Set in a small rural town in the 1950’s, Rosalie Ham, the author of the ‘Dressmaker,’ has written the novel in such a way that presents the audience with an exquisitely detailed portrayal of the characters. She critiques the malicious behaviours of many of the townspeople’s values highlighted within the wheat-belt community. Ham challenges the reader to view their ideas and morals through her empathetic portrayal as their actions are understood, however the hypocrisy and bigotry that are exhibited by significant characters depict their idiosyncrasies through Ham’s comedic portrayal.…
.......However, cooler heads ruled that Oakhurst deserved only banishment. Armed men accompany Oakhurst and other undesirables–including “The Duchess” and “Mother Shipton,” both prostitutes, and “Uncle Billy,” a drunk suspected of sluice robbery–to the edge of town. (In gold mining, a sluice is a sloping trough, or gutter, that conveys water containing stones, pebbles, sand, and possibly gold. Grooves on its bottom separate gold from the stones and grit). There, the armed men warn the outcasts not to return to Poker Flat under penalty of death.…
This paper is written on the pentad diagram by Kenneth Burkes’ theory. Within Burkes’ theory he gives 5 different steps to follow such as, the “act” which is states the person who committed the act, what is going on. The “scene” in what is going on and the situation at hand. The “agent” which involves the people who committed the act, and what were their roles. The “agency” which shows how they people acted and what motivated them to act. Finally the “purpose” in which is shows why they acted in such manor, and what do they want. I will be combining these with the different perspectives of pentad dramatism to the short story about a woman who does not listen and gets killed in return.…
He tells the story of a young girl and boy in trying situations and persuades his audience to feel sorry for them. The boy lives in a bad area. His father is “jobless” and his mother is a “sleep-in domestic.” The girl must take on the “role of [a] mother” because her “mother died.” What reader can help but feeling sorry for a young child who has no hope? They still live in fear and desolation and have no hope, for their race is sinking. Once, their people worked with “George Washington” and “shed blood in the revolution.” But, they fell from higher hopes and were put on “slave ships... in chains.” The reader can’t help but feel sorry for a race that has been so abused and taken advantage of.…
This girl suggested they start an underground newspaper and reveal the atrocities against them. Crow Dog, along with her friends Charlene Left Hand Bull and Gina One Star put together a newspaper they titled Red Panther, in which they wrote of the poor food, living conditions, beaten and even sexual relations between some of the priests and nuns of St. Francis. When Crow Dog was held up as a bad example, she didn’t mind. She was determined not to allow herself or others to be treated so badly without speaking out. Upon Crow Dog’s insistence to the school, she was allowed to leave early and her life took another major…
In the story we come across several examples of moral dilemmas. Some characters or people choose to stand up for what is right, while others choose to give up their morals. The reason why some choose to set aside their morals is a simple and easy choice for some. They chose to give up their morals because they (the narrator and Henri being some of these characters) feel it will increase their chances of survival by taking on a task necessary for the operations of the camp to continue. This moral defilement ensures that you will not be able sent to the “smokestack” and guarantee a little bit better camp life then the others that choose to stand up for what is right. We will now look at some examples and quotes from the story that portray the events of those who gave up their morals and those who stood morality.…
For those who live on the thrill of suspense, this story is based on real events and provides an introduction to what life was like to be uprooted from the past, homeland frontier and into the control of the enemy. The hard working ways of life the Puritans built around them became…
The outcast were exiled from the town of Poker Flat. "It was distant a day’s severe travel. In that advanced season, the party soon passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foot-hills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras." The brutal environment would test the outcasts ability to survive. Since the group was not prepared for the cold temperatures or the dangerous Sierras survival seemed futile. The outcast start to give up "Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: “Piney, can you pray?” “No,…
Ascher initiates her article by taking the readers on a journey through her use of an anecdote. Starting with a description of a homeless man, “His button less shirt, with one sleeve missing, hangs outside the waist of his baggy trousers… As he crosses Manhattan’s Seventy-Ninth Street, his gait is the shuffle of the forgotten ones held in place by gravity rather than plans.” (1) Ascher begins to give her audience a feel for what the typical homeless person is viewed as; someone shaggy and different from sophisticated city people. She instigates her argument by using this statement to indicate to her audience that the homeless are being forgotten; therefore, is receiving a lack of compassion. “The others on the corner, five men and women waiting for the crosstown bus, look away,” (2) By stating that the men and women looked away, Ascher is revealing to her audience that not only are the homeless being forgotten, but they are also being overlooked. Ending her anecdote about the homeless man, Ascher begins to give her audience a taste of her critical tone: “The mother grows impatient and pushes the stroller before her, bearing the dollar like a cross.” (5) The simile, “bearing the dollar like a cross,” suggests that Ascher is purposefully being judgmental of the mother. This reveals that the mother’s goal is to simply get rid of the homeless man, rather than showing him a little bit of compassion.…
a. Goodman Brown's sets out on a walk in the forest, but knows that evil awaits him.…
Both “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Lottery” tell stories of towns that are stuck following a social norm or tradition. Both stories end badly for a main character. Brown ends up distrusting everyone he cared for, and Tessie ends up dead. It is through irony and symbolism, that Nathaniel Hawthorne and Shirley Jackson posit the notion that blindly following a social norm or tradition can lead to…
The short story, “Good Country People”, written by Flannery O’Connor, is a story that captivates one by usage of symbolism and theme. The story centers on the meaning of being a good person, in the sense of leading a Christian, pious life, worthy of salvation. O’Connor contrasts mindless chatter about “good country people” with questions about the true meaning of religious faith. There is also a class hierarchy formed that includes stereotypes about “good country people” and literal and symbolic meanings of events, objects, and characters. Through exclusive use of the third person narrator, O’Connor’s narrative style poises a tension between the realistic (characters in typical settings performing natural acts) and symbolic (where names, signs and other common objects represent larger issues). She also employs the technique of the epiphany, where a single moment of illumination “awakens” the character and reveals the deeper meanings of the text. O’Connor describes the story’s characters as distorted versions of humanity, and virtually none are sympathetic in the traditional nature of the hero or heroine with whom a reader might identify.…
The play The Crucible brings up the idea of “breaking” charity. The fine examples of Abigail, John, and Corey…
And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first burst upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the world I longed for, and all its dazzling…
Cited: Burke, R. Andrew. “O’Brien, Tim.” The Facts On File Companion To The American Short Story. Ed. Abby H. P. Werlock. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. Print.…