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A key theme in Tim Winton’s unpredictable short story collection, ‘The turning’ is about the brotherly relationship between Fred and Max. One of the major issues with this relevant theme is action. In the ninth short story, ‘Sand’ the two characters muck around with one another until one gets hurt and the other is positioned in the bad books of his older brother. Fred and Max were playing in the sand dunes whilst their father was fishing; Max pulled his pants down and made Fred light matches near his bottom to create a flame as he farted. Following Max’s instructions, Fred lit the match and positioned it within very close contact of Max’s skin. Subsequently, Max got burnt and became furious at Fred, chasing him down the sand dunes hastily.
In Derek Walcott’s “XIV,” the speaker, an aged man, is having momentary, but significant, recollection of a childhood experience. This detailed and engraved memory described through Walcott’s tone, selection of detail, usage of tropes, and point of view fully helps to convey the comic surreal nature of aging. The speaker’s recollection of the visit to the elderly woman is rather vivid, revealing to the reader that this particular instance in his life is profoundly unexpected. However, it is also an intoxicating occurrence, moreover, an adventure.
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.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained people inside and a wall where they can only see shadow illusions, which they believe is reality. Outside the cave, there is “light” and “truth.” One chained person is released into the “light,” which is uncomfortable at first, because of how bright the “light” or “truth” is however, once he adjusts, he realizes the outer world is the “truth” or reality and the cave is a shadow of reality. He pities the ones in the cave, still lost in the darkness yet, when he tries to make them see reality, their ignorance overpowers them and they kill the enlightened one out of fear and confusion. This is the kind of society, full of puppet-handlers, the narrator Sylvia in “The Lesson” dwells in and the author, Toni Cade Bambara, depicts Sylvia as being freed from the chains of ignorant society. Bambara’s released prisoner, Miss Moore, is the one to free Sylvia and the other chained prisoners and exposes them to the “light,” which is the unequal distribution of wealth and the “truth,” which is educating youth on economic inequality so the freed prisoners can learn to change their society’s shadow of reality.
In a restaurant, picture a young boy enjoying breakfast with his mother. Then suddenly, the child’s gesture expresses how his life was good until “a man started changing it all” (285). This passage reflects how writer, Dagoberto Gilb, in his short story, “Uncle Rock,” sets a tone of displeasure in Erick’s character as he writes a story about the emotions of a child while experiencing his mother’s attempt to find a suitable husband who can provide for her, and who can become a father to him. Erick’s quiet demeanor serves to emphasis how children may express their feelings of disapproval. By communicating through his silence or gestures, Erick shows his disapproval towards the men in a relationship with his mother as he experiences them.
The relationship of brothers usually lasts forever, but in Louise Erdrich’s short story “The Red Convertible”, the relationship of the main characters Lyman and Henry takes a turn. Erdrich takes her audience through the experiences these brothers face and how they must come to terms that their relationship has changed. Knowing that it will most likely never be the same both Lyman and Henry try to fix their relationship until eventually one falls because of the experiences he faced in life. While Lyman may think the red convertible will save his and Henry’s relationship, Erdrich makes it clear that it will not through the characterization of the brothers, the plot of the story, and the symbolism she uses to tell her story.
Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for a healthy couple identity; however, the more the Wheelers hide behind their desired roles, the more they lose sense of their true selves as individuals and as a pair.
Conflict is an important part of any short story. The short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” contains three major conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself. In this essay, I intend to explain, prove, and analyze these three struggles.
In Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, two contrasting characters are introduced—Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders. They are opposites. While Reuven is forward—speaking his mind, Danny Saunders shows a stark contrast—an inflective soul, listening to silence, and growing from it. These characters set the stage for a lasting relationship to form, to be strengthened, and to be stressed.
“The Hero’s Journey.” Ariane Publications, 1997. Course handout. AS English I. Dept. of English, Woodside High School. 26 October 2013.
who were there but learn them in such a way that we are allowed to
Callahan, John. "Review of Love and Trouble." Short Story Criticism Vol. 5. (Essay date 1974).
Vizzini, Ned . It's Kind of a Funny Story. New York: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. 11, 12, 14-5, 27, 136, 148, 161, 168-9, 199, 444. Print.
Brendan Kosteroski is an excelling high school dropout who is trying to make a word for himself. He then got a GED not just because he needed to, but because he wanted to. He wanted to become what he loved. So when I asked him what he majored in he said that “Philosophy is what I’ve always loved, so that's what I did. But something has to bring in the bank; So for the rest of the years I tried to becoming a teacher.”He told me about how he always hated school, and he emphasized “hate”. Brendan never was an outstanding student. Although he was a smart kid, he never felt like doing the work. He said while going through college, that was the toughest adjustment.
The novel ‘of Mice and Men’ is about an unlikely pair of two migrant workers who cling together in the face of alienation and loneliness. George is small yet mindful and loyal, and lennie's is of incredible size and strength, yet he wields the small naive mind of a child. Even in his capaciousness, lennie has a peculiar obsession with small, fragile and soft things. He holds them so preciously and dear, unaware that he is simply too strong to handle these delicate creatures. Those small beings in which lennie's desperately tries to care for ever so quickly fade away, easily broken and stripped of their mere essence.
"Bukowski, Charles - Introduction." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Justin Karr Editor. Vol. 45. Gale Cengage,