You Fit into Me by Margret Atwood and Cherrylog Road by James Dickey

People Get Ready proved itself to be a quick, thought-provoking read. Of the three books we have read this semester, this one has probably done the most to make me think about and re-evaluate my own views of our political system. I found it at some points to be frightening because of the direction America seems to be heading in. However, I was very impressed by the authors’ portrayal of the situation as important enough to call attention to the crisis but not so bleak as to give the idea that we are doomed. The central idea of Robert McChesney and John Nichols’ book, People Get Ready, is that the only way to enact economic change in America is through political change. The United States as a democratic country is somewhat of a paradox. The idea of democracy implies equal opportunity for all citizens but the social diversity that we value often takes opportunities away from minority groups, creating inequality.

Stephanie Coontz is a teacher, historian, author and a scholar activist. She has also very indulged in the world of public debate on families, this mostly due possible because of her extensive skills to study modern families as well as historical patterns. In her book The Way We Never Were, Coontz presents a historical look at the family and how it has changed over time. Her interest in the subject comes for her need to understand how families functioned in the past and present, and what lead to notion and definition of family nowadays.

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.

Many Americans mistakenly consider themselves as middle class, most likely because this socioeconomic group is the easiest category to be placed into. The lower class has a very negative perception. It’s heavily associated with a low standard of living, although the numbers show that they are better off than most people living in other countries. The upper class has a hold on the media, and seeing images of celebrities owning large mansions, buying fancy sports cars, and going on luxurious vacations convinces many that they are not, and could never be in the upper class. So they settle for the in-between. The two poems, “We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray and “In the Suburbs” by Louis Simpson, encompass the pinnacle of the average upper middle

Primarily, their narratives are extremely technical, descriptive and yet deceptive- the sheer emotion, art and poetry in Atwood’s and Kent’s styles are enough to demand unconditional engagement from all audiences. Aside from the great literary standard of their stories, audience sympathy is also demanded as readers and secondary

“If stories were depopulated, the plots would disappear because characters and plots are interrelated” (76). I chose to do my analysis paper over the short story Lust by Susan Minot, in this analysis I will be going over how the use of characterization in lust contributes to the message about relationships. The first-person narrator starts off by detailing her sex life likes it’s a grocery list or some kinds of list of things to do on the weekend. It just goes to show how meaningless these relationship with her sex companions mean. Although we do not know what the reader looks like we do how she thinks and feels. We can feel the narrator become more detached and emotionless towards the end of the story. Even though she is emotionally removed for the story at the end she also becomes more self-aware of what she is doing, and comes to the realization that she is looking for a relationship in all the wrong places.

Contemporary novels have imposed upon the love tribulations of women, throughout the exploration of genre and the romantic quest. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God (1978) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (2000) interplay on the various tribulations of women, throughout the conventions of the romantic quest and the search for identity. The protagonists of both texts are women and experience tribulations of their own, however, unique from the conventional romantic novels of their predecessors. Such tribulations include the submission of women and the male desire for dominance when they explore the romantic quest and furthermore, the inner struggles of women. Both texts display graphic imagery of the women’s inner experiences through confronting and engaging literary techniques, which enhance the audiences’ reading experience. Hurston’s reconstructions of the genre are demonstrated through a Southern context, which is the exploration of womanhood and innocence. Whilst Woolf’s interpretation of the romantic quest is shown through modernity and an intimate connection with the persona Clarissa Dalloway, within a patriarchal society.

The short story “The Love Of My Life” by T.C. Boyle's examines two couples who are imagined to be inseparable and how no love comes closer to theirs. The story follows young high school couples who are in the merge of a bright future. They are always together “wearing each other like a pair socks”. They idolized the love they share is something far from real and it is true love. While Jeremy is set to attend Brown and on the other hand China were in Binghamton things took wrong turn. Over the summer before their going to college they mistakenly conceived a baby while they are at a camping trip. The story was pleasant and everything was green and China and Jeremy went to a trip together and had sex. The couples were so keen to avoid this from

How are the roles and representations of females in the texts She by H. Rider Haggard and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe presented? Given two different situations the women are in, the outcome is close to the same. Ayesha in She plays a role she created for herself in the Amahagger community, which can be contrasted with the culture the novel was written in by the author at the time. The women in Things Fall Apart are also as such represented by their culture, and can be compared to the female gender seen by their people as a distinct role. In both, the woman in these texts take on roles and functions of the cultures that they existed inside, which is important to understand why they behave as they do.

The author carefully crafts the story so that every detail contributes to a certain unique or single effect, whether it is as complex as irony or as simple as depiction of feelings. The Husband describes his absolute love for Ann as he reminisces about the years he spent with her and how deeply he "knows"

When it is told that Mary "sleeps with him even though she's not in love with him," it presents the social stereotypical character that is involved within each story. While having such dull characters in each of the differing mock scenarios, but still coming back with "everything continues as in A," Atwood emphasizes the point: it is not the end that is of importance, because everyone will eventually get there, but it is the road traveled along the way.

Bliss and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield and Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

When the narrator first encounters the girl, his friend's older sister, he can only see her silhouette in the “light from the half-opened door”. This is the beginning of his infatuation with the girl. After his discovery, he is plagued by thoughts of the girl which make his daily obligations seem like “ugly, monotonous, child's play”. He has become blinded by the light. The narrator not only fails to learn the name of his “girl”, he does not realize that his infatuation with a woman considerably older than himself is not appropriate. He relishes in his infatuation, feeling “thankful [he] could see so little” while he thinks of the distant “lamp or lighted window” that represents his girl. The narrator is engulfed by the false light that is his futile love.

It not only threatens, but also breaks through. Betrayed by love once in her life, she nevertheless seeks it in the effort to fill the lonely void; thus, her promiscuity. But to adhere to her tradition and her sense of herself as a lady, she cannot face this sensual part of herself. She associates it with the animalism of Stanley's lovemaking and terms it “brutal desire”. She feels guilt and a sense of sin when she does surrender to it, and yet she does, out of intense loneliness. By viewing sensuality as brutal desire she is able to disassociate it from what she feels is her true self, but only at the price of an intense inner conflict. Since she cannot integrate these conflicting elements of desire and gentility, she tries to reject the one, desire, and live solely by the other. Desperately seeking a haven she looks increasingly to fantasy. Taking refuge in tinsel, fine clothes, and rhinestones, and the illusion that a beau is available whenever she wants him, she seeks tenderness and beauty in a world of her own making.

The mother-daughter relationship is often scrutinized, publicized, and capitalized on. Whether from tell-all biographies, to humorous sit-coms, or private therapy sessions, this particular relationship dynamic gives some of the most emotion-activating memories. When female authors reflect and write about their relationships with their mothers, they have a tendency to taint their reflections with the opinions they have as an adult, reviewing the actions of their mother when they were young. These opinions set the tone of the story independently and in conjunction with the relationship itself and manifest in creative literary styles that weave an even more intricate story. Case in point, when reviewing the two literary works “I Stand Here