“Somebody being shot in front of you, or you yourself shooting somebody became just like drinking a glass of water.” (Ishmael Beah). “A Long Way Gone” was written by Ishmael Beah and published in 2007. It is a written masterpiece that captivates its readers by telling us his story, a former child soldier. In this he narrates the pain, the suffering and the fear that he endured for three years, literally fighting for his life against the rebels that caused all the chaos and the mayhem. Reading the book was like a rollercoaster ride of emotions and I am going to share what I believe are the three most important scenes. This include Ishmael hiding and surviving from the rebels, Ishmael transitioning and being trained into a child soldier, and Ishmael’s recovery and rehabilitation.
African Americans thrived in American culture during the 1920’s, as the Harlem Renaissance invigorated and empowered people of color to create artistic and literary works. The expressive movement allowed Africans to gain a new identify in America and prove their worth in a predominantly white society. The African American literary prolificacy soon ended as the Great Depression caused colored people to return back to their pre-established assumptions of artistic inadequacy and incompetence. The decline in the American economy increased political and social tensions, resulting in the return of African American discrimination. Zora Neale Hurston addresses the recurrent African oppression in the 1930’s with her publication, Their Eyes Were Watching
“ I want to be smart and I’ll try real hard”. This is Charlie Grodman he is the main character I will be talking about today. He is from the book “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. I will tell you why he should of had the operation. I think that it was substantial for him to get a taste of being normal.
The book that is going to discussed in this essay is The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. It is about a boy named Holling and his teacher named Mrs. Baker. This is going on during The Vietnam war. Holling thinks that Mrs. Baker is a mean teacher, but he has to stay with her every wednesday, because he is Presbyterian and everyone in his class goes to Catholic or Hebrew school. Here is the two questions will be discussed in the essay are How do the plays Holling reads with Mrs. Baker mirror events in the book? How did your opinion of Mrs. Baker changes as you read the book? Give specific examples and cite incidents from the story to support your view.
When first writing in my journal I struggled with how deep to go with my discussion questions and what I should be asking my classmates. I feel that I have struggled with this because I lack confidence on what I am trying to prove or say in my writing. When reading in the past I have never pushed myself to question the author’s purpose or ask questions that invoke much thought. Up to this point in the year writing in my journal as well as annotating in the text, has helped my reading and writing immensely. My journal this year mostly contains quotes from texts and points from in class discussions that I felt were useful to understanding the novel and its purpose. I do not journal as much as
In the stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Lamb of the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl both have a similar aspect in furthering the plot and creating an aesthetic impact on its target audience. In the story, “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard not only has heart trouble but her husband was pronounced dead. Whereas, in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Maloney kills her husband after finding out that he was leaving her, while she was still pregnant. Furthermore, what makes these stories similar is having two female protagonist feeling strong emotions towards their husband’s motives. Given this fact, “The Story of an Hour” uses a gloomy exposition and depressing ending whereas, “Lamb to the Slaughter” begins in a calm exposition to a clever ending in order for both of their stories to have a climactic resolution and have an aesthetic impact on its readers.
Ignorance of another's personal values or situation results in an impassable schism between the two parties. People fail to understand each other, and as such, they regard each other in lower lights. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad, through Marlow, writes his novella through a lense of ignorance and the perspective of the typical white person of the time in order to relate his story to the reader. Marlow and the accountant are contrasted with Kurtz to display the effects of evil on an individual.
The use of various literary devices in Joseph Conrad’s novel helps to bring his story to life, which ultimately is to his advantage. Conrad brings the reader into the darkness, displayed the corruptibility of humankind and left them pondering the absurdity of evil and imperialism. One of the strongest literary devices that Conrad uses to engage the reader in his novella is the use of imagery. However other important literary devices that are used throughout the novel as well as in the extract above is: similes, metaphors, personification, foreshadowing, and symbolism and narrative techniques.
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes a multi-faceted approach to the issues that surrounded 19th century colonization and imperialism in Africa. Marlow’s journey into the heart of Africa serves to highlight the hypocrisy of this endeavor, and how this deceit followed the rhetoric utilized by the colonizers in order to justify their colonization of Africa and the treatment of the natives. As the novel progresses, Africa becomes more of a backdrop for Conrad to truly expose the depravity of European intervention in Africa.Through Marlow’s narrative, varying connotations of words and his own main character’s reactions,as well as copious amounts of descriptive imagery, Conrad casts Europeans in a negative light in order to criticize imperialism and colonists.
In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.
To be bluntly honest, after having gotten to page 8 without having understood a word of the text, I was very frustrated. Not only did Heart of Darkness have an old-fashioned English style of writing but the first few pages were completely filled with references, symbols, metaphors and vivid imagery. I found myself either looking up each metaphor to understand it better or rereading each imagery because of its vividness. Thankfully, as the book progressed and Marlow’s story began, the plot became clearer and the story started to carry on more smoothly.
Often in literature, the physical journey the main character takes represents their psychological growth. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow’s journey into the heart of the Congo represents his progression into the darkest parts of his mind. As he travels deeper into the foreign terrain, he begins to question the world around him and himself.
Out of the three novels we read for the Modern Fiction class, the one I favoured most is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.At first I thought I would hate it, because it indeed has a very unattractive appearance, and the subject did not interested me either. When I started to read, it was still somewhat boring. However, with my experience with every other book I’ve ever read, I was aware most novels have a boring and uncompelling beginnings, and pushed myself to leave those parts behind. As I read, it became compelling, and the light air with which Marlow told his story started to make me love the narration. It was unexpected, realistic, fluent, and a witty read.
‘Heart of Darkness’ was written in 1899 by a Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, about the expedition up the Congo River in the Heart of Africa. This essay will mainly deal with the reference of the ‘darkness’ in the novel and it even deals with the theme which will further support the statement.
At the beginning of the novel, Frederic Henry arranges a tour to Italy during the world war one. When he returns to the front, he meets Catherine Barkley; she is a British nurse at the British hospital. However, the recent death of Catherine`s old fiancé affected her deeply that she will settle for the illusion of it. Catherine pretended to love Henry that awakens a desire for emotional interaction in Henry, the war has left coolly detached and numb.