Manning Award

John Updike Did you know that John Updike wrote a 70 page mystery story when he was only 14 years old? He said that he wanted to be recognized while he was still living. This is why he worked so hard to get published at an early age. There are many other reasons why they should keep his place in the literary canon for today and future generations. One of the reasons he should be remembered is that he was talented in ¬¬multiple fields. Also, he was known as a universal writer. John Updike should…

Prison is not a friendly place. Knowing that point, does prison have to be a place where one’s life comes to an end? In the United States, there is an incarceration rate of almost 700 people to every 100,000 people; this means the United States has the highest prison population in the world; over a period of ten years (2000-2010), the number of prisoners has increased from 1.937 million to almost 2.3 million (www.prisonstudies.org). Looking at The Shawshank Redemption (1994), the viewers see the…

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Essential Questions: How does having a belief (in something or someone) help us to conquer fear and keep hope alive? Answer: having a belief in someone help us conquer fear because it leads to a greater hope in the future. Throughout the movie, Andy establishes a close relationship with Red and before Andy left, he told Red that to find a rock in a location in the middle of nowhere to find Andy in Mexico. When Red was released, he had the hope to find andy and…

In Cormac McCarthry’s novel The Road, the man, who believes God has entrusted him to protect the boy from the evils and dangers of the world, is in a constant struggle between life and death. McCarthy depicts the man as a hardy character with a sensitive side towards his son. The man, struggling to survive for the sake of the boy, is ruthless, suffering, and protective. If he is pushed to his limit, the man can be ruthlessly violent. For instance, he and the boy were hiding behind an…

Throughout history mankind has battled temptation, greed, and guilt. These three issues are forever lasting in the world in a wide array of cultures and time periods. In Mark Twain’s, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, Twain explains his views on the themes of temptation, greed ,and guilt. Temptation is no stranger. Each person faces temptation daily. In the case of the people of Hadleyburg, they were tempted when an unsuspecting man delivers a sack of gold. The stranger does not give…

A Village to Raise a Child “Help me, Mama. I need you to help me.” “It’s too late for that, the woman said. You got yourself into this, you can just get out of it” (Haruf 10). Parents are a main source of comfort and care for children. However, in Plainsong, parent abandonment is a main theme. Ike, Bobby, and Victoria are three characters whose lives change drastically from decisions of their parents. However, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The abandonment of their parents causes hard…

Dream? More Like a Nightmare. Bernie Sanders once said “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare”. The past notions that America is country in which people have freedom and the ability to better their lives has died within the last several decades. However, some are still under the belief that the dream lives. This has done nothing but make their lives and the lives of their dependents worse as their identity has become convoluted. The fact the American Dream is nothing but a…

The Importance of Friendship Friendship is, by definition, a relationship between two friends. Some believe that friendships are a necessity for human life. Joseph Conrad was a man who grew up not having many friends. As a young child he had missed school quite a bit from illnesses (Kathleen Wilson 200). This made it hard to have close relationships with other children. He did however gain a love for literature and the sea from his father at a young age (www.notablebiographies.com). This is…

Metaphor and Symbolism in Langston Hughes’s My People My people is one of Langston Hughes’ poems which is about working class black African American people. In this poem, he compared the beauty of nature to the beauty of his people. My people is a very short poem, built in three stanzas which consist of two lines in each stanza. This poem was written in simple language, therefore, the readers can easily understand what he is trying to convey. I believe, beneath its simple words, this poem…

One's ability to see is often taken for granted as it is in "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver. The title suggests that the story deals with a cathedral, but it is really about two blind men; one physically, the other mentally. One of the men is Robert, the blind friend of the narrator's wife, and the other is the narrator himself. The narrator is the man who is mentally blind, and unknowingly describes his own prejudice. Carver writes the husband as a man with a very narrow mind. Two instances in…