...Alex Ortega Dr. Collar English 1302 16 November 2014 O’Connor Reflected In Her Short Stories Flannery O’Connor is considered by many in the world of literature to be one of the greatest authors of short stories in the twentieth century. She has the ability to present life’s moral and faith bound conflicts to readers in a profound way. Her own conflicts in life play a very significant role in the way she sees the world. O’Connor’s life and her faith play a key role in her short stories. Born Mary Flannery O’Connor on March 25, 1925 in Savannah Georgia, she is the only child of Edward and Regina O’Connor. O’Connor attended Catholic School until the age of fifteen when her father died of lupus. She finished her High School years at Peabody High School in Georgia where she also went on to attend the Georgia State College for Women. Beyond Georgia State O’Connor continues her education in literature at the University of Iowa where she receives her M.F.A. degree. Afterwards she would tour the country visiting several universities giving lectures and reading her short stories. O’Connor writes two novels and many short stories before diagnosis with lupus herself followed by her death on August 3, 1964 (420 -426). Flannery O'Connor having been raised by catholic parents and attended faith based grammar and high schools tells how deeply rooted her faith is in the following statement from her own book Mystery and Manners, "...for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption...
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...KAMLA DAS’S `MY STORY’ AND HER STORIES IN HER POEMS:A STUDY Indian English literature has been making great strides during the last few decades thereby attracting the international attention. Infect, the post-independence period in the history of Indian English writing is generally equated with the modern period. It must be said in the light of all considerations that the post independence Indo- English prose and poetry has characteristics which make it distinctive and different from the writing of the earlier period. Indian women poets writing in English from Toru Dutt to Kamala Das reveal the mind boggling variety of themes as well as style that poetry is capable of offering. It needs to be remembered that poetry written by women need not be viewed only as feminist poetry. For the first time in Indian English poetry, the women poets of post- Independence and postmodern period portrayed in a subversive idiom their desires, lust, sexuality and gestational experiences. They enriched Indian English poetry with a wealth of new themes and experience. They developed a new innovative iconoclastic discourse to portray their repressed desires. Thus a new form of feminist poetry emerged and grew to give they Indian English poetry new strength, new diversity and new potent a new signs of maturity The women poets of the present century have surely and confidently come out of the romantic entanglements, of the claptrap of the past tradition and succeeded in formulating a new tradition...
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...The Faboulus Button Sister The fabulous button sisters The fabulous button sisters are a story about two friends, Karen and Michelle, where the story is told from Karen´s perspective. Karen is living at home with her mother and father, while Michelle is living with her aunt, and as Michelle claims it´s because of her mother´s attempt to get into Hollywood. The two friends are more or less doing everything together. Summary: Karen and Michelle are preparing for a party, where Michelle suggests them both to dress up with the theme of chocolate buttons - “the fabulous button sisters”. Michelle has already decided that she wants to be white and Karen should be the ordinary one – the brown one. Michelle tells Karen, that she is taken the risk to stand out and be special, while Karen only will blend in unnoticed. Before the story gets to the night of the party, we simply get a closer insight on the relationship between Karen and Michelle. Like the various ideas that Michelle has, for example that they only should eat one color of food at every meal. At the night of the party, Michelle calls Karen and says that she should meet her on the corner in ten minutes. When Karen arrives, she sees Michelle wearing some other clothes than they had agreed. This confuses Karen because they had made an agreement on what to wear. The story ends with Michelle moving to her mother in “Hollywood” where she sends letters to Karen, but Karen finds out that the letters are from Birmingham...
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...girl named Britney was in her room on her phone. She was home alone because her mom had to work late and wouldn’t be home until 1:00. Britney would hear one cracking noise and she would hide under her blankets and her heart would start pumping faster. She looked at her phone hoping it was almost 1:00 o'clock, but it was only 12:20. She sat there for about 10 minutes and then someone pulled in the drive way. They sat there for a couple minutes then turned there lights off and got out of their car. Britney texted her mom and said " Mom why are you just sitting outside." Her mom texted back instantly and said " Britney I'm still at work." Britney got really nervous and her heart started beating really fast and she started to panic. Her mom texted her again. "Stop joking with me. Lol." Britney texted her and said" Mom I'm being serious what do I do." After that text she sent a picture. Her mom texted back " Stay in your room and don’t leave I am on my way." Britney was worried because she didn’t know what was going on and her mom's work was about 30 minutes away. Britney didn’t hear anything for a while so she decided to head downstairs to look out the windows. All the doors and windows were locked so she...
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...“The Story of an Hour” and “A Jury of her Peers” In the “Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin, a renowned feminist author of the 19th century and “A Jury of her peers” by Susan Glaspell outline views of marriage as an undeserving institution for women. Chopin goes ahead to depict an unusual idea that married women get to enjoy the free world and experience happiness with the passing on of their husbands. Louise’s husband, Mallard is a fairly caring man for as the author states; his wife had loved him- sometimes. She must have failed to love him sometimes since he had been a bully to her, a real chauvinist. Such judgments about Mallard can be drawn from the context of the story based on the fact that he, like Mr. Wright in Susan Glaspell’s “A jury of her peers”, was a controlling man to his wife. As Louise suffers from heart disease, her sister Josephine delivers to her the message of her husband’s death with great care, “in broken sentences”, with his husband’s friend Richard near her. This information is verified by the fact that Richard had been in the newspaper office at the time, which the names of the train accident’s victims were released, and Brently Mallard’s name was among them, in fact, it was on top of the list. This information was additionally verified by a second telegram to the office. Louise wept briefly in the presence of her sister and Richard then isolated herself in her room. There, details relating to nature like quivering trees, twittering sparrows and the...
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...Esther Raab and Her Story Esther Raab was born on June 11,1922 in Chelm ,Poland to a middle class jewish family.She had one older brother (two kids was unusual in Europe) who was born in 1917, named Yidel. Esther had a comfortable childhood.To reseave a education she went to public school and after that she went to a catholic school for two hours(jewish all payed school).Esther lived in a varry strict and righish jewish household.Her fauther was a bissess man who had many non-jewish clients who he got along with(one even helped her and Yidel hide from the nazis).Esther had many friends from the street (jewish and non-jewish). All was good, but what her and her family didn't know what Hitler was doing to the other jews.Esther's dad...
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...person when she’s with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, and a completely different person when back “home” surrounded by her childhood family in the Central Valley of California. During this particular trip, she begins to reflect on her life in Los Angeles. Didion contemplates the fact that she often feels uneasy around her husband, just like he feels uneasy being around her family. At a crossroad, she must decide not only who she is, and the life she wants, but also the kind of life she wants for her daughter. Her life in Los Angeles has cleansed her from her youth—one that was dusty and full of useless trinkets. She ponders the time her husband wrote the word “D-U-S-T” on those useless trinkets and she remembers her feelings of sadness and indignation. She says, “We live in dusty houses…filled with mementos quite without value to him” (139-40). The dust-covered trinkets signify what is important to her, or what needs to be addressed in her marriage. Yet, these objects just lay there waiting for someone to see them—for someone to dust them off and care for them—not unlike how Didion wishes her husband would see her and nurture her in their marriage. Didion wonders which of her two homes is normal or if they are both flawed. When she and her husband are with her family, he becomes apprehensive about her behavior, “…because once there I fall into their ways, which are difficult, oblique, deliberately inarticulate…” (139). She begins to defend her past, the one she thought...
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...Her Fearful Symmetry “Her Fearful Symmetry” is a novel written by Audrey Niffenegger, who also wrote “The Time Traveler’s Wife” which became a global bestseller and won several prizes including “British Book Award”. It is told by a 3rd person narrator, and the point of view changes between the different characters in the book. The story mainly takes place in a block of flats in London. A woman called Elspeth lived in one of the flats, until she died of leukemia. Elspeth was a self-centered woman, who always got what she wanted. And even after her death that did not change. As a ghost, Elspeth is stuck in her old flat without any way of communicating. But eventually after long time, she finds a way to get in touch with her nieces and her old lover, Robert. When Elspeth died, she left all of her belongings, including the flat, to her twin sister’s twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. This surprised everyone, as Elspeth and her sister, Edie, had not spoken with each other for twenty years. We later realize out that the twins switched identities, because when Edie, who actually was called Elspeth, was engaged to her husband, Jack, he started to be flirtatious towards Elspeth, who was Edie at the time. So they started to impersonate each other to test him. But even though Jack knew they had switched, he played along and fell in love with “Edie” and broke off the engagement with Elspeth and asked “Edie” to marry him. But in the meantime Elspeth had slept with Jack and was...
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...Everyone has a place where they go to escape all the pressures and worries of life. There is always that one spot that can mellow all your problems and soothe troubles in times of stress. For me, the beach is the ultimate cure to all of my problems. While I am there, all of my obligations suddenly vanish. As I stroll along, I can feel the soft smooth sand beneath my feet. As I take in the soothing atmosphere that encircles me, I close my eyes, letting myself absorb the warming rays of the sun on a perfect summer day. I am comforted by the sounds of the ocean; the rhythmic pounding of the waves represses all of my concerns. I look into the cloudless blue sky and see the perfection of life. On the other hand, if serenity is not your desire, other parts of the beach are full of exciting sights, sounds, and smells. The waves at the beach continuously crashing into the shore give a blissful feeling, but looking a little closer you see surfers hanging, or children splashing around near the shore. The smell of the salt in the air is another unique comfort of the beach. Many fun opportunities await at the beach, consisting of boating, sailing, parasailing, and a plethora of other activities available to casual beachgoers. Regardless, beach’s most alluring feature has to be simply lying in the sand while soaking up the sun. On a extremely hot day where else would anyone rather be but the beach with the water, the sun, and all the activities that are happening, or just to hang...
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...Moody, “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid, “Lust” by Susan Minot Even though these stories are different, they are all extremely relatable. They all resonated with me in that each one had different excerpts that I could see myself in. In Ricky Moody’s “Boys” I could see myself in them as they grew up and experienced different circumstances in their lives. I could hear my mother giving me advice while reading Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl”. While I have not experienced a lot of what is described in Susan Minot’s “Lust,” I related to trying to figure out what love is. All of these stories have formal aspects in common when it comes to style: repetition. They all contain the use of anaphoras (repeating the same thing at the beginning of each sentence). They all also follow a certain pattern throughout the story. An example of this is how Rick Moody, in “Boys” repeated the word ‘boys’ in order to emphasize the central idea and meaning of the story. Like Moody stated in an interview with Electric Lit, “the goal in “Boys” is to tell the story of the boys, not just to compile variations on the sentence ‘Boys enter the house.’ That assignment would be too easy” (Grief). All three stories use of run-on sentences to create a specific and distinct tone to the story. In “Boys”, Moody wrote as if he was writing everything that came to mind, like he was just writing his thoughts. The style of this story is very descriptive and does not leave many details of the boys' lives out. By doing...
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...extortion and cyber bullying leading to the suicide of the 15-year-old girl. With a serious of articles from four different news sources, this paper will look at the history of the girl, what happened in her life leading to the bullying and how the “sextortion” (Kelley, M., 2013) lead to multiple suicide attempts and inevitably death of Amanda Todd. The paper will identify triggers for the articles trending, framing of the storytelling and underlying message within the articles answering questions of importance, publicity, and extortion amongst extortion. Introduction and Background According to Amanda Todd’s mother, Carol Todd, Amanda was a happy, popular, and energetic 15-year-old girl who loved to sing and perform. Despite being very shy, Amanda shined on camera and grew to love the technology that aided in her decision to end her life. In 2010 Amanda was in seventh grade, she browsed the Internet like any other teenager and visited blogging sites as well as chat rooms. She used the chat rooms to meet new people, receiving compliments on not only her voice while singing, but her looks aswell. It wasn’t too long before there were contacts asking for more of Todd. These seemingly nice, school-aged boys needed more and more of Todd to the point where she gave in and exposed her breasts...
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...Mrs. Sen’s The process of assimilation if very difficult for Mrs. Sen. Unlike the narrator of The Third and Final Continent or even Lilia’s parents, Mrs. Sen finds it impossible to integrate into her new country. Her refusal to learn how to drive is the culmination of her distress. Her frustration is voiced loudly only to Eliot, who is dealing with his own distress. There is a childish, tantrum-like angle to Mrs. Sen’s complaints. She even remarks to Eliot that he is much wise than she was at that age; she never thought for a moment that she would be separated from her family. While the reader sympathizes with her plight, her stubbornness seems greater than it need be. Her husband tries to accommodate her, the policeman does not arrest or fine her for the accident, and the workers at the fishmarket put product on hold for her. In the end, it is Mrs. Sen’s responsibility to make an effort. Unlike Mala in The Third and Final Continent – who was equally distraught about leaving her family – Mrs. Sen does not try to adjust. She is trapped in a cage of her own making. As in Sexy, the main characters have mirror images within the story. Here, Eliot and Mrs. Sen are quite similar. He is trapped in his life as well. The loneliness and distress that Mrs. Sen expresses are familiar emotions. He has front row seats for his mother’s sadness. Unlike Mrs. Sen, Eliot is unable to tell anyone about his plight because, again unlike Mrs. Sen, he is truly powerless. The sympathy one has for Eliot...
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...are growing up in a society which teaches them one culture with one set of norms and at home they learn another where they have to behave and appear different. This is what the story pictures is about: The story is written by a Pakistani woman; Rahina Khan, and it takes place in the 50’s in a town in England. The story is about the girl Amina. Amina goes to a school where there appears to be mostly British students. This conclusion comes from the fact that they draw pictures from the Christian bible, and that the teacher does not know that Amina is not allowed to draw pictures from the bible. Amina is a young Muslim girl. A guess is that she is around eight years old, based on the facts that she does not know that she is not allowed to draw the Jesus child and they apparently spend a lot of time drawing in her school, so she is probably going in 2’nd grade or so. Amina lives with both her parents in the back room of their shop, where she spends most of her time alone with the TV. She behaves well; it is not all eight year olds who can spend every night alone without company. She is obeying, does what her mother tells her but also what her teacher tells her to do, even though she is not allowed to do so; She will no longer draw the Jesus but drawings from the Koran, but her teacher convinces her to draw a Christmas card with Jesus and...
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...situation, because the story is not written in the romantic style it is written as life is. Not everyone gets a happy ending in their story. It is an enjoyable piece of literature because people can relate to Mrs. Sommers life. It is well defined story; Kate Chopin does not try to confuse the readers. The setting in the story is not clear, but do believe that it takes place in a regular city. In which they have a shopping center, dining area, theater and a cable car. Mrs.Sommers is in a small shopping area or maybe walks down the street where there are stores. It states, “… she crossed straight over to the shoe department” (Chopin 440). This shows how she can easily go into different stores to shop for herself. Mrs.Sommers is now visiting different stores instead of regular clothing stores. Chopin wrote “There were books and magazines piled up in the window of a stall a few paces down the street” (441). This explains how Mrs. Sommers was starting to enlarge her shopping surrounding. Thus, it helps with the story’s theme by showing what stores and places she goes too When the story took place is not stated in the story. We believe that it takes place in between the early1900 and mid-1950’s. During the 1900’s, fifteen dollars was a large amount of money. Chopin wrote “. . . the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn out porte-monnaie . . .” (437). This shows how Mrs. Sommers was not use to having this generous amount of money, and it made her feel important. By...
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...Winner By D.H. Lawrence Before-reading strategies: This story is a required read based on the course that I am taking. I am familiar with the author as I have read two other pieces that he has published while I was in high school. He is considered a visionary thinker for his time, however criticized for his work while alive. The descriptive wording is challenging due to the era in which it was written. Much of the references in the story will be of the United Kingdom where the author resided. I may have to refer to the internet to understand some of the terminology. The story title refers to a child’s toy which started to become popular around the 19th century. During-reading strategies: There are four characters this story and all on a quest for money. A mother that is cold and selfish, a boy that tries to make his mother happy, a gardener that helps the boy with his quest for money and an uncle that keeps a secret. The writing style and story setting is that of the early 1900’s. A young boy had the power to predict the outcome of horse races and is able to bet on the races accordingly, to help his mother with her financially problems. The young boy tries so hard to help his mother that he puts himself in an unconsciousness state. After-reading strategies: Very sad to relies that the greed and want, will prevails over the love of a child. The death of the boy was predictable to the outcome of the story. The greed of many to the cost of few. I still question the...
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