Someone's Mother By Joan Murray

Eric Bartels analyzes the difficulties of modern-day marriage in his article, “My Problem with Her Anger,” by examining his own marital experiences. By optimistic confrontation and resolution of his family’s problems, Bartels believes that not only will he save his marriage, but he will also be rewarded for his sacrifices (63). The author claims he realized the separation between men and women during his late night chores (57).

My book is called A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer. It has 182 pages, all of which are full of sadness. The genre is an autobiography of Dave Pelzer’s abusive childhood. My book is a terrifying story of a mother who used to be loving, but became abusive because of alcohol. She took out her anger on Dave, her youngest son. Dave’s father was his Superman. He relied on his father to sneak him small bits of food when he was starved, and to talk to him when he was lonely. But when his father left his mother because of her insanity, Dave had no one. He started to rely on school to get food. He would steal from other kids’ lunchboxes during recess. This would result in more beatings from Mother. I decided to read this book because my mom told me about it a long time ago. It seemed like an interesting book. A Child Called “It” was published by the Omaha Press in 1993.

All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein, is an absolutely amazing autobiography. Gerda tells about her childhood and how she grows into an adult in many German labor camps. Gerda’s home town has been taken over by the Germans during the holocaust. Her wealthy jewish family is forced to live like slaves until they are separated and moved to different German camps. Gerda tells her story like the reader is there with her. Gerda makes and loses many friends and finds her true love. All but my Life will make you laugh and cry. This book is best for anyone over the age of 11. All But My Life is a terrific page turner.

When society thinks of the word “childhood,” they imagine it as a precious time for children to be in school and freely play, to grow and learn with the love and support from people dear to their hearts. It is also known to be a cherished period where children are to be innocent and live carefree from fear. However, in the context of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, childhood is viewed as a tough hardship that Jeannette and her siblings have overcame, and the memories they carry has greatly impacted their lives that it has molded them to who they are

As reflected in the readings of Reading Popular Culture: An Anthology for Writers 3rd Edition, present-day advertisements expand far beyond the endorsement of a product. While the initial intent for various corporations surround the operation of selling and marketing products, many companies also find success in promoting masked messages. According to Jean Kilbourne in her article pertaining to the study of advertisement, she reveals the underlying tactics of commercialized business. As stated in the article “’In Your Face…All Over the Place’: Advertising Is Our Environment”, Kilbourne states “advertising often sells a great deal more than products. It sells values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and perhaps most important, normalcy (101).” The most recent trend of cultural normalcy: the distaste for natural aging.

Everyone has depression, but did you know on October 29, 1929 the whole US went into depression. People lost their jobs, people lost their homes and lot’s of other things. Every bits and piece was super valuable at that time.

The field of criticism is one that varies from academic to absurd. There are critics in academia who examine data, creative works, and various cultural anomalies to learn a higher truth about the world. There are media critics who judge bodies, faces, and “looks.” While these media critics provide valid insight into the cultural ideals of society, this criticism has not found a place in academia (excepting the arts, where judgement of beauty is based not from the subject, but the form and medium). A third kind of criticism falls in between the two: a form of criticism that, while primarily entertainment, is an academic medium which analyzes the arts in society. Food, book, and film critics analyze creative works that reflect upon society. While these critics offer subjective views of these works through their reviews, some critics also reveal new truths about society.

In her book the ,The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day discusses her transition to Catholicism with important life events. She recounts her childhood and her encounters with religion as well as her later life. She has long dedicated her life to helping those who are often overlooked, especially the poor. From her experiences Day comes to believe that a non-individualistic society would make it easier for people to be good.

Finding one passion could be tricky. Sometimes we confuse passion with skills, passion is something that you do and enjoy no matter how tired or even if it doesn’t make you a millionaire. Skills are something that you are good at but you don’t enjoy, one will continue on this path because we need to pay our bills. This doesn’t make it right or wrong but we should be happy with ourselves doing what we enjoy.

In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, twelve-year-old Esperanza must navigate through the trials and tribulations that one can associate when encountering young adulthood. Cisneros uses her unique writing style of vignettes to illustrate various themes in her text. The theme that has to be the most prominent thus far, is on the feminist role of Esperanza as a female in her Latin American culture. House on Mango Street is an overall bildungsroman that can be considered to be a feminist work of literature. The bildungsroman is encompassed by various feminist values throughout the text of written work, regarding the particular subject. Cisneros illustrates these feminist views through the creation of several women characters with strong

On September 11, 2001, tragedy struck the city of New York. On that fateful day, two airplanes were hijacked by terrorists and flew straight into the twin towers. Each tower fell completely to the ground, taking thousands of lives with it and injuring thousands more. Not only did that day leave thousands of families without their loved ones, it also left an entire city and an entire country to deal with the aftermath of the destruction. Poet, Nancy Mercado, worries that one day people will forget that heartbreaking day. Though there is little danger of forgetting that heartbreaking day, she worries that even she will still forget. She expresses these worries while writing her poem “Going to Work”. She does this by using three poetic devices within her poem: personification, imagery, and symbolism.

"Crossing the Swamp," a poem by Mary Oliver, confesses a struggle through "pathless, seamless, peerless mud" to a triumphant solitary victory in a "breathing palace of leaves." Oliver's affair with the "black, slack earthsoup" is demonstrated as she faces her long coming combat against herself.

In the search for happiness, both Ginny Graves and Ruth Whippman present their own ideas and beliefs. I believe that Whippman is more persuasive compared to Ginny Graves through her use of arguments and evidence. This can be attributed to Whippman’s arguments being reinforced with evidence and her expertise on the matter.

Cathedral by Raymond Carver and Car Crash While Hitchhiking by Dennis Johnson are two non-fiction short stories that have many similarities and differences. Cathedral is a story narrated by the husband of a wife who is friends with a blind man. The wife has her blind friend come stay at their house, and the speaker is not comfortable with this, but his views change throughout the story. Car Crash While Hitchhiking is about a man in his mid-twenties that is on a lot of drugs that he receives from previous people who have let them ride with them. He wakes up in a puddle on the side of the road, and eventually a man with his family picks him up, and the end up getting into a wreck.

Has technology affected our lives? In the article “Hal and me”, Nicolas Carr describes attributes to our lives that come from the evolving technology we use every day. By introducing several educated men with literature background had found themselves changed from the constant usage of the internet. The way they lived their lives have changed, now they have become depended on the technology and their minds have changed, they expected everything to function as the same way technology does, faster.