...Whale Rider Themes In the film the Whale Rider, the once complimentary narratives that governed the Maori culture: Gender, Identity, and Traditions are competing against one another. The fundamental elements of these narrative has stayed unchanged; However, some characters are interpreting these liturgies to their own personal narratives, causing conflict within the Maori Culture. Synopsis of film During a time of modernization, poverty, and the decentralization of the role the Maori culture play in the people lives, one local leader (Koro) looked upon Hope in a form of a prophet. According to the Maori's traditions, the ancient ancestor Paikea descendants: the eldest son are the rightful tribe leader and will centralize the community again...
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...William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying breaks the facticity of literary convention by constructing a storyline that asserts a conflict in the reader rather than predominately within the characters. The basic conflict that sets forth thematic conflict of the distinction of facts and truth within the nature of the mind is of a Southern decaying family’s attempt to bring their mother home for burial. Faulkner narrates each character’s singular point of view to show the result of the multitude of subjective interpretations as each character deals with their emotions engendered by the events. The reader is unsure as to which imitated perspective is objective towards the truth. Faulkner’s narration of imitating events from a different stand point develops an arguing conflict of what is thought to be an established nature of mind. As I Lay Dying is a conflict of the conceptual idea of truth. It can be interpreted that the conflict of the narrative is a conflict of our beings – whether or not there is such a thing as unprejudiced truth. Within the beginning narratives, the characters reveal their corruptions that will obscure their interpretations: including adultery, pregnancy, abortion, hatred, and insanity. Using multiple views promotes the isolation each family member’s internal conflicts in relation to their response to their mother’s death, relationships, and own seemingly selfish concerns. The reader begins to see the instability of their isolation when the Faulkner establishes...
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...A Comparison of “Dog’s Death” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” Tammy McGee ENG 125: Introduction to Literature Instructor Jessica Dennis August 12, 2013 The theme I have chosen to write about is death and impermanence, and the two literary works I have chosen to compare and contrast are Dog’s Death by John Updike and Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. How we are affected by death, and how we accept that it is inevitable seems to be a theme for many short stories and poems. Death brings a struggle between the dying and the family and friends of the dying. All the loved ones of the dying want them to do is fight, to encourage them to stay positive, even when there is no chance of survival. We want to be selfish and want to spend as much time as we can with them before they die. Just as the two poets in these poems do. In Dog’s Death by John Updike, the dog wants to lie down, to hide so she can die peacefully but the family rushes her to the vet to try and save her. And in Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas the father is being begged to fight against the inevitable death. I am going to show how loved ones want the dying to fight death, whereas the dying would like to come to peace with death and rest. Both Dog’s Death and Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night are poems, however they are structured differently. Dog’s Death is not a set structure, meaning to say it is not a certain type of poem. It has five stanzas...
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...Emotional Appeal in the Narrative of Frederick Douglass In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass adopts a critical tone as he openly discusses his journey to freedom in an attempt to deconstruct the positive view of slavery through the realities he experiences as a slave. Douglass, an educated slave, wrote the memoir after escaping to freedom as a means of informing the public about slavery as an abolitionist. Douglass utilizes emotional by detailing events that occurred during his time as a slave in order to evoke pity, anger, and fear in order to compel his audiences to regard the institution of slavery as deplorable. Douglass tends to highlight instances in which slave’s personal relationships are destroyed in order...
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...Author Annie Dillard, shares a story of a morning after Christmas. She was seven and decide to go outside with her friends. They played this game where they made snowballs, and waited for a car to pass so that they could hit it. Something went wrong. Annie threw a snowball, and it hit the car. This time it was different; the man got out of the car and chased them. The man didn’t give up, and he caught up to them. He told them they, “you stupid kids.” Oddly, after being ran after for a long distance, Annie was enjoying this moment. Annie said that if that man would have killed her in that backyard, she would died happy. The story doesn’t start off right away. The author begins with sharing background about herself. She explains who she is...
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...which comes from the consistent inadequacy of the means at hand to wrestle with the problems to be faced, whether they be poverty, racial intolerance, or the preservation of an historical past rich in tradition. In the years after the Civil War, the Southerner attempted to deny these things by the simple, but ultimately ineffectual, process of ignoring them. The Southern local colour writers concentrated on the quaint, the eccentric, and the remote; and the creators of the “plantation tradition” idealised the past. Against this sentimental view the first two voices that were strongly raised were those of Ellen Glasgow and James Branch Cabell, Virginians who in their differing ways defined the patterns which 20th-century Southern fiction was to take when it became serious and fell into the hands of that group of writers of talent who have practised it in that century. In other words, when this group of talented young writers in the 1920’s and 30’s addressed themselves to the representation of the world through the image of their region, they followed the paths blazed by Miss Glasgow and Cabell. These writers were not only Southern but they were also the products of the same social and cultural forces that were shaping the world of...
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...Synthesis *Disclaimer: the views represented in the synthesis essay may not necessarily represent my personal opinions (I won’t write this disclaimer on the AP test). To live a meaningful life is awfully vague, for it can mean a life of happiness, of financial superiority, and of success. But the reason behind why the definition remains vague is clear: we become too obsessed with external factors and often forget ourselves--our character and our individuality. Thus, the prospect of a meaningful life continues to run away from us as we grow jealous of others who have more resources than we. To live a truly meaningful life that embraces both controllable and uncontrollable factors, we must resist trying to please others by avoiding the tendency...
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...broadcasts. Much like a painted canvas radio paints a mental masterpiece, filled with life stories, musical applications and paired with contextual reporting and analysis. For me, radio grasps my mind from the familiar confines of the world around me and places me in a world far beyond anything that I have actually experienced. Accounts of how a French scuba diver nearly drowned to death in a pursuit to save the life of another diver followed by the scary reality of death among the lives of senior citizens in hospice care are only some of the many intriguing stories that inspire me write for radio broadcasting. “How A Woman’s Plan to Kill Herself Helped Her Family Grieve” written by Alex Spiegel is another story that specifically captures the listener within the confines of its broadcast. Sandy Bem had Alzheimer’s disease—a disease that corrupts the mind’s capacity to remember important family members, read, and write. This disease left Sandy feeling helpless and depressed, later causing her to “commit” suicide—assisted suicide. As Sandy’s health began to deteriorate her feelings of helplessness grew to the point of despair. After wallowing in sadness for countless months, Sandy felt death was the only way to relieve her suffering. Sandy planned a closure ceremony where family and friends were invited to celebrate and relinquish countless memories with and of her that she now couldn’t remember. After hearing Sandy’s decision her daughter, Emily, didn’t like or understand her...
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...There are many recurring themes from the novel “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner, most of which that have to deal with family, loyalty, and love. The author helps brings together this large cast of fifteen different narrative characters by having each character's different ideas and passions within their lives to teach the audience that despite the disagreements and misunderstandings, the idea that the sense of family should stimulate a sense of loyalty and compassion in us all. Through the narration of Addie Bundren, who is by all means one of the most important characters since the entire story revolves around her death, we are able to see how her attitude towards her family and how it doesn’t bring out any good memories. When Addie...
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...The movie i chose was the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a movie about a collection of districts each being represented by individuals. The winner helps their district because after they win the government gives them food. In the end love comes to shock the districts and make a huge change. The chapter i choose to use first is,"....More Than Its Gonna Hurt You: Concerning violence." The Hunger Games is all about violence. To win the Hunger Games the chracters must kill each other until only one is left. As author Thomas Foster says in his book How To Read Literature Like A Professor, "Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications." I see this as saying even though a killing may just seem like a simple killing, it can mean so much more in literature. I beleive that symbolization in this story is, what people will do to survive, including putting all morals behind. Foster also describes how violence is not only a physical act but how it can be a "narrative violence". He describes how narrative violence is the violence an author uses to help him further the plot. He says it is the violence of the author and not the characters. For example when Rue dies, this is used to further show not only the emotion and love Katnis shows, but to also show the violence and aggresion that the other chracters show. But when the boy from district ten dies, no one knows how. All this does is move...
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...The Point and View of Dying A short story gives the reader an opportunity to experience a work of literature in a short amount of time. This also leaves the author with less runway to get their key message and points across in their story. There are many different literary concepts or elements that an author may use based on the type of story they are telling. Point of view is one concept that can influence how a story is perceived by the reader based on who is telling the story. First person point of view implies the author is the one narrating the story; while third person point of view implies the narrator is an observer or external narrator (Shakel and Ridl 146-147). This is a high-level explanation of point of view, but gives a base...
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...The Clowns: A Quintessential Fellini Film I Clowns (1970) was a documentary by Federico Fellini that was commissioned by RAI, an Italian television broadcast service, to discover the public’s fascination with the circus. In true Fellini fashion, however, the film is not a true documentary, it blends elements of fantasy, memory and reality together in such a way that it makes it difficult for the audience to decipher whether they are watching a work of pure fiction or the truth of a documentary. It is for this reason that I Clowns has been credited as being one of the first mockumentaries in film history. Fellini created one of his most Felliniesque works and made his artistic style noticeable particularly in I Clowns by focusing on the circus and employing a wide variety of common motifs and stylistic technique. Clowns and circuses have famously been a common, reoccurring subject in many of Fellini’s films. This film is Fellini’s exploration of his personal obsession and it was made in an attempt to discover the public’s changing interest in the circus. Unable or unwilling to merely stick to facts and make a true documentary, Fellini melds fact, fiction and his memories to create something unique and distinct within this movie all together and is considered one of the first mockumentaries. A young boy in Rimini in the opening sequence of the film is intended to be autobiographical of Fellini’s youth and modeled after his own memories. I Clowns could be recognized as Fellini’s...
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...The National Day on Writing at Fairfield University was a very inspirational event. I liked doing different writing exercises such as making a list about things I care about and writing a prompt using only numbers. In his presentation, “Writing for Justice and Writing for Healing”, Dr. Yohuru Williams discussed that writing is a reflective process and that your wounds produce an effective narrative. I also learned that, “the core of writing is communication”. For example, Dr. Williams is very passionate about civil rights and justice and communicated his thoughts through books and the Huffington Post to touch people. He further discussed how important social media is as a form of sharing and writing one’s opinions and thoughts about anything you care about, “Be a part of the conversation”. Dr. Yahuru asked us to write five things that we care about and then elaborate on one of the topics. I wrote a paragraph about the crisis in Syria because...
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...creating a good plot with interesting settings is not enough for a story to be read but it also needs the reader’s imagination. Every reader can have their own visualization of what they are reading and sometimes, what they see and the way they interpret what they read might be different from the interpretation that the author want them to have. For example, the poem entitled “The Road Not Taken” and the short narratives entitled “A Worn Path” and “Used to Live Here Once” all have the same theme but when read together by different people and asked what do they think of the stories, they might give different descriptions. These stories and poem deal with one thing which is the main character’s journey towards the unknown and how the main character made decisions that will change the course their lives forever and their loved ones. The stories are presented in different ways. For Robert Frost, he presented his poem’s main character through a first person narration and showed a plot of a man going on a journey. The story of the woman on the “Worn Path” on the other hand was being narrated on a third person basis with the woman as the narrator and at the same time the main character. The loneliness of the woman is apparent on this tory because the woman even talked to animals while walking alone and readers...
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...George Saunders’ “Tenth of December” is a short story about heroism and its ubiquitous nature with the notion of rejecting reality from the perspective of a woefully dying man and a young child with a fruitful imagination. Don and Robin both divulge into their own illusory worlds through disconnection and role-playing by creating a barrier between themselves and the nature of the world around them. Heroism, also intertwiningly injects itself into the ideology of rejecting existence as a base for story. The pair, Don and Robin, views themselves as heroes that allow their actions of living out in a false domain to become justifiable. The story itself is structured in a dream-like narrative furthering this notion of the importance of reality...
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