...They Carried In 1990, Tim O'Brien released his second novel about Vietnam, and in the late Sunday edition of the New York Times in March, Robert Harris, editor of The Book Review, reviewed O'Brien's work. According to Harris, only a few novels have found a way to clarify, with any lasting impression the meaning the war had for the soldiers who served there. He believes that O'Brien's work moves beyond the typical war story filled with fighting and battle and instead spends his time examining courage and fear. Harris believes that this is done with sensitivity and insight and by "questioning the role that imagination plays in helping to form our memories and our own versions of the truth" (1). The Things They Carried is a collection of interwoven stories, and while it is a work of fiction dealing with the same platoon, Harris believes that it can in no way be considered a novel due to the structure, but rather it is a collection of short stories unified by characters and theme. At the same time, he also believes that while it is not a novel, all of the stories cohere and it is still a worthy piece of fiction. Harris goes on to say that while there is a lot of gore, as is typical of war stories, O'Brien explains why it was necessary through the voice of the text. Harris quotes from the story "How to Tell a True War Story" which states, "If you do not care for obscenity, you don't care for truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war,...
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...it is not a story or play, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. Although the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was the best written thing in the text book, I don’t believe it could legitimately win in an “American Idol” type of competition because it wasn’t actually a story. He wrote that letter better than anything I have seen written to this day minus all of the Harry Potter books as I am very partial to them. He was in the heart of where the country needed to reform the most and no one was willing to help him make it happen. He had sincere guts and the faith required to help make the human rights movement work. All he was doing was answering the question “what are you doing here?” and he did it very successfully and effectively over thirteen pages. My favorite quote of his letter to the congressmen was; As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. (Jr.) It was right after he said that they had tried everything else and that this was the only way to move forward. He was demonstrating the strength he was giving to the community. He was giving the city of Birmingham the motivation they needed to make the change necessary for true freedom. I think that between the three stories (Amontillado...
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...Ice Man – Elmore Leonard 2012 The title “Ice Man” can be referred to a person we meet in the short story. His is called for “iceman”, but his real name is Darryl Harris. The Iceman works for “immigration and Customs Enforcement”. He is a white man who is racists, we can see that the way he treats the Indian boys. He seems like a cold man as his nickname “ICE” The short story takes place in the US and it is about Victor and his friends Nachee and Billy Cosa. Victor loves to ride bulls and he is very good at it. When Victor turns twenty he wins 4,000 dollars at the All - Indian National Rodeo in Palm Springs. After that Victor and his friends - Nachee and Billy Cosa, decides to celebrate his rides at the bar where they drinks some tequilas and talk. Victor tells his friends, how he learned to ride bulls while he was working for his boss Kyle McCoy. At the bar he sees police officers that are at the bar to check if there are any workers without permission. Victor also noticing that a white man (Darryl Harris) at the bar watching Victor and his friends. The white man is working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and asks Victor about his age. The white man provokes and threatens Victor to accuse him for something he didn’t do. Victor and his “NDN brother” (10) Nachee and Billy Cosa are Indian. Victor is from a “Mimbreno Apache”(8) and his to friends Nachee and Billy Cosa is from “Mojave” (9) tribe. We don’t get so much information about the boys, but Victor is twenty...
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...would have been very different. Their knowledge of the Word, gave them a false confidence in themselves rather than a confidence in God and the presence of the Holy Spirit around them, allowing them to let their guard down and opening the door for the devil. In both short stories, "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Wofe's "The Child by Tiger", the protagonists are both religious men coming from very different backgrounds and time periods. They struggle not only with their earthly desires but also their beliefs in God and how they deal with the conflicts of their choices. The authors of these stories write of the spiritual conflicts suffered by the corresponding protagonists by using different points of view and different time periods, which creates its own stuggles. In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" the title character and protagonist, Goodman Brown grows up in the Catholic Church and comes from a reputation of generations of good, upstanding and religious men. The time period of this story is in the 1700's in Salem Massachusetts. This is probably why the witch's ceremony enters into Goodman's dream. This is a great way for the evil to antagonize Goodman. Whereas, in Wolfe's story, Dick Prosser is an ex-military Negro who struggles with the continued racism of the south, following the abolishment of slavery. He has to work hard to earn respect. Prosser's religious background probably comes from his family and his continuous pursuit of being...
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...Oscar And Alphones By: Adriana Miracle ________________________________________________________________________ It was a cold stray night on October 23rd, 1995. When a girl named Oscar was reading a spooky book. Oscar had a big shiny smile, short dark brown hair, Her hair ways always pulled back, she was smart, tall, and bright green eyes, she was tan, poor, with long eye lashes, well dressed, small nose, thin lips, respectful, and loved Harris Burdick book. There was always a mystery of the Harris Burdick stories. Oscar always read Harris Burdick’s books under the tree her grandma Anna passed away under. Oscar reads there because her grandma is the one who introduced her to Harris Burdick’s books. Reading those books reminded her of her grandma. When Oscar started reading the book she didn’t know there was a mystery behind the book....
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...New York City is a myriad of buildings and cultures. Consequently, many of the buildings have political and historical significance. The sites range from being the birthplace of the New Deal or George Washington’s favorite hangout tavern. Some buildings have more political significance than others. For example, the Brown Building housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. In 1911, a brief factory fire would shed light on the cruel working environments endured by workers. The history of the fire and building has a lifetime impact on the workplace and employer standards. The Shirtwaist Factory fire played a significant role as a catalyst for labor reforms. The Triangle Waist Company, founded in the early twentieth century by Isaac Harris and Max...
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...Discrimination and Stereotypes Directed by Paul Haggis and produced in 2004, Crash was the Oscar Awards winner of Best Picture in 2006. Aside from Best Picture, the movie won only one other award: Best Original Screenplay for Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco. Despite its little recognition, Crash is an important movie to watch. Plot The plot of Crash is not about a typical, narrative story in the usual sense. Instead, it focuses on a theme or message and weaves several linked stories to highlight the theme. The movie is essentially about racial discrimination and the consequences of stereotyping people. Set in LA, the story covers a 24-hour period. The movie depicts the stories of several people whose lives are intertwined by accidental and casual encounters, usually on the streets. The characters in the story are people of varying ethnic groups: a bad and a good cop, a group of police investigators, a couple of teenage robbers, a DA and his wife, an Arab family, a Hispanic locksmith and his family, and an affluent African American movie director and his wife. The story revolves around how all of these people have deeply ingrained prejudices and how they themselves could suffer from discrimination. Theme and depiction Discrimination and stereotyping of people sometimes happen as a result of reinforcement of the behavior of the people being discriminatory themselves. The DA’s wife was almost paranoid with her suspicions of other ethnic groups or minorities...
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...NARRATIVE ELEMENTS IN A SHORT STORY XAVION LAY INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE JACLYN MALLAN-KING THEME AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS IN A SHORT STORY The short story that was chosen to write this paper was the Welcome Table by Alice Walker that was written in 1970. This story being racial in theme and treatment was one of the best stories and that was heartfelt in this book. While without describing the story in detail I will point out its theme and narrative elements that make this story what it is today. Just as in the Oxford Companion to African American Literature states: “Though we are aware of the dismissal of so much black American writing for so many years because it did not conform to prevailing aesthetic or critical canons, our understanding of literature is not restricted to these traditional genres.” (Oxford Companion, 1997) This book was definitely written by one the greatest writers ever know. She placed her heart mind and soul into the writings of which she made which brings me to the writing of the Welcome Table. The Welcome Table was a short story that had a racial theme. Due to the story taking place in the time that black who were referred to as colored at the time could not congregate in the same place as whites. The point of view that was in play was omniscient. This is a story is written from another point of view. Not that of the person that is in the story but from someone on the outside that understands the way the character in the story feels. Or as Clugston...
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...Red Dragon by Thomas Harris: A Look Inside The Serial Killer’s Mind Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is a dark piece of psychological fiction that was published in 1981. The novel is the first in a trilogy featuring the infamous character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and psychopathic serial killer. However, Lecter is not a main character in this novel. Rather, the antagonist and killer is Francis Dolarhyde, whom the police jokingly refer to as the Tooth Fairy because of the bite marks he leaves on female victims. Harris does a masterful job of creating background on the killer that delves into the makings of a serial killer. Thomas Harris gives the reader an understanding of Dolarhyde’s mindset when committing his horrific crimes by detailing the abuses the killer suffered as a child (Sexton). Harris takes the reader from the infant born with a cleft palate so disfiguring he was left to die through the cruelty of a childhood that included abandonment, a mean and mentally unstable grandmother, and taunts from his stepsiblings. In doing so, the author provides significance to some of the killer’s actions (Cowley). This research paper will examine the underlying psychopathology of serial killers that often stems from abuse in childhood, turning the human into the monster. Red Dragon begins with the FBI and the police on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whom police have nicknamed the Tooth Fairy because of bite marks left on victims. The public is duly alarmed as the...
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...A fascinating and powerful narrative, “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison, tells the story of two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who share quite a complicated relationship. From the time they meet at St. Bonaventure, an orphanage, at the tender age of eight to when they become adults and start leading lives of their own, they are plagued by their racial, social, and economical differences. One of the most interesting aspects of the short story is the symbolism of Maggie, a disabled woman who works at the orphanage, and the tremendous impact she has on Twyla and Roberta. Numerous critics have analyzed the portrayal of Maggie in the story, and have come to some varied conclusions. In my opinion, as Twyla and Roberta are reunited with one another through the course of their lives, they slowly begin to see and accept that Maggie is a reflection of their mothers, and – to a larger extent – also themselves. The issues explored in “Recitatif” resonate with many readers on many different levels and, in effect, much has been written and discussed about it. This is largely due to the fact that Morrison has left a lot open to the reader for interpretation. “Revised Memories and Colliding Identities: Absence and Presence in Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’ and Viramontes’s ‘Tears on My Pillow’” by Helane Adams Androne is a very focused critical piece that argues that both central characters have suffer from strained relationships. "Transfiguring Aesthetics: Conflation, Identity Denial, and Transference in “Passing...
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...in New York City Marshal and Manhattan clubs, chess games of fortune did. DOCUMENTARY FILM FIRST Kubrick's first film essay, "Day of the Fight" with the name in 1950, he led all the money accumulated to date, boxer Walter Cartier subject of a documentary film of the 16-minute short. The first film yönetmenlikten assembly, he did everything from directing sound image. The film was bought by Howard Hughes and RKO şiketi legend movie was shown in New York, Paramount cinema. Look to the cinema to devote all his time on the success of the film magazine he quit his job. Kubrick's first film shot in 1950 until the end of 1955 continued to attract certain ranges, short documentaries. RKO'nun bid in 1951, "Flying Padre" now, Father Fred Stadtmueller'ı a documentary about the 9-minute, in 1953 for the International Federation of Seafarers "Seafarers," a 30-minute documentary called (Kubrick's first color film), and finally 1955 acquaintances in the debt-led "Killer's Kiss" in the film. In 1956, producer James B. Kubrick and Harris, who met with the studio's first feature film "The Killing" I went to Hollywood to shoot. After the production manager of the MGM film The Killing, Kubrick and Harris signed an agreement with. Kubrick, Calder Willingham novel, the author of the novel with a screenplay adapted by Stefan Zweig'ın The Burning Secret, but this project is not realized in no time. Kubrick and Willinghom, a screenplay...
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...William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is among his most famous short stories because of the interesting method of storytelling it employs. Faulkner uses a non-linear plot structure in this story, as opposed to the more often used, more simplified linear plot structure of most fiction. “A linear plot begins at point A, progresses through events which build towards a climax, and then finally reaches point B” (Malone). In contrast, “a non-linear plot typically presents the audience with multiple paths from point A to point B” (Malone). In other words, non-linear plot structures consist of back-and-forth storytelling, or flashbacks. Because of this non-conventional plot structure, “A Rose for Emily” has been described as an “emotionally complex and chronologically confusing narrative” (Petry 53). However, the story has also been cited as “one of Faulkner’s most carefully constructed stories” (Everett 165). The effectiveness of the disordered chronology can be likened to the preciseness of an equation. As Faulkner misdirected his readers through the use of flashbacks, he revealed Miss Emily’s disoriented mental state in her dealings with the passage of time. Faulkner efficiently complicates the narrative situation by opening “A Rose for Emily” with the death of the main character. The first sentence captures the reader’s attention immediately, evoking a collective sympathy for the main character: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (Faulkner...
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...America soldiers got an experience they will never forget. An experienced filled with terror and suffering but also filled with friendship and love. American literature has shown the struggles of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Often times the literature tries to pull the readers in with stories to help them understand what life was like. Tim O’Brien is one of the most popular when it comes to this. In his novel, The Things They Carried, questioning morality, O’Brien gives first hand narrations of stories which show the impact of the Vietnam War on society. Tim O’Brien’s life is filled with many wonders and success. O’Brien...
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...THREE MEN IN A BOAT By Jerome K.Jerome In the history of English literature Jerome K. Jerome occupies a modest place. He is famous for his art of story-telling, his vivid style and his humour which is generally expressed in laughter-provoking situations often based on misunderstanding. With sparkling humour he criticized the weak sides of human nature. Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in England on May 2, 1859 into the family of ruined businessman. Jerome's childhood was poor and sad. He could not finish school because his father died in 1871 and the boy had to begin working to support his family. First he worked as a clerk. Later he took up teaching journalism and acting. For three years he was an actor and had to play different parts. He had very little money and often went hungry and had no place to sleep. In his free moments Jerome tried to write. He wrote plays, stories and articles, but nothing was published. His first literary success was a one-act comedy which was performed in the Globe theatre in London in 1886. In 1889 a collection of his articles was published. They were published as a book under the title "The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow". This book became very popular in England, and it was published 105 times in 4 years. In 1889 Jerome's best book "Three Men in a Boat" also came out. "The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" and "Three Men in a Boat" made the author famous. The books were translated into several European languages. In the following years Jerome...
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...BULLYING A bully is a person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people, according to Merriam-Webster. The example of a bully has since evolved from the 1950’s Walt Disney version of the big, tall fat kid who goes around terrorizing the other ten year olds. The new aged bully no longer steals your lunch money, pushes you around and calls you names, now it’s far more psychological than it appears. But what are the affects that a bully has on the person that they harass and push around. The story we always hear is the bully will eventually get what’s coming to them and the defenseless kid rides happily off into the sunset. Is that true and is that what really happens? Reports have shown that 77% of students have reported being bullied in school and in fact an estimated 160,000 students miss school each day for the fear of being bullied. When your child comes running home from school upset that one of the bullies at school has been picking on him, as a parent your first initial react could be that your child may just need to ignore him or your other reaction to the situation could be that you’d like to go up to the school and talk with the teacher or principal. The proper way psychologist say you should react to speaking with your child is to try to be empathetic and ask them, “What do you think might help?” This will help make your child feel that everything is fine and that the problem will be addressed and give them a feeling of reassurance...
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