Have you ever wondered what shapes a person’s personality? In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, each complex character is dynamic or changes throughout the story. The root of these attitude changes comes from the environment in which they are placed. In the novel, slavery in the 19th century is the reason characters change such as Dana. By introducing Dana into the world of slavery, this, in turn, causes change in herself and those around her (i.e. Rufus). This is important to the novel because it enables readers to understand the reasons for each character’s actions. Even though, sometimes, they may be difficult to understand, we must not negate the fact that each character's attitude and personality is shaped by the given world in which they are
The condition inside of the train is awful. There are a hundred confused and scared people packed into one cattle car, unable to breathe, hot from being squished together, hungry, thirsty, and wondering what fate has in store for them. After crossing the Czechloslovakian border, the soldiers start to become extremely demanding, putting more fear into everyone on the train. They threaten to shoot anyone who tries to escape and they even go as far as nailing the doors shut. Some become delusional like Madame Schächter in Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night. Elie says that she sees a fire which no one else can see. She screams and screams but everyone begins to assume that she has gone crazy like Moshe the Beadle. Soon, she is tied up and unable to scream
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.
Mark Brittain could be described as dishonest, as he lies about many things throughout the book. For example, his relationship with Jody Mueller, while they were dating he had gotten her pregnant and not wanting anyone to know he sent to alone to have an abortion but, when in CAT class whilst talking on the subject of abortion he said it was wrong and against his religion to get abortions. After this had happened, Jody told the class about her abortion in which Mark called her a liar. After being released from the hospital after his suicide attempt, he went back to the class and told them the truth, “‘i’m a liar’ Mark said. ‘I think the last words I said to the class were that Jody Mueller was a liar. Not so. Jody got an abortion just like
L. Andrew Cooper and Brandy Ball Blake are analytical when explaining the origins of monsters and how every monster ever told in a tall tale or written in a novel, represents good or bad omens. All of the monsters described were analyzed in depth but left the door open to questions about how monsters have changed over the past hundred years. For example, monsters told in stories by the elderly hundreds of years ago were warnings about the dangers that could occur when tampering with nature or with gods. In Greek mythology, almost all stories that talked about mortals, demigods, and monsters, sent a message to the empire of Greece to respect and obey the gods in order for the god to have mercy on them. For example, the story of Arachne the weaver and Athena explained how challenging a god could end in a fatal decision.
In Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, Rufus Weylin is one of the main characters who undergoes a lot of change throughout the novel, making him a round character. A round character is defined as a “major character in a story who encounters contradictory situations and undergoes transformation during this phase. Therefore, the characters does not remain the same throughout the narrative, making their traits difficult to identify from beginning until the end (LiteraryDevice).” The reader, along with Dana, follows Rufus’s growth throughout some major points in his life, from a young boy who forms a bond and friendship with Dana, to when he grows up to be a racist man who ultimately attempts to rape her. However, it is evident that Rufus’s ideology
Several students ask who it is, unknowing that it is Jessica before the accident she was in. Jessica tells a lie and says that it is her sister, Anne. People wondered if Anne went to school with some of their younger siblings. Jessica adds to the story that Anne died and leaves the classroom for a burn treatment at the nearby hospital. After Jessica leaves, many students were making twisted stories of what they thought killed Anne and burned Jessica so badly. At the end of the day, Jeff asks Tom to come over after school. Tom declines and makes an excuse. Then Mrs.Tracy asks Tom to bring Jessica’s homework to her, since she lived nearby. Jeff gets upset because Tom lied about having something to do. Tom talks with Jessica for the first time. He then gets stopped by Mr. Feeney on the way out and he talks with Mr. Feeney and finds out that Jessica never had a sister, and that she made the story up. Tom also learned how the accident Jessica was in happened. Soon, it comes to the day when Jeff and Tom were planning on taking a ride in the Cobra. Tom waits for several hours after Jeff did all this bragging and finds out that Jeff’s uncle didn 't even bring the Cobra which led to an argument between the two pals. Soon, the class
“…on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming…” (Kincaid, 320). This phrase accurately represents the point that is being made in this passage. In Jamaica Kincaid’s piece, “Girl”, her mother is giving her advice on how to be and act like a proper woman. Her mother describes everything from how to properly do laundry to how to set a table for all occasions (Kincaid, 3-4). Kincaid manipulates several literary techniques, such as juxtaposition, sentence structuring, tone, and repetition, in order to demonstrate the societal expectations placed on women.
In Ann Petry’s The Street, the urban setting is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving to most. Lutie Johnson, however, finds the setting agreeable and rises to challenges posed by the city in order to achieve her goals. Petry portrays this relationship through personification, extended metaphor, and imagery.
Some children around the world grew in different environment with many complex problems .some suffer different family problems such as beatings, raping or trauma or hard labor. Most of these children end up taking bad decision such as suicide, abortion or dropping out of school. All these decision delays country development and destroys children future. Most of children bad decisions are as result of both physical and neglect from their families .
Bram Stoker, describes one of the verbal taboos of the Victorian era, violence, through the representation of vampires as “monsters” through the point of view of their victims in his novel Dracula. Stoker portrays violence in three distinct categories- physical, visual and psychological. Each one of these categories is described by one of the antagonists in the Novel, with Count Dracula as the physical aspect of violence, his underlings, the female vampires as the visual and Renfield, the patient at Dr. Seward’s mental asylum, as the psychological aspect of violence. This essay looks at the portrayal of such Categorical violence as different renditions of a “monster” and considers why Stoker would segregate violence in such a manner.
The characters are very important in Octavia Butler’s science fiction short story “Bloodchild”. A character is a person presented on a dramatic or narrative work. When it comes to the story of “Bloodchild”, most people would agree that gender roles are reversed. This agreement may end, however, on the question of character in Butler. It is safe to say that understanding the characters, who they are and what they do, help explain the theme of gender roles. Change in gender roles can be seen in “Bloodchild” by the position that the female character T’Gatoi has over the other Tlics, the way characters act, female characters killing and providing food for their family, and the fact that the female body does not carry the Tlic eggs, the male body does.
What would it be like to be a vampire? What would it be like to have a vampire in one’s life? What were the vampires of folklore like? These topics will be reviewed throughout this essay by comparing four of the vampire books and movies. All the vampire movies have some similarities and differences but four literature pieces in particular will be gone through in this comparison. The four pieces of literature to be compared in this comparison are Dracula by Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, Nosferatu (1922) by F.W. Murnau, and Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning. In these works of fiction, there are answers to what it would have felt like to be a vampire, what it would have felt like to have a vampire in one’s life,
During the Victorian period in which Dracula was written, morals and ethics were often strictly enforced. Some of the morals that were upheld had to do with personal duty, hard work, honesty, as well as sexual proprietary. It was very important during this period that one was proper in their sexual behaviors and conventional in whom they had sexual relations with. However, during this period, many authors sought to challenge the ‘norm’ with ideas of reform and change and Bram Stoker was no exception to this. In his novel, Dracula, Stoker provides a critique of this rigidity in his portrayal of Dracula and Dracula’s relationship with Jonathan Harker. Though he could not be explicit in his representation of homosexuality or queerness, in the
In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker highlights the theme of sexuality that challenge ideas of sex to both the female and male characters. The author objectifies the female characters in the novel to be over sexualized and portrays sex to empower women. Stoker may present the theme of female sexuality; however, he demonstrates gender inequality triumphs at the end leaving women in the shadows again.