The Digital Escape

1. Identify the theme of “The Darling.” How do Olenka’s several relationships with male characters help to elucidate the theme?

George Saunders writes about human behavior with some modern and not so modern examples. He invites the reader to imagine themselves at a party where someone is speaking into a megaphone. Soon the focus of the party becomes the topic the megaphone speaker is flooding into the party atmosphere. Saunders also talks about new broadcast,he mentions a news reporter reporting busy shopping activity at a mall during holiday season . What a surprise!

All day long Orloff had paced his cell. The blackness of the sky outside was equaled only by the blackness of his thoughts. The deep rolling of the thunder reverberated through the thick stone walls of his prison, and every now and then a fitful gust of rain swirled through the tiny broken window, wetting his face as he stared out into the night. Orloff cursed, wiped the water from his face with his grimy fingers, and turned to pacing his cell once more.

Theodore is broken. He lacks the intimacy of human interaction. In a city full of people, he has no constant person he can turn to. When he pulls out his screen to view the photos of the naked pregnant actress it is because he lacks love in his life. When he views the photos, he feels lust, which is as close to love as he has. This pattern is seen again when he contacts sexy kitten. His life has become so lonely he reaches out to a faceless stranger to receiving the slightest bit of pleasure and intimacy. Consequently, this interaction doesn’t go well for Theodore as sexy kitten turns out to be turned on by being choked by a dead cat which really turns Theodore off. Viewers learn that he has a broken relationship with his mother and soon-to-be ex-wife. His interactions with women just continue to let him down as no one seems to relate well

Dugard appeals to our emotions through pathos. During the years that Dugard was held prisoner, she became lonely and longed for someone to talk to. Phillip began to bring home stray kittens for her to call her own. However, once she became attached to them he would find an excuse to take them away. This had a major impact on Dugard, because she had nothing that belonged to her nor did she have anything to keep her occupied throughout the endless days. This also affects the readers who find themselves becoming attached to the kittens whom she describes as they grow into loving companions. In addition, the kittens reminded her of home where she had three cats she adored and dearly missed. At the time, the cats she adopted from the streets

In addition, the two voices in the narrative illustrate the contrasting perceptions of childhood and maturity as we can see that the younger Leo simply believes if he ‘went away…the relationship between Ted and Marian would cease’ (Chapter 16. p. 182), whereas the elder Leo is able to analyse his feelings, ‘I thought I knew what was best for myself…I was shaken and frightened’ (Chapter 16. p. 183). Consequently, the first person narrative in the past tense effectively conveys a sense of the adult narrator carefully exploring his conscious in a philosophical manner, whereas child narrator’s naïve attitude is portrayed in his black and white perception of the crisis, believing that he is solely to blame for the blossoming of the lovers’ affair, ‘I had attacked them first’ (Chapter 16. p. 182). Thus, the reader feels a certain degree of sympathy towards Leo’s predicament as he possesses a common child-like sense of misguided responsibility. However, it is evident that he is merely facilitating the relationship between Ted and Marian. Nevertheless, the writer also presents Leo as somewhat egocentric as he sees

Throughout the story “Samuel,” Grace Paley uses language to generate a healthy dialogue about the fragility of life by comparing the thoughts and reactions of all the characters in the story leading up to and following Samuel’s tragic death. The text leads the reader through four young boys’ adventures on a train. The story chronicles the thoughts of the passengers on the train in New York City, and their actions leading up to and following the unfortunate death of the main character, Samuel.

In the beginning, Mrs. Reilly tolerates Ignatius and his lack of self -control, structure and independence. She finds a few friends that encourage her and she initiates opinions and making decisions for herself. Mrs. Reilly still tries to defend Ignatius’ actions, but she later questions the way he lives. Her only evidence that he is a good boy is that he earned a master’s degree. Her lack of teaching him social skills and keeping structure in the home is shown throughout as Ignatius attempts to obtain and keep a job. He has no independence, or feels the need to become independent. The dynamic of the relationship changes as Mrs. Reilly decides that he cannot handle the real world and prefers her own

Outside yet another train rumbled through the intersection” (Larson 37). (FA) The more simplistic the writing, despite the connotative meaning, allows for the further exploration of a deeper theme. Without the distraction of unnecessary verbiage, the author is able to convict the theme in a shorter and more precise way. Beyond the general use of simplistic writing technique, Larson defers back to the simple sentence format when generating a sense of hastiness

“Later that night when Thomas roller over and lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers” this proves the point that she cannot even express herself sexually because she does not feel as if she has control in the situation.  Her mind wanders elsewhere, in a place where she is her own master, instead of what is reality. Additionally, the main character’s husband shows some selfish tendencies in the fact that he may not notice his wife’s discontentment with his affection.  However, this may also present the lack of communication between man and wife and therefore may cause a sense of isolation from her husband.

Firstly, the cat describes a literal cat, wandering around the streets. This cat is symbolic of a creepy run down area, where stray animals run around and beg for food. Prufrock sets up the image of the outside world as harsh and cold, and the inside, where the woman he loves is, as warm and inviting. He feels like he was living in two different worlds. One is a world of poverty and disease; the other is a world of propriety and class.

Shortly after, the family is about to set off for Florida. After a brief conversation, Bailey forbids his mother from bringing the cat along for the ride. Once again, the Author expresses her view of her self-absorbed, callous mother through the grandmother. Going against her son’s orders, she decides to bring the cat anyways, for fear it may miss her too much or, in a freak accident, asphyxiate itself on on the gas burners. An utterly selfish action for nothing more than getting what she wants, just because she wants it. This action would prove to be disastrous in the end, showing the self destructive behavior of a woman unfit to be called a “mother” by O’Connor.

To anyone from New York City, the dangers of train cars are evident. This is why, when the reader begins to see that the children are acting recklessly, he becomes quite worried. This is because there are countless numbers of warnings on trains,

“The world…is crowded, not necessarily with occupants and not at all with memorable experiences, but with happenings; it is a ceaseless flow of seductive trivialities which invoke neither reflection, nor choice but instant participation.” (Oakeshott) The idea of the lacking of realness is one of the major themes carried out throughout the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, especially through the device of the television.

The narrator finds this cat to be out of place, and she uses the sight of this cat to take her text in a different direction. Losing her train of thought is an exercise in allowing the reader to experience what it might feel like to be a woman writer. Although the narrator goes on to make a valuable point about the atmosphere at her luncheon, she has lost her original point. Women, who so often lack a room of their own and the time to write, cannot compete against the men who are not forced to struggle for such basic necessities.