The worst essay from this semester is Magical Dinners by Chang-rae Lee. Why even have this atrocity on the syllabus? Magical Dinners is very blandly written (almost as bland as the food his family makes). This was made obvious by the fact that nobody in our class was into it and there was silence during the whole discussion instead of lots of participation. Furthermore, the only rhetoric I could find Lee even attempting to use was code grooming, which was highly unsuccessful because the meals that his mom made did not sound good and were unable to grab my attention or appetite. This is illustrated when Lee writes “She cooks an egg for me each morning without fail. I might also have with it fried Spam or cereal or a slice of American cheese,
1) The story takes place in Pinedale, Florida. Where a HIV-positive Pinedale High School student named Alejandro Crusan or Alex for short, was attacked while in his car. A witness named Daria Bickell says that she was a student from the same school, name Clinton Cole at the crime scene.
Is the five-paragraph essay taught throughout high school and college more harmful or hurtful to students? According to John Warner in his article “Kill the 5-Paragaph Essay,” the schools should eliminate the five-paragraph essay, for the essay is more harmful to the students than it is helpful. He states how the five-paragraph essay turns into a “Frankenstein’s monster” and “lurches and moans across the landscape, frightening the villagers” (Warner). This comparison demonstrates Warner’s disapproval towards the essay and shows that the “essay” no longer looks like an essay but looks more frightening. Warner then states how writing should instead be “done for audiences” rather than a “performance meant to impress a teacher or score well on a
In the essay “The End of Spam Shame: On Class, Colonialism, and Canned Meat,” Sylvie Kim, the author, argues that no culture or person should be judged based on what foods they eat. Kim argues this by using her love for spam to explain the cultural difference and judgement she has experienced being an Asian-American consumer of the “pink gelatinous pork” (3). Sylvie explains personal shame and fear of judgement when eating spam to her audience, Asian-American readers of the blog “hyphenmagazine.com.” She elaborates on her disgust for judgement by using the argumentative writing style of repetition. She continually reuses the word love. This writing style is crucial
How would you feel if you had family problems? In 1987, Sandra Cisneros released a novel called My Wicked, Wicked Ways. In the book, she has a poem also named “My Wicked, Wicked Ways.” The poem about the narrator looking at an old picture. The narrator then has flashbacks about his family. The narrator mentions what the father did, and how the mother reacted to the father’s actions. During the flashback, it is revealed that the father is cheating on his wife. The mother, gets mad at the father, but the father doesn’t stop. The mother ends up getting used to the father’s infidelity, and just lets it happen for the next few years. At the end of the flashback, the narrator speaks in a disappointed, but smug, tone about how he was the baby being held by the mother in the picture. After drawing out the connotations and the shifts of the poem, I can say the theme of this poem is “In society,
In “Babette’s Feast,” written by Karen Dinesen, world-renowned chef turned servant Babette Hersant is contrasted with the ascetic villagers of a Christian cult as she spends her lottery winnings to provide an extravagant meal for 12 guests - putting her purpose under possible scrutiny. In his explication of ‘Babette’s Feast,’ Ervin Beck argues that Babette is a selfless figure dedicated to Catholicism and saving others; he notes that her surname itself means “herself a saint,” and by drawing upon similarities between the feast and the Last Supper, Beck equates Babette to a Christ-figure that Dinesen uses in her support of Catholicism. However, Babette’s mission is not entirely self-sacrificing; Beck ignores her insistence that she did not serve
The 60s. They seem so long ago. The Vietnam War, the first GPS satellite, a time of 8-tracks and cassette tapes, they seem like so long ago. The 60s is also when To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was first published, a majorly successful book written about a majorly controversial topic. Lee sets out to tackle the topic by telling a story through the perspective of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, a nine year old girl. The story focuses on the events of the Finches, the Ewells, a trial of a black man, and Boo Radley, all in the town of Maycomb. Using these characters, Harper Lee shows how racism is something that is learned through society, and can be avoided.
Madeleine Thien’s “Simple Recipes” is a story of an immigrant family and their struggles to assimilate to a new culture. The story follows a father and daughter who prepare Malaysian food, with Malaysian customs in their Canadian home. While the father and daughter work at home, the mother and son do otherwise outside the home, assimilating themselves into Canadian culture. The story culminates in a violent beating to the son by his father with a bamboo stick, an Asian tool. The violent episode served as an attempt by the father to beat the culture back into him: “The bamboo drops silently. It rips the skin on my brothers back” (333) Violence plays a key role in the family dynamic and effects each and every character presented in the story
Throughout the semester we have discussed many cases, but Shirley Wilder’s case and story is the craziest and saddening I have ever read. The obstacles she and her son go through are things that I could not even imagine or see myself surviving. Nina Bernstein took an interest into the case because she wanted to know what happened to Lamont, Shirley Wilder’s son. By doing that she has opened people’s eyes to a whole new issue right in our own backyards. The problems within the foster care system go back from the beginning. Animals had more protection than children. In the 1874 case of Mary Ellen McCormack she was the one who finally put a human face on child abuse. Her neighbor, Etta Angell Wheeler, decided to take action, but since there was such a lack of child-protection laws she had to take the case up to the A.S.P.C.A (the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). From there on child abuse/neglect cases were supposed to be handled better and have better laws to protect these children.
Shapin explains that it is not wrong to think that we are possibly consuming a moral agenda and not just a salad, but it is biting off a little more than people are willing to chew. Cascadian Farm’s Gene Kahn volunteers his opinion on impact that food has on the average person’s life: “This is just lunch for most people. Just lunch. We can call it sacred, we can talk about communion, but it’s just lunch.” (439-440). Although, there is not much evidence in this last paragraph of his argument, it is the most straight to the point and thought out argument in the entire essay. The argument ends with a quote that is very important to this entire argument and it just ties the whole article together. The beginning of the essay is a little slow but as it progresses, the arguments get more clear and well thought
In the essays "You Can Go Home Again" by Mary TallMountain and "Waiting at the Edge: Words Towards a Life" by Maurice Kenny, both writers are in search of something. Throughout their lives, they 've been mocked and felt out of place due to their Native American heritage. Both authors wanted to disown their heritage; however, it is through this attempted renunciation, that both authors wanted to fit in amongst their peers. In order to do so, TallMountain and Kenny had to search for their selves. Both, TallMountain and Kenny, search for their identity through family, school, and nature.
The reading of “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, and “Simple Recipes” by Madeleine Thein, both display many components that draw attention to different family dynamics, as well as how each member is tested when if comes to love.
“The lyric form is characterized by irregular structures, line fluidity, and it appeared to flow smoothly for listeners and lyricists” (Owen, page 559). The focus of the lyric poem was to create a mood for personal feelings and emotions towards life’s sweet pleasures of love and longing. The intricacies of nature parallel the state of mind; this is conveyed through Liu Yong’s lyric to “Joy at Midnight” and Li Qing-zhao’s lyric to “note after note”. Both poets use the imagery of nature as symbols, diction, and literary techniques to describe the emotions that are being expressed in the lyric. Liu Yong’s lyric is characterized by an allure of vivid descriptions, and an elegant portrayal of the atmosphere. By contrast, Li Qing-Zhao’s lyric strays
Alice in Wonderland is a classic novel written by Lewis Carroll. The story is about how a young girl’s curiosity leads her to discover a whole different world in which she grows and matures. In the novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, readers can see the monomyth cycle expressed through various stages including: the beginning of her journey, meeting the mentors, and meeting enemies and allies.
Everyone has a different perception of life. Perhaps the norm says we always choose life; social mores and traditions in western culture suggest that there really are no choices in this regard. We all have our obstacles that we face during the time we spend on this earth and are also faced with live changing decisions. In ‘night, Mother, it’s indicated Jessie Cates had struggled throughout her life with depression, seizures, memory loss, abandonment, a forced marriage and a controlling mother. She knew no other world, enslaved to these conditions of her existence and base of familiarity. Her concept of time was blurred.
How would you react if there was a snake under your dinner table? In “The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner the author uses the characters in the story to answer this question through the message that in a crisis anybody can stay calm and act logically. The characters the author uses to do this is Mrs. Wynnes the hostess, an American naturalist, and all of the guests at the dinner party.