Essay On A Perpetual Stranger By Bei Dao

In his memoir, Where the Wind Leads, Vinh Chung demonstrates the theme that times of despair and hardship will eventually pass, but it is the motivation to succeed which will make that time fruitful. While relaying the story of his family’s past, Chung gives an overall theme of success and prosperity which accompanies the distress and conflict brought about by the encompassing Vietnam War. As Chung stated, “[W]hat I do know is that the same pressure that can crush coal into dust can also turn carbon into diamond . . . Tough times produce tough people” (14). Though this theme of success can be grounded in one’s desire to prosper, Chung shows a deeper desire from which this success stems. Throughout his book, Chung reveals the strict, harsh love

“Her actions remind me that, even under unbearable circumstances, one can still believe in justice,” in David Henry Hwang’s foreword, in Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir Red Scarf Girl, commemorated even during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution anyone can overcome adversity (9). Ji-Li Jiang was a young teenager at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and living through a very political time in China’s history made Ji-Li into the person she is today. Ji-Li’s intelligence, her choices, and family devotion made her into the headstrong and successful person she is today.

Combat, loyalty, enmity, bloodshed, and duty, all words that fit under the category of war. The novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about Louis Zamperini a strong willed man raised in Torrance, California. He started as a young troublemaker until he discovered his passion for running in high school. That very passion led him to compete in the Olympics. Later he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, a brave decision that would change his life. War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath.

Nam Le’s “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” is categorized in “ethnic story” narrated his Vietnamese life in order to meet an upcoming deadline even though finally he can’t submit his story because his father burns his work. Throughout the story, Nam the narrator talks about “the past” which he experiences when he was young including the recent experience that he has got from his father reunion. Not only does the story tell us about the past which, but it also shows a connection of time between past, present, and future. Likewise, the story shows the relationship between son and father which is the main theme of this story; and shows how the past is important and affect to them differently. Also, the story of the past could lead to the end of the story that can be interpreted like a prediction of the direction of their relationship in the future. Do you see the connection of time in the story?

He appeals to one’s emotions by expressing the injustices faced by his people, writing, “In South Viet-Nam a half-million American soldiers and soldiers from the satellite countries have resorted to the most barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, chemicals, and poison gases in order to massacre our fellow countrymen, destroy the crops, and wipe out villages.” Words such as “massacre” and “barbarous” highlight the severity of these crimes, and invoke feelings of guilt and remorse in the reader.

The poem Truth, by Gwendolyn Brooks, has a lot of symbolism in it. Different things throughout the poem both represent parts of the Civil Rights movement as well as things that we can relate to our lives today. She did really well with her literary elements used, especially personification. This makes her writing more relatable and realistic in our minds to grasp. Truth is a wonderful poem full of all sorts of different literary elements.

“Incident” by Natasha Tretheway brings to life the horrors African Americans faced during the time the Ku Klux Klan was rampant in the United States. Fear and secretiveness was an everyday part of African American lives. They were unable to live like white Americans were due to the racism they faced. This poem, however, symbolizes the idea that life continues through the fear of it crumbling. The narrator is still alive to tell his or her story; therefore, this is evidence that life continues. Through the poem’s tone, metaphors used, and symbols expressed the poem portrays that fear can make life seem charred or obsolete, but in reality life propels through all seasons and obstacles it faces.

Trauma is a many layered thing. There are many ways to cope with it, and many ways people can experience it. In war there is obviously a lot of suffering, and many ways to deal with the aftermath of being in war. In “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien, the narrator repeats the story of the death of one of his comrades several times within it, changing the details with each telling. This story is less about how to tell a war story, and more about how to cope with life after facing war and how to cope with death in war. In this story the narrator tells the story of the gruesome death of a fellow soldier, Curt Lemon. In the many tellings of the story it can be gathered that Lemon died by stepping on a boobytrap, while he was playing

We can all agree that war is dreadful. The impact to citizens and soldiers during times of war is significant and widespread. The fictional works: The Shawl, The Red Convertible and The Things They Carried, allow insight into the impact that war has on individuals. Although these stories are works of fiction, they all resonate real struggle and unbearable circumstances. Throughout these stories, the characters are continually impacted by their surrounding circumstances. These master works of war torn fiction, allow the reader to experience the impact war infuses on soldiers and citizens alike. Through powerful narration, these stories reveal how their characters are impacted physically, emotionally and psychologically by the war that surrounds

In the poem, “A Hymn to Childhood,” Li-Young Lee talks about having fragmented individuality from childhood due to war. He is lost in perception of a traumatic childhood caused by war and a normal naïve childhood. Lee depicts the two diverged childhoods from his memory through the use of antithesis to emphasize the world perceived by a self fragmented individual.

In the Brave New World, a book written by Aldous Huxley,, he writes about a utopian future where humans are genetically created and pharmaceutically anthesized. Huxley introduces three ideals which become the world's state motto. The motto that is driven into their dystopian society is “Community, Identity and Stability.” These are qualities that are set to structure the Brave New World. Yet, happen to contradict themselves throughout the story. Some of the characteristics of the Brave New World include citizens being conditioned to their social groups, they are conditioned to fear the outside world, are deprived of human qualities, are under constant surveillance and in this case, the figurehead worshiped in the Brave New World is Henry Ford.

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In A Lesson Before Dying, author Ishmael Beah uses symbolism to reinforce the theme of oppression and the struggle for freedom. First, Beah’s rap cassettes symbolize his free boyhood and the loss of it. Beah carries a cassette with him until he is conscripted into the army. The cassette stays in his pocket, and acts as a reminder of his free childhood. When Beah and his friends are mistakenly caught as rebels in a village, the cassette saves their lives. As he describes, “The chief explained to everyone that there had been a misunderstanding and that we were only children looking for safety” (Beah 87)
The cassette reveals Beah’s identity as an innocent child and saves his life. Later, when Beah joins the army, the soldier burns the cassette, and with it goes Beah’s

First, the government is memorializing a citizen, but this citizen has no identity. The speaker of the poem proves that conformity exist by saying “That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint” (text 2). The diction W.H. Auden used in this part of the poem helps the reader understand how this citizen was perfect in the eyes of the government. Auden said that the citizen was a “saint”. A saint is usually someone who is a good example for others to follow. By the government saying this citizen was a saint it implies that the other citizens in the society should follow after him. This shows conformity because the citizens are following after each other. The citizens in the society are conforming to the unknown citizen that the government is speaking so highly of. Second, the poem shows the loss of individuality in the citizens. The speaker says “He worked in a factory and never got fired” (text 2). This shows that the unknown citizen was average. Never getting fired isn’t an accomplishment that should be memorialized, but the government wants other citizens to be as average as the unknowncitizen. This eliminates individuality because the other citizens will follow after this example and soon they will all be average. The citizens can’t be unique if they are all indirectly told to become average. Lastly, the poem shows that the society is weakened. The

How would you like it if you had to fit in? The poet Erin Hanson, who goes by E.H., wrote the poem “Welcome to Society”. The poem is summarized by the third and fourth lines, which state, “And please feel free to be yourself/ As long as it’s in the right way.” Hanson expresses the theme of social acceptance through his/her use of conflict, word choice, and idioms throughout the poem.

The Poem Doctor to Patient by Bruce Dawe explores the issue of youth unemployment. The poem itself is a metaphor comparing unemployment to a disease. This comments on how common unemployment is and how easily it can struck people. It comments on how easily people in this society and economy can lose their job and calls it "our common vulnerability". This comments on the seriousness of the issue of unemployment and personifys this issue.