Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere Analysis

We must all cope with life and whatever comes after it. In Gabrielle Zevin’s novel, Elsewhere, the characters must accept death and move on with their lives. A fifteen year old girl named Liz is hit by a car, on her way to the mall and dies. Liz’s loved ones; Liz’s brother Alvy and Liz’s best friend Zooey try to deal with Liz’s death. Alvy uses prop jokes to cheer himself and his parents, while Zooey can’t forget about the fact that, if she hadn’t called Liz to the mall, Liz would still be alive. Meanwhile, Liz finds herself in Elsewhere, a place where the dead go and age backwards until they are a baby, then are sent back to Earth. Liz regrets the fact that she died young and never go to do adult things, such as getting her driver’s

Gabrielle Roy's "The Move", highlights a young girl's longing for adventure and travel toward unknown destinations. However, as she realizes what is truly present outside her imagination, a surge of disillusionment comes over her. The child's description of horses, spearheading an adventure, but then falling ill and tired, illustrates the girl's realization that excitement and joy in the world cannot amount to her vivid imagination. In the short story, the image of weary moving horses parallels the child's sudden grasp of reality, illustrating the naive character's loss of innocence.

Reality vs Death in “Where Are You Going. Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem First Death in Nova Scotia follows a small girl who is introduced to the concept of death for the first time through her cousin, Arthur. Even though the narrator is just a child who is experiencing death for this first time, she is extremely perceptive of her surroundings. The details and language the girl uses to describe the situation illustrates the difficulty the girl is having coming to terms with the idea of death, while also confusing her throughout the poem. The important concepts of death, grief, and loss of innocence are conveyed by Bishop through the encounter the girl is having with death. Bishop’s theme in the poem seems to be that death can be extremely sorrowful yet hard to understand and as such, people deal with these feelings in different ways, even children. The narrator, being a small child, naturally uses distractions in her surroundings and her figurative language to start to understand death at the end of the poem.

When Eve is diagnosed with brain cancer, she finds herself fighting the temptation of not giving in to the fear of death. Sickness forces her to overcome mental challenges that present themselves with being removed from her family and feeling death constantly loom around her. Eve admits to Enzo, the narrator, one night that “It's [cancer] bigger than me [her]. It's everywhere” (Stein 161). In this moment Eve feels that giving into fear is her easiest option. Despite this, Eve triumphs over her previous thoughts of death by finally accepting her situation. “Do you see? I'm [She’s] not afraid of it [death] anymore… Because it's not the end” (Stein 161). Eve realized that fighting death itself was not what she was battling, rather fighting her urge to give into the fear that comes with dying. In contrast to her previous anxious and doubtful mentality, Eve’s perseverance over her fear lead to a yet anticipated, but

Belonging to a certain group is a natural experience in the lives of individuals. Groups are categorizable by a variety of options but often expel a trait that epitomizes each individual within the group such as rank, societal merit, or simply just appearance. Behaviorism gratifies purpose within cohort mentality among those in an association due to the psychological commonalities that bring these groups together. When it comes to an individual's development within a certain group, joint mentality helps create a safe environment but often times supports ideologies of self empowerment. Anthropologist Karen Ho composes the analysis of students whom graduate Ivy League universities and enter into financial professions, in her essay “Biographies

In “Lives of the Dead”, O’Brien’s own innocence is preserved through the memory of Linda, a memory that remains untarnished by the inevitable corruption that results from life. O’Brien’s writings “save Linda’s life. Not her body--her life” (236). Storytelling and memories preserve the value of Linda’s existence while simultaneously allowing O’Brien to process death and destruction in a way that maintains a degree of optimism regarding his own life and future. Juxtaposing the images of body and life emphasizes his desire to save the idea of Linda while accepting the loss of her physical presence. O’Brien rejects the idea of death as absolute and final; instead he suggests that “once you are alive, you can never be dead” (244). Linda’s death solidifies her importance in O’Brien’s own development; she teaches him about life and real love as much as in death as in life. O’Brien’s paradoxical statement defines the lasting impact of Linda on him; her presence in his stories keeps her alive through memory; memories that even her death

‘The Grave’ by Katherine Anne Porter is a story that illustrates the initiation of a child from innocence to experience. The underlying theme behind the central idea of innocence to experience is the cycle of life and death and rebirth. This theme is illustrated in the young protagonist, Miranda, and her epiphany on the concept of the cycle of life and rebirth. The dominant tone in ‘The Grave’ is melancholic, and that tone is created through the language elements of symbolism, diction, and imagery. The story’s tone is also supported by the fiction element character.

After a brief discussion concerning the failure rates for African-American and Latino students in freshmen classes, Conradson began a discussion of the proposed schedule change. Conradson stated that Cheryl Lawton provided incorrect information. Conradson said, “Lawton says 9 schools are like Milpitas when in fact there are 13. I counted them myself.” She described the inconsistency as “deliberate manipulation.”

And finally, there is the issue of staff mismanagement. The supervisor, Keith Frazier, is only checking in with this department one to two times per week. Mr. Frazier is aware that Pat is making international phone calls. He is also aware that Pauline found a way for Pat to make these calls from the building’s elevator once he had the phone system modified to only allow internal calls. Mr. Frazier has also been fielding complaints from the accountants about not receiving their tax schedules in a timely fashion. However, he has failed to confront either of these issues. This lack of management can be attributed to the following:

“We sometimes think we want to disappear, but all we really want is to be found.” -Unknown. In the story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield expresses the dealt of people’s loneliness by creating hallucinations to avoid reality, she observes people and she wants the glamorous life. Miss Brill is a people watcher, she likes to observe the lives of others and what they go through. When she sat down and observes people, she likes to think about who are these people.

In Safari by Jennifer Egan, Egan brings up the topic of relationships and their structures quite often. Egan even defines many of Mindy’s personal terms, which describe her interactions with others. Such terms as Structural desire, Structural resentment, Structural Dissatisfaction, are brought up often as Mindy describes her relationships with Lou, Albert, and herself. Mindy goes through lots of struggles and challenges while trying to maintain these partnerships. These kinds of relationships can be applied outside of the story; to show how these kinds of relationships can affect us in negative ways. Mindy has a completely different perspective by the end of the story. She also has all new relationships with Lou, Albert, and herself. In Safari, Mindy has many complex relationships throughout the text that change and evolve, as she also grows as a person.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.

Losing a loved one can be such a difficult thing to accept. But what if you kept believing she was still there? Definitely not in body, but lingering in spirit. In The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, we dive into the mind of Susie Salmon; a 14 year old, dead girl. When Susie Salmon is murdered on her way home from school, she leaves behind a family and friends who care deeply for her. As each person deals with her death, most of them deal with a large amount of survivor’s guilt. The two characters that seem to have the hardest time accepting Susie’s death and their own survival are Lindsey Salmon and Ruth Connors. Lindsey deals not only with the

Eveline loves Frank but his love proves not enough to free her from the cage of a lonely life she has become trapped in. Miserably alone, Eveline finds herself after the passing of her mother and living with a controlling alcoholic father.: “At the center of each story is the conscious decision-making process, the pros and cons of running away, the security of the hearth against the freedom of escape” (Putzel 5). Whether it is the promise she made her mother to take care of the family or her father that stops her from leaving, Eveline makes her choices based on the feelings and thoughts of others. After reading “Eveline” by James Joyce it is clear that Eveline Hill is longing for a new life, one that brings her face to face with adulthood struggles, leaving her literally stuck within her mind and dark surroundings.