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Reflection of new journalism
Weakness in the man who mistook his wife for a hat book
Weakness in the man who mistook his wife for a hat book
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A narrative is constructed to elicit a particular response from its audience. In the form of a written story, authors use specific narrative strategies to position the ‘ideal reader’ to attain the intended understanding of the meanings in the text. Oliver Sacks’ short story The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is an unusual short story because it does not display conventional plot development; the story does not contain conflict or resolution of conflict. The genre of the story is also difficult to define because it reads as an autobiographical account of an experience Sacks had with a patient while working as a neurologist. Although it is arguable that the narrative is a work of non-fiction, it is nevertheless a representation, distinct from a reflection of the real events. It is a construction, Sacks chose the elements that were included and omitted in the narrative and used narrative strategies to position readers to process the signs in the text and produce reach the dominant understanding. This blurring of truth and fiction is similar to that in the genre of ‘new journalism’. Although, rather than being a journalist writing a fictional piece of journalism, Sacks is a doctor writing a fictional medical analysis. To influence readers’ comprehension of the narrative, Sacks utilised the point of view strategy of subjective narration, atypical in this short story in that a characterisation or representation of Oliver Sacks is the narrator and Oliver Sacks the person is the real author. The story is character-driven rather than plot-driven and regardless of how accurate a depiction of the real people the characters are, they are constructions. Sacks gave the characters of Doctor P. and his namesake admirable and sympathetic trait...
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...tation test where a person were to read the story without the knowledge that the real author is also the narrator and a character, it would probably be read as a detailed work of fiction. Because readers have the knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in fact a neurologist, it changes the meanings in the text. This is how the real author is distinct from the implied author; the implied author is what the reader can deduce from the material presented in the text, without any knowledge of the real author’s context. The knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in reality a neurologist also positions readers to accept the narrator’s version of events because they would be inclined to accept the privileged and authoritative narrative voice. The techniques of point of view, subjective narration and characterisation therefore position readers to accept the meanings presented in the text.
When inditing, authors incline to tell their own personal story through their literature work, sometimes done unknowingly or deliberately. Albeit some components of the author’s work are fabricated and do not connect with their own personal lives whatsoever, this is sometimes what causes a reader to do their own research about the author and their background of the story. Upon researching Wallace Stegner’s novel Crossing to Safety, one may discover that he did indeed, reveal bits and pieces of his own experiences in his novel. “You break experience up into pieces and you put them together in different amalgamations, incipient cumulations, and some are authentic and some are not… It takes a pedestrian and literal mind to be apprehensive about
Through war and gender, Susan Griffin interplays between private tribulation and public tragedy. The excerpt, ‘Our Secret’, from her book,‘A Chorus of Stones’, helps to set information about the first atomic bombs. Griffin alternates between the information of the first atomic bombs and the struggles in the personal lives of regular people and major figures, such as, Heinrich Himmler and her own family. While reading ‘Our Secret’, the lessons of reading, writing, and thinking are iterated throughout the work. The structure and features of her work are foreign to many such as myself, because the use of this method has not been seen before. When many read ‘Our Secret’, it is the first time that they are encountering this type of writing method. It keeps the readers interested in what was being read the entire time. The alternations between the italicized sections and her story require the re-reading of the two portions allowing for better comprehension. To better understand her method of writing looking at the connections within the text is vitally important. Without these connections, between such things as the first atomic bombs, DNA/biology, Heinrich Himmler’s life, and many other topics, the reading may make no sense at all to the readers. It would seem to the readers, through their first time of reading it, that it just jumps from one topic to the next and that may begin to confuse the reader. The reader may have seen this type of method in another text before, and they would be able to understand a lot more than the readers who haven’t seen this type of writing method used before. Students gain a deeper understanding of the text when they recognize connections. These connections connect the reader to the characters being discu...
Dr. Gawande emphasizes the value of making mistakes, and how it is a core component of his daily life as a physician. His mistakes are dependent on the “good choices or bad choices” he makes, and regardless of the result that occurs, he learns more about himself as a physician, and more about his connection with patients (215). Critic Joan Smith of The Guardian newspaper mentions that although his various stories about “terrifying” mistakes that doctors make induce fear and a sense of squeamishness within the reader, it is the “emphasis that human beings are not machines” that is “oddly reassuring” (Smith). For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed” (73).
It is said that fiction is an essentially rhetorical art and that the author tries to persuade the reader towards a specific view of the world while reading. This is evident in both short stories, A Secret Lost in the Water by Roch Carrier, and He-y Come on Ou-t by Shinichi Hoshi. Although through A Secret Lost in the Water, Roch Carrier displays how fiction is an essentially rhetorical art better than Shinichi Hoshi in He-y, Come on Ou-t (awkard sentence), Shinichi Hoshi demonstrates it better through the use of prognosis. Furthermore, by utilizing the characters, such as the farmer from A Secret Lost in the Water, and the use of symbolism such as the hole from He-y, Come on Ou-t, it is evident that the author makes an endeavour towards persuading
In Edgar Allen Poe’s classic short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” an impression of apprehension is established through the fear-induced monologue of an unknown narrator. Right from the beginning of this short story, Poe prepares the reader for a horrific tale by way of the narrator admitting to the audience that he has, “made up my mind to take the life of the old man” (41). The narrator not only admits to this heinous crime, he proclaims that he had done so out of complete ‘sanity’ and proceeds to inform the audience, “and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story” (41), as he feels this will justify his atrocious crime. The narrator’s assurance of sanity is swiftly demolished as their mania takes control of the way they explain their actions. This obvious foreshadowing forces the audience to surpass the dreadful details and look for the remarkable facets of Poe’s short story allowing the setting of the
In ‘unreliable narration’ the narrator’s account is at odds with the implied reader's surmises about the story’s real intentions. The story und...
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
Charles Chesnutt was an African American author who was born on June 20, 1850. Chesnutt was well known for his short stories about the issues of social and racial identity in post- reconstruction south. Chesnutt’s well-known example of his collection of short stories “The Wife of his Youth: And other Stories of the Color Line” examines issues of discrimination that permeate within the African American community. His most anthologized short story “The Wife of his Youth” explores the issue racial passing. The character Mr. Ryder attempts to assimilate into the white majority in a post- reconstruction American society. Mr. Ryder’s hopes to assimilate becomes an obsession. His opportunity for assimilation arrives through a widow name of Mrs. Molly Dixon,
There are many people in this world, with psychological complications or disorders. From bipolar, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and many others. All those mentally disadvantages can alter ones abilities to control whether what they’re seeing is real, compared to what really happened. But millions of people live with these disadvantages daily. And if one was to ask them if they thought their mental illness affect whether if they are reliable. I believe, they wouldn't respond too kindly. Comparing real people and their situations, to how people commented on this narrator for not being reliable due to his psychological state. Makes one to believe there is no reason not to believe the event took place exactly as it was narrated to
Escaping poverty was one of the themes of “A Raisin in the Sun.” The family’s chance of escape becomes a reality when a $10,000 check arrives in the mail. Everyone is wanting to spend their money for their own dream, each with their own way of escaping poverty. Walter believes that investing all the money into the liquor store will put the family higher in the ranks while earning them more income, therefore they would no longer be poverty-stricken. He believes money is everything and wants his family to have the best. This can be seen when he tells his son, “[without even looking at his son, still staring hard at his wife] In fact, here’s another fifty cents…Buy yourself some fruit today – or take a taxicab to school or something!” (pg 1.1.59).
In much of The Things They Carried, stories are retold time and time again. One reason for this is the idea of keeping a story’s story-truth alive. In “Good Form,” O’Brien differentiates what he calls story-truth from happening-truth. Story-truth seems to give us a better understanding of O’Brien’s sentiment in a particular story even though the story itself may not be true at all. On the other hand, happening-truth is what actually happened in the story, but may not contain as much emotional authenticity as story-truth. According to O’Brien, story-truth is therefore truer than happening-truth. Relating back to storytelling, O’Brien retells stories continuously to maintain their sentiment and emotional value. Without this continuous repetition, this sentiment fades away and the emotional value of the story is lost.
Essay 2 Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything.
The high level of expertise by the author using the third person narrative of the view of the protagonist husband shows that he was oblivious to the fact that his wife was ver...
Oliver’s emotions, primarily anger, began to grow after the rebel mob evicted him and his sick dad out of his own home. Afterwards, the emotions of Oliver began to take control over him, and his words, feelings, and bias began to show. He described himself, at the time of his eviction, to be “in an icy rage at the witless cruelty of these misguided dolts, who were torturing a man who had proved himself as indomitable.” (Roberts 47) Oliver was obviously angry at the mob from his choice of words, which caused his judgement and way of thinking to become misguided too; therefore, it made him a less trustworthy because he wasn’t thinking straight and allowed his feelings to dictate the way he was narrating. Also, if Oliver wished to write about the truth, he would have to have a reasonable and unbiased mindset. How would Oliver be able to be truthful if he was in an “icy rage” with the “witless cruelty” of the “misguided dolts?” Oliver’s word choice used against the rebel mob belied his wishes to become a truthful writer. He let his personal experience and emotions get in the way of his
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.