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Effective writing
Essays on nihilism
Learning to write effectively
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How Does a Writer Engage a Reader?
It's still snowing. The wind is so strong; it is hard to stay upright. I'm lost in a blizzard. Ahead of me, I see a faint glow. Is it a lamp in my house? I tell myself, "Keep moving toward the light." Left, right, left, right, up, down, I keep walking. I'm so cold. I press on, but the light remains just out of range. Left, right, left, right, up, down. The light grows brighter. Now it dims. I suddenly realize that I'm walking in circles.
Where do I go with this paper? How do I get beyond the theme? Why is this assignment so difficult for me to grasp? Intellectually I understand the assignment, at least the right side of my brain does. The left side of my brain seems to be disengaged. Every time I feel like I've nearly got "it,""it" vanishes, eluding me once more.
I never realized how difficult it was to break the writing habits learned throughout life. "Themewriting" may not be good writing, but I fear it is the only kind of writing I've ever done. I believe that "theme writing" may still have value and that "themewriting" is undesirable because it fails to engage the reader and to communicate anything of substance.
How does a writer communicate and engage a reader? Is it by using a lot of details? The author of The Innocent Nihilist used a lot of details. Those details didn't help me understand it any better. I still am confused about what he was trying to communicate to me. Did Lee really dislike his dog? Was he happy when the dog was killed? Or, was Lee just happy that he wasn't the one hit by the car. The author caught my attention initially by his use of dialogue, much as Mike's attention was held by Lee's story. A lot of details were present, but they didn't help me any with this story. Another paper, Martin Luther King, also used details. It told me where Martin Luther King was educated and what some of his religious convictions were, but it failed to reveal the whole man. It didn't develop his character or reveal his passions. The paper had some details, but it fell short of my expectations.
It's still snowing. It's been snowing since noon. The wind is howling; it must be at least 30 m.p.h.
The freezing wind had chilled my hand to the bone. Even as I walked into my cabin, I shivered as if there was an invisible man shaking me. My ears, fingers, toes, and noes had turned into a pale purple, only starting to change color once I had made a fire and bundled myself in blankets like ancient Egyptians would do to their deceased Pharaohs. The once powdered snow on my head had solidified into a thin layer of ice. I changed out of the soaking wet clothes I was wearing and put on new dry ones. With each layer I became more excited to go out and start snowboarding. I headed for the lift with my board and my hand. Each step was a struggle with the thick suit of snow gear I was armored in.
The excessive use of detail is a primary way that Salinger keeps his reader interested in his stories (Kazin 296). At all times in the story Salinger describes something. A prime example of the excessive use of detail is the following:
Even though both the stories are entirely different with respect to their subject matter, an invisible chain of commonality binds them together. The settings of both these stories have contributed in a great way to the theme, characterization and the tone of the story. Although the settings are not static in the above mentioned stories, it is dynamic and has a major role to play in both the stories. The settings provide insightful views for the major characters in Hills like White Elephants and The Yellow Wallpaper.
Themes are central to the plot of any story. In fact, themes are the purpose to an author writing anything. By definition, a theme is the subject or topic of a work. Some themes, like that in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” are more obvious, while others, such as, “Hills Like White Elephants” are less clear and require readers to do some deep reading and critical thinking in order to identify the purpose of it, and through strong reading techniques, audiences will find valuable lessons embedded within the themes can enlighten and even revive our thinking.
Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied. A stated theme is a theme “that the other expresses directly in his work (protic.net); an implied theme is a theme “that is not directly stated in the work” (protic.net). As mentioned before, both of these stories have an implied theme, which now is revealed to mean that the author of the story insinuated it. Themes exist in all stories (verbal or written) and can be long, short, true or false. “Earth people will beat out any other intelligent life-form in any and all competitions” is a theme, but “good always beats evil” is one too. “Once upon a time . . .” stories have themes too, except they are more one-dimensional. For example,...
Hemingway, Earnest "Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Simon, Peter. Portable 10th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. (343-55). Print
Yanling, Shi. "The Style and the Theme of Loss in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants." Studies in Literature and Language (2013): 107-109. ProQuest.
selection of detail, the author captivates the audience in an engrossing article that pulls at the readers
Kenneth G. Johnston once wrote, "His stories came back in the mail, slipped through the slit in the saw-mill door where he lived, 'with notes of rejection that would never call them stories, but always anecdotes, sketches, contes, etc,'" (Johnston). This statement that may suggest that Hemingway's stories were not very well liked, but in the end they were a big hit. Literature is a very interesting topic and is a very helpful tool to the future. The best kind of literature are short stories. One very interesting short story is called “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway shows the themes in his writing by being very obvious about some of them and not so obvious about others. Some of the themes in “Hills Like White Elephants” include relationships, men and woman, and many others as well. Hemingway’s use of literary elements lets the readers analyze the many themes in the short story. Hemingway uses various literary elements in his short stories to help the readers analyze the themes deeply.
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway uses dialogue, euphemism, and symbolism to characterize his two main characters, the woman and the man.
Dave started walking home. The winter was the worst time of the year for him. He had tons of paper work, and not enough light to work with. The generator he was able to afford could only power a small wattage of lights and it simply was not enough to work with. My eyes are already bad enough, he thought as he pulled off his glasses to clean the snow from the lenses. Dave readjusted his hat to better cover his face and slid the bifocals back on his nose. Snow crunched under his feet as he trudged home. It was a particularly dead night and not even the moon dared to show his face. He had no car's headlights to light his path. All he had was the occasional street lamp, ...
Snow bites my ankles as I stop to listen to the trees whining. As I look down at the little, iron full, freezing stream. I touch my smooth, dark, frigid camera, I found the perfect place to take my picture. Walking over a few feet from the stream to take the picture, the birds start to sing, leaves plunge from the tops of trees, and the squirrels dart away chattering.
Kobler, J.F. "Hemingway's HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS." EBSCOhost. Academic Search Complete, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
Reading motivation incorporates pivotal attributes (interest, perceived control, self-efficacy, involvement, and social collaboration) that represent the foundations of internal reading motivation. The interrelation between these constructs was empirically identified in Guthrie et al.’s (2007) study when they examined fifth graders’ reading motivation and reading comprehension growth. They found significant correlations between them. Accordingly,
It’s December of 1967, the snowfall had begun early this year, but whether it came in inches or buckets, I could hardly wait for weekends. Playing outside in the snow was awesome. When I was nine years old, a Saturday morning routine consisted of my older brother’s and I waking up to a warm bowl of oatmeal with a raisin smiley face, and thirty minutes of mom methodically layering us with snow pants and jackets, socks and boots, hats and mittens, and a scarf. One by one we rushed outside to begin our day. I remember waddling down sidewalks with mountains of snow on each side, fierce snowball fights with neighbors across the street, swirling angels’ wings in a fresh layer of snow, and cheers for finding the biggest icecycle. Our annual snowman displayed a warm hat and scarf, two branches from the maple tree in our front yard, raisins and a carrot for the eyes and nose. My brothers and I would stay outside for hours and hours, only coming inside when we were called to dinner or could no longer see in the dark. A delicious hot meal or a cup of hot chocolate would be waiting at the table after we left a mound of winter clothes at the door. My day always ended with mom tucking me in with a good book and a kiss good night, and I’d fall asleep dreaming of endless possibilities in the snow. Life was good, I didn’t want for anything; mom and dad anticipated my needs before I even knew them.