Madge Mckeeithen What Really Happened

Moral intentions can be explored while contemplating bits of memories. As the narrator reflects upon his past relationship with his father, he starts to acknowledge

The very first paragraph foreshadows the direction this story will take, in regards to the writing style the author is trying to use. The fact that, “Kugelmass, a professor of humanities at City College…” is divorced with “two dull sons”, remarried, constantly putting down his current wife, and wants to have an affair, is extremely ironic given this fact. Kugelmass is an extremely desperate man trying to find true love and the perfect life partner. Not only does he try to convince his therapist that an affair is the right answer to his problems, that he hires a magician to send him into a novel in search of his true love. At first all goes well, he is happy as

Sullivan’s essay includes many rhetorical devices; the first one that stands out is the anecdote device because of the experience that she went through. She uses her personal life as a short story to catch the reader’s attention. This is an example of a great device that can be used for all essays, because every paper needs a “hook” that will keep the reader interested from the moment they start reading. Although, sometimes it is difficult for dual credit students to find something that can catch a reader’s attention, this essay can make it less difficult to understand. Another thing that can help the students is the analyzation in Sullivan’s

The way the essay is organized helps the reader understand the purpose of the essay much better. The author begins by telling a story, and the reader has no idea what the meaning is. The author continues telling stories, and then it all leads up to the author’s point of view on loneliness.

The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched

Cofer starts the essay in the present, but then she takes the reader in her past by giving background on her childhood and the events that followed, in chronological order, until she became an adult. The opening paragraph draws the reader in, it makes the reader empathize with the author, and feel angry for the humiliation Cofer went

This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.

“Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice”, focuses on the relationship between the protagonist, who is referred to as ‘Child’, and his father, referred to as ‘Ba’. The opening story follows the protagonist as he is struggling to overcome writers block, whilst dealing with his estranged Vietnamese father who is visiting. A number of flashbacks are used as a literary device to divulge into the protagonists past with his father as well as the fathers past. This reveals, not only an abusive past with his father, but also his father’s memories of the Vietnam war. It becomes clear that the son makes excuses for his father, with his girlfriend Linda also noting this, “I think you’re making excuses for him…You’re romanticising his past to make sense of the things you said he did to you” (pp.20). The protagonist reflects this himself, making the excuse that “he was a soldier” (pp.13), and that is why his father treated him as he did. The protagonist, despite once being able to admit to Linda that his father abused him, can no longer admit this, as his relationship with his father grows, and it can be argued that he is willing to overlook his past in an attempt to reconcile with his father. “It was too much these words, and what connected to them” (pp.13).

In the essay, Staples describes how people see him as a threat and how they allow their fear to base their judgements on him that was preconceived by societies teachings. For example, Staples sarcastically writes, “My first victim was a woman…” (542). When first reading this sentence, the audience begins to fear about what they are about and begin to take the place of the soon to be “victim”. But when the reader continues to read deeper into the essay, Brent’s sense of sarcasm and use of hyperbole, becomes clear and the audience is able to understand why he used the previous quote as the beginning of the sentence. Brent is frustrated at how the people in this society judge good people, based on the sole acts of those who do evil. Staples’ use of fear creates the passion in the message by using first person point of view. Staples describes to the audience his childhood and college years by writing, “...I have since buried several, too” and “...I was mistaken for a burglar” (543). The reader can feel Staples’ fear as he is being chased and how he has had to bury family and friends. This becomes powerful in writing and the reader is able to better understand just what it is like for Brent. The audience also gets a feel for how Brent felt being compared to a burglar. Just by including these personal stories and relating it back to himself, Staples gives the audience the capability to better

“A Sorrowful Woman” features a superficially simple narration style. “Now the days were too short. She was always busy,” Stylistically clipped, with a clear passive, detached, voice the narration style seems to be a banal, unimportant feature of the text. Yet the exact mendacity that prompts this description actually serves as a prerequisite to developing an understanding for the principal character’s mindset, and consequently the theme of the text. The last passage contains numerous examples of detached narration but the clearest occurs when “She was always busy. She woke with the first bird. Worked till the sun set. No time for hair brushing. Her fingers raced the hours.” The concise, third person narration in this segment allows the reader to experience the slightly off viewpoint of ‘the mother.’ Specifically, given the lack of motivation present through the text coupled with the concluding suicide it becomes evident in the text that ‘the mother’ is suffering from depression. Given the societal stigma surrounding mental illness authors generally face an uphill

Essay: What does the narrator seem to want from the reader? How does she go about getting what she wants?

The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards

1. What is Tannen’s purpose in writing this essay? What does she hope it will accomplish?

I believe that it is primary nonfiction element that the author weaves throught the essay that allows me to gain additional insight into the essay's overall purpose. For example, " The Innocent Man" by Pamela Colloff used characterization to explained his character that whether he is inncoent or not about killed his wife. She wrote about his emotional speech about his son that he is worried about him and begged them to not lose him. It showed me that he have a good side. On the other hand, few friends think he have issue with his wife because of his bad actions. "A life worth Ending" by michael Wolff is really confusing, I believe it is point of view because the author wrote about his mother who is very sick on bed. He is using first person,

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.