How Does a Writer Engage a Reader?
It's still snowing. The wind is so strong; it is hard to stay upright. I'm lost in a blizzard. Ahead of me, I see a faint glow. Is it a lamp in my house? I tell myself, "Keep moving toward the light." Left, right, left, right, up, down, I keep walking. I'm so cold. I press on, but the light remains just out of range. Left, right, left, right, up, down. The light grows brighter. Now it dims. I suddenly realize that I'm walking in circles.
Where do I go with this paper? How do I get beyond the theme? Why is this assignment so difficult for me to grasp? Intellectually I understand the assignment, at least the right side of my brain does. The left side of my brain seems to be disengaged. Every time I feel like I've nearly got "it,""it" vanishes, eluding me once more.
I never realized how difficult it was to break the writing habits learned throughout life. "Themewriting" may not be good writing, but I fear it is the only kind of writing I've ever done. I believe that "theme writing" may still have value and that "themewriting" is undesirable because it fails to engage the reader and to communicate anything of substance.
How does a writer communicate and engage a reader? Is it by using a lot of details? The author of The Innocent Nihilist used a lot of details. Those details didn't help me understand it any better. I still am confused about what he was trying to communicate to me. Did Lee really dislike his dog? Was he happy when the dog was killed? Or, was Lee just happy that he wasn't the one hit by the car. The author caught my attention initially by his use of dialogue, much as Mike's attention was held by Lee's story. A lot of details were present, but they didn't help me any with this story. Another paper, Martin Luther King, also used details. It told me where Martin Luther King was educated and what some of his religious convictions were, but it failed to reveal the whole man. It didn't develop his character or reveal his passions. The paper had some details, but it fell short of my expectations.
It's still snowing. It's been snowing since noon. The wind is howling; it must be at least 30 m.p.h.
The excessive use of detail is a primary way that Salinger keeps his reader interested in his stories (Kazin 296). At all times in the story Salinger describes something. A prime example of the excessive use of detail is the following:
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills like White Elephants." Responding to Literature. Ed. Judith Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 841-44. Print.
Even though both the stories are entirely different with respect to their subject matter, an invisible chain of commonality binds them together. The settings of both these stories have contributed in a great way to the theme, characterization and the tone of the story. Although the settings are not static in the above mentioned stories, it is dynamic and has a major role to play in both the stories. The settings provide insightful views for the major characters in Hills like White Elephants and The Yellow Wallpaper.
Ernest Hemingway 's “Hills Like White Elephants” contains at least two themes that are difficult to express directly but are thoroughly prevalent within the story as well as our own lives. We
Ernest Hemingway is an incredible writer, known for what he leaves out of stories not for what he tells. His main emphasis in Hills Like White Elephants seems to be symbolism. Symbolism is the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations (merriam-webster.com). He uses this technique to emphasize the importance of ideas, once again suggesting that he leaves out the important details of the story by symbolizing their meaning.
selection of detail, the author captivates the audience in an engrossing article that pulls at the readers
Yanling, Shi. "The Style and the Theme of Loss in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants." Studies in Literature and Language (2013): 107-109. ProQuest.
Kenneth G. Johnston once wrote, "His stories came back in the mail, slipped through the slit in the saw-mill door where he lived, 'with notes of rejection that would never call them stories, but always anecdotes, sketches, contes, etc,'" (Johnston). This statement that may suggest that Hemingway's stories were not very well liked, but in the end they were a big hit. Literature is a very interesting topic and is a very helpful tool to the future. The best kind of literature are short stories. One very interesting short story is called “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway shows the themes in his writing by being very obvious about some of them and not so obvious about others. Some of the themes in “Hills Like White Elephants” include relationships, men and woman, and many others as well. Hemingway’s use of literary elements lets the readers analyze the many themes in the short story. Hemingway uses various literary elements in his short stories to help the readers analyze the themes deeply.
The freezing wind had chilled my hand to the bone. Even as I walked into my cabin, I shivered as if there was an invisible man shaking me. My ears, fingers, toes, and noes had turned into a pale purple, only starting to change color once I had made a fire and bundled myself in blankets like ancient Egyptians would do to their deceased Pharaohs. The once powdered snow on my head had solidified into a thin layer of ice. I changed out of the soaking wet clothes I was wearing and put on new dry ones. With each layer I became more excited to go out and start snowboarding. I headed for the lift with my board and my hand. Each step was a struggle with the thick suit of snow gear I was armored in.
Dave started walking home. The winter was the worst time of the year for him. He had tons of paper work, and not enough light to work with. The generator he was able to afford could only power a small wattage of lights and it simply was not enough to work with. My eyes are already bad enough, he thought as he pulled off his glasses to clean the snow from the lenses. Dave readjusted his hat to better cover his face and slid the bifocals back on his nose. Snow crunched under his feet as he trudged home. It was a particularly dead night and not even the moon dared to show his face. He had no car's headlights to light his path. All he had was the occasional street lamp, ...
Focusing in my camera, I snap the picture. Noticing in the background, I observe some animal tracks. Looking closer, I identify that they’re rabbit tracks that snow laid a blanket over. After studying my picture I start to stroll back. The grass starts to dance in the breeze, when I hurry back to the snowmobile track covered trail. As I’m scurrying back, the snow crunches under
It was freezing outside. We should have stayed on the trail. Instead of taking the safe path, we left the trail and went on an adventure to see the rest of the snow covered forest. Despite our parents warnings, we went out almost a mile into the thickest part of the forest and ignored all the obvious danger signs such as creeks and streams being completely frozen as well as trees that had clearly fallen recently as a result of being overburdened under the immense weight of snow being piled up on their branches. Quite some time after nobody recognized the surrounding area, we decided it would probably be in our best interest to retrace our steps and attempt to follow our fresh path in the snow, however, none of us knew of the impending danger;
Hemingway, Earnest "Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Simon, Peter. Portable 10th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. (343-55). Print
Reading motivation incorporates pivotal attributes (interest, perceived control, self-efficacy, involvement, and social collaboration) that represent the foundations of internal reading motivation. The interrelation between these constructs was empirically identified in Guthrie et al.’s (2007) study when they examined fifth graders’ reading motivation and reading comprehension growth. They found significant correlations between them. Accordingly,
It’s December of 1967, the snowfall had begun early this year, but whether it came in inches or buckets, I could hardly wait for weekends. Playing outside in the snow was awesome. When I was nine years old, a Saturday morning routine consisted of my older brother’s and I waking up to a warm bowl of oatmeal with a raisin smiley face, and thirty minutes of mom methodically layering us with snow pants and jackets, socks and boots, hats and mittens, and a scarf. One by one we rushed outside to begin our day. I remember waddling down sidewalks with mountains of snow on each side, fierce snowball fights with neighbors across the street, swirling angels’ wings in a fresh layer of snow, and cheers for finding the biggest icecycle. Our annual snowman displayed a warm hat and scarf, two branches from the maple tree in our front yard, raisins and a carrot for the eyes and nose. My brothers and I would stay outside for hours and hours, only coming inside when we were called to dinner or could no longer see in the dark. A delicious hot meal or a cup of hot chocolate would be waiting at the table after we left a mound of winter clothes at the door. My day always ended with mom tucking me in with a good book and a kiss good night, and I’d fall asleep dreaming of endless possibilities in the snow. Life was good, I didn’t want for anything; mom and dad anticipated my needs before I even knew them.