The L-shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The narrator's views of social prejudice are conveyed through the
experience of Jane the main character.
"My father and I hadn't said a word to each other when I went home for
my things. He's told me to go and I was going; he didn't care where
and so why should I tell him?"
The above opening quotation is from 'The L-shaped Room' written by
Lynne Reid Banks. It captures an insight into the attitudes of the
time. The author mainly focuses on reflecting the journey Jane faces
through her "unwanted pregnancy," coping with emotional difficulties
and the dilemmas that face her. I feel the novel made me sympathetic
towards Jane, as the novel kept me captivated; with many twists and
turns and several situations came across, each with a unique moral;
but I focused throughout towards Jane. I cared about her and wanted to
know how she fought through her struggles and eventually gained
strength. I intend to examine how the social morality of the time made
Jane's life a misery responding to use of figurative language and the
highly developed writing techniques used by the author.
The novel is set in 1960s due to the changes in society when few
opportunities were given to woman to experience some freedom, but
still not as equal to men. The narrative is told from the point of
view of Jane who is in her mid-twenties. This helps me to sympathise
with her as she explains her personal feelings of how she copes as a
young single woman. She was turned out her comfortable middle class
home by her father, who is shocked, hearing that she is pregnant. It
is a narrative that follows Jane through her journey of pregnancy to
self realisation and fulfilment. 'The L-shaped Room' is her ro...
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... “better” and
“worse.” In a strict moral code parents are more demanding and expect
alot from their children which takes away freedom and some rights to
an extent. However it may lead to increased happiness as no one will
go out of turn or do an outrageous act due to the society’s influence.
On the other hand a strict moral code would not account for
individual’s special needs or feelings because they would not be dealt
with and ignored as the social code would be enforced.
I think ‘The L-Shaped Room’ is a clearly well structured novel which
is true to life as in some society’s or countries individuals have no
rights. The novel provokes a message across that this is a preparation
for real life, as this could happen if you go astray and don’t think
about the consequences. In my viewpoint Jane as a character can be
admired for her strength that she gains.
In “The Art Room,” by Shara McCallum, the author is telling a story about her childhood. McCallum and her sisters did not grow up with a lot of money so they had to make due with what they had. “Because we had not chalk or pastels, no toad, forest, or morning-grass slats of paper, we had no color for creatures. So we squatted and sprang, squatted and sprang.” They used their imagination and their bodies to create music and art. The tone of this poem is reminiscent and whimsical, the theme is about how even if you do not have a lot of money you can still have fun.
Children these days have a variety of needs, often being surrounded by the ideas of freedom and security. While some people seek complete freedom from society’s rules, others seek the comforts of security that a normal life provides. Children’s preferences on freedom and security are reflected from their Mom and Dad’s parenting style. In The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the characters Brian, Lori, and Jeannette show that while growing they would rather have security over freedom because they repeatedly find themselves in a state of danger due to their parent’s lack of security. For example, if Jeannette’s parents were accountable while Jeanette was in proximity to fire she would not have been traumatized and severely burnt. Another reason the children want security is Rex is an excessive alcoholic who is very dangerous to be around while he is under the influence of hard liquor, they would rather a father that responsibly handled alcohol. Rex’s surplus of expenses on booze led the family into poverty because instead of using the family’s rare profit to pay off bills Rex uses it to buy alcohol and items that were not a necessity to their survival. Therefore, their parents struggled to give even the simplest things for them such as food and clothes.
On December 10, 1950, in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the greatest literary minds of the twentieth century, William Faulkner, presented his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. If one reads in between the lines of this acceptance speech, they can detect a certain message – more of a cry or plead – aimed directly to adolescent authors and writers, and that message is to be the voice of your own generation; write about things with true importance. This also means that authors should include heart, soul, spirit, and raw, truthful emotion into their writing. “Love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” (Faulkner) should all be frequently embraced – it is the duty of authors to do so. If these young and adolescent authors ignore this message and duty, the already endangered state of literature will continue to diminish until its unfortunate extinction.
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
In "Our Secret" by Susan Griffin, the essay uses fragments throughout the essay to symbolize all the topics and people that are involved. The fragments in the essay tie together insides and outsides, human nature, everything affected by past, secrets, cause and effect, and development with the content. These subjects and the fragments are also similar with her life stories and her interviewees that all go together. The author also uses her own memories mixed in with what she heard from the interviewees. Her recollection of her memory is not fully told, but with missing parts and added feelings. Her interviewee's words are told to her and brought to the paper with added information. She tells throughout the book about these recollections.
Jeannette Walls, the author of the memoir, The Glass Castle, was raised by parents whose relentless nonconformity and radical ideals were both positive and negative aspects to their wellbeing. Their names were Rex and Rosemary Walls, and they were the parents of four children. While the kids were still young, the family moved from town to town, camping in the wilderness and sleeping in the car, and sometimes even had a small place to stay. Rose Mary, who was both an artist and an author, identified herself as an “excitement addict”. As a mother who despised the responsibility of caring for her family, Rose Mary preferred making a painting that will last forever over making meals for her hungry children. Rex was an alcoholic who, when sober, was a charming and intelligent man that educated his children through geology, physics, mathematics, and how to live life fearlessly.
Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman’s confused struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and in fact painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the poem’s title and its relation to the myth, symbolism and poem structure to communicate her message about the tortures of love.
The Red Room by H.G. Wells This essay will be based on gothic techniques that H.G Wells used and will also explain how gothic features can be identified in a play. The gothic elements in ‘The Red Room’ are used frequently but often in a very subtle way. One key gothic element of the story lies in the way Wells wrote. Firstly his style is old- fashioned and formal, for example he uses phrases such as, ‘eight and twenty years,’ this technique suggests that the play was written at the start of the nineteenth century.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, we see a shivering study of derangement. It is a grievous story narrated by a young woman driven to insanity by a husband that imposes a rest/cure for her sickness, although he believes that it is only “temporary nervous depression.” (118).
In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, Torvald and his wife, Nora, live a middle class, conservative life with three children. Nora stays at home while Torvald works as a manager at a bank. Previously, when Torvald was sick, Nora forged her father's signature on a bond to receive money for a trip to Italy so Torvald could recover. Only Nils Krogstad, another man at the bank, and Nora's best friend, Linde, know about her terrible secret. Linde and Krogstad have also failed in society like Nora: Krogstad has performed the same act of forgery, and Linde had to work to support her family while most women stayed at home.
The sounds of oxygen tanks filled the ICU room with life as well as the imminent potential of death. The other hospital rooms with patients had signs of life in them everywhere; it was inevitable that these people would end up recovering. They would go back to their comfortable little cubicles, living as if nothing changed at all. Being in ICU was the total opposite. It was so close to death you would think Hades himself lived there. If you were one of the lucky ones, you’d make it out alive. Yet most of the time you weren’t even promised a tomorrow, sometimes not even the next hour.
What is A Room With A View about, in your opinion? What methods does E.M. Forster use to convey this message to the reader? A Room With A View is about the social change occurring in England in the early 20th century, post Queen Victoria's death. Darwin had just published his book on the theory of evolution which was the catalyst for the introduction of more liberal and secular ideas into a conservative and religious England. In order to explain this process of change, Forster likens it to the Renaissance, which is why it is significant that A Room With A View begins in Italy.
My dad didn’t seem to take notice of my unease, and continued on his merry way. When we arrived, my heart decided it was no longer
“Dad, let’s go home,” shouted George over the deafening clatter of the home time bell. He was eager to get home because his mum was coming home from a week long work course. He had missed her terribly and I had too.
A mixture of endearingly vibrant colours, makes this modern, multi functional living room come to life in an instant. The colours of choice used impose a delightful air of trendy sophistication. Cotton white walls and dark wood floors acts as a blank canvas allowing colour to be introduced by its furnishings and accessories.