In Our Time

The themes of alienation and isolation complement and essentially go hand-in-hand with the role nature serves in Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and more specifically in the realm of the short story “Big Two-Hearted River.” In several of the short stories concerning him, Nick Adams constantly retreats to nature to find a quiet place of reflection and self-examination, most commonly expressed in the act of fishing; these moments of isolation are those in which Hemingway pays great attention in…

the people face everyday and how they overcome it with courage. One way challenges contribute to their poverty is when the monsoon comes and destroys their income. Nathan says, “...but if the land is gone our livelihood is gone…” (Markandaya 15) Rukmani and Nathan maintain courage during the time of no food or work by uplifting each other. Even though the family becomes destitute because of the storm they rise up because of a good harvest afterward. The second way challenges interfere with the…

Lermontov’s novel A Hero Of Our Time depicts the life of the antihero Pechorin, who is consumed by his existential ennui. His travels lead him to many different women, whom he regards only as sexual conquests. One of Pechorin’s lovers, Bela, is mistreated and manipulated by him and the men around her and is heavily objectified by society. She is traded like a chattel and is expected to submit to men. This essay will analyze how Lermontov slowly objectifies her to nothing more than a ‘doll’ (32)…

In Our Town, the geography of the book enhances its message. Right in the first paragraph, we are given the longitude and latitude of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, which is where the play is set. These coordinates give us a lot of detail about the setting. We know that it is in New England, an area that experiences all four seasons. The seasons correspond with the theme of the book about how fast time passes. The spring corresponds with the beginning of life, while the fall corresponds with…

Algona High School’s production of “Our Town” by playwright Thornton Wilder shows that life in itself is beautiful and interesting, but that humans take it for granted every day. This is shown by the activities of everyday people living in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire. This play shows that even the most mundane tasks and daily activities are still valuable and significant in life, and that though you may not see the end coming, it will come, and that this life we have is transient. The first…

and not having enough time to relax; for those reasons, I believe that spare time is a crucial part of my American Dream. Most people who spend a majority of their day working are not truly happy; they wish they had just a little more time to relax and be with their spouses and children. It seems as if now more than ever we have less time to relax: ?Despite the fact that leisure time is less abundant than it was a century ago, many people are thus pressured to find enough time to relax and…

In the play, Our Town, there are numerous characters which have their own unique personalities and meet different fates. The character that stuck out to me was Joe Crowell, Jr. He is the town’s paperboy and is a star student. The stage manager then informs the audience of his death. Joe in the future will be killed in France during World War I. This character stuck out to me because of how I could relate to the characters monotonous daily routine as a paperboy. In my own life, I have a daily…

life in his play Our Town. Unlike most plays, Wilder strips the scenery, set, and props bare in Our Town to elevate the greatness of the simple and ordinary life while presenting “no curtain. No scenery. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in half light” (Wilder act 1). The playwright invites the audience to use their imagination to fill in the lack of detail. He makes the story personal by creating a simple plot, ordinary characters, and using the word “our” in the title Our Town,…

Thursday, October, 8, 2015, I was privileged with the opportunity to see the production, Our Town, written by Thornton Wilder, and directed by Rose Riordan. Our Town takes place in a small town called Grover’s Corner in the early 1900’s. Our Town is presented in a much different manor than most plays today. Instead of changing sets and meticulously hand painted backdrops, the actors use nothing but some chairs and a pair of ladders. The storyline of the play is intriguing, but not so much as the…

Playwright August Wilson uses his plays to display the struggles of Black Americans living throughout the twentieth century. In fact, August Wilson uses The piano Lesson to uncover the hardships Boy Willie and his family face focusing on a time when his family was held captive as slaves to a chance to own his own piece of land. The Piano Lesson demonstrates the importance of family heirlooms and how no amount of money could ever replace the sentimental value they hold. Berniece and Boy Willie…