Sarah Vowell and Annie Dillard both wrote essays about their youth with nostalgia, highlighting the significance of childhood as an innocent and mischievous time in their lives. In Sarah Vowell’s essay “Shooting Dad,” Vowell realizes that despite their hostility at home and conflicting ideologies concerning guns and politics, she finds that her obsessions, projects, and mannerisms are reflective of her father’s. On the other hand in Annie Dillard’s essay “An American Childhood” Dillard runs away from a man after throwing a snowball at his car, after getting caught she realizes that what matters most in life is to try her best at every challenge she faces no matter the end result. Sarah Vowell’s essay is more effective than Annie Dillard’s because she includes allusions and tones, which juxtaposes warfare and religion with the innocent …show more content…
Vowell’s writing style is superior to Dillard’s because she makes allusions to warfare and separaion, which accentuates the gravity of the emotional quarrel she faced in her youth within her own family. Vowell begins her essay by explaining her and her father’s contrasting political views. Her home is described as a “house divided… [her] home [could be seen] for the Civil war battleground it was… the kitchen and the living room were well within the DMZ… guarded by totalitarian states… each of [them] declared [themselves] dictator” (Vowell). The American Civil War earned the nickname a “battle between brothers,” because Americans were killing other Americans over the distribution of federal power. By alluding to the American Civil war, Vowell parallels the hostility arising over the dispute of political ideals by a growing country at war with the arguments she had with her father. Furthermore, the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone) mentioned in Vowell’s essay was the line where families were torn apart due to the seizure of power by the a dictator. Vowell ties a link to the separation of a family caused by a
Company Aytch summarizes the war through the eyes of a mere foot soldier, who really cannot change the outcome of the war, whether he dies or not. The book opens with Watkins describing why he writes and what he sees before the war, which is two very distinct groups, one campaigning for recognition of the North and the South, and the other wishing to be one and undivided. He describes himself as mistakenly being a part of the former and wishes against it as he writes Company Aytch but contradicts it by saying the South is right for seceding and will always be right (3-7). Throughout the book, Watkins shares the horrors of war and is one of the few authors to really describe the violence that is war. To really inform the reader of the tragedy of war, Watkins describes his day-to-day life with the struggle of finding adequate food, clothing and often having to witness friends die, whether it be from a Union soldier or an execution of a Confederate among Confederates.
In the book,My Brother Sam is Dead, there are two main people with opposite views on the revolutionary war. Tim, Sams brother, and their father Life. Sam has decided to fight for the American army, but his tory father disapproves. Life has had experience with war and has an idea of what will happen. In his mind the outlook is a dead son, a huge debt, and a lot of tears.
This excerpt from Maxine Clair’s “Cherry Bomb” is a prime representation of an adult character reminiscing in memories of youth and innocence. Through the description of her “box of private things” and the cherry bomb incident, she uses appropriate diction, figurative language, and imagery while reflecting on past summers where time wasn’t consumed by school, capturing the pure moments of childhood. To begin with, the persona’s younger self picks up the “lofty” saying ‘I am in this world, but not of it’ without a clear understanding of what the message truly entails. She chooses it based on the fact that it seems to sound important. This reflection of her past shows a sense of immaturity, and is supported by other various examples of forward diction that tie back into her young personality at the time.
War is an evil that can destroy nations, but without it, there is the potential for even more chaos in our imperfect world. Many wicked and corrupt institutions throughout history have been stopped by wars, further advancing society. Detrimental repercussions of combat, such as destroyed homes or lost lives, are justified by the anticipation of a better future. In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead, by James and Christopher Collier, Tim Meeker must decide if war is worth the bloodshed and loss to secure freedom for himself, and for America’s posterity. By the end of the story, the ironic deaths of Ned, Life, and Sam contribute to Tim’s decision to remain neutral.
At the very core of humanity and its behavior lies mistakes and wrongdoings. No matter how intensively they may try to stay faithful, every person occasionally betrays their moral conscience. This trespass has been interpreted in countless forms of literature and media ever since the written and verbal word has existed. Gary Soto’s A Summer Life is a powerful example, using diverse forms of rhetoric to convey his cycle of initial pleasure, guilt, and eventual remorse over the measures taken place in the autobiographical narrative.
In the book Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, he uses specific literary devices and techniques that cause this collection of poems to become one cohesive novel to portray the story of a boy struggling with the death of his brother and gun violence in his community. This story changed the way I view living in an inner city community and how that can affect a child’s development and mental state while living in that environment. Reynolds uses imagery to develop a deeper understanding of the death of a child, dramatically displays a child being shot and how our main character views this tragedy, “Her mouth open. Bubble gum and blood” (133). This disturbing piece of imagery establishes our main character’s inner conflict, indicating that Will (main
As I read Anne Dillard’s, An American Childhood, I can see and related to the fact that we do not take notice of the way a small event marks our life just as much the memories that we can still recall, but we later can see the way it has “written our future”, that is the tiniest thing that trigger a chain reaction and that this affects us later on. In the first paragraph, Anne explains the way football makes a part of her life, the emotions that it creates and the way it has changed her, it also introduces the traits of her character, an energetic, tomboy girl. Overall I enjoyed the essay and I liked the fact that is easy to read and relatable.
In the passage from Maxine Clair’s “Cherry Bomb,” the adult narrator shares her memories of her fifth-grade summer world. Through the use of literary techniques, Clair clearly depicts the naivety and youthfulness of the adult narrator’s fifth-grade summer. In the first paragraph, the narrator’s feelings of naive and youthfulness about their childhood summer are highlighted through her memories of an expression, and an ice truck. The narrator uses the appeal of the expression “‘I am in this world, but not of it’” to express the youthfulness of her fifth-grade self.
Details of Kim IL Sung’s background and the North Korean occupation that was ruled by Sung, and the South Korean occupation that was filled with collaborators. Details of the war along with atrocities on both sides are given, followed by the post war Industrial race between North and South Korea.
In the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, a woman named Lizabeth tells the story about her 14-year-old self maturing into the woman she is now while having to deal with the Great Depression. This story tells the events that occurred in Lizabeth’s childhood that causes her to mature, it takes place in a town that struggles with poverty. Although Lizabeth’s adolescence affects her actions when she would disrespect Miss Lottie and her garden, her adult perspective in the story reveals that she learned that one can’t have both compassion and innocence. An important aspect to the story is adolescence and how it plays an important role to how Lizabeth would act and treat others.
“War turns men into beasts,” Mrs. Meeker explained (Collier and Collier 140). In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier, Tim Meeker watched the Revolutionary War rage on. In the town of Redding Ridge, Connecticut Tim and his family, which includes his father, mother, and brother, are mostly Tories, except for Tim’s older brother, Sam who has joined the war, fighting for the Patriots. Through the story, Tim is struggling to decide which side he supports—the Patriots or the British, or whether he supports or disagrees with war. Although both sides of war are shown, authors Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war is futile.
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” This quote by renowned Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana immaculately encapsulates the core message that is conveyed in both the poems “Grass” and “At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border.” The two poems employ disparate writing styles and divergent methods to describe the atrocities of war and violence, however both poems do ultimately condemn these inexcusable acts. Furthermore, beyond denouncing war, both poems greatly emphasize a part of war that is often neglected; how we choose to remember wars and how we must not allow ourselves to forget these brutal lessons of the past. Carl Sandburg and William E. Stafford both lived through numerous periods of violence, epochs where
Rhetorical Analysis of Shooting Dad The story “Shooting Dad” by Sarah Vowell discusses a story about a teenage girl and her relationship with her father and how they are constantly clashing with each other because they are almost exact opposites. The author develops her story by creating images in the reader 's mind to describe events that happened in her life, the use hyperbole for comedic relief, and irony for emotional effect. The use of these emotional strategies is effective because Vowell is able to use these strategies to help the readers understand the relationship between her and her father. Overall by the use of strategies like imagery, hyperbole, and irony the author creates a piece of writing that shows the relationship between the main character and her father.
Should I fight or not? In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting the setting: time and place and the conflicts found in My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier with Two Kinds of Patriots by Lucy Jane Bledsoe. On this occasion, My Brother Sam is Dead is about a young man named Samuel Meeker. Sam wanted to be in the Revolutionary War.
Carolyn Kizner’s pantoum “Parent Pantoum” (1996) laminates that the speaker is conflicted about her daughter’s adolescent behavior and attitude. Kizner explores the speakers discontent between herself and her children using metaphor, juxtaposition, and parallel structure. Through her contemporary pantoum, Kizners speaker marvels at her “enormous children” (1) in order to try to understand how the girls can “moan about their age” (6) but still appear in “fragile heals and long black dresses” (7). Kizners pantoum addresses the speakers view on how kids act when they are in their adolescent years with a bewildered tone, however; as the poem progresses, the speaker develops her own ideas about why teens behave the way they do in a hopeful and proud tone.