I have read and evaluated Jennifer Banash’s novel titled White Lines. This melancholic book is jam-packed with poetic writing, deep metaphors, realistic scenarios, and a fantastically described setting.
The only thing that helps Cat escape the horrifying world around her are the white lines that she inhales in the raunchy bathroom of an underground club. After endless nights of clubbing, Caitlin is left without sleep and a will to do well in school. Without these two things, Cat drifts through her monotonous day indiscriminately. This grievous book contains intermittent thoughts from Caitlin’s oppressive childhood. In the days of her adolescence, Cat was abused by her despicable mother. The abuse was not only physical, but emotional as well.
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White Lines is filled with metaphors, which helped me understand the thoughts and actions of the main character, Caitlin. “The mirror spread out over my lap in a river of silver, my reflection looming and distorted as I bend toward it, white powder disappearing up my nose, a magic trick, whoops, there she goes again, a rabbit plunging into a black satin hat. Now you see me. Now you don’t.”(Banash, page 1) Jennifer Banash captures the feeling of the use of illegal drugs into unquestionably powerful words. “A lush, elongated feeling lengthens my muscles as I fall to the floor, my body useless and limp, my bones hijacked.” (-Banash, page 76) I find this extremely important due to the significance of cocaine in Cat’s life. It helps the reader understand what you would think doing drugs feels …show more content…
I can’t say that I relate to Caitlin’s disastrous background, but considering the fact that I am living through my agonizing teenage years as I type this, I do relate to the emotions of youth that Cat is feeling. For example, being excluded from certain cliques. “We still have the same bullshit categories as any other school: the jocks, the popular girls, the nerds, and the untouchables.” (Banash, page 23)
The author astonishingly painted a three dimensional scene of New York City. There was a feel of grime as I read, which made me as if I was there in the pizza shop or in the clubs with Caitlin. “- into relief by cigarette butts crushed out on the dirty subway platform-”.(-Banash, page 108) The dialogue was seldom strong; therefore, the narrative in this book dulled the excitement of the depth of the characters. Although each character had their own unique personalities, vague dialogue created bore from time to time. For instance, when Julian questions Cat about her previous life. “So will I?” He asks. “Will you what?... “Get to know you better.” (Banash, page
This book was rather easy to read but could be rather difficult to understand as their was a lot happening with Calliope blacking out then coming back to reality and to have written a whole paragraph if words without knowing, this book would be good for a year 12 book club because even if they can't relate the characters in the book directly they still in a way can connect with them in a way whether it be they have a mental disorder or a compulsion to do something or if the are in a
The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the
If he writes something, he says he cannot read it. The writing is unclear.” However, he is a static character due to him being stubborn throughout the story and always questioning others. He never develops a change throughout the story, even though he accepts that he was wrong, he remains authoritative yet stubborn throughout the end. The central idea is of cultural shock is supported by him having an authoritative
Frisco describes his hallucination: “I lean into the wind, trying to decide whether everything around me seems strange because of the drug, or just because everything truly is strange. Three weeks earlier, a family across town had been sitting at home, watching television, when a single-engine plane fell on them. Snow swirls around us, seeming to fall up as well as down” (Cunningham 230). Frisco experiences skeptical insight as the world stands still as magnified perfection, yet indicates weariness when he references a plane crashing on a family’s home (Cunningham 230). What Cunningham conveys is how unpredictable life is, although people may feel they have control, a person’s fate is not always up to them. Such as America suffered through its heinous history. Wild and free Carlton does not doubt this revelation at all, he simply enjoys the hallucinogen and uses it to amplify his unruliness. Furthermore, this passage describes ignorant America, never doubting the safety of the country; never suspecting the upcoming catastrophic events that the country will soon
perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.
In contrast, syntax provides a new perspective to the narrator s behavior as sentence structure draws attention to her erratic behavior. By her last entry, the narrator s sentences have become short and simple. Paragraphs 227 through 238 contain few adjectives resulting in limited descriptions yet her short sentences emphasize her actions providing plenty of imagery. The syntax quickly pulls the reader through the end as the narrator reaches an end to her madness.
In Paul Austers graphic novel, City of Glass, NYC is presented in a realistic way. The city is drawn mundanely, but for a good reason. The main character’s mind can distort his own perception throughout the story, conjuring fantastical and irrational images. By drawing the city realistically, the contrast between what is happening and what the main character thinks is happening, is more distinctive. This aids readers by giving them insight into the mental instability of the main character, which is not directly stated. The tone of it is similar to a film noir and brings elements of detective and mystery novels to its pages. Written strictly in black and white, it depicts normal sights in New York. The narrator sees the city as a maze, a labyrinth of endless steps in which to lose yourself. (4) The streets themselves have street signs, traffic, and ...
They all become a support system for each other. Precious learns to read and write, and starts journaling daily about the life that she daydreams about having for herself. She feels that her body, looks, incest, and abuse in her home with her mother have caused her life to be unpleasant. She daydreams about dating a “light” skin guy, being in movies, and having a very functional family with her two kids. A social worker by the name of Ms. Weiss helps Precious by discovering the incest and abuse in Precious’ home.
Just look at the quote I gave you earlier: “Brooklyn, New York, as the undefined, hard-to–remember the shape of a stain.” He sees it as nothing but a stain on the map. He goes on to talk about “…the sludge at the bottom of the canal causes it to bubble.” Giving us something we can see, something we can hear because you can just imagine being near the canal and hearing the sludge bubble make their popping noises as the gas is released. He “The train sounds different – lighter, quieter—in the open air,” when it comes from underground and the sight he sees on the rooftops. Although some are negative, such as the sagging of roofs and graffiti, his tone towards the moment seems to be admiration. In the second section, he talks about the smells of Brooklyn and the taste of food. He’d talk about how his daughter compares the tastes of pizzas with her “…stern judgments of pizza. Low end… New Hampshire pizza. … In the middle… zoo pizza. …very top… two blocks from our house,” and different it was where he’d grown up. He talks about the immense amount of “smells in Brooklyn: Coffee, fingernail polish, eucalyptus…” and how other might hate it, but he enjoys it. In the same section, he describes how he enjoys the Brooklyn accent and the noise and smells that other people make on the streets and at the park across from his house. “Charcoal smoke drifts into the
The most prominent linguistic aspect of the novel is its lack of dialogue. There is not one line of dialogue throughout the entire novel. This reliance on narration accomplishes several things for Kincaid's protagonist, Xuela Claudette Richardson. First, it allows Xuela to be defined by no one but herself. There...
Holly Janquell is a runaway. Wendelin Van Draanan creates a twelve year old character in the story, Runaway, that is stubborn and naive enough to think she can live out in the streets alone, until she is eighteen.She has been in five foster homes for the past two years. She is in foster care because her mother dies of heroin overdose. In her current foster home, she is abused, locked in the laundry room for days without food, and gets in even more trouble if she tries to fight back. Ms.Leone, her schoolteacher, could never understand her, and in Holly’s opinion, probably does not care. No one knows what she is going through, because she never opens up to any one. Ms. Leone gives Holly a journal at school one day and tells her to write poetry and express her feelings. Holly is disgusted. But one day when she is sitting in the cold laundry room, and extremely bored, she pulls out the diary, and starts to write. When Holly can take no more of her current foster home, she runs, taking the journal with her. The journal entries in her journal, are all written as if she is talking to Ms.Leone, even though she will probably never see her again. Over the course of her journey, Holly learns to face her past through writing, and discovers a love for poetry. At some point in this book, Holly stops venting to Ms. Leone and starts talking to her, almost like an imaginary friend, and finally opens up to her.
This is the story of Melinda Sordino, an ordinary fourteen year-old girl who is going to start freshman year in high school. This is obviously a very big step for anyone but she is dreading her first day more than anything. Melinda is starting high school with no friends and a horrible secret that she cannot discuss with anyone. From the very first step she takes that day, Melinda is alone. One night at a wild high school party during the summer, Melinda gets raped by one senior student from her own school. After she calls the police that night, her closest friends have abandoned her and random classmates now snub her simply because she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. As the story goes on, Melinda has an internal conflict with herself everyday
Stylistically, the book is arranged in rotating chapters. Every fourth chapter is devoted to each individual character and their continuation alo...
Upon arrival into the jungle of vast buildings, the first thing noticed is the mobbed streets filled with taxi cabs and cars going to and fro in numerous directions, with the scent of exhaust surfing through the air. As you progress deeper into the inner city and exit your vehicle, the aroma of the many restaurants passes through your nostrils and gives you a craving for a ?NY Hot Dog? sold by the street venders on the corner calling out your name. As you continue your journey you are passed by the ongoing flow of pedestrians talking on their cell phones and drinking a Starbucks while enjoying the city. The constant commotion of conversing voices rage up and down the streets as someone calls for a fast taxi. A mixed sound of various music styles all band together to form one wild tune.
The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m... ... middle of paper ... ... bservations of her situation and form an analysis of her own feelings.