Amir Vs Amir

Matt Schenk ENG 112 Kite Runner Amir Vs. Amir I would like to talk about a theme from The Kite Runner is that of Amir and his guilt, and the affects that this has on his growth throughout the book. Through the entire novel Amir not only struggles within his relationships with others but within his own self. His relationships with his family, servants and others all help to shape who he becomes and who he is at any given moment. Most prevalent of these relationships and situations is that of his fathers actions and feelings toward him, and vice versa, and also the guilt he feels for his actions toward Hassan. The Kite Runner is a story about a privileged class boy living with his father in pre-war Afghanistan. The story starts with Amir trying to gain acceptance from his father. The relationship is based on a sort of awkward avoidance and Amir constantly trying to please and be accepted by his father. His father, Baba, is a very masculine character. He is an athletic and aggressive man with strong opinions and ideas about things. Amir on the other is almost nothing like this, he is but a small, creative and weak character. Baba is often heard putting Amir down and generally being hard and cold toward him, more so than with other children even. Amir gets into scuffles with bullies and is too afraid to face them and runs away. This is entirely against Baba's feelings on how

  • Word count: 1278
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Why did Harper Lee choose to have a child narrator in, 'To Kill a Mockingbird?'

GCSE English Coursework Why did Harper Lee choose to have a child narrator in, 'To Kill a Mockingbird?' Harper Lee grew up in Alabama in the 1930s, and witnessed a great deal of racism around her as she grew up. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is also set in 1930, and contains a child narrator, in the form of Scout, and therefore the racial divisions and conflict Harper Lee witnessed may be directly represented by those seen by Scout. Indeed, the Scottsboro incident of 1931 where five black men were wrongly accused of raping two white women on a train, and the passions that were subsequently aroused may have had a bearing on her depiction of the ordeal suffered by Tom Robinson. The civil rights movement, which attempted to break the pattern of racially segregated public facilities in the South through the application of non-violent protest was well underway at the time of publication of the book in 1960, making racism a prominent and inflammatory issue at the time. For this reason a child narrator may have been used as a means of deflecting any possible controversy leading to censorship, in that those who disagreed with integration and other contentious themes in the book were able to discount any opposing views as childish naivety. Also by setting the book in the 1930s the message would not have seemed as direct for the readers of the 1960s and the book would not have been seen

  • Word count: 1765
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The Great Gatsby setting anaylsis

The year is 1922, the First World War had just ended four years prior and the nations of the world were different because of it. Many Americans were celebrating the success of involvement in the war and were on a high horse. Even though the United States had recently outlawed the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol, it was not hard to find if you had enough money. Bootleggers and rumrunners were going into business all over the US and getting very rich from it. The criminal underground flourished and mobs and gangs were expanding and becoming very successful and prominent members of society. The American Dream seems easier to achieve in this get-rich-quick America. The gap growing between the rich and poor was getting substantial and the Great Depression following this roaring decade will settle this growth. The setting in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is characterized by this world. The title character Jay Gatsby is a mysterious man that is suspected to have close ties to this criminal underground of bootleggers and is a rich and seemingly successful man because of it. We find out in the end that Gatsby's money and amazing parties do little to acquire him real friends that care about him as a person. The main character in the story, Nick Carraway, lives on Long Island in New York in the area known as West Egg. West Egg is a place where "newly" wealthy

  • Word count: 1145
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Trans-American Voices of Feminity: the Strengths and Angsts of Mujica’s “Frida” and Wurtzel’s “Prozac Nation”.

EXTENDED ESSAY Subject: English Literature Presented by: Catalina Echeverri TRANS-AMERICAN VOICES OF FEMINITY:THE STRENGTHS AND ANGSTS OF MUJICA'S "FRIDA" AND WURTZEL'S "PROZAC NATION" Number of Words: 3012 November 2003 ANGLO COLOMBIAN SCHOOL Bogotá, Colombia ONTENT Contents .... Page 1 Extract .... Page 2 Main Body .... Page 3 Bibliography .... Page 13 "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel and "Frida" by Barbara Mujica are two amazingly similar texts, deriving from unbelievably different socio-cultural contexts. Elizabeth Wurtzel is a character of amazing wit and courage who is trapped between the bars of clinical depression. Through a profound and touching biography, Wurtzel portrays the typical life of young females in contemporary America. Frida Kahlo is a woman of admirable intelligence and unique personality, constantly tortured by a physically mutilated figure. Despite obvious contrasts of location and upbringing, both principal protagonists' experience remarkably parallel sentiments in terms of vulnerability and

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Women in Chaucer's Time Teresa Eberly

Women in Chaucer Women in Chaucer's Time Teresa Eberly In General * The Virgin Mary was a huge influence on medieval society. * Women were defined in terms of their relationships to men. * Medieval society was sometimes considered to consist of three groups: those who work, those who fight, and those why pray-and women were frequently lumped together as a fourth group. * Women occupied a subservient position with few legal rights; the feudal system took away many of women's rights and lowered their status. Courtesy Literature Ideals * Courtesy literature of the time encouraged modesty, humility, chastity, and obedience. Women were encouraged to see themselves in the mirror of men's eyes. * The household was their proper domain. * The ideal was that women should be isolated, and in rural townships women's work was centered on the household (but they were not isolated, because men and women relied on each other's labor. If more labor was needed in the fields, women would work alongside the men. Women as dairymaids, poulterers, gardeners, bakers, and brewers worked not only for the supplies of an individual household, but also for marketable surpluses). * Ideal women were expected to be silent or be very careful when they spoke, how they spoke, and what they said. (Ex: two townships where women's speech was legislated.) * Women's speech should show proper

  • Word count: 1298
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Examine the Conflict that Arises in the Stories "Desiree's Baby" and "Crackling Day".

Examine the Conflict that Arises in the Stories "Desiree's Baby" and "Crackling Day" Racism has been an issue throughout time, and in some societies it is still present. The belief that an individual of a different race or colour is not equal to an individual, who is "white", has caused many fights, arguments and deaths. In the nineteenth century, the slave trade was at its height, as we see in "Desiree's Baby". The conflict between different races is also shown in "Crackling Day". Although both stories were written at different periods and set in different continents, both challenge the idea of racism. "Desiree's Baby" is set in the deep south of Louisiana. It shows prejudice against the "blacks" by Armand Aubignys , a cruel plantation owner, "Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too, and under it his Negroes had forgotten how to be gay". Armand is a very important man, as he owns a plantation, this also means that he has power over "his Negroes". Armand is full of self-importance, "what did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?" and very proud of his family and his origins. Within this society it is important to know a person's background, as there was an order within the society. For example Armand would be one of the men at the top of this order, whilst "his Negroes" would be at the bottom. As Armand

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Notes on geoffrey chaucer's life and the pardoner's tale.

NOTES ON GEOFFREY CHAUCER'S LIFE AND THE PARDONER'S TALE Chaucer's life Chaucer lived in the 14th century. He wrote poetry for society's most rich and powerful people. When he wrote the Canterbury Tales he encapsulated the entire spectrum of modern life up to 1400. From the records that were found it is thought that Chaucer was born around 1344. In 1359, at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, the French took Chaucer prisoner. He was released after the King paid £16 for his discharge (this proves him to be of great importance to society). It is thought that he may have returned to study law at the Inner Temple, as a wide knowledge of this subject is shown in his later work. However, by the time Chaucer was in his twenties he held the position of a Squire at the Royal Court, which was a middle ranking position. French was spoken a large amount of the time at court and Chaucer would have believed it to be the language of gallantry and enlightened society. Chaucer was, once again, in France in 1370. It is therefore obvious that French was a substantial inspiration in his work. The king asked Chaucer to visit Italy, Genoa and Florence (in 1372 and 1378). This was a very influential time for Chaucer, in the context of his poetry, as he was exposed to some of Italy's greatest literary works. He was greatly inspired by Boccaccio (1313-75) and Petrach (1304-74), who he is

  • Word count: 1025
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Discuss the role and character of the two women in 'The Story of an Hour' and Desiree's Baby'.

Kate Chopin Assignment Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was an American writer who lived in New Orleans and then in rural Louisiana. Her father died in a train crash when she was very young and she was brought up in an all female household. In 1870 she married Oscar Chopin and had five sons and one daughter. She enjoyed a happy marriage and was seen as a loving wife and a devoted mother. After her husband's death, she took over the running of the cotton plantation that her husband worked in. After having started her literary career she published two major novels and nearly hundred short stories, essays, poems, plays and reviews. She died ten years later after writing her last novel, 'The Awakening', when published in 1894. Two of Kate Chopin's short stories, which are 'The Story of an Hour 'and' Desiree's Baby were set in the mid 1800s and both were also set in Louisiana. 'The Story of an Hour' is about a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who her husband was believed to be in a train crash and after all the excitement of feeling 'free' her husband shows up unexpectedly and was awfully shocking for Mrs. Mallard to handle! 'Desiree's Baby' is about Desiree who Armand, a rich slave owner, falls in love with. When Desiree was a girl she had been abandoned as a baby on a neighbouring plantation and brought up as a daughter of the house of Valmonde. As no one knew her true origin, after having a son

  • Word count: 2857
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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An Analysis of Nadine Gordimer's Short Stories

Zoe Lambert 201322882 September 28th, 2011 Aesthetic Experiences and Ideas An Analysis of Nadine Gordimer's Short Stories Death is something that affects everyone and is always reoccurring. Nadine Gordimer references death in her work frequently; breaking down boundaries and stereotypes. She opens her mind on paper and tells the world as it is. She talks about subjects that are taboo, and while doing this she makes us aware of its constant presence in our lives and the world around us. In her short stories, such as "Loot" and "An Emissary", the contrast of life and death is a theme throughout each of the stories. She weaves stories about experiences that all come to an inevitable end. Life is a bunch of events that you build up for death to take it away. At the start of each story there is an unawareness of death being present. They only seem to be aware of the present, neither the past nor the future matters. The people in her stories seem to be only thinking of themselves and their actions. In "An Emissary" there is one setting where it is always summer or summer-like weather. This adds onto the lack of awareness of the presence of death, because winter is a symbol for death. I relate to these people because I often avoid the thought of death. When I actually stop to think about it I realize how much time I am wasting; this gives me anxiety, which in turn makes me

  • Word count: 961
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Desiree's baby

Ben Adams 24th October 2001 DESIREE'S BABY This story is written in the turbulent times of the 19th century in the southern states of America, an area renowned for its plantations and slavery Although Desiree's appearance at Valmondes is a mystery she may have been abandoned by a Texan wagon train or she may have roamed away, she was found sleeping in the shadow of a large stone pillar. Desiree may have had a turbulent start in life but she grew up to be "beautiful, gentle, affectionate and sincere". Armand fell in love with her almost at once that day. He had known her since he was 8 yrs old when he had returned from Paris he likened falling in love and described it like "an avalanche" or" a prairie fire". On wanting to marry Monsieur Valmonde reminded Armand that Desiree's origins were a little obscure and she was also nameless Armand looked in his eyes and did not care he was about to give her one of the oldest and proudest names in Louisiana. Armand house was certainly not a home it lacked the touch of a mistress as his own mother had died in France many years earlier when he was eight, Armand like many of his era treated his slaves badly they were property to him not human beings. Just after the birth of Desiree's baby she tells Madame Valmonde that Armand had mellowed out and had not punished a slave since his son's arrival she also expressed that "Armand

  • Word count: 752
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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