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My travel writing essay
Informative writing about travel
Historical influences on literature
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The term “Jerusalem Syndrome” refers to when a visitor to the city leaves with a full fledged belief that they are the messiah, an angel or the devil himself. Rebecca Kozak, a 17 year old Writing student based in Victoria can be said to have developed both San Francisco Syndrome and New York Syndrome in her travels. She takes herself as a Frisco Beatnik poet and a New York rocker girl all at once. The surprising thing is that she is correct on both counts! The Frisco side of her is an eccentric intellectual who can quote whole chunks from Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell, then segue into a spiel about the “Brechtian films of our times,” with references to Jim Jarmusch and Harmony Korine. This Kozak will make grandiose statements such as: “At
an early age, I became obsessed with the poetical works of William Burroughs and found that the transcendental quality of the beat poets is the one true key to prose.” The New York side of Kozak is even more complex: a postmodern street punk, obsessed with the underbelly of America and the androgyny of Patti Smith- high on her own particular brand of sapphic rebellion. Kozak has written a 90 page Novella entitled “Lung Land” and she has an expansive vinyl record and book collection along with a superior knowledge of both art forms. By her own admittance she has spent her entire adolescence devoted to research on such topics. In the future, she plans to write and publish new prose, poetry and screenplays.
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
Out of the three wonderful narratives given, the best one is “Stepping Into the Light” by Tanya Savory. While “Shame” by Dick Gregory is an interesting read, it is the weakest out of the bunch. The story had no clear setting, to many extra details, and a lengthy exposition. “I Became Her Target” by Roger Wilkins was a better executed story, even though it still had some flaws. This piece lacks any figurative language, but it was to the point and had clear organization. Thus, Tanya Savory’s piece was the best. It was easy to follow, used a constant symbol, and used some stories from others to make her point. So using narrative styles and elements in the best way, Tanya Savory wrote the better story.
In the book Maus, by Art Spiegelman, Spiegelman’s images and dark artistic style have a strong connection to the past based on how he has drawn himself, especially in his short story, “Prisoner on the Hell Planet.” In Spiegelman’s short story, he depicts himself as a guilt-ridden, deformed being, and these depictions intertwine with his past emotions, which correlate strongly to his mother’s suicide. Spiegelman portrays himself as a person with droopy eyes, an altered perspective, and an uneven visage. These particular characteristics form his grotesque physical features and disfigured facial expressions. The manner in which Spiegelman depicts himself conveys the message that his mother’s suicide detrimentally affected him, which his grim physical
America is known for expanding, being innovative, and rising above and beyond expectations. In Larson’s The Devil in the White City, it is displayed and explained how America, Chicago specifically, became the powerhouse city of constructing/ engineering. New ideas were used to make things bigger and better; making America appear superior. Advances in technology made it much easier to build, expand, and create buildings that were unfamiliar to America. Larson uses examples that signify the importance of American superiority and modernity for the country—showing America’s significance in the world, the involvement of the government with business ventures, and overpopulation which hid many murders that were committed before, during, and after
“The Sweet Hereafter” portrays the grief stricken citizens of a remote Canadian town traumatized by a terrible accident, and the impact of an ambulance-chasing lawyer who is attempting to deal with the grief in his own life. The film also depicts the grieving subjects susceptibility to convert grief and guilt into both blame and monetary gain and the transformation this small community faces after such a devastating event.
These two literary works, 40 Hours in Hell by Katherine Finkelstein and Third World by Dexter Filkins, both present diverse perspectives on what occurred during the World Trade Center attack. Although both texts approach the coverage of this attack differently, as reporters, they both base their news using normative theory. Normative theory is the consideration of what is morally correct or incorrect. In relation to normative theory is the Social Responsibility Theory. This theory deals with how an individual must complete their civic duty, since they are apart of the press, as well as their actions must benefit society. Nonetheless, of these two texts, 40 Hours in Hell best fulfills the requisites of the Social Responsibility Theory.
A stereotype is a trap, a cage, which restricts individuals to one identity. Once a stereotype is created, it is hard to overcome and leaves traces of prejudice. In agreement with Alicia Ostriker’s The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking, Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” is a reach out for women to express feelings on gender discrimination without coming across in a way that would engender negative support. “Siren Song”, is written from the perspective of a siren, in a mythological setting but with a contemporary tone, that is restricted to the stereotype of a seductress who seeks to sing men to their deaths but in reality, she wants to break free and find someone that will not fall for her song.
While I read Dante’s Inferno, I caught myself reading an underlying message. It wasn’t about the Christian faith, or the soul’s road to salvation. It was Dante’s own political views. While the book may have been written for the religious message, I believe that Dante added his take on politics as well. I believe Dante uses religious principles to punish his political opponents.
Gregg, Joan Young. Devils, Women and Jews. New York; State University of New York Press, 1997.
They walk amongst us, thinly veiled by thoroughly thought out plans and deceitful alibis. In a time of great wonder and excitement, a murderer hides in plain sight. The title of Erik Larson’s accurately named novel, The Devil in the White City, takes the reader through a haunting story about the simultaneous building of the Chicago’ World Fair, which brought redemption to Chicago and happiness to Chicagoans; and the revealing of one of the very first serial killers, H.H. Holmes, which brought darkness and wreaked havoc though Chicago. In this novel, Erik Larson uses juxtaposition, sinister diction, and multiple different types of figurative language to portray the intense similarities and differences of an artist whose specialty is architecture, and an artist whose specialty is murder.
Discrimination is something that people have been going through for years in the past and
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking Press,
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a
Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" revolves around a wife and mother who becomes overwhelmed with her husband and child and withdraws from them, gradually shutting them completely out of her life. Unsatisfied with her role as dutiful mother and wife, she tries on other roles, but finds that none of them satisfy her either. She is accustomed to a specific role, and has a difficult time coping when a more extensive array of choices is presented to her. This is made clear in this section of the story.
It is said that for medieval western Europeans, the city could be place of danger or of refuge, but where is the section for the cities that are in between? The term “refuge” is defined as “the state is being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or difficulty” (OED), and the term “danger” is defined as “the possibility of something unwelcome or unpleasant happening” (OED). Some medieval western European cities are clearly more thought of as a place of safety and acceptance, while others were brutal and oppressive.Though they are not definite, concrete structures, both the city of ladies as created by Christine De Pizan and the “city” of Hell as depicted by Dante Alighieri appear to be more defined on one side of the spectrum, but in reality