Love in the Cornhusks

There has been a time at one point in a person’s life where they were given a task they did not want to do. Sometimes it has to be done. The the short story The Rattler, a mane is talking a walk through a desert setting. His walked was suddenly stopped when he saw a dangerous looking snake, at first glance anyway. He was faced with the task of killing the snake. When the task was complete, he was not thrilled. In The Rattler, the author creates the effect of empathy for the man and sympathy for the snake. The techniques used to achieve that are the description of the man, description of the snake, the setting.

Mai’s fear of losing the memories of her family leads her to realize the significance of her life and ultimately the possibility of losing her understanding.

As the snake “drew back his head and [the man] raised [his] weapon” they both were ready for their last fight. Both felt threatened by each other; thus, both felt the necessity to become defensive. However, neither one saw the situation as an immediate threat, so they did not immediately strike. When the narrator “made an unprovoked attack,” the snake performed “a little song of death.” The reader’s sympathy for the snake once again returns because the snake did nothing wrong. The “little song of death” depicts an image of the snake’s last effort to live. However, there is nothing “little” in death, but rather displays the snake’s submissiveness to the man. The “ominous” situation with “poison dripping from [the snake’s] fangs” is reminiscent of the tragedy that just occurred. The author reminds the reader of the necessity to rid the world of the danger from a snake. It lessens the reader’s grief towards the snake, bringing a more neutral tone to the

When in times of danger, people must often take the actions they see best fit. In "The Rattler," the author depicts a vivid story of a man who has to make a difficult choice while facing a rattlesnake in the desert. Despite the man seeing a threat in the snake, it is him that becomes a threat to the other. By using the descriptions of the man, the snake and the specific setting, the author affects the reader by creating a sense of empathy for the narrator and sympathy for the snake. With such a connection, it adds a greater depth to the story for the reader to analyze.

Furthermore, the author explores the tone of the novel by providing specific details. In An-mei's childhood story, the author chooses to describe the pain An-mei feels as the soup pours over her by providing details of the twinge. She describes it as "the kind of pain [specially] terrible that a little child should never remember it" and how it still remains "in [An-mei's] skin's memory" (Tan 39). By depicting these details of the pain, Tan expresses the feeling of misery An-mei feels, which appends to the melancholy tone. Additionally, in the story of Ying-ying's first marriage, the author presents explicit details of the emptiness Ying-ying feels by portraying details of her as "a tiger that neither pounce[s] nor lay[s] waiting between the trees" and "an unseen spirit" (Tan 285). This emptiness Ying-ying feels seems to indicate the melancholy tone that appears noticeable in the novel. Clearly, the details Amy Tan chooses to describe in the novel seem to specify the somber tone.

The author’s diction heightens the intensity and power the snake brings as it also aids in describing the inner thoughts of the protagonist. When the main character saw that the snake was “waiting for him”, he “stopped short” and the snake continued to “[hold] his ground”. The snake created anticipation as he completed these actions, therefore causing the man to feel curious and uneasy. Like a “live wire” the snake “drew his head back,” preparing to strike, this action seemed effortless and almost as if it was a “mechanical reflex”. The reptile is seen as being extremely lethal due to its quick and natural reflexes. Snakes similar to this one are born with the same instinct as their hominid adversaries; to survive. The diction in “The Rattler” effects the tone that is understood by the audience. Detail is another key factor when trying to convey the deeper meaning within the narrative.

Once when snake was sleeping and he was hearing noises bump bump bump that was his friend alligator. That’s Simon. Then there was a bang dong ding dong. Do you like that, Simon? And then snake said to alligator, “I want something to eat,” and alligator said, “Come to my house.” Then the mother snake comes. Katie, you’re the mother snake. And she has six babies. Then a lion comes and the lion tries to get into the dream but he can’t. So he goes away.

Through the text we hear, with frequent intervals, about a stifling feeling Akunna gets '' a tight think around her neck. But as the story passes this “thing” looses its grip. When it almost is gone, Akunna gets a letter from her mother, in which it says that her father has died. That situation makes Akunna make the decision to leave her boyfriend and go home. That thing around her neck could symbolize

Throughout the novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar falls in love with several girls throughout his life whom never love him back. This is partially due to Oscar’s love for women that are extremely out of his league. These women are beautiful and desire the stereotypical man which is the opposite of overweight, nerdy Oscar. Several songs display the scenes throughout Oscar’s life in which he falls head over heels for women that would never publicly date him.

Lindo was arranged to marry Tyan-yu. While the marriage was short-lived, Tyan-yu constantly lied to Lindo, and Tyan-yu’s mother treated Lindo like an object to be bartered between families. Lindo experiences depression being trapped in this lifestyle, so she decides to flee to America in order to escape it. When reminiscing on her marriage Lindo says, “I had no choice, now or later. That was how backward families in the country were. We were always the last to give up stupid old-fashioned customs” (Tan ). Similar to the mother in the beginning, Tan creates appeal to pathos, forcing the reader to sympathize with Lindo. The reader’s sympathy to Lindo allows Tan to expand on the larger issue of sexism, creating an emotional and educational tone in order to coax the reader into, again, understanding the true scale of sexism. Tan drilling this larger idea of sexism into readers changes the reader’s perspective. With new perspective, readers notice the need for change to establish equality between both sexes. Therefore, Tan is using her writing as a tool for a deeper subject: exciting change within the world, and thus, exemplifying Jong’s words.

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros is about a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero,

buy his hounds, which was an excellent reward for hard work. An additional example is

The other main character of the story is Adelina a girl who leaves her home in California to go to Mexico. Adelina is driven out of the United States because her family won’t accept her relationship with her lover, so they both decide to go to Tijuana, a city in Mexico. Not much is said about Adelina’s experienced in the United States. What we do know is that she had a family that loved her, but she decided to leave it all behind to be together with her boyfriend Gerardo. In Mexico she finds nothing but shame and misery because Gerardo could not find a job and the only way for them to make money was for her to be a prostitute. Besides having to expose her body, Adelina, is physically and emotionally mistreated by her boyfriend until it finally leads to her death when she tells him that she is going back to the United States with Juana.

In popular culture and mainstream media, women are often portrayed as overtly sexual objects that are obligated to entertain the idea of patriarchy. The strong outward appearances and characteristics of women in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz are deceiving, as they do not reveal their powerlessness against men. Throughout the entire book, women are described and seen as sexual objects through the eyes of Yunior, Oscar, and various other men. In the first chapter, Oscar and his peers treat women like they are disposable, despite their desire and need for them. This negative trend is reinforced in the next two chapters, as the narrators shamelessly describe women by emphasizing their feminine traits whilst simultaneously displaying the idea of male dominance. In addition, strong-willed women like Beli and Lola refuse to succumb to such lustful treatment, but when they are tempted with the fantasy of true love, they immediately lose their strength and surrender. In the last few chapters, these ideas are further reinforced through the sexual desire that Oscar possesses. He meets Ybon, a prostitute with a boyfriend, and immediately falls in love. Ybon is committed to her boyfriend, but because of the way she is seen in a patriarchal system, she gives in to the forbidden love that Oscar offers. No matter how strong these women were within the story, they always let the men have their way. In the end, Oscar dies because of his uncontrollable desire for love. The

However, two vibrant changes occur as the story progresses —Coyotito, his son, getting stung by a scorpion and Kino’s discovery of the pearl—broaden Kino’s horizons and outlook on the world. As Kino begins to strive for wealth and education for his son, the simplicity of his life becomes increasingly complicated by greed, conflict, and violence. Kino’s character then falls through a gradual decline from a state of innocence to a state of corruption and disillusionment. The factors promoting this decline are ambition and greed. Thus, when going got tough for Kinoo and he had to escape town he faced a lot of hardships, since he had to go into hiding and the only immediate help he had was from his brother. This had an adverse effect on his personality as he became increasingly negative, given the way he hit his wife shows how the pearl preoccupied his mind to such a great extent that he grew indifferent to everything else as evil and restlessness eloped him. In addition to these social changes, Kinoo, after attaining the pearl was on the move to gain economic sustenance, but not being able to find the right price to sell his pearl got him feeling even more uncertain and disappointed but he continued to strive and was reluctant to give up because he wanted everything in his reach for his son, who he consequently ended up losing in the