Important Element in the Story Essay Example for Free

Important Element in the Story Essay In the two short stories, Little Things by Carver and The End of Something by Hemingway, both authors make the title significant to the storys message. The title Little Things is somewhat ironic in that the word little could refer to the baby or could in fact be calling their argument petty, even though the child that they are fighting over is a major issue. This irony is significant to the story because even though the parents appear passionate about their infant, the argument clearly lies deeper. The title The End of Something could also refer to a number of things. In this story many things are coming to an end. The end of the mill and the town at Hortons Bay, the end of Nick and Marjories relationship, the end of their fishing trips and the end of their day. Both stories are about the end of relationships however, in Little Things the breakup is angry and violent whereas in The End of Something the breakup is calm and brief. The story Little Things is about the violent breakup of two parents. It is implied that they are married but Carver does not explicitly state this. The opening paragraph describes the weather and the time of day, which reflects the mood of the piece, the darkness of the evening mirroring the dark mood inside the house, it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too. This shows that although the mood was dark, it was not completely pitch black outside implying that there may still be a slight glimmer of hope for the young couple that is soon introduced. As the fight and the emotions become more reckless and brutal the light begins to fade, showing that all hope is lost. The characters in the story are not named. This gives their predicament a deeper sense of urgency and immediacy. This is used to great effect as when we first meet the man and women, the absence of names throws us directly into the middle of their quarrel. In this piece there is no need to build up the characters with a descriptive foreplay as it is not important to the story, making it more urgent. However in The End of Something we feel more sympathy for the characters as we have learned about them in more detail. From the line he was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came through the door, we can deduce from the subtext that these people are in some kind of long-term relationship, and the second line of the same paragraph draws attention to the fact that they are having a heated argument. It is extremely common that in short stories a lot of information is insinuated rather than being clearly stated and so the reader must draw a meaning from the subtext. The woman is the first to speak. Carver does not use speech marks at all during the story in order to draw more immediacy to the article. The first line of speech Im glad youre leaving! Im glad youre leaving! Do you hear? shows that although the woman appears to be angry at her partner and glad that he is moving out it is easily noted that she in fact feels exactly the opposite. This is illustrated by the repetition of the line Im glad youre leaving showing that she is trying to reassure herself that she doesnt need him. This shows irony. The woman continues to barrage the man with slurs, son of a bitch, obviously in an attempt to provoke his attention and convince him to stay. When she states you cant even look me in the face can you? it is blatantly obvious that the man has had some kind of affair. The woman fails in catching the mans attention and therefore when she spies the babys picture on the bed she takes it, out of spite. The man follows her; turning off the bedroom light as he leaves symbolising the end of their relationship, looked around the bedroom before turning off the light. The baby is also not named showing that although it is the child that they are fighting over, the battle about more and the baby is merely a pawn in their game of spite or revenge. The man states I want the baby. This immediately provokes maternal instincts from the mother who rushes to keep her child. The infant is continuously referred to as the baby or this baby showing that their child is solely an object that the couple are focusing their anger on. The mans request for the baby is not because he necessarily wants the child from love but more because he sees it as a prize that he can win over the woman. Gradually their battle becomes more physical and violent as the man tries to take that baby from the woman, in the scuffle they knocked down a flowerpot. The baby senses the tension in the room and starts to cry which adds to the anxiety and desperation in the mood of the text, the baby had begun to cry. Throughout the rest of the story Carver intensifies the atmosphere by using urgent and effective words such as screaming, red faced, gripped and hurting. Nearing the end of the story the light is involved again, the kitchen window gave no light, this line exemplifies that there was no hope left for the couple and the baby. The lines become shorter to add to the fierce battle that the couple is suffering. The man and the woman both grab the child and pull it in different directions in a hope that one will triumph but we do not know the victor. The last line in this manner the issue was decided, leaves us pondering a number of possible out comes. The man or the woman may have succeeded in snatching the infant for themselves or they may have pulled their baby in two. If so the story appears to be a parody of the biblical story The Two Women and Solomon, in which a man offers to cut a baby in half to settle a quarrel between two woman as to who the mother of the baby is. In this story we are left with an ambiguous end. It is very common in short stories that the resolution of the story is left undecided, again leaving the reader to make their own conclusion from the clues given. The second short story The End of Something is also about the end of a relationship, however it is handled in a calmer and less violent manner. The first paragraph sets the scene of a calm deserted bay, once a busy lumbering town, now reduced to a citizen-free ghost town. The couple, Nick and Marjorie, are rowing through this bay in a calm fashion they were trolling along the edge of the channel bank, but they soon head towards dark water which shows that they are heading towards trouble. They are rowing soundlessly until Marjorie breaks the silence and begins to talk about the old mill on the shore, describing it as our old ruin; this shows that their relationship stretches back a long way. Nick answers unenthusiastically. Marjorie tries to keep up the conversation describing it as a castle, which shows that she sees their ruin in a fairy-tale manner. However Nick is still distant which makes Marjorie have to work hard to keep their conversation alive. Marjorie appears to love everything about their fishing trips. She obviously loves Nick very much and is enjoying spending time with him, She loved to fish. She loved to fish with Nick. Clearly Nick is quite qualified at fishing and Marjorie tries to make him feel good by putting him in charge and asking him questions to boost his ego, Theyre feeding, Marjorie said. But they wont strike, Nick said. By this Nick means that he will not strike that night. The couple carries out their actions of fishing with scarce communication and we can tell that something is clearly upsetting Nick as Marjorie is trying to provoke conversation but to no avail. When Marjorie questions Nick Whats the matter Nick? he replies I dont know. The couple set out a picnic on the beach but we can tell that Nick is merely going through the motions as he says I dont feel like eating and all it takes is one line from Marjorie and he agrees. They eat silently until finally Nick breaks the tension. Theres going to be a moon tonight, but when Marjorie agrees Nick becomes angry as if he was waiting for anything to release the pent up emotions held inside. Marjorie tries to divert the conversation from an argument and begins to talk about the moon. As in Little Things, the weather and setting play a part in describing the mood of the piece. The moon could represent chastity, coldness or even the passing of time. Silence follows and they do not touch each other until Marjorie ventures to ask Nick Whats really the matter? Marjorie is desperately trying to make their evening enjoyable and romantic but Nick is making it extremely difficult. Nick tries to avoid the question until he starts to explain that it wasnt fun any more and that he was mixed up inside. I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside of me, the use of the word was instead of is shows that he is confused and suffering a confidence crisis. Marjorie is evidently shocked as she barely speaks except to say isnt love any fun? which is swiftly followed by an answer from Nick, No. Unlike in Little Things, there is no major battle about to be released, instead Marjorie leaves calmly, dignity intact, in the boat. Nick offers to help push the boat out, which shows that he still cares for her, but is refused. When Marjorie leaves Nick lies on the blanket for a long time until mysteriously a new character named Bill emerges from the woods. Bill is a curious character. Obviously he is related to Bill in some way and Hemingway makes his sexuality and Nicks dubious when we read the line Bill didnt touch him either. Bill appears as insensitive when he barrages Nick with questions about his extremely recent breakup, provoking Nick to lash out and tell him to leave. This story again is left at a loose end. We are left questioning the sexuality of Bill and Nick. It is implied that Nick and Bill were in a homosexual relationship together. This would explain Bills presence hiding in the wood and the fact that it states Bill didnt touch him either. The last line shows that Bill has replaced Marjorie because Bill walks over to check the fishing rods which was previously Marjories job. However, Nick appears to be insecure about his choice to be gay, as we can see from the fact that he tells Bill to go away. Bill has clearly pressured Nick into breaking up with Marjorie, as we can see from the list of questions he asks and his quick appearance from the wood. Both the short stories are about the breakup of relationships but under different circumstances. As always in a short story the reader is left thinking many things from one brief text. All short stories consist of and introduction, a main conflict, a resolution and a conclusion. In Little Things the conclusion was the questionable death of the child. In The End of Something the conclusion was the appearance of Bill and the question of Nicks sexuality.

Uncle Toms Cabin Essay example -- Uncle Toms Cabin Essays

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the daughter of a Calvinist minister and she and her family was all devout Christians, her father being a preacher and her siblings following. Her Christian attitude much reflected her attitude towards slavery. She was for abolishing it, because it was, to her, a very unchristian and cruel institution. Her novel, therefore, focused on the ghastly points of slavery, including the whippings, beatings, and forced sexual encounters brought upon slaves by their masters. She wrote the book to be a force against slavery, and was joining in with the feelings of many other women of her time, whom all became more outspoken and influential in reform movements, including temperance and women's suffrage. The main point of Harriet Beecher Stowe in the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin was to bring to light slavery to people in the north. In this she hoped to eventually sway people against slavery. The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin focuses on the lives of two slaves, who both start under the ownership of a Mr. Shelby, who is known as a man who treats his slaves well. Mr. Shelby, however, was indebted to a man of the name Haley, who is a slave-trader. In return for the debt owed to him, Haley wants two slaves one being the son of a beautiful mulatto woman named Eliza, and the other the devout Christian Tom, who is called Father Tom because of his sermons. Eliza is also a Christian, as are the rest of the slaves on Shelby's farm. Eliza loves her son dearly and rather than lose him to the slave-trader she takes him and heads to Canada, where she can be free. Haley follows but can't catch her before she goes from Kentucky, the state of the Shelby Farm, to Ohio. Haley then sends slave-catchers after her. He also goes back to the farm, and brings Tom on a steamboat to the South, a place where slaves are known to die, but Tom meets and makes a great impression on a little girl, Evangeline S t. Clare, or Eva as she is called, and she persuades her father, Augustine St. Clare to purchase Tom. Augustine is a man against slavery, but too intelligent and idle to openly oppose it, instead choosing to let his slaves run freely and do whatsoever they please, within reason. Tom is bought as a man who works at the stable, and is the private driver of Marie St. Clare. Marie was a conceited woman who is too busy worrying... ...s towards going against society, seen in St. Clare. She made the slaves more human and the slaveholders appear to be morally wrong, but not by always using morally correct slaves and masters without morals. For example, Stowe creates a character, Adolf, the overseer of sorts for St. Clare. Adolf is a slave who is not morally correct he steals from St. Clare often, yet he appears more human for doing so. The slaves or human but not divine, as are the masters, creating a sense of equality, which Stowe wanted to put across. She wrote the book well, choosing where it was best to put which idea, and making many allusions to historical events around the time, which made her book more popular to the people of her time by involving other things they knew of into the story. Overall, Uncle Tom's Cabin was well written, organized, and historically accurate. Harriet Beecher Stowe used her knowledge of the past to write a clear argument for the abolition of slavery, by creating an interesting enough book to get her ideas to the common people. Her book was influential because it not only told her ideas, but because it states her ideas understandably, something not all writers are able to do.

3 Paragraph Paper About the Novel Night Essay

Ellie weisel was the survior and author of the book Night. Ellie was born September 30,1928 in Sighet, Romania. He led a life representative of many Jewish children. Growing up in a small village in Romania, his world revolved around family, religious study, community and God. Yet his family, community and his innocent faith were destroyed upon the deportation of his village to the concentration camp in Auschwitz in 1944.†Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.† (Elie Wiesel, Night, Ch. 3). Ellie Wiesel survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald and Gleiwitz. He was let free in 1945 and made his way to Paris and started wrighting his first novel Night. During world war 2 many people were anti-semitism. Anti-semitism means prejudice or hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. Jewish people were blamed for the black pleg. They were also blamed for how bad the economy was. Hitler one of the most famous people during this time was using the jews as a scape-goat to get more votes. A scape-goat is just a group/someone you may put the blame all on.During world war 2 Jewish people were used as scape-goats and at the time of all this if you were German you may have been anti-semitism. One of the most memorable events at this time were The deportation of the jews. The nazis had enough of the jews and were ready to do there † final soulation† every jewish person with either that star david on them or had the letter J on there id was getting deportated to the concentration camps. See more:  The 3 Types of Satire Essay The German authorities used rail systems across the continent to transport, or deport, Jews from their homes, primarily to eastern Europe. German railroad officials used both freight and passenger cars for the deportations. German authorities generally did not give the jews getting deported food or water for the journey, even when they had to wait for days on railroad spurs for other trains to pass. Packed in sealed, suffering from overcrowding, they endured intense heat during the summer and freezing temperatures during the winter. Aside from a bucket, there was no sanitary facility. The stench of urine added to the humiliation and suffering of the deportees. Lacking food and water, many of the deportees died before the trains reached their destinations. Armed police guards accompanied the transports; they had orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape.

Karl Marx View On Communism - 1232 Words

Communism is a concept created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1844 and was exposed to the world in 1848 through â€Å"The Communist Manifesto†. When read, Communism can be seen as a beautiful idea. Karl Marx view Communism as the solution to inequality. Marx invoked the idea that for every member of a society to be equal, the State must have ownership over services and goods of society, including schools. However, when Communism began in the Soviet Union it was perfectly visible that Communism is not an idea which can be implemented into the current society. Passed President Kennedy created an idea called â€Å"Containment† which was created to contain Communism within the Soviet Union, however, this idea was a failure. Eventually, Communism†¦show more content†¦In order to â€Å"fix† the erroneous ideas that were being presented to the Cuban people, Kennedy decided to implement an idea that â€Å"the Eisenhower administration at first adopted a p olicy of patient waiting.† As presented by an article by the University of Groningen, in their American History from Revolution to Reconstruction and beyond website. Such idea being the embargo which was placed on Cuba as soon as the first signs of Communism became evident. Eventually, the Soviet Union would create the Berlin Wall, which would later â€Å"fall† on November 9, 1989. However, when the Berlin Wall was placed, passed President Kennedy attempted to create an agreement with the Soviet Union to prevent further tests on nuclear warfare. Such agreement was denied by the Soviet Union and leading to the creation of a special Arms Control and Disarmament Agency by the United States. 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