Dark Themes In Richard Van Camp's The Lesser Moon

According to the book Punished: Policing The Lives Of Black And Latino Boys by Victor Rios, he explores hyper criminalization of Latino and African American young men in Oakland. He was a former gang member and juvenile delinquent. He earned a degree in sociology. He explains and describes how the working class youth of color who lived in Oakland are harassed, disciplined, watched and profiled at a young age by the authorities even if they have not committed any crimes. Moreover, his research are based on forty Latino and African American young men in Oakland. He studied this issue for about three years. According to this book, it gives details about how the culture of punishment works and explores the harmful effects on the young men in the

“I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved” (Romans 9:25). Toni Morrison’s Beloved is filled to the brim with allusions, specifically and most often to the Bible. In using a verse from Romans as her epigraph, she sums up the entirety of her novel in a few simple words. The novel is about acceptance and a mother’s love. They who were not previously her people will become known as her people, and those who were not previously loved will become beloved. This religious preaching of tolerance and caring is provided as an encapsulation of the entire novel, and helps readers understand exactly what the novel is about. Throughout Beloved, there are several other major examples of religious allusion.

In her narrative essay “The Sanctuary of School,” Lynda Barry recounts a story from her childhood that illustrates her relationships at school vs her relationships at home. She tells us how public school was her sanctuary from her unstable home life. It was a stable environment that she depended on. She tells us this when she says ,"[F]or the next six hours I was going to enjoy a thoroughly secure, warm and stable world." Unlike at home, her school was a place she was noticed and cared about.

Youth culture can pertain to interests in styles, music, clothes and sports. It also pertains to behaviours, beliefs, and vocabulary; this refers to the ways that teenagers conduct their lives. The concept behind youth culture is that adolescents are a subculture with norms, morals, behaviours and values that differ from the main culture of older generations within society. For instance, young men and women, teenagers in this case, are mostly represented as unpredictable and not easy to understand. In the film, Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters (2004), adolescents are represented as bullies, who use manipulation to achieve what they want and are two-faced with the people around them; they are constantly stereotyped as a high social group like the plastics and a low social group like the mathletes; also they are presented as young people that fall under peer pressure, and are overly concerned about their appearance and about being socially accepted.

Pain, both physical and mental, affects every character in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. However, the biggest loss, which is that of the Price family’s youngest child, Ruth May’s, life also brings about some positive effects as well. Here, similarly to in Twelfth Night, a person is sacrificed for the greater good. Naturally, it may be more difficult to imagine the benefit of Ruth May’s sacrifice than to imagine the benefits of Viola’s, but if given adequate thought, it becomes clear that the death of Ruth May helps the other women in the Price family to realize Nathan Price’s destructive ways. Kingsolver first exposes Leah Price’s newfound argumentative and bold personality, and her opposition towards her father in the following exchange, “”She wasn’t baptized yet,” he said. I looked up when he said this, startled by such a pathetically inadequate observation. Was that really what mattered to him right now—the condition of Ruth May’s soul?” (368). Leah has clearly begun to question the importance and validity of both religion and her father due to Ruth May’s death. While the passing of Ruth May is evidently overwhelming for the Price family, it also facilitates Leah’s rebellion against Nathan Price. Leah’s tone of contempt towards her father is clear in the previous passage, and she also challenges the importance of the state of Ruth May’s soul, which shows a significant change in her earlier, more submissive and naïve, self. Her absolute belief in her father earlier in the novel is characterized when she says “His [Nathan’s] devotion to its [the garden’s] progress, like his

“Thus from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him.” (Hawthorne). In the Minister’s Black Veil, Nathaniel Hawthorne evokes the idea there is a dark side of humanity and that humans have secrets and sins hidden away from their nearest and dearest. In the parable, Hawthorne emphasizes the idea of personal sacrifices must be made during one’s lifetime for those you love even if it meant giving up one’s source of happiness. In Milford, a small Puritan town men, women, and children are fancying another Sunday. The peace is interrupted on the Sabbath day when Reverend Hooper, Minister of the Puritan Community appears

Violence was much more powerful than we imagine not only because it led tremendous dis-

The Chicago World Fair stirred many emotions in this great time of industrialization, but not only was Chicago shining in the spotlight from the fair, it was also promoting something much more sinister, this dark enclosing spotlight shined directly on H.H Holmes. Burnham the leader of the World Fair and H. H Holmes the notorious serial killer, are the two main characters in this novel that Erik Larson uses the balance between light and dark between these two’s personalities. In the novel The Devil in the White City Erik Larson uses Imagery, paradox, and alliteration to show the balance between the light and dark in the ever growing city of Chicago.

When talents are discovered, it is easy for us to place all our worth and purpose in that one thing, despite the warning “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. However, this is exactly what Johnny did in the book Johnny Tremain. As a naturally talented silversmith, Johnny became prideful and foolish, placing all his value in his workmanship. But one day, all of his aspirations disappeared when he burnt his hand, leaving it crippled and useless. Johnny was compelled to leave his days of serving as an apprentice for a silversmith behind him and earnestly search for a new occupation.

As Kozol writes in Savage Inequalities. “The difference in spending between very wealthy suburbs and poor cities is not always as extreme as this in Illinois”(66). Throughout the years there has been an extreme problem with poverty in East St. Louis especially in the lower part where proximately african american people live. In East St.Louis there is a fine that separates the poor and the wealthy and each stay in there own lane. In north of East St Louis where predominately white people there no problem. Most people are living their happy lives and sending their kids to some of the state of the art private while a little bit across the bridge there is african american people struggling to find jobs because of the lack of resources. Most of

Set against the backdrop of Naples, the characters in Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend are immersed in a world of violence, ignorance, and poverty. Under this shadow, Elena and Lila struggle to define the past of their parents from their own future. In fact, it is the weight of despair that allows small moments of joy to become vibrant within the story; as James Wood describes, “deprivation gives details a snatched richness” (Wood 10). The luminosity of moments like when Elena travels to Ischia, when the two girls purchase Little Women, and lighting fireworks on New Years Eve, are integral to the depiction of brilliant friendship between them. Therefore, it is not coincidental that when the girls experience fleeting moments of childhood bliss,

James McBride, author of the memoir The Color of Water, grew up in a dangerous time period for people of his color. Throughout the early to mid-1900s people that were African American or mixed were not treated the same as they are now. Many lives were taken during that time purely for the reason that their skin was not white. Although some individuals had a lighter skin tone, despite being mixed, many were not bestowed that “blessing”, as it would have been deemed in that time. Those who were lacking the “blessing” were often thought less of by both races, and consequently faced a larger risk of peril. Lucky for McBride, he lived in an area where racism was not as poignant and was sheltered from some of the world’s cruelty in his younger years. As he grew older, he was beleaguered with events that changed his lighter view on the world. But regardless of the many trials he faced, he turned into a strong individual.

The literate arts have been an integral aspect of human civilization throughout history. In Richard Miller’s essay “The Dark Night of the Soul”, he poses the question, “What are the literate arts really good for?” He admits that gathering information is a clear value of the literate arts, but throughout the essay he portrays a doubtful view of their value in today’s society. Although, he brought up some interesting points, his doubts stands in contrast to the literate arts’ true role in society today. As a student, I too feel it is important to fully understand the important connections that are told within a piece of literature. Miller states in his writing that, “If you’re in the business of teaching others how to read and write with care, there’s

The short story, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury takes place in a dystopian society on the planet of Venus, where it is constantly raining except for an hour every seven years. The protagonist, Margot, had moved to Venus from Earth more recently than all her classmates, so she can remember seeing the sun, but no one else of her same age can. Due to this, the other children are jealous of her and they are act maliciously towards her. One universal message portrayed in this story is that jealousy can change people and cause them to hurt others and themselves.