Summary Of Ona's Diary Entry: A Fictional Journal Entry

As she reached the bottom, the flame from her candle illuminated the stinking cellar. At first, she could not make out anything, but as her eyes became accustomed to the dark, she found four bodies, all wrapped up in cloth except the feet. Those feet were enough to put almost anyone off, but as Elizabeth could not see them properly, she ignored them, and with what was either immense

In The Diary of Lady Murasaki, translated and introduced by Richard Bowring, the author of the diary, Lady Murasaki, writes about her daily life as a lady-in-waiting for Japanese royalty. It is set in the Heian Period, which is a relatively stable and peaceful time in Japanese history. She uses various poetry and fashion throughout her stories to demonstrate how this was the only way for women at that time to express themselves.

The blazing light was shining in my face and a slight breeze blew through the arched windows. I spotted an open chest in the attic, whilst spring cleaning. The outside rim of the box was covered in dust and cobbled webs; the hinge was rusty, making a creak noise against the ghost-quiet room. Rummaging my hand around the chest there was a scratchy-substance digging against my fingers. As the sun faded from my sight I lifted up the mysterious object. It was an old rustic book; I flipped through the delicate pages, every touch made a crinkling

In this chapter I got introduced to Ona and Jurgis two immigrants from Lithuanian looking for a better future. When arriving to Chicago they throw a wedding for them, which took place in the stockyards in Packing town. The wedding becomes huge with lots of guests the majority being people they didn’t know. After all the fun people were expected to donate money to pay off the cost of the event. People ended up just leaving when they found out they had to donate some money. This backfired Jurgis and Ona when the saloonkeeper tells them they had consumed more of the goods at the party, and they would have to pay it off. I believe Jurgis, Ona and Teta could’ve been more careful with who they let into the party. Furthermore in chapter 2 it gives

When the midwife notified Jurgis of Ona’s death, his heart sank and he couldn’t believe the words she said. He had to go see for himself but everyone in the boarding house didn’t want him to see the state Ona is in. He didn’t listen to anyone and climbed up the ladder to the attic and saw Ona laying hopelessly with no movement. Jurgis tried to wake her up by shaking her and yelling her name but she was unresponsive. He was emotionally distraught and was crying like a little child. He didn’t know what to do with his life without Ona but felt lonely and scared that he lost the love of his life. Jurgis felt guilty that he caused so much trouble to end up in jail which left Ona alone. He knows Ona wants him to take care of the family and try to

The author who brought to us The Tale of Genji, a novel now regarded as the first written novel in history, left behind an arguably more treasurable artifact: a diary that opens a window into history. The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Lady Murasaki Shikibu gives the reader a glimpse of the imperial court during eleventh century Japan and presents the past in an illuminated vision. Being an attendant in the imperial court, Lady Murasaki is frequently involved with the activities of elite Japanese women. Her day-to-day interaction with the nobles and elites enhance her account with the curious perspective of an elite female. As a woman, Lady Murasaki's descriptions are oriented around clothing

Not only is she forced to stay alone at her house, but while her husband gets to go make friends and do different things such as go different places and play card games, she is left out and therefore quite lonely. At the time, most women did not get to do the things that they wanted, but instead had to listen to the orders of their husbands. Another example is when she first meets George and Lennie. She is looking for her husband, Curley, and when she asks where Curley might be, George responds brusquely, saying that he is not in the bunkhouse. He is quite rude to her, even after only knowing her for a few minutes. George is rude to Curley’s wife because he was warned to avoid her and he does not want to get into a fight with him that will cost his job. The last example is when Crooks tries to kick her out of the barn. Once again, she is looking for Curley. This time, she goes to the barn to look for him, even though it is not likely since he would not be allowed in the barn anyway. She asks Crooks if he has seen Curley, and he responds, “Maybe you better go along to your own house now. We don’t want no trouble” (76). Crooks tries to get her to leave, because no one is allowed in his room due to his race. She is being kicked out because of her gender; she gets excluded from a lot of things due to that factor in her life. The very fact that she is not even given a name in the book, but only referred to as the wife of Curley shows how unjust the world was to women at the

She was seated at a garden table set for two and looked at the menu. All she wanted at this point was a small cup of coffee and nothing else. She looked out onto the streets of Rome as she watched the people walking by and the lovers surrounding her. As she took a deep breath of the freedom she felt from exposing the secret that was hidden for so many years, she also smelled a familiar

Moving about the room, she stopped here and there, fingering objects that caught her attention. The room was formal and pretentious and she wasn’t a fan. She missed her tents filled with carpets and furs and cushions, hand carved toys littering the floors and her bed tucked behind brightly colored sheer fabric. She had just thrown another log on the fire when a tall man let himself into the room closing the door loudly behind him.

(102) Betsey decides the only reasonable thing to do is run away and she decides on Mrs. Maureen’s beauty shop. She figures she can work there until she elopes. She’s also seeing a different world, including the “men with stocking caps on and curlers in their heads…women with too much rogue and not enough clothes.” (116) Betsey is also reunited with her former care-taker Regina, who now works at Mrs. Maureen’s and is pregnant, her boyfriend Roscoe presumably leaving her despite saying he was just getting things ready in Chicago. I think by seeing Regina and seeing that Roscoe is gone, it begins to fade her romanticized visions of not only love, but the supposed love she witnessed between the couple when Regina was her

Shrill cries erupted inside the bedchamber as the two drew near the end of their physical embrace. Short, terse breaths replaced the sounds of joy as harsh, cold guilt set in. A sharp gust of wind blew through the window, rustling the autumn leaves without, pushing them to the ground. The man rose, the wind sending harsh chills of guilt through his weak-willed spine. The love-making had been nothing short of magnificent; the lust of each being satiated, despite the guilt-laden incestuous sheets. He walked towards the window, feeling the gaze of his Queen behind him. Like sleek black ravens, the night sky met his eyes with solemnity. The cracked stone walls of Claudius’ quarters were thick; thick enough to keep sounds inside despite

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.

The appellants, a partially deaf and almost blind man of low average intelligence and no appreciable sense of smell, and his mistress, who was ineffectual and inadequate, lived together in his house with his mentally subnormal son. The man's sister came to live at the house as a lodger in one room without ventilation, toilet or washing facilities except a polythene bucket. She was morbidly anxious not to put on weight denied herself proper meals, spent days at a time in the room and within three years became helplessly infirm so that she did not leave her bed, but she did not complain. The mistress, who took the sister such food as she required, attempted to wash her with the aid of a neighbour, who advised the mistress to go to the social

Eva answers the door and invites me in. I follow her to the kitchen where we sit at the kitchen table. She insists on pouring me a cup of her favorite tea. The steam from the kettle is screaming, “I’m ready!” Eva is able to navigate her cozy kitchen by supporting her balance chair to counter to stove, stove to chair to tea cup. The tremor that was apparent as she scooped the loose tea into the pot, gives way to the steadiness needed to poor the boiling water. She returns the kettle to the stove and tells me we are three minutes away from the perfect cup of Earl Gray.

“When the cook {told} [her everything] {was} ready [she] {went} into [the women's] room and began {to pull} the [big bell] (#21, loose/cumulative complex sentence). In a few minutes [the women] began {to come} in by twos and threes, {wiping} [their steaming hands] in [their petticoats] and {pulling down} [the sleeves of their blouses] over {their}[red steaming arms] (#34, _____). [They] {settled down} before [their huge mugs] which [the cook and the dummy] {filled up} with hot tea, already {mixed} with milk and sugar in [huge tin cans] (#28, _____). [Maria] {superintended} the distribution of [the barmbrack] and saw that [every woman] {got} her [four slices] (#16, loose/cululative complex sentence). There {was} a great deal of laughing and joking during the meal (#12, ___). [Lizzie Fleming] {said} [Maria] was sure {to get} [the ring] and, though [Fleming] had {said} that for so many Hallow Eves, [Maria] {had to laugh and say} she didn't want any [ring or man] either; and when [she] {laughed} her [grey-green eyes] {sparkled} with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin (#71, _____).