Preview

Dr. Finch's Memoir Running With Scissors

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
444 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dr. Finch's Memoir Running With Scissors
The awe-inspiring and mordantly funny childhood that we encounter in Augusten Burroughs memoir “Running with Scissors” is far from the ordinary. “Running with Scissors” was rated #1 New York Times Bestseller and has since been made into a Major Motion Picture, which has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award.

Augusten is put into a weird situation when he is forced to spend most of his life in a run-down, dirty house with his mother’s shrink, Dr.Finch and his abnormal family. Dr.Finch, is a far from a normal doctor and takes his practice to the “next level”, as some would say. Using things such as his feces dimension in the toilet bowl, to decide on what will happen of his family’s poor financial problems. "It means our financial situation is turning around, that's what it means. It means things are looking up. The s-- is pointing out of the pot and up toward heaven; to God” (166).
…show more content…

Dr.Finch has two biological children, Nathalie and Hope, who are two extremely odd girls without much in common; his legal wife, Agnes; three other women he considers his wives; and an adopted son Neil Bookman who was once a patient. Other than the family Dr.Finch has a few patients living at the house as well. One by the name of Joranne who is obsessive over cleanliness who freaks out over a simple spot on a spoon that is brought to her room; did I mention she doesn’t leave her

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Here it was all pennies and clutter and spittle on the curb. Here people walked fast to juggle the dimes, to make a deal, to find cheap liver or a tomato that was overripe. Here was the indefinable stink of despair. Here modesty was a luxury. People struggled for it. (pg. 18)…

    • 2229 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Atticus Finch Research Paper

    • 2579 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Joe Thomas Mrs. Ferry, pd.7 English 11, 5.0 21 March 2001 Atticus the Approved Parent To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee reflects back to the Great Depression in the South. Scout and Jem Finch are siblings who live with their father Atticus Finch in the fictional town of Maycomb. The actions and words of Atticus 's children reflect his morals and beliefs. Atticus 's personal integrity, good morality, and his reasoning ability make him an exceptionally, effective parent.…

    • 2579 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finally, Julian and his mother’s collective pride results in their collective suffering. From the beginning, O’Connor characterizes Julian’s opinion towards his mother with disdain. He feels as though “everything that [gives] her pleasure [is] small and depresse[s] him.” He reveals his prideful nature through the pointed thought, believing that his worldly mindset has outgrown the small and closed-minded society that his mother represents. In addition, Julian describes his mother’s repetitive rant about the implications of integration as a “a train on an open track” of which he knows “every stop, every junction, every swamp… and the exact point at which her conclusion roil[s] majestically into the station.” The simile hints at his aforementioned distaste for his mother’s opinions,…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Mrs. Turpin enters the doctor’s waiting room, she immediately scans the room to look not only for the available seats, but to evaluate the other patients. She classifies the patients by their appearances, and places them below her in class according to her categories of social status. The first to meet her eyes, is a well-dressed woman. Mrs. Turpin is pleased with her companionship because they seem to have the same opinion of the small child taking up two seats. Mrs. Turpin then scoffs at the “leathery old woman in [the] cotton print dress” (393), because she is poor, and related to the other “white-trashy” (394) patients. Her judgments are based solely on what she can see, and her first impressions of the remaining patients are not kind.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How serious people can be in their endeavors but can’t see the realities of it all. Virginia becomes arrogant in her seriousness. For example, the quote “I tried inviting her to come for a walk…she’ll only talked to me within the grey, dusty walls of the museum. (pg.27)” reveals with an irony which refers that people take some intentions seriously, but don’t know ho to deal with them. Human’s mishaps explain that people try to find their purposes and meanings, but ends with meaningless things.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As I Lay Dying Studyguide

    • 2827 Words
    • 12 Pages

    2. Even the reader of such an unusual book may be surprised to come upon Addie Bundren’s narrative on page 169, if only because…

    • 2827 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atticus Finch Patient

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we are introduced to many unique characters. One of which is Atticus Finch; a patient man who always cares. In the story, Atticus is talking to Uncle Jack on the topic of answering a child’s question. He gives Jack these words of advice, “ ‘Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.’ (pg. 116)” I believe Atticus is definitely doing the right thing by letting Scout discover for herself what her cursing will lead to. Atticus, without a doubt, has to be patient with young Scout as she continues to exercise these words. I believe that Atticus also has to be accepting towards Scout when she practices speaking…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    (pg.2) chp.1“Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain”. Pg. 37 (chp. 2)“The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun…” pg. 40 (chp.3)“So he was aware of the bizarre accusations that flavored conversation in his halls”. Pg. 65 (chp.4)…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kildany's grandson died because they were very poor and he didn't get enough warmth. So, Kildany blamed Mr. Raven for her grandson's death because he did not care about their difficulties and he was demanding every month's rent.Then, Uncle Gard had to leave for a business trip and soon Nellie and Sam learned about strange things happening at Ravenscourt.They drew up a list of strange things were a red 13 was painted on the sign, the furnace kept breaking, rats were in the building and Bridget and Jenny were infected with chicken pox.Later, Aunt Cornelia received a phone call from her mother and she went to visit her in Connecticut.Mary and Gertrude were looking after the children in the absence of Aunt…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This passage, told from the viewpoint of a character, describes said character’s walk to a station. On the way, he encounters a group of dying black people, overworked and starved, as well as a spotless white man. The passage is mainly concerned with giving thorough descriptions of each, and thus establishing a direct contrast between the two appearances.…

    • 1628 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Invisible Man

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As an outstanding student at the premier Negro college in the south, the narrator is given the opportunity and the honor of chauffeuring one of the visiting board members around the town for an afternoon. But when he has a badly-timed lapse in judgment and agrees to show Norton the most unsophisticated regions of the town, he is expelled and sent to New York to “work” and gain funds for tuition, but in reality this is the last he will ever see of the college. However, for the narrator, out of sight doesn’t necessarily mean out of mind as he finds himself often comparing his current life to his days at the college and reflecting upon those fateful hours spent with Norton. Though he once bragged about his “college education”, he comes to realize it’s insignificance in his city life. The mistake resulting in…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I had a sort of detached interest in the whole analysis scene, really. My problems were without exception very tiny. Hardly worth discussing at that point. I saw Jay in particular because I liked him least of any of the [very many] Cleveland clinicians with whom I’d rapped. I found an atmosphere of antagonism vital to the whole process, somehow. Lenore too? No, Lenore had been referred to Jay by a physician, friend of the family, old old crony of her great-grandmother, a physician to whom Lenore had gone with a persistent nosebleed problem. She’d stayed ever since. She found Jay irritating but fascinating. Did I find him fascinating? Actually, I went simply to ride the chairs; I found the chairs fun things. A…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3. Ms. Maudie tells them that her father used to be known as one-shot finch, but he isn’t proud of it because he killed many things and know believes its not right to kill living things.…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prose Notes on "Berry"

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Berry observes that the Home is 'Doc Renfield's own private gyp game' (Hughes, p. 162), meaning that he runs his establishment for his own profit, instead of a desire to take genuine care of the children.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The text under analysis is a story written by O’Henry. His real name is William Sidney Porter and O. Henry is his pen name. O. Henry is an American short-story writer of the late 19th century. He is a representative of realism, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. Typical for O. Henry's stories is a twist of plot which turns on an ironic or coincidental [kəuˌɪn(t)sɪ'dent(ə)l] (випадковий) circumstance. Although some critics were not so enthusiastic about his work, the public loved and loves it. The plots of his stories are clever and interesting, and the end is always surprising. His works include ‘The Four Million’, ‘The Gift of the Magi’, ‘The Furnished Room’, ‘Shoes’, ‘The Last Leaf’ and so on. No matter how many times you read them they always give you the same feeling of freshness. So does the story ‘The Green Door’.…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics