Charles Chesnut's work, "The Goophered Grapevine" deeply resonates with me, not only for its literary values, but also because it shows deep insight into the complexities of race, identity, and power dynamics in South America. Chesnut's own life experience as a mixed-race man navigating the harsh terrain of racism and discrimination undoubtedly informed his description of these subjects. As a reader, I was impressed by Chesnut's ability to create thought-provoking stories by combining elements of folklore and realism. Chesnut skillfully explores African-American culture and the ways it was used as a means of resistance and survival in the face of oppression through Uncle Julius's characteristics. Chesnut's exploration of the relationship between…
Scott Russel Sanders’s Buckeye is a memoir, in which the author reminisces about his late father. He fondly recalls his father’s attachment to buckeyes, believing that it would help him overcome arthritis. He highlights his love for his father and the land he once lived on by using vivid sensory details. Throughout the story, Sanders describes events and surroundings with specific details that bring readers into the story, allowing them to watch it unfold as if they were there with the author. His father walked “in a circle around the splayed roots of a sycamore, laying his hands against the feathery green boughs of cedar” (11).…
I can determine the author's style in the story ,In November. Cynthia Rylant, likes to use figurtive language in her story. The one that she likes to use the most is personification. An example she used was ,"The tree's spreaded there arms like dancers." This is personification because it is a tree pretending to be a dancer. In fact plants and animals can't do human things. Her style of writing is very funny and she used a lot of figurtive…
James Alan McPherson uses abstract diction by paradoxically combining colors and inanimate objects, describing the skin color of the characters in the story, as well as slang to amplify the connection between the inanimate objects and colors and create a childishly colorful tone in his short story, “Why I Like Country Music.”…
The utilization of rhetorical devices enhances the writing luring the reader in. Colloquialism plays a crucial role; the majority of the book contains Southern slang which not only entertains but allows the audience to comprehend the origin of the characters generating a connection between them and their…
The combination of diction and imagery used in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier weave a mood of downtrodden hopelessness. Throughout both passages, the authors describe a setting of desolate towns during difficult times, with townsfolk who have forgotten optimism. Such is utilized in To Kill a Mockingbird, as Maycomb is “a tired old town” where “grass gr[ows] on the sidewalks, [and] the courthouse sag[s]”; reading the description evokes an image of a town on the brink of bankruptcy, conveying the despair the inhabitants must feel (Lee). As the diction in the passage is usually equated with the elderly, Lee adds to the picture of a town on its last legs. In contrast, “Marigolds” focuses on the “arid, sterile…
By using imagery such as "heavy rain and sun," "glossy purple clot," "red, green, hard as a knot," "stains upon the tongue," "red ones inked up," "thorn pricks," "rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache," "canfuls smelt of rot," and "sweet flesh would turn sour," the speaker describes a chronological order of a harvesting event to allow readers to visualize. This helps the readers to understand a literal description of blackberry-picking in late Autumn.…
Chestnutt's use of vernacular in his writing also masks the true knowledge and identity of the slave. His style of writing, itself was a mask. Because the whites of that day honestly believed blacks to be ignorant, Grandison had to…
To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that is artistically written. Through the situations the “mockingbirds” go through living in Maycomb County, many important life lessons are taught not only to the characters but also to the reader. The dilemmas at hand are creative ways of teaching these lessons. Scout’s growth throughout the novel is symbolic of the growth of the town in many issues surrounding racial prejudice, sexism, and the usage of pigeon…
Martha Hale Shackford stated in an article on Jewett that “As a describer of the shore life of the state of Maine she is without an equal. The clear austerity of the air of northern New England is everywhere in these tales set among rocky shores and gray islands. The stimulating tang of salt breezes and the cool breath from the illimitable east meet here ; for those who know it she pictures the visionary beauty of the northland's clarity of light, its mysterious distances touched with receding shades of blue and dim green glimmering and fading into crystalline colorlessness” (Shackford). In “A White Heron”, Jewett is able to place the reader into the position of a poor young girl living in the countryside. She is able to give the reader the perspective of the world as seen through a child’s eyes. This perspective is arduous to replicate without having the experience of being a child in the countryside and experiencing the world as a young girl. Jewett’s rural childhood setting is apparent in multiple works including “The Country of the Pointed Firs”. The peculiar thing about this work is that it is said to “Have no plot” and the beauty of this work is Jewett’s ability to illustrate an image in the reader’s mind (Carolina). It is said that Sarah Orne Jewett’s stories are “always stories of character. Plots hardly exist in her work; she had little interest in creating suspense or in weaving together threads of varied interests” and that her stories are based on illustrating an image to the reader rather than using a plot to keep the readers intrigued (Shackford…
Nathaniel Hawthorne presents his story, “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” as an allegory of the inherent danger of corruption. As such, the story overflows with symbolism. There is intentionally not an enormous deal of subtlety in these symbols, as Hawthorne wants them to be clear to all readers. Hawthorne uses the marble fountain, the garden, and the large purple flower to aide him in his cautionary story against corruption.…
It is very common for writers to use literary devices as tools to help convey the meaning of their work. In the passage from the novel, The Beet Queen, written by Louise Erdich, Erdich uses literary devices to depict the impact of the environment on the two children. The author uses imagery to describe the physical effect of the environment on the children, selection of detail to depict the tree’s impact on the children, and point of view to clearly explain the impact the environment has on the children.…
In William Faulkner's 1939 short story "Barn Burning," a young boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), is faced with and forced to endure the abusive and destructive tendencies of his father, Abner Snopes. As the story unfolds, several examples can be found to illustrate Faulkner's use of symbolism to allow the reader to sense the disgust for Abner Snopes, the significance in the lack of color usage throughout the story, and finally, Sarty's journey.…
Well there’s a lot to the Declaration of Independence that is debatable today. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 2, 1776 and adopted by the colonists July 4, 1776. This was the most dangerous document that the patriotic colonists signed because if they lost the war then the colonists would be put to death. The most important of the ideals in this document is freedom. Freedom is most important because people wanted to rule themselves, have equal opportunities, and wanted to have their own lives and be happy. These were the main reasons for the colonist to fight for their freedom the Declaration of Independence promised them.…
Describe and evaluate the changes that took place in the BBC between 1922 and 1950. The British Broadcasting Corporation changed significantly in the period between 1922 and 1950. I will set out to describe some of the key changes of this period in this essay, and evaluate how they have affected the BBC as it is today. The BBC was formulated in 1922 as a private company, but was made public in 1936, a decision pushed by the Managing Director of the time, John Reith.…