Story: “Pillar of Salt”, 1991 Author: Shirley Jackson (1919-1965) Jackson wanted her readers to be aware “’of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.’” (Gioia, Kennedy 247) Protagonist: Margaret optimistically vacations to New York City, but her emotions take a quick turn and she becomes filled with anxiety over the change of pace that the city offers. Other characters: Supporting character, Brad, Margaret’s husband, visits the city with his wife and serves as a crutch in which Margaret can express her feelings. The New Yorkers who “hurled on in a frantic action” (243). Setting: New York City, where there is “a definite autumn awareness” (238), the streets are claustrophobic and the people appear aloof.
Point of view: Third person with instances of untagged indirect speech such as, “dumb thing, turning back and forth…with no purpose and no meaning.” (252) Events in summary: (1) Margaret and her husband, Brad are on a train excitedly awaiting their arrival to New York City for two weeks. (2) After their arrival, the two visit a friend who is hosting a gathering when people begin shouting, “’your house is on fire,’” (240). (3) Margaret begins to feel “’trapped…in a strange city’” (241), when her anxiety intensifies. (4) She notices the shortfalls of the city; she is not noticed, the buildings are disintegrating, and the people are always in a rush. (5) Margaret needs a break from the city life, so they visit the beach and find a leg washed up on shore as a result of a murder; the city is where people begin to “come apart” (248). (6) Upset by the series of unfortunate events, Margaret decides to get paper from the corner shop to write home, however, she finds herself in panic when she cannot cross the street due to the traffic and finds herself in a conflict with her own anxiety. (7) Margaret’s anxiety finally takes over which causes her to depend on Brad to save her from her current emotional state. Tone: Adventurous when the husband and wife leave their hometown to visit the city. Skeptical when no one responds to the screams of the fire. Depressing when the city buildings are crumpling because the pace of the city is too quick. Horrified when Margaret realizes she can no longer fight her anxiety. Style: The reader is on the path of a mental breakdown alongside of Margaret. Jackson’s style starts off whimsically and then gradually builds up the tension by using more grave adverbs such as “blindly” and “desperately” (250-251). Jackson uses repetition to engrave the worries of her character into the mind of the reader. Theme: (1)“Don’t judge a book by its cover” (2) Internal Conflict (3) Country versus City Symbols: The fire mocks that nature should be the only force threatening life, but the city kills, which can be seen in Margaret’s growth in anxiety. The “soundlessly crumpled” (249) buildings symbolize Margaret’s mental state, once a solid foundation, now breaking under pressure. The traffic light signifies the urgency to get through life alongside the untimeliness of fear. Evaluation: Shirley Jackson’s literary works showcase her ability to focus in on destruction rooted from human actions. “The Pillar of Salt” depicts the city’s destruction because “[t]he people were moving faster than ever before” (243); “Charles” represents the destruction of Charles, or Laurie, due to deceits; “The Lottery” displays the destruction, or killing, of the townspeople due to their own pointless traditions.
Davis, Cynthia A. "Self, Society, and Myth in Toni Morrison's Fiction." Contemporary Literature 23.3 (1982)
As Jacqueline got to the age where her grandparents home was just a constant routine, never seen as anything but a cycle, her mother takes her and the family to New York for “new opportunities”. Jackie thinks of the idea as an adventure till she sees the pale grey streets
Coontz, Stephanie. “For Better, For Worse.” The Contemporary Reader. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. 10th edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. 496-499. Print.
Growing up on the North/South Carolina border, Jackson’s exact state of birth is debatable. Unlike most historians, Jacksons ascertained that he was from South Carolina. Wherever he actually grew up, it is unequivocal that it was a truculent and violent place to be raised. During his childhood, Jackson became accustomed to the social imperatives of the land; hard work, and military spirit. Specifically, in his hometown, one used “[their ]military spirit to defend yourself, and [their] hands to pull something out of the soil”. Here, Meachem believes the constant exhaustion and threat of violence was “one of the many reasons Jackson became a man who was so prone to violence. He grew up with it, he didn’t know anything else”.
Words can have a profound, meaningful impact that may alter, shift, and even end lives. In “Create Dangerously”, Edwidge Danticat reveals how words crafted her reality and identity as a woman who lived through a dictatorship. “Create Dangerously” is a nonfiction essay and memoir that focuses on the impact of literature not only in dire times, but in everyday life. Through the use of detail, allusions, and vivid recounting of the past in her writing, Danticat reveals importance and valor of creating art in times where art is a death sentence, and how this belief shaped her identity.
To read the Civil War diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl, is to meander through the personal, cultural and political experience of both the author and one's self. Her writing feels like a bullet ricocheted through war, time, death, literary form, femininity, youth, state, freedom and obligation. This investigation attempts to do the same; to touch on the many issues that arise in the mind of the reader when becoming part of the text through the act of reading. This paper will lay no definitive claims to the absolute meaning of the diary, for it has many possible interpretations, for the journey is the ultimate answer. I seek to acknowledge the fluidity of thought when reading, a fluidity which incorporates personal experience with the content of Williamson's journal. I read the journal personally- as a woman, a peer in age to Alice Williamson, a surrogate experiencialist, a writer, an academic and most of all, a modern reader unaccustomed to the personal experience of war. I read the text within a context- as a researcher versed on the period, genre, aesthetics, and to some degree the writer herself. The molding of the personal and contextual create a rich personalized textual meaning .
Metress, Christopher. "No Justice, No Peace': The Figure of Emmett Till in African American Literature." MasterFILE Premier. N.p., 2007. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
"To Autumn." Brooklyn College English Department. Brooklyn College, 19 Feb. 2009. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. .
When Shirley Jackson published this story, the audience responded with negative feedback; it terrified the readers to read about such cruelty and inhumanity. Jackson wrote this story to show the reality of corrupt society and the underlying secrets of wickedness hidden in human nature. Through this story, people can see the truth and value of reality and realize that the world is full of immoral practices and beliefs. Jackson creates a parallel society that could be compared to the world and represented by certain events.
faces reality when moving to Chicago to find a job. She realizes material things are not as easy to
As much as society does not want to admit, violence serves as a form of entertainment. In media today, violence typically has no meaning. Literature, movies, and music, saturated with violence, enter the homes of millions everyday. On the other hand, in Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison, violence contributes greatly to the overall work. The story takes place during the age of the enslavement of African-Americans for rural labor in plantations. Sethe, the proud and noble protagonist, has suffered a great deal at the hand of schoolteacher. The unfortunate and seemingly inevitable events that occur in her life, fraught with violence and heartache, tug at the reader’s heart-strings. The wrongdoings Sethe endures are significant to the meaning of the novel.
account of success and its unhappy fallout, and a great look into New York City life
The arrival to Manhattan was like an entry to a whole new world: from the sea, its breezes, color, and landscapes, to the heart of the city beating louder than ever at the Whitehall Terminal. I could smell New York’s bagels in Battery Park with a mixture of the most relaxing scents: the coffee people were holding while walking down the streets, the old walls of Castle Clinton ...
Murphy, Bernice M. Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2005. Print.
In Beloved, Toni Morrison sought to show the reader the interior life of slavery through realism and foreshadowing. In all of her novels, Toni Morrison focused on the interior life of slavery, loss, love, the community, and the supernatural by using realism and vivid language. Morrison had cast a new perspective on the nation’s past and even suggests- though makes no promise- that people of strength and courage may be able to achieve a somewhat less destructive future” (Bakerman 173). Works Cited Bakerman, Jane S.