The Hill By Sir William Drummond Stewart

In the poem “Loch Ard Gorge” by John Foulcher he represents his vision of the world by describing a place called Loch Ard Gorge where there is a constant battle between life and death with death slowly winning. He does this by describing the Gorge in a way that compares life and death with the sea and the land, two places which can not exist without the other yet are difficult to reconcile.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey is a critically acclaimed novel produced in 2009 and set in 1965. Described by The Monthly as “an Australian To Kill a Mockingbird”, the book deals with a variety of themes in an intriguing and comedic way. The extent to which the themes in Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey mirror the context of production more closely than the context of the setting varies depending on which theme is being discussed. The wide range means that both years are represented in a balanced way. In the novel, Jasper Jones, half-aboriginal and half white, and Jeffery Lu, Vietnamese, often fall victim to mistreatment, oppression and violent hate crimes because of their race. Their characterisation as victims positions the reader to explore the theme of prejudice in 1965 society. Moreover, Charlie’s (the narrator) characterisation as an open minded person deals with the theme of acceptance. His relationship with both Jasper Jones and Jeffrey Lu represents this. The novel also, perhaps less explicitly, deals with ideas about masculinity. This theme is largely explored through Charlie Bucktin and Warwick Trent and further reinforced in the resolution. In terms of context this embodies 2009 more as the flourishing of the media has changed and created ideals. Themes of prejudice and fear appeal more to 1965. However, acceptance and masculinity mirror 2009.

The powerful and gripping novel The Boy Who Dared, written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, is a Newbery Honor book. The novel is based on Helmuth Hubener who lived during the Holocaust when the Nazis were rising to power in 1933. Helmuth was one of the very few young boys who tried to expose Hitler to the people of Germany. Hitler was torturing the Jews and declaring wars on countries just because he wanted war. He also ruined Jewish shops and destroyed their futures. The Boy Who Dared shows historical accuracy in many ways, especially as it focuses on Helmuth’s life, the

The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers best conveys the character traits of courage, ambitiousness, and supporting family even when times appear to be distressful. This book takes you through African American history with the excitement and thrill of fiction. It allows you to witness the glory of African American evolution, from a period of slavery to modern day. The reader witnesses courage as African Americans try and fight for freedom and equality in an unforgiving society. African Americans try and defy the society’s perspective of them in an attempt to reach an optimal level of success. They work to divert from their typical expectations, and strive for success even when the possibilities are minimal. They strive to build a better living besides being maids and factory workers, and they attempt to remove every obstacle in their way of success. They desire to go above what is expected of them, so they can achieve at a prodigious level in a segregated society. Even as technology advances, the reader witnesses the character’s sense of community. They always believe that family is crucial to success even in times of distress. If they abandon their community, then they abandon the only people that support them. In this time period, their community was composed of the only people that cared about them. The African American society emulates these traits throughout this book, as the author inserts you into their fight for equity and freedom. The Glory Field takes

In William Barney’s article, “The Quest for Room,” he analyzes the differing opinions between the North and South regarding the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired Western territories. The author argues that the West would have been important to slaveholders as a place to expand slavery if the territories had not been free-soil. The reason for this article was to show us how prominent the sectional differences were in the nineteenth century because of the argument over slavery. This, in turn, led to the secession of the Southern states from the Union as they formed the Confederacy; this dug the nation into a deep-pitted civil war.

In the short story "The Guest" by Albert Camus, Daru's predicament goes hand in hand with France's difficulties and Camus' self-appreciation. In the short story “The Guest” we are introduced to see Daru’s concern to attend the political situation in the French North

The Glory Field is a novel by Walter Dean Myers that follows the Lewis family through racism and segregation. It starts with Muhammad Bilal being captured from Africa in 1753. It follows through to see young Lizzy escape from slavery on the live Oaks plantation in South Carolina in 1864. After the Civil War, the family is given is plot of land they refer to as the “Glory Field”, which represents hope for the family during their hardships. Lizzie’s son, Elijah, and his cousin Abby help the sheriff find a missing blind boy out on an island. After the hard journey the sheriff takes all the credit and threatens Elijah, who flees to Chicago with Uncle Joshua.

Throughout the book, “The Western Place” , by Maxine Hong Kingston, there is a differential gap between the two sisters who come from two different sides of the world. A lot of differences between the two sisters and their personal lifestyles comes from one sister living in America as a Chinese-American and the other sister living in China. In the story Brave Orchid who is the sister that is brave, outspoken, and sometimes cruel sees life as a bundle of opportunities to take with no regret. However, it is different when her sister Moon Orchid comes into town from China because she is the complete opposite. Moon Orchid is rather humble, timid, and quiet while she observes the lifestyle of her sister and nieces and nephews.

Masculinity. When people see this word they tend to associate its meaning with anything that is associated to men. This leads one to wonder what defines a ‘man’. Why are we associating these traits to this ‘man’? What is so special about the ‘man’ that makes us associate these terms with him and thus associate masculinity with them? The United States society that we live in today may seem to be making people pay a steep price for masculinity, but one does wonder was it always like this? Actually no it was not. Today dressing up as a women or ‘acting like a girl’ reduces your masculinity and makes people view you in a negative light. Cross-dressing in general is frowned upon. Men are very in limited in what they can express and how

Familial ties, tradition and upbringing shape an individuals identity and sense of security. This idea is expressed in “The Follower” by Seamus Heaney as well as in two short stories from Alistair Macleod's “The Island”; “The Boat” and “Golden Gift of Grey.”. The texts illustrate the importance in establishing and maintaining connections of paternal nature. They divulge in the idea that incompatibility with one's home can affect the viewing of their place in the world, and indicate that qualities such as physical and intellectual skill can factor into a sense of belonging and place.

Despite its messages in regard to religion, faith, and God which have touched many people, The Shack by William P. Young has been denounced by many conservative Christian critics and writers, some who have gone so far as to call the book “heresy” (Woodbridge 77). Thus, there is apparently a difference between how general readers read and interpret the content of this book and how conservative Christian readers look at it. The divergence of viewpoint on The Shack represents an interesting matter as such a conflict might be seen as negatively affecting the popularity of this book, but that has not been the case. Analysis of The Shack will focus on the the two different reactions to this book, positive by many personal readers but negative by conservative Christian readers.

In Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss gives life to The Four Corners of Civilization through his storytelling. Storytelling gives the author an opportunity to show their experiences and reflect their beliefs within the world they are creating. During the time this book was being written, there was the Iraq and Afghanistan War taking place which had been sending many soldiers back home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Rothfuss parallels this disorder within his book through the main character, Kvothe, when he experiences trauma and he shows how Kvothe copes with the persisting trauma through grief theory, “four doors of the mind” (135) . His four doors of the mind is similar to the Kubler-Ross Model, which is widely accepted by practitioners, but challenges it by believing the mind copes with pain through the central idea of numbing. However, this mindset of categorizing emotions experienced within grief can be destructive behavior towards any griever rather than helping them cope; stages of post-loss grief do not exist.

Gregory Currie, Professor of Philosophy, University of York, likens our experience understanding narrative to that of viewing a painting; we experience both the representational content and the physical basis of the representation. Theatrical narratives operate in a two-tiered type of representation with both a textual component (script) and a physical representation (embodiment) by the actors and spectacle. The physical world is outside the theatrical frame, as is a viewer of a painting. We have the ability to comprehend with a “conscious awareness” the events and characters that communicate that content both internally and externally. James Phelan identifies a story-discourse narrative model referring to what he calls “instabilities” and

A garden that holds your secrets, that is a secret itself, holds a special spot in the book “The Secret Garden”. The garden is described as an overgrown hidden beauty that has not been seen for ten years. The woman who created the garden passed away because of an accident; in turn, her husband becomes bitter and wrathful. The door which led to the garden was locked and the key was buried while the orders were given for no one to enter the garden again. There’s more to the garden than just being hid away. The garden is a secret to some very important characters in this story, but why? Perhaps the overgrown secret may even have a secret of its own.

The text I have decided to do a critical review on is “The Celtic Tiger: the myth of social partnership in Ireland” written by Kieran Allen. In this book Kieran looks at how the Celtic Tiger brought wealth and opportunity, but also talks about the majority of people in Ireland at the time of The Celtic Tiger who did not share the same experience, and did not gain anything in wealth. At this time Ireland was going through increases in salaries, there was now a rise in sales, a productivity increase, these were all due to US investments because they believed that there would be tax cuts. During this time the social services in the country were growing weaker and were failing, and also the quality of life was deteriorating. Due to the lack of effort put into public transport to make it more efficient and well organised, this made towns and cities all over the country suffer a lot of traffic congestion, also 150,000 individuals were left looking