Over the past few weeks I have finished Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, which was 328 pages long. Also, I read and finished Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, which was 275 pages long. The novel The Art of Racing in the Rain ended in a way that I never expected. The grandparents accused Denny of raping a teenage girl, and brought him to court for it. They coveted Zoe and did this so that they could receive full custody over her. Denny worked day after day with his lawyer to be able to prove that he did not rape her. In the midst of all the commotion, an Italian driving school owner approached Denny to see if he would be interested in moving there with his family to help run the school. Also, Enzo’s health has been depreciating and he is not doing too well. Once the court date arrived, it ended in the favor of Denny and he was able to keep his little Zoe. Enzo ended up dying, but came back later in the novel as a person. When Denny and Zoe moved to Italy to the professional school, one of the student’s name was Enzo, and Denny was convinced that it was him coming back to say hello. In Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five the author recalls his life living through World War 2. He …show more content…
tells it through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim. The novel skips around his life in no chronological order. It flashes back to when he was a kid, a teenager, when he fought in the war in Germany and Poland, and when he died. It tells us about his feelings, encounters, and what he endured through in the war. Vonnegut brings to life the conditions of being in the camps in Poland. Billy witnesses many events that he wish he had not, including some of his acquaintences being slaughtered right before his eyes, and some of his inmate’s dying of hunger while on the train. While reading these 2 novels, I have been connecting, questioning, and visualizing. While reading Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, I have been connecting to how Denny felt when Enzo died at the end of the book.
Enzo was his whole world and they always knew what the other one needed. “’You’ve always been with me,’ Denny says to me. ‘You’ve always been my Enzo’” (Stein 315). Denny was devastated when Enzo was dying. He had to accept that Enzo lived a great life and that he loved him more than he ever could. I can connect to this because a few years ago my dog died. I had a very good connection with him and loved him very much. I was also devastated when my dog died. His death was spontaneous, unlike Enzo’s so I didn’t have very much time to say goodbye to him. This is one of the ways that I have been connecting while reading The Art of Racing in the
Rain. Also I have been questioning while reading Slaughterhouse-Five. I questioned why the author made Billy Pilgrim unstuck in time in this novel. “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 29). The author never specifically said what happened to make him able to become unstuck in time. Billy skips around to all parts of his life at random times during the novel. I do not understand why the author put this aspect into the book. To me, it makes the book more confusing because at times you do not know what part of his life he is currently in. I think that Vonnegut wanted to put an interesting manner into his writing. It makes the reader think and examine the situation more when he switches to a different time in his life. This is one of the ways that I have questioned while reading this novel. Lastly, I have been visualizing while reading Vonnegut’s novel. One of the scenes that I could visualize the most was when Billy was in the camps at Poland. “The British had no way of knowing it, but the candles and the soap were made from the fat of rendered Jews and Gypsies and fairies and communists, and other enemies of the State” (Vonnegut 122). While reading this, I could clearly see the emaciated inmates sitting in the dark room, with the candles made out of their at one time acquaintances lighting their pathway. I couldn’t imagine living while knowing all of the ones who were killed in the camps are all around you. Although the inmates were not told that the candles were made out of other people’s fat, I think that they got the inkling that they were. This is one of the ways that I have been visualizing while reading Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Throughout the last few weeks, I have been connecting, questioning, and visualizing while reading Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. I am currently looking for another book that is similar the The Art of Racing in the Rain. I think that I should receive a 9.5/10 on this journal because I out a lot of time and effort into making sure that this novel is to the best of my ability.
Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, he retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless by putting together interviews, speaking with people who knew him, and using letters he writes to his companions. Chris McCandless also known as Alexander Supertramp is a bright young man and after graduating from Emory University with all honors, he abandons most of his possessions and travels around the west, making long lasting impact on whomever he meets. He then hitchhikes to Alaska where he is found dead. In chapter 14 and 15, both named “Stikine Ice Cap”, Jon Krakauer interrupts the boy's story and shares his anecdote of going to Alaska to climb a dangerous mountain called the Devils Thumb. Krakaure’s purpose is to refute the argument that McCandless is mentally ill because many others, like Krakauer have tried to “go into the wild” but they are lucky to survive unlike McCandless. While describing his climb, Krakauer exhibits through the descriptions of and uncertainty about personal relationships.
This book Into The Wild is about how a young man wants to get away from the world. He does escape from society, but ends up dying in the process. The author, Jon Krakauer, does a great job of describing Chris McCandless and his faults. Chris is an intelligent college graduate. He went on a two-year road trip and ended up in Alaska. He didn't have any contact with his parents in all of that time. Krakauer does a great job of interviewing everyone who had anything to do with McCandless from his parents, when he grew up, to the people who found his body in Alaska.
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.� Dale Carnegie believed that perseverance could overcome even the harshest obstacles. Perseverance is inspired by a purpose, an unsatisfied drive to achieve a goal. During a cataclysmic event, only people with a purpose endure.
Under what circumstances would you go through to better and provide for your family? Would you embark on these six deadly sins above to just get a simple loaf of bread on the table? There is no solid blame or black and white definite answer throughout this novel, The Devil’s Highway. The author Luis Alberto Urrea takes his readers to different perspectives and offers different points of view whether you appear to be a walker, coyote, or the border control on the topic of illegal immigration. Being that Urrea puts the reader in each person shoe’s and truly sees what immense, harsh, conditions for example these immigrants had to go through. Again there is no solid blame or black and white answers, both sides are at fault and in need of a solution to the problem.
For a novel to be considered a Great American Novel, it must contain a theme that is uniquely American, a hero that is the essence of a great American, or relevance to the American people. Others argue, however, that the Great American Novel may never exist. They say that America and her image are constantly changing and therefore, there will never be a novel that can represent the country in its entirety. In his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes about war and its destructiveness. Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an unlikely hero, mentally scarred by World War Two. Kurt Vonnegut explains how war is so devastating it can ruin a person forever. These are topics that are reoccurring in American history and have a relevance to the American people thus making Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five a Great American Novel.
Everyday people are put into several situations in which they have to conduct themselves accordingly. This may mean that they need to reinvent themselves. In many pieces of literature, characters are thrown into circumstances that require them to change who they are and how they act. In the novel The Art Of Racing In The Rain the author Garth Stein illustrates many situations where one or more characters are forced to change who they are and how they live. Yann Martel wrote, “It is circumstance that enables is to reinvent ourselves and the world around us.” Denny is put in certain circumstances in which he is forced to change his life. Buying Enzo, Eve dying and his court battle with the Twins made him reinvent himself constantly.
This independent reading assignment is dedicated to Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut experienced many hardships during and as a result of his time in the military, including World War II, which he portrays through the protagonist of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim. Slaughterhouse-Five, however, not only introduces these military experiences and the internal conflicts that follow, but also alters the chronological sequence in which they occur. Billy is an optometry student that gets drafted into the military and sent to Luxembourg to fight in the Battle of Bulge against Germany. Though he remains unscathed, he is now mentally unstable and becomes “unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 30). This means that he is able to perceive
1. Define 'satire' and provide one example of personal or social satire that yoou have encountered. You may use any source for your example:TV, media, news editorials, movies, comedy, etc.
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
Freedom is one of the many great qualities of life, but when it is taken away, life could turn out to be anything but great. Freedom to think, repent, and refuse should be incorporated in ones daily routine, but under an authoritarian dystopian society, these freedoms are only dreamt of. When society draws such attitudes and lifestyles upon its citizens, one adapts and accepts these requests, but not without a compromise. In Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece ‘The Lottery’ and Kurt Vonnegut’s exceptional story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, human life is so often sacrificed and withdrawn that is becomes a norm in society. Forcing people to agree with someone else’s ideology of harmony and success cannot be achieved without discarding the non-believers. Both dystopian societies possess excessive force on their civilians, with harsh consequences resulting in death. Traditional values and dictatorship laws forcefully overcome the mass population’s beliefs, resulting in obedience and respect to the laws of society. By comparing and contrasting the short story ‘The Lottery’ and ‘Harrison Bergeron’, it can be derived that these societies have strict rules and regulations, citizens of the society have become so adapted that they are afraid of change, and there is a severe lack of freedom.
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
The Road, a post-apocalyptic, survival skills fiction book written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 is part of the Oprah Winfrey book club. During an interview with Oprah, McCarthy answered questions about The Road that he had never been asked before because pervious to the interview he had never been interviewed. Oprah asked what inspired the heart breaking book; it turns out that McCarthy wrote the book after taking a vacation with his son John. While on the vacation he imagined the world fifty years later and seen fire in the distant hills. After the book was finished, McCarthy dedicated it to his son, John. Throughout the book McCarthy included things that he knows he and his son would do and conversations that he thinks they may have had. (Cormac). Some question if the book is worth reading for college course writing classes because of the amount of common writing “rule breaks”. After reading and doing assignments to go along with The Road, I strongly believe that the novel should be required for more college courses such as Writing and Rhetoric II. McCarthy wrote the book in a way to force readers to get out of their comfort zones; the book has a great storyline; so doing the assignments are fairly easy, and embedded in the book are several brilliant survival tactics.
Throughout his career, Kurt Vonnegut has used writing as a tool to convey penetrating messages and ominous warnings about our society. He skillfully combines vivid imagery with a distinctly satirical and anecdotal style to explore complex issues such as religion and war. Two of his most well known, and most gripping, novels that embody this subtle talent are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both books represent Vonnegut’s genius for manipulating fiction to reveal glaring, disturbing and occasionally redemptive truths about human nature. On the surface, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are dramatically different novels, each with its own characters, symbols, and plot. However, a close examination reveals that both contain common themes and ideas. Examining and comparing the two novels and their presentation of different themes provides a unique insight into both the novels and the author – allowing the reader to gain a fuller understanding of Vonnegut’s true meaning.
he doesn't he even own one. This where you can see how he is different