...something to be said about how death can be described. I have chosen to talk about two very special literary works. The first one is A Dog’s Death by John Updike and the other being I Used To Live Here Once by Jean Rhys. Both of these literary works describe death in many different ways. A Dog’s Death is a short poem and I Used to Live Here Once is a short analog story. When I read A Dog’s Death, I was very sad. I could feel how the author was trying to show what kind of emotions were going on as the family pet was passing away. The emotion of sadness and sorrow, as a family member was dying. As the dog was breathing its last breath, the mother called out its name in pain. This is the tone, the mood or attitude reflected. (Clugston, 2010) In I Used to Live Here Once, the tone at first was happy. The woman is happy in the beginning. She sees things as she remembered them. But when the woman gets closer to the house and sees people outside, the tone changes. The tone becomes very sad. The woman does not realize she is dead, until she tries to speak to the people and they don’t speak back to her. Running Head: DEATH 3 I think that in any story that talks about death, the tone is going to be sad. There is nothing happy about losing someone close to you. It is not a happy moment in anyone’s life. There is grief and sorrow. Losing someone is hard and painful; no...
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...something to be said about how death can be described. I have chosen to talk about two very special literary works. The first one is A Dog’s Death by John Updike and the other being I Used To Live Here Once by Jean Rhys. Both of these literary works describe death in many different ways. A Dog’s Death is a short poem and I Used to Live Here Once is a short analog story. When I read A Dog’s Death, I was very sad. I could feel how the author was trying to show what kind of emotions were going on as the family pet was passing away. The emotion of sadness and sorrow, as a family member was dying. As the dog was breathing its last breath, the mother called out its name in pain. This is the tone, the mood or attitude reflected. (Clugston, 2010) In I Used to Live Here Once, the tone at first was happy. The woman is happy in the beginning. She sees things as she remembered them. But when the woman gets closer to the house and sees people outside, the tone changes. The tone becomes very sad. The woman does not realize she is dead, until she tries to speak to the people and they don’t speak back to her. Running Head: DEATH 3 I think that in any story that talks about death, the tone is going to be sad. There is nothing happy about losing someone close to you. It is not a happy moment in anyone’s life. There is grief and sorrow. Losing someone is hard and painful; no...
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...the short story and the name of the main character in the story. Stolpestad works for the police. We follow him on the job one day, a day that closely resembles any other mediocre day of his life. Something happens though. He’s asked to put a seriously injured dog down, by a mother and her son. The way he kills the dog and his non-emotional reaction to the situation, raises questions about stagnation, indifference and emotional absence in the lives of humans around us. His life is degrading. A thing you notice almost immediately is the narrative view. It’s written in second person, present tense, and this gives the effect as if it was Stolpestad himself telling the story. When referring to himself as ‘you’, it has an effect equal to the story being told in third person. When using ‘one’, the impression of that this is how a situation is, and would be to anyone who was in his place. Also, there are traits that imply that the short story is written in spoken language and this contributes to the impression that Stoplestad is telling the story himself. Mentioning the different stores and shops Stolpestad has to pass, the narrator inflicts the story with a great deal of triviality. This can also be applied to Stoplestads life, because the narrator is character-bound and we follow Stolpestad through the narrator. Also, the setting is described as a dull and unimaginative place, nothing is in development and everything is unnecessary and needless to all the people. The dying dog...
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...Dogs are marked by loyalty and their intimate relationships with human. In the two short stories ‘To Build a Fire,’ written by Jack London, and ‘The Dark Brown Dog,’ written by Stephan Crane, both writers use ‘dog’ to portray the nature of human when they face a limit of civilization. These portrayals express naturalism clearly by applying characters’ relationship to their surroundings. To begin with, both stories show how savage-like their main characters become through the dog. In the case of ‘To Build a Fire,’ the man at first thinks of the dog as a company. However, as the man involves in a desperate situation, really dying of the cold, he thinks of dissecting the dog to use it for warmth. This type of action would have never happened if the man was set in a civilized background, but such desperate measure influence the man to take animalistic approaches. Similarly, in ‘The Dark Brown Dog,’ the dog by being reticent shows the violence of human. Not only the child, but the family as a whole beats the dog just because of their mere sudden emotions. One thing to keep in mind about this story is that the family is a part of the lower society, where there exists a lack of civilization, in terms of sophisticated minds. Comparing these two stories, I could tell both writers showed all humans have an inner potential of violence when in uncivilized conditions. Although it is true that both stories fundamentally depict naturalism in their stories, there exist many differences...
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...Stolpestad is the name of a short story and the protagonist in the story is the police officer. Our main character who we follow on duty for a day, what appears to be any other day in his mediocre life. he gets a call by a mother and her son, they have a dog that he needs to shoot. His reaction to the suffering dog or absence of it towards the ending of the story raises the themes, stagnation, indifference and emotional absence in one’s own life. The main character’s life are at still. When you read the text one of the first thing you notice is the narrative view the effect of it. Written in second person, present tense, and it’s like the police officer are the narrator of the story. When he is refering to himself as ”you” it has the same effect if it was told in third person. You have the feeling that it’s a stamp on how life is if you walked in his shoes, and everybody else whould feel the same: monotous. At the same time there is a feeling that the story is written in spoken language. And that contributes to the point of view that he is the narrator ”was toward the end of your shift” When he faces the music to kill the dog, he isn’t trown away by it, he is always aware what goes around him ”she’ll asked if you’d like some water or lemonade” He insn’t touched by the whole situation like many others would be in simillar situation and looking on a sad and grieving mother ans son. But still he in respect he emulates interrest “God knows you don't mean to...
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...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 with four lines in each stanza. There is not a constant rhyme to the line endings, nor is there a consistent rhythm...
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...investigating a traffic-accident today, and putting a dog out of its miseries tomorrow, it’s still the very same routine every day, nothing changes. Your life keeps walking in circles. You have joined a constant state of stagnation. You walk around with this constant feeling that you have stopped moving forward and are just postponing your death. In the short story ‘Stolpestad’, Lychack tells a story about a police officer called Stolpestad, whose life, has more or less become a daily routine. Every day he goes to work as a police officer in the big city (he passes by “The coffee shops, the liquor stores, laundromats, police, fire, gas stations”, he feels forgotten among all of the people in the city. Even though his tasks might be different from each day, he generally feels like doing the same thing. When he finishes his shift, he postpones going home to his wife and two boys, to spend a few hours at the local bar. One day, he is called in to put an injured dog out of its miseries. The dog belongs to a little boy, and is called ‘Gully’. When Stolpestad goes to the backyard to finish up gully, she doesn’t react. She just lies there, as if she knew that there would be no point of doing anything. After work, when he is at the bar, the phone behind the bar rings. It’s his wife saying that a man and his son are waiting for him. Stolpestad goes home to discover that it’s the same boy whose dog, he shot earlier that day. Apparently the dog didn’t die. No doubt that the boy’s father is upset...
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...stubborn usually nothing will change their mind. When someone is selfish usually all they think about is themselves. In Jack London’s short story “ To Build a Fire,” the main point is how people act stubborn,selfish, and want things to go their way. In the story “ To Build a Fire,” the character “the guy” wants to go hiking on the yukon trail. The temperature was negative fifty degrees which is deadly if you don’t have the right equipment. The guy was accompanied by his dog on his hike. The temperature was cold to the...
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...in a life threating situation the protagonist in the short story, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, failed to follow some of these steps which lead to his eventual death. These steps include staying calm, taking decisive action, and surrendering the fear of death. One reason the main character died is because he did not follow the trait of “staying calm, and letting fear motivate him.” In his crisis, he did not understand the importance of taking meticulous decisive action. For example, the man decided to turn aside from the main Yukon trail, instead of staying...
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...|Caranto, Denise Nadine A. |Section R25 |SHORT PAPER 1 | TIME DECEPTION: A Close Reading of the Short Story “Maria Dos Prazeres” Maria Dos Prazeres started preparing everything for her funeral, convinced that she, before Christmas, will be one with the earth. She wanted her resting place to be flood-free, and if possible, in the shade of trees in summer, and where she won’t be pulled out and thrown away after a certain period of time. She also wanted it to be far and unfamiliar, for she remembered from her childhood, a time, when flood came and she saw broken coffins floating along with pieces of rags and hairs of the dead in the courtyard of her house. Nevertheless, this story is not just about a typical old woman who desires a perfect funeral. It is about the conflict present in human nature- cowardice versus confidence, past versus present and future. Maria was living in the Catalonia for over fifty years already, but she “knew no one in the building” except for a couple residing at the building opposite hers. “Knew no one” suggests that Maria does not like to interact with strangers. Only in the latter part of the story, when a “stranger” gave her a ride home, did she learn how to entertain “strangers”. Though it might seem ironic, that Maria, who seems to be unashamed of her job in her past life, exclaiming “I am a whore, my boy” , was actually too coward to step out of her comfort zone...
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...QQQQQ & AAAAA QQQQQ & AAAAA …However, here’s a big turning point at the line “soul is spurting out upon them, bleeding on them, messing up their clothes” blah blah, it’s showing that her sickness sometimes could have hurt her dear friends and she felt so bad and she hated it. Q: Excuse me for the interruption. Then what about the one saying “God is filling me” and the last sentence “a monster of sorts, takes it all in-- all in comes the fury of love”? E: YES! That’s it. She was feeling death coming closer to her, she wanted to accept the fact. And she had her own belief in God so she wished her big heart could have taken all the pain and lost, to accept all the sadness and pressure, either for living or dying. But it was still hard, since she emphasized “I promised it is very large, a monster of sorts”. She was describing it as a monster, a tired, mindless monster that just want to eat all the pressure but it seemed like her heart was still not big enough. She was having too much suffering. Q: Thank you for your time! E: No problem my heart is big enough (laughing) I just want to mention, don’t ignore the valuable little things in your life. Some day they all come together and that can be a very powerful spirits that help you get through a hard time. So you can have a heart that’s big enough for all the pressure we face in life. Thank you. …However, here’s a big turning point at the line “soul is spurting out upon them, bleeding on them, messing...
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...Ever wondered what a dog is thinking? Well, in Racing in the Rain a 2011 heartbreaking novel a race car driver’s beloved pet imparts wisdom and life lessons in retelling his own story from a canine perspective. With wit and peculiar charm, Enzo tells of the stages of a dog’s life and the wonderful and distressing days spent with his hero, Denny Swift a struggling race car driver supporting a young family in Seattle, with a sick wife. They understand each other perfectly, and from day one, Enzo accepts the position of being Denny’s comforter and guide. He’s front and center whenever Denny struggles in his home life or career, and there are times when Enzo struggles too. Enzo has difficulty accepting change. The first human to enter Enzo’s inner...
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...questionable. While nature seemed to toy with the crew of the boat in “The Open Boat”, the old man in “To Build a Fire” seems to toy with nature by ignoring its signs to stop and to relinquish his failing journey. In the following paragraphs I’d like to get into the trenches of these two adventure stories. These two authors share similar traits when it comes to connections and reasons for writing these stories. Stephen Crane wrote “The Open Boat” based on a real life experience he went through. It was on December 31, 1896 when Crane left the Florida panhandle en-route for Cuba. His mission was to cover the war as a correspondent. On January 2, his ship sank and he and the other three crew members were forced to make the rest of the 30 hour trip in a small dinghy back to the United States (SN). This real life experience compares to Jack London’s real life journey through the Yukon Territory in 1897, around the same time as Crane’s sea adventure. London scavenged the area with others around that time in search for gold (Rees). While the gold rush was ultimately not as successful as he had hoped, London took many stories and experiences from the search (Rees). Initially, while these two stories both show the man vs. nature theme, they are different in context. “The Open Boat” surrounds itself around a group of four men who take on the violent sea in a bathtub sized dinghy. These four men, the Oiler, the Correspondent, the Cook, and the Captain all try and work together in...
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...born on the 27th of January 1902 in Salinas California and died in the 20th of December 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure at the age of 66. He was of German, Irish and English descent. He was a college dropout from Stanford University back in 1925 and was a manual laborer before he started to achieve his success as a writer. The story takes place in a stream near Salinas River and in the ranch it the Salinas Valley of Northern California during the Great Depression. During that time, there were massive lack of jobs and increasing number of workers. The population travelled from one place to another to seek employment. Steinbeck’s way of writing reflects his character. Steinbeck concentrates on revealing the characters and presents them directly to focus the reader’s attention of their quandary. Steinbeck is very clever on using stereotypes and has highlighted the importance of human issues, friendship, intellectual prowess, different racial background, social status and responsibility. For instance, he describes Lenny’s appearance as an animal – which Lennie really behaves and looks like. The meaning of Steinbeck’s story is about what it means to be a human being – in different aspects, how the society looks at you as an individual. Steinbeck is a master of description, and one of his many passions was the California landscape. The setting in this novel contains the "golden foothill slopes" and the "strong and rocky Gabilan Mountains." It is quiet and natural...
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...Gary Soto used a multitude of story elements to develop the themes in his stories. Two of those stories are Growing up and No Guitar Blues.The two use similar yet different elements for the development of theme, the characters actions, internal conflict, and external conflict. Firstly, Gary Soto uses the character’s actions as a way to develop his themes. In Growing Up, the action is Maria worrying about her family. But in No Guitar Blues, the action is Fausto praying and singing as a way to repent is his sins after he received a twenty dollar bill. Maria’s action is the main part of the theme. As the theme is worry won’t help your heart. I came to this conclusion because of she “...worried herself sick listening to the radio for news of an accident.” But then when her family gets home from the trip, she decides that she was going to be as rude as possible to get back at them. So all the worrying she did, didn’t change a thing. The theme in No Guitar Blues could be giving can help your heart and soul. This is because Fausto lied about where the dog he found was to the dog’s owner....
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