John Updike

There are many faces to a person; you never know which one they will show. In the short story “White Sands” by Geoff Dyer. Jessica and her husband fear their lives not knowing what would happen ahead in their journey. The actions they took upset me. I felt that they shouldn’t have feared a man who asked upon a simple request. The ending left me with empathy for the man. Imagine if it was you. Everyone deserves a better chance at life. In my opinion traveling can be dangerous. No matter where…

Superior writers use a vast number of well-used elements. It is key to use exceptional elements if you thrive to be a great writer. An example of a writer with higher-level elements is Ray Bradbury. Bradbury has a famous short story called "The Pedestrian." The "Pedestrian" is a futuristic story about a man who is not involved with the world. Bradbury uses setting, figurative language, and symbolism to affect the overall succession of the story. First, Bradbury uses figurative language to…

Throughout “Araby” the boy experiences obstacles that most people would doubt while attempting to go to the bazaar to buy Mangan’s sister a gift. These hindrances should have caused the boy to question his quest, but instead of doubting himself, and his adoration towards Mangan’s sister, he perseveres through his quest single-mindedly. In “Araby”, James Joyce reveals the ignorance of the boy through his journey to the bazaar by demonstrating his unwillingness to doubt his quest and his adoration…

In the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, the two stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “This Blessed House,” illustrate how the differences between two people can ruin the relationship in the long run. The first story in the collection is about a couple who lost their baby after birth. This traumatic event causes them to drift apart and to not feel the same love for each other that they once had before. The second story is about a newly married couple who, after buying…

In the story, “Checkouts,” by Cynthia Rylant, a girl that is adjusting to her new life, after having moved to Cincinnati, falls in love with a bagboy at a local supermarket. They wait a long time to get to know each other better, each one equally obsessing over the other, but, nothing happens between them. Eventually, they both “give up their fancy” for the other person. Consequently, they find other people and give up on each other. The theme of this short story is that people can act in…

The short story “Araby”, James Joyce displays the need for something more than Dublin, and how a world filled with repetition and gloom can create false hope for a breathtaking world. James Joyce illustrates such disillusionment through the eyes of a young Irish boy and his desire for exoticism in “Araby”. The opening paragraphs of the short story portray the demeanor the narrator has toward his life through the setting. The narrator feels as though Dublin is a dark shadow of a city, causing…

Maria Batista, the oldest cashier at Bravo Supermarket in Port Jefferson, New York, is one of that kind of person that looks sad but happy at the same time according to the rest of employees. When I started training to become a cashier at the supermarket, all the cashiers started talking to me about her. Some of them say that she is happy, sweet and kind, but others that she is an unhappy and strange person. At that moment, I became interest in why these people were having different opinions…

Dress to Impress In "Issue 3" of Writing Identities, the author's discuss the way tone shifts or changes in different rhetorical situations. They do this because every situation is different, which requires different tones. On page 119 during a discussion about how to dress as a teacher, Elizabeth Losh says “Here’s a dress that I wore when I was a Sunday school teacher. My students expect me to be formal and respectful” (Losh 119). This quote is showing readers that how you dress in…

The ten cent hammer catches Al's eyes while he is looking through the store, and he figures that the hammer would be good to have so he could use the nails he has collected from the construction site, to build something. Al has not money with which to buy the hammer however, and the proceeds to slip the hammer into his pocket and head from the store. Al is caught in the act of his theft, by a young man in the store, and is then taken to Mr. Clemmens, whom is the store owner. Mr. Clemmens…

Plath Updike Comparison Draft 3 By denying change, one lives only in the past. Comparing Plath's “Sylvia Plath at Seventeen” and Updike's, “Ex-Basketball Player” reveals both authors create speakers who live in their past out of fear for their future. For this, the authors use similar thematic and stylistic elements, which both Plath and Updike employ to display humanity's resistance towards change and moving on. The thematic ideas in Plath and Updike's work, while slightly different, revolve…