The Importance of the Title of Stone Angel
Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel is the story of Hagar
Shipley's life, told entirely by Hagar through her memories and
thoughts. Though she remembers her past with vivid detail, she
has trouble with the happenings of the present. Hagar at ninety
is a proud and strong woman suffering from the unjustness of old
age. Once proud and independent, she now needs to be taken
care of by her son Marvin, who she never loved.
As the book begins, the readerÕs first glimpse is of that
of the stone angel. "She was not the only angel in the
Manawaka cemetery, but she was the first, the largest, and
certainly the costliest." A unsuitable memorial of her mother for
she was thought of as a "feeble ghost." It seems rather to
represent Mr. Currie and Hager, both strong and full of pride. It
was there for his needs, to "proclaim his dynasty." As the story
progresses, the reader becomes more aware as why the book is
titled The Stone Angel. Through important events in her life: the
death of Dan, her marriage, her two sons, and Mr. TroyÕs
singing; Hagar shows her inability to show tenderness and love
and how her stone heart melts always and she is finally able to
speak the words which both she and Marvin need to hear.
The Stone Angel serves as a double meaning: The large marble
stone angel in the cemetery and Hagar. Like the stone angel,
Hagar displays no emotion. Even when her brother Dan is dying,
her proud strengths leads her to be unable to comfort Dan. "But
all I could think of was the meek woman IÕd never seen, the
woman Dan was said to resemble so much and from whom he
inherited a frailty I could not help but detest, however part of me
wanted to sympathize. To play at being her Ð it was beyond me."
When her favorite son John dies, she sheds not one tear;
although she loves him very much. Her inability to communicate
her emotions to others leads her to appear as a cold and grumpy
woman. Her pride and strength causes her to do what she
needs to do, but also she is blinded like the stone angel
because she is unable to do what others need from her.
“Fallen Angels”, written by Walter Dean Myers, is a novel that tells about the story of young boys going into battle during the Vietnam War. There are many themes in “Fallen Angels” but the main theme is the loss of innocence. The title makes reference to these themes. And the boys in the book have dreams of losing their virginity and drinking alcohol for the first time. They are thrown into a harsh reality when they are shown the trials of war. In the end, they understand that the movies that depict heroicness and honor are just images of a false idea; that war is full of chaos and horror.
According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, frontier as an adjective means “a new field for exploitative or developmental activity”. In Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Echoes in the City of the Angels”, Stewart Edward White’s “The Rules of the Game”, Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”, and Louis Adamic’s “Laughing in the Jungle” Los Angeles is described as a frontier town. Los Angeles, long ago, used to be the Wild West. This is the basis of reasoning behind labeling Los Angeles as a frontier town. Jackson, White, Adamic, and Sinclair all establish Los Angeles as a frontier town after depicting its plethora of Wild West imagery, its developmental activity, and its exploitative activity.
A stone of Hope by Jim St Germain is a memoir about the life of a young African-American immigrating to the United States and opting to the streets of Brooklyn Crown Heights. When my more expresses the poverty and troubles in the criminal justice system. As a young boy living in poverty and recently moving to America Jim used the streets as his Learning Center. The author and protagonist of the memoir, Jim, struggled in education system trying to learn a new language and adapting to his new surroundings. With the stigma of being an ESL student and the lack of support in school and at home Jim begin to invest more time into streets then into his education, he began stealing and dealing drugs and growing up increasingly violent. At the age of 15 Jim had been arrested more than a dozen times but instead of prison St Germain was placed in Boys Town. Boys Town being a rehabilitation center for troubled youth, to help change the lives of children who have severe Behavioral or mental health problems, academically and socially. Even from a young age in the Criminal Justice System St Germain knew that there was a problem lack of compassion and human capital.
One of the most important theme in the forward of The Killer Angels is the differences in both armies from the Southern and Northern and the amount of faith or lack of faith they had in their leaders. The confederate army (South) were a group of similar soldiers who shared the same beliefs and that had faith in their leadership. The union army (North) consisted of mostly volunteers and that come from all different backgrounds. This group didn’t have much faith in their leaders and were driven to win the war just by believing in themselves. Another most important theme in the forward is how Shaara, the author, describes a new kind of commander named James Longstreet, a rebel commander who was very war minded. The first important theme from
Plato’s allegory of the cave is closely connected with the study of forms as postulated by Socrates. People have entry to the domain of forms through the psyche, through reason, given Plato's hypothesis of the subdivisions of the human soul. This provides for them get to a perpetual world, resistant to the agonies and progressions of the material world. By segregating ourselves from the material world and our figures and creating our capability to fret about the forms, we discover a quality which is not open to change or breaking down. This understands the initially, moral, issue. Part presence up into two domains likewise takes care of the issue of perpetual quality and change. We recognize an alternate world, with diverse articles, through our psyche than we do through the faculties. It is the material world, recognized through the faculties, that is evolving. It is the domain of forms, recognized through the brain, which is perpetual and unchanging. It is this world that is all the more true; the universe of progress is just a flawed picture of this world.
Authors who write the best books normally don’t have the perfect childhood. What they go through shapes how they see the world and some readers do not agree or understand consequently, the book is banned. From the in-depth imagery to the friendships made during war, the literary masterpiece Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers, uses the horrors of Vietnam War as his back drop but was criticized for his use of profanities and racism.
“Night came and fell hard. Not like God drawing a blanket over our land but like someone snuffing a candle. Sudden and total. Out--just like that” (Laybourne, Monument 14 118). Most, if not all of people have read a book or have seen a film that starts out with a typical morning, meeting the average characters, the tall scrawny reclusive kid with a semi-normal life, not expecting a disaster to strike; then turns out to be a thrilling, dark survival film with the nerd no one notices becoming pretty well important? In the book Monument 14, it is the apocalypse archetype we have all encountered through films and or other books. To be more specific, an Archetype is an universal symbol, also the term used by Jung’s idea of recurring patterns of
Men, Steinbeck’s character’s life is dependent on the assumptions made about him. Of Mice and Men tells the story of two men with opposite character who face the hardships and reality of
The situation when Jane in locked in the Red Room occurs because she has retaliated against John Reed hitting her and the fact that she is being punished for doing so. The mere fact that she is being locked in the Red Room can already accumulate sympathy within the reader because she is seemingly being very unfairly punished whereas her cousin John has attacked her already and managed to escape any punishment whatsoever. However in the events leading up to being locked in the room, the reader could not feel sympathy for Jane Eyre as she did in a way bring the punishment upon herself for attacking Mr. Reed in the first place. If she has not retaliated she would have not been locked in the room. Most readers however probably do feel sympathy for her as she was acting more in self-defence. She was also unfairly spoken too as they were dragging her to the room itself as they say things like she's like a mad cat' and do not seem to be letting her give an explanation at all for her actions, and only listening to what John had too say. They make sure that she knows her place by telling her that You are under obligation to Mrs. Reed' and that she is less than a servant'. These are not kind words and the reader will probably feel sympathetic as she is being treated as a worthless object. The room that she is sent too is a dark and unpleasant place with memories of the dead Mr. Reed. For a child of Jane's young age it would seemingly be very distressing for her, and with the added experience of her seemingly seeing a ghost' of some kind, it would be a terrible experience. Even if the reader has not felt sympathy for Jane before this incident they would surely feel so now, as she is in a distressing situation alone. When Jane first screams out for help from someone it does seem as though people are coming too help her as Bessie and Abbot come to open the door and ask her what is wrong and what has made her cry for help.
Juxtapositions: The Icarus myth IMAGES AND SYMBOLIC MEANING INTRODUCTION This is a literature paper that focuses on Juxtapositions: The Icarus Myth (pages 944 - 949). This section of the text contains four poems in which four different poets use the myth of Icarus as a prompt or archetype for a variety of reasons. This paper explores the Icarus myth found in these poems and using the process of explication constructs a thematic paper. Writers have the niche to create attitude and deep layers of meaning within literary works and create tone and attitude through the use of words and depictions. Moreover, the skilled and artistic authors, poets, and playwrights craft deep layers of meaning for their audience through the purposeful use of symbolism and allegory. The Icarus Myth’s Background King Minos captured Daedalus, Athenian inventor who employed by King Minos to build the maze, or labyrinth, designed to pen in the Minotaur who was half man, half bull. After his work was done, the King refused to let the inventor go back to Athens. It was to free himself from this captivity that Daedalus and his son designed wings to fly out through the air. Flight has long been a symbol for our human capacity to struggle up from the mud and clay, even at the risk of failure. UNIVERSAL APPEAL OF THE ICARUS MYTH The poems show that there is a great universal appeal of the Icarus Myth. The very fact that so many poets, authors and playwrights have used this myth to capture the readers and the audience proves that there is a great appeal this myth has. The universal characters of power such as the sun, gods, human beings able to fly, the message of determination and human thinking abilities are all enough to create interest in the readers. The ...
“The Epic of Gilgamesh” is a timeless, mythical tale that provides a sense of adventure. It takes the reader on a whimsical journey through the exploits of Gilgamesh and his sidekick Enkidu. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” can be seen as the modern version of this epic. Ron and Hermione accompany Harry through daring tasks that take the reader’s breath away. Through the theme of adventure, these texts provide similarities to each other. Both the main characters think they live in an ordinary world until their call of adventure, both face danger throughout their journey, and both end up overcoming that danger thanks to the help of their wise elders and friends.
Almost any 6th grade student can provide the basic definition of the “American Dream” being free from oppression and being able to elect officials without intimidation. Some immigrants and refugees might even agree in that statement because it’s the shortest explanation in their decision to leave their homeland in the search of a better future. Just because it’s easy to explain doesn’t mean it’s simple to follow through with. A lot of U.S citizens can simply say that the “American Dream” has become a standard for anyone who wishe...
The elaborate characterization in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice allows the reader to further understand the outcomes of the budding relationships and long marriages which she displays. With these distinguished dispositions comes a complexity that applies to several romances in the novel which emphasize Austen’s theme of marriage for true love. In comparing both the personalities and the relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet to those of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, we can see how the contradiction to society's expectations of young women marrying for wealth results in a stronger love, and a happy marriage.
Pride and Prejudice explores many different aspects throughout its text, marriage being one. Marriage can mean different things to different people and Austen clearly suggests her opinion according to Susan Fraiman. She sees Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s betrothal lacks all emotional integrity but we clearly see her understanding of marriage, as Darcy’s status and wealth contributes to Elizabeth’s acceptance of his proposal.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet 's marriage in the novel Pride and Prejudice does not seem more opposite than the definition of love. The Bennett 's marriage does not contain love but only to tolerate one another. Mrs. Bennett has her prideful ways and wants for her daughters to marry rich, while Mr. Bennett want his daughters to marry out of love. In the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, her attitude towards Mrs. Bennett remain distant and does not take into consideration his needs. Throughout the novel Mrs. Bennet tries to live vicariously through her daughters and gives