Brother, I’m Dying, is Edwidge Danticat’s nonfiction about family story that centers around her father, her uncle, and the events that linked them to the last of their lives. Danticat used the event of her father has end-stage pulmonary fibrosis and she is pregnant with her first child as a frame of her memoir. Danticat’s information is taken “from official documents, as well as borrowed recollections of family members” (Danticat 25). Danticat tells the story of the men she loved only because they can’t (26). “The blueberry picking” is a Donald Hall’s memoir collected in String Too Short to be Saved. It’s a memoir of the summer that he spent time with his grandparents’ New Hampshire farm when he was a boy. “The blueberry picking” takes the …show more content…
audience to Ragged Mountain where Hall and his grandfather picked up blueberries. Even thought these two memoirs are differences in author, setting, plot story, and time, yet they have in common in their themes and style such as family love, journey, and first-person point of view. Family love seems to be the most important theme in Brother, I’m Dying. This book would not have been written if Danticat not shared the kind of love to her father and his brother who she thinks as of her second father. Danticat feels so close to these men that she is motivated to tell their stories: This is an attempt at cohesiveness, and at re-creating a few wondrous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back at the same time. I am writing this only because they can’t. (Danticat 26) Danticat also focus on her uncle Joseph, the man who took care of her and her brother when her parents left Haiti to live in New York, United States. Not only Danticat and her brother that he took in but the other children as well, treating them like his own. The most telling that prove his devotion and love for his family is outlined in the chapter “Giving Birth.” Danticat describes how her uncle risks his life to rescue his adopted daughter, Marie Micheline, when her husband beaten and abducted her. He finds Marie Micheline sick, wounded, and separated from her baby. She says “Papa, even though men cannot give birth, you just gave birth tonight. To me” (Danticat 86). In “The blueberry picking” family love is not the main theme yet the audience can touch the sense of it.
The first time that Hall shows the kind of love is, when he asked his grandfather “Is there any water on the way?” and his grandfather turned to him with dead white face, he was shocked. Hall asked his grandfather “Are you all right?” and offer himself to carry the yoke (Hall 109). Hall shows his care to his grandfather by helped him carry the heavy yoke that fulfill with blueberries, not once but many times. I came back to my grandfather. He was examining his hands again and did not hear me coming. I saw how old his hands looked. Then he looked over at the yoke. “Do you really feel like carrying that?” he asked. “Sure I do” (Hall 115). Another theme that shows in both memoirs is, journey. Brother, I’m Dying deals primarily with the separation of family members across years and miles, it become a central role. Danticat experiences this in different ways at different times during her life. For example, she leaved Haiti to New York when she was a child, and she moved away from her family New York to Miami to live with her husband. Her father points out: Your mother’s here in Brooklyn. I’m here. Two of your three brothers are here. You have no family in Miami. What if this man you’re moving there for mistreats you? Who are you going to turn to? (Danticat …show more content…
4). The fact that uncle Joseph refuses to leave Haiti, or move from a dangerous neighborhood when the country is thrown into chaos, is concern for his brother.
Danticat asks her uncle why he never tried to move to New York like her father did, he said “It’s not easy to start over in a new place. Exile is not for everyone. Someone has to stay behind, to receive the letters and greet family members when they come back” (Danticat 140) He does finally settle in the United States, but only when he is dead. Journey plays a big part in “The blueberry picking” as Hall’s memoir is all about leaving his grandparents house to the top Ragged Mountain where wild blueberries grow. The purpose is not just to pick up the blueberries but his grandfather wanted to show him and tell some story of their family “Many people of your blood stepped on that stone,” he said. That’s the doorstep, and there the cellar hole. Uncle Luther grew up here, and your Great-Grampa Benjamin, and the others before him (Hall 114). Finally, the style that both Danticat and Hall use is first-person point of view. Because the story that they are telling are their own, they use the first person “I” throughout. This gives a sense of immediacy, clarity, and honesty in a nonfiction work. Tn their own voice, Danticat and Hall organize these narratives in a story told through a personal
perspective. these two memoirs are differences but the common things that they have similar in their story are family love, journey, and first-person point of view, which make their memoirs value to all readers.
Alix Baptiste was born on April 29, 1964, on a small island in Haiti. Mr. Baptiste has come a long way since his early days of survival. Mr. Baptiste is now a household name for his beautiful paintings in Savannah, Georgia. Entering his twentieth year as an artist, he owns an art gallery in City Market. There you can watch him at work though the front of his art gallery window's to see what's in store for his next project.
It is an emotional and heart-rending chronicle about raising in the dirt-poor of the Alabama hills--and all about moving on with the life but never actually being capable to leave (Bragg, 1997, p. 183). The exceptional blessing for evocation and thoughtful insight and the dramatic voice for the account--notifying readers that author has gained a Pulitzer Award for this featured writing. It is a wrenching account of his own upbringing and family. The story moves around a war haunted, alcoholic person (Bragg's father) and a determined and loving mother who made hard efforts to safeguard her children from the harsh effects of poverty and ignorance, which has constricted her own living standard. In this account, author was talented enough to create for himself on the strength of his mother's support and strong conviction. He left house only to follow his dreams and pursue a respectable career in life, however he is strongly linked to his ancestry. In addition, the memoir shows the efforts of Bragg in which he has both compensated and took revenge from the cruelties of his early childhood. Author's approach towards his past seems quite ambivalent and
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. Web log post. Blogs.harrisonhigh.org. N.p., 29 July 2013. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
In life, everyone experiences a time of hardship, and for the most part, those affected find methods of overcoming the adversity. The idea of getting through hardship is best reflected in; Sherman J. Alexie’s story “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” (274). In the story, victor whose father had recently died from a heart attack has to travel to phoenix Arizona to reclaim his father’s ashes and his truck. Victor is joined by his former childhood friend “Thomas Builds-the-fire”, who finances the trip to phoenix since Victor did not have the means. They drove back truck from phoenix to the reservation. Throughout the trip, Thomas is always telling stories mostly reminiscing about their childhood. It is through Thomas stories that we learn much about Victor’s father. Through the use of symbolism, and character development, Alexie conveys the idea that, when someone is experiencing an adversity, reconnecting and embracing the past may lead to a discovery of a brighter future.
In Wilder's, Little House on the Prairie, Williams illustrated an important event that contributes to a change, confrontation or celebration for the family. In the first few pages of the story Williams illustrated the dramatic good-byes the family receives from relatives and friends. Williams shows you a little bit of everything that is going on in the beginning in preparation for a long wagon trip. In the picture, the reader sees Pa and other men getting the horses ready to hitch to the wagon, as well as the families belongings packed in the wagon. One can also see by the lights and darks of the picture that it is still semi dark outside and probably fairly early in the morning. One can tell this by the glow of the lanterns that a few people are holding. Beyond the drawing of the wagon the readers is not able to see any facial expressions in this picture, but only their profiles of the people.
The first reason Brother is responsible for Doodle’s death is, the fact that the narrator knew about his heart condition, and put too much strain on his body. Brother was fully aware that Doodle wasn’t capable of doing all of the things all of the other children
In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.
The novel, The Sisters Brothers, written by Patrick deWitt is the story of two adventurous brothers named Eli and Charlie who travel from Oregon to San Francisco during the gold rush in the 1850s. The brothers are hired to find and kill a man named Hermann Warm. They run into a wide range of tough situations and sketchy characters such a rich businessman named Mayfield who runs his own town. The brothers have two very different characters which affect how they are to react to these situations. Eli is sweet, caring and chivalrous while Charlie is a quiet, angry man who was forced as a child to kill his father to protect his mother. Deep down they are both violent, cold blooded killers. Along their journey to San Francisco, Eli has an internal conflict to decide wether he wants to keep living the killer’s life or settle down and start a shop with his brother. When they arrived in San Francisco, they become exposed to the “gold fever” which was caused by the gold rush. Instead of killing their target they befriend Warm and search the rivers for gold to become rich. Sadly, Warm tragically dies from the chemicals and Charlie is burned and forced to have his hand cut off which leads to the brothers returning home to their mother as changed men.
The narrator in James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, at first glance seems to be a static character, trying to forget the past and constantly demeaning his brother’s choices in life. Throughout the story, readers see how the narrator has tried to forget the past. However, his attempt to forget the past soon took a turn. When the narrator’s daughter died, he slowly started to change. As the narrator experiences these changes in his life, he becomes a dynamic character.
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. 1930. Edited by Noel Polk. New York: Vintage, 1985. Print.
“Entrance to the Woods” is about a man who goes camping in the wilderness one weekend to take a needed vacation from his hectic urban lifestyle. On the trip, the narrator realizes his symbolic place in the woods, as well as the place that mankind has made in the world. He struggles with the negative effects that come from urbanization and the relentless progress for both mankind and nature. Berry’s genius lies in his use of diction to seamlessly use both the natural and activist personas, creating a stance and an image that leads the reader to his own thoughts, which have been manipulated by his perspective. While settling into the woods, his pace gets slower and he becomes aware of his surroundings. The natural world around him helps him realize that man must slow down and pay attention to the harmful effects of quick actions, such as rushing into a war or tearing up precious land for harmful coal mining. As he is able to fully stop and look around, he’s able to think clearly. The distractions of his hectic life are swallowed up by the peaceful calmness of the woods. Berry stat...
As readers, we are able to see the different perspectives of the effects of physical distance that derives from immigration. For instance, when the Danticat’s parents left for the first time to the United States Danticat does not remember much of it. However, what she does remember are the stories that her half sister, Marie Micheline, told her about her father when they were gone. She told her stories of how the year before her father left he would buy Danticat a small package of butter cookies. He would bring these cookies home to Danticat and her face would light up. She didn’t particularly like the cookies, so she would would give them back to her father and her would joyfully pop them right into his mouth. I believe this shows the acute nostalgia that is developed in children as a result of not growing up with their parents. Children like Danticat love to hear these type of stories because they can embellish them as much as they want to. By doing this, they assure themselves that they are indeed loved by the parent(s) that left. Another instance of how physical distance has effect on the author’s life is through her Uncle Joseph. Even though she lived half of her life in the United States, Uncle Joseph still has a special place in her heart because he raised her in Haiti when her father and mother moved to the U.S. When her uncle gets stuck at customs at the Miami airport and goes to the Krome jail, Danticat is upset. She understands the severity of racism and cruelty that is undergone by the prisoners of Krome. Because she loves her uncle like a father, it defeats Danticat knowing that she is physically close to the jail but can not do anything in terms of helping him. When uncle Joseph dies under the Krome’s care Danticat is devastated by the news. She doesn’t know how to cope with herself
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
Death is inevitable to all forms of life. In giving birth to a typical family, Flannery O’Connor immediately sets the tone for their deaths, in the story, A Good Man is Hard To Find. O'Connor’s play on words, symbolism and foreshadowing slowly paves the way for the family’s death.
Nonetheless, there was one more death in the family to come in the following years, this time one that actually benefitted the young man. His grandfather in Ireland died an...