Edgar "Jones" Jones

Virtually no one likes to think of their cradle, their safe haven, to be rocking above an abyss. That's where the monsters are, ready to snatch you up and swallow you into eternal darkness. That darkness, however, is the difference between living and not living, and the cradle, as Vladimir Nabokov depicts it, "is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness" (303). In his essay "Perfect Past", Nabokov crafts a beautifully poetic account of what it means to exist as a human in…

A nonsense word is a word that had no conventionally accepted meaning, or has no set definition. Nonsense words can be used to influence a story line, an overall vocabulary, and a stories literary devices. In the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll and an excerpt from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, nonsense vocabulary is used. Both texts have some vocabulary attributes that make them similar and different to the other. It is important to understand how nonsensical word usage affects different…

After relentless hunting for Jean Veljean over the course of many years, Javert is unable to capture the convict while given multiple opportunities. When adversity hits Javert who is a man of the law in the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, the individual uses suicide as his solution to escape his inability to understand compassion. While everyone in the community has dealt with Javert’s unwavering commitment to the law, the people judge him, as they are unaware of his past which influences…

The Hound of the Baskervilles Book vs. Movie In Victorian England lies one of the greatest authors in the mystery genre, the father of the detective story, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of his best works, was written in 1902. It is in the perspective of Dr. Watson, who is working along with Mr. Sherlock Holmes to try and solve the murder of Sir Charles Baskerville. However, in 2002, one hundred years later, David Atwood directed a…

As a Southern Gothic writer, Flannery O’Connor focuses on the grotesque world of a plethora of characters including Harry/Bevel, Mr. Head, Nelson, and others. The world of Harry/Bevel is particularly interesting because of the way O’Connor mirrors his transition from a sheltered, abstract life to one of harsh reality through art. Quickly, his worldview is shaken by reality and religion as he is exposed to the real world and baptized. Harry/Bevel, with both names, effectively loses his naïve view…

Have you ever read a novel or poem that had characters in them that allowed the characters to show strength during the face of adversity? I have read two novels and a poem where that is the case. The first one is the novel Ethan Forme written by Edith Wharton. Zeena showed strength when she knew her cousin Mattie and husband Ethan were getting way to close with their relationship. But Zeena did not give up. She stayed strong and things worked out for her in the end. In the poem “I Heard A Fly…

realize the man may not be the most reliable narrator. As the story unfolds before us we begin to see the narrator's accounting is fraught with leaps in logic and rampant paranoia, but it is not long until the deeds of the narrator catch up to him. In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", we see the effect of guilt upon the conscience; even with the narrator's tenuous grasp of reality, the guilt of taking another human's life is too much to bare. (Irony) As we jump into the story we receive…

The central irony of Herman Melville’s career is that his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, which is now considered one of the greatest American novels, was almost wholly ignored during the time of its author. Although he might have thought of himself as a complete failure, he came to be one of the greatest American writers. During the American Renaissance period, Melville came to be a great American novelist, short story writer, and poet. While traveling on the remote and stranded sea, Melville writes…

In the pieces “Because I could not stop for Death” and “Gacela of The Dark Death” Emily Dickinson (Dickinson) and Federico Garcia Lorca (Lorca) express the theme of Death in similar ways. Another concept that both authors explore is time and how Death influences the speaker’s perception of it. The figurative language used in these pieces have significant impact on how the subject matter of Death is presented. The symbolic elements of each piece, such as the life cycle also contribute to the…

I would advise my friend to read the story “Adventure” because of its exemplification of a grotesque, its exploration of the “personal truth versus concrete truth” argument, and its title, which is not only significant here but in other short stories as well. Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories, is mostly centered around the concept of a grotesque. A grotesque is established in the first short story as someone who twists a truth and tries to live by it. However, through this process…