...THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST AS A MONOLOGUE MONOLOGUE: A monologue is presented by a single character, most often to express the mental thoughts aloud, sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common in dramatic media as well as in non-dramatic media such as poetry. Monologues share much in common with several other literary devices including soliloquies and apostrophes. DEVICE OF MONOLOGUE IN THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST: This is probably the only novel of its kind, a novel with no lyrical descriptions of people and places. It has no dialogue at all; in fact, the entire novel is a long, gripping monologue. A novel in the form of a monologue and without a dialogue is a brilliant and novel idea, and it works magnificently in this case only because Mohsin Hamid is a superb writer with formidable powers. He grips the reader's mind with polished and haunting prose. The hero of the novel, Changez, a student from Lahore, Pakistan, attends Princeton University. After graduation at the top in his class, he secures an excellent and well-paying job at the elite valuation firm Underwood Samson. He becomes well-adjusted and well-accustomed to the American way of life, falls in love with the beautiful and elegant, Princeton-educated Erica, who hails from an aristocratic family. For the first time in his life Changez is happy. Then, unexpectedly, on September 11, 2001...
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...In a divided nation, it is increasing hard for a politically charged argument to be presented effectively. Leading Jimmy Kimmel uses a variety of rhetorical devices to support his overall argument in his recent monologue. This helps his intended audience connect with what he is saying and enables him to present his argument in a efficient manner. That is, politicians should come forward with an affordable health care available to all. The rhetorical choices made by Jimmy Kimmel in his monologue strengthen and enforce his overall argument. His monologue begins with Jimmy Kimmel talking about the health issues with his newborn son. When Jimmy Kimmel talks about the hardships with his newborn son, it induces an emotional response from the audience....
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...women were in Vagina monologue and in The Laramie Project both disturbed me because I know people who could relate to both topics. Both are very close friend of mine. Starting off with Vagina Monologue the story that affected me the most was the situation with the girl who couldn’t speak English so she couldn’t tell her parents what actually happened so they assumed and treated her like she was washed up and a disgrace. She did nothing wrong and they were very wrong to assume without having and kind of communication with her. Not even to ask if she was okay being that they did think she was sexually abused. My friends Mom accused her of having sexual relations with her boyfriend which was totally gross!!! She didn’t want to hear her daughters side of the story so she just ------ her out. There was absolutely no communication going on what so ever and assumptions could go so far as to destroying something that means so much to you for no reason. Another part of the Vagina Monologue that made me think of a friend was when the girl was disgusted with her vagina!!!! She thought it was gross and she didn’t even want it… It reminded me of a girl I know who is gay, she hates her private part. She hates to acknowledge it and doesn’t even like to clean herself. She’s cried to me numerous times about it and I was speechless because I felt the vagina was a part of a woman’s body that should be embraced. (Quote) The one part of the vagina Monologue that I enjoyed reading...
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...statement on blackness that is solely derived from Clay’s monologue. In such, he passionately argues for murder and anger as the solution to the neurosis of black people. In particular, he says to Lula, “You don't know anything except what's there for you to see. An act. Lies. Device. Not the pure heart, the pumping black heart.” That statement obviously shows a form of black identity, but to argue that this is the central message of the play, does not make sense. To many’s disbelief, Dutchman is not about a search for blackness and defining a socially distinct identity, it is about becoming a man in America. Masculinity defines the ideologies of black nationalists during this time and this is the character that Jones/Baraka is trying to articulate in Dutchman. In Dutchman, Lula and Clay mention the topic of manhood during the dialogue on the train. Clay questions what they are going to talk about “endlessly” and Lula replies “your manhood”. From this exchange in conversation, we can see that Baraka is trying to construct and define black “manhood”. This type of masculinity can be described as tough, assertive, uncompromising and virile in addition to separating ones self from weak and effeminized men. Baraka and the leaders of the Black Power movement associated themselves with such definitions of manhood in order to recuperate some degree of power over long time notions of subordination created by racism. In Clay’s monologue we see how he rejects and separates himself from the...
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...The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid, 2007 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 184 pp. ISBN-13: 9780156034029 Summary Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to beon a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services as a bridge. From the author of the award-winning Moth Smoke comes a perspective on love, prejudice, and the war on terror that has never been seen in North American literature. At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city...
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...A BLACK WOMAN’S JOURNEY: FOR COLORED GIRLS Created in 1975, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf, focuses on the struggles of black women not only from that era, but issues still pertaining to black women 35 years later. Shange’s powerful choreopoem is comprised of seven women trying to "sing a black girl's song…. Sing a song of life, she's been dead so long"(Shange 18), creating a voice for every woman. None of these women possess a name, only a color, to show that they represent all women of color. Shange includes themes of love, abandonment, sexuality, abortion, and domestic violence to emphasize what women in her community were and still are subjugated to. Through dance, poetry, and music these women slowly but surely find their true identity. Ntozake uses her work as a tool to empower all “colored girls” by creating these seven strong women that form a bond when they are able to find their identity as black women, and essentially in their journey make it to the end of their rainbows without committing suicide. When looking into Shange’s life there’s no question that situations, which she had observed day-to-day or experienced herself, were imposed on her writings. Born as Paulette Williams she was raised in a middle class family, which was not a childhood common for blacks. Her family moved to St. Louis and she attended a non-segregated school where she had to endure blatant racism at the mere age of eight years old. She rebelled...
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...ENG 202: Brandel Of Prisoners & Superheroes Shalin Patel Poem Title: Prisoner No. 786 Drama Title: Love is Bl(ow)ind Creative Non-Fiction Title: v/s The Biased Media of the 21st Century Fiction Title: Sub-Urban Superhero Reflection Essay Included Total Word Count: 5095 Prisoner No. 786 I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I watch as days, months and years turn into eons. The smell of the warm moist mud reminds me of all those carefree afternoons I spent on my mama’s porch watching the rain pass by. The scorching sun on my face reminds me of the sweetest iced tea my sister used to so carefully prepare. The unflinching rain at times takes me back to the fields where I would play soccer for hours at end with my cousins. The bitter cold within my bones reminds me of the steaming hot barbecue my father would make so passionately, never failing to impress. This man standing outside my cell tells me this is not my country, then why does it feel like I’m right at home? He says I’m not like him, then why do I feel like he’s like me? I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I stare towards the heavens as a white fairy descends from the village of dreams. I don’t know who she is, but she talks like she’s all mine. When I listen to her, it feels like I want to go out there and live again. When she makes all those fake promises, she makes me want to believe in myself again. I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these...
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...allow you to address your experiences and what you've gained. The reflective essay consists of your individual views on the matter and an explanation of your stance. The goal of this essay is to successfully relay your own beliefs, attitudes and observations. In some reflective essays, you'll be required to support your conclusions by citing materials such as books, journals, articles and other resources. A reflective essay should reflect your own thoughts on the subject matter, not those of others. The poem by Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B”, brought back memories of myself growing up during the times where it was truly a white only and black only world. It was not college that I had to endure the color barriers but it was going to elementary through high school. I went to an all black school until I entered high school. The plot seems to take on a very structured, by providing detailed background information. The plot is clearly connected to the setting as Hughes states “I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem.” It sets an indicator of the time period and growth. The setting begins as the student is instructed to “go home and write”, “Then, it will be true.” The setting seems to give indication, of a young college student experiencing the world through a colored man’s eyes. The setting takes you to a time before or during...
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...Eugene O’Neill wrote a play called the Hairy Ape that focuses on the time period in America during the industrial revolution. The play follows a man, Yank, searching for how he fits into the world. The themes of the play revolve around how the United States was changing during this crucial moment in America’s history. New ideas, technologies and cultures were emerging, and O’Neill saw this. He wanted to express his views and opinions of how America was changing through his plays. His plays became influential and powerful because it focused on real-life issues and problems that were occurring during that time, even though the plays were fictional stories. The Hairy Ape is no exception and is one of many of his fantastic plays that delved into the dark reality that was occurring in post WWI America. O’Neill opens his play with a scene showing some firemen working in the engine room of a ship talking amongst each other. This scene is important because it already shows a major topic that O’Neill is tackling: the transformation of humans into “machines” by industrialization. The firemen work in a harsh and monotonous environment; they repeat the same task over and over without putting any thought into it. They are also shown as uneducated, primitive and uncivilized people. O’Neill portrays these people this way to show how degrading humans into tools are making them less intellectual and less “human.” Humans have the capability to think, create and be innovative, but O’Neill sees...
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...English 178 - poetry | Donne’s “Language of Love” in Elegy XIX: “To His Mistress Going To Bed”. | Poetry Semester Essay | | Telan Hamer | 18184626Tutor : Tamsyn Allies | | The poetic works of John Donne has been afforded high acclaim when it comes to his use of language in the dominion of love. In his elegy “To His Mistress Going To Bed”, he beckons for his lover to be bedded with him, describing her beauty as he tries to influence her to disrobe. Donne, in this poem, makes visible the way in which love and desire can be expressed in language attiring his poems with extended metaphor, metaphysical conceit and masterful wit, to the extent to which one may re-read the poem simply to savour the way in which Donne has sculpted his imagery. “To His Mistress Going To Bed” is seen to fall under the poetic genre known as ‘the blazon’, a genre of poetry that glorifies a woman by focusing on certain desirable body parts whilst using appropriate metaphor. Hence, the main focus of this essay will be to provide a commentary on the use of “the language of love” with reference to Donne’s blazon, by highlighting a series of appropriate examples that will provide a platform to analyse what it is that Donne is trying to convey in his poem, and how he accomplishes its conveyance. The examples will be analysed with reference to how the poet incorporates certain aspects of language such as diction, form, style, tone, rhetoric, and his use of figures of speech. The opening lines...
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...“Twilight 1992” by Anna Deavere Smith tells the story about the mayhem that ensued in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. According to Wikipedia, the riots and violence broke out in L.A. for three continuously because, out of the four officers, who were involved in allegedly beating Rodney King, only one of them was found guilty of using excessive force and the others were cleared of all charges. This had a great impact on the citizens of L.A. “Twilight 1992” is a series of monologue which is based on the interview Smith conducted with different individuals who were involved in the L.A. riot. Among them, Rudy Salas, Stanley K. Sheinbaum and Jason Sandford intrigue me the most. In “Twilight” Rudy Salas, Sr. the Mexican sculptor and painter seem almost consumed with hatred towards white police officers. Because of his Mexican heredity he says he was called inferior in school by the “nice white teachers” (2). No wonder he called them “the enemy”. Even so he doesn’t exactly hate them. But rather he says he has “an insane hatred for white policemen” (Smith 3). That is because of the fact that he was beaten and turned deaf by four cops when he was a teenager. He was kicked in the head and his eardrums were fractured. Here Salas contradicts himself by saying “I don’t like to hate, the way my uncle Abraham told me that to hate is to waste energy and you mess with the man upstairs” (Smith 3). But then again he can’t deny how he feels towards white policemen. Rudy Salas, Sr...
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...rollercoaster. Changez is a Pakistani man who comes to America in pursuit of his own “American Dream,” and while working to achieve his dream he slowly begins to hate himself. Hamid’s novel is the story of the rise and fall of Changez’s relationship with America. The novel takes the form of a dramatic monologue, with Changez as the speaker addressing a mysterious American man, whom we learn very little about except that he is suspicious, and that he may be hiding something under his shirt. His story addresses his time in America from the beginning to the end. He watches himself turn into a modern day janissary of the American Empire, and this sickens him to the point where he can no longer live in America. The pressure of being a Pakistani man living in a post 9/11 United States drive Changez to the point of self loathing, where nothing but the comforts of home and family could repair his internal damage. Changez has the inability to overcome the nostalgia that follows with traumatic events in his life, and for this reason he becomes a reluctant fundamentalist, unable to live in America and follow the American principles of greed and capitalism. The late Benjamin Franklin once said, “The U.S Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” Changez understands this truth and works hard in his pursuit of happiness. Changez’s begins his journey in America at the prestigious Princeton University. He excels in his...
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...ENGL124 Literature Analysis Nov.11 2014 The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid, set in the year following 9/11, constructed through a conversation between a Pakistani named Changez and an unnamed American in a café in Lahore.. The Reluctant Fundamentalist uses a variety of narrative strategies that contribute to the novel’s atmospheric world. This essay is going to focus on the metaphorical and symbolic techniques used in the novel and analyze the connection between them. It will also elaborate how does the metaphor relate to the first-person narrative in the novel and how do these two methodologies work together to derive the deeper meaning of the author’s intension. After analyzing the use of metaphor in the book, we could see better the real meaning and power of metaphor used in literature. The book is riddled with allegory and metaphor. Take names as the most significant example in the novel. First of all, let’s talk about the name “Changez”. While several reviewers have assumed that “Changez” is too obvious a name for a character in this situation, Hamid has pointed out that it doesn’t signify “change” but is instead “the Urdu name for Genghis, as in Genghis Khan.” He elaborates: It’s the name of a warrior, and the novel plays with the notion of a parallel between war and international finance, which is Changez’ occupation. But at the same time, the name cautions against a particular reading...
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...Field of Dreams Synopsis of reviews/articles written about the film Based on the review written by Roger Ebert (Ebert, 1989) The farmer Ray Kinsella is in the middle of his cornfield when he first begins hearing voices “If you build it, he will come.” Prior to the farmer hearing voices, Field of Dreams is a sensible film about a young couple who want to run a family farm in Iowa. When the voice speaks for the first time the audience is stumped with the thought of this movie turning into a religious based film. The movie develops a fantasy when farmer Ray understands the voice wants him to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn crops so Shoeless Joe Jackson (deceased) can materialize out of the Corfield and come play there. The movie prudently does not try to explain the strange events that happen after the field is built, it depends on a poetic vision to make its point. A specific speech in the movie describes baseball in a simple and true way, which ultimately describes the goal of the players who emerge from the cornfield, which is to simply play they game they love. The believable relationship created by the young couple Ray and Annie develops the theme that love means sharing your loved one’s dreams. Field of Dreams will not appeal to realists, it is made up of fantasies but stays true to what the plot promises, “if you build it, he will come.” Shoeless Joe Jackson does not return from the dead to save the world, but to answer the cry of a baseball legend....
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...Siu Man, Yuen Rich K English 102 February 29, 2012 Gabriel Garcia Marquez & Magical Realism Magical Realism is often perceived as a form of literature where the author blends the realistic and fantastic elements together, and readers cannot tell what is reality or fantasy. The definition of Magical Realism always stays in that frame. However, Gabriel Garcia Marquez takes the definition of Magical Realism to a whole new level. Under his pen, Garcia Marquez uses Magical Realism as a tool to show readers the multi-layered side of his motherland, Colombia. To be more precise, Garcia Marquez tends to reveal mostly politics in his writings. Garcia Marquez was born in 1928 in the town of Aracataca, Colombia. Colombia is a unitary constitutional republic comprised of thirty-two departments. In the past, the intense battle over sovereignty between the conservatives and liberals never stopped; the continuing conflicts between political parties even initiated civil wars, which played a big role in the formation of Colombia. The unstable and chaotic political situation partly influenced Garcia Marquez’s writings. As a Colombian who was born during such turbulent times, Garcia Marquez witnessed and experienced various historical events. The history of Colombia and his personal experiences played a huge part in inspiring Garcia Marquez’s writing. Here comes the question, why would Garcia Marquez write about politics through Magical Realism? What is his intention? Since Garcia Marquez’s...
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