Literary Essay Life experiences can change people for the better or for the worst. It seems that life experience makes people the way that they are. For the main character Beth her life experience during the story changed her life. In “The Truth About Sharks” is a realistic fiction story by Joan Bauer.…
Have you spent your life on things that make it worth living? Are you simply existing in this life or are you living in it? Anna Quindlen in her Commencement Address at Villanova College forces us to ask ourselves these questions as she leaves long lasting imprints in the minds of the attendees and graduates. Quindlen’s use of rhetorical devices, personal stories, and quotes helps her express her main points, that one must make their life worth living and that life should never be taken for granted because there are so many things to live for. Throughout Qundlen’s speech she uses all three of the appeals to create a connection with her audience.…
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”, Jackie Robinson. Imagine doing something where your actions have an influence on someone else. Most people do almost everything without stopping and considering the consequences. People should be more conscious of their actions because they can affect people negatively, just like the events of 911 and drunk driving.…
Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down addresses experiences and decisions we may all relate to in some degree through the narrative of a journalist. It offers a different perspective and insightfulness that has been used as an acceptable resource on teaching cultural competence. As a passive reader, our understanding of cultural competence has grown more humanistic, because we feel the healthcare provider’s frustration and their concerns becoming more salient, while we see how a breakdown in communication, can have heartbreaking results as felt by the Lees. I think the book’s by-product is a lesson in cultural competence that can educate health care, but it is also a story that is much more dynamic as it reflects upon the sociopolitical…
The narrative voice of Junot Diaz "Drown" depicts on how the protagonist has a collective amount of strained relationships who are physically and mentally drowning him. Having no father, to selling illegal substances in order to help his mother pay the phone and cable bill to address his engagement of homosexual activities with his former best friend Beto. The argument the protagonist illustrates indicates how it's preventing him from achieving success. The antagonist (Beto) distinguished everything he hated about the neighborhood to put everything in perspective for the narrator in which he "needed to learn how to walk the world he told me. There's a lot more out there."…
In a world of digitally edited photography and Photoshop masters, Polaroid pictures have once more become a trend. The instantaneous image of life unabridged appeals because it refuses to portray life through any rose-colored or edited lens, instead allowing memory to appreciate the sanctity of returning to a moment lost. However, through this nostalgia, the brain crops and edits the photograph just as one would on a computer, freezing the moment in memory as better, brighter, and more beautiful than it ever was in life. E. B. White reflects upon this phenomenon in his memoir “Once More to the Lake,” elaborating upon the nature of time, memory, and the human’s perception of reality. Through a heartfelt story about his experience at a lake with…
When it comes to the topic of laws, most of us will readily agree that breaking the laws is unjust. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if there is ever a time when a law can acceptably be broken. Whereas some are convinced that laws should never be broken, others maintain that there are some instances where laws should be broken. Socrates and Antigone would agree with the statement that disobeying laws is never the answer. Likewise, I have always believed that breaking the laws should be punishable and should never be done.…
“Drown” During different stages in their lives humans tend to go through a multitude of struggles that they sometimes are able to find a resolution at the end of them. In “Drown” by Junot Diaz, the narrator is dealing with his struggle of finding his identity .The narrator shows his inner struggle of finding his identity through expressing his experience about his detachment from this mother, his issues with his father and jealousy between him and his friend. This struggle is one that is common with much of the youth in poverty stricken America today who are forced to have no kind of parental engagement within their lives.…
The introduction Boy Overboard, is a highly realistic fiction/child's literature book, that was released in 2002 by Morris Gleitzman, who wanted to recreate the story of a family escaping from to go to Australia, in the most realistic way possible. In this moving tale, Jamal and his family who live in one of the millions of villages in Afghanistan are force to leave. Jamal's mother has been running secret school for a while, and just like many other things in Afghanistan, it's illegal and doing such a crime can end up costing you your life. So when the evil government finds out about this “school”, the family are forced to desperately flee for their lives.…
The short story “The Champ” written by T.C. Boyle is about a young man that has been the champion and set multiple records. As strange as competitive eating may sound there are people that actually enjoy watching and/ or be apart of the contest. In “ The Champ” Boyle gives the reader an insight from the main character’s perspective. The story is about Angelo D., the main character, and how he starts the short story off as the champ. Although he begins as the champ with a variety of records set, Kid Gullet (Angelo’s challenger) is swiftly coming to snatch the crown from Angelo.…
In Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air, he teaches the reader that although time is limited and death is inevitable, life can still be meaningful and have a purpose, even if it is as simple as helping an individual find the strength to overcome whatever hardships they may be forced to face. The beginning of the book starts off with Paul reflecting on what death is and what it means. In one event at the beginning of his book, years before being diagnosed with lung cancer, he was working as doctor and helping a pregnant woman who was having distress with her unborn twins. The twins ended up being born prematurely and since there was a lack of development in their organs, neither newborn survived longer than twenty-four hours.…
In the short story Going, the author Amy Hempel writes about a man who was in a car accident that caused him to remember certain smells that linked to specific memories and experiences. All the memories and smells that come back to the character are ones that revolve around death. In the short story the author’s main subject is death and how hard that topic can be. Some individuals tend to be careless and do not see the potential hazards until after they cause damage while other are vigilant. The author utilizes concepts of death, sarcasm, irony, paradoxes, and symbolism throughout the short story to reveal that death may seem far but in reality it’s inevitably close.…
A Guy Who makes Monsters When most people think of Stephen King they think horror. Though he has written many short stories and novel based on horror, he writes many different genera’s except romance. Based on his biographical information it will help readers understand why this is. In Kings’ western themed story “A Death” Jim Trusdale is arrested for the murder of a young girl and for stealing her silver birthday dollar. This story takes place in Black Hills, Dakota.…
Everyone will experience death in their lifetime. This idea is shown in The Stranger by Albert Camus. The book explains how many will recieve life out of death. Through Meursault’s observations, Camus’ The Stranger demonstrates that for Meursault to find his meaning of life, he must observe his physical surroundings.…
As I reflect on my personal life I value life itself to the point I live each day not knowing what to expect the next day. Positivity is a major factor in all that I do to the point of trying to view all things in a positive way and leaving the negativity out the door. As a mother, partner, educator, and entrepreneur I strive to be mindful, spiritual, and conscious of all my actions. I value these things because this is what makes up my life and what I live for each day. My life is a fourth generation person and I relate because I “want to live, love, learn, and leave it like a seed with balance and joy" (Covey, 73) the quality of my life is more important than planning it out.…