The Blue Tree By Rick Bass

Through time, people have made choices that have not been considered “socially acceptable” by their peers. From one choice, these peers will shun, bully and ridicule. In Cold Sassy Tree, Rucker Blakeslee tested the society’s limits when he remarried to a young woman, Miss Love Simpson, shortly after the death of his first wife. The town found it repulsive that a man would not wait a couple years, much less a couple months before even thinking about remarrying. Miss Love and Rucker made their choice, although everyone in town was critical of the choice they made. The young couple was judged by Cold Sassy due to the choice they made was not a choice anyone else in town would consider. Why is it socially unacceptable to compose an unpopular decision?

Analogous to Green Grass, Running Water, whom Bailey is expounding on, King’s newest book describes a multivocal discourse. However, instead of four different Indian women that change their names into pop culture icons, this story revolves around at least five characters consisting of at least two Indians, one white Canadian, and two mysterious indemnitees (Sonny and Crisp). The multivocal text subverts the authority that is assumed to be embedded in written texts. Bailey argues that the basic assumption that oral text can serve as a metalanguage which is capable of conveying the true nature of reality which the written text is unable to epitomize. Each time the Bible is represented orally in the novel (usually through Sonny) its meaning is presented incompatible with what its authors supposedly intended. Sonny states, “There are any number of musical instruments of which Dad approves; instruments that Dad has deemed to be appropriate accompaniment for joyful singing and dancing. Trumpets are a great favorite, as are kinnors, nebels, pipes, and

The narrator shares this story from his youth in the words of an educated man. His actions as a teen are in stark contrast to his phraseology as an adult. Early in the story, he viewed “nature” as sex, drugs and rock and roll (Boyle 112-113). However, as the story ends and the turmoil subsides, the narrator sees nature for the first time, through the eyes of a person matured by this traumatic experience. The “sun firing buds and opening blossoms” replaced the once revered beer and

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson gave me incredible insight into the world of Aboriginal people. While you often hear stereotypes about these people, it is often difficult to really understand what their lives are truly like. I believe that because the aboriginal communities have had such a large impact on the history of Canada, especially in the northern communities, we should receive more information and education in our schools about their history. Many textbooks do include brief stories about residential schools, but they do not allow us to see what the impact of those schools has had on their communities as a whole, and how it effects many generations. Adding stories like Monkey Beach into high school curriculum would allow a broader understanding

The articles “Blue-Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose and “Are Too Many People Going to College?” by Charles Murray discuss the importance of education and its outcomes. Both authors talk about people’s careers on the aspect of whether a college degree made them succeed in life or it is just an expensive waste of time. Also, each article has its own opinion over the fact that some people with college education aren’t able to find jobs while others with no college background are able to succeed. Rose and Murray, both agreed on the idea that college isn’t for all just simply because of its cost, and how each person’s intelligence does not depend on their acceptance to a college; further, both authors also acknowledge the importance of blue-collar workers and their prosperity.

1. One of the main characters in the book Black and Blue is a woman named Frannie Benedetto. Some of the roles that Frannie had were being a wife, a mother, a Catholic, and a nurse. Her role as a wife was very challenging, due to the fact that she was in an abusive relationship and was married to a New York City Police Officer. Frannie had been married to her husband Bobby Benedetto for almost twenty years. Her entire relationship with her husband has been traumatizing. Numerous times Frannie had been physically assault, raped, and belittled. Bobby physically assaulted Frannie when she was nineteen years old for the first time in their relationship. Frannie recalls many times that Bobby came home drunk and would rape her. Bobby belittled his wife by accusing her of sleeping with the doctors she worked with and by making her feel like she had deserved to get beaten up by him. One of the major reasons that Frannie stayed in the relationship with Bobby was because of their son.

In his book “Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free,” Hector Tobar recounts the story of 33 miners who spent 69 days trapped more than 2000 feet underground in the Chile’s San Jose mines following the collapse of the mine in 2010. According to Tobar (2015), the disaster began on a day shift around noon when miners working deep inside the mountain excavating minerals started feeling vibrations. A sudden massive explosion then followed and the passageways of the mines filled with dust clouds. Upon settling of the dust, the men discovered that the source of the explosion was a single stone that had broken off from the rest of the mountain and caused a chain reaction leading to

Toomer’s poems enhanced the moods of wistful and mournful pastoralism that pervades the book. His poems provide transitioning from one narrative to another, incorporating myths and symbols.

The fundamental characteristic of magical realism is its duality, which enables the reader to experience both the character’s past and the present. In the novel, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses this literary device to address the the trauma and mistreatment of the Haisla community in Canada by unveiling the intimate memories of the protagonist, Lisamarie, and the resulting consequences of this oppression. Monkey Beach illustrates how abuse in the past leads to another form of self-medication in the future - a neverending, vicious cycle for the members of the Haisla community. Many characters in Monkey Beach are scarred from childhood sexual abuse and family neglect, and resort to drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. These

The short story On The Bridge by Todd Strasser is about two boys, Adam and Seth, who are hanging out after school on a bridge that overlooks the highway. Seth was the character that demonstrated maturity towards the end of the story. He showed some examples of this when Adam got them into some trouble. For example, when Adam flicked his cigarette onto the windshield of a car below the bridge, the drivers came up behind them. “But suddenly he [Seth] noticed that all three guys were staring at him. He quickly looked at Adam and saw why. Adam was pointing at him.” It was this point where Seth started to question his friendship with Adam, because they had gotten into trouble because of Adam, and then he blamed it on Seth. After the men left, Seth

Pastoral works refer to a genre of literature that focuses on the bucolic aspects of nature and the countryside. The English countryside represents the ideal location for a pastoral work. One such work is the Edwardian children’s story, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Since its publication in 1908, the story has become a beloved children’s classic. However, the story represents Edwardian society in England, and uses anthropomorphized animals to represent Edwardian men. As a pastoral work, the events of the story occur in the English countryside, where the animals work together to care for the wild one in their group, Mr. Toad. Mr. Toad’s “Wild Ride” through he English countryside

The songs Tangled up in Blue by Bob Dylan and The Road Goes on Forever by Robert Earl Keen both demonstrate the power of love. Love appears to be the main fundamental goal that people strive for in life. Everyone at some point in their lives has experienced love or heart break, whether he/he was loved or have loved. It depend on how an individual demine his or her situation, love is neither positive nor negative nevertheless, it usually have its ups and downs. Yet, people go throughout life searching for it, without ever giving up. For both songs Tangled up in Blue and The Road Goes on Forever, both characters experience the acrimony of love.

Kieslowski’s masterpiece is a trilogy known as Three Colors, named after the stripes of the French flag. According to Kieslowski himself all of the films center on individuals who sense something that is not articulated in dialogue. This is telling of a director who is constantly trying to reconcile a new Pan-European identity in a world that had yet to develop a language to articulate it. The color Blue (1993) is about a woman who secretly writes the music that made her husband a famous composer. Her husband and daughter die in a car crash at the beginning of the film. Julie, the main character, is thrown into depression, and spends the rest of the film trying to rebuild what it means to be here in this new world of chaos.

Coleridge’s ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’, is a poem describing a man’s changing views as he contemplates the natural word which he has been prevented from seeing. Coleridge’s poem demonstrates the ability of individuals to modify their morals and values upon receiving a cathartic release from their relationship with nature, as predicated almost entirely on the imagination. Through allowing the persona to visualise the encounters his friends are making with nature along their journey, Coleridge first demonstrates the capabilities of the imagination in allowing us to picture things in certain detail, as shown through “now my friends emerge,” which in all exemplifies the presence of imagination in our relationship with nature. Furthermore, the description of their journey demonstrates the liberation received from engaging with nature, as shown where they “wander in gladness,” which relates to the cathartic release obtained from viewing nature that pushes us to reassess our ideas and perceptions. By showing his gradual change in tone, the influence of the persona’s imagination is shown, which when in conjunction with his exclamation of “yes!” reveals our emotional capabilities if becoming engulfed in our imaginations of nature. Also, by choosing to allow the persona to speak in a melodramatic tone, the poet is able to again explicitly demonstrate his

“The Blacker the Berry” by Kendrick Lamar was released February 9th, 2015. This incredibly racially motivated song has created controversy throughout America because it tackles racism, hypocrisy, and hatred head on. Although Stephen Best argues that the past defines the present without question, and Hartman believes that many important African American stories have been silenced due to lack of evidence, Kendrick Lamar’s song “The Blacker the Berry” complicates and adds to their arguments by introducing a certain level of hypocrisy that forces the listener to understand a much more complicated moral position than is generally allowed, perhaps an inevitable one.