Love, Lust and Death are universal human experiences and perpetual literary themes. "The Loving Dead" blends them in a way that I have never seen before. Amelia Beamer's debut novel involves: Oakland California, twenty-something slackers, their angsts and relationships, and a zombie apocalypse. Its characters are realistically self-centered, its apocalypse realistically dealt with more through text messaging and comment threads than through the main stream media, and its ending is different than any horror/zombie/apocalypse story ending I've ever read or heard of. Frankly, I think that the last ten pages alone are worth the price of admission, but overall this is a fast and rewarding read. Kate and Michael are the central characters in "Loving Dead." They're housemates, both working at Trader Joe's in Oakland. Kate appears to be in a staging area in life before moving on with her life: she's earning money at TJ's and as a companion to an older man; she's also taking some community college classes. Michael appears to be stalled out: working at TJ's and hosting hip parties at the house, with few plans for the future. Generally speaking, Kate seems to look out into the world a little more, and Michael seems to look inwards and towards relationships for his future. After a belly-dancing class one night, Kate helps when her instructor Jamie is accosted by a shambling drunk trying to rape her. She invites Jamie up to the latest house party so she won't be alone. After some booze and Xanax, they hook up--this being Kate's first lesbian encounter. As Kate is getting ready to return the favor, Jamie turns in to a zombie. Hallmarks: eyes turning white, skin turning grey, and speaking the phrase "Something's happening." The next ... ... middle of paper ... ...cked, what would I say? Luckily, I honestly enjoyed the book. The last third of it especially grabbed me; I stayed up late to finish it because I didn't want to put it down. But it was still a little jarring to read at times. Amelia has taken 'write what you know' quite seriously, so I've actually been to the house that Michael and Kate's house is based on; characters have backgrounds that match backgrounds of real people I know, and at one point Kate's voicemail message is the same unique one used by a friend. So that introduced a whole new level of cognitive estrangement for me. But a) that shouldn't affect 99% of the readers out there, and b) during the last third of the book all that fell away. So definitely take my review with a grain of salt. But seriously, give "Loving Dead" a try. At the very least, it's different than anything else you'll read this year.
Literature according to our textbook is one form of media that is an expression of attitude toward death. Literature gives us the meaning of death as it relates to society and individuals. (Lynne Ann DeSpelder, pg. 17) Novels about war depict how individuals and societies search for meaning in shattering experiences of trauma and loss. In order to concur with our textbook and the media that was chosen, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare came to mind. Romeo and Juliet is the ultimate love story but also shows love in a violent way. Romeo and Juliet go against the society of their families. The lovers decided that it was better to be dead together than to be alive and apart. This type of love has been glorified to be romantic and shows strength.
The ending of this book was a cliffhanger. In my opinion that is the worse kind of ending, but that’s how that writing persuades the reader to get the next book in the series. Without giving too much away about the end of the story, it was very unexpected. To be
Death: the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism. It is scientific. Straight down to the facts. Something is born, it lives, and it dies. The cycle never stops. But what toll does death take on those around it? The literary world constantly attempts to answer this vital question. Characters from a wide realm of novels experience the loss of a loved one, and as they move on, grief affects their every step. In The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, the roles of Lindsey, Abigail, and Ruth all exhibit the effect of dealing with death over time; the result is a sizable amount of change which benefits a person’s spirit.
Only two things in the novel bothered me, the fact that in the beginning of the novel I thought that I would find out what happened to Ethan in more detail and I also wanted Mattie and Ethan to run off together. In the opening of the novel, I thought that I would learn more about the accident and when I finished the novel I thought that I was “left hanging” when Edith Wharton really did not tell you what happened after she made it seem as thought that is what the novel is about. I also wanted Mattie and Ethan to live happily ever after, maybe it was the female in me but I think that they should have run off together instead of being sensible. In the end of the novel, I was really surprised to find out that Ethan is still married to Zeena, I thought that Zeena might leave Ethan and then Ethan and Mattie could get married.
Dead Man Walking is a great book that deals with one of our nations most controversial issues: capital punishment. The books narrator, Sister Helen Prejean, discusses her personal views on capital punishment. She was a spiritual advisor and friend to two death row inmates; Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie. From her experiences, she developed views on the death penalty. She believed it was morally wrong and spoke openly about it. Sister Helen successfully defends her views on capital punishment while stating that capital punishment should be illegal. Her experiences have taught her that although these criminals were dangerous and deadly, and that their crimes were inexcusable, a death sentence should not be the answer.
Although I loved the plot, the characters and all the twists and turns. I didn’t fall in love with the writing style. I am not a massive fan of lots of short sentences, I felt that when the book was in Lorali’s point of view it made sense but not when it was in others. I also felt the ending lacked – I was just really confused by the ending. I don’t know if that was just me and I missed
During the first few weeks of our FYS-X class, the students are required to view the movie “Dead Man Walking. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the showing at school, but I rented the DVD from Block Buster Video. I missed an opportunity to gain some bonding time with my classmates, but I could not get off work in the short notice that the class was told about the film viewing. When I viewed film, I had the pleasure of being in my home atmosphere, and I had the opportunity to better concentrate on the movie and the ability to rewind at certain points in the film. Before viewing the film, I was not too excited about having to watch it. I was under the impression that this movie would be boring and more of an educational video. After I watched the movie, I knew that my prediction about it was very inaccurate. “Dead Man Walking” is one of the finest films I have ever seen, and it has raised my bar of standards for a drama.
	Bill Beattie once said, "The aim of education should be to teach us how to think rather than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men." All too often, however, individual thoughts are crushed by the powerful weight of conformity. In the film Dead Poets Society, conformity exercises it’s influence and the results prove disastrous for some. For others, the effect of conformity compels them towards individual strength and the discovery of one’s true self.
As the last story of James Joyce's short story collection, The Dubliners, "The Dead" is about a young Dubliner's one day of attending his aunts' party and his emotional changes after the party ends. In the paralyzed city the young man feels the atmosphere of death everywhere. And he often has misunderstandings with people, especially women including his wife. From the main character Gabriel's experience, we can see his personal life is in a strained circumstances. This difficult situation is probably caused by his failure to deal with the relationship with the female characters. Many events happen in the story prove that he can not get a real freedom until he understands the value of woman to improve the mutual relationship.
I did not like the ending of the story. I found that the ending was very predictable and anticlimactic, especially when all the tension was being built up throughout the rest of the book. When I was nearing the end of the book I was already starting to envision the ending of the book and when I got to the end I was disappointed to see that I was correct. I would have preferred if the ending was more of a cliff-hanger and ended completely different than anyone would have expected.
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
Upon reading the premise of this novel, I knew I had to read it. People often say that death can bring a family together; and in my family, it did. Nevertheless, death and grief can also bring about entropy within a family or relationships, as is seen here in The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. I tend to cry more often than not, this novel was without exception. I am moved by the story and how quickly I was attached to the each of the characters. Due to situational irony, I felt sympathetic towards the characters; at other times, I saw perfect examples of how family therapy would be a great intervention to the dysfunctional system that was
Dead Man Walking The film “Dead Man Walking” is a film about redemption. The film is directed by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays a nun called Sister Helen Prejean. She is asked by a convicted murderer to get him a lawyer, and then later is asked to be his spiritual advisor.
The Shining is about a white middle class dysfunctional family that suffers from natural and supernatural stresses in an isolated Rocky mountain hotel. .The father, a former teacher turned writer, is portrayed as a habitual drinker, wife- and child-abuser, with a kind of evil streak The mother is shown as a battered woman. The film suggests that due to the abuse at the hands of his father and the passivity of his mother, the child of this family developed psychological problems. He had imaginary friends and began to see frightening images.
In “The Dead,” James Joyce presents the Irish as a people so overwhelmed with times past and people gone that they cannot count themselves among the living. Rather, their preoccupation with the past and lack of faith in the present ensures that they are more dead than they are alive. The story, which takes place at a holiday party, explores the paralyzed condition of the lifeless revelers in relation to the political and cultural stagnation of Ireland. Gabriel Conroy, the story’s main character, differs from his countrymen in that he recognizes the hold that the past has on Irish nationalists and tries to free himself from this living death by shedding his Gaelic roots and embracing Anglican thinking. However, he is not able to escape, and thus Joyce creates a juxtaposition between old and new, dead and alive, and Irish and Anglican within Gabriel. His struggle, as well as the broader struggle within Irish society of accommodating inevitable English influence with traditional Gaelic customs is perpetuated by symbols of snow and shadow, Gabriel’s relationship with his wife, and the epiphany that allows him to rise above it all in a profound and poignant dissertation on Ireland in the time of England.