When reading non-fiction we have to think critically about what the writer is trying to convey in their piece. We look at formalist criticism and historical criticism, to see if there is anything that belong in either of those two categories. Writers also can also use different strategies in order to convey their thesis or themes. The non-fiction works that I have chosen are “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” by Andrew Lam and “On Going Home” by Joan Didion. I will discuss their theme and how Lam and Didion conveyed that theme into their work and for what purpose and to whom it was for. I will also discuss why it is considered a piece of non-fiction and how imagination plays a part in the selected stories.
Who Will Light
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Didion is explaining that the term home, now has a different meaning to the younger generation. She explains how she feels about being home and what she wishes for her young daughter. She exclaims how she cannot give the life or feeling of “home” to her daughter, like she had. “…would like to give her home for her birthday, but we life differently now and I can promise her nothing like that.” (p.637)
Strategy Purpose & Audience Didion is trying to convey the feeling of being home again. Even though Didion is getting into her thirties, married, with a child and with a home of her own, being at the place she grew up brings unexpected feelings. “…and yet I was almost thirty years old before I could talk to my family on the telephone without crying after I had hung up.” (p.636) During the time that Didion left home, the idea that you were never able to come home again weighted heavy on your mind. The purpose of this story could be to see if anyone still felt the same way about being home, like she did. Anyone who has left home, and wished to come back could relate to this
The novel begins with a journey, both physical and emotional; the Brennans are physically moving houses and towns, but also moving into new, unfamiliar territory. The leaving of ‘home’ is synonymous with the leaving of what id known, familiar and comfortable, in a literal and metaphorical sense.
What is your opinion on the writing of “imaginative non-fiction”? Does this type of book provide a window that one can use to see a realistic view of an historical event? Or does it create a false view of reality? Discuss and come to an agreement as a
The parents left their children to the care of the house instead of caring for them and showing their love to them. By doing this, it led to their children to be reliant on the house. ‘ “Don’t let father kill everything” He turned to his father “Oh I hate you” ’-P.7 “I wish you were dead.”-P.7 Mr. McClean also said that the house is replacing the parents in the children’s heart “This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents”-P.6 The house was supposed to benefit the family and help them with their everyday life, but instead benefiting the family, it broke the family up completely.
Readers who share this same sense of home may be touched be the way Didion connects with them through her use of description. While she does not directly relate her point to the audience it is clearly present. Each element in the essay highlights not only the sense of family that is there but how they influence a person’s perspective and attitude. While one shares in her journey through her past and her visits with her family it brings to mind how one may or may not have this same sense of family to pass on to their family or even have it themselves. This point is summoned in the closing paragraph when Didion herself reflects on this thought.
Some challenges I believe I may face while writing this paper are viewing the two stories with an outsider’s perspective, rather than just the perspective of the main characters. Another difficulty I may come across might be relating the information I find to modern society today and incorporating a Catholic view into my
The non – fiction calls: “Letters My Mother Never Read” by Jerri Diane Sueck is a wonderful piece of writing. Many authors affirm that it is a great literature, including Hemingway, an American novelist and journalist. In the following paragraphs I will discus how well the author handling irony, writing style, and theme through the novel. According to the Hemingway quote: “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.”, Sueck’s memoir is a great literature because Sueck’s purpose is to encourage people who meet challenges in their life as hers rather than make people honor her.
A common subject represented in the non-fiction genre will be social studies. Just as in science, the content of social studies evolves as changes in the world result in new configurations of countries and people (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2016). The reason why social studies is part of non-fiction, is because social studies is based on true events and non-fiction is based on true facts and events. Many nonfiction books cover such topics as geography and maps, life in the past, and the social structures and customs of various cultures, past and present (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2016). Two books that focus on this subject will be Scott Reynolds Nelson’s Ain’t Nothing but a Man : My Quest to Find the Real John Henry and Lady Liberty : A Biography
As a result, he gets consumed by the house. Karen’s response to which is “I’ve had enough… I’m taking the kids and I’m going. This wasn’t necessary. It could have been avoided” (Danielewski 269). The reader’s focus, like Navidson’s, is largely on the absurdity of the home.
Here the author continues about how Dido feels awkward in her own home, a “nomad in [her] own house”(16-17). This is a paradox, a self-contradictory statement that is seemingly absurd. The author states that she is a nomad, who, by definition, is someone with no fixed home. This contradicts itself because Dido is a “nomad in [her] own house,” (16-17) someone with a fixed home is saying that they are someone without a fixed home. Line eighteen shows that her “heart [is] knocking,” (18) and later on it is knocking to be let out. Here perhaps, the author is trying to say that Dido isn’t comfortable in her own skin and mind. Literally, she is saying “nomad in my own house,” (16-17) as in the architectural house, but metaphorically she is saying that she is not comfortable in her own
"Who Will Light the Candles When Mother 's Gone?" is a classic example of the first generation immigrant 's struggle to find their place in America. On the one side, they have their own deep, rich heritage at home that is the only way that their parents often know how to live. However, on the other hand, they have the American culture. The American culture is often the culture that they socially grow up in. It 's who their friends are and what they see at school, in stores and TV. The children in these families are often living in two worlds, trying to resonate and connect one with another, usually without much success. In this essay, he loves his mother dearly and he has a deep sense of appreciation for her rituals and the various aspects of her Vietnamese origins, yet he cannot force himself to personally identify with it. As such, his relationship with his mother became a struggle until they eventually found even ground. Even though they are at peace, he knows that he will still not be the one to light the candles for the dead once she 's gone simply because that 's not who he is. His identity is no longer rooted in the Vietnamese traditions, even if that makes him a bit sad. I do struggle a bit with this one in particular, because I can see where it could definitely be considered a story of conformity and rebellion, I feel that Lam doesn 't fully have a desire to fit here or there. It merely is that he has learned who he is and what he will and will not do. He hasn 't
The criteria that needs to be considered for the winning novel, includes a wide variety of theories, debates and critical writings that together will give an informed and balanced decision. An instinctive judgment would be to view the book cover and the précis of the plot; and then from a personal perspective ask if it would be likely to entice the reader. However, this narrows ones thought process; also an instinctive judgement is based on ones past personal experience, which will ensure that each reader would then have a different view. In order to ensure a balanced and informed view within this essay the impact of the aesthetic theory, which is a view that argues how effective concepts, theories and debates are in explaining and
For my literary dinner party, I am planning my dinner around the authors from the Modernism era. I am inviting Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, Pablo Neruda, and Seamus Heaney. I have chosen Franz Kafka because his, “stories and novels contain such nightmarish scenarios that the word Kafkaesque has been coined to describe the most unpleasant and bizarre aspects of modern life, especially when it comes to bureaucracy” (Puchner et al. 1877; 1). I feel his stories add comedy to readers who need to lose themselves from reality for a little while. I have chosen William Faulkner because of his “vivid imagination and innovation use of language” (Puchner et al. 1992; 1). I believe Faulkner’s descriptions are precise and shocking. He does not sugar
I shall first begin by examining the notions of metafiction and neorealism, looking at what these genres entail, and how they would conventionally work in a narrative. Subsequently, I will then go on to show how these two notions create the dialectic between fairy tale and realism in Calvino's "Baron In The Trees", thereby examining the reason underlying one of the most significant disputes over the genre of his work. I will then look at the ways in which "Baron In The Trees" may be considered as metafictional and also as neo-realist. Consequently, I will then proceed to the various ways in which this dialectic manifested, as well as the means by which Calvino maintains a tenuous balance these two contrasting elements Lastly I will examine the reasons why the Calvino short story belies this dialectic of contrasting elements.
A detailed analysis based on Genette’s categories reveals the specialisation of Maugham, by explicitly portraying his technical choices through his story’s verbal representation. When talking about the narrative, Genette distinguishes two types of narratives – one with the narrator absent from the story he tells and the other with the narrator present as a character in the story he tells. The first is called “heterodiegetic” and the second type is called “homodiegetic”.
of the house indicates a fragment from the self-defeating land cringe fort the past and a truthful recognition and dedication to the present.