11/22/63 by Stephen King is interesting because of its back-in-time setting, unexpected plot twists, and unique story unlike other novels by Stephen King. Although the story takes place in modern day 2011, a time travel portal takes the setting back to 1958. “I turned and walked slowly into the pantry, moving like a man trying to locate the top of a staircase with the lights out. On my third step, I found it” (123). The pantry inside of a restaurant takes people back to 1958 which is something unique about this story. The characters are able to transition between time periods and maintain their personalities. This interesting aspect adds a twist to the story. Speaking of twists, the unexpected plot twists also make this novel interesting to read. …show more content…
While Jake Epping is carrying out his plan, Bill Turcotte shows his true colors. “‘I mean he’s mine, Amberson. That son of a bitch killed my little sister, and if anyone puts a bullet in him… or a blade’ --he brandished the bayonet in front of his pale, grim face-- ‘it’s going to be me’” (252-3). Stephen King makes you believe that Bill Turcotte is just as grumpy and watchful as the other men in Derry, but Bill Turcotte turns out to have a secret plan which is killing Frank Dunning. Thanks to the unexpected plot twists like this one, this novel is a page turner and an interesting piece of art. The biggest thing that is noticeable about this novel is that it unlike other Stephen King novels. Stephen King typically writes in the horror genre, but in this book he writes in the historical fiction and partially science fiction genre. For example, Stephen King talks about the culture in Maine in 1958 through his fictional story. “They were doing a Lindy variation I knew as the
In the true crime/sociology story, “Best Intentions: The Education and Killing of Edmund Perry” the author, Robert Sam Anson had provided an immense amount of information from reportings about Edmund Perry’s death and life before he died. Anson has developed Edmund’s character and experiences through reporting that I have related and connected to. Information reported by Anson has helped me find a deep connection towards Edmund Perry’s home environment, junior high experiences, and personality at Philips Exeter. Themes such as hopes and dreams, loyalty and betrayal, journey, and family ties are intertwined in the story and becomes blatant. The congruences between our lives have better my understanding of the story and Edmund’s life.
Unlike any other novel, In Cold Blood's novelistic elements offered a deceptive way of reading the novel itself. This is because Capote's primary intention was to break the conventions with regard journalism (Smith). Aside from that, Capote sought to challenge the traditional modes by which stories were told. When readers explore Capote's book, it would be natural for them to think that murder in all-American family is
In Richard Yates’ fictional novel Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler, Frank Wheeler, and John Givings all seek escape from their current captive situations in suburbia; however, while April and Frank employ concrete methods of escape, the mentally unstable John Givings has no solid plan of escape. Foremost, April Wheeler is a young woman seeking freedom and independence, which also means getting away from her suburban life. She first attempts her escape when she joins the Laurel Players in a production of The Petrified Forest. Full of hope, April dreams of something different and exciting. Her dreams are crushed when the play crashes and burns. Her face that she puts on for the stage, bright, glowing, and covered with makeup, represents her dreams for something bigger. Once she fails, she retreats back to suburbia, removing her makeup and revealing a “graceless, suffering creature” with a “constricted” appearance and a “false” smile (Yates 13). The more April tries to conceal her disappointment, the more her anger builds. Soon, she snaps, declaring that her husband Frank has pu...
The novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, tells the story of the murder of a respectful family in Holcomb, Kansas. Four people were killed on September 15th, 1959 when two men broke into their home to rob their safe, which allegedly contained 10,000 dollars. However, they walked out the house with only 40 dollars, a radio, and the lives of four on their hands. Capote creates an attachment between the reader, the murderers, the victims, the townspeople, and the investigators. Due to this intimacy, sympathy arises for Perry regardless of him committing such an awful crime. Even if people have compassion for killers, Capote's writing objectivity allows the reader to sympathize with him. Throughout the novel, Capote includes the childhood and trauma
If you really want to hear about it, there is alot of symbolism in Catcher in the Rye. This novel, written by J.D. Salinger, utilizes symbols to portray different themes. Of these symbols there are three that are strongly related to Holden. The operation, being a madman, and stepping of a curb all play a vital role in the novel by J.D. Salinger.
On a cold Halloween night in 1963, in the film Halloween, a six-year-old boy named Michael Myers was seen stabbing his older sister to death with a gigantic kitchen knife then leaving to stand outside the house with a blank expression on his face. As a result he was sent to Smith Grove’s Mental Hospital which he escapes from 15 years later to go after 17 year old Laurie Strode and her friends Lynda and Annie. Warshow’s essay, The Gangster as Tragic Hero, depicts American society’s need to show public cheerfulness and maintain a positive morale as well as its desire for something more sinister, something more brutal. This desire to indulge in the forbidden fruit of sadism and cruelty is what makes the gangster persona so appealing to the nation. He is the man of the city. He emerges from the crowd as a successful outlaw and his only aspiration is success through brutality.
One way for readers to measure their level of comprehension in this story, is to explore the meaning of the title, it's effect on the book's theme and how it provides a deep look into Holden's character. Being an attention demanding tool, the title also can provide a mystery to which the reader can understand by pulling together the clues, hidden in the text. To an experienced reader, who may be familiar with the book, imagery of a catcher in the rye is apparent throughout the story. However, for a new reader the journey begins past the middle of the book.
In 1950 J.D. Salenger captures one of society’s tragedies, the breakdown of a teenager, when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Holden Caulfield, a fickle “man” is not even a man at all. His unnecessary urge to lie to avoid confrontation defeats manhood. Holden has not matured and is unable to deal with the responsibility of living on his owe. He childishly uses a hunter’s hat to disguise him self from others. The truth of his life is sad and soon leads to his being institutionalized. He tries to escape the truth with his criticisms. Knowing he will never meet his parents’ expectations, his only true friend is his eight-year-old sister Phoebe, to whom Holden tells that he really wants to be ‘the catcher in the rye”. Holden admits his only truth and shows that Phoebe is his only friend. Another form of escape for Holden is his acting, which he uses to excuse the past. Holden has tried to lie, hide, and blame his way through life; when he finds that it is not the answer he collapses.
Edwin O'Connor's novel The Last Hurrah presents a view of the difficult and hard life of the Irish-American community in Boston of the 1950's. The author uses a number of characterizations to produce themes that relate to the political and social considerations of this era. With a narrative style that holds the reader's interest, O'Connor leads you through the streets and alleys of the old city, giving you a brief look at old-time city politics. He does this through Frank Skeffington who is the main character. One of the characters O’Connor used to make his point is John Gorman.
He designs to move into Black Hawk town. April came; Jim feels that the town is like his home. "I could fight, play 'keeps,' tease the little girls, and use forbidden words as well as any boy in my class," he says. The townspeople enjoy news and culture by traveling only a short distance from home; they don’t want to cut off from these comforts. One of the interesting contrasts is how much Jim is changings after he moves into town. The influenced around him, Jim learns to fight, swear, and tease the girls. But for Antonia, she is change from the roughness of her country life of a nice person. Lena talks to Jim and tell him about her feeling that what she want Jim to become a traveling salesman when Jim grows up because she think it will lead him to wonderful thing. The narrator compares Antonia with Lena one of her immigration friends, that Antonia has a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, but Lena is the opposite, she rather loose her morals, and all the young boy wants to play around with her just to carnal. Afterward, Jim gets some time alone with Antonia, along the way back to the Harling house, they stand right in front of the gate and talk until the cold chills the restlessness out of
Catcher in the Rye is a complicated book about a young man going through, what appears to be a nervous break down. This is a book about the boy’s negative self-talk, horrible outlook on life, and a life itself that seems to keep swirling down the toilet. He keeps trying to fill his life with something, but the reality of it is he doesn’t exactly now what he needs. It’s complicated to understand at parts, because all he does is think of things in the worst possible conditions.
In the nonfiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, the author tells a story of the murderers and victims of a slaughter case in Holcomb, Kansas. Instead of writing a book on the murder case as a crime report, the author decides to write about the people. The people we learn about are the killers, Dick and Perry, and the murdered family, the Clutters. The author describes how each family was and makes the portrayals of Dick and Perry’s family different from the Clutters.The portrayal of the Clutters and of Dick and Perry’s families, was used to describe what the American Dream was for each character. In the beginning we learn about what type of family the Clutters were and how they represented the American Dream for the people of Holcomb.
Assorted Professors. "Jane Gallagher Character Analysis." The Catcher in the Rye: Shmoop Literature Guide. N.p.: Shmoop University, 2010. 93-94. Print.
American Psycho is a novel written by the American author Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis, as an author, has written and published seven literary works. American Psycho was written already in the 1980s, but it was published only in 1991. The novel had drawn a great deal of criticism even prior to its official release. When the novel was published in 1991 it was received with heavy criticism. Because of the novel’s dark nature Ellis had received death threats which suggested that Ellis should be dismembered as the victims of the novel’s fictional killer Patrick Bateman. The opinion on the novel among literary critics has changed ever since the novel had achieved cult status among readers. However, American Psycho still remains known primarily for the
I packed my ignorance around for decades, until an editor with a keen sense of history talked me into considering a novel set in the Los Angeles of the ’60s.