Do you believe in the things that lurk beyond our mundane vision. In the book City of Bones by Cassandra Clare the main character Clary Fray learns she has the “sight” and descends from shadowhunters, a hidden group of half-angel fighters that defend the clueless mundane world from demons. After her mother disappears Clary joins the a legion of the young Shadowhunters Jace, Alec, and Isabelle that she unknowingly discovered at a club with her best friend Simon. The Shadowhunters reveal the truly dangerous alternate New York called Downworld that can only be seen with the “sight”. Downworld is brimming with vampires, warlocks, demons, werewolves, and other mythical creatures.
One of the biggest themes in City of Bones is love. Love is so complicated
The novel Nukkin Ya is a compelling book, written in the perspective of the character Gary Black, the author of the text is Phillip Gwynne. The novel is set in rural South Australia for Australian readers. The novel conveys a number of themes and messages including racial difference, love verse hate and the ability and choice to move on. These are depicted by the literally techniques of imagery, literary allusions and intertextuality.
Much like Lorraine Hansberry, Madeleine L’Engle believes that “the growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys.” Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie, and Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias use the idea that even through struggles their characters show that love always endures. Although loving someone, who is not particularly loveable, is one of the most difficult parts of being human, it is possible by remembering that addictions can be reversed, blood is forever, and a ring is more than just an object.
"Love" is a word, a signifier, tied to many meanings, all different in context, cultures, and ideologies. Love is used numerous ways in Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, by many characters. In the character of Bone, love is a confused thing, always changing, as Bone uses it to fit her life on the fly. In relation to parental love, Bone wants Daddy Glen to love her. However, early in the book, Bone's conception of "love" is that of a child, obviously. On page 52, she says, "I wanted him to love us. I wanted to be able to love him. I wanted him to pick me up gently and tell Mama again how much he loved us all." This idea of love is simple, involving hugs, smiles, and friendliness, the sort of "love" Bone gets from Anney. However, as Bone's relationship with Glen changes, so does her perception of "love". On page 108, Glen asks Bone, "'Don't you know how I love you?'" Bone thinks to herself, "No, I did not know." This is near the beginning of Bone's confusion about love, what it means, and what it does. At the time he asks her, he is molesting her. It is no wonder that Bone was confused, having love expressed simply, from her mother, and sexually (if indeed it is "love") from Glen. This confusion leads bone to question the idea of love, and to look elsewhere for it, perhaps to compare. Love, she finds, is a prominent idea in the Southern Baptist church.
The Illegal, and Some Great Thing by Lawrence Hill both contain several important themes. To explain, The Illegal features the main character’s loss of innocence, and the racism towards people because of their country of origin, and ethnic background. Next, Some Great Thing includes the themes of racism and prejudice towards not only the protagonist, but also to French Canadians because of the colour of their skin, or the language they speak, and the courage of characters to stand up for what they believe is right.
Human nature is filled with curiosity, imagination, the desire to learn, and constant change. Jeannette Walls, the author of The Glass Castle, has a childhood filled with all of the above, but it is constantly disrupted by greed, drugs, and fear. This memoir takes the reader on a journey through the mind of a maturing girl, who learns to despise the people who she has always loved the most. Always short on cash and food, Jeannette’s dysfunctional family consisting of father, Rex, mother, Rose Mary, brother, Brian, and sisters, Lori and Maureen, is constantly moving from one location to another. Although a humorous tone is used throughout the whole novel, one can observe the difficulty that encompasses the physical challenge
“I’m sorry, Maureen. Sorry for everything.” (276, Walls) And when that sentence was whispered, a family was left broken and unwhole. In a family of five children, even a more conventional one, sometimes the youngest feels left out. But because of the Walls unconventional parenting, Maureen didn’t sometimes feel left out, she always felt left out. Since she was the youngest of the Walls children, she was fortunate enough not to have to move all the time but that might not have been the most beneficial thing for her. Throughout the novel the family lived in many different places, each more dangerous and disgusting than the last. However, I think for most readers Welch was the most upsetting place. Maureen grew up in that toxic
Throughout many student’s school career they will have read various books for several of their classes. Out of the Dust might have been one of those books, but for those who haven’t read it yet I recommend you make an effort to read it as soon as possible. This novel gives you great insight into what it was like to live during The Dust Bowl and all the hardships people went through in that time period. Furthermore, it displays the story in free-verse. Another thing that this novel shows is to persevere through hard times.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire, takes place in the Land of Oz. It actually takes place forty years before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, and it tells the story of how Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, became so wicked (Fiction Book Review). This book was written in 1995. Maguire wrote this book in the early 1900’s when he was living in London. At this time, the Gulf War was just starting. Maguire was intrigued by the headline in the British Newspaper, the Times of London, that said, “Sadaam Hussein: The New Hitler?” Months later, there was an incident where several young schoolboys kidnapped and killed a toddler. While the British press was paying attention to the crime,
The genre or theme of this movie is love and all types of it. Throughout this whole movie you see all forms of love and how strong it can be. You will also see a transition between the love genre/theme and the genre/theme of the struggle everyone faces and endures during the times of war.
There exists no power as inexplicable as that of love. Love cannot be described in a traditional fashion; it is something that must be experienced in order for one to truly grasp its full enormity. It is the one emotion that can lead human beings to perform acts they are not usually capable of and to make sacrifices with no thought of the outcome or repercussions. Though love is full of unanswered questions and indescribable emotions, one of the most mystifying aspects of love is its timeless nature. Love is the one emotion, unlike superficial sentiments such as lust or jealousy, which can survive for years, or even generations. In the novel The Gargoyle, the author, Andrew Davidson, explores the idea of eternal love between two people, a union that spans over centuries spent both together and apart. Davidson, through the use of flashbacks, intricate plot development and foreshadowing, and dynamic characterization, creates a story that challenges the reader’s preconceived notions regarding whether eternal love can survive even when time’s inevitable grasp separates the individuals in question.
Charles Brockden Brown suggests “most readers will probably recollect an authentic case, remarkably similar to that of Wieland” in the Advertisement at the beginning of the novel Wieland (Brown 3). The “authentic case” he is referring to is the report of the murders committed by James Yates which took place in Tomhannock, NY. An Account was serialized into two parts and originally published in The New York Weekly Magazine in 1796 entitled An Account of a Murder Committed by Mr. J--Y--, Upon His Family, in December A.D. 1781. Two years later Wieland was published. There are two major themes and four specific acts that Brown appears to have lifted from An Account. The two themes Brown uses are common in eighteenth century American writing: the
The different types of love in this story are incredibly important to the plot like Desiree and her love for her child. She loves the child enough that she does not care that it turns out to be black and she is basically kicked out of Armand's house because of it. Furthermore, there is the love of Desiree and her mother which is a small theme in the story. When Armond turns her away that is where she is supposedly going to stay even though she is blamed for being something she is not. Then there is the question of
In the novel Slaughterhouse Five the main character Billy Pilgrim directly mirrors the main themes of the novel. The first main theme is the destructiveness of war, Billy reflects this because after being in the war Billy cannot handle himself and his mind has completely gone. The second main theme in this novel is the illusion of free will, Billy reflects this because of his outlook on life and how the universe works. These are the main themes that directly resemble the main character Billy pilgrim.
In the novel “ Exit West”, is a story talks about migration and refugees, mainly focuses on two young couple escaping from a brutal civil war in their unnamed native county. As in the real world we are in today. The novel discusses how refugees flee to the western countries, often stops over in other countries. The author Hamid alerts us in the novel the existence of stanger doors which appears to be more than an ordinary doors. Gradually go through any of these doors, and you will magically find yourself in another world. These doors are no more than magical realism doors. In the novel hamid uses these doors to demonstrate that refugees create a multicultural coexistence.
I looked up at the black sky. I hadn't intended to be out this late. The sun had set, and the empty road ahead had no streetlights. I knew I was in for a dark journey home. I had decided that by traveling through the forest would be the quickest way home. Minutes passed, yet it seemed like hours and days. The farther I traveled into the forest, the darker it seemed to get. I was very had to even take a breath due to the stifling air. The only sound familiar to me was the quickening beat of my own heart, which felt as though it was about to come through my chest. I began to whistled to take my mind off the eerie noises I was hearing. In this kind of darkness I was in, it was hard for me to believe that I could be seeing these long finger shaped shadows that stretched out to me. I had this gut feeling as though something was following me, but I assured myself that I was the only one in the forest. At least I had hoped that I was.