Carol Shields

“The Grasshopper and the bell cricket” by Yasunari Kawabata is a short story which is told by an isolated narrator who looks in on the situation before him and then communicates to us in the first person. Kawabata makes use of this narrator to communicate themes of alienation, lost love, deception and the nature of time. Themes such as these are very relevant in the lives of ordinary, everyday people and carry much weight in them. The fact that Kawabata is able to capture so much reality in the…

Going, Where Have You Been,” American writer, Joyce Carol Oates, introduces the readers to naïve Connie, a self-absorbed teenage girl, who refuses to comply to her mother’s wishes and live up to her responsible older sister, June. Oates skillfully implements the fictional element of symbolism, connecting an object to an underlying meaning in a way to represent ideas or qualities, in order to stress her message to the readers of her work. Joyce Carol Oates emphasizes the significance family will…

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” captures the horror of loneliness and isolation in the heart of a community. Emily Grierson is an out-worldly and unwanted presence in the town of Jefferson, encompassing all the opposite values of the place and time she was living in. She represents the old, aristocratic world, forever in conflict with the modern values and fast-paced new generations, from which she retreated under an impenetrable shell. What is interesting about Emily Grierson is that she…

Well used imagery can be as vivid as a one million paintings. Kate Chopin uses imagery throughout many of her timeless short stories. Kate Chopin was a short story author based out of Louisiana. Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, MO and later died on August 22, 1904. Throughout her life Chopin was a very well-known women’s rights activist. Kate Chopin was also very against the abuse and enslavement of African Americans. Chopin uses amazing imagery throughout the short story…

Have you ever been in a situation where you are eager to protect your friend, but helping yourself is more important? Would you throw your friends under the bus to save your name, or would you sacrifice it and be selfless? In the play, The Crucible, seventeen-year-old Mary Warren struggles with this idea.. Mary is described as a subservient, lonely, and naive girl. (Act I) Mary Warren lives in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600’s. At the beginning of the play, Mary and her friends are accused…

Southern Gothic Literature is a genre of literature that takes place in the south, usually dealing with twisted and despondent elements. Existing “in a crummy little sh-ttown in Alabama, called Woodstock,” as John B. McLemore calls it, is “S-Town,” a podcast with narration by Brian Reed. Instead of being a classic piece of Southern Gothic Literature, “S-Town” grasps themes that make it into a more modern and contemporary piece of Southern Gothic Literature, which lets people relate with it.…

Australian Author, Tim Winton’s collection of short stories titled, ‘The Turning’, Includes 17 short stories connected through themes, locations and characters. Winton’s fascinating stories allow the reader to make connections between themselves, charterers and locations. Three short stories that hold a strong connection between the reader and the action of the stories, ‘On her knees’, ‘Damaged Goods’ and ‘Long clear view’. Throughout the engaging, descriptive short story, ‘On her knees’, Tim…

believe that among them is a murderer responsible for the deaths of the guests. Eventually, each of the characters dies, which is why the novel is called And Then There Were None. On the other hand, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, follows a fifteen year old girl named Connie…

Reader Reflection Two In this story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oats a character name Connie is a self-absorbed 15-year-old blonde haired girl with her hormones going wild. She does not see eye to eye with her mother. Connie loves to go to the movies and to the drive-through to flirt with older men. Connie decides to ditch her friends to talk with the boy she likes. When she leaves to go to his car another man, which we find out later his name is Arnold Friend,…

one of the characters once mentioned, “I know what the world can do to a girl who only sees beauty in it.” Behind these lines there is real life significance. In this critical analysis, a short story, Where are you going, Where have you been? Joyce Carol Oates infuses a setting and imagery and allegory to convey her message of real life’s situation of a teenager’s loss of innocence, rape and murder. In her short story, the author took…