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Strengths and weaknesses in writing skills
Strengths and weaknesses in writing skills
Strengths and weaknesses in writing skills
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What would you do if you knew you could be dead in the matter of a few months? That’s the question Michelle, an inpatient dealing with leukemia struggles with on the daily. Although she’s a high school student with a bright future ahead of her, she can’t help but be pessimistic about her illness, and focus on the negative. In the story “the michelle i know” written by Alison Lohans, the author uses literary devices such as characterization, foreshadowing, and mood to convey the message that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Initially, the author uses characterization to effectively portray the theme of the story. Throughout the story, Michelle is characterized by her pessimistic outlook on life due to her illness, and it is …show more content…
In the beginning, Michelle is described as despising being at the hospital. She thinks that “the hospital bed is hard and confining”, while she also recalls the painful procedures she is to go through, as “she’d have to lie there, gritting her teeth, while nurses poke and jab to set another IV”. However, when the nurse, Brenda arrives, she reassures Michelle regarding her case going into remission, by mentioning that “cases like yours go into remission for years, and are able to live a relatively normal life”. This is foreshadowing a bright future, where Michelle could go back to her desired normal life, and is later confirmed by Claude, a middle aged man also battling leukemia, who is still alive, despite fighting the illness for nearly eight years. Another case of foreshadowing is in the beginning of the story, when Michelle is imagining the events happening outside of her window, and she thinks to herself, “sometimes the fog got so thick it looked like you could walk right out the window and keep on going”. Later on in the story, Brenda the nurse is having a conversation with Michelle regarding her doubting Rob visiting, and she also mentions the fog by saying “I bet the fog’s keeping him”, which is proved to be true, when Rob finally shows up and apologizes for being late, and uses the fog as an excuse. The cases
In life, we all attempt to project some kind of personality to others. We have a mask we wear in different situations, but when times get tough, we eventually discard our masks and become our true selves. We don't live behind our masks until the tragic end, like the characters of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, and Fences by August Wilson. The three characters, Perry Smith, Blanche DuBois, and Troy Maxson wore masks to their bitter endings, always trying to fool everyone else. When times got tough, they had to face themselves, and they could not stand the sight.
Elie Wiesel once said “neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” In Michelle Cacho-Negrete’s Essay “Tell Me Something” she talks about her brother who died in the Vietnam War. In the end of the essay she challenges the reader “tell me something good about my country (739).” What is good about America is that it’s not. Hear me out, because America has been racist, sexist, and homophobic for so long that a new wave of LGBTQIA, feminism, and civil rights has emerged. As a queer, black woman these movements make me feel as though some people care about my struggles.
Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.
When faced with a traumatic experience, one’s true nature reveals itself. The trauma forces those suffering from it to cope. How one copes is directly linked to their personality. Some will push everything away, while others will hold whatever they can close. Both of these coping mechanisms can be observed in the two short stories “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily,” the two protagonists prominent characteristics distinctly affect the way the protagonists copes when faced with trauma and the outcome of the short stories endings. To begin, Granny Weatherall is a prideful control freak. While, in contrast, Miss Emily is delusional and stubborn.
Allison has had a bitter past full of moments which have scarred her personality. She uses these and writes about the world that few are willing to admit exists. Many find refuge behind their gregarious nature and take comfort in religion or other bodies. However, that does not change the facts of what the world is and how it got there. Allison exposes her audience to these facts, and in the process, she shares her own view.
She argues that a positive outlook will not make one cancer free, give one a job, make one wealthy or do you constantly happy. The beginning of the book made me realize that the balance of positive and negative thinking is the most important life lesson. She shows the readers how staying positive through her battles of cancers is going to make it easier, but Ehrenreich is trying to explain to the readers that it is okay to be negative. Ehrenreich gives the readers more of a negative side and thinks being positive is beginning to harm us. I can understand why she was thinking so negative while she was battling cancer, she was told by a cancer patient, “I know that if I get sad, or scared or upset, I am making my tumor grow faster and it will have shortened my life” (Ehrenreich 43). Ehrenreich sure did give the audience a way of understanding as to how people rely too much on positivity. She tells us that one will need to
of the book, Janie resents her grandmother for “living” her life for her and planning her future. To find out what will happen in a persons future, they need to live their life on their own an...
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I could not stop for Death.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and writing. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Saddle River. Pearson Education, 2013. 777. Print.
In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams uses the suicide of Blanche's husband to illuminate Blanche's insecurities and immoral behavior. When something terrible happens to someone, it often reveals who he or she truly is. Blanche falls victim to this behavior, and she fails to face her demons. This displays how the play links a character’s illogical choices and their inner struggles.
... amazing ability to be able to plan a future and when that future is altered we want to hold on to it. I have seen it tear people down and make people stronger. I have seen it make people bitter and I chose for it to make me grateful. We construct fantasy and Quindlen ask if “the fantasy has within it a nugget of fact” (Quindlen 32) and the torture seems to be never knowing. Anna Quindlen let me and all of her readers into a very personal experience in her life and through it I was vividly reminded of a time in my own life. These experiences change people, it changed Quindlen and it changed me. I try and stay present with the people I have right now. I know what I have and I know that some people never get to have it. When you lose people in your life you lose the ability to be naive and complacent, you lose the ability to take relationships for granted.
William Faulkner takes us back in time with his Gothic short story known as, “A Rose for Emily.” Almost every sentence gives a new piece of evidence to lead the reader to the overall theme of death, isolation, and trying to maintain traditions. The reader can conclude the theme through William Faulkner’s use of literary devices such as his choice of characters, the setting, the diction, the tone, and the plot line.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
Authors use many literary tactics to evoke emotional responses and deep thought from their audience. One superb example of this is using the setting of a story as a symbol for the overall theme. Many stories focus on brighter aspects of life where the setting is bright and jubilant symbolizing happiness and glee. On the other hand, some authors turn to a darker setting, one where death and darkness overshadow everything which usually symbolizes depression or isolation. Three works in particular, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, “A&P” by John Updike, and “Bartelby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street” by Herman Melville, all use a symbolic setting perfectly and convey an individualized message within their works.
One of the first major themes of this book is the constant battle between fantasy and reality. Blanche explains to Mitch that she fibs because she refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her. Lying to herself and to others allows her to make life appear as it should be rather than as it is. Stanley, a practical man firmly grounded in the physical world, disdains Blanche’s fabrications and does everything he can to unravel them. The relationship between Blanche and Stanley is a struggle between appearances and reality. It propels the play’s plot and creates an overarching tension. Ultimately, Blanche’s attempts to rejuvenate her life and to save Stella from a life with Stanley fail. One of the main ways the author dramatizes fantasy’s inability to overcome reality is through an explorati...
(Irving 5-15). Through writing apathetically and objectively rather than reactively, Plath captures the essence of her despondency, which people relate to their own woes.