In the Irish detective novel In the Woods by Tana French, we confront the dilemma of discerning the good from the bad almost immediately after cracking open the covers—the narrator and main character, Robert Ryan, openly admits that he “…crave[s] truth. And [he] lie[s].” (French 4) But there is more to this discernment than the mere acceptance that our narrator embellishes the occasional truth; we must be ever vigilant for clues that hint at the verisimilitude of what the narrator is saying, and we must also consider its relation to Robert’s difference from the anticlimactic (essentially, falsehood) and the irrevocable (that which is unshakeable truth). That is, the fact that in distinguishing the good from the bad, we are forced to mentally …show more content…
This is a main factor in how, and how well, we discern the good from the bad and has everything to do with Robert’s differentiation between the anticlimactic and the irrevocable. A part of the anticlimactic is an inability for all of the pieces to come to a single point. If one’s background is different from another’s, then the pieces will come together or fail to converge, depending. Some readers pick up right away that Rosalind is a sociopath, while others are unshakably convinced the moment that she enters the stage. If one does not have the right background, the very thing that allows us to interpret this piece of literature, one will suffer from a lessened ability to discern good from bad; true from untrue; and yes, anticlimactic from irrevocable. In conclusion, there are several means of distinguishing the untrue in In the Woods: the construction of its language, Rosalind’s speech patterns, doubling, and concrete medical documentation. What connects this to Robert’s differentiation of anticlimactic and irrevocable is mainly the fact that some readers will notice these cues, and others will not, possibly because of their dissimilar
American Character by Colin Woodard, is a book about America’s history and the upcoming of how the United States has become. Woodard starts off first explaining what it was like when America was colonized by the New England colonists and goes onward to present-day America. A book like this should be deemed great for a political history class because of the vast amount of information it has. Although, this book is exceptionally very small for a book of such kind, Woodard loves jumping around from era to era and can leave his readers at a disarray. Claiming so, a strong and prior knowledge of the American history and its government is strongly encouraged. Historical and economic terms are also used immensely in this book, so a thesaurus and dictionary would be of great use. If those two resources aren’t of much help, a recommendation of facts found upon the Internet regarding an era of which Woodard is explaining would be helpful.
In life, many people strive to find a person that is reliable and to separate the people that are unreliable. Unreliable can be defined as an adjective meaning not dependable. Having read through the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King, it is reasonable to conclude that each of these stories has its own unreliable narrator. The most unreliable narrator, however, is the narrator/killer Springheel Jack from “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King due to the narrator’s cognition problems and the violent nature of the murders.
Many times in life things are not as they seem. What may look simple on the surface may be more complicated deeper within. Countless authors of short stories go on a journey to intricately craft the ultimate revelation as well as the subtle clues meant for the readers as they attempt to figure out the complete “truth” of the story. The various authors of these stories often use different literary techniques to help uncover the revelation their main characters undergo. Through the process of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately convey the significant revelation in the short stories, “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations.
Ethan Frome published by Eddie Wharton was set in Starkfield, Massachusetts in 1904. The story happenss against cold hard weather at the New England state. The main character was established as outreach farmer who tends to his very cold, aggressive and disturbed wife named Zeena. He had little hope with his wife until Zeena's cousin, Matte arrives to help him. During the period, he slowly fall in love with Matte causing his marriage to collapsing the relationship between him and Zeena. Ethan From was one all-time classic American books showing characters development through hard facts or conditions that reflects and teaches us the relation in today's social standards.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” was written by Lorraine Hansberry marking her first ever written play. Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American woman to write a play that was to be produced on Broadway. Although a brilliant writer, Hansberry’s opportunities of writing were cut short when she died at the age of thirty-five from cancer. Lorraine lived from 1930 to 1965, dying on the day that Broadway closed her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”. “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” was written in 1964, only 5 years later than “A Raisin in the Sun” which was written in 1959. Later in 1959, “A Raisin in the Sun” won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, becoming the first
Madness is relative. The sanity of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart is best approached from two sides. One of which are from the narrator’s point of view, and the other is a neutral perspective. This is a man who stalked another, murdered him, and covered his traces only to be harassed by his victim’s heartbeat. With the narrator’s consistent denial of his madness, his homicide and overwhelming guilt is what induced his severe paranoia and apparent insanity. However, his actions were committed through fear, while his story affected by false memory and trauma. The narrator’s experience shows how a truly traumatic event can prove to completely destroy and alter any man’s sanity.
When a narrator is deemed unreliable, there is conflict between the narrator’s presentation and the rest of the novel that makes readers suspect his sincerity and reliability. Readers often read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the narrator is either withholding the true version of the story or lacking the ability to tell the truth. There are three specific sources of unreliability according to Rimmon-Keenan they are the narrator’s limited knowledge, his or her personal involvement, and his or her questionable morals (100-101). Factors that could contribute to a narrator’s unreliability is that the narrator is young and inexperienced, old with failing memory, or has a low IQ. These are all cases of limited understanding and knowledge on the part of the narrator. When narrators are personally involved in the story, they tend to portray events or characters i...
In the movie, Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks plays the role of an intellectually challenged man who tells his hypnotizing life story while sitting on a bench at a bus stop. Gump expresses the misfortune of the private troubles and the never-ending impact on his life. The story line explores the developmental aspects, the intelligence and creativity, self and personality, as well as psychosocial cognition of this fascinating character.
In much of The Things They Carried, stories are retold time and time again. One reason for this is the idea of keeping a story’s story-truth alive. In “Good Form,” O’Brien differentiates what he calls story-truth from happening-truth. Story-truth seems to give us a better understanding of O’Brien’s sentiment in a particular story even though the story itself may not be true at all. On the other hand, happening-truth is what actually happened in the story, but may not contain as much emotional authenticity as story-truth. According to O’Brien, story-truth is therefore truer than happening-truth. Relating back to storytelling, O’Brien retells stories continuously to maintain their sentiment and emotional value. Without this continuous repetition, this sentiment fades away and the emotional value of the story is lost.
Geoffrey Chaucer is, to this day, one of the most famous Middle-English writers. His view of corrupt societies and how things "may not always be as they seem" was incredibly accurate and has even carried over its accuracy into the modern era. His writings are highly controversial and bring out the faults in the most conservative aspects of society—especially when it comes to sexism and the church. In The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, he speaks about 31 people going on a pilgrimage. The entire selection is heavily weighted and based on one key thing, which is how it is structured. The entire story is split up into sections which entails many to call it a "story within a story." Better yet, it is more accurately described as stories
In the saying of “Character is what you are in the dark” by Dwight Lyman Moody, can meaning many different things. One being, “you are most yourself when no one is watching”, another one also being, “dark and troubled times bring out a person's true nature”, and “your true nature is on the inside”. This quote can or cannot apply to the play of “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare.
Many would argue that the main character in this book is Sir Percy Blakeney for his alter ego, the Scarlet Pimpernel whom the book is named after. However, it is the lovely Lady Blakeney who is more prominent in this story, and whose point of view is most often portrayed. Lady Blakeney was an intelligent and charismatic figure in France as an actress and famous member of society before marrying Sir Percy Blakeney and moving to England. She managed to steal his heart with her wit, charm, and boldness, all of them qualities that make the character Marguerite Blakeney what she is.
For example, Pi presented the alternate story with gruesome details when he killed the cook, “His blood soothed my chapped hands. His heart was a struggle- all those tubes that connected it...It tasted delicious, far better than a turtle...he was such an evil man. Worst still, he met evil in me- selfishness, anger, ruthlessness.” (311). This quote describes the traumatic event Pi went through. The imagery revealed his dilemma by bringing attention to the corruption of Pi’s morals. Martel’s deliberate prolonged and vivid description emphasized the significance of his actions. It’s clearly shown the extent at which Pi’s morality is lost when he acknowledges the “evilness” of his actions. Pi lingers in his description, which suggests difficulty accepting that he abandoned his beliefs and values. The clarity and lack of haziness of Pi’s description suggests the reality of the situation, supporting the idea that this was the true story. This literary technique contributed to the overall novel by analyzing the reader's perspective. The evidence that supports the story with humans becomes more reliable and believable with its use of imagery. Presenting the contradicting stories in a trustworthy manner adds to the stories authenticity. The reader's choice to believe either of the two somewhat logical and illogical story, tests their own moral
...r the reader to notice the parallels between them and the differences from everyone else. He also does this so that we can see the contribution it has on the characters. The madness of each individual is not itself realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature.
Ellen: Well, for those of you who haven’t read The Stranger, I’ll give a brief summary of the novel so you know what we’re talking about. Meursault is the narrator and protagonist suffering isolation from himself and the rest of the world in which he lives in. The novel begins when Meursault’s “maman” dies, and when attending the funeral, he finds that he isn’t very sorrowful or concerned about conforming to the common formalities of mourning over such a significant loss. Only one day after attending the funeral of his mother, Meursault becomes involved in an affair with a woman from his work named Marie. Meursault and one of his only friends named Raymond travel to a house on the beach, belonging to a friend of Raymond’s. While walking along the beach, Meursault and Raymond come across two Arab men, one of whom is the brother of Raymond’s ex-girlfriend. After an altercation, Meursault ends up shooting the Arab brother four times, and is then imprisoned for the murder. The jury judges Meursault to be guilty of murder and is then given the death sentence. Meursault is astounded at the verdict, after never thinking of himself as a criminal. However, he deals with his death sentence just as he has dealt with his life, that being with unimportance. Meursault thinks possibly that after death his existence could be less illogical and he could be more aligned with the universe.