The Last Report On The Miracles At Little No Horse

In the novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, the main character, Agnes, goes through many transformations throughout the course of the novel, be that spiritual, gendered, or in the basis of identity. Agnes’s identity, both as a female and as Father Damien, is an imperfect example of syncretism, as they appear at certain times as two distinct individuals, and at others, the individual identities are indiscernible. Syncretism is a term related to the concept of hybridity, and is defined as “…the fusion of two distinct traditions to produce a new and distinctive whole (Ashcroft).” In this case, syncretism is being examined in the context of the combination of Agnes’s gendered identities to form one new person, distinct from what it began as. To fully become Agnes, at the beginning of the novel, the main character strips her identity as Sister Cecilia. He past experiences in some way influence her opinions and actions, but she no longer identifies as Sister Cecilia as a person. Agnes’s transformation into Father Damien is drastically different. In adopting his identity as her own, Agnes retains her feminine, drawing on both individuals at separate times when the situation calls for it, and retains both identities until right before her death. There are times during the novel when, if not for the gendered pronouns used by the author, it would be impossible to distinguish which identity has taken control, thus alluding to a single, new

Family, peer influence, nature versus nurture, religion, and formal schooling all have an impact on making individuals unique. With so many factors shaping one’s identity, it is difficult to determine which play the most pivotal role in one coming into their own. Most interestingly, identity is a controlling factor in motivating one’s behavior and actions. A common thread in shaping identity across all cultures is the role of spiritual tradition. Through the characters in The Last Report on Miracles at the Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich confronts individual and communal responses to that reality. Since tradition is symbolic, not material, one can not physically hold on to their tradition. In other words, an individual makes the conscious decision to allow or disallow tradition to shape their own identity. Pauline Puyat is the product of cultural conflict, which shapes her twisted, violent nature as a character, and through her Erdrich explores the "winning of the west" from a non-western perspective.

this play thought differently from one and other. That is why this book had a

A short play is usually filled with a theatrical energy of diverse anthologies. The time allotted may be only ten or fifteen minutes, so it must be able to capture and engage the audience with some dramatic tension, exciting action, or witty humor. Just as in a short story, a great deal of the explanation and background is left for the reader or viewer to discover on their own. Because all the details are not explicitly stated, each viewer interprets the action in their own way and each experience is unique from someone else viewing the same play. Conflict is the main aspect that drives any work of literature, and plays usually consist of some form of conflict. In “Playwriting 101:

Good afternoon everyone, I’m Jordan Zelenak and today I’m here to talk to you about how my past 5 years of English study have affected my overall attitudes values and beliefs. Although English isn’t my best subject nor the most enjoyable, I can’t deny that it has been extremely valuable when it came to teaching key attitudes and beliefs and reinforcing ones which already existed. To highlight this, I have selected the play, The Crucible, the movie, The Lord of the Flies, and the novel, The book Thief. For each I will analyse how each have affected my attitudes values and beliefs, how each have affected how I view the world and how each successfully use impactful aesthetic devices.

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse focuses on Father Damien Modeste who - the author reveals in the first few pages - is a woman. He is known as Agnes Vogel DeWitt, former Sister Cecilia of a convent. When she finds the original Father Damien’s body after him drowning in a flood, she decides to take on his identity and travel to Little No Horse, a settlement where she ministers a group of Ojibwa Indians for almost 80 years. To truly be Father Damien, she learns to get rid of certain behaviors that are common to women. In becoming a priest, Agnes must abandon her sexuality to fully encompass the character. The interchanging of man and woman continues throughout the story, as Father Damien comes to realize that the Ojibwas don’t

The focal character in this novel had many different characters throughout this touching narrative. Though the main focus was on the priest, Father Damien Modeste, he began and was actually a woman. Beginning as a young girl, Agnes Vogel née DeWitt, was also known as former Sister Cecilia of a convent in Wisconsin, widow of Berndt Vogel and lover of the piano and, more specifically, the Polish music composer, Chopin. I am going to focus on her particular love of music, piano playing and her interest in Chopin which seemed to have caused many therapeutic effects on her. Being a pianist myself, I was compelled to ask the question throughout the book, how can music

The literature genius William Shakespeare concocted two great stories which are very much different stories, but have intertwined themes and personalities. These two stories are the romantic play of Romeo and Juliet and the story about the descent to madness, Macbeth. Both of these fantastic plays have overlying arches about loyalty, love, and power. Furthermore, both of these plays have glaring differences such as the wildly different character dynamics.

Plays are collective in both sense as production and reception while short stories are individual in both sense. Plays are meant for adaptation by actors and directors. In play focalization is an important issue and done through stage management and lights. In this, focalization is over Martha Hale. Play is a live performance and we have control over distance but not over pace.

One can find many similarities between most of Shakespeare’s works, however, this may only be because of the shear amount of plays he had written. As we see today, much of Hollywood can be broken down to the same bare bones structure of story, and Shakespeare is no different. Although these similarities may be noticed only within the context of the theatrical arc – comedies full of love and pranks, tragedy ending with a pile of bodies - two plays stick out far above the rest in their likeness; Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. These shows, although very different, have an uncanny and alarming amount of similarities spread all throughout the acts. The strongest connections these plays have to each other lie within the characters and the themes and relationships included in the plot and they only differ in the way the story unfolds.

the story speak as though the story were a stage play. Through this style a

Additionally, Romeo and Juliet can be considered a tragedy because a pair of innocent lovers die young due to a miscommunication. However, the play can be considered a romance because the story is based on young love and the emotions that derive from it. Moreover, Romeo and Juliet put their love for each other above all other concerns demonstrating their romantic relationship, and subsequently sealing their fate. Romeo and Juliet’s controversial story about conflicts and life-changing events that derive from love and misfortune, makes apparent the elements of the play that fall into the genre of both romance and tragedy.

shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what

For centuries, William Shakespeare has been a beacon of storytelling genius. He has the ability to tell timeless stories that can be classified within the genres comedy, tragedy and history. Proving as relevant today as they were 500 years ago, these stories conform to certain elements that define what genre the story falls under. Comedies such as The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet and Histories such as King John and Henry V have all played a relevant role in defining the genres Shakespeare writes

look at both of the aspects of the play. In my piece of writing I