I have chosen to read the book “That Eye, The Sky” by Tim Winton. The front cover isn’t very appealing- it has a picture of a house in the outback, with the night-sky covering it. I have picked this book because one of the school librarians have recommended it to me, and said that it is a very moving book. And that it will expand my vocabulary. The blurb suggests that ‘That Eye, The Sky’ has little bit to do with the supernatural, which I’m a bit wary of. I don’t enjoy reading books that haven’t much to do with things “out of this world”. Actually, I don’t really enjoy reading books that are written about things outside of what I know as familiar. But we’ll see how I go. The main character in this story is Morton “Ort” Flack, and he is twelve years old. He lives in outback Western Australia with his mother, father, older sister, Tegwyn (I have had so much trouble with the pronunciation of her name!), and his grandma. His mum is a housewife and works on their farm, I’m not sure what his dad would be classified as but he works for Ort’s best friend’s dad, Bill Cherry, who he is obliged to run personal errands for. Ort looks up very much to his father, and his parents are very much in love. His sister is a typical sixteen-year-old. She constantly fights with her parents, rebels against everything and practises self-mutilation- “Real careful she takes the smoke out of her mouth and looks at the hot end and put it in one of her tits and shivers”- (ok, maybe that last part isn’t typical but she is a teenager living in the bush with nowhere to go and no chance to have friends or get out of the bush so I, as a teenager, can justify why she would do something like that). It is never mentioned what his grandmother is suffering from but I’ve made the assumption that it’s something along the lines of Alzheimer’s- she doesn’t remember anything and has slowly withered away. Ort as the youngest likes to make sure everyone is living their lives alright so he spies on his sister, grandma and parents just to see what they do when they don’t know anybody’s watching. I thought this part was a bit perverted at first, but it can be translated as his way of feeling safe and making sure everyone else is safe.
The story begins with the protagonist, Gregor. He is a bony eleven year old boy. He lives in a hot, cramped apartment with his poor, struggling family. He is living in a state of frustration. His seven year old sister Lizzie gets to go off to camp, while he is stuck at home watching his 2 year old sister, who is called Boots. His father is missing, his mother is working all the time, his grandmother is senile and calls him Simon. There is an odd woman named Mrs. Cormaci who comes to sit with his grandmother.
Sister’s frustration with Stella-Rondo obstructs their relationship, and even though Sister thinks she wants freedom from her family, her self-consciousness will keep her from achieving it. Sister acts hastily about the matter of moving out in order to gain independence. Independence comes from experience, not a split decisions made in a hurry. This quote by Steve Schmidt explains what Sister has quickly found out over the past five days, “the price for independence is often isolation and solitude."
Throughout the story, it has been Sister who has tried to persuade the reader to take her side in the debacle with her family. The truth is that it was Sister who caused the entire dispute that is going on with her obsession to compete with her sister that goes back to her childhood where she feels that Stella-Rondo is spoiled and continues to be spoiled up to the end following Sister’s desperate need for attention.
She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her
The story of Miss. Julianne took me to my childhood. When I was 13-14 years, my Nana was also suffering from dementia at that point. I was too young at that point to understand his situation, now in nursing I am learning about different diseases and how patients react to those particular situations, I can relate more to his pain and understand from what he was going through. As in the story Miss Julianne forgets things, as she said, “Where are my dentures?” (Lenar, K., 2016,), and she blames others, “and
How the Stars Fell into the Sky is a Navajo legend penned by Jerrie Oughton and illustrated by Lisa Desimini for publication in 1992. The tale begins with a conversation between two characters-First Woman and First Man-about how to give the laws to the people in a way that they will always see and have them. First Man tells First Woman to set them in the sky for all to see and she begins to do so. A coyote comes along and offers his assistance with the long task, but he loses his patience and flings the stars into the sky. And so, the story tells us, the people lived on in confusion because of the coyote’s careless actions (Oughton). The story is rather vague, even by the standards of a children’s story. What the reader is presented with already
Sister’s perspective is very self-centered and designed to manipulate the reader for selfish purposes. When the story first begins, Sister is trying to get the reader to see that “Of course [she] went with Mr., Whitaker first…and Stella Rondo broke [them up].” Sister wants the readers to know this piece of information so we will think she is a victim in the story. This is a way of getting us, the readers, on “her side” so we will begin to think like her and dislike the person or people that she dislikes.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the reader is given a particular glimpse into Janie's life with reference to the men she has known. Janie's three men are all very different, yet they were all Janie's husband at one point in her life. Although they all behaved differently, in lifestyle as well as their relationship with Janie, they all shared certain similarities.
Australia is a country that has been described as diverse, multicultural and unique. Tim Winton is a well known Australian author, having lived by the sea his whole life has inspired his writing. One of Winton’s most acclaimed works is ‘Cloudstreet’. The novel Cloudstreet, is a story revolving around how two rural families end up living together at number 1 Cloudstreet. Finding one’s place in the world and the search for the meaning of life are common themes in this novel. Winton has achieved using setting and structure, important factors in any successful novel to create a feeling of an authentic type atmosphere and perspective. This essay will demonstrate how Winton has used setting, particularly the house Cloudstreet (detail into the library),
To start, the only thing that Brother wanted was a younger sibling to “ race to Horsehead Landing...to box with and...to perch with...behind the barn”(Hurst 464). Although his wish of a younger sibling did come true, it wasn’t at all what he had hoped for. Instead he received a younger brother that wasn’t much of anything and on the day of his birth was expected to die. He was so much of nothing, that they didn’t even name him until he was 3 months of age. This angered Brother and he grew vexed and psychotic. “I began to make plans to kill him...smothering him with a pillow” said Brother(Hurst 464). Brother
The grandmother is very old and has lived a very tough life in Vietnam. She “‘lost four of [her] children… twelve of [her] grandchildren and countless relatives to wars and famines’” (Meyer, 74) while in Vietnam. During her life she had very little time to enjoy herself, instead she had to focus on not only surviving, but also holding a family together and getting them through the hardships as well. On top of the Vietnam War, which killed an estimated 500,000-600,000 Vietnamese citizens alone (Weisner), she had to live through 2 additional wars and several famines. The implicated stress and hardships are almost unimaginable. This is evident in her stories and fairy tales she tells her granddaughters, which always have dark twist or no happy ending, or as the granddaughters say “The husband comes too late” (Meyer, 77) to stop the bad guy or save the
Loop’s relationship with his sister is complex and distant. Their conversations often are awkward and sad: “’How come you never tell this guy you got a brother?’ “You was in prison.’ ‘So,’ I says. ‘Lot of people in prison. I’m your only family.’ ‘So she says. The sky is white and sick with heat. ‘Nice dress,’ I says”(128). Avoiding what they are trying to say, they often change the subject. Clearly they regret their weak bond. At the same time their efforts to improve their relationship are feeble. The lack of interest in each other’s lives further alienates Loop: “‘We’re are going to polish the floor with his face.’ On the seventieth the team goes into a huddle. Lucas and I lean against the wall”(134). Ironically, Loop should be as concerned, if not more, over the “pervert” flashing his sister. However, he chooses to stay out of it. His lack of action is not necessarily a sign of maturity, but more a lack of caring. The weak relationship along with a number of other factors further isolates Loop.
own sister has betrayed her. Her fragility, her inability to fend for herself, and her self-
To transform a good company to great company is all manages’ dream, but only few of them make it. To find out the core factors which lead to a good company became a great company is very difficult, because in different era, different industry companies face different opportunities and threats. To begin the research for the Good-to-Great study, Jim Collins and his research team searched for companies that: performed at or below the general stock market for at least fifteen years; then at a transition point began to pull away from the competition, and sustained returns of at least 3 times the general market for the next fifteen years. He started with a list of 1,435 companies and found eleven that met his criteria. These eleven companies produced, on average, a return of 6.9 times the general stock market during the 15 years following the transition points. Collins chose a 15-year span to avoid "one-hit wonders" and lucky breaks. In the book, Collins highlights some important factors which are the result of the research. They are level 5 leadership, fist who … then what, confront the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept, culture of discipline, and technology accelerators, (Collins, 2001, p.12).
‘The Sisters’ is about a young boy who has an experience in death of a