The Invisible Lives Project Analysis

Immediately after we are born, we start picking up sounds; the sound of our mother’s voice, the music playing in the elevator on the way to the car, and the happy cheers from a small child seeing their new sibling for the first time. We are always listening–picking up on conversations not meant for our ears, eavesdropping on the gossip of the adult world, and finding the meaning in the portentous silence. From all these auditory stimuli, we piece together the world around us to better understand what is happening to us, around us, and the secret happenings that were not for us to know. Great writers are the ones who listen and say nothing–who take it all in and save their classified information for a day when all the right words flow and form one epic story of the wondrous world we live in.

All the words I could not say don’t go unspoken. All the words knotted on my tongue unravel themselves so freely at the tip of my pen, taking the form of antiheroes, headstrong female protagonists, and sonnets. My written words take on life. Whatever word was beheaded between my teeth, I’d revive it with paper and pen. My metaphor-fueled writing can take me to places where I thought were closed off to a poorly-spoken person like me—it took me to becoming the president of the school’s Model UN club, it took me to the couch in front of my brother waving around the speech I’ve written.

Writing is a powerful tool for communication and connection. As an extension and expression of the mind, writing is as much about the mental processes of the author as it is about the final marks laid to paper. As we write, we hold in mind our own thoughts on the work, anticipate the reader’s thoughts, and think both in concrete and abstract ways in order to accomplish the task at hand. Whether an academic research paper, a novel, or text message to friends, writing seeks to engage, persuade, or impress concepts upon an audience. Like language and other art forms in general, the practice of writing is ever-evolving and is subject to cultural and contextual influence, expectations, and conventions. Each writer holds a theory

How have notions of story telling or marginalization informed and challenged audiences? In your answer, you must refer to at least TWO set texts, at least ONE of which has been studied since the half yearly.

In Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World, he explores the evidence presented at the Salem witch trial of Martha Carrier. Mather explains the spectral evidence presented at the trial as strange phenomena worked by the devil, when in reality it is simply the exploitation and fear that brewed underneath the surface colonial America.

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Coming into Language” displays a dark, yet uplifting view of the power of literacy. From his beginning in the hospital, toward the end during his imprisonment, Baca moves from the mindset of a rebellious teenager to a poetic adult. Through vivid descriptions, metaphors, the appeal to the audience’s emotions, and Baca sets up a transformational framework to show how literacy can be a way of escape. Baca’s story seeks to explain a point of view that one is more likely to become incarcerated and to struggle in life if he is uneducated. “I wrote to sublimate my rage, from a place where all hope is gone, from a madness of having been damaged too much, from a silence of killing rage” (Baca).

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

I have never been the type of student who enjoyed reading or writing. I have always found it difficult to express myself by writing narratives, book reports, and any other required assignment. I am far more skilled at speaking or verbal expression in general as I have found over the years that people tend to misunderstand my point if it is written.

Gender roles often have disastrous consequences for people who struggle to fill their assigned stereotype. Last Wednesday, Carnegie Mellon had a special showing of a new film, The Mask You Live In, that focuses on how society’s narrow definition of masculinity can cause more harm than good.

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

Through their effectual and extensive use of distinctly visual elements and techniques, John Misto’s play ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonata’ and the song ‘I was only 19’ by Redgum, offer a variety of perceptions of the world. Distinctively visual elements and techniques assist us to develop an awareness of languages in other texts and allows us to understand how our perceptions of and relationships with others and the world are shaped through written, spoken and visual language. The play ‘The Shoe-Horn sonata follows the experience of two former women POW, describing their experiences, and trying to reconcile their differences. This play challenges the reader to look past the pain of these characters, at the wider social and political context, which allowed

In his short story, “Not-Knowing”, Donald Barthelme brings the audience into the typical planning and step-by-step thought process he has when beginning to write a story. He highlights different writing styles and how they can convey the point one would be trying to make. Barthelme also allows us to see his personal method for writing stories, addressing the necessity that is not knowing as well as how not having a traditional plot structure ahead of writing is what calls for good, artistic pieces of literature to be produced. He displays that his characters do not typically come with preplanned life stories beforehand, but rather life stories that “come into being at the instant it’s inscribed.” Another useful piece of advice is making sure that the lifestyles one does construct for their characters lean towards being more realistic and

In the article A Look behind the Veil written by Elizabeth W. and Robert A. Fernea, both authors take a deeper look into the significance and the interpretations of the veil. They begin by explaining that every culture has objects that are seen by others as strange and interesting. The authors mention that each culture has objects that are valued in society and become significant. In which the case for Middle Eastern societies that object is the veil. The authors explain how the veil for westerners is seen as a sign of “slavery” rather than what those whom wear a veil see it as.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film The Lives of Other’s (2005) is set in East Berlin during the socialist reign from November 1984, up until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The political context plays a significance role not only in the film’s subject matter but also in its cinematography, which exploits the voyeuristic tendencies of the audience, reflecting the surveillance of the Stasi Secret Police officers. The film follows a loyal socialist and playwright, Georg Dreyman who becomes subject (along with actor girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland) to extensive Stasi surveillance due to his association with subversive artists such as Paul Hauser and Albert Jerska. Hauptman Gerd Weisler is the accomplished Stasi officer assigned to

The world was created with the intent that every person might inhabit it and live freely and for the most part most of the people do just that; live freely with little to no restrictions. Yet, there is a small percentage that is oppressed, not openly, not publicly but in the shadows. In this country everyone comes from a line of immigrants. Every settler, every missionary, every pilgrim came to the New World as an immigrant, one who comes to live permanently in a foreign country due to oppression, religious freedom, or to pursue a better life. Yet a pressing issue that has taken a high level of importance in the political and social spectrums is the issue of immigration, how to prevent future immigrants from entering America