readers with his unforgettable memoir of boyhood, This Boy’s Life and gives insight into what goes into writing a good book. As one turns the pages of the novel they discover with every passing chapter that Wolff is a gifted author who has the unique, inane ability to tell a compelling story that leaves readers with something that they can hold onto forever. Although there are no set criteria for what distinguishes a good book from any other, This Boy’s Life fulfills many requirements for what makes a book great. The book has relatable characters that a reader is able to empathize with, it challenges and evolves the point of view of a reader, and it leaves the reader hoping for a sequel so that they do not have to leave the story behind.
As I am reading the book, Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. I learned a lot about the main characters, my favorite is Gaëtan. I like him a lot because he is very smart and tricky. He was born in Paris, France and he wants to stop the Nazis. He works for the French Resistance to fight the Nazis. He broke out of jail to stop the Nazis, but by the time he got out France already surrendered and was invaded.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
The author of The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman uses many descriptive sentences that allow the reader to be pulled in. I discuss the theme the book covers because they are common situations young adults will be going through, the coming of age stage. It teaches readers a lesson, but not simply by stating it, but by hiding it within the chronicle of the story. Secondly, I drew upon an analysis of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series in order to show how literature can inspire personal growth and change. Roth uses a enthralling character that the reader journeys with until they find their true identity while learning important life
As the story progresses in, The Yellow Wallpaper, it is as if the space of the bedroom turns in on itself, folding in on the body as the walls take hold of it, epitomizing the narrator's growing intimacy with control. Because the narrator experiences the bedroom in terms of John's draconian organization, she relies on her prior experiences of home in an attempt to allay the alienation and isolation the bedroom creates. Recalling her childhood bedroom, she writes, "I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend . . . I could always hop into that chair and feel safe" (Gilman 17). Ironically, Gilman's narrator cannot retire to the otherwise "personal haven" of the bedroom because she is always already there, enclosed within the attic room of John's desires, bereft of her own voice and personal history. The narrator's imagination is altogether problematic for John, who would prohibit his wife from further fancifulness: "[John] says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try" (Gilman 15-16). For Gaston Bachelard, who devotes himself to a phenomenological exploration of the home in The Poetics of Space, "imaginative power" is the nucleus of the home, if not the home itself. Memories of prior dwellings are for Bachelard a fundamental aspect of creating new homes based on a continuity with the past and past spaces. "[B]y approaching the house images with care not to break up the solidarity of memory and imagination," writes Bachelard, "we may hope to make others feel all the psychological elasticity of an image that moves us at an unimaginable depth" (6). Bachelard's "elasticity" infers that spatial depth and expansion are contingent upon a psychological flexibility of imagination. Gilman's narrator is notably denied this elasticity when her physician/husband attempts to prevent her from writing. "I did write for a while in spite of them," the narrator explains, "but it does exhaust me a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Gilman 10).
Charlotte will never be anything but a wife and mother with no room to become a writer. Dependent on her husband for emotional support as well as financial support, Charlotte did not outwardly disagree with John's diagnosis. Without much protest, Charlotte stays in one room for fear of being sent to Dr. Mitchell's for the Rest Cure. (4) Trapped in a room with no aesthetic pleasure, she was left to her own thoughts. Societal norms said th...
Many authors use their own life experiences or situations when writing certain literary works, such as a poem or short story. One is able to see how this statement is true with D.H. Lawrence’s literary works, “A Rocking-Horse Winner” and “Piano”. Both of Lawrence’s literary works displays a persona of a little boy, which very well represents the inner character of himself. Lawrence uses biographical aspects in both his short story and poem that portray the emotions he felt throughout his childhood. Although, both these works displays similar aspects when representing a biographical view of Lawrence’s life, they differ in the type of relationship that is shown between the boy and his mother.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
In every story, characters play an imperative role, so much so that a story can not exist without them. A story is often largely directed by its characters, so it is no surprise that the characterization of the actors on the stage of a story differs widely. In the story “Sixteen,” by Maureen Daly, the main character is the narrator, a sixteen year old, unnamed girl, and the story consists of her experience skating with a boy one night, her anticipation of his call, and her realization of and disappointment in the fact that he is not actually going to contact her again. In “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing, the main character is eleven-year-old English boy Jerry, and the story consists of his mental and metaphorical transition from boyhood
The writing of a memoir through the eyes of a child can produce a highly entertaining work, as proved by Wole Soyinka. Through the use of third person and the masterful use of the innocence and language of childhood, Soyinka has written a memoir that can make us remember what is was like to see the world through the eyes of a child.