...It can wash away earth; it can put out fire; it can wear a piece of metal down and sweep it away. Even wood, which is its natural complement, can't survive without being nurtured by water. And yet, you haven't drawn on those strengths in living your life, have you?” (Golden, 125) What Separates Sayuri for the Other Geishas During the Shōwa period, Geishas were high-class entertainers that sometimes sold their bodies for money. They strived on perfecting their artistic attributes rather then prostituting their bodies for money. In the novel Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden writes primarily about the life of a nine-year-old girl named Chiyo and her path to becoming a geisha. Golden uses Chiyo’s origins, eye color (destiny) and determination to contrast her with other geishas. However, he does not just narrate her life from another’s perspective. He gives Chiyo herself the role of telling her own story. As Golden introduces Chiyo’s memoir, he exaggerates the hardships in little Chiyo’s life. Coming from a poor fishing village (called Yoroido), she is sold off to a geisha house, separated from her sister, who she finds and tries to escape with (which failed). Later on in life when Chiyo (Sayuri) becomes a geisha, she confesses that she rarely tells anyone about where she was born. Their responses concerning her origin go as such, ‘“You growing up in a dump like Yoroido. That’s like making tea in a bucket!”’ These reactions further recluse Sayuri from telling other men she entertains...
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...Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers is about Value of Education, Isolation, and Family. Walter’s Value of Education changes over the years. Isolation is a major player in Walter’s life, and affects both him and his family. Family plays a large role in Walter’s life, for better and for worse. Value of Education is very important to Walter, but that changes as he gets older. When Walter is little, he loves it when his mother reads to him. This causes Walter, when he goes to school, to read and even be better at it than his mother. This helps him through school until high school. Family matters get in the way, he stops going to school, and starts hanging out with Frank. In the book it states, “I was doing badly in school, as I expected I would,...
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...Name: Date: Graded Assignment Comparing Memoirs Answer the questions below. When you are finished, submit this assignment to your teacher by the due date for full credit. Total score: ____ of 37 points (Score for Question 1: ___ of 12 points) The authors of the memoirs you read in this Unit create vivid characters in much the same way that authors of fiction create their characters. Readers understand the characters through their speech, their actions, and their interactions with others. Discuss how the various authors reveal characters using these three techniques. For each technique, give at least one example and explain how the author uses the method to reveal the character in the example you have chosen. Answer: Technique | Story name and example from text | Explanation of how author uses the method to reveal the character | Speech | ? | | Actions | ? | | Interactions | ? | | (Score for Question 2: ___ of 8 points) Are there any themes that run through more than one of the memoirs in this unit? If so, what are they? List at least two themes that appear in more than one of the memoirs you read, and explain the similarities you noticed in how the author explored those themes. Answer: Uplifting, Courage (Score for Question 3: ___ of 8 points) Think of two words to describe the tone of each of the four memoirs you read in this unit. List these two words for each memoir and briefly explain why these words describe the story’s tone. “A Cub Pilot” Bravery...
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...girl who lived with her stepmother and stepsisters. She never received the love and care she deserved, her clothes became rags, she lived in attic, and functioned as the servant of the house. She was at her “family’s” demand. Nearly every person is familiar with this story; it is the classic Cinderella story. However, what if it had a slight twist? In the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, young Japanese girl Chiyo is sold to an okiya. First, she lives as a servant girl where she is victimized. As time goes on, her life changes to one of a Geisha. With the classic Cinderella story as the outline for the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha has a slight twist to the well known plot. With this plot twist comes the exploration of societal gender roles. In her story, Chiyo exhibits multiple different characteristics; most are feminine, some are masculine. According the article by England et al (2011), popular culture adheres to gender norms. Therefore, a female character will exhibit more feminine...
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...The Author Joy Harjo is known as one of the best authors ever,accordingly she started to write poems in 1975,but she got her undergraduate degree at The University of New Mexico in 1976. She also earned an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa in its Creative Writing Program. Joy Harjo uses Imagery throughout the Memoir Crazy Brave to demonstrate to the readers that she is uniquely different from everyone else when the character is drawn and thinking outside the box to ask herself why she is the only one to have an opened mind and see the possibilities. Joy Haro makes you use your imaginary picture that in your head what the character sees and thinks.The story is told from the perspective of imagery language and first person,a girl who loves to...
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...In the memoir, "Night", by Eliezer Wiesel, Elie's relationship with other characters is explored. These relationships which are critically centralized within the text play an essential part in the characterisation of the protagonist Elie. One such relationship is that between Elie and his father, which helps in the characterisation of Elie . Another ongoing relationship explored within the text is between Elie and God, which is essential in the further characterization of Elie. Elie's relationship with himself is seen to be centralized in the memoir. Elie's relationship with his father is a critically explored central point in the text because it plays a key role in Elie's character development as it displays Elie's growing selfishness and lack of care toward his father. Through the use of a quote from Pg 35 where Elie is seen to describe that "My head was buzzing ...not to be separated from my father" Wiesel portrays Elie as a loving son and is able to illustrate a strong father-son relationship. Additionally by...
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...In her bestselling memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, Edwidge Danticat recounts the true story of her family’s personal struggles both within the “promised land” of the United States and the politically corrupt and poverty ridden context of Haiti. This memoir is a story of oppression, life, death, family, and ultimately, hope. Primarily, it deals heavily with the topic of immigration, allowing the reader to view the hot topic through a different perspective. Throughout the story, Danticat uses a number of rhetorical devices to persuade her audience that the U.S. Immigration Services are extremely corrupt and unfair at times. Specifically, she does this through telling stories that build up Uncle Joseph’s good character, establishing a Christian theme that runs throughout the memoir, and by using restraint when explaining Uncle Joseph’s experiences with the U.S. Immigration Services. Specifically in Part I of the memoir, Danticat paints a picture of Uncle Joseph that leads to the inescapable conclusion that any reasonable reader would reach: Uncle Joseph is undoubtedly an admirable, brave, and honest man. She tells various stories about him throughout that repeatedly prove how commendable he was. For instance, Danticat recounts Uncle Joseph’s experience of getting his tumor removed. She begins by remembering his voice as a child, stating, “As a child living in his house from the time I was four until I was twelve years old, I remember my uncle’s voice...
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...Eliezer’s Character Change The Holocaust was a devastating time in history where Jews were forced into concentration camps and worked, starved, or burned to death. One of the most influential writers who lived during this time period was Elie Wiesel. Wiesel’s Night is a memoir depicting the journey of a young boy, Eliezer, who experienced the Holocaust at a very young age. The Nazis occupied Hungary in the spring of 1944, and Eliezer and his family are deported to a concentration camp. While at several different concentration camps, Eliezer faces a variety of different situations, and he learns to adapt to his circumstances. As his father becomes weaker and weaker throughout the memoir, Elie starts to develop mixed emotions for him. During...
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...living in the awful conditions. It tells the story from the first few steps that Hitler takes, to when the camps was liberated. Wiesel delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity. The Final Days is a film about resistance in Nazi Germany of one woman in particular. The movie starts off showing the main character having fun and there is light and laughter. This quickly changes as it shows her with members of the White Rose, an Anti-Nazi organization. She was caught and found guilty. This movie is a true story based on an actual Sophie Scholl who lived throughout this and was a member of the White Rose. Although one is about standing up for your rights not matter the consequence, and one is about knowing when hope is but a lost phrase, barely living in your mind. While that is all true, they also have a lot of differences, for instance, they have very different main characters who come from different parts and are effected by the war in different ways, each story is told in very different ways and each has its own meaning, and they have different messages that are portrayed throughout each. In the memoir Night, Elie starts off as a regular Jewish boy in Sighet, Transylvania. He was a teenager when his family including himself were taken away to Auschwitz. Throughout the book it shows Elie transforming from that regular boy to testing the ones he loves and being mentally torn down as he turns into an empty shell filled with...
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...by the oppressed.” With great relevance to many women who are striving for freedom around the world, the memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman portrays a young woman named Devoireh, struggling to grow and gain the freedom she deserves under all the restrictions and barriers laid upon her. Contained in these pages, are the examination of the primary and secondary sources such as: the movie Erin Brockovich directed by Steven Soderbergh, the memoir The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara, articles such as Norse Jewish Women Tells Of Holocaust from the New York Times and Judaism, the women’s version by Tamar Rotem which brings out the major themes like freedom, determination, struggle and courage. Within these primary and secondary sources a strong relation to the major archetypal figures are displayed through out the memoir such as: the crusader, the survivor and the innocent, the contexts of these sources depict Feldman’s interpretation of Devoireh. There are many strong willed women who are told they are incapable of pursuing what they want because they are “women”. With many struggles and obstacles, in the film Erin Brockovich, the major character Erin displays herself as a remarkable woman who achieved what she desired most because she had a vision to pursue her goal. This plot unveils the theme determination from the memoir Unorthodox because in relation to Erin, Devoireh was in pursuit to set herself free from her Satmar community...
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...Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night, published in 1961, is the memoirs of Howard J. Campbell. Howard is said to be a Nazi propagandist who is working for the American government and his identity becomes in question when he does a very good job pretending to be a Nazi propagandist. Although the novel and Vonnegut’s editor note make it appear as though everything in the novel actually happened, the book is a work of fiction. The moral of the story is put up front for the reader and is a follows “We are what we pretend to be so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” The moral and reading of the book brings up questions of truth and morality. Almost every character in this book has two identities so its get difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is pretend. The most difficult character to distinguish if their actions and words are real or pretend is Howard J. Campbell. The reader has to decide if Howard was just playing a part during the war and what he is saying in these memoirs are the truth or is he just trying to justify what he did to make sure his survival in history is perceived in a good light. Ultimately, Howard’s loyalty resides with his survival so his sole purpose of writing this memoir was to make everyone believe he did it for the better cause when in actuality he let the identity he was pretending to be and instinct for survival take over his idea of wrong and...
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...Elie Wiesel took the liberty of writing Night, which is a memoir that valiantly recounts his experience as a Holocaust survivor. His autobiographical account of the concentration camps grimly illustrates the agony felt by the victims and exposes to the public how the actions of the Nazi regime would mentally, physically, and emotionally affect the...
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...The life of the American Expatriates in Paris in the 1920’s according to Hemingway’s Memoir “A Moveable Feast” “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast,”- with these words Hemingway starts his memoir. The writer himself was “lucky enough” to spend seven years of his youth in the European center of culture and entertainment of the Jazz Age. Throughout the literary works of Hemingway it can be observed that Paris had a special place in his heart. He adopts Paris as a setting not only in “A Moveable Feast” but also in “The Sun Also Rises” and “Midnight in Paris.” But what makes “A Moveable Feast” stand out from many other works written by Hemingway is that it is a memoir, thus, the characters are real people and the events are actual as well. However, “various critics have pointed out that “A Moveable Feast” contains serious factual errors." Though, the most of the factual errors are about the workplaces of the characters, for instance the one of Walsh, and do not significantly influence the understanding of life flows of the memoir’s main characters. Hemingway along with other expatriates viewed Paris as a place where he could find a market for his literary works. “Many Americans who settled in Paris [believed] their native land was a cultural sink.” Those who caught the drama of the World War I and the time of...
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...Trevor Belnap Eng 272 Desi Poteet 12/09/2011 From Memoir to Movie, An Artist’s Vision of Hope “I don’t like the word no. And you know, if you declare something so, it can be. And so, I don’t see there’s any reason to accept things the way they are,” declared Julian Schnabel, acclaimed painter and director. Schnabel is the director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a film based on the memoir written by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby’s memoir is his story of finding meaning and joy in a seemingly hopeless reality. Bauby suffered a massive paralyzing stroke at the age of 43. He awakes from his coma weeks later to find he is paralyzed. The only parts of his body that he can control are his eyes. To prevent his right eye from becoming septic, the doctors sew it up, making the blinking of his left eye Bauby’s only method of communication. The death of Schnabel’s father, the location of the filming, and creative departure from the actual text are elements that helped shape the movie. Schnabel uses his experience as an artist and human being to make choices that take the story from pages of Jean-Dominique’s memoir to movie screen. In 2003, Schnabel’s father, Jack, became terminally ill with cancer and came to live with Schnabel and his family. Jack had never been sick in his life and was horrified of death. During the time his father was with him, Schnabel was sent the script for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. “I wanted to help my father not to be scared of...
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...: A person’s sense of belonging is shaped by their connections within their physical and social environments. This representation of belonging is seen in Gaita’s memoir Romulus, my Father and the short story “neighbours” by Tim Wilton. Romulus,my Father is Raimond Gaita’s memoir to his father Romulus; focusing on exploring his father’s moral identity and their joint experiences living in Central Victoria as European immigrants arriving in the 1950’s. The main connections of belonging explored in the two texts are connections to place, in terms of landscape and community; as well as connections within relationships. These connections serve to enrich an individual’s sense of belonging to their community, environment and within their personal identity. One’s connection to the landscape can contribute to their sense of belonging to their environment as well as their sense of harmony and affirmation within their identity. In Romulus, m Father; Raimond’s deep emotional connection to the stark landscape of Central Victoria evinces his sense of belonging to the environment as well as within his identity. This is apparent in his description of the landscape: ‘The tall yellow burnt grass…gave colour to my freedom and also to my understanding of suffering. ‘ The lyrical passion which imbues his description conveys his strong emotional connection to the landscape, as does the descriptive imagery of the landscape e.g. ‘tall’ and burnt’. The depth of this emotional connection established...
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