Grammatical tense

A 2011 article by Nancy Bombaci addresses the possibility the famous author, Gertrude Stein, having autism. Bombaci states that Stein is often referred to as a “loose cannon,” and claims that many of her writings occur in a style which matches the speech pattern of those with autism. Whether or not Stein actually has autism, however, it not stated. Autism typically causes extremely specific character traits, being hyper-attention and intelligence. Though autism has different effects on…

What would literature be, had every author used the same perspective for every single story? Literature would not be as well received as it currently is received. Take three American short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” for example. These stories, by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman respectively, each utilize a different point of view. The perspective of a story heavily influences the emotional impact of the…

Magical realism is “… characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusions of fantastic or mythical elements into apparently realistic fiction” (Edison). Characteristics of this genre include plentitude, hybridity, metafiction, and an unreliable narrator. A story that shows magical realism is “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez. Márquez is recognized as one of the best authors who combines reality with fantasy: “… García Márquez, combining radically different realities, what…

When considering a story such as The Immortals, one must take into account not only the contents, characters and setting of the story, but the manner in which it is told, and the perspective by which it is narrated. All of these components are certainly full of importance, but all of them must be valued equally or the balance would tip and fall crashing down from the point all the best stories, like The Immortals, strive to reach. Unfortunately, there is a surprising amount of rather irritable…

When I was younger, my mom would rent out our basement room to single people she would work with in the military. I personally loved it because it meant that there were more people around I could harass into playing with me. However, I was always confused when I would hear my grandparents berate my mother on letting “those people” into our home. I remained confused, until I asked my mother what they meant, and why they were so angry. My mother described to me how “old fashioned” my grandparents…

Gender divides nearly everything, from colors to toys. The simple mention of the color pink conjures images of numerous ideas and stereotypes associated with girls, while blue creates the same for boys. In her article for The Huffington Post, Sarah Aoun discusses the extension of this division into the sector of technology in higher education and beyond. The opening of her article works to establish the presence of a pronounced lack of women in the tech field, Aoun then takes the reader through…

as she thought. However, the writers present the stories in different points of view, to give the readers a smoother reading experience. Another way the stories differ to convey either hope or hopelessness is through mood. In his story, Finney uses tense words and descriptions, and then a simple and complete ending to give a feeling of hope and a changed life. Collier, on the other hand, runs her entire story with a morose tone to help the reader understand the hopelessness of living as an…

In Atwood’s “Happy Endings” the slightest factor like age, job, and personality can change the outcome of a story but no matter what, the ending will always be the same. Her choice of narrative helps us to focus on the changing scenarios of the story that eventually lead to the same ending. She alternates through second and third person point of view, to lead us through the story. Regardless of the way the story starts eventually all the characters die, so in “Happy Endings” the most important…

I am creating this lesson for my 7th Grade Reading Class; there are 15-20 students per class period. I currently, do not have any EL students in my classroom; however, I do have a range of student abilities in my classroom. About 15% of my student body qualifies for special education. As a result, using the knowledge-building cycle would benefit all my students. Therefore, this is why I am creating this knowledge-building cycle plan to incorporate in my actual classroom. Identify a list of…

Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Once in a Lifetime” is about a girl, named Hema, talking to a teenage boy Kaushik about what happened when he entered her life again. The story is written like a letter by older Hema from a future time to Kaushik, who is not present. We don’t know what happened to him and she is writing this letter to him. The most important part of this story is that Jhumpa Lahiri uses the first and second person perspective to tell the story which helps the reader to feel familiar with the…