FIRST PARAGRAPHS
First paragraphs are fundamental to the story and need to “hook” the reader in. If the first paragraph doesn’t grab you, then why would you read further? The first paragraph is where you are introduced to the tone of the story and sets the stage by introducing the main character(s) and giving information to entice us to continue reading.
Three stories that have strong first paragraphs that draw us in and help us understand the character and story are: “A Sick Call” by Morley Callaghan, “A Bird In The House” by Margaret Laurence, and “One Evening” by David Helwig.
In the first paragraph of “A Sick Call” we are introduced to Father Macdowell, a “huge, old priest” who “was a bit deaf in one ear”. We are also told that “nothing seemed to shock or excite him, or make him really angry”. Thus, it appears that something later on in the story may test Father Macdowell’s fortitude and we are drawn to read on. When we do, we discover why his size and deafness are important.
In “A Bird In The House”, the first paragraph introduces us to Vanessa, the main character, and tells us that she has skipped an important parade. The time of year is also pinpointed by mentioning the Remembrance Day parade and the “snowy wind”. This makes us want to read on to discover why Vanessa missed the parade and what made it, and the time of year, so important to her family.
Miss Machry, in “One Evening”, is described to us right away in the first paragraph. We get the sense of her character in the way she “waved the old Japanese fan”, because the fan was delicate and it could only be preserved by “the gentlest of handling”. The fan is the link to her mother and father and how she had come to this moment. Miss Machry is looking out the window and waiting on someone “there was no sign of him yet.
Finally the actions and feelings of the other characters successfully shows the development of McMurphy as a Christ figure and hero. Clearly smiliarities can be drawn between McMurphy and Jesus' healing. Jesus, made blind men see and mute men speak. McMurphy is the one who prompted the Chief to speak for the first time in years, when he says "Thank-you." (Page 184) and eventually, McMurphy "heals" Chief of his `deafness' and `dumbness'.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
The birds show symbolism in more than one way throughout the text. As the soldiers are travelling from all over the world to fight for their countries in the war, the birds are similarly migrating for the change of seasons. The birds however, will all be returning, and many of the soldiers will never return home again. This is a very powerful message, which helps the reader to understand the loss and sorrow that is experienced through war.
Reading is a common pastime and hobby for many people. Whether it’s poetry, fiction novels, or biographies, there is a type of literature for everyone. Short stories are a great type of writing because while they are not too long, they have a fair amount of plot and literary devices. “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl and “The Lady, or the Tiger” by Frank R. Stockton are two short stories that engage readers and leave them to infer various big details. While they both are excellent passages, “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a far superior story.
What takes an entire paragraph for some writers to covey is a clipped sentence for Hempel or Beattie. Each word is necessary and saturated with meaning, thus eliminating the need for excess. And no sentence is as important as the first. The initial sentence must incite intrigue and contain insight to the contents of the story. It is the foundation upon which the entire work is built.
In general, “Collective-bargaining refers to the continuous process in which representatives of the employer (government) and employees (the union) meet jointly to establish the terms and conditions of employment for workers in a bargaining unit.” (Kearney 2009, 88) Bothe parties should meet and confer in good faith.
'Young Goodman Brown,' by Hawthorne, and 'The Tell Tale Heart,' by Poe, offer readers the chance to embark on figurative and literal journeys, through our minds and our hearts. Hawthorne is interested in developing a sense of guilt in his story, an allegory warning against losing one's faith. The point of view and the shift in point of view are symbolic of the darkening, increasingly isolated heart of the main character, Goodman Brown, an everyman figure in an everyman tale. Poe, however, is concerned with capturing a sense of dread in his work, taking a look at the motivations behind the perverseness of human nature. Identifying and understanding the point of view is essential, since it affects a reader's relationship to the protagonist, but also offers perspective in situations where characters are blinded and deceived by their own faults. The main character of Poe?s story embarks on an emotional roller coaster, experiencing everything from terror to triumph. Both authors offer an interpretation of humans as sinful, through the use of foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism and, most importantly, point of view. Hawthorne teaches the reader an explicit moral lesson through the third person omniscient point of view, whereas Poe sidesteps morality in favor of thoroughly developing his characters in the first person point of view.
In A Bird in the House, Margaret Laurence is able to incorporate many themes and motifs into her stories such as, war, tragedy, religion, and faith. Another theme that is also shown throughout the book is identity, both national and individual identity. National identity is defined as “ a sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, etc.”, while individual identity is what makes a person unique, it is what a person believes, thinks and feels. Sometimes in life identity gets mixed up and can become a confusing aspect of life. People are a product of their environment, which is a factor in shaping identity. The protagonist in the book, Vanessa MacLeod, witnesses and experiences both types of identity. She sees the influence of the Canadian national identity in her Grandfather Connor, Scottish heritage in her Grandmother MacLeod, Irish heritage in her Uncle Dan, which ultimately influence Vanessa’s personal identity.
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.
The two short stories that I have chosen by Edgar Allan Poe are The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat. These two stories in particular have many things in common as far as technique goes, but they do have some significant differences between the two. In this paper I will try to compare and contrast these two short stories and hopefully bring something to the readers attention that wasn't there at first.
Edgar Allan Poe was an excellent horror, suspense, and mystery writer of the eighteenth century. His use of literary devices and different literary techniques makes this writer important to American literature. This paper will show how Edgar Allan Poe has made an impact on Society and American literature as well as how Edgar Allan Poe developed the short story. I will also discuss and analyze some of his works and techniques he uses in his short stories and poems.
The collective bargaining rights of the worker are disappearing at alarming rates. Data from the...
daunting mass, lies on the page something so obscured that it can only communicate Grandfather’s amplified silence (Foer, #). As Atchison notes on this occasion, “no room yields no voice” (Atchison, 365). In this instance, Grandfather’s representation of language serves as a symbolic release as he struggles to express the disorder that resulted from his personal trauma. The chaos of Grandfather’s communication, therefore, serves not only to emphasize the survivor’s linguistic processing of his psychological aftermath, but also the effect that takes place on the audience as they attempt to make sense of his coping method.
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.
The term collective bargaining is quite common within organizational circles. The term captures the reality of the issues that exist in the relationship between employers and workers. Indeed, employers need employees to provide the necessary labor to achieve organizational goals. Irrespective of whether the employer is the government or from the private sector, collective bargaining is an important element for ensuring a better working relationship with employees. To understand this, it is prudent to provide a definition of collective bargaining because it captures its essence. Collective bargaining entails a negotiation process between employers and workers regarding better employment terms and working conditions. Often, employers and employees