Solomon's The Return of the Screw
Mrs. Grose, playing cleverly on the governess' visions, convinces
her she is seeing Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel in an effort to drive her mad.
At least, that is according to Eric Solomon's "The Return of the Screw."
Mrs. Grose tries to remove the governess to get to Flora.
Mrs. Grose will do anything to gain control of Flora, as she proved
when she murdered Peter Quint. He, along with Ms. Jessel, was too much of
an influence on the children. Quint died somewhat mysteriously, on a path
between town and Bly. He died from a blow on the head, supposedly from
falling upon a rock in the road. The reader's only impression of the
death is through Mrs. Grose's story, though, and so, Solomon hypothesizes,
she filters the information to make it seem less extraordinary a demise.
Perhaps Mrs. Grose killed him out of jealously. The reader can infer from
this point of view that Mrs. Grose somehow also had a hand in Ms. Jessel's
death.
Mrs. Grose then proceeds, after the murders, to twist the new
governess' visions of ghosts into visions of Quint and Jessel. Solomon
does not address the issue of whether or not what the governess sees is
actually there. His explanation is logical either way. If the governess
sees real ghosts, or if she is imagining it all, does not matter. What
matters is that Mrs. Grose tailors Quint and Jessel to the governess'
descriptions. She listens to the descriptions and tells the governess'
she is seeing Quint and Jessel. Mrs. Grose does not herself create the
visions that the governess sees, instead, she bends them to her purpose.
The governess' visions of ghosts are twisted by Mrs. Grose. When the
governess reports seeing a ghost, Mrs. Grose seizes the opportunity,
exclaiming that the ghost she sees must be Peter Quint. She also labels
the other apparition as the ghost of Ms. Jessel. In this way, she can
give the ghosts an evil quality, imparted to them because of the evil
lives of Quint and Jessel. Making the ghosts evil forces the governess'
Victorian mind to attempt to shield the children from the evil. Mrs. Grose
knows the governess will read too far into the children's actions, and
In “A Place for all That is Lost” Ron Rash’s One Foot in Eden is a story of desperation, longing, murder, and a disappearing way of life. It took place in South Carolina in the 1950s. The story is told from five character’s points of view. It begins with Sheriff Alexander trying to solve a murder, while at the same time coming to grips with his own feelings about the mountain community and people he has left behind. He also has to contend with the exploitation of the community by the Carolina Power Company, who is eager to flood the area.
In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.
One issue which, like the rest, can be answered in more than one way is why Mrs. Grose believes in the Governess when she tells her about her ghost encounters. Usually one would second-guess such outlandish stories as the ones that the governess shares throughout the story, yet Mrs. Grose is very quick to believe our borderline-insane narrator. One of the explanations for such behavior could be the underlying fact that Mrs. Grose and the governess have a similar socio-economic background, therefore making them somewhat equal even if the governess does not always seem to think that way. This fact makes them susceptible to trusting and believing each other, and to believing that the ghosts are there, for the people that the ghosts are presenting used to be servants and therefore from a similar socio-economic background. To add on to that, Bruce Robbins proposes in his Marxist criticism of The Turn of the Screw that the idea of a ghost is synonymous to that of a servant, subconsciously making the two lower-class workers of Bly more vulnerable to believe that the ghosts were real; in other words, servants were ghosts....
Zora Neale Hurston’s The Gilded Six-Bits is a beautifully written short story about marriage and forgiveness. This story tugs at the heartstrings, as Hurston paints each scene with vivid imagination. The characters, their surroundings, and their behaviors are visually and emotionally illustrated.
While Huck is traveling down the river with Jim, he must lie and often disguise himself to survive on his own to conceal his identity. Huck rebels because he does not want to follow his aunts house rules or live up to her expectations which are to conform to social norms. This means he has to dress cleanly and neatly, use manners, go to school, and be polite to everyone. Huck also is confused because he wants to get away from his abusive father who excessively drinks. Huck is afraid of his father who has beaten him and verbally abused him repeatedly therefore, his only solution is to run away. He does this by faking his own death. Curiousity overwhelms him and he wants to know how society has taken to the news of his death. In order to get some information Huck disguises himself as a girl. He meets with Judy Lawson, a local woman, and asks about the disappearance of Huck Finn. Although his disguise works well, Judy Loftus starts to test him to disguise whether Huck is really a girl. As soon as Judy says, "What's your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob? -or what is it?"(Twain 70) Huck realizes he has no chance in pulling such pranks. When confronted with his lie Huck tells the truth and ends up making a friend who says he can count on her. Huck also tries to protect Jim from being captured by lying about himself and his situation.
poem. The tone used by each poet is critical because it indicates to the reader their
...acist attitudes prevalent in South at this time. For all those school administrators who say that the language and ideology of Twain’s writing is offensive, well, maybe Twain wanted to offend people with this novel. Maybe he wanted to offend them so much that they would come to the realization that individuals should not conform to society’s standards, one of these standards being slavery. Until someone is offended, status quo doesn’t change. Maybe it’s about time that we remove the blindfold from our nation’s youth and stop trying to be politically correct. Maybe it’s about time that kids are exposed to the true horror of racism and prejudice so to detour them from repeating fatal mistakes. High school students are neither naïve nor stupid; they can handle the contents of this novel, and hopefully, learn from Twain’s messages.
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
In conclusion, it is not the ghosts, as the governess suspected, that are corrupting the children, but the governess herself, through her continually worsening hysteria that is corrupting the children. Both Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are not real ghosts that have the peculiar habit of appearing before the governess and the governess alone but they are merely the signs of the fragmenting mental state of the governess.
The first time we see Capulet is in the brawl at the market, it is
At the beginning of the story Huck runs away from his friends and family to Jacksons Island. On Jacksons Island he is confronted by Jim who is a runaway slave. Jim being an African American is looked down on by society. When Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to rat on Jim or keep his secret Huck has a hard time. He knows subconsciously that Jim has done something wrong. Yet he follows his heart and decides to keep Jims secret. He says'; people would call me a low-down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum';. Huck here shows that he isn’t only running away form home but He’s running away from everything that home stands for. This happens many times in the story. Huck starts to see Jim as a friend rather then a black man. When Huck plays the
...inn Mark Twain has demonstrated the insensibility of racism. Twain has used his central characters’ struggles in a complex world to reveal elements of human nature and elements of societal values; by doing so he has shown that racism, one of society’s values, is against human nature. At the time when the book was first published, 1884, the American Civil War had already ended and technically, all black men and women were free. However, down south, racism was still institutionalized through the passing of regulations such as the Jim Crow laws. Although black men and women were technically “free”, they were very much still oppressed. Mark Twain, through his clever use of the backwoods Missouri Negro dialect and his generous use of the “n-word” (219 times), has thoroughly explored the world of morals and values, all the while making a powerful statement against racism.
Transcendentalism is about connecting with nature. Mark Twain influences these aspects of transcendentalism with his masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However in today's society students and teachers view the novel as being obscene. Which is because society is ruling their lives. Their view The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain as a racist novel but they miss the transcendental aspects of it such as the society of the time, Huck’s beliefs and Huck’s actions.
...and Miss Temple had a relationship that can be compared to a mother and a daughter. Each of them cares deeply about their futures and thinking of Miss Temple not being in Jane’s makes are felt lost. Mothers instill a sense of morals to their daughters and set the standard for the rest of their lives. "I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits" (353).
Despite all the criticism, of racism and other questionable material for young readers, Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a superbly written novel, which in the opinion of this reviewer should not be remove the literary cannon. Twain’s novel is a coming of age story that teaches young people many valuable lessons and to some extend makes students reexamine their own lives and morals. The most common argument for its removal from the literary canon is that the novel is too racist; it offends black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s bookshelves. However one must ask if Twain is encouraging traditional southern racism or is Twain disputing these idea.