Lillian Hellman's Essay 'Pentimento'

American History, it has done so much in time that has affected how we live life today and how we interpret things. American Literature reflects that and all it has left us with. Throughout the stories and passages we’ve read this course all of them have left a impact on how and why the writers wrote about what they did. It was all because of American History which later went on and fathered American Literature. American Literature has made society how it is today and painted a vivid picture of how American’s and people live and many of these writers had that in mind when they took these notes.

Flannery O’Conner, a Gothic literature writer, has written several short stories throughout her life. Among these stories, two of them being A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, she has included some of the most fleshed out and grotesque characters I have ever read. O’Conner brings her characters to life throughout her writing in near flawless and subtle detail with ironic humor. For example, O’Conner makes skillful use of ironic names for her characters. The titles and names such as grandmother, the misfit, Joy/Hulga, and the bible salesman are used ironically. These subtle characterizations help guide the reader to the final, and often times ironic, conclusions all her characters deserve.

Unlike Dillard’s use of long sentences to create large amounts of description, Woolf uses short sentences to express her emotion. Beautiful adjectives and verbs, such as fluttering, flood Woolf’s writing, compared to Dillard’s gruesome verbs, such as sputtering, and jerked. Adjectives such as insignificant set up a depressing, emotional, and pensive tone. Using shorter sentences, such as, “The struggle was over,” (Woolf, “The Death of the Moth,”) and, “What he could do he did,” (Woolf, “The Death of the Moth.”) allows the reader to think and reflect about it. In Dillard’s writing, the reader often can imagine what they are reading from her blunt descriptions. In Woolf’s piece, readers reflect more on the meaning and the impact of the piece through the use of short sentences.

What the man sees in his child’s future is not something any parent would want to envision in theirs. He uses imagery to describe that “the night’s slow position, tolerant and bland, has moved her blood. Parched years that I have seen that may be hers appear: foul, lingering death in certain war, the slim legs green” (6-9). When he mentions “war” I can imagine his daughter “fighting for her life”, trying to survive in this battle of life.

In “September, 1918”, Amy Lowell shows her readers an interesting and illuminating poem. That war can be an ugly time and the people that experience it often seems to live in a “broken world” (19). To fight an evil, sometimes war is needed, nonetheless it is still costly to the people living through the war. Some in a literal sense, like soldiers fighting in a war, while some in a physical sense by the world that they now see and live in. I find the poem truly interesting though, in how the author shows that even in war we can still hold onto hope for more promising days. Lowell portrays a melancholy mood throughout her poem that makes her readers thinking about war but also the hope of it being over.

In conclusion, irony plays a major in Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by providing the reader with characterization, setting the ambiance in the various chapters, and giving us a glimpse of the most predominant themes by having ironic situations regarding topics that were very important at the time. Irony with humor is used to signify a climax in the mood before the mood is shifted. Furthermore, irony characterizes by allowing readers to see how characters react to ironic stimuli. It truly is ironic how when the authors lie to us in their books, we love their books even

All three of these works show the authors’ speakers’ experiences leading to their childhood innocence being stripped from them or otherwise crushed beneath the weight of reality. Cullen plays with the lightness of childhood innocence in the first quatrain. This is highlighted in line two “...heart-filled, head-filled with glee,” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg.

Annie Dillard’s tone changed significantly between the first and second paragraph. Changing from pure amusement and leisure into shock, confusion, and interest. As the passage begins, her uses words such as amuse to set an general tone for the passage. The narrators constant sense of humor, conveys the authors playfully cruel thoughts. As the first paragraph progresses we start to get a better feel of Annie Dillard’s character and thoughts. The tone suddenly changed when her plan failed to startle the frogs. Words used in the passage that express the tone are “Crumpled” “vanished” and “bewildered”. These words show the descent and change in the narrators mood. The narrator's shock and confusion is shown mainly through her actions. “I gaped

Annie Dillard’s tone changed significantly between the first and second paragraph. Changing from pure amusement and leisure into shock, confusion, and interest. As the passage begins, her uses words such as amuse to set an general tone for the passage. The narrators constant sense of humor, conveys the authors playfully cruel thoughts. As the first paragraph progresses we start to get a better feel of Annie Dillard’s character and thoughts. The tone suddenly changed when her plan failed to startle the frogs. Words used in the passage that express the tone are “Crumpled” “vanished” and “bewildered”. These words show the descent and change in the narrators mood. The narrator's shock and confusion is shown mainly through her actions. “I gaped

Allusions aptly incorporated lend a rich penumbra of meaning and significance to the use of only few words. Granted, the average and even the above average reader will need footnotes to know the situation of Guido da Montefeltro, to understand the prefatory Italian of the poem, and to sort out which biblical Lazarus Eliot alludes to. Less demanding are the references to Shakespeare, Marvell, and Michelangelo. But recognition of allusions brings delight and a sense of intimate understanding between reader and author.

The topic of discussion for this essay is a story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman called "The Yellow wallpaper. Firstly, several pieces of evidence within the text prove that the genre of the story is irony, in accordance with Frye 's "theory of myths". This essay shows exactly how those instances exemplify the genre of irony. Additionally, from a deconstructive point of view, there is a central binary of constraint and freedom. The examples from the text show both evidence of constraints within the story as well as freedom. Thus, proving this to be the central binary of this piece of literature. Finally, these two aspects can be used to show the similarities between this text and the short story "How to Become a Writer" by Lorie Moore.

The short stories, “Turned”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Good Corn”, by H.E Bates provide strong examples of how the representation of characters influence’s the reader’s perception of a text. Both stories depict similar characters: a middle-aged, childless wife, her husband and an 18-year old girl who works for them. They are both about a similar situation: man cheats on wife with girl and girl falls pregnant. However, the author’s of the text are from very different backgrounds and this is reflected in their stories. Although there are many similarities between “The Good Corn” and “Turned”, the values reflected in these stories, their resolutions and the reader’s perception of them are vastly different due to the contexts of

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.

The novel’s “precise detailing of the time of each event and the matter-of-fact usage of language” helps to bring this style to life (Pelayo 116).

Ernest Hemingway the winner of the Nobel Peace prize lived a troubled life over his Sixty-two years of life and experienced many struggles. He went through a few marriages, different faiths and in the end, he lost his battle with depression. However, though all of this he made an impact on the world with the style and theme of American literature he wrote and is a significant influence to many authors and readers alike. During his life, there were many things that were an influence and help shape his writing into what it is today. Hemingway heavily focused on the theme of war during his career and was a topic of several of his novels one of those novels being “For whom the bell tolls” (Hemingway) The recognizable effects of Hemingway’s influence on literature is still witnessed around the world in the many tributes to him to this day.