Burn After Reading

In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan discusses a recent discovery about the variations of the English language she has experienced. Throughout, she compares the English she uses when speaking with her mother to the English she had acquired in school. As a result, Tan describes her ability to shift from one dialect to the other. While Tan states that she does not often detect the differences while speaking, she has become aware of them in recent years. Her recollection of her childhood perception of the…

How often do we recognise ourselves in a book that we are reading? How often do we realise that we actually face the same challenges as its protagonist? This realisation happens quite frequently, especially when we stray far afield in our reading. One famous writer once said: "Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self" (Kafka). His name was Franz Kafka, and he was struggling with social anxiety, which resulted in him being an unhappy man who believed in…

Women in Literature class granted the students an open door towards a new world of literature, teaching students the importance behind each reading, specially the importance and identification of objective correlatives which can be found in every piece discussed throughout the class. “Objective correlative” is the way to express emotions through the usage of objects or events that share the burden of sentiments. Placing an object instead of an feeling or idea can sometimes be the right way to…

Salinger. It follows protagonist Holden Caulfield over a period of a few days, after his dismissal from school. The book explores many themes, including adolescence, angst, alienation, suicide, sex, drugs and alcohol, mental health and love among others. It is from the point of view of Holden, a sixteen or seventeen year old, who doesn't…

I don't feel that I have a very solid understanding of literacy, but these are some basic definitions of what I think about it. Literacy is the ability to read and write and can be assessed at various levels. Writing is a means of communication of ideas or emotions to either another person or an audience of people. Anyone can write for a multitude of reasons, given that they know how to physically write or speak. Some people are published authors or online bloggers, and others just write for…

SLUG The Homeless Snail INTRODUCTION I am writing this introduction… Why am I writing this myself, you may well ask,…… alright I will tell you anyway, I don’t know any famous authors who would write it for me, in fact, I don’t know any authors and why would I, I don’t read very much and actually I’m not very keen on books and since I don’t read their books why would they read mine or introduce it. I remember, as a child, somebody asking me if I would like a book for my birthday, I replied, “I…

“Early nineteenth century adults looked on childhood almost entirely as a time of preparation for adult life.” (MacLeod, 1992). When it comes to reading books, children usually choose what is based on their age and interests, whether they are girls or boys. Children read books differently, however writers don’t actually write books that are made to be read by only girls or only boys. It is important to know how books are seen from different sides and perspectives. In the nineteenth century,…

what else I’ve seen. Books and movies are great, people have different thoughts and they may have their ups and downs but both are amazing storytellers. You imagine in a book, watch in a movie but who knows what you can come up with when you are reading a book. Everyone has read a book and seen a movie: think of the differences that they have. If you have seen a movie and a book from the same story you know they are different. If there was no music and no books that are attractive would they be…

In learning English, there are four basic skills that should be mastered by everyone. Those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening is the one of the most important language skills and also foundation of all human communication. “Listening is the ability to identify and understand what other saying” (Saricoban,1999). Listening plays an important role in building communication skill, as well as we know; communication is a part of human’s daily activity. Teacher as the facilitator…

Jennine Capó Crucet, the author of the book, Make Your Home Among Strangers, came to Elon University to talk at the common reading lecture. Make Your Home Among Strangers was the book that all incoming first year students had to read for their classes. Her speech revolved around her book and how the story really came alive in her life. Her book was about a girl, who dealt with many struggles of being a minority, a first generation college student, moving away from home, school troubles, problems…