Monroe Silver's The Abandoned of God furnishes readers with a unique spiritual tale which chronicles the turning points of the lives of its fictional characters with reminiscences entwined with history, humor, faith, and spirituality.
This story manages to take you all over the place emotionally, and historically with an intriguing view of spiritually, embodied in a narrative fortified with moments of violent brutality, touching anecdotes, and mixes of fact and fiction, interspersed, with occasional spates of humor.
The overall story is narrated by Mason Cole Stuart, the central character. Perusers of the book get a gritty but intriguing guided tour of multiple lives as he recounts his memories from his own personal experiences as well as the prominent occurrences within the lives of loved ones and friends. Wielding the tone of a memoir, fifty two year old Mason initially
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While enroute to his assigned locale, on the flight from New York to Paris, the plane encounters extreme turbulence during a powerful storm, sending everyone aboard including Mason headlong into one of the most fearsome experiences of their lives. While panic ensues, Mason uses reminiscing about the pivotal points in his past and their effect on his future as a way of taking his mind off of what could be impending death. As he revisits his past, he dredges up many memories, focusing deeply on the one particularly traumatizing memory from his past that inexoribly changed his personality and disposition in life as well as being the catylyst for bringing on an existential crisis, the premise of which caused him to feel abandoned by God. Additionally furthering the theme of existential abandonment, he also recounts the revealing of the uncommon, common bond and God given gift that he shared with his father who also at one time, felt abandoned by
Why I Left the Church” by Richard Garcia is a poem that explores the ongoing and conflicting relationship between a child’s fantasy and the Church. Although the majority of the text is told in present tense, readers are put through the lenses of a young boy who contemplates the legitimacy of the restricting and constricting nature of worship. It is a narrative that mixes a realist approach of storytelling with a fantasy twist that goes from literal metaphors to figurative metaphors in the description of why the narrator left the church. The poet presents the issue of childhood innocence and preset mindsets created by the Church using strong metaphors and imagery that appeal to all the senses.
The second half of the book follows Mr. Bragg's developing career and family. Mr. Bragg covered various events like the Miami riots, the Haitian atrocities, and the Susan Smith case among others for his job.
When inditing, authors incline to tell their own personal story through their literature work, sometimes done unknowingly or deliberately. Albeit some components of the author’s work are fabricated and do not connect with their own personal lives whatsoever, this is sometimes what causes a reader to do their own research about the author and their background of the story. Upon researching Wallace Stegner’s novel Crossing to Safety, one may discover that he did indeed, reveal bits and pieces of his own experiences in his novel. “You break experience up into pieces and you put them together in different amalgamations, incipient cumulations, and some are authentic and some are not… It takes a pedestrian and literal mind to be apprehensive about
Edwards, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Canada: DC Heath and Company, 1990. 584-595.
Before the move to Coghill, Tom wanted his old life back. He sees the accident as the end of his life, though this he seems to have lost connection to his family and his sense of identity. Tom feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences of Daniel’s irresponsibility and the impact this had on other people and their families. Retreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black. After the accident, Tom’s life was changed forever.
Between the covers of the book Night is the story of a boy who had to endure the constant threat of death. He had to watch as other perished, family, friends, strangers, everyone. Yet his God had done nothing. He remained unmoved and silent. How could a God he was taught to look upon when anguished allow such savagery to
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
...olds the story of a man dignified in history. This book is truly an admirable piece of litature.
“Half-hanged mary” by Margaret Atwood is a poem about a woman named Mary whose circumstances causes her to redefine not only herself, but her beliefs. For several hours, Mary struggles to hang on to her life and her will, as she grapples with her faith in God. Atwood’s use of imagery, sound devices, diction and form, transform the poem into an extended metaphor that highlights the standards of religion which correspond closely to the downfall of society during that time period.
———. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 2006. Reprint, New York: Harper Perennial: Modern Classics, 1937.
Smith, Karen R. “Resurrection, Uncle Tom's Cabin” and the Reader in Crisis, Penn State University Press, 1996, Accessed April 23, 2012,
2. “I was truly alone, orphaned not only of my family, but now of Richard Parker, and nearly, I though, of god” Chapter 94
Early in the film , a psychologist is called in to treat the troubled child :and she calmed the mother with a statement to the effect that, “ These things come and go but they are unexplainable”. This juncture of the film is a starting point for one of the central themes of the film which is : how a fragile family unit is besieged by unusual forces both natural and supernatural which breaks and possesses and unites with the morally challenged father while the mother and the child through their innocence, love, and honesty triumph over these forces.
The novel Erasure by Percival Everett explores the development of writer Monk Ellison as well as the frame tale Monk sells. After writing My Pafology, Monk continues to struggle with his sister’s death, his mother’s deteriorating health, and the growing sense that he has “sold out”. Monk writes about story ideas, his feelings on art form, and flashbacks to when his father was alive or when he was an adolescent. Through these vignettes of Monk’s thoughts, separated by three ominous X’s, we find not only the extreme intelligence that he has, but also the sadness and isolation his “uniqueness” has brought him. Specifically, he ruins his relationship with Marilyn by criticizing how the book We’s Lives in da Ghetto was on her nightstand, the book
The upper shelf contains my most varied readings that span from books of love letters, tales of war, and chronicles of bildungsroman narratives. Rows upon rows of books are hidden behind the visible layer, with each story containing a cherished memory. These novels were recommended by inspiring teachers, received from knowledgeable relatives, or discovered on engaging odysseys to the bookstore.