The Tin Drum

Both writers see narrative as overwhelmingly malleable, shattering traditional novel forms. Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is diffuse with, tone, plot, and characters seem to wander all over the map. Gunter Grass’ My Century is constructed in a similar manor. However, both novels carry a strong thematic and emotional content. Kubdera’s shattered, oblique approach to narrative, and Grass’ step-by-step march through the years. This essay will comment on the effectiveness of Kundera’s and Grass’ style of story telling. The Book of Laughter and. This book reads more like a series of connecting short stories than a novel. The main character Tamina, a sympathetic young woman in Eastern Europe who is drifting along without any defined goals. Her husband died shortly after they fled their country. Her husband was her entire life, and she fears that she will lose her memories of him. Through a series of events, through the course of the novel Tamina learns a lot about life and love. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is divided into several parts, with some parts sharing the same titles. This is to emphasize the idea that the novel is a series of variations on a set of themes. Two parts of the novel center Tamina, but each of the other five sections focuses on several unrelated characters that only appear in that part. The parts are not linked by a single continuous plot, but rather by their direct and indirect relationship to Kundera’s exploration of the…

Immigrants come to America in hopes of finding and achieving the “American Dream”. Some do end up achieving this goal, but for a majority of immigrants, they are faced with racism and discrimination because of their culture. When asked for our nationality or where we are from, they do not expect us to say American or America, and when we do, they say “No, where are you REALLY from?” Immigrants are told to assimilate and join the American culture, but when they do so, they are still reminded that…

continue living a life without his wife. The poet begins his poem and states, “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”, which is an immediate sign that he is frustrated. He orders the clocks to stop and the telephones to be cut off which points out that he wants to be alone and separated from the rest of the world. The poet is overemphasizing how sad and hopeless he is without his loved one. The poet wants everything to stop so that they too can mourn his wife’s death. The poet’s strong…

One of the main reasons why I chose this topic is that Japan is where my father is from but I was born in Korea so I was always curious on the type of music they would listen to especially in Canada. As a thesis statement I will argue that taiko drum performance scene has emerged in Toronto to sustain Japanese identity and to embrace their tradition of music culture. In the body of an essay, I will briefly examine the history of the music, techniques and the environments of the genre taiko.…

Steel drum music has the ability to move an audience like no other type of music. From the first note, the songs exude a happiness from within each pannist. Even with the slower pieces, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a tropical surrounding. The AISD concert, conducted by CJ Menge, which took place April 14, 2012 certainly did not disappoint. The concert was performed in Austin, Texas and featured steel drum bands from seven middle and high schools in the area. The first piece,…

Jones’s book, ‘Studies in African Music’ in the late of 1960. Since he had studied rudimentary drumming when he was 14 years and had been fascinated by jazz music and percussion in his youth, his enthusiasm for African music that was concealed in his mind, had increasingly grown up through listening to recordings and corresponding with A. Jones. In February of 1970, Steve applied western rudimental drumming pattern, what is called ‘Paradiddle’, into his composition. This fundamental drumming…

After a while, as Alfonso began his recovery from his illness, he attributed his miraculous recovery to the grace of the Virgin Mary. Soon after, Alfonso was inspired to create this collection of songs in the honor of the Virgin Mary. All of the songs in the Cantigas have refrains and danceable rhythms, indicating that there may have been dancing along with their performance. 1 Throughout listening to some the Cantiga collections, I have recognized certain instruments and types of percussion…

A common sea shanty that remains performed by amateur university groups and professional Taiko masters alike is called Soran-Bushi. Soran-Bushi was historically sung by the fishermen of Hokkaido.(Hughes) In the case of Soran-Bushi, Taiko drums established the rhythm for lifting catch out of the sea via otamo, giant nets that could be up to 6 meters deep. Various words echoed in the song corresponded to a number of synchronized actions, as the fishermen used the otamo to lift fish from large sea…

microphone so that the students could hear her and her not have to yell. To get the students quiet she would clap one to two times. Rarely did she have to get on to the students for not following the rules. Another rule that went with the activity was when the teacher was getting the next song ready the drumsticks or pool sticks were to be placed up under the students arms. This incorporated safety in that the students wouldn't be hitting each other with the sticks. Another rule she had was no…

community life. A review of the literature on the therapeutic benefits of music reveals that vibrotactile rhythm playing, the drum circle, is one activity that would be suitable for implementation with diverse groups within long-term care facilities. In particular, preliminary research indicates that rhythm applications are very successful with persons who are severely regressed with dementia and who can no longer function well enough to maintain their activities of daily living and require…