Essay on Amy Tan: Mother Daughter Relationships
There are no simple or perfect relationships between mothers and daughters. Relationships are a delicate balance between the love and emotions of two individuals. They are ever changing and evolving, and are each unique as the people in them. Amy Tan’s novels offer an inside glimpse into several intricate mother daughter relationships. Her characters suffer hardships as well as times of joy. There are many similarities in the mother and daughter relationships in the books by Amy Tan.

One of the most difficult parts of maintaining a good relationship between mother and daughter is balancing the individual characteristics of each person. Even though daughters are truly a part of their mothers, this definitely does not mean that their personalities are at all similar. In Tan’s novels, the women that the daughters become are amazing. They face many challenges, such as homes with problems or no fathers, little to no money and problems adjusting to the American society, but they still become wonderful people in the end. Sometimes the daughters just want to be different from their mothers, to be their own independent people. This can sometimes be hard for the mothers to accept that their daughters take nothing from them. However sometimes the mothers’ personalities and traits aren’t the best to learn and take from. Continue Reading »

“Somebody once told me that a cow won’t bite. That somebody is as wrong as a sin on Sunday” (pg. 8). This little incident is the event that really gets the story on a move. A Day No Pigs Would Die narrates Robert Peck’s adolescent life in rural Vermont during the nineteen twenties. A Day No Pigs Would Die is a true story, written in first person, through the eyes of a Robert Newton Peck. The mood of the this story is smooth and uneventful with a few spots of joy and sadness. Much of the mood is derived from the plain and natural setting of rural Vermont. A Day No Pigs Would Die takes place during the nineteen twenties on the Peck’s family farm and the surrounding New England countryside. The Peck’s own a simple farm consisting of a dark brown log farmhouse, a plank board corn-cratch, and an old log milk barn. To the north of the Peck farm lies the Tanner’s farm. The Tanner’s farm is much newer and larger with many sprawling pastures and a large, modern milk barn. Behind these two farms, a high ridge stretches in to the rolling Vermont foothills. From on top of this ridge Robert can see almost to Rutland. The site of the bustling and exciting county fair. Continue Reading »

Walt Whitman was arguably one of America’s most significant and groundbreaking poets. He was born on May 31, 1819 into a working class family in West Hills, New York. Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman Sr. who was both a carpenter and a farmer. The Sr. Whitman was never very successful at either occupation; however, he moved his family to Brooklyn in 1823 in order to follow a career as a house builder.

Whitman attended elementary school in Brooklyn, and at the age of eleven, he began to work in a local office as a clerk. At the age of twelve, he began to learn the printers trade and fell in love with the ‘written word’. Whitman, who mostly taught himself, avidly read the works of Shakespeare, Dante and Homer. Over the next few years, he worked as a printer at the Patriot and Stars newspapers in Brooklyn until in 1836, when a fire demolished the industry. When Whitman turned seventeen, he started teaching at a schoolhouse in Long Island where he taught for five more years. Continue Reading »

Essay: texts can be read in different ways. Choose two readings of “The Crucible”, and analyse their different interpretations in terms of the focus of their argument, foregrounding of information and language use.

Different people interpret things differently. Many things can influence such an interpretation. To understand this concept two different reviews of the film “The Crucible” will be examined. These two reviews will demonstrate that texts, in this case, “The Crucible”, can be read differently. Both reviews have distinctive elements of style and focus on different aspects of the text. While both reviews have pragmatic values, commending the actors on their performances, the two reviews focus on separate aspects of the film. The first review, written by Bill Crucie concentrates on the social context of the film, and its entertainment value. It is written informally with extensive colloquial language and Crucie uses exaggeration that boarders on hyperbole. Crucie’s review disagrees with the second review on the matter of characterization, and how they are represented. Crucie’s report of the characters is different due to the different angle he takes. The second review, by Greg King, analyses the film, not from an entertainment angle, like Crucie, but from a context view. King writes a formal piece, from a far more objective angle. The review focuses on the political context of the film. Both reviews differ, and it is this difference that illustrates the ability to contain different meanings, and evoke different readings. Continue Reading »

The aim of literature is to entertain and inform. We see this in the novel “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson. Guterson uses stylistic language techniques to capture the reader and involve them in the text. By integrating flash backs into the murder mystery genre, the characters are made three dimensional, and the reader becomes involved. The story informs the reader by integrating important themes into the text.

Literature aims to entertain. “Snow Falling on Cedars” is entertaining because it is written in such a way that the reader becomes involved with the characters. Guterson uses metaphors of the surrounding area, to give insight into the characters. For example, the radiator in the courtroom is sluggish and slow to get started, and is in a state of disrepair. This is a metaphor for the townsfolk, and by using it, Guterson has made the reader link the two together. Through using descriptive metaphors in the early stages of the book, when the same character traits are brought up later, they already feel familiar to the reader. Continue Reading »

“Like Water for Chocolate” is a text that I believe should be used in a classroom context for high school students because of the emotions, changes and challenges affecting teenagers as they do the central character in the text, and its uses of distinctive methods to demonstrate this. The relationships, Mexican culture, and literary techniques make it an alternative yet invaluable source in the classroom context.

Most texts that students are expected to study in senior high school tend to be chosen by adults for their literary qualities that are not especially relevant to some of the challenge and emotions that teenagers face in their daily twenty-first century lives. Whilst the text “Like Water for Chocolate” is not set in the culture we live in today nor is it a direct reflection teenage life, it certainly has particular components that make it relevant to high school students while still being as beneficial literary source as a Shakespearean text, just in different manners. Continue Reading »

The novel The Killer Angels, by Michael Sharra is the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863 the union army and the confederate army fought the largest battle of the American Civil War. The book is based on real life people who were a part of the Civil War. The main characters were Gen. Robert Lee from the confederate army, Gen. James Longstreet, and Col. Joshua Chamberlain from the union army. The period covered in this book is Jun. 30-Jul 3, 1863. It takes place in a small town called Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main cause of the war was because the confederate army wanted to secede from the rest of the states. Most of the story was from the perspective of the confederate leaders, so we were able to really capture what the south was really thinking throughout this whole book. The story for the most part is told in the 3rd person. The confederates controlled Seminary Ridge and the union army controlled Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, Culp’s Hill, Little Round Top, and Big Round Top. Shaara’s book very well tells the story of two great armies, both motivated and fighting for what each believes is a great and just cause, as they come together to fight one of the biggest battles ever fought in the world. This is a great novel of leadership, hardship, and history. Continue Reading »

In Oscar Wilde’s classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, imagery affects the story as a whole. One image that can be traced throughout the entire novel, is the actual portrait of Dorian Gray. This portrait in itself can be divided into three separate stages, depending on the severity of Dorian’s cruelty. As the novel progresses, these images transform from one stage to another. This successful usage of imagery makes this novel truly terrifying, but at the same time, quite enjoyable.
The first significant stage of Dorian’s portrait might be called the beautiful stage. Basil Hallward paints Dorian’s portrait in the beginning pf the novel, and, it is said to be his best work yet. The picture not only illustrates Dorian’s true outer beauty, but it also accentuates on his stunning youthful image. The portrait is given to Dorian to keep for himself to remember how lovely he looked in his youthful days. Basil and Dorian alike adore the portrait, however they have no idea of what is in store them in the future. Continue Reading »

Over many years racism has been a disgusting, horrible issue in our world. Racism still exists today, although it is not as bad as it once was. In the historical novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, Mildred D. Taylor explores the issue of racism through the victimization of the Berry Family and Sam Tatum by the Ku Klux Klan as well as an encounter with more disgusting people at the Wallace store.

The Berry’s burning is a huge act for racism. First Mr. Berry was talking to a Caucasian lady. Then some man saw him talking to her. They didn’t think it was normal for an African-American man to be talking to and Caucasian lady. After Mr. Berry was done talking to her, he left for home in his car. But what Mr. Berry didn’t notice was that the Caucasian men were following him to his home. Mr. Berry didn’t have much gas left so he stopped at his friends’ house. As he was leaving his car to go to the house, The KKK jumped him and poured hot tar on him and feathered him. The KKK thought that you could only talk to your own race. Cassie also had some experiences of racism in Strawberry. Continue Reading »

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard deals with many issues that help shape humans. Ballard presents many issues which help shape humans to think and act, especially the character Jim.

The maturation of Jim is a major importance because he is able to adapt to different surroundings and also to different people. Jim’s maturation lasts through the entire book and takes a long time because he is constantly changing his attitude and environment. Jim is a British boy living in Shanghai, he is rich and is used to servants doing things for him but then ends up in concentration camps were he has to care for himself. For Jim this would have been a big change that would have been difficult to adapt to, especially someone who is used to servants and coolies doing everything for you. Another hard change for him would have been not having his parents around and because of this was not taken care of and also had to basically be slave for everyone in the camp. Continue Reading »