In his poem The Water Diviner, Dannie Abse utilizes water and the creativity it symbolizes to depict a crisis of confidence. He approaches his thesis in a rather straightforward method and begins the poem by stating “I have come to a parched land […] water split, swallowed in the sand.” Abse attempts to provide his audience with imagery of a man who doubts himself when his creativity fails. In the second stanza, the man “holds the divining pen twisting in hand, hears the tickle of water, and stands in a stretch silence.” This imagery serves to emphasize the creativity that the man once held and to contrast with the man’s circumstance. Clearly, the man suffers not only from the loss of creativity but also from the doubt/fear that his creativity
What if all of a sudden your life changed and the next thing you know you find out you have magic in you. What would you do? who would you trust? This is what happens to a fourteen year old boy named Zachary Harriman in Hero by Mike lupica. Hero by Mike lupica is full of twists and turns and is a really good book. It all starts when Zach’s dad dies in a mysterious plane crash. Zach begins to investigate about his dad’s mysterious death because even though the police have concluded it was an accident he thinks otherwise. Throughout this book Zach learns a lot and overcomes and fails some challenges but is stronger in the end. Hero by Mike lupica is a really great book because of three things
Blue Bird was about fourteen. They were taken in and made to feel at home.
The fraud in the story “Skinwalkers” was committed for the sole purpose of getting back at the American government. The reasoning behind the fraud was because a treaty that was signed at Fort Summer decades ago. This treaty promised things to the Indian people things, which were never delivered, such as one teacher for every thirty residents. Basically Dr. Yellowhorse was now making the government reimburse the hospital for the bills of people who had already been released and even for people who were already deceased. The reason this was done so easily was because there were no death certificates for the deceased and many people that were dead had no date of death along with there name. The cases where Dr. Yellowhorse easily covered up people that were still living because he worked in the hospital and had access to the financial data. This meant it was almost effortless for him to file faulty reports as often as possible.
Written as part of a short story collection, author T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” presents itself as a climactic account of one night in a less than savory young man’s life. Upon closer inspection “Greasy Lake” reveals a complex series of foreboding events that incorporate the innocence and ignorance males have when presented with different social scenarios and the female gender. Through his masterful use of the protagonists internal dialogue, Boyle’s artistry shows an evolving dynamic of indifference, aggression, and intimidation towards and by the women of “Greasy Lake”.
Initially, Elisabeth is the matriarch of the four generations of women talked about in the story. Elisabeth works in the house, but she’s married to a field slave and has three daughters. Not much insight is given on Elisabeth and her feelings, yet through the narration it is as if she lived vicariously through her youngest daughter, Suzette: “It was as if her mother were the one who had just had her first communion not Suzette” (20) Even though Elisabeth too worked in the house, Suzette had more privileges than her mother and the other slaves. Elisabeth represented the strength and the pride of her people: “You have a mother and a father both, and they don’t live up to the [plantation] house” (25). She would constantly remind Suzette of her real family, which signifies the remembrance of a history of people and their roots. It is up to Suzette to keep the heritage even through the latter miscegenation of the generations to come.
“Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyles tells a story about a group of young adults looking for their chance to be proclaimed “tough guys”. The young adults get their mom’s car and decide to go out to the place called “Greasy Lake”. The lake that use to be a clean lake, was now a hangout place for young adults. The boys had some liquor, pot, and a mission to complete. They were destined to be them crazy “bad guys”. Needless to say their night ends up being a learning experience and the come home different people. Most young adults have to learn some lessons the hard way. Almost, all situations in life are learned by someone’s trial and error. The “Greasy Lake” is a story whose symbols support the main theme: the lake itself represents the boy’s character, losing the keys represent them losing their innocence, and Al’s body represented the results of being “bad guys”.
“Black Power”, the word alone raises an abundance of controversial issues. Black power was a civil rights movement led by the black panthers which addressed several issues including segregation and racism. Black power had a different meaning to every member of the Mc Bride family, Ruth and James both looked at black power from a different angle. In “The Color of Water”, The author James Mc Bride admired the black panthers at first, but slowly he grew afraid of them after fearing the consequences his mother might face for being a white woman in a black community influenced by black power. James’ worries were baseless, black power’s motive was to educate and improve African American communities not to create havoc or to harm members of the white community.
Water is symbolic of the life cycle as the continuous, repetitive movement is symbolic of the Buddhist view of samsara. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from one grasping and fixating one’s self and experiences. Specifically, samara refers to the process of cycling through one rebirth after another within the realms of existence. The uninterrupted cycle of death and rebirth without a choice is called ‘cyclic existence’ ("Buddhism Beliefs |About Buddhism”). In lê thi diem thúy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For, water permeates through the life cycle concerning life, death, and the dual-meaning of resurrection representing both rebirth and the manifestation of ghostly
In Righteous Dopefiend, Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg provide a powerful and poignant account of the culture and challenges faced by homeless heroin addicts in San Francisco. Numerous factors, including structural violence, affect the health and quality of life held by the addicts creating a unique set of challenges for health care providers and law enforcement agencies. The problem of heroin addiction is not one-dimensional and many issues go into creating a “syndemic” (Sobo 193). Heroin addiction deserves to be looked at from many angles so that effective solutions can be introduced to help those affected, including the unique community of the Edgewater homeless.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver Six thousand years ago in Northern Europe, a teenager named Torak woke up with his shoulder throbbing in pain. His father lies next to him, bleeding from an open wound. The two have been attacked by an enormous demon bear, which is bound to come back at any moment. As he bleeds out, Torak’s father can only bear to say a few more words. He says that the demon bear will only grow stronger with each kill it makes, and he also tells Torak that he has to go to the Mountain of the World Spirit in order to defeat the bear.
The Play "Sure Thing" from David Ives examines the endless variations of boy meets girl and the ensuing pick up lines. The central theme throughout the play displays a few varieties of a possible conversation that end with a ringing bell that symbolizes a fresh start and a second chance to make a good impression.
The historical fiction book Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is a book based in the time of WWII. It has four main characters named Florian, Emilia, Alfred, and Joana. Their stories start off in different places and in the end all tie together. Florian starts off . Joana is with her own separate group and Alfred is at a Nazi boat dock.
...at I get from the painting is that the men are getting a mirror image of them self’s, that makes them see what they are afraid of. In turn when I see the painting it allows me to see my fears. I felt that my fears changed with in two days of being in the program. I loved meeting new people and having new teachers.