Personal History - Brooke Auchincloss

Had Felice not offered up Chicago as a new place of residence, Jake would have wound up exactly how he’d started, having been “thinking a gitting away from the stinking mess [of Harlem],” a place he’d previously designated as home, to “go on off to the sea again” (McKay 322). Throughout the text, Jake frequents a variety of unique places, from Harlem to Pittsburgh to Brooklyn to the train in which he “had taken [a] job on the railroad” (McKay 125). McKay’s audience is privy to a plethora of details regarding Jake’s rousing endeavors in every new location he discovers. Home to Harlem’s audience watches as “that strange, elusive something” in Jake catches him and has him “[roaming] away” and “wandering to some unknown new port, caught … by some romantic rhythm, color, face, passing through cabarets, saloons, speakeasies,” and so on; in short, the emphasis on Jake’s travels is on his restlessness in his desire for movement rather than a search for some inner truth he may hold (McKay 41). Thus, the picaresque novel employment of the episodic form is vital for Home to Harlem as it allows for the motif of movement to be used for its potential. Not only that, though, but it can easily be inferred that Claude McKay designed his novel to be structured in such a way with a degree of intentionality. For whatever reason, McKay understood that an episodic format was the best to display Jake’s story. Thus, his audience must

O’Connor describes the children’s mother in contrast to the grandmother by what they are wearing; thus their clothes represent the age from which they are. The Children’s mother “still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white dot in the print”(O’Connor 118). The children’s mother is representative of the New South in which the Southern Lady is becoming less of a central figure within society. A lady of the old south would never wear slacks and tie her hair up in a kerchief to go out in public. Under an old south mentality these actions would be considered very unlady like. O’Connor illustrates the tension between the old and the new south by the constant struggle between the grandmother, her son, and the daughter-in-law.

Jay Gatsby’s is well known throughout New York for being wealthy and powerful. When somebody mentions Gatsby’s name, everyone knows who they are talking about. Gatsby throws extravagant, factious, lavish parties for people of high social status. Gatsby has servants, gardeners, caterers, and live music. Superficiality ran through the veins of those who attend Gatsby’s soiree. The men, known as the Mr. Mumble’s, have girls, barely of age, hanging off their arms, husbands and wives fighting, people getting roaring drunk, men flaunting their wealth

One of the major symbols in the text is the house the narrator and her husband John choose to rent for their vacation. The setting of the story is a symbol of men’s superiority towards women. In the story, the narrator describes the location of the rented house stating how “it is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village [like the] English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people” (pg. 34). The location of the

She is dressed very wealthy, has expensive jewelry, drinks alcohol, and has a bob cut. These were the qualities of the new woman compared to the previous traditional woman’s beliefs and ways of life. James Braddock’s luxury lifestyle, including his family, home, and wealth, represents the 1920’s atmosphere of growth and the booming time that was soon to vanish from the Great Depression.

What, in Crane’s telling, was family life like for working-class immigrants in late- 19th Century NYC?

The women of the story are not treated with the respect, which reflects their social standings. The first image of the women that the reader gets is a typical housewife. They are imaged as “wearing faded house dresses and

This story begins to drive the sense of emotion with the very surroundings in which it takes place. The author starts the story by setting the scene with describing an apartment as poor, urban, and gloomy. With that description alone, readers can begin to feel pity for the family’s misfortune. After the apartments sad portrayal is displayed, the author intrigues the reader even further by explaining the family’s living arrangements. For example, the author states “It was their third apartment since the start of the war; they had

The idioms of everyday American speech in a middle-class domestic situation are used in showing the events and relationships of the Berlin family. In contrast to the conversations of Becca and Stan, usually presented as straight dialogue, the discussions among the three sisters are conventionally presented, often with “she said” and other interpolations to give explicitly the emotional level of the sister’s disagreements. Madga, the Polish student who acts as Becca’s guide to the death camp site speaks fluent English but at times awkward English “Oh, they are much in appreciation” she says when given a pair of jeans. Contrast between the formal, traditional language of the fairy tale and childish, informal chatter is shown when the children comment or question as Gemma proceeds with her Briar Rose fairy tale story telling. Her contrast revisiting of just this one fairy tale shows the reader that while her conscious memory has buries the details of her past horrors, she cannot help returning to the fairy tale allegory. Contrast is also shown between the warm, happy imagery of life in the Berlin house and the bleak, harsh details of the holocaust.

It wasn’t like any other swim practice, no, not like any other I’d ever gone to. No one usually moved to Minot, North Dakota that was also in swimming, so when Emily Pitcher and her family moved to town and came to practice, it was quite a shock for everyone on the team. She moved from Colorado and she had 2 younger brothers and a younger sister as well. They seemed nice enough but there was something about Emily, who was my age, which seemed a bit off.

This year, I have three superb friends. They inspire me to do by best at just about everything. Audrey is inspiring when it comes to Cross Country, something she’s not the best at. Katie motivating when it comes to my writing, and C.j. encourages me to do my best, and always learn more.

To begin with, this story launched with the exposition, where we learned about the two main characters, their lives, and the setting. M. Lantin, a chief clerk in the office of the Minister of the Interior, “became enveloped in love as in a net” (Maupassant 67) after meeting a young woman, Madam Lantin. She was beautiful and every man dreamed of having her. Then, the two married shortly later, and they lived joyously for six years. The only two things that M. Lantin did not absolutely adore about his wife was “her love for theater and her passion for false jewelry” (Maupassant 67). Additionally, the exposition explained how the wife was in charge of the money in the house and how “they really seemed to live in luxury” (Maupassant

After riding along a little further, the family is involved in a car accident. The main reason that the family is involved in the car accident is due to the grandmother. The grandmother remembers a mansion that she visits as a young girl. She is eager to go, because she wants the children to see how she grew up. This further states how the grandmother social class, because she lived in a mansion. During the time of the grandmother’s life, only plantation owners and their family lived in mansions. This also stressed the social class of the grandmother, because you can tell from this that the

In the beginning of the story she describes what it is like at her aunt’s house. “We sit down at the kitchen table. My aunt’s house is smaller than ours and noisier. She has three sons, my cousins. We can hear them making odd sounds in the other rooms, the other rooms of their house. … Today we sit alone at the table, my aunt, my brother, myself. My aunt makes hot chocolate and pours it into plastic cups. She forgets to put marshmallows in it. Joshua, who is my older brother drinks it. I don’t” (1). She helps the reader visualize her living situation and how she feels about it by expressing the discomfort she feels at her aunt’s house. At the beginning of the story her aunt is crying. “My aunt is crying. No one asks why. My aunt is a big woman, and the tears seem silly. It is as solemn and inappropriate as if a man were crying” (1). By describing her aunt’s appearance in this moment, she also helps the reader understand the dislike she has for her aunt. Later in the story her uncle takes her to an aquarium that her father used to take her. “A week ago, or two weeks ago, or more, my father had stood here next to me, and I had pressed my nose to the glass while he laughed. I used to

The novel commences with the introduction of this particular family setting. Sethe initially had two daughters and two sons. During their escape from their slave master, she lost one of her daughters as her two sons went away from home. Sethe is married to Paul D who is the father figure in the family setting. After their escape from slavery they settled in 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati (Koolish 67). The society in this area is mostly slaves who escaped from their masters. The neighborhood is however, good for settlement as both Sethe and Paul D felt comfortable in the region.