Diary Of A Dead Man's Pocket Analysis

The stories “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, “The Leap”, and “The Trip” all explore aspects that are drastic for the characters and are thrilling to the audience to read. Common elements can be found in each story. Even though each story is similar, each story has a unique way of hooking the reader that stays true to the theme and plot.

In present-day society, families go through several problems and arguments regarding numerous issues which would have been considered unacceptable in past times. Throughout a variety of different cultures, the level of respect and obedience for one’s parents has diminished while the negotiation of conformity and rebellion has risen. This statement is supported and evidential in two different stories, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. Although these stories represent different cultures, they both exemplify the values and importance of family relations; as well as demonstrate in every culture families face social problems. In both these stories, two major topics stood out which allowed me to compare each one to one

Arturo Madrid in his essay entitled, “Missing People and Others” in the book, Race, Class and Gender, speaks about his form of otherness that he experienced in schools. Madrid has a Latino ethnicity and is a citizen of the United States as are his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. However, he learned about othering before he knew of the concept. Though his school tried to erase otherness through denial, it only amplified the issue. He viewed his educational experience as a socialization process where you learned to become “American” (Race, Class and Gender, 2010, p. 18). Instead of viewing his educational experience as an academic journey, due to othering it become more of a social journey. Madrid realized early on that otherness was built into the American system by the society around in every facet. Therefore, he saw this systemic rationale of othering permeate into the school system. The denial almost seemed like a dismissal of the person’s culture and ethnicity. The implicit denial existed in many facets such as economic, political, cultural and social through the absences of the “others” (Race, Class and Gender, 2010, p. 18). However, schools is where it was felt the most severely.

The first feeling of this story is that the boy and his father struggle with their relationship, but as it unfolds, the reader sees how they do care for each other. It also becomes easier to spot the difficulties of communicating within a broken family. The father does a fine job to of turning the boy’s scheduling obsessions into a positive for the boy by noting it as one of his strong points.

Please sit down and relax for a moment, and ask yourself the question of all questions: What is most important to you in life? This is a question asked by many psychologists, surveyors and even employers. A common answer is “I just want to be happy and successful and follow my dreams.” But think about it– who really makes you happy? Who helps you become successful? Who inspires you to follow your dreams? To this people generally answer: Family. Now imagine what it would be like to have your family taken from you in the spur of a moment.

When a mentor gives you lemons, you make the lemonade. In the book The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the person most important in Bod Owens’s life is his mentor, Silas. Bod Owens did not have the average teenage life; he was raised by two dead parents who live in a graveyard, and was not allowed to leave the graveyard unless his parents gave him permission. The lady on the Grey is the symbol of death that mentors Silas, which gives her and Silas a similar “job” in their afterlife.

Most authors when writing like to provide clues about the character for the reader to fill in the blanks called a direct characterization some authors tell the reader exactly what the character's personality is leaving nothing to the imagination which is called direct characterization some authors use both indirect and direct characterization Jack Finney who wrote contents of the Dead Man's Pocket uses direct characterization as well as a direct characterization in Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket Jack Finney uses direct characterization at the beginning of the story Finney writes he was a tall lean dark-haired young man a pullover sweater who looks as though he had played not football probably but basketball in college in other words finny

In many stories and novels, parents play a huge role in them. Sometimes the viewpoints of the parents cause a lot of tension between characters. In the stories “Two Kinds” and West Side Story the characters are influenced by parental involvement. West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, is basically a modern Romeo and Juliet, and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. Two Kinds is a story of a little girl who’s mom is so into her thought that her daughter could also be a prodigy at something if she tried hard enough, and urged her to try many different types of talents, especially piano.

Parents have a significant amount of influence on how their children will act, behave and do certain things in today's world which base off of their skills. Not all parents will acquire impressive parenting skills and be able to raise their children properly in society. In a memoir called The Glass Castle, by author Jeannette Walls shares her life story and how it may be perceived as normal. In Jeannette’s life, she along with her siblings are raised by a father and a mother who raises their family in a way that society would view as unusual or problematic. Parents are the adults who have certain ways and skills on how their children are raised in which could be considered a problem, society, on the other hand, has certain views but isn’t necessarily the problem.

I always wanna do stuff like that.” (Gilb,360) which is about the best thing in the world she could say to a husband who is so obviously questioning his value as a father, defender, and a provider. Although her job produces no income and pays no rent, she suffers in silence the husband’s unappreciative behavior as she works from the moment the children awake to the moment her husband goes to sleep.

The line between being an acceptable and unacceptable parent is often blurry and is seen on different perspectives when it comes to class, culture, and generation differences. Based on the two stories of Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds” and Tillie Olsen’s, “I Stand here Ironing” we see these two perspectives that derive from different maternal upbringings of the children in the stories. What is found between them is the conflict of being too little or heavily involved in a child’s life has had more negative outcomes during their childhood than positive.

He was standing on the ledge and was frozen, not knowing what to do. He was thinking, thinking about falling. He stood there frightened. His mind was in a whirl, thinking about what he would lose if he fell; his wife, the family that he could have, his life, his friends, his wonderful job, he would lose all of it. Then he thought about falling. Would it be so bad? His adrenaline went up as he thought about this. Tom’s mind went off again thinking about leaving this world, the life he would leave. His mind pushed everything he loved away and just thought about falling, falling, falling. The wind in his face, the weird feeling in his stomach that he loved, and the anticipation of hitting the ground. He

Knowledge is the information in which we perceive to be the truth of the world around us. However, all knowledge is susceptible to change depending of the bias of the character. Gabriel García Márquez demonstrates this issue in the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by exploiting the understanding of knowledge through fabula and syuzhet.

oneself is the case of Ruth and her unborn baby. At first, Ruth is thinking about having an abortion, and has already

Lu Xun was one of the first prominent writers of modern china. He uses an ironic technique in the preface by writing in classical Chinese language to suggest a false, friendly world made exclusively by social appearances. The traditional Chinese text is typically seen as superior, and as per the Chinese traditions the modern language is seen as an intruder. The author’s use of the style was a way of making a point. “Diary of a Madman” is a short story written by Lu Xun and was published in the new youth magazine in 1918 (231). The story demonstrates his discontent with traditional Chinese culture, not only by the fact that it clearly addresses the horror of cannibalism that is believed to have occurred but he is also trying to point out the oppressive nature of Confucian principles. In the short novel, the madman has the ability to recognize the cruel elements of Chinese Confucian culture that serves to mock established but out-dated traditional scholarship.