of mice and men
Chapter 1 The novel begins near the Salinas River, south of Soledad in the California valley. The Gabilan Mountains rise up on one side and drop to valleys on the other. The river and its banks are alive with animals and plants. A path leads to the banks of the river, and the two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small, follow this path to the river. While George is small with sharp features, Lennie is a big man with rounded features. He drags his feet when he walks, following George step for step. They are on their way to a job at a nearby ranch, and their ride has left them several miles away. It is hot and they are tired from the walk. Topic Tracking: Landscape 1 Topic Tracking: Animal (Lennie as an animal) 1 When the two men reach the water, Lennie falls to his knees and takes a long drink. George gets angry with him for drinking so fast from water that might not be good. Lennie's action and this exchange show his mental retardation. When George sits down, Lennie imitates him exactly. And when George starts to complain about how their ride left them so far from their destination, Lennie has to ask George where they are going because he can't remember. George, annoyed, reminds Lennie about where they got their jobs and their work cards, and Lennie looks in his pocket for his. Certain Lennie would lose it, George did not let him keep his card. But Lennie does
Snow Falling on Cedars.
Jayde Brindley 204h Jerry English Lit November 2003 What is the significance of the island setting and the weather in Snow falling on Cedars"? How does Guterson use the environment in which the novel is set to deepen our understanding of events? "Snow falling on cedars" is placed in the proximity of an insulated, isolated island off the coast of America. It is this seclusion that enhances the communal intimacy and inevitably the polarisation after the events of the war, especially the destruction of Pearl Harbour. The weather acts as a foundation, representing the change, alienation and blindness throughout the novel. The island, San Piedro, is self-sufficient with all of the islanders maintaining their lives by working for themselves. It shows the combination of the "closeness" of the community in contrast with the animosity and isolation that remains through judgment between races. It is the isolation of the island that is a metaphor for the isolation of the communities. "Snow fell that morning" on the first day of the trial, which is significant as the snow symbolises the duration of the trial. It is ambiguous in its representation as it is often described as "beautiful" and "rare" and "precious", allowing an insight to Ismaels' memory of his childhood with Hatsue but also gains the opposite interpretation of destruction through the "ferocious" weather
Short story
A breath, a short gasping breath broke the unearthly silence. She awoke, startled, petrified of what was going to happen to her next. Had he gone? She was not to know. The impenetrable darkness mocked her unaccustomed eyes, making her feel more vulnerable then before, if that was possible. Her jaw was broken, allowing the blood to trickle ever-so steadily into her mouth, mingling with her saliva. Her clothes looked like they had been attacked by wild dogs, she found a repulsive comedy in that thought. Her body had been bruised and broken, excruciating welts covered her body like boils. It had happened all so fast, another potential customer had driven up to her as usual, not surprisingly accompanied with the stench of alcohol plaguing his decrepit car. He had been the same as all her customers, subdued and clothed in dark garments that obscured his face and body. He invited her to join him for the night and she, with all politeness, had accepted, that was her 'job' at least. They had then driven to a neon-lighted, hovel of a motel, how very original. From then on the events of the night became a blur until that deed had taken place, which had stripped Emma of her womanhood and innocent and which left her laying in that gutter, her soul fractured, her body and mind scarred deeper than any sword would have been able to inflict. In that state of semi-consciousness, Emma's mind
Oscar Wilde
REALISM Great economic and political changes started in the beginning of the 19th century. Trading class began to struggle for radical political changes. As the political power was placed in the hands of the property - owning class, labor became cheep and living conditions grew worse. Disappointed and haggard working class decided to fight for their rights. People held uprisings, strikes, mass meetings and demanded more democratic reforms to improve their own conditions. All this stimulated the growth of realism and in the presentation of reality Romanticism became too abstract and symbolic. The realistic novels became the most important and most popular genre (7). Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications (13). In the drama, realism is most closely associated
Analyse William Golding's choice of language during and after the killing of Simon. Why does the language use change?
Analyse William Golding's choice of language during and after the killing of Simon. Why does the language use change? "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" This is the chant that begins the section, increased in its violence as it now says "kill the beast" representing the feelings of the boys. They want to destroy the beast but can't find it as it is inside each of them. This causes them to get ever more angry and frenzied, starting a ritualistic "dance" with "the chant" beating "like a steady pulse". This is reminiscent of Simon's experience earlier when a "pulse started to throb in his temple", just before he went into a fit. This suggests that the boys are also going into a trance or fit, but a much more dangerous one, unaware of their actions. They lose their individuality and start "the throb and stamp of a single organism", again with the throbbing and stamping inducing images of a trance-like ritual. Also the symbolisms of circles and the weather are repeated. The circle now "yawns emptily" waiting to catch someone inside. The weather is threatening, "Thunder boomed...the dark sky was shattered...scar...blow of a gigantic whip". This is a great contrast to the clear skies earlier in the book that symbolised peace. Now they begin to become terrified by the weather and the trance and out of this terror "rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind". This is
My Nightmare
My Nightmare It was Monday morning, my first day of babysitting. I wanted some extra money and because it was the school holidays, I decided that babysitting for my mum's friend (Elizabeth) was a good idea. I had to look after baby John who was six months old between the hours of 9 and 4, Monday-Saturday, which I didn't mind doing because I loved kids. Elizabeth, had moved away with her husband Steve, a few years ago because of his job, but still they kept in contact. A few weeks ago she moved back to live in our area because she had left her husband, he was beating her. He had got so stressed out with his job, and things did not work out as he had planned them too so he took all his problems out on his wife. She came back to the same house she had lived in before moving away and left him because she was afraid that he would start taking his problems out on John, and she was not going to stand for that. My mum helped Elizabeth to get back her on feet and she was starting a new job so I offered to do some babysitting during the day for her. When Steve lived with Elizabeth I remembered him being like an Uncle to me, he was a really kind man. As I walked over to Elizabeth's house I started to think to myself 'how could Steve of beaten his wife, no matter how hard things got for him he should not of done that.' It didn't take as long as I expected to walk from my house to
My work experience.
My work experience My placement was with a company called Oliver Lintotts Tree Surgery. I have known Oliver for about 2 years as he is my boss's son. When I heard that my placement would be with him I was thrilled as I had worked with him before and tree surgery is a very exciting profession. I knew I could expect hard work and a good laugh. The last time I worked for him, Andy, one of Olivers employees, and I had to dig a trench to drain a field. Towards the end of the day it started to rain and I ended up almost waist-deep in a trench which was quickly filling with water and we laughed so hard we barely noticed. I already own lots of work clothes as I have had experience in tree surgery, carpentry, roofing, plumbing and mixing concrete among other areas but Oliver usually lends me some work boots with steel toe-caps as they are what I am supposed to wear. The night before my first day of work experience I made my lunch, consisting of 4 sandwiches, 3 packets of crisps and 3 chocolate bars, and left it in the fridge. Then I made sure I had clean jeans, t-shirt and jumper for the next day. I got an early night that night as I had to be up at 6:30 to be at work at 7:00. Having woken up at 6:30 I left the house at 6:45 to walk to Heath End launderette where Oliver would pick me up and drive me to where we were working that day. He picked me up at the launderette because his
Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers"
Essay on Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers" The film "The Killers" has been set in the town of Brentwood, New Jersey. I know this because in the beginning of the black and white version of The Killers, the two men in the car pass a sign saying this, at the bottom of the sign it says "drive carefully", maybe because it was wet and slippery. In the colour version there are two boys fighting in the beginning, they appear to be blind, I think this because the two boys point in different to each other. The two killers pass the boys and enter the Sage Home for the Blind to kill their victim. The black and white version is about the same thing but the set changes and the people change. In the black and white version one of the killers are short and fat and the other one is tall and skinny, in the colour version of The Killers the two men have a big age difference between, one is really young and the other is really old. The man behind the counter called George in the black and white version changes to a blind women acting as a secretary. There is a lot more violence used in the colour version than the black and white version. The victims name changes, in the black and white version the victims name is Ole Anderson and in the colour version it's Pete Dunn. The Killers in the black and white version are not the main people in the film but in the black and version the killers are the
Enduring Love
Winter 06 i) How does McEwan present Joe's thoughts and feelings in the extract McEwan uses a number of techniques to express Joe's thoughts and feelings portraying his feeling through the use of literary and linguistic features. The majority of the extract is declarative, for example 'I sat back in my chair gathered my notes'. Joe is expressing himself and he is able to describe his thoughts through this method. The sentences range from being short and simple such as 'Dread was too strong.' to long and complex sentences with a number of conjunctions. This variation in sentence structure shows Joe's own variation in thought, and the erratic nature of his emotions at this time. The writing is first person, this allowed the reader to feel more involved with the character and should allow a better insight into the characters thoughts. He is finding it difficult to express himself emotionally and this is summed up well with 'I couldn't find the word for what I felt'. It shows his uncertainty and makes it clear that he is emotionally out of touch. The inability to express himself adequately stems from his rational mind controlling his actions. Joe takes comfort in science and this can be seen by the number of science related statements found in this small passage alone. An example of this is 'mental-visceral' and 'diminishing pendulum movement'. His feelings are exact, and he
Enduring Love
'How does McEwan successfully engage the reader in the first chapter of 'Enduring Love?'' McEwan uses a range of techniques to successfully engage the reader in the first chapter of 'Enduring Love'. The first act of engaging the reader can in fact be seen in the first line of the book; "The beginning is simple to mark." It is a short sentence and a simple statement that makes the reader want to read on. They want to know what the beginning was and what this beginning was the start of. The sentence also makes it seem as if the beginning is still a clear image in the narrators mind and that he wants to imprint it in our minds too. As the book progresses many references are made to this first line, the beginning. Therefore this line can be seen as a crucial event in the story. Throughout chapter one, when there is a pivotal moment in the story the narrator stops describing the events and focuses on something else for a while to keep the reader in suspense. For example, on page 12 the narrator is telling us that something bad is about to happen in great detail and then he says "let me freeze the frame." The narrator stops at the most crucial point in the story keeping the reader on edge. Another technique that the author uses is to touch on a point but not expand on it in great detail tempting the reader to read on. When the author does this it gives the reader a taste of what
