Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson,” illustrates the unequal distribution of wealth in America which causes the protagonist, Sylvia, to lose her innocence and reevaluate the social class spectrum she lives in. Miss Moore, who is the only person with a college degree in the area, wants to teach Sylvia and the other children a life-changing lesson in an outing to a toy store. From the group of children, Sylvia shows she is a naïve and stubborn child who does not value anyone’s opinion. However, she becomes a different character who changes perspective on the economic world.…
The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations – noble or selfish – to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the book opens, Addie is alive, though in ill health. Addie and others expect her to die soon, and she sits at a window watching her firstborn, Cash, build her coffin.…
Essay over Okay For Now Okay For Now is written by Gary D. Schmidt and it is a story about a kid whose dad made him and his family move to Marysville. The main character of the story is Doug Swieteck and he doesn't want to move to Marysville but they have to. His dad named Mr. Swieteck is not a nice dad…
A Lesson Before Dying Grant Wiggins has a responsibility to his Aunt Tante Lou and Miss Emma because he cares for them and wants their approval even if Grant does not realize it at the beginning of the novel. Miss Emma’s godson, Jefferson, is in jail because he “supposedly” killed someone. Jefferson goes to his trail where his lawyer calls him a hog. ‘“What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentleman?…
Throughout the novel of “The Damage Done” Warren Fellow’s experiences and hardships he finds himself faced with cause on-going anguish both mentally and physically. These aspects of his unjust life in prison and the events preceding convince Warren into believing that his punishment was not justified, or even remotely equal to his crimes that led to his arrest. There are multiple excerpts from book that can confirm and justify his beliefs of unjust incarceration. One of them includes a quote from page 137 that follows, “Suddenly, my punishment seemed way out of proportion and I couldn’t see the lesson that was to be learned. How much suffering was I to go through before the world agreed that I had paid my price?”…
In the Story A Lesson Before Dying, two main characters Jefferson and Grant learn many crucial things about themselves and overcome the brutal racism of rural Louisiana. In the beginning Jefferson is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and because he was black they assumed he did it. Grant Wiggins, a local teacher in the community, is told to go to the jail and convince Jefferson that he is man, and is important. At first he doesn’t know how to make Jefferson see that even though things are not good,there is still good in him.…
In the novel As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, the main family structure is slowly crumbling. From even before the mother dies, the other family members began to struggle. They start losing their hope and their positions in the family dynamic. Many outside observers notice this, but one person particular connects with an upset family member. Tull's monologues help the reader gain an outside view on the family structure and the internal pressures specifically with his view on Vardaman.…
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is an absurdist comedy that follows the Bundren family on their journey to the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi to bury the deceased matriarch of the family, Addie. Addie’s husband, Anse, and their five children of varying ages traverse the countryside to Jefferson to fulfill Addie’s dying wish of being buried alongside her family in town; however, each character has his or her own personal motive for going on the trip. Fifteen individual characters narrate the book, the most common of which is Addie’s second oldest son, Darl. There are several characters who question the sanity of Darl Bundren.…
“As I Lay Dying” is a fictional story told by a multitude of characters about a woman named Addie, a shy, somewhat stubborn, frail mother whom the story revolves around, being brought to her final resting place by her compassionate family, the Bundrens; fulfilling her last wish. The story occurred in the state of Mississippi on a small countryside. Anse, Addie’s spiritual yet clumsy husband, guaranteed her desire would be fulfilled; whether she is dead or alive. Addie’s family wasn’t entirely prepared to transport her; three dollars were still needed, and until someone earned that money, relationships with one another were getting worse. Sadly, Addie died before her expedition began.…
Insanity and Narration: an Analysis of Darl Bundren As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is told from the perspectives of fifteen different characters. Some have just one monologue. Others have several. The lengths all vary from five words to several pages.…
A Not-So-Silver Lining The stigma of mental illness is as follows: crazy eyes, a lot of violence, mood swings every two seconds, and not a lot of friends and family to help. But, there are multiple factors and explanations for why a person is the way they are, and why they developed the mental illness that they did. Pat Solitano, a middle-aged white man with a lot of great qualities, was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He had a wife, a great job as a high school history teacher, and was living comfortably in the middle class.…
As I Lay Dying can be considered an incongruous comedy, with irony playing the key role in creating the humor present in the piece. Though the catalyst for the story is the death of a main character, and though the title in itself suggests a morbid theme, there are moments that allow for the reader to laugh throughout the entire novel. The grotesqueness of the central idea and the way in which the Bundren family pursues Addie’s last wish is laughable, at times. In a critical essay, “Schroeder also discusses the novel in relation to the ‘frustrated funeral,’ a type of Southwestern story that used humor to reduce death to comic and manageable proportions” (As). Faulkner presents an incongruous comedy.…
Every team has a universal goal for success. Every team desires to operate at optimum performance. Through a fictional account, Patrick Lencioni illustrates how talented teams fail to be successful. Lencioni identifies five defective traits of that will impede upon the achievement of teams. Additionally, Lencioni offers ways to remedy the situation.…
Often in literature, characters embark on a physical journey from one place to another and along the way, they are usually presented with obstacles that they must overcome to reach their final destination. These obstacles along the journey give insight into who the characters truly are as well as offering unique bonding experiences for those taking the journey. In the end, they will usually reveal their true personality, grow as characters or grow closer to those accompanying them on the journey. This is not the case in William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying. The characters behave quite differently than traditional literary characters in that they don’t grow wiser by the end of the journey.…
The Many Faces of Alice Alice Lee Hudson, while technically not the main character of her featured film, is the primary subject of which the movie is based around. Surprisingly enough, John Carpenter’s The Ward stars everyone but Alice as the women of North Bend Psychiatric Hospital fight for their lives against an unknown demonic entity. As each of the girls begin disappearing from their ward one by one, it is revealed that the aforementioned entity is actually Alice and that the other patients are nothing but delusions representing the various pieces of her fractured personality. The main problem Alice faces from the experiences depicted in the film is her ability to remain in control of her own body, ultimately finding herself overpowered…