A Setting in the Mountains of Albania in Broken April by Ismail Kadare

Marie de France, supposed author of the series of Lais, recounts her stories through short texts, which are centered on women and their place in the 12th century. There are several supernatural elements throughout her work, which are mainly and explicitly present in ‘Guigemar’ and ‘Yonec’. This can be defined as ‘events or things that cannot be explained by nature or science and that are assumed to come from beyond or to originate from otherworldly forces.’ It is not however the only narrative device she has used in her written pieces. It is with the combination of the supernatural with the self-propelled ship or the transformation of the hawk into a knight, and the natural, the symoblisation of the stick and the rossignol, that Marie de France explores human relations between her characters.

On the story, she commented, “Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I supposed that by setting a particular brutal ancient rite in the present and in my village the story’s readers with a dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.”

“That’s RIDICULOUS!” Violet screamed across the table. “You cannot expect me to just sit in the car while you guys do all the fun stuff!”

The author moves to her actual realization that she has been misunderstood her entire lifetime along with the Western world by extending her vocabulary and appealing to emotional diction. These are seen clearly through “’aina” meaning culture and “the great bloodiness of memory: genealogy” (Trask 118). These few examples show how her language is connecting with the audience on an emotional level by using native terms and powerful language such as “bloodiness.” She appeals to the ideals of pathos by employing meaningful words when describing the traits of her people. She

The princesses father was the king who also had a semi barbaric nature much like his daughter’s he was known to have taken great aesthetic pleasure in watching the accused subjects choose their own fate, no matter the

What is the purpose of the trip the two travelers are taking? (The narrator never tells us, but the careful reader can deduce this with relative certainty.)

In “The Mountain” Eli Clare addresses the plight and disadvantages of the disabled in society using a metaphorical mountain and her own climbing supercrip experience. In the opening metaphor section Clare explains how the little sympathy the empowered and able have for the disabled. With the supercrip section, Clare asserts that when stories of crippled people “overcoming” their disabilities gain publicity they simply support and reinforce stereotypes, continuing the discrimination of the disabled community (Clare 1999). Due to her cerebral palsy, Clare cannot finish her hike with her friend Adrianne to the top of Mount Adams. Following her disappointment, Clare considers the difference between impairment and disability. According to the article, an impairment refers to the objective inability to accomplish a task resulting from a faulty limb or bodily function. On the other hand, a disability is a product of a structures refusal to account for the impaired (Clare 1999). In the final section titled “Home,” Clare reminisces on the depressing parts of his life: his father raping him, the inconsiderate and harsh slurs, and his impairment. Then, he ponders the body as a home and its functions. Finally, he accepts that he will never be able to call the mountain home, but yearns for a society where ableism is absent, the concept of the supercrip is extinct, and the impaired can live normal lives (Clare 1999).

In the short story called “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, the author used many different literary elements to describe and build up many characters. But two of the one that stands out the most was the foreshadowing and symbolism. These elements helped to build up Desiree Valmonde, one of the main character in the short story.

Desiree?s words show that her life depends on the race, notions, and social class of her husband and consequently, she feels obligated to obey his every desire. Desiree is presented as vulnerable to whatever Armand wants and tells her to do when she says, ?Do you want me to go?? (177). Desiree displays through her actions that in many ways, her happiness only comes from pleasing her husband. Therefore, Desiree must decide whether to live completely separate from Armand, or to live with him in constant fear and unpleasantness. Desiree achieves personal freedom and independence from Armand when ?she disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thing along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; she did not come back again? (177). It is not even an option and is unheard of that Armand, being a male holding a respectable background, could possibly be black. Consequently, Desiree feels compelled to leave because she wants to please him. When Desiree decides to kill herself and her child, she shows that she is sensitive and vulnerable to her husband?s thoughts and actions.

Unfortunately, Armand’s over value of race rubs off onto Desiree. Not knowing her true race, Desiree cannot live with the dissatisfaction of herself, her husband’s disgrace, nor that fact that he does not love her or the baby anymore. She cannot awake from the nightmare that her life has turned into. She takes the baby and wanders out into a deserted field where she and the baby perish. Thus Armand is to blame for destroying his family because of his obsession with status and the white race.

8. Do you have sympathy or empathy for the wife of Don Elias, Dona Matilde?

In Diamant’s powerful novel The Red Tent the ever-silent Dinah from the 34th chapter of Gensis is finally given her own voice, and the story she tells is a much different one than expected. With the guiding hands of her four “mothers”, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, all the wives of Jacob, we grow with Dinah from her childhood in Mesoptamia through puberty, where she is then entered into the “red tent”, and well off into her adulthood from Cannan to Egypt. Throughout her journey we learn how the red tent is constantly looked upon for encouragement, solace, and comfort. It is where women go once a month during menstration, where they have their babies, were they dwell in illness and most importantly, where

Larissa Jordan was a peppy young girl, especially for one who grew up on the Black Isles of Doracha. As a child, she had never been told of the island's’ dark history, nor had she been told of the reasons why families were forced to move away from the mainlands and onto the Isles. And what you don’t know can’t hurt you. At least, that’s what Larissa’s parents believed; and for twelve years, twelve blissfully peaceful years, they appeared to be correct.

Peter Matthiessen, the author of “A Luminous Mountain Morning”, meets a severely crippled child outside the village he is travelling to. “A child dragging bent useless legs is crawling up the hill outside the village.” The author sets the tone by contrasting a bright sunny morning against a small girl covered in goat dung and mud. “A luminous mountain morning.

In the novel Broken April, Kadare uses the technique of personification to portray Gjorg’s characterization as uneasy. Gjorg in the opening of the novel is feeling uneasy about the idea of having to kill someone but has to, due to the Kanun tradition that is part of his culture. In the opening of the chapter, Gjorg is in the cold awaiting his brothers killer, whom will soon be killed by Gjorg. Passing time by, Gjorg begins to notice his surrounding thoroughly. “When in his mind he had called a fateful day was no more than those patches of snow and those wild pomegranates that seem to have been waiting since Midday to see what he would do.