Moral Criticism In 'The Snake That Lies In Wait'

Everyone in the world is different and some people are discriminated against because of those differences. Imagine being a normal person that doesn’t have any real physical differences but is hated because of a few numbers tattooed to ones foot. It sure would make life frustrating and make it difficult to succeed because of obstacles created by hate from others. In the book, The House of the Scorpion, Matt shows he gets through life’s struggles and grows up when he accepts his identity, makes his own choices and gets through his problems with Maria.

Furthermore, this scene also depicts racial profiling in America. According to Silva “blacks and dark-skinned Latinos are the targets of racial profiling by the police,” (2). In many cases, blacks are automatically assumed criminals and “always up to no good.”

Cultural criticism is a broad technique that puts emphasis on the culture that contributed to the production of a work. This approach is an eclectic, interdisciplinary study that utilizes a wide range of topics to analyze literature. Cultural criticism considers a variety of perspectives and branches of knowledge to discover the compilation of beliefs and customs that characterize a group of people. For a cultural reading of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, a cultural critic would consider the historical background paired with theories such as Marxism and feminism to make assumptions about what culture engendered the creation of this novel. (104 words)

The conduct of the officers featured in the television show was similar regardless of race. The television show “Cops” features criminal justice professionals conducting the day-to-day work in the criminal justice system (Schmalleger, 2014, p. 6). In situations where the suspects acted combatively, the officers used force to apprehend the suspects. A Caucasian Officer used force to apprehend an African American suspect that attempted to flee. The officer threatened to Taser the suspect, but was able to apprehend the suspect by tackling him to the ground. Following this interaction, the suspect frequently cursed at the officer. A female officer was called for

The criticism that I will be using is a rhetorical analysis which simply means analyzing texts on how they make the audience feel using symbols, the type of genre, aesthetics and more while also looking at why that happens. I decided to use a rhetorical

In the book collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, author Danielle Evans suggests that the issue of race and how it affects families is still relevant in today’s society in a particular piece known as “Snakes.” Evans, an American writer, and educator set up the story “Snakes” to where the setting is constantly changing, which is reflective of the character changing as a whole. Evans suggests that at the beginning of this story, relationships between characters is shown through the layout of the setting. The setting begins in an airport in Tallahassee as the protagonist, Tara, is unsure and confused as to why her parents would

The book Poisoned by Jeff Benedict was not only enjoyable but also has a lot of information concerned food safety. The author writes chronologically a story about the Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak that took place in Washington State on 1993 because that event change the way American eating habits. The outbreak was confirmed by Dr, Phil Tarr after he was receiving many patient who were children under 10 years old, and had the same symptoms. The number of patient and the brutality of the symptoms leaded to Dr, Tarr to contact an old friend that they used to work together particularly in E.coli. Tarr's friend was John Kobayashi who has the high position in the Department on the public heath Washington State Public Department (Benedict, 2011).

While doing some research on psychological criticism, I found that Arnold Friend in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates and notorious murderer Charles Schmid of The Pied Piper of Tucson by Don Moser have characteristics of being a psychopath, motive for killing, similar comparisons of innocence taken by an evil mind, and how Oates wrote her story based upon Schmid’s personality. Psychological criticism as explained in Retellings by M.B. Clarke and A.G. Clarke states “psychological criticism looks at internal influences on an author’s creation and our reception of it…whether the words and images can be read symbolically” (Clarke A-46). Throughout the paper, I will be addressing the psychological criticism of the schools of literary criticism from Retellings. I will be introducing a fictional character and a non-fictional character, a long with their characteristics, comparisons between Oates character with Moser’s, and ideology based upon the non-fictional character.

Literature is the window to realizing the negatives of society and how destructive certain norms can be. Readers are brought into a completely different story than their own, but by using similar issues in today’s world, the readers can actually learn from the story and its overall message. All writers write for a purpose, whether it’s for a new meaning to life, to live a different life than our own, or to impact others on an emotional level by teaching them to see the importance of the little things. As a reader, you search for pieces of literature that interest you whether you find the story like your own, or wish you lived the life in the story. By using issues in today’s within their works, authors are able to grab the reader's attention long enough for them to get across what they wanted to get across. Often in many works of literature, writers use societal issues as their basis for the work’s themes and symbols. By doing so, this allows the reader to question the morality behind social norms and how impactful certain ideals can be in people’s lives.

This literary criticism is useful because it illustrates how the arts are connected, in this case, writing and painting. The arts are fluid and can translate between different mediums. The story is considered modern, but the painting is a classic. The character of Sammy is also meant to be relatable, even to future generations. The essay is well researched and soundly written; it is a good example of what a published literary criticism should look like.

The 1950’s and 60’s were a frightening time to live in for African American’s. It was time that was full of hate and bigotry. An era where hate ran so deeply through the veins of people in the South and the roots and history of the land they walked on.

Social criticism is a type of criticism that addresses an important issue, pointing out a flaw in the original social structure. An example of social criticism appears in The Yellow Wallpaper, a fictional story based on true events, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In it, she explains her struggle of living through her illness and why she thinks her treatment, the “rest cure”, was wrong. The rest cure was a treatment, invented by S.Weir Mittchell, that was prescribed to people, mainly women, with mental illness. After she was given a bad review on this book, she had written an article in response called Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper. In this she explains her reasoning for writing the book and further shares her stance on the treatment.

“What the Snake Brings to the World” is a 2002 poem by the Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. The poem is free verse, with four stanzas of 6, 4, 4 and 9 lines respectively. The poem is riddled with Biblical allusions, with the “snake” being its focal point, making extensive comment on the nature and consequences of the aforementioned snake. A dominant reading of the poem outlines the duplicity of the nature of ‘evil’ and ‘sin’ and related consequences. An alternate reading of the poem conveys the idea of the human progression reflected by post-lapsarian linguistics. Finally, a resistant reading attacks the very nature, role and impacts of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, claiming it to be fault-laden.

In the short stories “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin and “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, the authors use literary criticism so the reader can dissect the many different literary elements such as symbolism and vivid ironic imagery that help explain the parallel theme going on in both stories. To achieve a world with peace throughout and reach a state of utopia some moral and ethical decay will take place. Both stories have social issues that test the citizens moral and ethical beliefs throughout the story, and actually show how the society is decaying because of what they are doing.

Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed “model” for a piece of critical appreciation. Nevertheless, one can give information and suggestions that may prove helpful.