Comparing Momaday And Walker

Authors of great stories often use good technical writing skills. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two short stories: Where Are you going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates and Hills Like White Elephants by Earnest Hemingway. The comparison and contrast will be done based on their use of plot, point of view and character development.

Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are now. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (O’brien 36). Life within itself is a story, a story ever present and ever changing, defining the person one becomes to be. Stories are etched into the minds every individual person, the good and the bad. This novel is a cluster of short stories experienced by the protagonist and his fellow companions.

In short stories, often an author can find him/herself limited on space to develop one or more of the story’s characters. A skilled author can use small vignettes to relate instances of character development that can be used to infer a relationship with the character. These passages can be a line or two, but can carry the weight of a full chapter if executed properly. Will Weaver paints an idyllic farm scene in “A Gravestone Made of Wheat,” featuring a full cast of traditional characters. Nevertheless, through glimpses into specific instances in Olaf and Inge’s respective lives together, the audience can appreciate their nontraditional nature.

The literary technique of foreshadowing is employed by many authors to add a suspenseful tension to a novel, or to help explain later events. Additionally, diction and imagery can be employed to provide more sensory involvement to help draw in the reader, and provide more tangibility to the story. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles’ inimical diction and imagery foreshadow certain aspects of the novel, and characterize Gene’s adult character.

A good story is always structured with details that are easy to follow while intriguing readers with reality and emotions. Edwidge Danticat’s memoir has proven her ability to use descriptions that allows the text and the readers to connect. Through her writing, she is able to get the reader involved in her situation, so that it is as if they are experiencing it too. Adding on, Danticat cleverly writes each type of description in a way that makes them distinct from each other. This connects the two which adds to her message. Descriptions bring life to her story and stresses the real events that happened to her and her family which displays her message effectively. That being said, without objective and subjective descriptions, any piece

In the short story ”Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier the author uses several literary devices to create narrator’s voice and point of view. Collier uses flashback to create voice in several examples. When the narrator states “When I think of the hometown of my youth” (16) she is referring to a memory from a long ago in a flashback. This creates a point of reference for the reader to understand that the following story will be told from the narrator’s point of view as an adult. And the author uses flashback to cite some past scenes. When the narrator states “I remember fishing for minnows in a muddy creek and watching sadly as they eluded my cupped hands, while Joey laughed uproariously” (17) she is referring to a scene happened as in the past.

In the story We Were the Mulvaneys, the author Joyce Carol Oates uses literary devices such as repetition, and foreshadow to characterize Judd Mulvaney. Oates shows how repeating descriptions, can make the thing sound more important, and have a larger role in the story. He uses foreshadow to show how every little thing you do, can have an effect on your life.

The book I am currently reading is Eggs by Jerry Spinelli. This is a story about a boy whose mother died and now he lives with his grandmother. The author interrupts this tale mid-story to show how David keeps thinking about his mother. I think he does this so he can show character emotion to foreshadow. For example, he keeps saying “We will see the sun rise tomorrow.” This symbolizes that David loves his mother. A second example is, “I love you”. This shows David loves his mom. So I think this is showing David loves his mom because he also says to Primrose’s mom, “I want to ask you about my mother” (151). So, the author is trying to show he loves his mom through memories. Jerry Spinelli does this because he wants to show us David loved

It has been said throughout history that life experiences are what shape a person's character and how they view the world. In her memoirs Virginia Woolf recalls a particular moment from her childhood which changed her. Woolf utilizes the element of figurative language and syntax to convey the lasting significance of these moments from her past which helped shape her life as an adult. Woolf begins the passage by describing a trip to the sea with her father and brother where she recalls the memory of catching her first fish and the feeling of excitement she felt by using a specific structure and punctuation. In the first section of the passage, Woolf uses a sentence structure in her writing, which signify her childhood experiences as simple events, but then gradually creates a more significant meaning as the passage goes on.

Literary elements are often used set up the presentation of a short story, it can help the reader determine why the author chose to present the theme, setting, and the characters within the story. In the short stories Brothers Grimm’s “Godfather’s Death “and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” each have a similar theme that everyone is doomed from the second they are born and participate in their own death. The authors of each story use narration, setting, and theme to create the image that everyone is doomed from the start.

Authors often use similar literary devices as other authors, without realizing it. It is through the use of these literary devices that it is possible to link and unify stories. By thoroughly examining stories, and author’s backgrounds, it is possible to find similarities in virtually any two stories, but to find the connection between four stories is a little more difficult. Unit one of ENG4U1’s course was based on short stories.

One great Dr. Gallegos, once informed me on an assignment that ‘One mark of a skilled novelist is the way in which he or she controls the flow of information given to the reader.’ This shows to be evident in the storytelling of “The Remains of the Day”, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro possesses the information of the story but reveals it when Stevens reminisces of the past.

Authors use stylistic techniques to convey meaning and to bring richness and clarity to their pieces of writing. In the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” a man named Smiley is cheated out of a bet after he was so confident that he was going to be victorious. In the short story “Cannibalism in the Cars,” a train full of political figures is stopped by a severe snowstorm, preventing them from continuing their journey. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Cannibalism in the Cars,” Mark Twain uses imagery, characterization, and foreshadowing in order to aid a reader's understanding of the stories.

The author in “After Twenty Years” uses dialogue and events to reveal characterization and theme in the story by giving us examples by what they say and the events that occurred to help me develop the type of person they are.

In these short stories, there are notable depictions of overlapping themes and writing styles in each, therefore portraying similarities between the protagonists, Doree and Jackson, and how their experiences result in an epiphany, motivating them to change of their life paths. The techniques that Munro employs are what bring the two stories closely together, evoking strong emotions and pathos within the reader. Thematically, Munro shows parallel ones in both Dimension and Train, with the most prominent ones being isolation, relationships with parents or other family members, and gender and sexuality. Munro’s writing style rings identical in both stories as well, as each one incorporates the use of flashbacks, once again providing a way to compare the characters, as some of the flashbacks portray happier times in the characters lives, as well as devastating times. Lastly, a technique to take note in is the way in which each story ends abruptly, stimulating a response in the reader of wanting more to the story.