Southern Literary Messenger

Throughout the literary world in the early 20th century, no one had quite ventured into the heavy topics that were seen far too often in society- topics such as sexism, racism, and hypocrisy. Kate Chopin dared to change this. Having suffered through the death of her husband, Chopin looked for an outlet to relieve her depression. She began to write about topics seen as extremely vulgar and controversial during the early 1900s. One of her works, Desiree’s Baby, illustrates some of the worst…

and pointless violence continue before we will start to change? The answer to this question may appear simple and in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” the satire is obvious. By using literary criticisms readers can evaluate more in depth what the story is actually trying convey. Two major literary criticisms that will discussed in detail are Psychological Theory and Historical Criticism and New Historicism. Psychological Theory basically deals with the psychological aspect or the…

Unfortunately because the story was translated any intended alliteration or other similar literary devices would have been left out. The story does use repetition, metaphors, personification and imagery. Repetition is used in several instances in this story mostly before the italicised words like “As the saying goes” or “for the proverb says.”…

Independent Reading Task Paper Towns by John Green Paper Towns is an award-winning novel by John Green. The novel is a story set in a small town in Orlando, Florida. The story is narrated by and follows the main character, Quentin. As the reader follows Quentin we learn about how he thinks and more importantly how much he likes a certain girl, who he hasn’t spoken to since they were kids. But one night, she leads him on an adventure until dawn and then disappears the next day. The focus of this…

In her novel Push, Sapphire uses multiple literary techniques to demonstrate how Precious creates a self-identity and a form of independence. As Precious learns to read, write, and create perceptions of her life and the world, she realizes that she is an individual that is unique and beautiful. Through Precious’s character, Sapphire reveals the emergence of a persons self-identity and newly discovered independence through a story of traumatic experiences. From the beginning of the novel,…

After reading the “Slate” article and listening to the “Icon For Access” podcast, two opposite approaches to whether or not the international wheelchair symbol should be redesigned, I was able to learn about the affordance of different modes and the reaction each can get. Modes are methods of communicating or getting something across. Audio narration, alphabetic text, video interview, soundtrack, and image are all examples of modes. These modes can be utilized to help circulate (spread…

In Roald Dahl’s short story Lamb of the Slaughter, Dahl displays the use of literary devices such as various types of irony throughout his writing to make it more effective. Irony is used to build suspension, create tension and even keep a reader's interest. This is what Dahl created in the story Lamb of Slaughter. Dramatic irony is commonly used in writing so that the reader or audience knows something meanwhile the characters don't know. This is used to create suspense for the reader, it…

“Foxtrot Fridays” Through a New Critical Lens New criticism is a common approach to analyze poetry through, and takes all elements of the text into account, but not the author’s intent or reader’s personal identification. “Foxtrot Fridays” is a good poem for this approach because it is relevant to the reader and easy to understand. This poem also has an interesting structure that places emphasis on the both the poem’s subject and elements, adding to its organic unity. “Foxtrot Fridays” is an…

Reading any piece of literature of any genre can be enjoyable and beneficial to everyone because individuals who read context of any sort can use what they read to relate it to society and to their own lives including their cultures, backgrounds, and personalities. Reader response criticism is a literacy theory that concentrates on the reader as well as his/her experience that can be relatable to the story they read. People can use general or specific details from a story such as the events,…

Summative assessment Task: Formal writing Question: Analyse how one or more written themes were used to comment on today’s society in Written texts. Word count: 1501 Statement of intent: I am going to write about how in the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” the theme of women’s education is relating to modern day society. I will use examples from the novel and explain how they relate to both Afghanistan and New Zealand in modern day times. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” written by Khaled Hosseini…