In this essay I intend to explore the narrative conventions and values, which Oliver Smithfield presents in the short story Victim. The short story positions the reader to have negative and sympathetic opinion on the issues presented. Such as power, identity and bullying. For example Mickey the young boy is having issues facing his identity. It could be argued that finding your identity may have the individual stuck trying to fit in with upon two groups.
The main character Mickey is represented as valuing the outcasts of society. He is at an age where identity is important to find and seeking power to prove he can fit in. The issues facing this character have values and attitudes reflecting his actions. Another essential feature of an
…show more content…
The conflict in this short story is about man vs man, man vs society and man vs self. Man vs man is portrayed through the bullies and Mickey, man vs society is struggling with identity and man vs self is the struggle with inner self power.
Narrative conventions have been used to position the reader to respond sympathetic and have the view on how identity also power are important for one’s self. The issues presented in Victim are shown
The article “Don't Blame The Eater,” written by David Zinczenko evokes readers the crucial impact that fast food restaurants have in today's nation's youth causing them to be over weight and have type 2ndiabetes. Throughout Zinczenko's argument he makes the reader view the consumer as a victim yet on the other hand, what he is trying to persuade us to believe by using logos,pathos,and ethos in his argument is that the food industry is the one making the nation's youth to increase obesity. The capacity of impressive questions and personal experience, he composed in the text he is able to comprehensively argue against the fast food industry. The author persuades us right away by starting of with a question: “Kids taking on McDonald's this
“How do you like that? I 'm the victim. I 've always been the victim.” These are the words of Mrs. May, a character in Flannery O 'Connor’s short story, “Greenleaf”. Her remark is interesting because after studying the stories of various millionaires and successful people in the world, I discovered that a key trait that all of them possess is that they made a decision to not live their life as victims to their external circumstances. However, this is not the case with Mrs. May. She spent fifteen years living miserably because of her condescending and negative attitude towards the people in her life, especially the Greenleafs. Finally, to top it all of, a stray bull
Riot by Walter Dean Myers is a book that takes place in New york city in 1863 when many uncontrolled riots were going on. These riots were about races and many African Americans were being beaten, robbed, and killed. The many police that were trying to stop the riots had no luck as they kept occurring and people kept being killed. The protagonist of the story is Claire who is a fifteen year old girl. Her dad is African American and her mom is Irish. Claire doesn’t know what to do or where she fits in the riot because she is half black and half Irish. A big part of the story is Claire trying to figure out who she really is inside because she is torn by two warring sides.
These two characters showed significant psychological work in hopes of changing their “problematic” social identity. Both of these characters were conscious of the stigmas that surrounded their identities, each, however, had distinct ways in which they dealt with those stigmas and changing their meanings as they grew older. Many would say that the way in which they were able to transform their identities meant either embracing it or denying one’s own identity fully as the film progressed and new societal pressures arose.
In George Saunders essay “thank you, Esther Forbes”, he describes how an author who he read during his youthful age helped him to understand why and how sentences can be important. The essay is written on a more personal note about a nun named Sister Lynette who helped Saunders to develop his perception of sentences. In third grade at St. Darmian School, Saunders was given the novel “Johnny Tremain” by Esther Forbes and that was a turning point for him. This was because the book provided him with a different understanding of the joys of reading as well as writing. On the other, “escape from spider head” helps in providing an analysis of the strengths of a man being put to test. The limits presented in the story are classified as physical, emotional as well as moral. The theme of the story is searching for humanity which makes the readers ask themselves, what makes us human? According to “escape from spider head” humans are considered to be innately empathetic in nature and they are considered to be people who are against the infliction of pain as well as discomfort which is caused on another innocent human being. The aim of the essay is to elaborate more on the connection existing between “Thank you, Esther Forbes” and “Escape from Spiderhead” in terms of the details presented in the two stories.
This ethical analysis will define the hierarchical societal pressures and psychological torment that validates acts of crime committed by Bigger Thomas in Native Son by Richard Wright and Maria in Ian McEwan’s novel The Innocent. In Wright’s novel, the main protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is a twenty year old that is prone to crime because of being marginalized in a racist white society that will not allow him to advance himself. After accidently killing Mary Dalton, Bigger’s fear of being caught is part of psychological torment that partially vindicates him from the crime. This is also true of Maria’s murder of Otto to protect Leonard from getting killed during a fistfight, since Otto had psychologically and physically abused her. Maria’s case is more compelling than Bigger’s, but they both share the underlying hierarchical abuse of society and the psychological torment that vindicates the traumatic outburst that lead to murder. These criminal acts define certain circumstances in which “crimes of passions” are vindicated in relation to the abuse and mental torment of the perpetrator of the crime. In essence, an ethical analysis of Bigger Thomas and Maria will definer the vindication of certain crimes due to hierarchical oppression and psychological torment in crimes of passion.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a novel about a 13 year old boy named Brian Robeson, who crashes in a small bush plane in remote canadian wilderness and the journey of survival he had to overcome against nature and wildlife.This novel proves how hard times can better a person that overcomes those times.
The long- and short-term effects of revenge are one of the major themes that are explored in Andre Dubus’ short story, “Killings.” Dubus uses the revenge in his story to reveal more detailed and crucial information about characters, which is especially important in shorter stories, where conciseness, yet depth, are essential. “Killings” is told from a third-person point of view, but it focuses mainly on the life and family of Frank Fowler, who was murdered by his lover Mary Ann’s soon-to-be ex-husband Richard Strout.
Incidents reads like a story of pursuit and evasion, one full of heroes and villains, of bright young men claiming the freedom to seek their fortunes and of desperate maidens trying to preserve their virtue, of mothers trying to protect their children and of the hardworking poor trying to survive the greed and exploitation of the powerful and wealthy. (163)
In Dignam’s piece of literature from 2004 has focused on how the representation of the victim in
War is a constant in the world we live in. Wars are fought over people, land, religion, ideals, and freedom. A prominent war in America's history is the Vietnam War, which took the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians alike and neither side wanted to keep the violence going. “The Man I Killed” by Tim O’Brien explores the psychological effects of someone in a war setting. While “Military Service, Exposure to Trauma, and Health in Older Adulthood: An Analysis of Northern Vietnamese Survivors of the Vietnam War” by Kim Korinek and Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan further explores this idea by showing how civilians are also affected by the trauma of war not just soldiers. “American Ignorance of War” by Czeslaw Milosz shows American’s
Stewart becomes heart-to-heart with the audience by openly expressing his feelings caused from the domestic violence with the emotions “guilt” and “loneliness”(5). Normally people that suffer from traumatic experiences like domestic violence don't openly speak about their feelings which signifies how passionate he is about ending violence. Stewart begins to display the empathetic and caring side to himself by proclaiming “...did nothing to deserve the violence.”(4). As Stewart speaks about how he believes his mother did not do anything to deserve the violence she endured, it proves how much empathy he shows for his mother as well as how much he cares about others. Moreover, Stewart shows more of his empathy and compassion for others by using pronouns like “we”, and “us”(8). By using first person plural pronouns, Stewart shows that he is not just worried about him, and his mother’s situation, he’s also worried about the thousands of others that suffer due to domestic violence. Being worried about others is the true meaning of empathy. All in all, the empathetic and passionate tone the author adopts into the text shows more of his attitude regarding domestic violence, not for just himself, but the entire
Gender is a concept that has been socially constructed to identify people as male or female, masculine or feminine. The concept is used to regulate the way people live and is something that influences the representation of female bodies in novels. There are several theories, such as the objectification theory, the “male gaze” and the feminist theory, that help to understand the role of the women and show how they are oppressed and weak in comparison to men. Angela Carter reinforces these theories by sharing similar ideas of male dominance and female redemption in her short novel, The Bloody Chamber. Through her stories, “The Erl-King” “The Snow Child” and “The Bloody Chamber,” Carter challenges and critiques the stereotypical gender norms
Brown succeeds in evoking deep emotions in his readers, most of them related to self-awareness. Using anecdotes, figurative language, metaphor, connotative language, passionate proofs, sarcasm and anaphoric repetitions, he leads the readers through a path of self-forgiveness and self-reflection. Among all the appealing strategies used by the author, three of them excel with respect to Pathos: anecdote, connotative language and anaphoric repetition. Firstly, the anecdotes present in paragraphs one and eight are personal situations that the author shares with his audience, as he intends to identify himself as a phone dependent. Secondly, the connotative language present in most paragraphs has the power to gain the empathy of the readers. Thirdly,
This paper will attempt to answer: How do the operations of repression inform the work? What unconscious motives are operating in the main character(s)? What core issues are thereby illustrated? How do these core issues structure or inform the piece? Are there any family dynamics, including oedipal or Electra dynamics, at work in the piece? Is it possible to relate a character's patterns of adult behavior to early experiences in the family as represented in the story? How do these patterns of behavior and family dynamics operate and what do they reveal?