Have you ever thought about having someone close to you pass away? In this exhilarating story death is something that could happen at any moment. Watt Key shows us in Terror at Bottle Creek that it's not about how bad you get knocked down but about the fight to get back up. The genre of this book is non-fiction. The book starts off with Cort and his father working to prepare for the level 5 hurricane coming their way. They live on a house boat in Louisiana. Cort and his father move all their things up to the neighbors house. Corts father takes off to see his ex-wife before the storm hits. The storm hits, and Cort is left without his father and with two younger girls and his dog. Corts dog runs off into the rain and Francie who is 8 runs after
Diane Urban, for instance, was one of the many people who were trapped inside this horror. She “was comforting a woman propped against a wall, her legs virtually amputated” (96). Flynn and Dwyer appeal to the reader’s ethical conscience and emotions by providing a story of a victim who went through many tragedies. Causing readers to feel empathy for the victims. In addition, you began to put yourself in their shoes and wonder what you would do.
It seems that in the 21st century and even during the colonizing of America, the interpretation of Native Americans is and had been that they were savages and live a barbaric lifestyle. That they had no order or way of life. When presented with the topic of Native Americans and Colonists in the New World, it is easy to assume warfare and bloodshed amongst the two parties. That the Colonists were constantly in mini battles with the Native Americans. It is also easy to assume that the land in the New World was unsettling to the eyes. This is due to records from the colonist times, calling the lands “wild” or “wildlands”. In Robbie Ethridge’s book Creek Country, she tries to debunk these interpretations mentioned above. She does so by using an
Summary: Brady finds the lifeless body of his 3 year old neighbor Ben, in the river in the middle of the storm. After he pulls Ben into the boat he drops his cell phone over the boat into the water. Brady must then drive his boat and attempt CPR on the lifeless body. Brady must make an extremely difficult choice when he finds out that his two best friends, J.T. and Digger, are the direct cause why little Ben is now dead. Brady’s father assisted him in dredging up the Red Kayak. When Brady see’s that holes are drilled into the bottom, he breaks down and tells his father what his friends J.T. and Digger did. Brady decides to turn in his friends only after the stress, torment, and sadness began to seriously affect him. His friends are charged with murder and the story revolves around his coping with the boy's death, assisting Ben’s own mother with her grieving, and reliving the death of his infant sister years
Living things have many different emotions, and because of that, they can react to the same situation in myriad ways. Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain follows a family of three and their beloved dog on an adventure that involves love, grief, happiness, and death. Enzo is adopted by Denny when he is just a puppy, and observes as Denny’s family grows, along with his bliss. Nevertheless, this does not last when it is discovered that Denny’s wife, Eve has cancer and she soon after dies. Because of Eve’s death and some of the many other events in the characters’ lives, the characters in The Art of Racing in the Rain are all realistic and have many varieties of traits.
The short stories, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and “The Luck of Roaring Camp”, written by Ambrose Bierce and Bret Harte respectively, share similar conflicts, notions, and themes. In Bierce’s story, a man is being held for execution for his crimes in the Civil war as a part of the Confederacy; as he imagines himself cleverly escaping the military executioners through a river under the bridge, until his seemingly brilliant streak of luck ends, and he dies from the noose he never left. Similarly, in Harte’s story, an entire town in California during the gold rush is stuck with again, seemingly brilliant luck, when Thomas Luck is born, only to have that hope crushed when Thomas is killed
In Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman, he illustrates the full desire of direction and the constant flow of life. A boy experiences a chain of life changing series of events that cause him to mature faster than a boy should. Death is an obstacle that can break down any man, a crucial role in the circle of life. It’s something that builds up your past and no direction for your future. No matter how hard life got, Culver fought through the pain and came out as a different person. Physical pain gives experience, emotional pain makes men.
“A Wall of Fire Rising,” by Edwidge Danticat is a story of dreamers. In this story are three characters, Lili, Little guy, and guy. This small family lives in a run-down town where work is hard to come by, leading to their poor life style. Lili is a hard worker, always doing what it takes to make sure there is food on the table. Her only hope is that her son will have a better life than the one they are currently living. Little Guy is like many young children; he loves his mother and father and is oblivious to his family’s circumstances. He is a hard worker and wants to succeed in school. Guy, a father who is struggling to create a life for his family, is also trying to find a meaning for his life. After a series of events in the story, Guy comes to the decision to commit suicide. Following his death are the reactions from his family, and ultimately, the end of the story. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” we learn that man’s ability to dream, often takes an important role in their realities. We see this demonstrated by the thoughts, and actions of Lili, Little Guy, and Guy.
On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive hurricane in American history, made landfall in Louisiana with winds of one hundred and twenty-seven miles per hour (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts”). The sheer magnitude of the amount of lives and property lost was enormous, and it was triggered simply by warm ocean waters near the Bahamas ("How Hurricane Katrina Formed"). Nature was indifferent to whether the raging winds and rain would die off in the ocean or wipe out cities; it only follows the rules of physics. A multitude of American authors has attempted to give accounts and interpretations of their encounters with the disinterested machine that is nature. Two authors, Stephen Crane and Henry David Thoreau, had rather contrasting and conflicting interpretations of their own interactions with nature. Crane’s work, “The Open Boat,” is story based on his experience as a survivor
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore). It is truly one of hurricane lore’s greatest of storms.
One of the darkest times in American history was the conflict with the natives. A “war” fought with lies and brute force, the eviction and genocide of Native Americans still remains one of the most controversial topics when the subject of morality comes up. Perhaps one of the most egregious events to come of this atrocity was the Sand Creek Massacre. On the morning of November 29th, 1864, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, 700 members of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry raped, looted, and killed the members of a Cheyenne tribe (Brown 86-94). Hearing the story of Sand Creek, one of the most horrific acts in American History, begs the question: Who were the savages?
Could you imagine waiting for your death and thinking about the ones you loved the most? Ambrose Bierce wrote a short story entitled, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge “. The story takes place during the time of the Civil War. Peyton Farquhar is found trying to burn the bridge and is sentenced to be hanged. While standing on the edge of the plank in which they intend to hang him from, Peyton imagines escaping to return his loved ones. The author uses many literary techniques to explain Bierce’s attitude toward Military and War.
Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why: True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2003. Print.
Through the sound of the thundering rain and howling wind, an ear-piercing scream slices through the air. Never in my life have I heard a sound quite like this one. It’s the type of scream that’s so desperate and horrific that its cuts right through your body and down to your soul and shakes the life out of it. Just on time, the well-known Virginian winds whipped open the door to the privy to let me out into the blasting wind. Through the rain and sleet assaulting my face, I heard the terrible scream rip through time and space again. Right away, my feet start taking off without me, trying to reach the main house, to my family. Through the raging storm, I can see the blue side door come into view, or the spot that used to be where the blue door was.
Picture this, you laying on top of you car as you are being violently slung down your street, which was once dry and calm and is now wet and foreign, at an extremely rapid pace. You can’t find your family and all you can do is hope that they haven’t drowned and are able to stay afloat against the violent waters that are angrily attempting to destroy everything in its path. You look around the weather is gray and it’s raining heavily. It is a struggle to breathe between the rapid rain and the violent waters which are attempting to pull you under, forever. Your house no longer exists it is broken down from the pounding waters and fast winds. That is exactly what it would be like if you were in the midst of a hurricane. After hurricanes are over the confusion is crazy, children who had loving families are now orphaned, people become homeless, and people miss certain joys such as walking due to becoming paralyzed.
When someone thinks of a hurricane, it is not often that fruit is the first thing that comes to their mind. In “Problems with Hurricanes,” Victor Hernandez Cruz brings mangoes and bananas to center stage in the midst of a hurricane. The poem, as told through the eyes of a “campesino” (a native of a Latin-American rural area), gives the fruit a dangerous, deadly part in contributing to casualties during a hurricane (Webster’s 178). The campesino believes that death by produce is a dishonorable way to die and points out that people need to be aware of the things that may be happening around them because there is a possibility that they don’t appear as all that they are. Throughout “Problems with Hurricanes,” Cruz reveals that the most beautiful sweet things can be the most dangerous.