The Silent Boy on 15-Feb-2016 Tushar rated : ★★★★☆ Katy Thatcher was the bright and curious daughter of the town doctor. She was fascinated by her father's work, and even as a child she knew that she too wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to know about people. Perhaps it was this, her insatiable curiosity, or simply the charm of Jacob's gentle intimacy with animals large and small, that fueled their friendship. Although Jacob never spoke to her or even looked at her directly, Katy grew to understand him from the moments they spent together quietly singing to the horses. She knew there was meaning in the sounds he made and purpose behind his movements. So when events took an unexpected and tragic turn, it was Katy alone who could unravel the
Janie and Mrs. Mallard both lead distinctive lives due to their beliefs, environment and health. At an early age Janie married Logan Killicks because of her grandmother’s dying wish (Hurston, 15). Janie soon left Killicks and married Joes Starks a prosperous man who’s desire was to become rich and well known (Hurston, 29). Starks passed away and Janie married a younger man than her named Tea Cake (Hurston 116). Janie left her home town with Teacake and had the privilege to travel to new places and experience freedom, love and happiness (Hurston, 131). A hurricane arrived to the muck and Teacake was bitten by a dog with rabbis, Teacake tried to kill Janie, and in self-defense Janie killed Teacake. After Teacake’s death Janie was able to “pull
Kate Branch, an orphaned servant girl, began to suffer from a series of fits that disturbed her employers Mister and Mistress Wescot. Through Mister Daniel Wescot’s public service, the family had become prominent figures and were charged with providing Kate the basic needs and spiritual guidance as if she were a part of their family. Soon after Kate’s symptoms began, Mistress Abigail Wescot summoned the local midwife, Goodwife Sarah Bates, to examine
Joseph Plumb Martin was born on November 1760 in western Massachusetts. He wrote a book in which he described the life of an ordinary soldier during the American Revolution.”A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier” not only informed about the poor conditions in which the troops lived but also is one of the few soldier's accounts of the Revolution in general.
In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.
In the book entitled, There Are No Children written by Alex Kotlowitz, he writes a story about two boys that are of coming of age in Chicago in the housing projects called Henry Horner Homes over a two year time period. In their housing projects, the family faces many hardships and struggles to survive in life due to the influence of gangs, violence, death and poverty that consumes their housing projects. Living in such a bad neighborhood like Henry Horner homes proves the fact that “there are no children here” in the housing projects because the children have seen so much crime, violence and death occur that they have lost their youth and innocence as children and have been forced to become adults. An example of one character that changed dramatically due to the horrible conditions of in the projects was Lafeyette Rivers, one of the two main characters in the novel. The three most important events that impact Lafeyette’s life for the worst were the death of his best friend Craig, when his mother told him that he would be forced to become a young adult, and finally being convicted of a crime he did not commit in the first place. These three major events in his life greatly impact Lafeyette over the two year time period it causes Lafeyette to lose all hope in life and as well to live in constant fear of death and of his housing projects.
People deal with death in many different ways. In the short story, “The Stone Boy” by Gina Berriault, there is a literal death as well as a symbolic death. Arnold kills his older brother, Eugie, which leads to the “death” of Arnold’s emotions. Arnold turns into a stone boy, or someone who doesn’t display emotions, because of the way society treats him including his uncle, his mother, and their town’s sheriff.
When Janie was about sixteen, she spent a spring afternoon under a blossoming tree in Nanny?s yard. Here she comes to the realization that something is missing in her life? sexual ecstasy. The blooms, the new leaves and the virgin- like spring came to life all around her. She wondered when and where she might find such an ecstasy herself. According to Hurston, Nanny finds Janie kissing a boy named Johnny Taylor and her ?head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm? (12) . Nanny can think of no better way to protect Janie than by marrying her to a middle-aged black farmer whose prosperity makes it unnecessary for him to use her as a ?mule? (Bush 1036).
We’re Not Alone (Rough Draft) An issue that is racing to beat the clock, is the mind body problem and how the body vaguely interacts with a perceived stream of consciousness that classifies humans as sentient beings. Some have argued that humans have a separate substance that makes up the spiritual aspect for some, (a mind or soul) that interacts with our physical bodies and making us aware of environment, but contemporary times haves swayed beliefs. The opposing belief holds that humans are physical bodies being able to be broken down through psychological and biological interactions that come about from brain cognition and perception of our environment (touch, smell, taste, visual).
Matthew, as you referenced I truly believe that western expansion a major reason that caused the Civil War, especially with the Kansas and Nebraska entering as U.S. territories (M. Moore, personal communication, May 25, 2017 & Schultz, 2014). However, the threat to the Southern way of life was the fact that they were unwilling to advance technologically as the North had during the market revolution. However, I fail to fully understand how the new territories being fully anti-slave states really would affect the South as long as they were still able to own slaves. So, was the issue possibly that to justify their treatment of slaves that they wanted other states to join them to soothe their conscience?
Their outwardly pristine appearance juxtaposes with the drab, unkempt town with peeling paint and rusty fences, where spousal rape, adultery and paedophilia lie just below the surface. Through this leverage of the ability to transform and astound, Tilly is able to gain ‘information’ to achieve her objective of discovering the truth behind the events of her past. The promise to transform Gertrude into the ‘most striking girl in the room’ and Marigold’s] dress looking ‘better than everyone else’ are the beginnings of the truth being unravelled and ‘rubbish’ revealed.
Mrs. Fox, by Sarah Hall was published in 2014. Mrs. Fox is a short story by Sarah Hall about a woman who turns into a fox during her pregnancy, much to the dismay of her husband. Mrs. Fox describes a woman who is not satisfied with her life with her husband, Mr. Fox. They both remain detached thorough the story. When Mrs. Fox turns into a fox, Mr. Fox does not understand why his wife was not happy or satisfied in her human life. Sarah Hall does a wonderful job of displaying out an unusually intriguing setting, a breath taking characterization of the two main characters Mr. and Mrs. Fox, and she displays a dark and modern theme, rightfully earning the BBC National short story
Some of us go through tough experiences as children. In Patricia Grace’s novel Baby No-Eyes under the chapter of Kura, the reader gets to see how Gran Kura’s traumatic experience as a child is finally revealed after being held secret for sixty years.
The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.
Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.
“An Unknown Girl” by Moniza Alvi is a free verse poem about the author’s experience getting her hand hennaed in an Indian bazaar. Throughout the poem, Alvi makes use of structure techniques like end-stopped lines, occasional rhymes, language, imagery, and changes in tone to explore different aspects of the concept of identity.