Brad Watson’s “The Misses Moses” follows the narrator as he seeks to rent a room from two odd spinster sisters. As the story progresses, strange yet subtle observations made by the narrator as well as the lack of clarification surrounding what led to the narrator’s current circumstances add to the quiet atmosphere of the story. Through the usage of ambiguity, subtly delivering or withholding details, and tactful character development and descriptions, Watson crafts a quiet yet intriguing story…
Six stories and two different authors. The question you might be asking is, “What do these stories and authors all have in common?” The common themes amongst these short stories will go against each other to argue the themes of Devotion and Prayer, Love and Passion, and finally Dreams, Hopes, and Plan. In the first comparison between “Little Miracles, Kept Promises” and “Mrs. Sin,” the common theme between the two short stories is Dreams, Hopes, and Plans. In both of these stories, the authors…
When watching movies and reading books, there are often many comparisons that can be made throughout. One example of this is seen in the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles and the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society. Although there are a vast amount of similarities between these two works, there are three prevailing comparisons between the characters. They include: the comparisons between Neil Perry and Finny, Todd Anderson and Gene Forrester, and finally, Neil’s father (Mister Perry) and…
Susan Engel shares a variety of psychological ideas in an excerpt from her book, “Then and Now: Creating a Self Through the Past.” These ideas include “the extended self,” “screen memories,” and “template memories,” which are concepts that can be helpful in analyzing personal development. As example of the process of analysis is offered by Barry Lopez, who reflects his extended self and memories in his memoir, “A Passage of the Hands.” Various stories of his hands are used to register the…
Have you ever thought about the deeper meaning of a story? Have you ever looked beyond the horizon right in front of you? If not, the short stories “Contents of a Dead Man’s” Pockets by Jack Finney, “The Leap” by Louise Erdrich, and “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, all have their additions that contribute to the deeper level intended. This can be created through the topics of setting, conflict, characters, and theme. These topics help make up the plot of each story as well as the conflict and…
Borges’ “The Mirror of Ink” embodies the essence of a quintessential moral anecdote. Brief, deliberate and insightful, “The Mirror of Ink” certainly asserts to its readership a particular set of lessons and imperatives but, as the title implies, there is a complex and nuanced ambiguity to the content of Borges’ short story. The title of this piece is something of an oxymoron. A mirror is by nature a pure reflective surface. Ink, conversely, is muddled and opaque. A mirror of ink seems…
In the beginning of the chapter one of Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts, by Joseph Harris, he tells of how Pierre Menard rewrote Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes as a joke to show the readers that “to understand a text you need, in a way, to rewrite it, to take the ideas and phrasings of its author and turn them into your own. Text simply reveal their meanings to us: we need to make sense of them.”(Harris 15) This is one of the key points Harris is trying to instill in the readers of his…
In the crucible it shows how two people can have opposing views and each having valid points, but at the end they can both be wrong. In this analysis I will describe three different points about the crucible. Many moments throughout this book where you see this type of stuff. It's something not only seen in the book and is also seen in real life moments. Many people encounter these type of things because everyone thinks they're right, but in reality and at the end of the day they're wrong. It's…
2) The narrator's point of view is in the third person. Catch-22 is centered on the main character, Yossarian; the reader is aware of his thoughts and Yossarian is informed of other characters thoughts. 3) The tone portrayed in Catch-22 is satirical. The attitude is demonstrated by the author exaggerating characters ludicrous qualities and using self-contradictory statements. 4) Rome, Italy, and the island off the coast, Pianosa is where Catch-22 takes place. Catch-22 is during World War II…
The Perfect Setting When telling a story how do you start? Do you jump right into the main events, or do you lay out the setting for the person to get a mental image of the action taking place? The setting plays a major aspect to a story, it can become boring if you do not understand the time, place, or atmosphere the story took place in. In Kate Chopin’s short story, The Storm the setting plays a major role. The setting portrays more than where The Storm takes place, the atmosphere, weather,…