Although Alexandra Fuller first set out to write a memoir about her African childhood as an adult, when Fuller was a child, she was certainly not thinking about documenting her life’s story. It is in this retrospective light that Fuller wrote Don’t Let Go to the Dogs Tonight. Being a blond white girl living in some of the most dangerous regions of the war-torn nations of Africa, she has good reason to share her remarkable childhood. However, just as amazing as the story of her childhood, her writing style is also remarkable. Fuller is able to effectively execute her diction and syntactical choices so that the readers feel that they too are accompanying Fuller throughout her hectic childhood. Through the use of repetition in various aspects …show more content…
Although not explicitly stated, there are clearly evident characteristic differences between the father, the mother, Alexandra, and Vanessa. One place in which Fuller reveals such differences is in the style of the characters’ dialogue. When the father, Vanessa, and Alexandra visit the mother in the maternity unit, they all say their farewells before departing in different styles. Alexandra, being the young, naive little girl that she is, says “Have the baby soon” (186). Clearly Alexandra cannot put the pieces together. Since her mother has spent so much time in the hospital, would she not be having trouble with carrying and delivering the baby? Moving from Alexandra’s to Vanessa’s response there is a mature and responsible tone established as Vanessa says “I’ll get the baby’s room ready” (186). Being older, Vanessa displays a far more realistic approach to the situation as she decides it would be wise to prepare for the event of the baby’s birth before it happens. Lastly, the father’s response seems to trump the other two as he says “Pecker up, Tub” ( 186). This is a characteristic response from the father, speaking from years of experience and witnessing some profound events during his time in Africa. Adding to the sense created by the repetition of lighting of a cigarette, this response gives the father a tough guy persona, which develops throughout Fuller’s memoir. Even these slight stylistic differences contribute to the overall characterization of these characters and to the development of the story as a
In Drea Knufken’s essay entitled “Help, We’re Drowning!: Please Pay Attention to Our Disaster,” the horrific Colorado flood is experienced and the reactions of worldly citizens are examined (510-512). The author’s tone for this formal essay seems to be quite reflective, shifting to a tone of frustration and even disappointment. Knufken has a reflective tone especially during the first few paragraphs of the essay. According to Drea Knufken, a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor, “when many of my out-of-town friends, family and colleagues reacted to the flood with a torrent of indifference, I realized something. As a society, we’ve acquired an immunity to crisis. We scan through headlines without understanding how stories impact people,
This piece of autobiographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
In “Useless Boys” the writer, Barry Dempster, creates a strong feeling of disappointment and shame in himself and society as he looks back on his youth to when him and a friend made a promise to each other to “not be like their fathers”. Dempster expresses a sort of disgust for the capitalist society his world seems to be built around, a life where even if you’re doing something you initially enjoyed you end up feeling trapped in it. The poem is a reflective piece, where he thinks back on how he truly believed he would end up happy if he chose a different path than that of his parents. The author uses simple diction and syntax, but it’s evident that each idea has a much deeper meaning, which assisted in setting a reflective/introspective mood.
“Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does.” This quote comes from a picture found on flickr and makes me think about my younger days as I learned how to be a leader in scouting and it’s similarities to the poem, “A Little Scout Follows Me.” The moral of the poem is that there are always younger eyes watching and learning from those they look up to, even those that don’t realize they are being watched.
As every well-read person knows, the background in which you grow up plays a huge role in how you write and your opinions. Fuller grew up with a very strict education, learning multiple classic languages before she was eight years old. Fern grew up with writers all throughout her family and had a traditional education and saw first hand the iniquities of what hard-working had to contend with. Through close analysis of their work, a reader can quickly find the connections between their tone, style, content, and purpose and their history of their lives and their educational upbringing.
In an interview with the Paris Review, Amy Hempel compares writing short fiction with journalism, stating that, “you have to grab readers instantly and keep them.” She refers to “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried,” remarking “The opener contains the whole story: ‘Tell me things I won’t mind forgetting’” (Hempel, 39).
To read the Civil War diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl, is to meander through the personal, cultural and political experience of both the author and one's self. Her writing feels like a bullet ricocheted through war, time, death, literary form, femininity, youth, state, freedom and obligation. This investigation attempts to do the same; to touch on the many issues that arise in the mind of the reader when becoming part of the text through the act of reading. This paper will lay no definitive claims to the absolute meaning of the diary, for it has many possible interpretations, for the journey is the ultimate answer. I seek to acknowledge the fluidity of thought when reading, a fluidity which incorporates personal experience with the content of Williamson's journal. I read the journal personally- as a woman, a peer in age to Alice Williamson, a surrogate experiencialist, a writer, an academic and most of all, a modern reader unaccustomed to the personal experience of war. I read the text within a context- as a researcher versed on the period, genre, aesthetics, and to some degree the writer herself. The molding of the personal and contextual create a rich personalized textual meaning .
Victoria's mother, clearly set in the values of her generation, evicts Victoria and disowns her for her actions and her secrecy. This is very common for this generation of teenage mothers and their parents' reactions to them. Michelle Chino, a professor of Psychology, notes this specific reaction in her interview reflections. Upon talking to teen mothers she found that many teen mothers met stiff opposition to their pregnancy from their mothers. Much like Victoria's mother, and her doctor, the teenage mothers interviewed for her research experiences experienced shunning for their own mothers, "In spite of disappointment, shock and disapproval expressed by some of their mothers" (Chino 11). The mothers of these teens reacted very similarly to Victoria's mother, which is indicative of the societal norms and values, as well as expectations for the next
Alexandra Fuller and Pan Macmillan’s extract from, Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, explore the roles of the family dynamic and their roles within the family. This is a first person narrative, written from the perspective of one of the daughters. As well, this passage describes the event of selling bales of tobacco in a market setting. This passage develops the roles of the narrator, the mother, and the father, through techniques such as animal imagery, body language, diction, punctuation, as well as structure.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
"Boxer Dog Pictures, Free Use Image, 01-07-64 by FreeFoto.com." FreeFoto.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Throughout the chapters of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry describes personal experiences based on the lives of individuals he has encountered. The correlation among the characters described in Skin Hunger, The Coldest Heart, and The Boy Who Was Raised
Throughout the story, the different roles and expectations placed on men and women are given the spotlight, and the coming-of-age of two children is depicted in a way that can be related to by many women looking back on their own childhood. The narrator leaves behind her title of “child” and begins to take on a new role as a young, adolescent woman.
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight” has the most impactful message out of all the other poems covered in class. For the message in this poem is that even when faced with death a person shall fight against it although it is inevitable. The message is fierce and powerful because the context of it and how it opens the reader up to a new perspective of viewing death. For the author utilizes meticulously two poetic tools to help convey his message. The first poetic tool that the writer employs is a specific rhythm. Additionally, the author uses hyperboles and similes to give his message more emphasis.
Often times, literature has enough power for the reader to generate their own reality through the writer’s beliefs although most of the times the reality generated by the readers are not correct. In a TED talk called “the Danger of a Single Story,” Chimannda Adichie discussed about how literature affected her views on people, and then through life experience she had figured out that the reality she was creating was all false. She had grown up in Nigeria where at young age she was able to come across western literature. She was an inspired writer, and had realized all her inspirations came from British and American literature because most of her pieces were based of British and American literature such as having her characters...