Barbra Kingsolver Knowing Our Place Analysis

The passages, “There’s Still Gold in Those Hills” and “Letter from a Gold Miner” help the reader understand the history and process of gold mining in the United States. Both passages give detailed information, specific instructions, and an interesting background about gold mining and its wonders. These passages are organized in very different, yet effective ways. Both help the reader get a deeper understanding and knowledge behind gold mining.

“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ . . .The land is flat, the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.” ( Page 3)

In Barbara Kingsolver’s story, “The Bean Trees”, something that makes it so effective is her use of figurative language to depict scenery. In chapter 12, Mattie takes Taylor, Esperanza and Estevan to a beautiful desert at the time of the first rain, so they can see the natural world come to life. In order to make the scene come alive, Kingsolver uses sillies, metaphors and personification as a mean of figurative language.

“Mammita’s Garden Cove” by Cyril Dabydeen tells the story of a protagonist Max, who demonstrates nostalgia of an island he once lived on whilst living in urban, downtown Toronto. Relying on the use of, repetition, diction, and juxtaposition Dabydeen successfully conveys the emotion of mild regret and ultimately complex attitude towards place held by the protagonist.

October 14 7:07 am: The raindrops glisten as i walk along the road listening to my walkman.

Analysis: Compare chapter 1:How to Read Literature Like a professor-“Every Trip is a Quest(Except When it’s Not) ” to part one of The fountainhead.

Aldo Leopold was a man with a vision. Leopold saw the land as a complex living being, interactions between each tree, each bird, as vital as the organs that comprised the body of that being. This makes sense since Leopold was an ecologist, among many other things. Throughout his essays in the wonderful ‘A Sand County Almanac' Leopold shares his vision, his passion, for the land. The essays we transport the reader from the snowy forests of Wisconsin to the craggy slopes of picturesque New Mexico, all the while we learn and grow with Leopold. In the climax, Leopold sees the fierce green fire as it dies the old mother wolf's eyes, a wolf that he himself shot. Leopold has a revelation in this moment, realizing that the wolf he had killed

The ability for a writer to construct a piece that is easily relatable to the reader is something that requires time work. Imagery, engulfs the reader and carries him or her into the mind of the writer, enabling the reader to relive or experience that which the writer is trying to convey. Jeannette Walls relies greatly on this, in order to elaborately recreate her memories so that the reader may better understand her feelings toward her past. Her memoir recalls events in her life that shaped her into the woman she is today. As her family “moved around like nomads” which they did, she tells the story of her stubborn Father and unique Mother, her loyal brother and wise sister all intertwined into her own story as her family struggles

I cringe at the smell of alcohol floating around the apartment. A cold shiver simmers down my spine as I hear footsteps making their way to my room. 3 loud, hard knocks bang on the door. I open the door waiting for it. Waiting for the rock solid slap that pierces my face everyday leaving bruises and black eyes the size of tennis balls. I wait for the punches that feel like hammers wrecking my body over and over again.I open the door and he slaps me. “Get me my steak you peasant! And don’t forget to my clean my room!” He yells at the top of his lungs. As the dark, warm, blood flows down my washed out face I heat up the leftover steak. I reached to grabbed a plate I accidentally knocked down 2 other plates that fell to the floor and shattered.

Julie Trip’s short story “The Fall” depicts the story of a young girl who spends her summer exploring the area around her house and collecting some of her findings. One day, Tara’s explorations lead her back to the woods behind her house, where she discovers a darkness to life, which brings an end to her childhood days. Trip’s clever symbolism, and description of the setting reinforce this.

From reading The Great Gatsby and tracking the presence of the symbol with location, it has become present that through the book, all of the places/the majority of the places mentioned either symbol something with money or fulfillment. For example, West Egg is all about people who have “New Money” and made something of themselves from what they didn’t have, East Egg is all about people who have “Old Money” in which they live off of their family members’ money. Another common place mentioned in the text is the Valley of Ashes, this symbolizes the moral and social decay with people who aren’t as wealthy as other. Lastly Gatsby’s mansion which symbolizes fullness but also emptiness and his love for Daisy. So, in the novel The Great Gatsby, written

Nick Adams from “Big Two-Hearted River,” Krebs from “Soldier 's Home,” and Alfred Prufrock all share the similarity in the sense that they are simply ordinary people who seem to be in a constant state of isolation, despite their many different and intricate personalities and circumstances. Nick Adams finds himself in the wilderness of Michigan completely alone. In fact, it is stated that, “There was no town, nothing but the rails and the burned-over country. The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace… Even the surface had been burned off the ground (Hemingway).” Adams went out of his way, getting off of a train, to come to this place that is desolate and in complete seclusion. On a very similar note, Prufrock,

A deep silence always surrounded the mountains; even the wind seemed to carry it, spreading it through every valley and cave. We stopped walking at daybreak every day, today when I looked up to see the group stopped I fell onto my backpack and looked around with my elbows in the snow. The sun rose below me seeming to rest on the top of the mountains. Gone was the familiar terrain, the herds of wild yak and horses keeping us company, and the rolling green of the hills. Today the sun was not rising above me.

“Bienvenidos a El Salvador,” the flight attendant announced over the intercom. I looked towards the windows and enjoyed the breathtaking scenery. I could see the long fields, the beautiful hills and valleys, and the volcanoes. The palm trees were bright green and the sky was filled with color.The land seemed to be filled with life. “Where were the empires, buildings, or roads?”, I pondered. The same flight attendant interrupted my thoughts once again. “ We have now arrived at the San Salvador Airport, please remember to get your belongings,” he said.

I see the faint shadows of towering, tall trees side by side in the forest. It 's dark out. All the critters are asleep and there are no longer the sounds of angry drivers racing down the nearby highway, or shouts of children on the playground a couple blocks down. The white, fluffy, deep snow makes it hard to walk, and my feet are numb from the cold. I have to squint my eyes to make out what 's in front of me. I can see my breath when I breathe out. I can hear the snow crunching underneath my thick wool boots and fuzzy socks, and can hear the sound of my own breathing. The faint howling of the wind sounds like ghosts swarming the city on Halloween. I notice an old abandoned, dilapidated house far off in the distance, in desperate need for a new paint job. With it’s rickety old