“Riley Camille, this is your mother. Don't hang up.” I had just tossed the last of the downed branches onto the burn pile, taking advantage of the break in the weather to do a little clean up before the next storm. The dead pine burned hot and smokeless, and soon would be a glowing mound of ash that tonight's predicted rain would douse. “What can I do for you, Greer?” I said, sinking onto the upended fir round I used as a stool, and cursing myself for not checking the caller ID. “It is I who am doing something for you.” She was using the more-sophisticated-than-thou elocution she'd acquired as a starlet at Olympus Pictures, though six decades and a pack-a-day Benson and Hedges habit had blunted its steely edge. “But before we get to that, how are things in the countryside, or wherever it is you live? Have you remarried?” …show more content…
“No, not married,” I said. I heard a lighter's scritch and a moment later she exhaled a lungful of smoke. Eight hundred miles between us and I automatically held my breath to avoid inhaling it. “Well, I suppose you shouldn't give up hope. I'd advise you to ply your charms, but as Ned would say, it's like asking a plow horse to run at Santa Anita.” Harlan “Ned” Nedlin was a former second-rate talent agent who had success in the late-Seventies launching the movie careers of stand-up comics who then promptly traded up to better agents. He became a velour track-suited fixture in my life when I was a sixteen year old box-girl at Gelson's Market. One afternoon, after I loaded his bag of grapefruit and vodka into the trunk of his Jaguar, Ned offered me five hundred bucks to meet him after work at the Del Capri Motel. Upon confiding the affront to my mother, she defended my virtue by making Ned her third husband. “People say it's uncanny how much I resemble you,” I said. “It's not the horse's conformation that wins the race. It's the
I think the sea of flames has a different role when you look at through another perspective. In Marie and Von Rumpel perspective, it’s trophy like object, since Marie is trying to keep it and Von Rumpel is trying to get, this corresponds with the real life like if someone has a title / trophy of “fastest runner” they would be trying to hold on to the title while others are trying to get it. But in the book, if Von Rumpel gets the sea flames, he might kill Marie or he might kill her then take it.
I’ve decided to review The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates for my book analysis. I was very hesitant on doing my analysis over this piece because I have so many opinions, and different viewpoints on this book. With so many opinions however, this was the best book for me to write 4 pages over. It was extremely easy for me to read Fires of Jubilee and really get into the text, because growing up my Mom would always tell stories about slaves and old slaves tales passed down from earlier generations of mine. Being of split-heritage I always get 2 different viewpoints and stories told to me and my brother by our great-grandparents, so reading this explained way more of the story of Nat Turner than I was previously told of when I was younger.
In Frederick Buechner’s novella, The Wizard’s Tide: a story, Teddy develops more realistic views through becoming aware of his family’s denial and realizing the burden that it puts on them. Facing reality is important, not just for Teddy, but for his family as well because in the end, avoidance is what leads to both his and their affliction. Teddy has always been faced with people in his life that have had unrealistic views, so when he is upset with his situation, he naturally tries to fix the problem the same way others he knows would: by avoiding it. Teddy is therefore a very immature character to begin with, being filled with corrupt views that others have made him to believe. In life, he must realize that it is not always okay to believe that everything is okay.
and smiled, ‘ but that’s never stopped anyone from trying.’ He looked at me. ‘Has
I tracked over to my favorite spot on the edge of the wood: a clearing encompassed by thick trees. The area had many sweet-smelling balsam trees that reminded me of Christmas back home. A few of the remaining leaves fell from the branches of the maple trees above me.
When writing the book Into the Killing Seas, Michael P. Spradlin accurately explained the details and the historical value of the sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis. Additionally, it's clear that he did a lot of research on his topic of the sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis and what the remaining sailors had to deal with to survive. Switching Gears, his book is not only based on the WW2 sinking of the Indy, but The battles of Guam. He accurately described the terror people in history felt when the attacks happened.
“A Wall of Fire Rising”, short story written by Edwidge Danticat, presents one man’s desire for the freedom and also, the gap between reality and fantasy which is created by the desire. Two different perspectives of evaluating the life bring the conflict between the Guy and Lili who are parents to the little guy. Throughout the story, the Guy implies that he wants to do something that people will remind of him, but Lili who is opposing to the Guy, tries to settle the Guy down and keep up with the normal life that they are belong to. The Guy is aggressive, adventurous and reckless while Lili is realistic and responsible. The wall of fire is the metaphorical expression of the boundary where divides two different types of people. One is for the people who accept their position and try to do the best out of it, and the other for the people who are not satisfied with the circumstances and desires to turn the table. Through this essay, I am going to reveal how the contradiction in an unwise idealist’s attitude and his speech, and also how it drove the whole family into a horrible tragedy as well.
Many different symbols were utilized in Kate Chopin's The Awakening to illustrate the underlying themes and internal conflict of the characters. One constant and re-emerging symbol is the sea.
“...the TItanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and sank at 2:20 am” (Lord 173). April 12, 1912 marked the night the RMS Titanic vanished into the vast Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic only had enough lifeboats for ⅓ of the 2208 people on board. This survival rate is so meager because the appearance of the Titanic was more salient than its passengers’ safety. Captain Edward Smith figured all the necessary amount of lifeboats would look “cluttered” on deck. The Titanic also had the prominent title of “unsinkable ship” because of that, the captain thought lifeboats wouldn’t be needed but indeed they were. The impact of the lifeboat shortage on the Titanic forced the captain to call the BirkenHead drill, caused men to dress as women, and brought passengers to participate in bribery.
In John M. Barry’s book, “Rising Tide", Barry provides a comprehensive if not extensive overview of the Mississippi. He begins by describing the efforts that Americans went through to control the Mississippi River, explaining the Mississippi delta culture and the river itself, along with explaining the enormous influence banking families had over decisions affecting New Orleans. With each chapter, Barry shows the reader how the futile attempts to control nature ended a way of life and marked an end of the driving force of powerful banking establishments in New Orleans.
The book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex” by Nathaniel Philbrick is tragic, eyes widening and heart wrenching where all the morals and ethics are gravely subjected to situation and questioned when it comes to survival. What they must do for survival? How man love their lives and no matter what strikes upon them, holler from behind, ambush their morale, yet they want to keep going just for the sake of living. The book is epitome of such a situation that encounters survival over morality. However, in the thrust of knowledge and oceans of secrets locked inside the chambers of this world, there is a heavy price men have to pay in the ordeal of yearning for knowledge.
Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre depicts the passionate love Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester have for each other, and as Bertha Mason stands in the way of the happiness of Brontë's heroine, the reader sees Mason as little more than a villainous demon and a raving lunatic. Jean Rhys' serves as Mason's defendant, as the author's 1966 novella Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Jane Eyre, seeks to explore and explain Bertha's (or Antoinette Cosway's) descent into madness. Rhys rejects the notion that Antoinette has been born into a family of lunatics and is therefore destined to become one herself. Instead, Rhys suggests that the Cosways are sane people thrown into madness as a result of oppression. Parallels are drawn between Jane and Antoinette in an attempt to win the latter the reader's sympathy and understanding. Just as they did in Jane Eyre, readers of Wide Sargasso Sea bear witness to a young woman's struggle to escape and overcome her repressive surroundings. Brontë makes heavy use of the motif of fire in her novel and Rhys does the same in Wide Sargasso Sea. In Rhys' novella, fire represents defiance in the face of oppression and the destructive nature of this resistance.
smell of burning cedar enters my nose. I look up to the chimney and see the
" I don't know, I asked Aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might
Then, slowly at first, but with ever increasing intensity, a small glimmer appeared on the glossy leaves. Through the whispering blades of grass, a brilliant fire arose from the depths turning the lingering water droplets into liquid silver that dripped from expectant leaves and flowed gurgling into shallow puddles, bathing the young trees with the succulent taste of a new day.