Short story - I have encountered many stories in my life so far.
Kimberly Wong Short Story - Literature Coursework I have encountered many stories in my life so far. Some have been read to me, and some I have read myself. Many have been told to me, and there are few I have actually experienced. Obviously I do not remember all of them, but the ones that I do remember are in my memory because they had a strong effect on me. Either I had a strong feeling about them, or I could relate to them. Short stories are very different compared to reading a normal book or novel, because the author must condense all of his/her ideas into such few words and sentences. This brings a mixture of feelings, some very strong into a short amount of time, instead of being spread throughout hundreds of pages. To me, I felt that each of the short stories that we studied stirred up a combination of emotions in me, sometimes from very positive, to very negative, which it why I found this topic to be very interesting. The first short story, 'Just Like That,' by Michael Richards, left a negative impact on me. I found the story to be very unsettling and somewhat disturbing. First of all, the language and phrasing of the story brought a dark, depressing feeling over me. The first word of the story is 'dead.' This immediately gave me a negative feeling, and I knew that this was not going to be a cheerful, positive story. Throughout the whole story, the
Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" introduces many interesting characters with many different personalities to us.
Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" introduces many interesting characters with many different personalities to us. However, out of Ginger Nut, Turkey, Nippers, and Bartleby, the narrator an elderly man, who makes his living helping rich men deal with their legal documents, is the most intruging. The narrators feelings towards Bartleby change as the story progresses making him a round character, and one of the narrator's personalty traits is him not being very assertive, having a weak will. The narrator is a round character because he goes through a change of personality from being upset at Bartleby, to being kind and caring to Bartleby. For example the narrator needed to proofread four quadruplicates of an important document, he calls in all of his employees to sit and proofread while he reads aloud from the original, and all of them come except for Bartleby. When called on specifically, Bartleby answers as usual, "I would prefer not to"(123). When the narrator tries to reason with him, Bartleby simply repeats, "I would prefer not to"(123). The narrator becomes agitated, and is so taken aback by Bartleby's refusals that he looks to his employees for support. Aside from being upset at Bartleby, the narrator's sincerity towards Bartleby is also questionable. Every time the narrator tries to assist Bartleby, he seems to do it only to gratify himself.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Debate: Be it resolved that the ending of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man should not be viewed as anything other than ironic. Pro Argument #1: It can be argued that the main character in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus, is ironically the youthful James Joyce himself. Although Stephen possesses many similarities to the author, Joyce adds some very important differences as well. - We can compare Joyce himself, a very successful artist, to Stephen, an inspiring artist that does not succeed. - It has been said that Joyce was well-liked by his classmates but Stephen is not particularly likeable; seems arrogant and self-absorbed, often refuses to socialize or to intermingle in the community (i.e. in the playground at school where Stephen watches the game instead of playing (p.7)). - Stephen possesses many characteristics which are ironically contradictory to each other: he is lonely but afraid to love, a romantic in the sense that he's a daydreamer, yet he is also a realist at home; too shy to kiss a girl he is interested in yet he seeks out prostitutes; hesitant when it comes to defending himself to his classmates yet courageous enough to confront authority figures (i.e. when he goes to see the rector after being wrongfully punished by Father Dolan (p. 45)). Pro Argument #2: It can be argued that despite the derivation and meaning of
Comparison Essay "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" & "Paul's Case".
Comparison Essay "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" & "Paul's Case" By: Gregory Berrea 2025631 ENG 1120 A Dr. Linda Hauch November 27, 2002 In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and "Paul's Case," both main characters display similar qualities that lead them to encounters that inevitably destroy their innocence. Due to the ending of both teens lives one is able to come to the conclusion that their death was a result of no parental figure in their lives to instill morals and restrict freedom, there is a desire for romance at a young age, and a great deal of naivety in both teens. The striking similarities in the plot and characters of the two short stories "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and "Paul's Case" show similarities in their negative conclusions. In "Paul's Case" the main character is living by his own morals. Paul's has decided for himself what is right and what is wrong. Paul was raised by his widowed father his whole life, "I happen to know that he was born in Colorado, only a few months before his mother died out there of a long illness" (Cather 537). Although the reader sees Paul's father as an honest man who is trying to better himself in this world through perseverance and hard work, Paul is trying to move up the echelons of society through stealing and lying. This is stated to the reader by Cather on page 548, "The
Dubliners offers a comprehensive picture of what Dublin was like over a century ago. In this work, Joyce presents an especially accurate depiction of women in relation to their employment,
Michelle Gladstone ENG 114 Final Version Women's Employment in Ireland James Joyce's Dubliners explores the lives of the middle-class society of the people living in Dublin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This collection of stories starts with tales of youthful individuals and moves to stories of older Dublin citizens and their relation to culture and society. Through the course of this book, Joyce addresses religious, ethical, social, economic, and political situations. Dubliners offers a comprehensive picture of what Dublin was like over a century ago. In this work, Joyce presents an especially accurate depiction of women in relation to their employment, and other work they did in their lives. Joyce emphasizes the role of women in several of his short stories, including The Sisters, The Boarding House, and A Mother. Each of these stories presents women in different situations, and implies different points. However, they all address the roles of women in Irish society. Women were not respected as workers during the time Dubliners was written. Women who did take jobs during this time were forced to accept extremely low wages as Mary Daly points out in an excerpt from Women in the Irish Workforce From Pre-Industrial to Modern Times (Daly, 195). By accepting meager payments, they set themselves up for exploitation by their employers. Daly
The Boat by Alistair MacLeod
The Boat by Alistair MacLeod "It's hard to think of anyone else who can cast a spell the way Alistair MacLeod can." -Alice Munro Readers of Alistair MacLeod have identified "an abiding sense of loss and regret.... [and] a pervasive sense of sadness" in the writing, as well as the "proximity of most characters ... the final elemental darkness threatening to reduce all hopes to one uniform and meaningless conclusion" (Berces 116). MacLeod's narrator can be considered to be mourning, and the story that he tells is an activity of that process; that is, telling stories has the function of helping a narrator memorialize the dead and thus partially work through feelings of grief. "The Boat" begins with the moment of "terrible fear" that awakens the narrator, and the confusion he feels as he comes to an awareness of his surroundings. The link between the narrator's feelings of being "foolishly alone" and the absence of his father is underscored here. The narrator describes his frequent early morning awakenings where he faces "the terrible fear that I have overslept ... [and] that my father is waiting for me" in a manner that suggests an action that has become reflexive after years and years of constant early mornings to go fishing with his father and the other men: "There are times when I am half out of bed and fumbling for socks and mumbling for words before I realize that I am
"Paul Crabbe changes from a selfish youth to a sensitive man" Discuss this statement with reference to the relationships that help to change Paul, especially his significant relationship with Keller.
STAGE ONE PRE-PES ENGLISH Maestro Essay By Zeyanna Chaptini 11MA "Paul Crabbe changes from a selfish youth to a sensitive man" Discuss this statement with reference to the relationships that help to change Paul, especially his significant relationship with Keller. The renowned text, Maestro, clearly explored the concept of egocentrism. Through the protagonist, the author, Peter Goldsworthy demonstrated that one who's selfish would perpetually be selfish. Paul Crabbe, the central male character, was seen as an illiberal adolescent. He treated his Maestro with no respect and wasn't engrossed by what he was telling him. His greed was also apparent in the way he treated his girlfriend and his parents. During the progression of the novel, Paul's avarice continued as became more insensitive towards others and showed no deferent. The selfish juvenile, Paul Crabbe, was imprudent towards his venerable piano teacher, Herr Eduard Keller. In their first meeting, Paul was starring at his hands, those dainty, faintly ridiculous hands. He was startled as most of the right finger was missing. Instead of ignoring his hands, Paul kept glancing at them, showing discourtesy, which made Keller feel awkward. Paul then went on and asked can you play Liszt without it? This showed that Paul was disrespectful towards Keller. Instead of ending his discourtesy, he decided to propel Keller further,
What do we learn about Paul D's character in the first two chapters of 'Beloved'.
John Diviney What do we learn about Paul D's character in The first two chapters of 'Beloved' Paul D, "the last of the Sweet Home men," is waiting on the porch of 124 when Sethe comes home from work one afternoon. Sethe has not seen Paul D in eighteen years, since they were both slaves at the Kentucky plantation called Sweet Home. He has had, in total, a 24-year relationship with Sethe, or 'Halle's girl' as she was called back on the plantation. He not only saw her as a friend but as the lady of his sexual fantasies. To fully understand the character of Paul D it is necessary to understand his past: slavery. It can be denoted from the absence of Site's murdered third child that as an institution, slavery necessarily shattered its victims' traditional family structures or stopped bonds from ever forming. Slaves were thus deprived of the foundations of any identity apart from their role as servants. The actual 'identity' of Paul D is unknown because that wasn't his real name; his owner, Mr. Garner, gave it to him. Not a lot is revealed about him in the first couple of chapters but many questions arise from snippets of information that is given such as where was he 'locked up and chained down for eighty-three days in a row'? Toni Morrison uses several literary techniques, with particular reference to stream-of-consciousness narration. As a result of this, the narrative is
The emotional emptiness in "Araby" by James Joyce, "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck which uses antagonism, mood and atmosphere in "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe
Daniel Koett English 10 Mrs. Galang 7/05/05 Uses of Setting Setting is the time and place of the actions in the story. However, setting can be more than this. Setting maybe used as an antagonist, a reflection of an emotional emptiness, the source of atmosphere/mood, a metaphor for human life and a reinforcement of the story's conflict. In James Joyce's short story, "Araby", setting reflects the emotional emptiness of the boy narrator. The imagery of the opening paragraph like in this sentence, "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quite street except at the hour when the Christian Brother's School set the boy's free. An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbors in a square ground" describes not only the loneliness between the neighbors but in particular the emotional emptiness of the boy. Besides that, it shows a hidden symbol that love can or is blind. This blind love is exactly what the boy is going through from the stage of childhood to adulthood. Another illustration which shows that the boy is trapped by his own emotional feelings is described in this sentence: "One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was a dark rainy-evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing
The Dead By James Joyce
MICHAEL ARRHENIUS DIT, AUNGIER STREET THE DEAD BY JAMES JOYCE A STUDY OF THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER WRITTEN INTRODUCTION The Dead - The greatest love story ever written! How can that be? Is it really true that measly 35 pages can be looked upon as greater than the great love stories we so often talk about, like Romeo & Juliet, Deidre & Naisi, or nowadays even Titanic? I was intrigued by that question and I wanted to read The Dead, then see it and then read it again, just to see what it is that makes this such a great love story. I was stunned, amused and finally glad for what the story showed me. It's the first time that I've ever read anything of Mr. James Joyce but the feeling that The Dead left me with will live on in me and make me pick up more of his famous works. JAMES JOYCE James Augustus Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd of February in 1882. He was born at 41 Brighton Square in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was the oldest of 10 children and while growing up the family was never a stranger to poverty and they experienced a severe economic and social disadvantage. Reading had been a favourite pleasure for Joyce since early years and even though his economic disadvantage, he still managed to attend the Jesuit schools Conglowes Wood College, Belvedere College and University College, Dublin. His greatest influences were Dante, Hauptmann, Yeats and Ibsen,