The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Victorian England is not as grand as it seems. The rules of society put pressure both on men and women to conform to these strict and restraining statutes. After reading Silas Marner by George Eliot, (Mary Ann Evans), it became clear. Silas was looked down upon because he single-handedly raised a child. This was a breakthrough in the gender barrier. Silas was also excommunicated from his former village Lantern Yard. Due to this crisis, Silas isolates himself completely from his new village; of…

She has been getting restless because you were late” he said. Chino smiled back and started galloping down the path leading to the dark forest, “I am going to beat you this time” Vamsi laughed and galloped victory parallel to her, she signaled thunder to follow suit, both of them came to a abrupt halt in front of the dark forest, which looked foreboding…

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees is an exemplary novel which reveals the racism, sexism, and overall discrimination that unfolded in the south. The Secret Life of Bees transports the reader to the year of 1964 in South Carolina, where racial tensions were almost as high as the temperatures and people were surrounded by oppression. During this humid summer a young girl named Lily Owens runs away from her abusive father T. Ray, in search of her mother's past and the truth behind her tragic…

While Lily’s mom is not physically “there” in her life she is always with Lily in spirit. After lying restless in bed one evening Lily decides to go out to the orchard to look at her mother's items she had found earlier. While out there T. Ray catches her and makes her go inside and kneel on the grits. Lily thinks to herself about the objects and how she hid them under her shirt, “I felt waxed paper with my mother's…

It still catches the eye how Sleepy Hollow is described in the book. The name is consistent with that lifestyle, which led its inhabitants. “A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.” (Baym 965) ‘However wide awake…

story. The author Dante experienced Hell, Purgatory, and finally Heaven, to meet God. “Before me there was nothing created except the eternal ones, and I endure eternally. Abandon all hope, you who enter (C3, 7-9).” Dante read the lettering at the gates of hell. Inside the Inferno, Dante wrote every sin down, including gluttony, lust, violence, heresy, blasphemy, and fraudulent, etc. each layer of Hell was like an execution ground, and the souls were suffering in mental and physical in committed…

As the saying goes, “women: you can’t live with them; you can’t live without them.” In The Aeneid, composed by Virgil, the protagonist Aeneas comes into contact with a multitude of women who either facilitate or inhibit his mission of founding a new home for the Trojans to settle. Creusa is Aeneas’ first wife who is responsible for telling him about his destiny and offering him peace in times of loss; Dido is the Carthaginian Queen who is filled with love for Aeneas by Venus in an attempt to…

which gives us the feeling we 're not reading the regular fluff that teenagers have a reputation of picking up. Reading Gatsby makes us feel smart, insightful, taken seriously. If a parent, or a teacher, or any respected figure of an older generation catches us reading The Great Gatsby, we 're likely to receive praise, and perhaps a lengthy conversation on the fantastic use of symbolism. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God over my Thanksgiving break, and so several times an older relative…

Aside from the adjustment that she had to make when participating in extracurricular activities while maintaining her academic performance, there were a few things that she did when doing her work, that was different than the way we (mainstream American students) interacted with it. I will never forget her mini laptop looking translator! She used it a lot, especially in classes like biology and English, when a lot of the words that were being taught were not words frequently used amongst she and…

The Strength to Overcome Perseverance is defined as the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult (Perseverance, 2016). The theme of perseverance is shown a variety of ways in literature and art, including through image, text, and through context. Of all of the themes relevant to the selected works from Literature: A World of Writing, perseverance has by far had the greatest impact on the development of the pieces. The speaker, in Annabel Lee, a…