A Critical Analysis of The Rocking-Horse Winner and The...

A Critical Analysis of The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence and The Destructors by Graham Greene In both stories, The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence and The Destructors by Graham Greene we see the common theme of wanting to be envied by others because of what we have or can do. The need to do better, have prestige and more power than anyone else is a very common human conflict that is dealt with on all levels of humanity. The emotional environment that man grows and develops in plays a factor in how he approaches everyday life. Humanity is always trying to prove to others what they have is better than anyone elses. Pauls mother, Hester, in The Rocking-Horse Winner spends a lot of time†¦show more content†¦Once the house was destroyed it would send out a message to all the other gangs and gain the fame and respect that they wanted. Blackie gave up his leadership role easily because his earlier ideas of stealing had not really gained any recognition for his gang like he wanted. He could see the possibility of success and he overlooked his own pride and worth to go after it. Materialism can be seen in this because they are using the destruction of a house to gain respect, but on the other hand the modernist view can be seen because something has to either build something up or destroy it. All of these main characters shared a lot of common attributes. The first and most important attribute was trying to overcome multiple obstacles to get to their goal. In The Rocking-Horse Winner, Paul found his rocking horse and the ability to pick winning horses the way to show his mother how successful he was along with the money that he won. He exerted himself mentally and physically to get to his goal. He is seen in the nursery ..on his big rocking horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily...his eyes had a strange glare to them.... The sad irony for Paul though was that money couldnt buy that happiness that he wanted his mother to have. Hester gave up her own happiness when she started chasing power and prestige. Trevor, in The Destructors, had to get creative when he

Analysis Of William Faulkner s Rose For Emily

Hassan Abdi ENGL-1302 Mrs. Escamilla Sep/16/2015 Money in Rose for Emily William Faulkner was an amazing writer and at his time was the voice of American literature. He wrote a lots of books, novels, and short stories. Most of his readers loved his writing style so much that they tried to turn it to movies, but it is not an easy job to turn William Faulkner’s writings to a movie. Stories can be turned to movies but it is very important for the producers to be able to cover all the material and the depth of information the story is carrying. In his short story â€Å"Rose for Emily† was turned in to a movie and it was not all messed up but there is some valuable information missing, because it is important to know about how she managed to live so did her finance? In William Faulkner’s â€Å"Rose for Emily† Emily has a problem with Jefferson community because the Aldermen were claiming that she did not pay her Taxes but the problem was that Emily was claiming that she doesn’t owe the city any taxes, and they should check again because it seems to her that they are mistaken. â€Å"Her voice was dry and cold. â€Å" I have no Taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me perhaps one of you can get axis to the city records and satisfy yourselves.† I was very clear that Emily didn’t had any intentions of arguing with the deputation that came visit with her so they could collect the tax from her because as soon as they start talking about the how she received many mails from the topShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of William Faulkner s A Rose For Emily 1099 Words   |  5 PagesNora Del Bosque†¨ Comp II†¨ O’Connell†¨Paper #2 â€Å"Deceiving Looks† In â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, William Faulkner tells the story of an sad and lonely lady, stuck in her time. Because her father died, she never fully recovered from it and was not able to find herself. Emily’s house was in the past was considered elegant and was built on the best street in town in the 1870’s. Now the house is old and an unattractive building to the neighborhood. People in her town begin to bad mouth her because of her lostRead MoreAnalysis Of William Faulkner s A Rose For Emily1526 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Faulkner uses theme, imagery and symbolism to highlight the decline of the South in his short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily.† William Faulkner is the author of â€Å"A Rose for Emily.† In â€Å"A Rose for Emily† the story starts off at Emily’s funeral, and the whole town is there too. The men went out of respect for losing a person who had been a citizen of Jefferson for a long time, and the women went because th ey wanted to see what her house looked like because only a select few have seen it in the lastRead MoreA Rose for Emily889 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis for â€Å"A Rose for Emily† Sometimes a Rose is Not a Rose: A Literary Analysis of â€Å"A Rose for Emily† In the short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, written by William Faulkner, the negative impact of Emily’s upbringing by an overprotective father, leads to incredible pattern in her life and the obvious mental illness that takes over as she not so graciously ages. While written in five sections, the first and last section is written in present time, and the three middle sectionsRead MoreWilliam Faulkner s A Rose For Emily1682 Words   |  7 PagesLyons Professor Amy Green Writing about Literature COM1102 Oct. 06, 2015 William Faulkner s A Rose for Emily is a short story that has also been adapted into a short film; both have been largely debated. Faulkner’s lack of a normal chronology and situation-triggered memories generates a story that has many understandings among its readers, but surprises everyone at the end. When asked about the title of his story, Faulkner said, [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was aRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1507 Words   |  7 Pages1897, William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi. He stands as one of the most preeminent American writers of the twentieth century. His literary reputation included poetry, novels, short stories, and screenplays. Faulkner won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature. â€Å"A Rose for Emily† is a short fascinating story written by William Faulkner and it was his first short story published in a national magazine. The story involved an old woman named Emily GriersonRead MoreEssay on Prose Analysis â€Å"a Rose for Emily† William Faulkner1085 Words   |  5 PagesProse Analysis â€Å"A Rose for Emily† William Faulkner The two female cousins came at once. They held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men --some in their brushed Confederate uniforms--on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they hadRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner949 Words   |  4 PagesIn William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† it is clear how Emily’s gender affects how the individuals in the town perceive her. Emily’s gender particularly affects how men understand her. Throughout the whole piece Emily is seen as a helpless individual who is lonely and has suffered losses throughout her life. When the reader reaches the end of the story the actions that Emily has taken is unexpected because of the way she is perceived by the narrator. In the beginning of the story, when the wholeRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1326 Words   |  6 PagesA Rose For Emily Fiction Analysis English Literature Essay In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner tells the story of an old and lonely lady stuck in her own timeframe. Her controlling father died some thirty years ago and she has never quite found her own ground. Her house has become the most hideous looking home on the once most select street in the city. Previously elegant and white with scrolled balconies, it was now encroached with dust and decay. The people in Miss Emily s city gossip aboutRead More The Role of the Watch in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily1199 Words   |  5 PagesThe Role of the Watch in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily Even the casual reader of William Faulkner will recognize the element of time as a crucial one in much of the writers work, and the critical attention given to the subject of time in Faulkner most certainly fills many pages of criticism. A goodly number of those pages of criticism deal with the well-known short story, A Rose for Emily. Several scholars, most notably Paul McGlynn, have worked to untangle the confusing chronologyRead MoreAnalysis Of Katherine Mansfield s Miss Brill 1633 Words   |  7 Pagesleads individuals to discover particular similarities and contrasts between them, Katherine Mansfield s short story Miss Brill makes for a fascinating correlation to William Faulkner s short story A Rose For Emily. Although both stories appear to be not so alike, the connections they impart are of substantially more value. The distinctions in social contribution between Miss Brill and Emily Grierson can t exceed the similarities in their absence of social and emotional lives and their shocking

Beloved Story Free Essays

Beloved is a soul-stirring novel with vivid imagery, historical background and complex characters. The dark and grey, tones of slavery is very strongly captured in detail by characters going through the horrific experiences of slavery. The brutal images of slavery tarnishes their lives with â€Å"marks†(Beloved), scars, wounds, shackles, and memories with heavy burden of the past , fragmented self in the present and very foggy view of the future. We will write a custom essay sample on Beloved Story or any similar topic only for you Order Now The precious self, which is the birthright of every human being is stained, fragmented and diminished by the painful experiences of slavery. The body undergoes innumerable hardship, torture and agony; and the mind is made crippled, dependant and weak with exhaustion and hostility. The scars of slavery reduce the human beings to ashes, where they are drained of any hope and light. The spirit is submerged in the burden of life, and everyday existence for survival. Some of the strong ideas around which the novel revolves are: love (mother’s possessive love), family, self-possessiveness, burden of the past, and desire for ownership. These themes unite the events and the characters within the story. These are the themes that also reflect that human self is higher than the mortal bruises inflicted on the body by the painful experiences of slavery. The power of mother’s love is the strong force which controls many happenings within the story. The life of the protagonist Sethe centers on the protection of her children from the horrors of the slavery. She lived a terrible life, where there was no ray of light and still managed to secure her freedom in the difficult days of pregnancy. How she managed to do it lies in her inner strength as a mother, for the protection of her children . Her mother love is the strong chord which propels her actions to send away her older children for safety and protection to Baby Suggs. In the last and difficult stages of pregnancy, when even walking is painful, she decides to run away from Sweet Home with the help from a white girl Amy. She gives birth to her 4th child on the run and still finds strength to carry on until she reaches the safety of home, where Baby Suggs lives with her other children. The whole length of the novel is weaved with instances that reinforce the strong desire for the family. The vision of united family under one roof is something held as aspiration for Sethe ( the main character), Baby Sugg ( the paternal grandmother), Denver(the living daughter), Paul D(another slave from Sweet Home) and Beloved( the ghost incarnate). The â€Å"House 124† is the symbolic of the shelter of home, which brings all the characters under this one roof, where all the interaction and complexities arise. This is where the past, present and future are face to face, in the race for dominance and survival. This is where the mystery of the numbers is revealed. The critical role which Beloved, the 3rd child, dead as well as living, plays is unfathomable. She creates the mysterious haunted atmosphere within the walls of â€Å"House 124†. Beloved fills the missing number 3, and remains as the unseen force calling the shots through her possessive love and desire for revenge. She represents the invisible force of past, which controls the actions of the present. The inhabitants of â€Å"House 124† are locked in love, possessive love which directs their thoughts and actions beyond control. The world outside does not attract them; they want to be in the security of their house, which represents their freedom and safety. The ownership of â€Å"House 124† is her first attempt to live a normal life without the shackles of slavery. Ownership is complex, when the experiences are so burdened by the cruelties of the past. The stamp of ownership reduced the humans living within the system to indifference. The body suffers, the mind is shattered with pain and anguish, and the spirit is reduced to emptiness. In this desperation, humans can act out of love in unpredictable ways to escape from the darkness and grimness of the situation. This is what Sethe did when she killed her one year-old daughter because she did not want her to live the life which she was living. The mark on Sethe’s mother was a mark of possession, the branding of a slave. The human’s who were owned as slaves were treated worse than animals. For the first time, Paul D reveals his 18-year struggle, the endless running and hiding. To him, slavery is worse than being an animal: â€Å"Mister [the rooster] was allowed to be and stay where he was. But I wasn’t. † We learn of the cruelty of the schoolteacher’s two nephews, who sucked on Sethe’s milk as if she were an animal. The pain of watching his wife abused by the owners school teacher and his nephews, drove Sethe’s husband Halle mad. (Beloved). The strong desire for ownership can also be seen, later on in Sethe, Paul D, Beloved and Denver, when they are living in â€Å"House 124†. Their relationship is also a struggle in the claim of ownership and struggle to find that strength to make the claim. The biggest hurdle in their claim for love and ownership is the heavy burden of the past which they carry as haunted voices and dark clouds. The powerful game of love and seduction makes this struggle for power more complicated. The significant role of the heart wounded, locked away and bleeding reinforces the need for love and ownership. The exposed breast as the source of milk, a sign of nurturance indicates the power of protection and possession. Sethe controls the chief events within her household; she is the nurturer as well as the killer. Her love is possessive and strong. She has survived and wishes to hold on to the chords of the future. Sethe’s possessive love is challenged by Beloved, the ghost of the dead baby overshadows the life of people living at â€Å"House 124†when she reveals herself as a woman, 19 or 20 years of age, coming out of the marsh fully dressed. She is tired and thirsty, but her shoes are new and her skin is flawless except for three scratches on her forehead. It takes her more than two days to drag herself to 124 With a harsh voice, she pronounces that her name is Beloved. Beloved brings back many memories, especially those regarding the horrors of slavery (Beloved). The existing contrasts reveal her out of world characteristics. Much of the imagery in Beloved is dedicated to the picture of the cellars of a slave ship, with implications that this is the place Beloved was before she was born. The description is one of a womb, not of a cramped slave ship. The past has been forgotten, and there is a strong feeling of being trapped in the darkness (Beloved). Beloved is a dangerous mix of human traits and ghostly characteristics. Though hungry for love, she can smother love with revenge. She is a schemer and a parasite, which arrives in the â€Å"House 124† to fulfill her unfinished desires and urges. She is only centered on herself, which intensifies her fears and terrors. The horror of the obscurity, the pangs of hunger and the fear of death immobilizes the mind and the body. The self, the spirit within is gradually overpowered by the agony of physical torture. The memories haunt the living as well as the ghost, as a shadow of all the experiences. The imagery of loudness and sound also plays a significant role to describe that â€Å"House 124 was spiteful† (Beloved). Here the spite is alive – it is, as Stamp Paid realizes, the roar of â€Å"people of the broken necks, of fire-cooked blood and black girls who had lost their ribbons† (Beloved). What roars is the dead, the injustice dealt to more than sixty million, all alive in Beloved. The loudness betrays a sinister part of Beloved which has not yet surfaced. The loudness is the cry, the despair and the frustrations of life’s experienced by people in shackles and chains, with no freedom to live, think or feel. It is self crying to be saved from this mortal combat of pain and anguish. The deep imprint of slavery is once again brought into play when Paul D reminisces about â€Å"Sweet Home† (Beloved) Even death does not deter the human soul and human self from the desire for freedom. Though the mortal bruises hurt the body and mind, they do not completely destroy the sanctuary of the self, however fragmented and withered. This light within is what keeps humans, such as Sethe and Sixo, to keep going and to find the way to freedom, either through escape or death. The helplessness experienced as a victim of slavery tarnishes the self deeply, leaving a person dirty and unclean from within. â€Å"That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up†¦ The best thing was, was her [Sethe’s] children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing†(Beloved). The inner strength of Sethe is very strongly portrayed in the lines above, showing she is willing to go to any length to protect her children and save them from getting dirty. The possessiveness and the protective aspect of maternity are very powerfully expressed in this comment. Mother love is the protector and the nurturer, but also a killer. â€Å"Slavery is not just an institution; it is a philosophy and mindset which is far-reaching in its consequences† (ROTHSTEIN The horrific memories of the past hold a powerful influence on the present life of Sethe and Denver. The re-emergence of Beloved on the scene as half human and half ghost, half child and half adult adds complexity beyond comprehension. All the powerful feminine emotions play a critical role in adding drama and despair. The entanglement of the relationships between Denver and Beloved, though sisters, exposes the deep jealousy and bitterness. The dependence and immaturity, is characterized by their selfishness and insecurity. The overcast clouds of wounds, scars and shackles, are too heavy a burden to carry from one life to another. The past is a burden, the present is a struggle and future is so foggy that the road to freedom seems lost. The insatiable desire of the fragmented self to rise in spirit to face the world is the beautiful message hidden in the heaps of ashes of the past. The message is to bury the past, loosen the shackles of the present bindings and look to future with the hope and courage. Works Cited ROTHSTEIN , MERVYN. â€Å"Toni Morrison, In Her New Novel, Defends Women. â€Å"Books. August 26, 1987, . The New York Times Company. 1 Mar 2007 www. nytimes. com/books/98/01/11/home/14013. html. ( ROTHSTEIN ) â€Å"Beloved. † Beloved. 1998-2007. Homework Online Inc. 1 Mar 2007 www. homework online. com/beloved/index. asp. (Beloved) How to cite Beloved Story, Papers

Babi Yar Analysis Of The Poem (1029 words) Essay Example For Students

Babi Yar Analysis Of The Poem (1029 words) Essay Babi Yar Analysis of the Poem Yevtushenko speaks in first person throughout the poem. This creates the tone of him being in the shoes of the Jews. As he says in lines 63-64, No Jewish blood is mixed in mine, but let me be a Jew . . . He writes the poem to evoke compassion for the Jews and make others aware of their hardships and injustices. Only then can I call myself Russian. (lines 66-67). The poet writes of a future time when the Russian people realize that the Jews are people as well accept them as such. If you hate the Jews, he asks, why not hate me as well? True peace and unity will only occur when they have accepted everyone, including the Jews. Stanza I describes the forest of Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev. It was the site of the Nazi massacre of more thanthirty thousand Russian Jews on September 29-30, 1941. There is no memorial to the thirty thousand, but fear pervades the area. Fear that such a thing could occur at the hands of other humans. The poet feels the persecution and pain and fear of the Jews who stood there in this place of horror. Yevtushenko makes himself an Israelite slave of Egypt and a martyr who died for the sake of his religion. In lines 7-8, he claims that he still bars the marks of the persecution of the past. There is still terrible persecution of the Jews in present times because of their religion. These lines serve as the transition from the Biblical and ancient examples he gives to the allusions of more recent acts of hatred. The lines also allude to the fact that these Russian Jews who were murdered at Babi Yar were martyrs as well. The next stanza reminds us of another event in Je wish history where a Jew was persecuted solely because of his religious beliefs. The poet refers to the pettiness (line 11) of anti-Semitism as the cause of Dreyfus imprisonment. Anti-Semitism is his betrayer (line 12) when he is framed, and anti-Semitism is his judge (line 12) when he is wrongly found guilty. Lines 13-14 claim that even the fine and supposedly civilized women of society shun Dreyfus because he is a Jew and fear him like they would fear an animal. In stanza III, Yevtushenko brings himself to the midst of the pogroms of Bielostok. He gives the readers the image of a youngboy on the floor being beaten and bleeding while he witnesses others beat his mother. In line 24, he gives the reader the rationale of the Russians who are inflicting such atrocities on the Jews. Murder the Jews! Save Russia!' They view the Jews as the curse of Russia; a Jewish plague that must end in order to save their country from evil. In a way they think that they are acting in patriotism. The poet transports us to Anne Franks attic in the fourth stanza. He describes to the reader the innocent love that has blossomed between Anne and Paul. Her love of the world and life and spring has been denied her (line 30). Yet, she manages to find comfort for her loss in the embrace of her beloved. In line 33, Yevtushenko shows the reader Annes denial of what is going on around her. She tries to drown out the noise of the Nazis coming to get her. When her precious spring comes, so do the war and the Nazis to take her to her death. Stanza V brings us back to the ravine of Babi Yar. In line 40, the poet chooses to personify the trees. They stare down on him in judgement as G-d would. Line 41 is oxymoronic. There is a silent mourning for the martyred Jews by the air; a force in nature. The air around Babi Yar howls for the massacre it has witnessed. The poet himself claims to be an endless soundless howl/ over the buried (lines 43-44). He is a mourner for the thirty thousand, but ther e is nothing that can be said. He writes that e is every one of thirty thousand and feels their pain and injustice. In no limb of my body can I forget. (line 57). His physical body feels their pain. Limbs depicts an image of mangled bodies in the mass grave of Babi Yar. Stanza VI begins with Yevtushenko reminding the Russian people of their ability to be good hearted and moral. He speaks of men with dirty hands (lines 52-53). Fascists, Nazis whose hands are covered in the blood of the innocent, come to Russia and cause the Russians to close their magnanimous hearts. The tone of lines 52-54 is cruel and harsh like the actions of the Nazis. These hateful people claim to bring the union of the Russian people (line 59). He makes a point of referring to these people as anti-Semites (line 57) because the Jews are Russians, too. The Nazis in effect have turned Russian against Russian hardly a union. In the last stanza, the poet calls for world unity which will only occur when anti-Semit ism has ended. He is not a Jew, yet he equates himself to one. If all Russians are people, then the Jews are no less Russian or less human than he himself. If this is the way you treat these Russian people, he is trying to express, then treat me, a real Russian, as you have treated the Russian Jews. Only then will all Russians truly be united and equal. .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .postImageUrl , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:hover , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:visited , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:active { border:0!important; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:active , .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8 .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u2cef04065d6428563e3db2571beefdd8:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: What is popular culture? Essay Yevtushenko is a supporter of the Jewish plight. He sees the injustice that they have been subject to and feels responsible for itin a way. He tries to rationalize why his people, the Russians, have acted so immorally and blames their actions on the influence of others. He calls to his people to reform; simultaneously urging the Jews not to blame them entirely for their actions and to show that they do have natural goodness within them.