...The beginning of my story zeroes in on two men speaking in a dimly lit room about something but you cannot hear them just yet. Both men are in their thirties wearing business casual clothing holding files and have worn out expressions on their face. When the scene finally focuses on them the man with soft brown skin and wide eyes speaks with frustration. His name is Ezra Jacobs and he wants his partner, Chad Devins to help him break their suspect. It should then be revealed that they are indeed police officers. They want the suspect to confess to the crime and the motive. They continue back and forth with dialog about who will interrogate their suspect Charlie, before deciding that it will be Chad Devins. When the officers enter the room their suspect is a young woman with brown hair, in a plain white tee shirt that is soaked in blood. She looks up at them and pulls back her arms to reveal that she is handcuff to the table....
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...the short story “The Monkey’s Paw”, the idea of magic, wishes and fate are casually introduced by Jacobs. Fate is a development of events that is beyond a person’s control and is predetermined by supernatural powers. Jacobs raises a genuine chill by underplaying the threats that will arise when tempting fate. Through greed, and supernatural events Jacobs weaves a tale to show that fate rules people’s lives and that those who interfere with it will suffer the consequences. The idea that the monkey’s paw is of supernatural origin is first brought to light by the sergeant-major who informs the White Family that “It has a spell put on it by an old fakir a very holy man” (Jacobs 2) which allows three wishes to be made by three separate men. The Sergeant-Major continues to tell the White family that the monkey’s paw has supernatural powers, he foreshadows through the words “He wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow” (Jacobs 2). Through this quote, “The ominous threat of the paw is presented” (Brantingham). The Sergeant-Major warns the White family that wishing on the monkey’s paw and changing their destiny will not appeal to the supernatural world and they will suffer the consequences. Continuing on with the idea of the supernatural, there are a few instances within the short story that support the idea of the monkey’s paw coming from an uncanny universe. The first instance is that everything in this short story...
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...Without a heart your body is useless. When your heart stops beating, you live until your brain dies from lack of oxygen, but in this short story the narrator lives perfectly fine while changing hearts. This short story is basically about restarting peoples’ ability to love, but also of how real love can overcome technology in place to fake it. This subject is exactly what the main character is dealing with in the short story “The Rental Heart”. That leads me to the setting of the story. The shorty, “The Rental Heart” is written by Kirsten Logan in 2010. We do not know where and when the short story takes place. Neither do we know if the main character is a he or she. In my interpretation of the short story, I have interpreted the main character as being a she. The main character is portrayed by a third person limited narrator, because we hear the story from the main characters point of view. Seen from the main characters point of view we get a description of the surroundings and feelings the main person is dealing with. The short story has two big flashbacks. Grace is first presented as the girl the main character falls in love with, with no risk of being hurt. On the way to the rental place the narrator looks back and remembers all the times it has been done before and in the end we see the narrator in Grace’s arms again. In the beginning of the short story, we get introduced to the “heart rental place”. This is a place where u can rent a heart and change it when you change partners...
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...Analyzing ”From one mind into another” The short story is about a man. In the beginning we don’t know his name and neither does he. He is sitting in the passenger’s side of a wrecked car that’s been tipped to the side. The man is bleeding from the head and as been unconscious. He doesn’t remember anything, which may be because of the knockout. The driver has been pulled out of his seat and is nowhere in sight. He gets attacked by what looks like two humans but soon finds out that they are more than that attacks him. After several shots on the body, the “thing” is still able to crawl against him. By a coincidence he shoots one in the head and it falls to the ground – dead as a stone. The man is wearing a camouflage jacket, and in the radio of the car a voice is occasionally heard calling for units to come back. On the vehicle a big weapon is attached and is sprayed into the circular turret that provides an access from the rear of the vehicle to the gun. The man doesn’t now who or where he is but by the facts about the car and his jacket he’s probably a soldier in the middle of a war. Although his memory is lacking he is able to prepare the gun he finds in the car to shoot. In the short story he finds a gun in the car and without even thinking about it – almost by instinct he makes the gun ready for shooting. It is possible that he has forgotten his name and what he did before the accident but everything is not gone, he still have the instinct of a soldier. Not only that he...
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...In the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw,” the author, W.W. Jacobs, creates a suspenseful mood through his use of foreshadowing throughout the story. The story depicts how the curiosity about the power of an usual object brings unexpected consequences and impacts the characters’ lives forever. For example, Jacobs uses foreshadowing through dialogue when a character states, “The first man had his three wishes...I don’t know what the first two were, but the third was for death” (90-92). By including this quote from the previous owner of the paw, it makes the readers wonder why the man wanted death if this magical object has the power to grant three wishes to its owner. Another way the author uses foreshadowing is through the events that occur when...
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...GUILT by Rayda Jacobs The guilt is a story written by Rayda Jacobs. It is about a confrontation between an old white woman, called Lillian, and a young black guy named William. The main-character (Lillian Thurgood) live in South Africa, were the story takes place. She is a widow, because of her husband’s (Jock) death. She lives alone, with her two dogs, Tembi and Tor, who guard her as - “sentinels at the gate.”(P1.l16) These two fierce and powerful dogs are trained by her late husband to follow specific commands. She had have allot of visitors at her gate begging for food, money and cloths. Some day came a young, persistent black guy (William Sidlayi) to Lillian’s house asking for a donation. Lilian wanted to give some money but she only got five rand in her pocket, afterwards he tricks her to letting him inside her house, which is surrounded by a ten feet high wall, to work for the money she gave him. He worked about one hour in the garden, cleaning up the leaves. Afterwards he demanded ten extra rands for his work, even though he already was given five rands in donation. Wiliam gets anxious and Lillian asks him to leave the house, but he refuses. Lillian gave the dogs order to attack him, meanwhile she find her husband’s weapon, which she threats him with. That is the reason why Wiliam leaves her property, and she tells him that she is going to report him to the police. Analysis of “The Guilt” The short story “The Guilt” is written by Rayda Jacobs and it describes...
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...In The Death and Life of American Cities, urban activist Jane Jacobs argues that cities should be designed in a way that assimilates children on the streets. Jacobs writes that city streets should serve as an “unspecialized outdoor home base” where children can “form their notions of the world” (Jacobs 81). While Jacobs believes that an urban environment is suitable for raising children, cities prove to be an unsafe and unhealthy place to grow up. Children raised in an urban environment are not properly supervised which leads them to be exposed to mature subjects prematurely. In order to experience a healthy and happy childhood, children should not be brought up in an urban environment. Jacobs’ argument that children should make the streets...
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...and Maya Angelou’s Willie are significant literary pieces to discuss. It is important to consider factors such as historical, socio-political and cultural climate because these factors contribute and influence an author’s point of view as well as each author’s unique voice and message depending on the time period. Harriet A. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is a slave narrative. The literary conventions of the slave narrative define the work. Slave narratives echo biblical stories that often reflect persecuted groups attempting to escape to freedom. Jacobs’s piece details her struggle to escape her master from sexual abuse. Vivanco (2003), “The process from sin to rebirth in spiritual autobiographies is paralleled by the process from slavery to freedom in slave narratives. Slaves experience a change from chattel, enduring suffering, to man or woman living in the Promised Land, the North,” (para. 5). Further distinction of the slave narrative is how authors shape the story, often chronologically. Slave narratives illustrate an author’s personal experience though many share common themes of extreme violence/abuse and racial prejudice. Slave narratives are essentially autobiography, which offer an author’s own experience for readers to find meaning. Jacobs’s female voice sheds light on issues affecting slave women; sexual abuse and losing children to death or slave trade particularly. Jacobs’s narrative is a prime example of how different slave women were treated...
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...ever seen someone run or swim, you know exactly what running and swimming entail. The story “The Rental Heart” deal with love and the feeling you get when love fails you. When you are in love everything seems much better but when you break up everything turns dark and empty. It is for most people a fact, that you during your lifetime are going to get your heart broken. The heartbroken feeling of an endless pain that never goes away. Have you ever thought about, ripping out your broken heart, and change it with a new functional heart that will spare you from the heartbroken pain. No? Maybe it is because it is not a possibility in our world, but in “The Rental Heart” the reality is a bit different. The short story is a science fiction story written by the author Kirsty Logan in 2010. The story is told by a first person narrator who also is the protagonist of the story. Try to imagine a life where broken hearts is not an option. That is how the society works in “The Rental Heart”. It is a world where instead of feeling the awful pain of heartbreaks, you can just change your heart at the local heart rental place. Kirsty Logan uses the saying heartbroken literally in this short story. When we use the saying, we use it as a symbol of being sad and depressed over someone we love, which sometimes might feel like our heart has been shattered, even though that is not case. The short story is a frame story with flashbacks, the opening and closing constitutes a frame. In the beginning, we get...
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...The short story “The Guilt” is written by Rayda Jacobs and it describes a confrontation between two people from different races. The story takes place in South Africa in a time which includes danger and ignorance. It is a story from the post-apartheid South Africa; the period has infected the story which was based on discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion and color. Apartheid was also a formal system of the racial segregation which divided its people; in this instance is it the white contra the black people who make its focus. The themes in the story concern danger and guilt in a society which includes violence and crime of the inhabitants, especially the white people are in serious trouble if they are going outside or at the streets in Centrum. It is told in third-person narration which provides the greatest flexibility to the author and that is the reason why it is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. The main character in the short story is Lillian Thurgwood who is a widow and through the hole story gives us the impression of an old and lonely woman against the world around her through different incidents of her life. The writer, Rayda Jacobs, has sketched jock (her late husband) as having a big influence on her life in a way that the strength of her courage and the way she overcomes the challenges of her life to the readers very clear. Lillian lives in security with her two dogs, Tembi, and Tor, who guard and give her the sense of being secured...
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... each category has developed a different facet of the definition of an American, and each is needed in its own unique way. The same is true of the writings of those who were forced into slavery in America, who came against their will and suffered under horrific circumstances. Their stories expand the definition of an American into broader territories and reveal the difficult journey that many faced as they endeavored to find their place in a country that championed liberty yet enslaved them. Writers like Harriet Jacobs helped jump-start a new genre in American literature that came to be known as the North American slave narrative which greatly contributed to the defining of American identity. The North American slave narrative was unique in that its authors went to great lengths to present their own personal narrative of their experiences while remaining in the confines of the genre expectations. The goal of these narratives was of course to end slavery; ironically, to accomplish this goal, the authors of these narratives had to go back to the world that enslaved them, describing their encounters and providing details into the lives of slaves that most would never know otherwise. Harriet Jacobs, the first known African American woman to write a slave narrative, wrote on this subject, “It has been painful to me, in many ways, to...
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...Essay about ”The Guild” Summary “The Guilt” is a short story written of Rayda Jacobs. The story is about a confrontation between a young black boy and an old woman. At one day, she got tricked by the young black boy called William, who offered his work to her. She said no, so he asked about a donation, where after he got five rand. After this he were tricky and said, that he insist to work for the money. After he was done with the work he wanted more money. He said that the five rand were a donation and she now had to pay him for his work. But Lilian would not pay him and said that he should leave the house. After he would not leave the house Lilian took her pistol and threatened him and said that she will shoot him, if he came to her house again. Later that day, when Lilian was in her bed, she started to think about her dead husband so she started to cry. Characterization of the main characters The main characters in the story are the old woman Lilian, which also is a widow and the young black guy William, who try to trick Lilian. Lilian lives in a big house, she is not alone, because she has her two dogs, which are watching here. They work as a security man, so Lilian can feel safety. But she is not feeling safety enough; why else should she have her dead husbands’ gun in her bed. William Apparently “ The Guilt” might seem to be a story of an old woman’s crisis and its solution. But inner meaning, Rayda Jacobs has tried to reveal the eternal promises and responsibilities...
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...Analyse of From one mind, into another In the short story ”from one mind, into another,” you will hear about a man who has lost his memories after a car crash, in a zombie world. The man evolves throughout the story, and quickly takes the name Mark Jacobs. It is this developing of a new identity after amnesia, and his ability to quickly adapt to the post zombie apocalypse world, that is intriguing me in this short story. That is why I have chosen this topic to analyse in me paper. What is trigger this progression, is it the environment or a specific event, how does he evolve as a person, and how does he adapt to the world. The story start by a man is waked up by a radio, in a turned over car. The man looks at his jacket and finds out that his surname is Jacobs. But he cannot remember his first name, but think that Mark sounds nice. But why is it so easy for him to pick a name? The place Mark wakes up in can be described as a post-apocalypse place. The roads and buildings destroyed, blood everywhere, and bullet casings all over the place. Mark even calls it a sort of a warzone. Mark is properly a soldier, because he is wearing a camouflage jacket with a nametag, just like the uniform worn by the military. So he knows by instinct what to do in a warzone like the one he is located in. He knows that he have no time to spare, and therefore he is choosing the name, that first comes in mind for him. In this case it is Mark, it could be because his unconsciousness still remember...
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...The Rental Heart is a short story written by Kirsty Logan. In this science fiction story we follow the main characters use of rental hearts. You can rent hearts as many times as you want to, and you can put them in your chest, so whenever you get your heart broken, you can just go to the rental store and rent a new one, and that’s what this story is about. The Rental Heart isn’t written chronologic, so it leaps in time. In this story the narrator also uses flashbacks: “Jacob was as solid and golden as tilled field, and our love was going to last forever, which in our age meant six months. Every time Jacob touched me, I felt my heart thud wetly against my lungs”. In the beginning we hear about the main character telling us, that is was the day after he met Grace he went to the rental store, where he hasn’t been for over ten years. When we hear what he thinks of Grace and the rental hearts, we get a feeling of a problem. We don’t know how many years the story courses, but we’ll assume that it’s from the main character is a teenager, to he is an adult person, because he tells us that his first love was meant to last forever and at their age it meant six months. We can tell that the story takes place in future, because you can rent hearts. The main character can be both a man and a woman, because the person is attracted both sexes, and therefor is bisexual. The story is written in first person narrator, and we hear the story from the main characters point of...
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...really true? Do we always have a consequence for our actions? In “The Story of the Bad Little Boy” and “The Story of the Good Little Boy” by Mark Twain, it shows us the different consequences for several actions made by two boys, a bad one and a good one. In “The Story of the Bad Little Boy” during Jim’s school day, he took a pocket knife from his teacher. Knowing he may get in trouble, Jim placed the pocket knife in the hat one of the most innocent boy’s in his school. Twain spoke about how when boys who steal and try to blame it on someone else, the blame and consequences usually end up on the bad boy. But ironically, Jim not only did not get caught with stealing or replacing the pocket knife, but watched the poor innocent boy get shunned. For Jim, his plan seemed to work out perfectly and did not learn his lesson about stealing and blaming things on others like a typical bad boy would. When Jim became older, he abused his sister without an ounce of remorse. This was because unlike typical sisters that get bashed in the head, Jim’s sister did not get mad or retaliate at him. She quietly forgave and carried on with her life. This is ironic because people do not usually get hit in the head and walk away with no anger or frustration with the person that struck them. Jim could have learned his lesson if his sister’s feelings were hurt, but once again he slid by another sticky situation of his. At the end of the story, Twain explains about after several years of leaving his family,...
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