Often, a piece of literature will remind us of events or people in our own lives. “Gryphon,” did exactly that for me. This short story by Charles Baxter was told in great detail and had a large emphasis on characterization. Specifically, Baxter goes into great detail on the substitute Miss Ferenczi through the eyes of a young fourth-grade boy. In this story, Baxter was able to clearly get across the type of individual that Miss Ferenczi is and how she views the world. The theme, tone, setting, use of symbols, and characters are greatly expressed throughout this short story due to Charles Baxter’s exquisite use of detail. We all are likely to have experienced someone who is quite interesting like Miss Ferenczi and gives us a new perspective …show more content…
The story takes place in a rural Michigan community. This is important since, in a more urbanized place, someone very different like Miss Ferenczi may not be so mysterious and unheard of. Towards the beginning of the story, Tommy even says “…the supply of substitute teachers was limited to the town’s unemployed community college graduates, a pool of about four mothers” (Kirszner 246). This provides an emphasis on how Miss Ferenczi wasn’t just mysterious to them, it was a substitute they have never seen before. A majority of the short story takes place in the fourth-grade classroom. However, some small parts of the story take place in different locations like the bus, and Tommy’s house. The setting is important to understanding why someone like Miss Ferenczi is considered strange, and to understand the circumstances that the story is …show more content…
First off, Tommy is a static and round character. Throughout the short story, you’re able to get a sense of who Tommy is, therefore he is round. However, he is also static since he does not change in the story. On the other hand, Miss Ferenczi is also static and round. She is static since we know exactly who she is through the descriptions given by Tommy. For example, when she walked in Tommy had described her in exquisite detail, he had stated “Her fine, light hair had been up in what I would learn years later was called a chignon, and she wore gold-rimmed glasses whose lenses seemed to have the faintest blue tint” (Kirszner 246) Also, she is round since she stays mysterious and unpredictable throughout the entire story even after she was fired. Through Charles Baxter's emphasis on characterization, these two characters came to life vividly in this short
In the story, ”Gryphon,” by Charles Baxter, Tommy, a boy in the story, had sometimes defended Miss Ferenczi. I think Tommy defends Miss Ferenczi because he had interest in her and wanted to know about her more as a teacher. Miss Ferenczi told the students that she had seen an animal has its body half bird and half lion. While Tommy was going home on the bus, on line 413, Tommy said “She was strange.”. I think this has a part that meant Tommy started to have interest in her as a teacher because he felt something different from other teachers.
In the story, “Gryphon,” by Charles Baxter, a boy named Tommy encounters someone who is weird and different. She, Miss Ferenczi, tells of stories that don’t really make sense. She speaks some truth and some false with her strange stories and is really mixed up… just like a gryphon.
After reading the passage, “Clover”, by Billy Lombardo, a reader is able to describe a particular character’s interactions and analyze descriptions of this individual. In the passage, “Clover”, is a teacher, Graham. He, in his classroom, shares something that had occurred that morning. In this passage, the author, Billy Lombardo, describes interaction, responses, and unique characteristics and traits of the key character, Graham.
The Onion's "Girl Moved to Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs Notes" is an article with satirical and critical tone about a young communication major, Grace Weaver, who is emotional moved by reading the synopsis of the American classic Of Mice and Men over the original novel. In this article, the author describes Weaver's process and reaction to the assigned reading that aims to entertain an audience who has read the book. By using subtle satire and descriptions that let the reader understand the dangers of Weaver's shortcomings, the author is able to emphasize the importance of doing your own good work in a humorous and interesting manner.
Throughout “A&P” and “Gryphon” the two characters found themselves facing a challenge that they had never had to face before. Reading both of the stories has shown that although different adversities were represented in the books they both had challenges and reactions that were similar to each other as well as very different. Sammy’s was about a store called “A&P” where the manager confronted three girls in bathing suits and Sammy had to stand up for them. Tommy’s was about a unique substitute teacher who he quite enjoyed and his journey with her, and his defending her to the other kids when one of the children gets her fired. Together and separately these two dynamic characters make up these unique stories that ensnared their reader with their thoughts, adversity and heroic actions throughout the story.
The story “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter is about a boy named Tommy who attends Five Oaks Elementary School. His teacher, Mr. Hibler, develops a cough and is absent the next day. The person who takes his place is a woman named Miss Ferenczi. Since Five Oaks is a normal town with substitute teachers that “fluttered, provided easeful class days, and nervously covered material we had mastered weeks earlier,” Tommy thought that Miss Ferenczi was something special. (pg. 43, l. 43-45)She is a strange substitute and Tommy wants to believe everything she says, but other people, like Carl Whiteside (which Tommy observes, has bad breath), don’t believe her. Once Tommy gets home, all he talks about to his mother is Miss Ferenczi, but his mother doesn’t
The author, Melina Marchetta applies a variety of familiar and stereotypical events in the book. From cases such as the different characters, their characteristics and their reaction upon certain events that occur in the book. One great example of a stereotypical event in this book is the relationship between Josephine Alibrandi and Jacob Coote who is the school captain of a public school called Cook High. “He cracked two eggs on my glasses once” (32).
Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby & nbsp; Colors can symbolize many different things. Artists use colors in their paintings when they want you to see what they are trying to express. Like if an artist is trying to express sorrow or death. he often uses blacks, blues, and. grays. Basically he uses dreary colors. You automatically feel what the artist is trying to express. When the artist uses bright colors you feel warm and you feel happiness. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is like an artist. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the book. He uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay, decadence, and death. Then he uses the color white to symbolize innocence. He also uses the color green to express hope. Fitzgerald's use of the color green the strongest.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
A symbol is a unique term because it can represent almost anything such as people, beliefs, and values. Symbols are like masks that people put on to describe their true self. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author uses Tom Robinson and Arthur Radley to represent a mockingbird which illustrates the theme of innocence by presenting these characters as two harmless citizens that do not pose a threat to Maycomb.
4)The setting is in Ohio in the present times. The story takes place at Melody’s school and her house.
out towards a green light. At the time it is not revealed to us that this
In the story, instances are shown of her hiding her feminine qualities such as “And in spite of all her attempts to conceal them, in that sexless get-up, you can still make out the evidence of some rather extraordinary breasts”(55). By the author using the untraditional role of a woman as the main antagonist, readers have a tendancy to be more drawn to what makes her so powerful and scary. And the part that makes Nurse scary is the fact that she does not want to be seen as a woman! She understands the political underlyings of her era and if she wants to maintain a position of strength, then all ties to her gender must be cut loose. The odd choice of a female character creates more interest for the readers to pay attention to the story.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.