`` Cold Sassy Tree `` By Olive Ann Burns

“When you don’t know which way to turn, son, try something. Don’t jest do nothin’” (Burns, 2007, p. 315). In Cold Sassy Tree, Grandpa Blakeslee takes his own advice when he does “something” that will truly affect the lives of everyone around him. Written by Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree delves into the life and action of a small town in Cold Sassy, Georgia. Barely three weeks as a widower, Grandpa Blakeslee elopes with Love Simpson, a Yankee women less than half his age. Their marriage rouses a storm of gossip as the people of the town are quick to judge. Love Simpson accepted the proposal on the terms that she would only be his housekeeper. But eventually, their relationship turns into something more. Fourteen-year-old

Nothing ever happens in a small town is a motto many own, especially in Holcomb, Kansas. Holcomb is the poster town for “Small Town” by John Cougar Mellencamp, a life that many midwesterners are immersed in.Truman Capote goes into very vivid details providing a beautiful image of the dull unassuming town that is Holcomb in the beginning of his novel In Cold Blood. Truman Capote brings depth and detail out of a rather bland appearance using stylistic elements such as diction, tone, and imagery.

Through time, people have made choices that have not been considered “socially acceptable” by their peers. From one choice, these peers will shun, bully and ridicule. In Cold Sassy Tree, Rucker Blakeslee tested the society’s limits when he remarried to a young woman, Miss Love Simpson, shortly after the death of his first wife. The town found it repulsive that a man would not wait a couple years, much less a couple months before even thinking about remarrying. Miss Love and Rucker made their choice, although everyone in town was critical of the choice they made. The young couple was judged by Cold Sassy due to the choice they made was not a choice anyone else in town would consider. Why is it socially unacceptable to compose an unpopular decision?

Cold Sassy Tree is a fictional story written by Olive Ann Burns which details the life of a family in Cold Sassy, Georgia. The story is being told from the perspective of a teenager named Will Tweedy. The plot is focused around the love and marriage between Rucker Blakeslee and Love Simpson. There is a huge uproar and disdain from the family as well as the townspeople over the relationship. There is a grave separation between the people of the town and the blue collar workers who live on the outskirts of town and barely make enough money to live. Will is torn between defending his grandfather or agreeing with his family. He is thirteen at the time of the passing of his grandmother, who is the family’s matriarch. Being a typical teenager faced with adult circumstances, Will is torn on the emotional impulses on whether he should be out fishing or mourn the lost of the grandmother. Nevertheless, Will loved his grandmother and is extremely sad for her passing, but the passing of his grandmother places a strain on the relationship he has with his family especially his grandfather. Will looks up to his grandfather and hopes to be a lot like him. While Will thinks of his grandfather as a role model, he disagrees with some of his grandfather’s actions. Will would rather be a shopkeeper instead of a farmer like Rucker. He also does not agree with his grandfather wanting

Small towns usually consist of people that know about everyone else’s business but their own. In the fiction novel Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, Ruby introduces the reader to the main character, Finn O’Sullivan, who everyone believes is a weird and peculiar child. Finn lives with his brother Sean and friend Roza in a small town called Bone Gap. One day Roza goes missing and given the fact that the O’Sullivan boys’ mother left them for her lover, the people of Bone Gap do not find the disappearance a surprise. Except Finn knows the truth about her disappearance. However, no one in the town, not even his brother, believes Finn’s story. The mystery unfolds as Ruby uses the different characters’ point of view on the situation. Ruby uses different aspects of literature to pull the reader in preventing

In "Stanislowski vs Grenfell" by Stephen Scriver and "The Future of Poetry in Canada" by Elizabeth Brewster small town prairie life is portrayed as low culture and simplistic in an endearing manner. Scriver and Brewster find the beauty in the ordinary circumstances presented in a prairie atmosphere and, rather than passing judgement, appreciate the differences from urban settings.

The setting changes while Francie continues to mature into a woman. She becomes 16, and is beginning to lead a life of her own. The family leaves the grieving they had for Johnny behind. Not only does Francie start out with a clean slate, so does the rest of the Nolan family. After the two and ½ years of mourning for Johnny, Sergeant Mc Shane asks Katie to marry him. War rages through the country. While he and Katie make arrangements for the fall wedding and gifts of money and whatnot, Francie makes headway in her personal life.

When a young author from New York City decides to take a trip to the southern city of Savannah, he finds himself falling in love with the town and ends up renting an apartment. He encounters many different characters, including Danny Hansford and Jim Williams, that gives the reader a good look into the aura of Savannah. The main conflict in the book occurs when a murder happens in an old mansion located in the town. The book follows the progression of the trial and the outcome following the court’s decision.

In Charles Frazier’s 1997 novel “Cold Mountain,” an injured soldier named Inman begins his journey of travelling to Cold Mountain where his true love named Ada Monroe lived. Ada’s father, a former preacher at Cold Mountain, called Monroe, suddenly passes away and Ada is forced to move back to their home in Black Cove. Ada, having no idea how to make a living, had communications through the Swangers with a girl named Ruby, who helped make the farm profitable. Meanwhile, Inman commits violent acts with noble intentions. His aggression protects the innocent and therefore justifies his violence. Inman’s moral

Cold Sassy Tree, a novel written by Olive Ann Burns, that is set right before World War I in 1906 in the state of Georgia in the southern, fictional town of Cold Sassy. The novel is narrated by Will Tweedy, a 14 year old boy, who tells the story of the significant changes that happened in his family’s lives eight years after the events originally took place. There are flashback memories that are integrated in the story. The novel talks about how his family receives some unexpected news and how the family is learning to adjust the news. This novel also chronicles Will growing up and some of the various trials he experiences along his life journey.

Starting off with a picture of how days were when she experienced her fifth-grade summer, the author adds in details that seem so minuscule, and unimportant to set the setting. The information about the cost of riding a trolley and the ice truck driving around on a hot day with blocks of ice provides the readers with the background of her story. In addition, by using diction that the author used as a child, such as “that-old-thing” and “help-him-out,” she brings the story to life as if it were still the 1900s. Every tiny detail that the author remembers about her childhood shown in this passage proves to the readers how important her fifth-grade summer was to her.

Inherently with racism, classism and sexism are smaller issues in the overall scheme of the system, but A Raisin in the Sun refuses to ignore them. Beneatha, a modern women especially for her time, is quick to notice all this unfairness in the community. For example with classism, she speaks on the topic so nonchalant like it’s a normality; “It makes just as much sense as disliking people ‘cause they are poor, and lots of people do that” (1.1.50). This classism stems from the fact that a majority of the black community is in poverty, but not necessarily at their own fault. The family moves into a predominately white neighborhood as Mama finds that “Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses” (2.1.93). Having important shelter for family at such high cost is will obviously leave them in poverty, which works out great with racism, as they are worth nothing in that system. Sexism also runs deep into the system. In American society, sexism is found all around, but this struggle is heightened for the black women who are facing strong blows of both sexism and racism. Beneatha is faced with this constantly. Her own brother, Walter, constantly puts women, explicitly black, down. He often spouts awful phrases such as “no thanks to colored women” and complains

The isolation, lack of resources, and often secular beliefs are often ignored as we increasingly place our focus on large metropolitan areas. Not to say that every woman in a small town faces the same issues or that every man living in small-town America is abusive, but forced reflection, such as the one provided Kimmel’s work, is what will ultimately aid in eliminating the destructive forces that reside behind America’s own closed doors. Most importantly, Alice and Jack’s relationship is one that is seen all too often across the globe, but adding to insult is the fact that it is often the people living in silence that need help the most. We’ve heard the saying that the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the oil, but it is through Kimmel’s choices concerning Jack and Alice that we are reminded of the dangers in equating silence to sign of well-beings. As we come to learn, a wheel does not have to squeak to malfunction. Small towns are America’s silent wheel, and Kimmel is certainly emphasizing the complexities present within that

Katherine Mansfield’s downtrodden short story “Miss Brill” establishes an idea of prejudice being both an underhand and significant force in people’s lives, using characterization of the curious Miss Brill. She is an unmarried, aged woman who enjoys going to the Jardins Publiques and watching others go about their lives. As Miss Brill observes these various people, she fabricates characters based on what little she sees. What she fails to realize is that others would apply this same prejudice to her. Miss Brill continuously judges others throughout her Sunday morning, reflecting more upon her than her fellow visitors of the park.

Raymond Carver’s fiction in his story can be described as a minimalist because of its significant uniformity of tones, plain language, extra plot lines, and characters bereft of personality and affect. “Neighbors” is an argument concerning individual character because of the sovereignty the Millers eventually attain to investigate the Stones’ residence once the Stones leave. The story mainly concerns voyeurism: the ordinary human trend of the desire to live the lives of others and see how others live, whose literary effectiveness can only be brought out by someone analyzing it with profound interest and knowledge.