Lillian Hellman's Essay 'Pentimento'

The friends of the narrator, however, do not hide in the imaginary world of childhood and are maturing into adolescents. Sally, “ screamed if she got her stockings muddy,” felt they were too old to “ the games” (paragraph 9). Sally stayed by the curb and talked to the boys (paragraph 10).

Ernest Hemingway, one of the most notable writers of the Lost Generation, encountered heinous acts of war which were seared into his mind, this assertion is evident with every page

In her poem “One Perfect Rose,” Dorothy Parker misleads the reader throughout the first and second stanzas into believing this poem is a romantic tribute to a tender moment from her past through her word choice and style of writing. However, the tone of the entire poem dramatically changes upon reading the third and final stanza when Parker allows the reader to understand her true intention of the poem, which is a cynical and perhaps bewildered view of the memory. And, with this shift in the tone in the third stanza, there is a shift in the meaning of the entire poem, leading the reader to believe that the first two stanzas were not, in fact, sweet but instead a sarcastic and bitter account of this past moment. In the first stanza, Dorothy

Nobody likes the war and it is really a difficult topic to write on it. Louisa May Alcott expressed her personal experience with a dying war soldier in such a beautiful way that it extract the sympathy and emotions of the audience and readers. In her excerpt “Hospital Sketches”, she writes about a young, brave and bachelor soldier named John, who participated in the civil war in 1863. She encountered him in an army hospital, while working there as a nurse. He was brought there with the fatal injuries. Using her writer’s experience, she presents an emotional retelling of an story, which advances an argument. She gets her readers emotionally involved in this narrative. By using diction, imagery, selection of details and her rhetorical

In this essay Mooney presents the story in two ways. The story begins from the vantage point of an unnamed narrator who begins with a description of Bill Fong and his life. From context clues and prior we can assume the narrator is Mooney himself. The second way Mooney presents the story is with Bill Fong as the narrator, consequently this creates a more intimate feeling during the more emotional points of the story. By using two different narrators Mooney allows for different types of moods and styles of writing. When Mooney writes in

Love and the memory could be last forever, but sometimes it is not good to hold on to the past. In the story “Bullhead”, Leigh Allison Wilson uses diction and images to portray the theme of holding to the past could hurt the present. The story is told from the perspective of the daughter which is the narrator. By using diction and images, Wilson portrays the mother’s careless to her family and deeply holding on to the past. The narrator describes the story as “simple”, perhaps because the mother tells it much time to the daughter even though she already has a family of her own (Wilson 1).

The Wars, written by Timothy Findley, is a story about World War I, and consists of many shocking images passed over to the reader. Findley accomplishes to pull the reader into the narrative itself, so that the reader manages to feel an impact upon him/her-self about what is read. If it was not for this specific skill, or can also be seen as a specific genre, the novel would not have been as successful as it is now. Also, something that helps the book be so triumphant, there is the fact that Findley never overwhelms the reader with too many gruesome details about the World War I. Instead, he breaks the book down to help the reader calm down from everything that is happening. Throughout the essay, there is going to be some commenting on a

Ever since the invention of language, humans have been obsessed and intrigued with the aspect of storytelling. Each story, whether written or spoken, holds an important theme within its creative words and exciting plot. While each story is special and unique, over the course of history, different periods of literature have formed where authors tend to focus on similar themes and messages. One of which was the American Romantic era, where authors used their stories to challenge the boundaries of society, and delve deeper into what makes people inherently human, both the flaws and perfections. Some of America’s greatest works of literature were born in this period, like those of Poe, and Hawthorne. A very common literary theme during the romantic period was that of good versus evil, in both individual characters and society as a whole; this theme is especially evident in works such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and Young Goodman Brown.

Want’s, and needs. Two words that have different interpretations. Two words at war with one another. When these simple, words are called into action they cause doubt in even the most steadfast individuals. Giving up the wants of one’s self for the needs of another, that causes the tipping of the scales. People have a tendency by nature to take what they want and forget about what they need. Balancing want’s and needs is, to put it in simple terms hard, but completely giving them up for someone else is close to impossible. Yet when an individual is put under compelling circumstances, there needs and wants intertwine giving them the ability to put their own interests aside and sacrifice themselves for others.

Lillian Hellman was a screenwriter, who was successful on Broadway. Like some many great writers of the past, Lillian Hellman smoke, drank, loved, and fought. She was born in New Orleans, June 20, 1905 to a Jewish family. The HUAC blacklisted her for being a left-wing sympathizer and political activist. This cause a drop in her income. Hellman witnessed the diverse cultures from moving back and forth from New Orleans and New York. She studied at New York University for two years and took several classes at Columbia University. After attending

Throughout the essay, the use of vernacular speech can be observed when looking at the dialogue between characters. For example, “Good day, Mrs. Henderson. Momma responded with “How you, Sister Flowers?”. In the dialogue between Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Flowers, it can be seen that Flowers speaks respectively with sophistication while Mrs. Henderson speaks carelessly using an older southern tone. This results in a clear comparison between the characters in the essay which represent the importance of education and vocabulary. The constant use of the wrong verb by “Momma” bothers the author, giving us a better idea of language’s role in her life. In addition, the author foreshadows part of the lifeline, so we gain a better understanding of the story when the lifeline is presented later on.

The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.

One of the most heavily impacted cultural arenas to be touched by the war was literature. Literature during the Great War often reflects upon and bitingly criticizes the horrors of war, as well as the changes society was undergoing and provides a drastic transition between pre and post war work. Many social, political, and economic shifts occurred during the war, and any of the writers of the time felt the need to speak out against the flaws they saw in their society, sometimes even while fighting for their lives in the trenches. The new style of war allowed soldiers an unprecedented amount of time to ponder the battles which they fought; not only in the literal sense, but battles of the mind and spirit which were of no shortage in the hellish

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

Throughout the their lifespans many authors receive criticism on every work of theirs, whether it be good or bad. Criticism can be received from all sorts of people. Every literary work has the potential to be broken down into multiple schools of thought, but when it is done professionally by a literary critic the criticism is generally specialized into a certain school of philosophy. One particular work by the author/playwright Lillian Hellman is “The Little Foxes”.