Cormac Mccarthy

The context of the plot found in “The School” presents the readers with the timeless question of the meaning of life. However, this question does not seem to present itself immediately to the reader. In order to appreciate Barthelme’s work in this piece, it is crucial that one utilizes the New Criticism’s approach to reading. New Criticism was first developed in the 20th century and it makes reading and interpreting literature a systematic activity. New Criticism as an analytical tool helps the readers to understand and gain insight into all forms of the written works through sheer understanding and by reading closely. This means that our focus

When reading literature we often attempt to use particular threads of thought or lenses of critique to gain entry into the implied historic or legendary nature of literature. To accurately process a tale in the light in which it is presented, we have to consider the text from multiple viewpoints. We must take into consideration intentional and affective fallacies and the socioeconomic circumstances of the presenter/author/narrator. We also have to consider how our personal experience creates bias by placing the elements of the story into the web of relationships that we use to interpret the external world. There also is the need to factor in other external pressures, from societal norms, cultural ideals, and psychological themes, and how

While doing some research on psychological criticism, I found that Arnold Friend in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates and notorious murderer Charles Schmid of The Pied Piper of Tucson by Don Moser have characteristics of being a psychopath, motive for killing, similar comparisons of innocence taken by an evil mind, and how Oates wrote her story based upon Schmid’s personality. Psychological criticism as explained in Retellings by M.B. Clarke and A.G. Clarke states “psychological criticism looks at internal influences on an author’s creation and our reception of it…whether the words and images can be read symbolically” (Clarke A-46). Throughout the paper, I will be addressing the psychological criticism of the schools of literary criticism from Retellings. I will be introducing a fictional character and a non-fictional character, a long with their characteristics, comparisons between Oates character with Moser’s, and ideology based upon the non-fictional character.

People experience different emotions that can drastically change within seconds and, cannot remain controlled. During the course of “The Most Dangerous Game”, “Scarlet Ibis” and “The Use of Force”, the author demonstrates how a person can change from calm and collected to an assailant. Sickness comes in many forms, both physical and mental. Together both can affect emotions, actions which those two then lead into flaws and faults being revealed. All humans have flaws and the authors are attempting to aid the reader in understanding flaws and that can be embraced or overpower a person. The narrators and characters of these stories have many flaws these faults which are both extremely subtle and obvious.

On the other hand, it could be articulated that the female characters in both the novels have proved their mental instabilities, individualisms and rebelliousness have disturbed the lives of others. Moreover, it could be analyzed in the novels that both the author in their social context has explained the dark secrets of the life of individuals.

In this research, I plan to understand the persona’s voice and their period. Due to both author’s creativeness, I hope to find a few symbolisms and ideals that are still being implemented today. Both stories’ personas try to identify themselves as someone worthy of improvement, in social aspects. However, we might be concern that they might not pursue their known agenda and instead used all wordiness as an excuse for their actions

When these and other questions weigh upon his mind he begins to realize that something is fundamentally wrong with the world he is living in. In Brave New World the main character, Bernard, is set apart from society by physical differences, which, in a society of ‘engineered’ people is extremely inhibiting. It is these ‘defects’ which cause him to look for a deeper meaning than the drug induced happiness forced upon him. These characters, although alienated in the novels, are believable and rational. The acts of their questioning in their search for the truth and real emotion persuade the reader to do the same thing. It is in this manner that the utility of these novels becomes apparent; through the demands they make of the reader personally - a superior social commentary, one that demands interaction, is born.

Novels intrigue anyone, whether it brings in the intellectuals or the ones who prefer to fantasize. Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita In Tehran, hooks the audience, page after page, filled with fascinating details of her and her loved ones life experiences of the perplexities that make up the society all together. Throughout the book, each chapter presents a new message as it introduces a new novel with each one. Nafisi introduces novels in order to create a different, separate life within the reader, creating memories and experiences unique to the combination of the books and the reader. This changes what the reader believes, no matter whether the differences are positive or negative, life changing or miniscule, it will still always change what the reader believes.

Albert Schweltzer, a theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician, once said,”An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist only sees a red stoplight… A truly wise person is colorblind.” Many people know about the dangers of constantly being pessimistic and looking down on people. But what many people do not realize is the dangers of excessive or even blind optimism. Some people swear by it and others think it’s crazy. Voltaire was a famous philosopher who could be said to be ahead of his time, for his beliefs on separation of church and state, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression, and he believed it was insane. He later wrote the novel Candide, which was made as a satire of all the things he believed

Throughout the novels of Cormac McCarthy, the names, lack of names, and nicknames of characters become an important facet of each novel. One thing consistent throughout many of his novels is not every character receives a name, and some are simply referred to by an identifier, a word or phrase which serves to separate them from other characters. This pattern is seen most clearly in three of McCarthy’s earlier novels: Outer Dark, Suttree, and Blood Meridian. Within these novels, names, nicknames, and identifiers are extremely important. In Outer Dark, only certain characters receive names; in Suttree, all characters not only have names but nicknames as well (often having multiple nicknames); in Blood Meridian, all but a few characters receive

In modern literary interpretation, the correspondence of the authors intention with the meaning of the work, is considered paramount to discerning the ‘true’ literary meaning of a work . E.D. Hirsch a renowned literary critic argues that to correctly interpret a text, the interpret must consider the author and the text’s “inner” and “out horizon”. To discover the inner horizon, the interpreter must look at the culture and background of the work and author so they can understand the logic, belief systems, and historical context that bound the work. The addition of the outer horizon allows the reader to consider the author’s intention in writing the piece. Hirsh establishes that a literary interpretation can be considered the most probable, if the reader considers the plausibility of the interpretation based on the context established from the text’s horizon, coherence .

Some experts believe that humans are wired to be naysayers. And sometimes it can feel like there are more naysayers out there then there are optimistic. But the fact is that there are plenty of us who see things in an optimistic light and believe that there are many things we and the world around us can accomplish.

Walker Gibson can be claimed as one of the first critics of this New Criticism. His view of literature is text-centered. It assumes the value and uniqueness of the literary work of art. In his essay, the concept of the reader is introduced as a way of unlocking further treasures in the text. Shortly, the text is still important but the reader is there to achieve some certain tasks. Here we see a new term, mock reader. As its name suggests, it is not a real reader but is a role that the real reader is invited to play for the duration of the novel. As for Gibson, the concept of the mock reader is a property of the text and not a

The drawing of narrative inferences by the reader is very important to interpret the work well. However, the author, while writing a story, can treat some incidents in detail and barely mention or even omit others. He may distort these incidents, may not observe chronological sequence, he can use messengers or flashbacks, and so on and so forth. The function of resorting to these varied narrative techniques is to emphasize or de-emphasize certain story-events, to interpret some and to leave others to inference, to show or to tell, to comment or to remain silent, to focus on this or that aspect of an event or character. The use of the unreliable is a very important and unconventional narrative technique used by authors in

Reading and compiling different critical interpretations and material from different authors to compare their point of view toward the novel was required. By doing that, I also created my own critical analyze about this novel and achieved the main aim of my thesis.