While waiting outside a department store, “Ignatius J. Reilly’s supercilious blue and yellow eyes looked down upon the other people… studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste in dress”(4) here the author reveals that Ignatius is arrogant and looks down his nose at the common people and the way they choose to dress.…
While at a family gathering, I sat down with one of my uncles, Dick Talbot. Following the usual informal discourse, he announced, “I’m going to tell you a story.” Always interested in an amusing anecdote, I leaned forward to avoid missing the details. Dick, in his eighties, spoke softer than he had in the past. None of the deficiency, I attributed to the listener’s loss of…
During his childhood, he encountered the kind of men the women in his class didn’t think of to become. He knew the kind of men who labored with their bodies, from marginal farmers to welders, and carpenters. They were the kind of men who were just getting by in life trying to survive. These were the men who worked all day in any kind of weather. Because of working so long around machines they had hard hearing. The skin on their face became to look a lot like “the leather of old work gloves” (169) from all the squinting for not being able to see correctly. “The fathers of my friends always…
Throughout Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” the main character Leonard Mead is at odds with the brain-dead society he lives in. Everyone in society is the same in how they live their lives; they go to work during the day, stay inside and sit in front of the television…
Other than dealing with the elitist society, the story also displays many features of modern literature. The main character’s obsession for material items and desire to gain wealth was another aspect of the story that made it very modernist. At a young age, he thought he was too young to work as a caddy and strived to obtain greater wealth. This was one of the main qualities of characters in the Modernism time.…
While childish insight offers internal serenity, it encloses many hazards inconceivable to those who contain it. Finny processes the capability to notice the finest in others. This, while being an immense strength, is also a crippling Achilles' heel. His predictable attribute to see the paramount in each person, made it impossible for him…
Ignorance and materialism negatively affects humans some way or another, and society only increases these lifestyles. Whether or not we believe it, ignorance and materialism is a daily part in our lives today; thus, we cannot live without it. We try to ease our problems by blindingly accepting society’s norms and trends. Because we cannot formulate our own ideals and ways of life, we live in a false sense of justice and peace. In Tony Hoagland’s “Hard Rain,” the speaker witnesses these faults in our behavior at a shopping mall; however, he, similarly, is not able to escape that reality. The larger meaning of this poem, that we have no sense of individualism and morality, is specified by the author’s usage of diction and the disappointing, humorous, and controversial tone he uses to prove it.…
In a seemingly ironic scenario of a writer writing an essay about his previous disdain for, then love of writing essays, Baker shares his previously antagonistic view of high school English classes and their required assignments. He describes his third-year English teacher, Mr. Fleagle, as “notorious among City students for dullness and inability to inspire” (para. 3). Baker injects a bit of a comical, but slightly annoyed tone when he describes Mr. Fleagle’s appearance and mannerisms, particularly the teacher’s constant use of the phrase “don’t you see” when trying to engage students (para. 6).…
This demonstrates the ideal that information was delicately placed to make the reader respond with sympathy towards Cooke, until its seen how that upbringing effected him mentally. Blackburn then also uses common attitudes to make us dislike Cooke's everyday actions.…
Unassumingly walking down the street, observing people’s mannerisms Clifford heads to the library to write in his daily journal. When arrives, all everything he had in mind to write about vanishes and he’s left staring at a blank screen with nothing to say until now. Conscious of the time, he hesitates and becomes easily distracted by the clinking sound of someone typing adjacent to him. Then all of a sudden he goes for it without thinking whether his thoughts, ideas, and believes are coherent. For the more he thinks of normality and trying to come across as someone who’s intelligent and sustainable, the more he wants to puke. For the truth is; Clifford is marginally insane. In other words, he’s not quite the true shilling and moreover, he…
Negative personal judgments about others are often made to feed the ego or to us feel better about our limitations. Every person is guilty of judging others; it is done every day mindlessly. Miss Brill is no exception. In Mansfield’s short story, she goes to the park every Sunday setting in judgment of everyone that crosses her path. Miss Brill labels those she observes as “old” or “odd” and their clothes she describes as “dreadful,” “funny,” and “shabby.” (x) Miss Brill see herself as better than those around her—they were the oddities. That is until a “beautifully dressed” girl laughs and makes fun of how Miss Brill is dressed, the girl says, “It’s her fu-ur which is funny, it’s exactly like a fried whiting.” (x) The girl’s judgement is turn toward Miss Brill like a mirror, shattering the inner image she has of herself. Miss Brill is left sad and deflated. (X) Countless afternoon quietly spent critically judging others, Miss Brill never thought to examine herself. The world would be a better place if everyone paused to look at their own faults before pointing out the faults of…
Generalization: The main idea here is that the ‘everyman’ or average Joe is unremarkable and lives a life of quiet desperation under the veneer of normalcy.…
Men have a dream to improve their lives and better their social status but each…
“You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,” she went on in a convinced way. “Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’vebeen everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated—God I’m sophisticated!” (21).…
The author makes use of formal language but also incorporates colloquial elements. He is distinguished by his eloquence. Combining an elevated style with colloquial language gives a comic effect. The text varies in the use of simple and complex sentence construction. The text is written in an ironic style and contains many…