Taking a Look at Literary Deconstructionism

Many compelling authors and writers use literary devices to draw readers into their stories. The use of literary devices is to express the meaning of a story in a deeper way than just stating the theme. Stories with descriptive writing that includes literary components keeps readers engrossed and keep them wanting to read more. A few examples of literary elements are symbolism, irony, imagery, and foreshadowing. One such story that includes many uses of elements such as these is “The Destructors”, by Graham Greene. Strong Imagery is used in many instances throughout the text of “The Destructors” to draw the readers into the story, imply deeper meanings, and provide a description of different parts of the text.

In the novel, The Hate U Give, author Angie Thomas discusses the internal, interpersonal, and societal discord of justice by analyzing the internal chaos that consumes Starr’s life, and how it affects her community and humanity as a whole. Starr is a 16-year-old black girl who is navigating through a multitude of tumultuous events in her teenage life. One of Starr’s best friends, Khalil, was shot unjustly by a white police officer. This sparks mass controversy within Starr’s gang-ridden community, Garden Heights, and eventually the entire nation. In addition, Starr faces her own identity crisis, as she lives in a low-income neighborhood but goes to a high school that educates upper-class students. Between these two environments, she finds herself adjusting her

Life isn’t fair. This common phrase rings true for the characters in A Separate Peace, a novel from 1959. The story takes place in the time of World War Two. Gene and Finny are the best of friends, but the entire book revolves around an accident where Gene causes Finny, or Phineas, to fall off a tree and shatter his leg, changing his life forever. Finny denies anything he finds negative or harmful, including the war, his injury, and Gene’s part in the accident, choosing to remain young and ignorant of since he knows he’ll be happier that way. However, Finny does eventually recognizes the facts of his life. John Knowles uses characterization to shed light on the dangers of naivete through the character Finny. Innocence causes Phineas to become ignorant of what’s happening all around him, which makes it dangerous. This becomes a problem because nobody can run away from the truth forever, and whenever all the facts of war and the accident catch up with him they will hit hard.

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

In the book Everything I Never Told You, there are many different elements and techniques used within the book. The technique that I want to go into more depth on is the use of symbolism. I specifically want to focus on the symbolism in regards to Lydia, Hannah, and Nath’s love of astronauts and space.

Almost everybody who falls in love may think that they will be the same person as they were before meeting someone and putting then into your life. That as a matter of fact is very different. You may not know your real you when loving and caring so much about someone. There are many things to think about whenever you find your loved one. For example, their past friends, their past life , and actions. The author of this story “The Dead” makes us reveal various aspects of Gabriel’s character by using imagery, point of view, and diction.

"Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality."

In the novel, Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, the author uses many literary

Deconstruction or poststructuralist is a type of literary criticism that took its roots in the 1960’s. Jacques Derrida gave birth to the theory when he set out to demonstrate that all language is associated with mental images that we produce due to previous experiences. This system of literary scrutiny interprets meaning as effects from variances between words rather than their indication to the things they represent. This philosophical theory strives to reveal subconscious inconsistencies in a composition by examining deeply beneath its apparent meaning. Derrida’s theory teaches that texts are unstable and queries about the beliefs of words to embody reality.

In “An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory” Bennett and Royle, explore topics such as subjectivity and ideology. In the Chapters “Me” and Ideology”, Bennett and Royle are able to define the terms as well as suggest how they are interrelated or interconnected. Bennett and Royle contend that literature replicates structures of ideology while encouraging subjects to question personal idenitity. They believe “subjects – people – make their own ideology at the same time as ideology makes them subjects” (Bennett and Royle 202). Stevens exemplifies Bennett and Royles contentions by building his ideologies around his profession as a bulter at the risk of losing himself to the subjection of his ideologies in which he can never be alone and cannot exist without his profession or the justications of his profession.

Personally, I don’t think a reader should read with just their eyes; they should read with eyes from that specific time period and keep in mind what was known and what was common, while at the same time understand that those standards are not the same as today's. For example, when reading about slavery, a person should understand that a slaver allowing their slave to buy himself or herself was progressive, while at the same time knowing that there is no such thing as good or acceptable slavery. Foster also introduced me to the literary term ‘deconstruction.’ I can see how deconstruction of texts could be a good way to start a conversation, or to get a different understanding of the text. However, the idea doesn’t appeal to me as something I would want to do regularly; it actually seems like something only a very cynical and critical person would like to do. Foster mentioned some authors that he enjoyed reading, but who were morally wrong about certain things. I agree with his approach; I think everyone should have a right to decide if they don’t want to read a specific author because of that author's actions or

Many people have their own culture, wouldn’t you agree? Some feel more strongly about their culture than others. Culture is something that is a large part in everyone’s life. It determines who you are and how you handle situations. When two cultures interact with each other and start mixing up, it results in something called a cultural collision. A cultural collision can be seen as a good thing or it can become something negative within both cultures. In the novel, Things Fall Apart culture is used everywhere. Culture is the main topic that is introduced throughout the novel. The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Nwoye has a huge part in the cultural collision that is occurring, between

Shaylyn Davis Ms. Van Dam 10th Academic English 6 October 2017 Literary Fiction in The Destructors After reviewing the distinguishing characteristics of literary and commercial fiction, it is clear that the short story, The Destructors, is more of a literary work of fiction rather than that of a commercial fiction. Literary fiction does not focus solely on the reader’s satisfactory, but instead the enhanced understanding of life that a reader may attain from the insight that a literary story provides. A literary fiction also “plunges us more deeply into the real world enabling us to understand life’s difficulties and to emphasize with others” (Johnson, Arp 57).

In addition, by her own account, her reading is also political in that it "exposes the ideological discourses which organise the text. " She comments that poststructuralist approaches highlight that even "highly formalist readings are political, inscribed in the discourses both of the period in which the work was produced and of those in which it is consumed." Newman references Derrida's work on racism and in addition to employing deconstructionist discourse his influence can be seen in Newman's design. Recognizing the binary opposition denoted by the polarization of Othello's "blackness" and Desdemona's "whiteness", Newman develops this to assimilate the implied opposition of monstrosity or miscegenation represented by Othello and femininity represented by Desdemona. Deconstructive discourse incorporates the notion that difference exists both between signified and signifier, and at the same time that the signified defers meaning to the signifier.

Theories investigating subjectivity have dominated the field of literary and cultural theory during the modern and postmodern period. The way we understand subjectivity effects the way we understand the world around us, whether the subject is viewed in the Cartesian manner as a fixed entity, with a pre-existing nature that is not affected by the discourses that surround the it, or if we view the subject as one produced in and through the forces of power available in the time period, whether they be political, social or linguistic. The dominant model of understanding the subject up till the 20th century has been the model provided by Descartes, one where the self is understood as being independent and unsupported, where it is considered a private and autonomous experience deriving meaning and substance on its own without the assistance or influence of external factors. According to Descartes “true self-knowledge cannot rely on the contingent and fallible perceptual ideas that are not essential to one 's true self.” During the age of Enlightenment reason and empirical knowledge were foregrounded, and were focused upon as the most important factors in understanding the world, consequently the individual was also emphasized as the creator of meaning. Human beings were understood as being born with great potential, and a stable, true self that if given the right to its unrestrained expression, could flourish and achieve anything.