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College english 101 how to write a narrative essay
College english 101 how to write a narrative essay
Narrative writing personal experience
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“How can you say the things you say you feel like when every thing outside is green like it is.” This statement from Mayfly is just one example of the misunderstandings between Mitch and Mayfly. The short story, “Everything is Green” by David Foster Wallace is about a couple having relationship problems. From the point of view of Mitch, we see how he is being emotionally neglected by Mayfly and how he feels he needs to chase his own happiness before it is too late. Mayfly, on the rare occasions she speaks, only expresses her failure to comprehend the situation that they are in. Her inability to articulate her inner thoughts give us little understanding of how she feels about the change Mitch is demanding. Wallace shows how unalike they are …show more content…
through their perceptions and reactions of outside and their interactions with the window of their trailer. In the short story “Everything is Green,” the differences between Mitch and Mayfly are emphasized in paragraphs 9-10 and give insight into why their relationship isn’t working. The window in Mitch and Mayfly’s trailer is mentioned several times in this piece. Throughout the story, Mayfly is looking through the window. By looking out the window, Mayfly seems to be avoiding Mitch and the conversation he is trying to have with her. Mitch uses the window as a sort of mirror to look at Mayfly with, only looking directly at her towards the end of the story. Wallace uses the window to symbolize the differences between outside and inside and relates this theme to Mitch’s and Mayfly’s feelings and the inside and outside of their trailer. After “the window over the sink of [Mitch’s] kitchenet is cleaned off from the hard rain” from the night before, they can both finally see outside clearly. It is after looking outside the clean window that Mitch is able to look directly at Mayfly and not by looking at the window. After this, Mitch understands Mayfly and that she is a person. Like Mitch being able to see Mayfly for seemingly the first time, Mayfly also is seeing outside for the first time. While looking out, she is whispering “every thing is green” to herself over and over. She is repeating it to herself as if she is trying to understand better or she is overwhelmed by all of the green outside. But even though the outside world is influencing their lives inside the trailer, Mitch and Mayfly still cannot reveal their thoughts to each other enough to try and resolve their issues. The phrase, “every thing is green” is an important aspect of this piece.
As Mayfly is looking out the window, she states that “every thing is green” in response to everything that Mitch has told her. Mitch is confused by this because even though there is a lot of green outside, “every thing is not green.” Mitch goes on to say, “the other trailers are not green, and my card table out with puddles in lines and beer cans and butts floating in the ash trays is not green…” and describing all of these other things he sees outside that are not green. While Mayfly sees the beauty outside, Mitch sees what is dirty and unpleasant. His view of the world is altered by his emotions. Because of the uncertainty and unhappiness that has been plaguing him from his relationship with Mayfly, he ignores the beauty and sees the green as a “mess,” while seeking out what is ugly and out of place. This is different from how Mayfly sees the view of outside. Her perception of things is dependent on her surroundings. Because of this, she reacts to Mitch’s wishes to seek his own happiness by saying “How can you say the things you say you feel like when every thing outside is green like it is.” Mayfly doesn’t understand how the sadness of his words and their situation can be present in the context of beauty. How Mayfly views Mitch does not match what she is surrounded by. So, while Mitch begins to understand Mayfly better towards the end of the story, Mayfly doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend …show more content…
Mitch. In this passage, David Foster Wallace emphasizes how different Mayfly and Mitch are.
Mayfly is transfixed by the world outside her window. She is amazed by its beauty and allows it to guide her outlook on life. Mitch does not care for what is going on outside. His main reason for looking at the window is to see Mayfly’s reflection in it. When he does look outside, it is in response to Mayfly saying “every thing is green.” When he does this, all he notices are the things that are ugly. Based on how they see the world, Mitch can be described as a pessimist and Mayfly as an optimist. These differences between them seem to be the basis of their relationship problems. Mitch feels as if there is an inequality of give and take between them. He also emphasizes their age difference several times, making it clear how important it is to him. As Mitch begins to understand Mayfly a little more, he is struck by melancholy for his feelings toward her. By the end of the story, it is not clear as to whether their relationship has ended or not and even though Mitch has a better understanding of Mayfly and still has lingering passion for her, Mayfly seems to be unlikely to change or take Mitch’s concerns into consideration. This suggests that their relationship is unlikely to last in the long
run.
In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, he retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless by putting together interviews, speaking with people who knew him, and using letters he writes to his companions. Chris McCandless also known as Alexander Supertramp is a bright young man and after graduating from Emory University with all honors, he abandons most of his possessions and travels around the west, making long lasting impact on whomever he meets. He then hitchhikes to Alaska where he is found dead. In chapter 14 and 15, both named “Stikine Ice Cap”, Jon Krakauer interrupts the boy's story and shares his anecdote of going to Alaska to climb a dangerous mountain called the Devils Thumb. Krakaure’s purpose is to refute the argument that McCandless is mentally ill because many others, like Krakauer have tried to “go into the wild” but they are lucky to survive unlike McCandless. While describing his climb, Krakauer exhibits through the descriptions of and uncertainty about personal relationships.
This book Into The Wild is about how a young man wants to get away from the world. He does escape from society, but ends up dying in the process. The author, Jon Krakauer, does a great job of describing Chris McCandless and his faults. Chris is an intelligent college graduate. He went on a two-year road trip and ended up in Alaska. He didn't have any contact with his parents in all of that time. Krakauer does a great job of interviewing everyone who had anything to do with McCandless from his parents, when he grew up, to the people who found his body in Alaska.
Ted Steinberg’s book American Green gives a detailed description of lawn and its role in America. He gives a history of lawn starting from the origin of the word “lawn” itself in the 16th century and gives wide-ranging anecdotes throughout the book that attempt to show the reader how obsessed Americans are with their lawns. His anecdotes are often meant to represent people all over America, but when you take a step back you realize that they are actually rare stories that provide little broader meaning. Steinberg fails to prove that American’s are obsessed with their lawns because of the poor assumptions he makes and examples he uses.
Every one is scavenging for the next big gadget- the future is a standard that society strives to have in their grasp. However, Joel Achenbach a former humor columnist solves the mystery of the future in his article, “The Future is Now: it’s heading right at us, but we never see it coming” .he presents a sense of urgency describing that the future is not something that society needs to wait for it happens behind closed doors. He argues that the future is a fast pace entity that occurs all around us. Achenbach proves this point by sticking to his humorous style, with the use of witty allusions to Sci-Fi films.
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride, and his mother Ruth’s life. It explores their childhood—when they were both embarrassed by their mothers—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themselves for who they are. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story using dual narration. This technique further helps contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of belonging that derives from his multiracial family. By using two different narrations, McBride gradually establishes his identity and by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringings, in the end they came together, and understood each other’s perspective.
“Black Power”, the word alone raises an abundance of controversial issues. Black power was a civil rights movement led by the black panthers which addressed several issues including segregation and racism. Black power had a different meaning to every member of the Mc Bride family, Ruth and James both looked at black power from a different angle. In “The Color of Water”, The author James Mc Bride admired the black panthers at first, but slowly he grew afraid of them after fearing the consequences his mother might face for being a white woman in a black community influenced by black power. James’ worries were baseless, black power’s motive was to educate and improve African American communities not to create havoc or to harm members of the white community.
In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. In the memoirs of the author’s mother and of himself, they constantly face discrimination from their race in certain neighborhoods and of their religious beliefs. The trials and tribulations faced by these two characters have taught readers universally that everyone faces difficulties in life, but they can all be surmounted.
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride and his mother Ruth’s life, through their childhood—when they were both embarrassed about their mother—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themself for who they are and became proud of it. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story by using dual narration which further helps to contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of self that derives from his multiracial family and through the use of two different narrations, McBride slowly establishes his identity. Plus by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringing, in the end they come together and understand each other’s perspective.
The novel “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer goes into great detail to describe the main character, Chris McCandless, who died traveling alone into the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless, whom in the novel renamed himself Alex, left his home and family to travel to Alaska in 1992. In Alaska McCandless planned to live an isolated life in the desolate wilderness, but unfortunately he did not survive. This non-fiction novel portrays his life leading up to his departure and it captures the true essence of what it means to be “in the wild”.
At the end of “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer epilogue, my view towards McCandless’s journey and death is emotionally similar to McCandless’s parents as they accept Chris’s death. Chris’s parents weren’t really involved in his life so they never really knew why he cut everyone off. My initial guess is that Chris got tired of his parents controlling his life and just wanted to get away. Throughout “Into The Wild” Chris’s parents seemed like they didn’t support or care about Chris, or they didn’t know how to show it, however my opinion about Chris’s parents did change because the author shined light on his parents and how they came to senses with their son’s death and that they actually really did care about their son Chris McCandless.
David Foster Wallace’s “Good People,” is a very touching, powerful story about a young, unwed, Christian couple facing an extremely difficult decision and the moral and religious implications that may result. As the story begins, we are allowed into the head of Lane Dean, a college student, as he sits on a park bench with his girlfriend, Sheri. Lane and Sheri find themselves faced with an unplanned pregnancy, which causes them to battle with several moral and religious dilemmas. Both of them are devout Christians who have built their moral beliefs upon God and their religious upbringing. Although torn Sheri schedules an abortion, which weighs on Lane deeply. Lane, frozen in fear and not having the courage to freely talk to Sheri about the situation, has a conversation with her in his own head which leads him to question love, morals, religion and life. As they face this unwanted pregnancy, Lane, controlled by fear realizes that sometimes in life certain situations are too complicated to solely be answered within the rigidity of religion. People are human and regardless of how strong their faith in religion is, the battle between right and wrong will forever exist. Ultimately, Sheri decides to carry the child, which Lane assumes is a statement of Sheri’s faith in him. Inspired by her leap of faith, Lane decides to break free from the fear, muster up some courage and ultimately makes a leap of faith of his own and decides to give loving her a try. Lane’s epiphany leads to the central idea that sometimes it takes breaking the confines of fear and having faith in love or in another person to win the battle between right and wrong, which Wallace conveys beautifully.
Since taking possession of North America, Europeans have colonized the continent and enforced their beliefs and practices. Now Native Americans are reclaiming their culture and heritage. Thomas King participates in this movement through the form that Helen Tiffin identifies as "the processes of artistic and literary decolonization [which] have involved a radical dismantling of European codes and a postcolonial subversion and appropriation of the dominant European discourses" (17) by publishing his postmodern novel Green Grass, Running Water (1993). The book creates certain conflicts between values and expectations and conventions for the non-Native Canadian reader. These are mainly composed of stereotypes, internal structure of the text and reoccurring ideas throughout it.
Firstly, minor characters break stereotypes to breathe life into the sleepy town of Maycomb, establishing setting. For example, Mr. Dolphus Raymond assumes the character of a drinker as a pretense for associating with coloured people, though in reality he is drinking coca cola and not alcohol, hidden the contents in a paper bag. He confesses this to Scout, saying “Secretly, Miss Finch, I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live” (Lee 200-201). This proves that what is most outwardly transparent and unlikeable in a character may truly be interesting and good-natured. Mr. Raymond’s secret causes the reader to look past the paper bag and ask why a man might go to such extent to hide his best qualities. It proves that, in Mr. Raymond’s eyes, Maycomb isn’t yet able to handle the truth. He must hide it behin...
The events that form you are probably the best events of your entire life. In the memoir, The Color of Water by James McBride, the audience is told about a young mixed boy who grew up in a very segregated time period. The setting was Suffolk, Virginia; New York City; Louisville, Kentucky; Oberlin, Ohio; and Wilmington, Delaware. James McBride describes how he changed from a confused child into an intellectual individual. Although the story talks about many small events that all built up James McBride as a person, there were three major events that truly gave him definition as to whom he was, or who he could be. These events are when his step father, Hunter Jordan, died; when he moved to Delaware; and when he was able to finally uncover his
The book, The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman draws attention to some very good points concerning globalization and the world economy today. Friedman emphasizes the status of America today in relation to the other countries of the world. As I looked at the things in which he warned about or highlighted, I realized the importance of this issue. He talks about a few aspects in which need to be kept competitive in order for America to retain their current standing in the world market.