The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin ends the novel in a vastly different way than most authors would have at that time with her main character, Edna Pontellier, committing suicide by drowning herself. If one were to isolate this ending without any context whatsoever, it would feel tragic and depressing; however, the events leading up to her death actually explains to the readers her spiritual reassessment and moral reconciliation, both of which being themes significant to the book as a whole.

The relationship between madness and prophecy have been, for so long, a source of contention in literary circles. These two concepts are somewhat difficult to tackle as both are connected to a mystical world that can give meaning to human existence and truth about life. After the Holocaust, people seriously began questioning the existence of a supreme Deity and the lack of divine intervention to such destructive, inhumane war. As a result, the concepts of prophecy and madness are intertwined in several Holocaust stories. Such complexities make one wonder how to differentiate the two concepts; a question that is still perplexing even to specialists.

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

“Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body”(Coates 5). The phrase “lose my body” is reiterated numerous times in Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The topic/theme of this piece of literature may be discernable as innocence as Ta-Nehisi profusely speaks of how his upbringing changed and affected his perspective on life. Coates uses a multitude of examples to portray this from how he witnessed another boy almost being shot at a young age to him learning and understanding the laws and “culture of the streets”(Coates 24) as who and even more who not to mess with(Coates 23). Coates effectively uses these examples as perfect representations of living in an American ghetto as well as how since birth blacks do not “own” their body and are susceptible to lose it.

Flannery O’Connor’s work opens up wide doors and gives direct access to the true heart

Pigsy, Rib of man, Piece of goods, Frail, Scupper are some of the many words that were used to describe over the last millennium, some of the words which are very offensive today. According to dictionary.com, Feminism means the advocacy of women’s right on the basis of the equality of the sexes. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Chopin expressed female oppression and feminism through Edna’s life, her choices and the people in her community. Chopin had many examples of female oppression and feminism in her novel, such as Adele Ratignolle’s life, how women were stereotyped in the society at that time, why women in the 1800s fought for their feminist rights,

In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, we see how much of an importance the men in Edna’s life serve as a purpose to her awakening. Chopin is known to write stories about women who are unsatisfied with their lives while living in a life that is dominated by men. Other than Edna, the main men characters are typical men of the late 19th century era. Chopin shows how these three men are diverse from one another. The Creole men are Léonce Pontellier, Edna’s husband, Robert, Edna’s mystery man number one, and Alcee, mystery man number two. Léonce, Edna’s husband, is a businessman who has no time for his family let alone his wife. Alcee comes off as carefree and does not seem to care what society thinks of him. Robert is Edna’s main mystery man who she loves but Robert doesn’t love her back. Throughout the novel, these men make Edna question herself, which lead her to her awakening. These men show how men in the late 19th century behaved. In a male dominated world, women were not allowed to do much except for be good wives and mothers to their families. Edna learned the hard way as to what it meant to be the wife of a Creole man in the Victorian era. Men expected too much of women because appearances meant everything and no man would want to have a wife who is out of line and not well behaved in public. In studying these three men in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, we see how different yet alike these men are to one another.

A Wrinkle In Time by: Madeleine L’Engle is a story about a girl named Meg, Charles and Calvin. Meg is a girl who is nothing like her mom but has a good relationship with her dad. Her dad has been missing for a while and now is her time to go on the hunt for him. Meg gets some help from her brother Charles Wallace Murry and her friend Calvin O’Keefe. The three kids travel through space and some time, soon enough Meg finds her dad he's been held hostage by the evil forces on another planet.

Over the course of time the male species has always been the gender to attain the more favorable conditions. Numerous cultures heed to the belief that the man is the provider and head of his family. This machismo nature can condition the mind to believe that a man should feel superior to a woman. The continuous cycle of male superiority flows down from father to son subconsciously. Do to this unceasing sequence of behavior women fall subject to repression and control at the hands of mentally undeveloped men. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, illustrated this particular topic in a way that not only appealed to the readers’ sense of pathos but, the readers’ likeliness to be able to relate to the aforementioned as well. Chopin stylistically renders the struggle of the protagonist Edna Pontellier, a strong willed woman who finds herself imprisoned to the concept of trans-temporal existence, as she seeks refuge to her true being, Edna experiments relationships with multiple men that unintentionally repress her existence. Between Leonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Alcee Arobin and The Colonel effect of Edna’s life they catalyze her awakening and ultimately lead her suicide.

My last quote is, “So this is liberation. It’s come. I am fourteen years old, and I have lived a thousand years.” (205). This supports my claim because after everything, she made it threw! She is alive, and she is now going to move on into a better life. Overall, my review of this book is a 5 out of 5 because it’s such a wonderful book to read. I feel like it’s very different from other Holocaust books, because it’s about a younger person, a 13 year old (that turned 14 in the time). It shows us what things were really like, without sugar coating it. At parts it does make you cry when they talk about how people died, which still lingers in my mind. Parts from the start were Elli was upset with her hair being shaved off, to her mother being sick and having to sneak her out, to the very end where they were on the boat going to live in America, it was all worth reading and something I would recommend to everyone that has to read a

The Book Thief has helped me overcome fear, as well as teaching me about the holocaust. It showed me how powerful Liesel and her words can go, and teaching me I can overcome anything as long as I persist through the problem. You even put death as the narrator, which shows how horrible this war was, and the amazing story of Liesel.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an English composer well known for his orchestral suite The Planets. Holst began his trip into the musical world as a young pianist. His father, Adolph Holst, was a skilled pianist who wanted Gustav to succeed at playing as he did. Gustav, however, was impaired by neuritis making it difficult to play for long hours. As Gustav aged he began trying to compose music instead. Gustav failed to gain scholarships to any colleges and his father, after hearing one of Gustav’s small town operettas, borrowed money to pay for his college. Gustav’s influences were pieces such as Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Tristan and

The film “Gone Girl” depicts the story of a man named Nick Dunne and the disappearance and possible murder of his publicly adored wife, Amy Dunne. The beginning of the film depicts this young couple to be passionate, vivacious and full of unconditional love, but as the story unfolds the truth behind Amy and Nick’s relationship becomes questioned under intense public scrutiny and a forensic investigation. Early on, Nick becomes the main suspect in his wife’s disappearance and apparent murder based on what seems to be overwhelming evidence indicating his guilt. Amy Dunne appears to be a beautiful, kind and intelligent woman. She exudes confidence, gracefulness and charm to the public, and portrays a sense of being calm, cool and collected with her husband upon the early stages of their relationship and marriage. Her beauty, clever wit and poised presence, paints the façade of an overtly desirable woman. However, in discovery of her husband’s affair and throughout the rest of the film, Amy’s true self and manipulative and devious nature emerges.