Weird 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. In the story, Tommy defends Miss Ferenczi. Why? Tommy seems to just defend her because he likes her. In the beginning of the story he says, “I like her. She was strange.” This shows that Tommy likes people who are different, unique, or strange. He also seemed to want to believe the weird stories Miss Ferenczi tells of and wants others to believe too. Tommy also defends Miss Ferenczi in the bus when Carl Whiteside says that she lies about the half lion and half bird. “I read in this newspaper my mom bought in the IGA about this scientist, this mad scientist in the Swiss Alps, and he’s been putting genes and chromosomes and stuff together in test tubes, and he combined a human being and a hamster.” tells Tommy. He made up the “Humster” story just so Carl would believe her. These all show that Tommy only defends her because he …show more content…
One would be because he wants to believe Miss Ferenczi’s unbelievable stories. “I ran into the living room, pulled out a dictionary next to the TV stand, and opened it to the Gs. After five minutes I found it. Gryphon: “variant of griffin.” Griffin: “a fabulous beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.” This quote shows that Tommy wanted to know if a Griffin, a creature that Miss Ferenczi talked about, was real. Another piece of evidence would be when Tommy felt his mom’s diamond ring on his forehead. He remembered what Miss Ferenczi said,”and this is why women wear them on their fingers, as a sign of womanhood.” Tommy then knew that she was telling the truth. These all show that Tommy wants to believe the fabulous stories that Miss Ferenczi tells which is why he defends
In this entry it shows how Tom can not face the truth and has to hide behind his fist. Knowing that he can’t have the women he wants and her talking about his wife makes him angry.
The poems “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child/children, which ranges from the sounds of a bird at night, to the history of the world itself. “A Barred Owl” depicts two parents who lie to their daughter about an owl who woke her in the night, while “The History Teacher” involves a man who tries to protect his students by using education as a tool to deceive them. Both poets use diction, imagery, and rhyme to help them convey a certain tone in their poems.
Mercer Mayer is an American artist and short story author who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on December 30, 1943. He grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and attended art school in Honolulu and New York City. He has written over 300 short stories, some with the help of his current wife, Gina Mayer. The stories I have chosen to analyze are part of his “Little Critter” series. These stories include “Little Critter’s The Fussy Princess,” “Taking Care of Mom,” “I Was so Mad,” “The New Baby,” and “A Very Special Critter.” All of these stories were a big part of my childhood and hold a special place in my heart.
In JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, Franny Glass undergoes a mental and physical collapse, followed by a spiritual crisis. Every one of the Glass children is considerably precocious and deep thinking, and Franny and Zooey are no exception. With her fluctuating self-worth and perception, Franny begins to break down without any conscious awareness of why, which ultimately leaves her curled up on her mother’s couch in a state of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual crisis. This is why there is a need for urgent and vigorous “therapy” for Franny, and Zooey, having shared the elder Glass’ spiritual instruction, is the only character capable of providing any support for Franny.
In the story Gryphon, by Charles Baxter, a boy named Tommy who goes to Five Oaks elementary meets an interesting new teacher. As the story begins, Tommy’s teacher, Mr.Hibler, tells his class that he has been feeling sick today and won’t be coming to class tomorrow. The next day, someone amazing comes in the classroom and turns out to be no ordinary substitute teacher. As the day goes on, she tells her students unusual stories and everyone loved the stories/facts. In the story it says “There was not a sound in the classroom, except for Miss Ferenczi’s voice, and Donna DeShano’s coughing. No one even went to the bathroom.“ The next time Miss Ferenczi came to their classroom was early December. This time Miss Ferenczi brought tarot cards so that she can determine her students future and unfortunately she got in trouble. Later that day Miss Ferenczi was fired and left the school. Tommy defended Miss Ferenczi because she made school interesting, was different than other teachers, and really cared for her students.
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
Lying has deadly effects on both the individual who lies and those around them. This concept is demonstrated in The Great Gatsby. Although Gatsby, Tom and Myrtle have different motives for being deceitful, they all lie in order to fulfill their desires and personal needs. Myrtle’s desire to be wealthy is illustrated when she first meets Tom, dressed in his expensive clothing, as her attitude changes when she puts on the luxurious dress and when she encourages Tom to buy her a dog. Tom’s deception is clear when he hides his affair with Myrtle by placing Myrtle in a different train, withholding the truth from Mr. Wilson of the affair and convincing Myrtle and Catherine that he will one day marry Myrtle. Gatsby tries to convince himself and others that he is the son of wealthy people, he creates an appearance that he is a successful, educated man through the books in his library and assures himself that Daisy loves him. Tom’s dishonesty reveals that he is selfish, while Gatsby’s distortions expose his insecurities, and Myrtle’s misrepresentations show that her sole focus in life is to achieve materialistic success. Gatsby and Myrtle both lie in order to obtain the “American dream.” However, Tom, who appears to already have achieved the “American dream”, deceives others out of boredom and because he takes his wealthy lifestyle for granted. F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the human flaw of dishonesty for personal gain and how lies have inevitably tragic consequences in his characterization of Gatsby, Myrtle and Tom.
The Princess and the Goblin is a story about self-realisation and the expansion of limits. The princess, Irene, is able to come to certain conclusions about herself with the help of her grandmother, who lives in the attic upstairs in the palace. The grandmother guides Irene through her rite of passage into adulthood, and helps to bring the princess and Curdie together in the end. However, the reader never really knows whether the grandmother even exists, and it is this uncertainty that causes the reader to question whether she is a personification of a force within Irene that is driving her to achieve all that she does. There are many elements of fairy tales that exist within the grandmother's world and Irene's relationship with her grandmother and her nurse, Lootie. Archetypes such as the attic, birds, the moon, and fire exist within her grandmother's world and archetypes such as the underground exist within the world she guides Irene through. The grandmother embodies characteristics of the good witch with supernatural powers, who guides Irene on her journey, while Lootie embodies characteristics of a wicked witch, who hinders her right of passage into adulthood.
Lies are a treacherous thing, yet everyone tells a few lies during their lifetime. Deceit surrounds us all the time; even when one reads classic literature. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes dishonesty a major theme in his novel The Great Gatsby. The falsehoods told by the characters in this novel leads to inevitable tragedy when the truth is revealed.
This short story written by Richard Wright is a very well written, and has a very good plot and keeps the reader entertained throughout. From the dialogue to the characters, who inhabit the world crafted by Wright its very intriguing. On the surface it appears to be just a story about childhood disobedience in general, but the overall theme is much deeper than that.
We do not know much about Tom’s childhood; however it is clear that his life has progressed into a sociopathic lifestyle. We do know that, “[His] parents died when [he] was very small” and that “[He] was raised by [his] aunt in Boston.” (25) He disliked his aunt, hated her, and wanted to kill her.
In JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, Franny Glass undergoes a mental and physical collapse, followed by a spiritual crisis. Every one of the Glass children is considerably precocious and deep thinking, and Franny and Zooey are no exception. With her fluctuating self-worth and perception, Franny begins to break down without any conscious awareness of why, which ultimately leaves her curled up on her mother’s couch in a state of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual crisis. This is why there is a need for urgent and vigorous “therapy” for Franny, and Zooey, having shared the elder Glass’ spiritual instruction, is the only character capable of providing any support for Franny.
The narrator of the story, Rat Kiley is portrayed with many different faces and masks throughout the
“A story comes to you; it isn’t like you choose it. You have no real control.” Mary Downing Hahn has been a part of my childhood ever since I learned how to read. Finding new stories from her in my school’s library brightened my day. From The Doll in the Garden to All the Lovely Bad Ones she has brought out the scary stories for young audiences to enjoy.
In the story, “The Flower” by Alice Walker, the main character, Myop, is faced with the harshness of the world she lives in, causing her to face reality and lose her innocence, which causes her to grow as a person. Initially, Myop is like every other ten year old, who hasn’t yet discovered the dangers, that people in the world can cause. “Nothing existed for her except her songs, the stick she clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment” (Paragraph 2). Myop had nothing to fear or worry about in her life, except for things so wanted to think about, which most of the time was discovering new places to see. Myop often left her sharecropper cabin and went to explored the woods alone. “Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes” (Paragraph 4). Many people who have