The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Through our life experiences, we all have a different story or perception of an event that we envision to be the truth. The question is, how do we know what is the truth? In the novel by Russell Banks, "The Sweet Hereafter" tells a handful of stories from different points of view providing contrasting angles and meanings to the same event. As these stories interlock with each other and intertwine together the accounts of how each of these people cope with this tragedy, Banks helps readers explore the complexities of grief. In "Books of The Times; Small-Town Life After a Huge Calamity", Michiko Kakutani feels Banks draws on the school bus accident as a catalyst for enlightening the lives of the town's people. "It's as though he has cast a large stone into a quiet pond, then minutely charted the shape and size of the ripples sent out in successive waves." Told in a fluid stream-of-collective-consciousness the four parallel first-person narrations shows the reality and vulnerability behind the cruel twist of fate. The shifting of these tales backward and forward in time fits into the mosaic perfectly in conveying the meaning across to the readers.
Taking place in the wintertime a representative of death, the story beginning with Dolores Driscoll is told in a simple and straightforward way. Dolores describes herself as "the kind of person who always follows the manual. No shortcuts." (4). Kakutani also describes her as "the perky, well-meaning bus driver." As we follow Driscoll, we catch a glimpse into the lives of some of the townspeople in her eyes. We read into her life as if we are living in it, watching and knowing her innermost thoughts. We follow behind just like Billy ...
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...uch more meaningful. Kakutani does an excellent job of summing up the meaning of the story in a short and straight to the point message,
In the end, of course, there is no one person or agency responsible for the accident. The accident is just that -- an accident, one of those frighteningly random events that occasionally disrupt the even flow of daily life, underscoring the innate precariousness of life, our susceptibility to grief and loss and hurt.
There are things that happen without reasons; maybe it is just the cruel twist of fate with no one to blame. The story ends in August representative of warmth and the total opposite of winter where people learn to accept the fact that it was uncontrollable the accident and no one could have done anything to stop it… and now they begin to experience "the sweet hereafter". A time of healing and recovery.
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
the commander of the Rebel army, General Robert E Lee. General Lee is skeptical too of
Sister souji has her participate in her meeting that she has for the young girls and older adults on how to make life better and fix the neighborhood talks some sense to them but winter seems to think it's just a waste of time and hates it there . She seems to feel sick and runs out the meeting and packs her stuff because she is tired of being there , goes into sister souji room and gets midnight file and see her file and it had newspaper articles of her father and mansion and her . She knew all along of who she really was and played it cool . Then stops by the Doctor room and steals money where she stashed her cash , steals it and puts it in her sports bag but they get switched up and noticed once she was already at the bus station that she had no money . Someone in her past seems to recognize her in a lexus which was bullet the guy she spent her seventh birthday with while her father was arrested
"The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks is a fictional novel based on a real life tragedy. The story is about a community coping with the loss of almost all of its children after the towns school bus is involved in an accident in which most of them die. The accident occurs on a treacherous winding highway when the driver loses control of the school bus and it plunges down an embankment into an ice covered sandpit. The novel is unique in the way that it is written because it's story is told 4 different ways, from 4 different characters, each one filling you in just a little more on their perspective of what really happened. One of these characters is Mitchell Stephens. He is a lawyer from New York City with an undeniable past. He is a compelling character with an interesting story.
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In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
Main theme: How a person deals with drug and alcohol addiction while in an institution
Of all the novels I've read, not that I've read a lot, but 'The Sweet Hereafter';, written by Banks, is by far the best. I especially enjoyed the first person narration used. The plot in this novel was dependent on three main events: the bus accident, Mitchell Stevens, Esq. (the lawyer), and the testimony of Nichole Burnell.
Who is the birthday party a rite of passage for, the birthday boy or his mother?
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“August 2000, our family of six was on the way to a wedding. It was a rainy day, and Gregg was not familiar with the area. The car hit standing water in the high-way, and started hydro-planing. Greg lost control of the car. Then, the car went backwards down into a ditch and started sliding on its wheels sideways. After sliding for 100 feet or so, the car flipped, at least once. After flipping, the car came to rest on its wheels, and the passenger window broke out.
If the accident occurred as a result of the negligence of a property owner or proprietor, it is important to hold the parties responsible for the injury you received as a result of the unsafe conditions they failed to correct.