In this case Samantha is also an outsider looking in at the culture at Abercrombie & Fitch.…
The novel All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, is an intricately written story about two young adults during World War II. The two main characters Werner and Marie-Laure come from extremely different lives. Marie-Laure is a blind 16 year old girl who lives in a nice house in France with her dad. Werner is an orphan who lives with Jutta, his sister, who is the only person in his family he knows of. This book tells the story of how these characters that come from seemingly unrelated worlds cross paths in the most unexpected way. These characters are brought together by an item that plays a crucial role in this story; the radio. The radio is an item that plays a major role in Werners life. Although it may seem like just another piece…
The book, All The Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr, is often described as a quite riveting novel to read. The book highlights many of the hardships which people experienced during World War II. The story takes place in Saint-Malo, France. Saint-Malo is a first described as peaceful and serene, but later on known as the epitome of destruction. The author showcases the epic destruction of civilizations throughout the book by using many unique writing techniques to engage the reader’s attention. To begin with, The author depicts the events in the novel through the perspective of a physically blind girl, Marie Laure, and a figuratively blind boy, Werner Pfennig. The book manages to effectively explain the life stories of the two main characters,…
The Grotesque Old Woman, by Renaissance painter, Quinten Metsys illustrates an old and unattractive woman of the 16th century. Her voluptuous, weathered breasts are on displayed and her headdress is one of astute fashion of an earlier German period and her eloquent dress and corset are fashionable to Italy in this time period. Her aged hands hold a small and delicate red bud, a symbol of engagement, and her slightly lifted chin is of poised position. All of this beauty and detailed is over shadowed with the features of a rather controversial “ugliness.”…
Imagine waking up in the morning, opening your eyes and being greeted not with the familiarity of your bedroom ceiling, but with darkness. Naturally you’d be startled, but once you got past the initial shock, you’d be able conjure up an image of your bedroom from your imagination, clumsily bump your way through the room, and generally navigate through the house, right? Of course you would. The blind are not helpless, and can sometimes “see” more than we can. But wait- if you can’t see, how did you know where your bed was? Where the wall was? Or the door? Anthony Doerr, the author of All the Light We Cannot See, uses Marie-Laure, a young blind girl, to help illustrate one of the main themes in his book -that light and substance only truly exists in your head- with an extensive use of metaphors and descriptions.…
Patria, one of the brave Mirabal sisters, goes through the most drastic life-changing battle. Patria struggles to overcome the tragedy of having a miscarriage and is overwhelmed with emptiness. Patria’s strong insecurities reveal themselves as she buries herself in sorrow and sadness struggling to come to terms with her loss. Patria still continues on but hides to protect herself. Although she loses her identity, she hides it from her community: “…a model Catholic wife and mother. I fooled them all! Yes, for a long time after losing my faith, I went on, making believe” (Alvarez 55). Still known in her community as a good Catholic wife and mother, Patria hides her loss of identity to others and projects toward society an image condoning her oppressive struggles, but inside she was “an empty house.” She goes on living the life expected of her, as she resumes her duties and puts on a good face over her broken heart. Patria represents the fears and insecurities we all portray when faced with challenges. She foreshadowed the rest of the people of the Dominican…
An unwieldy adversary that has hindered mankind for all time is a variation of psychological conditions and illnesses, a couple being: depression and anorexia nervosa. In fact, psychological illnesses grow quickly in numbers-- nearly appearing as a norm in today’s society. These issues and true obstacles are pertinent in two works of literature such as: William Shakespeare’s’ playwright, “Hamlet” and “Elena Vanishing: a memoir” by Elena and Clare B. Dunkle. Hamlet’s behavior and thoughts exemplified several symptoms of depression; similarly, Elena made a futile attempt to uphold her unrelenting façade while battling for dominion over her own body.…
The text is a short story by Zora Neale Hurston describing a little girl filled with joy and is constantly doing things that she wants without letting the color of her skin hold her back from living her childhood days to the fullest. The short story was first published December of 1924 in an issue of Opportunity. The reader would most likely be someone who reads issues published from Opportunity or someone who was looking for articles, poems, and short stories related to African-American studies and literary pieces related to the Harlem Renaissance. The author is a prizewinner for her short story Drenched in Light. Hurston made her debut in the Harlem Renaissance with that same prize winning short story. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, which…
“As you practice separating from Ed , you will begin to make room for your own opinion—creating an opportunity for you to disagree with Ed.” (Schaefer 9). The self-help book Life Without Ed by author Jenni Schaefer about recovering from an eating disorder, or Ed, examines different steps in the process of recovery and opens the eyes of the readers to how horrific an eating disorder is, illustrating what living with an eating disorder is repetitive like. Though it seems impossible, Schaefer gives hope looking toward a goal of recovery. Carrying a thematic portrayal of the difficult task of letting go of pride, along with the slow, but sure process of disobeying an eating disorder and exploring how anorexia affects the body and mind, this piece delivers a message that not giving up is the most important thing in recovery. Staying the course through the worst of times is the only way to beat the life-threatening anorexia.…
The protagonist of the story, Connie, is a vain, “typical” teenage girl, looking for attention, especially from the opposite sex. Constantly “…craning her neck to glance in mirrors” (614), she often considered her appearance and how she looked to others to be a matter of extreme, if not most, importance.…
In the novel The Edible Woman, author Margaret Atwood tackles the difficult subject of anorexia nervosa. Although this subject is often handled with kid gloves by many writers, Atwood’s novel candidly addresses how different food related stigmas affect the main character’s day to day existence. In the late 1960's, young women faced a society that expected them to conform to certain qualities in both appearance and demeanor. The portrayal of young women in popular movies, television and music of the time period led to internal conflicts among women who struggled to achieve the norm put forth by society. Young women everywhere were convinced they needed to look and act like Marcia Brady and turn into Carol Brady even if meant sacrificing their…
History has seen its fair share of technological innovations that were significant and impactful to the people and society of that time period. These advancements in technology brought about monumental changes, for good and for worse. An example of a noteworthy innovation was Johann Gutenberg’s printing press. During the Renaissance, the printing press played a key role in the spreading of new ideas. The use of roads was a technological innovation as well. During the reign of the Roman Empire, roads impacted humankind in multiple aspects of life, such as trade and transportation. After the study of the printing press during the Renaissance, and roads of the Roman Empire, one could make an argument that each was a significant technological innovation and had effects on their respective time periods.…
It’s here in a student’s journal, a blue confession in smudged, erasable ink: “I can’t stop hoping I’ll wake up, suddenly beautiful,” and isn’t it strange how we want it, despite all we know? To be at last the girl in the photography, cobalt-eyed, hair puddling like cognac, or the one stretched at the ocean’s edge, curved and light-drenched, more like a beach than the beach. I confess I have longed to stalk runways, leggy, otherworldly as a mantis, to balance a head like a Fabergé egg on the longest, most elegant neck. Today in the checkout line, I saw a magazine claiming to know “How to Find the Perfect Dress for that Perfect Evening,” and I felt the old pull, flare of the pilgrim’s twin flames, desire and faith. At fifteen, I spent weeks at the search.…
Creatine. Check. Arginine. Check. Protein powder. Check. Enzymes. Che . . . wait, what was that last one?…
His job—human labeling, assigning colors to every individual: white, black, red and yellow. He knew full well the importance of such identification, for in the society where these humans are to be assigned, color coding, also known as racial classification, is critical because it constructs access to power, prestige, and economic gain. In this system, race is a social institution and arrangement, classifying labor, housing, and political representation along racial lines, thereby allowing one to produce and reproduce real-life differences (Glen 14). Unfortunately, his once perfect human labeling system malfunctioned when the black and white colors began to mix. This malfunction caused havoc within the assigned structured and segregated society.…