The novel Erasure by Percival Everett explores the development of writer Monk Ellison as well as the frame tale Monk sells. After writing My Pafology, Monk continues to struggle with his sister’s death, his mother’s deteriorating health, and the growing sense that he has “sold out”. Monk writes about story ideas, his feelings on art form, and flashbacks to when his father was alive or when he was an adolescent. Through these vignettes of Monk’s thoughts, separated by three ominous X’s, we find not only the extreme intelligence that he has, but also the sadness and isolation his “uniqueness” has brought him. Specifically, he ruins his relationship with Marilyn by criticizing how the book We’s Lives in da Ghetto was on her nightstand, the book …show more content…
that Monk despises the most. Marilyn, confused, says, “Yeah, I just finished [the book]. It was pretty good” (188). The disconnect from the tremendous hatred Monk has for the book and Marilyn’s misunderstanding that Monk was mad at her for her relationship with Clevon, broke the fragile relationship that they had formed. Monk craves intimacy and connection with others, feeling like maybe he had found it with Marilyn, only to have the book that he hates the most come between them. Erasure has many of these instances of Monk failing to connect with people, none of them understanding his intellect or writing, which emphasizes the major theme of isolation in the novel. Monk’s short story about Tom Wahtezee, a made up name, is one of the longer stories he writes in his journal.
Apropos de Bottes, the title of the story meaning ‘without reason or rhythm’, gives the story its central theme and an air of absurdum. The characters and situation are so hilariously extreme that the politics and meaning of the story are more clear; perhaps a backlash from Monk who assumed that everyone would know My Pafology was a parody and yet received a substantial amount of money for it to be published “seriously”. The questions and answers that Tom and the other contestant on Virtue et Amis, are both so ridiculous that the reader follows Tom’s reactions to the absurdity. Tom, an African American man, answers extremely difficult and obscure questions with ease while Mr. Dullard, a white man, receives particularly easy questions and answers them wrongly. Also, before the show, Tom was shown into the Make-up department and had essentially a black-face put on him, as he was not “black” enough to be on Virtue et Amis. When Tom notes how he looks like a clown, the make up artist says “Rules are rules. You wouldn’t want to confuse the folks viewing at home, now would you?” (174). These notable examples of the racism Tom feels seems to signify Monk wrapping his mind over race as a social construct. He, as Tom does, does not understand why everything for him has to constantly be about race and stereotypes. Growing up, Monk felt that he was always on the outside, not black enough to understand ‘slang’ or Black-culture. He felt confused when his books would be rejected for not being Black
enough. The role of the audience of the game show is also vital to Monk’s conversation about race. The audience is obvious about wanting the white man, Mr. Dullard, to win even though his intellect is much lower than Tom’s. When Tom eventually does win, the audience “made no sounds. They were dead” (178). Monk shows that audience is severely uncomfortable with Tom’s intelligence as it does not fit their stereotypes of African Americans as less smart than White Americans. They are dead, either figuratively or literally, at the end of the story because Tom has managed to pull through the racial discrimination and win the game. This short story unpacks so much commentary from both Monk and Everett as to how Black is manifested and perceived by different audiences. Monk uses the story to capture the helplessness, isolation, and absurdity of race in America.
Before going to Alaska, Chris McCandless had failed to communicate with his family while on his journey; I believe this was Chris’s biggest mistake. Chris spent time with people in different parts of the nation while hitchhiking, most of them whom figured out that McCandless kept a part of him “hidden”. In chapter three, it was stated that Chris stayed with a man named Wayne Westerberg in South Dakota. Although Westerberg was not seen too often throughout the story, nevertheless he was an important character. Introducing himself as Alex, McCandless was in Westerberg’s company for quite some time: sometimes for a few days, other times for several weeks. Westerberg first realized the truth about Chris when he discovered his tax papers, which stated that “McCandless’s real name was Chris, not Alex.” Wayne further on claims that it was obvious that “something wasn’t right between him and his family” (Krakauer 18). Further in the book, Westerberg concluded with the fact that Chris had not spoken to his family “for all that time, treating them like dirt” (Krakauer 64). Westerberg concluded with the fact that during the time he spent with Chris, McCandless neither mentioned his
The Other Wes Moore is a novel that shows the different paths of two different men, one successful and the other not so fortunate. We discovered their different identities and how their choices and role models effect their lives. Wes 1 was led by his brave, hard working mother and the great military men. He didn't make incredibly great decisions but the people in his life helped him turn into the successful man he is today.However, Wes 2 had a brother who dealt drugs. The novel guides you through the 8 crazy years that led to Wes Moore 1's success and Wes Moore 2's life sentence for prison.
The book Blind, written by Rachel DeWoskin, is about a highschool sophomore named Emma, who went blind after being struck in the face with a firework. When she first lost her sight, Emma was placed in a hospital for over 2 months, and once she was released, she could finally go home again. DeWoskin uses the characterization of Emma throughout the beginning of the text to help the reader understand the character’s struggle more. Especially in the first few chapters, it was difficult for Emma to adapt to a world without sight. For instance, DeWoskin writes, “And sat down, numb, on our gold couch. And tried to open my eyes, rocked, counted my legs and arms and fingers. I didn’t cry. Or talk” (DeWoskin 44). As a result of losing a very important scent, she’s started to act differently from a person with sight.
John Knowles wrote a fantastic novel entitled A Separate Peace. Some important character in the novel were Gene, Finny, Leper, and Brinker. Gene and Finny were best friends; Leper was the outcast; Brinker was the “hub of the class” This was a novel about friendship, betrayal, war, peace, and jealousy. Although Gene and Finny were similar in many ways, they also had numerous differences.
“The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” (Moore, 2011). This quote perfectly describes the book The Other Wes Moore. This book was a story about two people who have the same name and grew up in similar environments, but had very different lives. The author of the book, Mr. Moore, became successful and was given the opportunity to receive “one of the most prestigious academic awards for students in the world” (Moore, 2011). On the other side of the spectrum, the other Wes Moore “will spend every day until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and a father of five dead” (Moore, 2011). Mr. Moore decided to contact the
In The Other Wes Moore, the author and a neighbor have the same name, Wes Moore, and they both begin their lives in similar ways. However, as their lives progress, they begin to part. For example, both “lost” their fathers when they were young. Because of the way their mothers respond to this loss, the boys’ lives begin to separate. Both mothers have different responses to challenges in general, which eventually leads them to respond to their child’s actions in contrasting ways. Throughout this novel, readers learn that depending on how a mother decides to react to the negative actions of their child’s actions, the child can either lead a successful life or lead a life of failure.
If it is fun who is going to stop anyone from doing whatever it is. No matter the dangers when the adrenaline is pumping there is a sense of invincibility. In the book Fire In The Ashes by Jonathan Kozol there is a character in chapter 4 Silvio: Invincible who was one of the main characters in that story who proves my point. A bit rebellious and still young Silvio had many different characteristics to describe him perfectly. Silvio had somewhat of a grudge against authority he never really obeyed his mother's wishes or the personnel that worked in Person In Need of Supervision or PINS. Silvio was also a defensive boy who protected himself when he was confronted by a thief who was trying to steal his mothers pager from him on the subway that
Chuck Palahniuk once said “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” When Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy, he thought, and thought about it, until finally, he found out he really wasn’t happy. Guy Montag risked his family, his career, and his life, just to hold banished readings within his home. He went against society to do what he thought was right, even if that meant punishment or death. Montag was a hero because he tried to bring back freedom and independent thought, show off author’s greatest works, and even though he rebelled, and killed a man, he did it with good intentions to help the rest of society.
In the passage from the novel LUCY, author Jamaica Kincaid dramatizes the forces of self and environment, through her character whose identity is challenged with a move. The new home provided all she needed, but it was all so many changes, she “didn’t want to take in anything else” (15-16). Her old “familiar and predictable past”(40) stayed behind her, and she now had to find who she was in her new life. Kincaid uses detail, metaphor, and tone in the passage to show her character’s internal struggle.
Richard Brautigan’s short fiction stories incorporate protagonists that are recognizably fictionalized versions of the author himself. He writes in order to extract his own struggles of the past and the difficulties of discovering himself in the present. Through the characters in The Weather in San Francisco and Corporal, the portrayal of his optimistic view of life as a consequence of the rigors of daily life, and the use of symbols, Brautigan presents his personal story through the words on the paper.
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
“Everett was strange, “Sleight concedes. “kind of different. But him and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.” (67) John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, briefly makes a comparison between two young boys Chris McCandless and Everett Ruess and fills the reader with different perspectives about them and their experiences. While the author wrote about McCandless he is reminded of Ruess and his book Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty written by W.L. Rusho and it sparked an interesting comparison between the two. The use of storytelling and letters about McCandless and the use of Artwork, letters,
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
“The Paper Menagerie” functions as Ken Liu’s cautionary tale. Trauma ebbs and flows through the lives of the short story’s characters, with as much ease as a poisonous snake to its unsuspecting prey. The misfortune endured by Jack and his family is heavy and bordering on sentimentalist, saved only by Liu’s evident meaning behind the extremism. Through intense and generational trauma, Liu invokes an inescapable quality to one’s own heritage.
The movie The Day After Tomorrow is about a paleoclimatologist’s, a person who studies past climates, concerns of how a shift in the world’s climate could cause catastrophic disasters to happen throughout the world. The way that The Day After Tomorrow perceives scientists is that they are determined and they often times have to make difficult decisions. In the movie the character Jack Hall, the paleoclimatologist, displays these two characteristics.