The first chapter of “Let the Great World Spin”, by Colum McCann creates a sense of reuniting. People of all different backgrounds are coming together to watch one man do the unthinkable. “Occasionally, I drop a teacup to shatter on the floor on purpose … Someday, perhaps, that cup will come together” (Hannibal, NBC). The teacup represents a society, breaking free from unity, until some extraordinary occurrence, where the teacup gathers itself back up. McCann’s use of concrete diction, as well as his frequent use of asyndeton accentuates the fragmented tone, and demonstrates how a remarkable event gathers the shards of society. McCann’s recurrent detachment of personal description and person accents the unity of the watchers and the insignificance
In Larry Lankton’s text, “Beyond the Boundaries” we gradually enter an unknown world that is frightening yet filled with immense beauty for miles. Due to the copper mining industry, a gradual increase of working class men and their families start to migrate to the unknown world with unsteady emotion, yet hope for a prosperous new life. In “Beyond the Boundaries”, Lankton takes us on a journey on how the “world below” transformed the upper peninsula into a functional and accepted new part of the world.
In Robert Cormier’s novel, We All Fall Down, is a young-adult thriller that explores the evil side of humanity through a number of corrupt characters. Cormier, to a large extent, accurately depicts manipulative and dishonest behaviour whilst also showing the evil lurking within the prominent characters of Harry Flowers, Buddy Walker and Mickey Stallings who showcase the dark side of humanity. Cormier explores this through Harry Flower’s manipulative actions that result in the suffering of others. Additionally, the constant dishonest behaviour is shown predominantly through the main protagonist of Buddy Walker, who deceives the one he loves. Cormier continues to depict the evil lurking in society through the theme of appearance
The American Dream has never been available to minority citizens as easily as it is to American-born citizens. Affirmative action was first implemented around the year 1972, however it was not widely accepted or practiced. During this time society was just getting used to including women in higher education institutions so the concept of including minorities in higher education was almost non-existent. My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor shows the challenges that a first generation, Puerto Rican, lower socioeconomic female had during this time. Through her autobiography she shows the struggles she faced throughout her life, focusing on her application to college, college experience and insight into her cultural background. My Beloved
The poem “Between the World and Me” by Richard Wright reanimates the horrible scene of a racial lynching and forces the reader to endure the victim's pain through the first person’s narrative voice. The poem contains structured lines and visual division into three stanzas. Moreover, there is one more type of division in the poem. The author uses an ellipsis four times throughout the poem. This punctuation mark frames the poem into the timeline, where the historical past of the African American poet becomes the present experience of any human, despite the race. The climax of the poem is presented in the middle of stanza two. The animated moment, which starts from the sentence “the ground gripped my feet”, dramatically shifts the
Colum McCann, the author of Let the Great World Spin, developed a intricate connectedness in the lives of each of his characters in the novel, it is through this that he unites his characters together either physically and mentally. By doing this, the author develops an idea that two or more very different life paths can cross and become intertwined with one another in a way that can change the direction of someone’s life; in other words, the people around us, even strangers, can in some way, meaningfully influence us on accident without even knowing it. One person's decision has many unknown and known effects.
“Where Worlds Collide” is an essay by Pico Iyer who talks about the expectations and reality of Los Angeles through the perspectives of travelers from different backgrounds. In “Where Worlds Collide,” Pico Iyer argues that even though Los Angeles is depicted as a vicinity to receive wealth, happiness, and many opportunities- it is actually the antithesis, and instead, many harsh prejudice and unending craziness will occur instead; Iyer argues this by using allusions, anaphoras, and juxtapositions to help convey what he is saying.
Jared Diamond is a world renowned scientist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and currently a geography professor at UCLA. Of his six books published, we will be looking at the last chapter of his fourth book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. In this book Diamond utilizes the comparative method to find resemblance in past societal collapses with our current society. In the chapter entitled, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today," Diamond points out that there are indeed many parallels between past and present societies and that our modern day society is currently on a path of self destruction , through examples such as globalization and the interdependency of each country.
Mist of Avalon breaks through many stereotypes but also strengthens some in some ways. One stereotype that was torn down was that women are not as strong as men. This is proved to be wrong when they have Morgaine fighting men and actually being victorious. This movie also breaks the stereotype that women can’t be in power. Most women in this movie hold very high positions. For example, Viviane is the high goddess of Avalon. Also Morgaine is her second in command. Although this movie breaks some stereotypes it also reinforces them by putting the blame on a women for not being able to give the king an heir. Although in this case it really is her fault nobody knows this information and automatically blames her. These are just a few of the reasons that Mist of Avalon strengthens and breaks through common stereotypes.
Darkness at Noon, written by British novelist Arthur Koestler in 1940, is a criticism of Stalinism and the methods used by the Communist Party in the USSR. The novel was set in 1938 during the Stalinist Great Purge and Moscow show trials. Even though the story depicts actual occurrences, it does not specifically name either Russia or the USSR, but the characters do have Russian names while other generic terms are used to depict individuals and associations. For instance, the Soviet government is alluded to as "the Party" and Nazi Germany is alluded to as "the Dictatorship." Joseph Stalin, a terrorizing dictator, is represented by "Number One." The novel is a strong and moving picture of a Communist revolutionary caught up in the terror
In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” (“The Second Coming”). In the novel Things Fall Apart, the village’s belief system began to collapse. In “The Second Coming”, the narrator is witnessing an era coming to an end, and in “Ozymandias,” a statue of a tyrant falls apart, symbolizing the destruction of his legacy. There is a central theme shared amongst these three works. Things throughout history, good or bad, like religions, infamous leaders, or eras in history all inevitably come to an end.
All the light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, chronicles the lives and relationship between Marie and Werner, two children who grew up in France and Germany. The society around them forces discriminatory ideals that cloud their perception of the world, but they find its meaning through their own self-definition. In this, they are both guided by a single radio and the message and legacy that it contains. Throughout the book, the author isolated the two characters, but also created subtle connections between the two. The most important of which would be the radio. It created a bond between the two where they learned from each other’s experiences and struggles. All the Light We Cannot See recreates a new picture of the world by contrasting the two separate journeys taken by Marie- Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig to gain that image, which is guided by the power of a radio and the message it contains, ultimately leading to the meeting of the two characters that officially forms an image of the world where one’s actions are valued more than one’s physical features.
Many individuals do not realize it, but obesity has become a huge epidemic in today’s society. Individuals tend to ignore the growing unhealthy products around them; instead of questioning why people are gaining weight so rapidly, they enjoy the unhealthy and unsuitable substances that they are putting in their body. Some eat whatever they can find, and since they are in a certain predicaments, they have no choice but, end up doing the same thing to their children. Many have not seen it yet, but parents are feeding their children unhealthy substances. The nutrients that they are feeding them are unhealthy, and since children do not know any better, they cannot disagree with what is being provided to them, nor can they tell whether they have had enough or not. In an article “Too Much of a Good Thing” by Greg Critser. He explains how parents are partially to blame for their children 's obesity and also their children 's environments. Critser uses statistic, biological experiments, and comparisons show how child obesity has become a great problem in today’s society and that parents have much to do with it.
The idea of disconnection leads to solitude that directs the mind into destructiveness. Conclusively, the progression of society is the result of collective ideologies and comparative literary works, while fictionalized, influence contemplation. What seemingly progresses
The United States is infamously branded as the “Great Melting Pot.” In R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the R’s, the reader recognizes that this legendary melting pot can also be a system that continually ensures some races and cultures remain inferior. Through a series of vignettes written with Pidgin English, the reader follows a group of Filipino-American fifth graders from Kalihi, Hawaii as they struggle with personal and sexual identities while they come of age. The characters in this novel are labeled as racially and sexually improper and are therefore shamed by their small, poverty-stricken Hawaiian community. This intolerance portrayed in Rolling the R’s coincides with America’s past when those who were different from the norm faced extreme difficulties and barriers to assimilate. This problem with integration is revealed throughout the novel by analyzing the various oppressions the children are forced to cope with on a daily basis. American imperialism, organized religion, society’s view of sexuality, and the educational system all play a major role in suppressing groups of people who do not fit the traditional standard.