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Allymyr Atrero

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: Jane Austen for the nineties - 1 views

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    Argument: Jane Austen's novels have become popular because of their ability to transcend generations. Claim: Austen's use of irony in character development plays a significant role in the appeal of her characters. Because she highlighted their susceptibilities with moral perspectives, the characters charm the audience more than just a blantant description of a character. Evidence: "Elizabeth Bennet may be prejudiced, but she is also far more perceptive than most of the society around her. Darcy is proud, yet at the same time curiously humble." "How different, how much less effective than the slow unfolding, he almost imperceptible growth of a character like Darcy's, or Elizabeth's, or Emma's." http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=9509236170&site=lrc-live.
Melanie Reyes

Literary Analysis for Henry James - 1 views

Henry James is the author to a wide variety of short novels. He is more known for writing on his own views for European and Americans' society, culture, and class status (Liukkonen). But he spices...

started by Melanie Reyes on 22 Feb 11 no follow-up yet
alex schneider

Literary Resource Center- Ellison - 0 views

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    Argument: Marxism in both reality and fiction typically represent African Americans as a lower class, ignorant, disrespected race. Claim: Ellison develops his characters, of dark ethnicity, as a person reaching outside of an animalistic portrayal, and exposes an intellect, developing a bridge between race. Evidence: Perhaps, Ellison's maritime experience, led him to..."took a moral responsibility for democracy" and who represented African Americans in a way that few had--"as a symbol of Man."
Aubrey Haggarton

Literature Resource Center - Document - 0 views

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    Argument:As Clark started developing more mystery novels in the 1970's, she became more successful and found her strength in writing.  Claim:Edward D. Hoch states that Clark's form of mystery is not simple murder or crime cases, but rather suspenseful plot lines that keep the tone of the book like something that cannot be put down. Hoch also claims that Clark's use of characters and victims that are somewhat related to real life people bring a different atmosphere to the novel. Clark's use of a heroine throughout her characters brings in an audience of women, and allows her books to be more successful with this specific audience.  Evidence: "But it is the suspense rather than the mystery that makes the book so compulsively readable."  "The idea of children in jeopardy strikes a responsive chord with women readers.." "The plot and its motivation are somewhat reminiscent of the sort of hospital thrillers Robin Cook excels at, but clark produces a few new twists of her own." "The story of a young woman who marries a man without really knowing him, and then goes off to live in an isolated house, is one of the classic themes of fiction." 
Scott Boisvert

Animal Farm Satire - 0 views

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    Argument: Animal Farm is a modern satire. Claim: -The novel satires Russia's perversion of socialism -The animal's revolt is a symbol for any modern revolution -Any revolution is ultimately self-defeating Evidence: -"The use of multiple historical references gives a universal quality to this work." -"The rise of a ruling class of intellectual workers, the development of a leader figure, the use of scapegoats, and, above all, the rewriting of history and the misuse of language for party purposes, all figure in this satire" http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL0089900020&site=lrc-live
Rachel Kaemmerer

Literature Resource Center - Document - 2 views

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    Argument: The fact that Steinbeck is a romantic naturalist appears vividly throughout his novels. Claims: His views affect literary devices such as diction, plot, and character development. Evidence: "The Darwinism of 'The Red Pony' is brought from conflict of animals to the conflict between men in 'Of Mice and Men'...As engaging to our own sense of romantic and sentiment as Lennie's and George's dream of a small ranch may be, the facts are that they do not have the power within the scheme of things to make this dream come true" (1). http://go.galegroup.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CH1100000795&v=2.1&u=chandler_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&authCount=1
Colleen Quinn

Literary Analysis#4-Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult - 0 views

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    Literary Analysis #4-Nineteen Minutes Throughout the literary critic of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, the main theme supported by author Jessica Stites was that Jodi Picoult uses background and further information than an average writer to convey her full story and add to it's depth as a whole. She states, "If empathy is an inoculation against violence, then Picoult's own compassion for her characters goes beyond good storytelling to political statement; she models the deep sympathy that might have averted the tragedy." Stites goes on to explain that in Picoult's writing she tends to convey a specific message to her readers, leaving them with a second opinion or thought on the overall conflict or main topic of the story. In Nineteen Minutes, Stite's states, "She takes us inside prickly adolescents whose every action screams "Keep out!" and inside the adults afraid to brave their children's barriers." Though several of Stite's comments on the novel and author are directed positively, the author also states that Picoult lacks in empathy. The author goes on to state that though Picoult analyzed numerous aspects of Nineteen Minutes and did a quantity of research, she yet lacks the characterization and development of main character Peter. Stites believes that in order to add dynamic perspective to the overall novel, Picoult should have developed Peter as a character by learning of the killing spree from Peter's perspective and reading why he shot a teacher that had been kind to him. Though Stite's emphasizes the lack of characterization from the perspective of Peter, she later goes on to support Picoult once more when saying that the lack of characterization should actually be intentional, stating that once you loose boys, they go somewhere you can not follow.
tylerga78

Lit Analysis #3 - 0 views

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    Argument: Middle Easterners have developed a threatening habit of abstaining from writing religious literature in their countries due to fear of persecution. So rather than the gov't harshly punishing those who expressly talk about religion in their writing, they have developed an unhealthy pattern of self censorship. "'…the present kind of censorship by say, religious conservatives, is much more damaging and much more frightening for the writer because you don't know exactly who you are offending, where the threat is coming from or what the possible punishment might be.'" "This…leads to self-censorship. This means you try to anticipate all these horrible things and guard against it from the beginning." Analysis: It is better to be federally persecuted because at least their are stated boundaries and lines you may not cross, but when the rules aren't expressly stated it becomes hard to know whose sensibilities you might offend with your writing. Thus, the writer may even tone it down more than usual to ensure that they will not be wrongfully punished.
Ashley Cox

My Name Was Salmon, Like the Fish': Understanding Death, Grief, and Redemption in Alice... - 0 views

  • As with so many other works of contemporary fiction and film, Alice Sebold's bestselling novel The Lovely Bones (2002) fulfills our fundamental and indelibly human desires for establishing vital interconnections with the lost friends and loved ones who adorn our personal pasts.
  • Time and time again, the most cherished works of our literary and popular culture reflect this abiding need to seek out our lost siblings, parents, and grandparents.
  • we long for the opportunity to wade back into the recesses of time in order to enjoy impossible reunions with the people who left their imprints upon our very souls
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  • By narrating the events surrounding the Salmon family's tragic dislocation and heart-wrenching reunion, The Lovely Bones deftly taps into our yearnings to eclipse the laws of space and time. Even more powerfully, the novel depicts the many ways in which interpersonal tragedy possesses the capacity for tearing survivors' lives apart at the very moment in which they need familial companionship the most. The parlance of family systems therapy--with its accent upon the interpersonal dynamics that shape literary works as well as our own senses of self--provides us with a useful lens for understanding the Salmon family's trials and tribulations in The Lovely Bones.
  • as an inherently open system, the family must at once provide support for its individual members' integration into a solid family unit, as well as their differentiation, or emotional and psychological separation, into relatively autonomous selves. This mutual developmental process possesses the capacity for producing functional and dysfunctional families. In functional families, individual members evolve into fully realized selves that allow them to act, think, and feel for themselves. In dysfunctional families, however, family members develop pseudo-selves--often fostered by fear and anxiety within the system--and thus, such individuals frequently remain unable to maintain any real equilibrium between their inner feelings and their outward behavior
  • In the novel, Susie can only watch in horror as her family devolves from a functional system into a dysfunctional shadow of its former self. Family therapists describe the fashion in which the Salmons maintain their systemic dysfunctionality as a psychological state of homeostasis, which Barnard and Corrales define as a family's tendency
  • "In order to perceive change in one's life--to experience one's life as progressing--and in order to perceive oneself changing one's life, a person requires mechanisms that assist her to plot the events of her life within the context of coherent sequences across time--through the past, present, and future" (35). These mechanisms--works of narrative therapy--offer cogent methodologies that assist clients (or readers) in simultaneously identifying with and separating from the dilemmas that plague their lived experiences.
  • At the beginning of the novel, the Salmons' interpersonal relationship exists as a functional family system. Jack and Abigail Salmon enjoy a busy, albeit satisfying family life in eastern Pennsylvania, where they raise their three children--fourteen-year-old Susie, her younger sister Lindsey, and their four-year-old brother Buckley. After Susie's rape, murder, and dismemberment in December 1973, the family lapses into a dysfunctional spiral as they attempt to cope with a stultifying sense of grief. The effect of Susie's untimely death is rendered even more painful by the disappearance of her body save for a stray elbow, as well as by Jack's suspicions that a reclusive neighbor, George Harvey, is responsible for her demise.
  • "The reflective awareness of one's personal narrative provides the realization that past events are not meaningful in themselves but are given significance by the configuration of one's narrative," Polkinghorne observes. "This realization can release people from the control of past interpretations they have attached to events and open up the possibility of renewal and freedom for change" (182-83).
  • Told entirely from Susie's perspective, the novel details the post-traumatic experiences of her family as they attempt to make their various ways among the living. Existing in a form of atemporal limbo that she describes as a kind of heaven, Susie observes her family and friends as they try to understand her loss in terms of their own survivorship. In addition to her significant role as witness, Susie must also contend with her own anxieties about her untimely separation from her family unit, as well as her severance from the young life that she was only just beginning to comprehend.
  • "There is no question," they write, "that families devote considerable energy to maintain a certain amount of order and stability. Security," they add, "seems to be tied with a certain amount of stability and predictability"
  • In The Lovely Bones, Susie composes her narrative in an explicit attempt to make sense of her family's dysfunctionality and to explode the homeostasis of her former family system, thus allowing them to effect their own "new levels of functioning." Although feelings of morphogenesis for Susie will always be tempered by the finality of her death, she intuitively realizes that the sublimation of her family's homeostasis will allow both herself and her family to continue their progress toward selfhood--although obviously in decidedly different locales and through highly disparate states of being.
  • The particular manner in which Susie sorts through the tragic events of her family's post-traumatic experiences can be usefully understood by interpreting her act of narrative therapy in terms of the five "attitudes" toward death that Kübler-Ross postulates in On Death and Dying. These attitudes--which themselves mirror the five stages of dying that terminally ill patients undergo--include denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. "The one thing that usually persists through all these stages is hope," Kübler-Ross writes. "It is the feeling that all this must have some meaning, will pay off eventually if they can only endure it for a little while longer" (139).
  • Abigail isolates herself by delving into the workaday world of the suburban housewife. Her obsession with the preparation of the family's meals and her daily chores allows the time to pass more quickly, thus limiting her ability to reflect upon her daughter's ordeal.
  • In The Lovely Bones, the first portion of Susie's narrative highlights the narrator and her family's struggle with denial and isolation as they simultaneously come to grips with and attempt to disavow the unsettling reality of her murder.4 Their feelings of denial and isolation function as "coping mechanisms," according to Kübler-Ross, as well as the result of the "inability of [clients] to look at their situations realistically" (37, 41). Unable to make sense of Susie's sudden disappearance from their lives, the Salmons initially cleave to each other, hoping against hope that somehow she will return to their midst. After the police report to the family that Susie must be dead, given that so much blood had been found at the scene of the crime, they begin the difficult work of having to confront her fate, as well as their own. Like her family, Susie finds herself unable to accept her passing: "I hadn't yet let myself miss my mother and father, my sister and brother," she reports. "That way of missing would mean that I had accepted that I would never be with them again; it might sound silly but I didn't believe it, would not believe it" (27).
  • While her father purposefully refuses to allow himself to cry for her loss--to do so, he reasons, would make Susie's death seem all the more real--Jack copes by attempting to establish normalcy in the Salmon household within only a few scant days of her disappearance.
  • Meanwhile, Lindsey and Buckley act as their father's accomplices in his efforts to trap Susie's killer. In one particularly harrowing instance, Lindsey slips into Mr. Harvey's house in order to search for evidence. She narrowly escapes from his clutches, ultimately becoming the object of Mr. Harvey's sociopathic fantasies herself. In each instance, the family members' behaviors serve to exacerbate their ability to come to terms with their grief, rather than to sate their enduring despair.
  • In this fashion, Jack, Abigail, and Lindsey each develop pseudo-selves in order to quell their devastating senses of anxiety and pain. As the youngest member of the family, little Buckley can hardly begin to comprehend his sister's fate. He only begins to understand the extent of her absence from his life during a game of Monopoly, when he realizes that there is no one to play with the shoe, Susie's favorite game piece. Unable to cope with the significance of the moment, Buckley hides the shoe in his bedroom. As with the rest of his family, Buckley can only consider the depth of her absence in isolation from the rest of the unit. To do anymore, it seems, would force them to contend with the awful reality of a world in which Susie simply no longer exists.
  • In the second stage of their confrontation with Susie's death and the slow, almost imperceptible collapse of their family system, the Salmons experience the anger about which Kübler-Ross remarks in On Death and Dying. "When the first stage of denial cannot be maintained any longer," she writes, "it is replaced by feelings of anger, rage, envy, and resentment." According to Kübler-Ross, people in such situations often find it difficult to control their anger or to differentiate logically between the various objects of their animus. "The reason for this," Kübler-Ross observes, "is the fact that this anger is displaced in all directions and projected onto the environment at times almost random" (50).5 In The Lovely Bones, the family's anger takes many
  • forms. Susie's own anger reaches a fever-pitch when she learns the maddening extent of her killer's depravity. As she recognizes that her own death was just the latest in a series of unsolved homicides, Susie seethes as she realizes that Mr. Harvey's house exists as a "town of floating graves, cold and whipped by the wind, where the victims of murder went in the minds of the living. I could see his other victims as they occupied his house--those trace memories left behind before they fled this Earth" (182).
  • While Susie's anger rages in heaven, her father's inability to come to terms with her death pushes the Salmon household to the brink of psychological disaster. His suspicions about his daughter's killer begin to emerge after he visits Mr. Harvey's home and assists his reclusive neighbor in the construction of a backyard bridal tent. Mr. Harvey's bizarre behavior--including his odd remark that "the neighbors saw us. We're friends now"--culminates in Jack's nearly round-the-clock surveillance of the murderer's behavior. Egged on by another neighbor's advice that he should find a covert way of avenging his daughter's homicide, Jack begins casing the cornfield where his daughter died. After he mistakenly accosts a young couple in the field, an altercation ensues that nearly results in Jack's own death. "
  • I wanted my father's vigil," Susie reports, "but also I wanted him to go away and leave me be" (140).
  • Having sublimated her grief for so long and with her husband's increasingly risky behavior testing the boundaries of her patience, Abigail indulges in an extramarital affair--with the local homicide detective, no less--in order to stave off her guarded emotions.
  • Lindsey and Buckley respond to their mother's departure by rallying around their father, whose physical deterioration in the wake of his daughter's murder has rendered him into a shadow of his former, pre-trauma self. Yet by opting to become their father's protector and ally, Lindsey and Buckley also succeed in erecting complicated emotional walls between themselves and their estranged mother.
  • In the third stage of their post-traumatic experiences, the Salmons engage in the act of "bargaining," the grieving phenomenon that Kübler-Ross describes as the product of a given client's irrational fears about the future and his or her "attempt to postpone," if only temporarily, the inevitable processes of life and death
  • In the Salmons' case, the third stage involves very explicit efforts to delay their acceptance of the finality of Susie's death. In so doing, they postpone their capacity for achieving morphogenesis and become typecast in their familial roles.6 Such self-imposed constraints inevitably lead to identity diffusion.
  • Abigail, the overwhelming anxiety over her daughter's loss and the psychological disintegration of her surviving family prompt her to seek refuge by fleeing the Salmon household. When the first anniversary of Susie's death arrives, Abigail can simply no longer fathom the mind-numbing flow of the grieving process:
  • After spending the winter in her late father's cabin in New Hampshire, Abigail drives across the country to California, where she finds a job as a day laborer in a winery. As Denis Jonnes notes,
  • Abigail seeks to empower--or, perhaps more accurately, re-empower--herself by effecting her escape from the larger Salmon family system.7 Yet mere distance can hardly provide her with the emotional sustenance that she so desperately desires:
  • Lindsey attempts to lose herself in the business of living. Opting to go to school the first Monday after Susie's death, Lindsey begins steeling herself against the world. In class, Susie observes, "my sister did not look at Mrs. Dewitt when she speaking. She was perfecting the art of talking to someone while looking through them. That was my first clue that something would have to give" (30).
  • Buckley's youth is understandably complexified by his psychological over-identification with his father, and their intensely close relationship results in Abigail's triangulation after her return from the west coast.
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    This article takes the coping mechanisms in the lovely bones and is connecting it to real life and gives more insight to why the acted the way they did and also how their different ways of coping lead to a divided family. 
Chelsea Elias

The New Woman - 0 views

  • feminists were
  • feminists were also commited to heterosexual attraction and intimacy--they thought sexual freedom went hand in hand with economic freedom. They believed that women had sexual
  • feminists were also commited to heterosexual attraction and intimacy--they thought sexual freedom went hand in hand with economic freedom. They believed that women had sexual
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  • feminists
  • eminists
  • feminists were also commited to heterosexual attraction and intimacy
  • they thought sexual freedom went hand in hand with economic freedom
  • feminism parted company with the nineteenth-century, Victorian idea of women's moral superiority to men
  • Sex outside marriage was a kind of behavioral outlawry that appealed to new feminists' desires
  • feminists critiqued bourgeois marriage as predictable, emotionally barren
  • , and subject to male tyranny
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    Argument: Cultural customs influence the characterization of the women in Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Mystery of the Sea; there are two types of women he writes about - the New Woman and 'classical' woman - and makes clear distinctions between the two. Claim: Stoker bases his characters off of two different types of women to emphasize the differences between characters, and to introduce suspense into the plot. Because Stoker writes about 'classical' women like Mina Harker and Gormala (to a certian extent), these women clash with the New Woman characters because of the different lifestyles. Evidence: The New woman wanted to "acheieve self-determination through life, growth, and experience." The New woman developed through an uprising feminist movement, a rebellion that involved woman's "refusal to heed the abstraction of womanhood." "Feminism sought to change human consciousness about male dominance". Because the qualities in the 'classical woman' and New Woman were opposites, it creates suspense and conflict between characters that helps to set the mood and move the plot forward.
Camille Poissonnier

Character Devlopment - 2 views

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    What character development there is in the novel comes from its hero. Dantes is first seen as an uncomplicated youth to whom life's mundane pleasures and basic values are adequate. He wants only to perform his job well, respect his father, and grow old with the woman whom he loves. He has no desire to play any great role in life. He is content to cultivate his own garden until forces he cannot control change him into a man with a mission. Dantes is so consumed with a passion for revenge that he does not realize that he is in danger of losing his soul. This awareness comes to him only after the humiliation of Villefort. "Tell the angel who is going to watch over you, Morrel," he writes to the son of his old patron, "to pray for a man who believed like Satan that for a moment he was the equal of God, but who in all Christian humility now acknowledges that supreme power and infinite wisdom are present in God alone." ( Kleine-Ahlbrandt 1). Argument:One who is so entranced upon the thought or idea of revenge is unaware of the physically and mental transformation that occurs within ones self. Claim: Within the Counte of Monte Cristo, Dante looses sight of himself in the midst of vengeful and a revengeful state of thought. Evidence: "Dantes is so consumed with a passion for revenge that he does not realize that he is in danger of losing his soul. This awareness comes to him only after the humiliation of Villefort." I can use this within
jamara

The Lady from the Sea - 8 views

The Ibsen Hero Argument: There are three different heroes in Ibsen's plays. There is the literary hero, the modern hero, and the Ibsen hero. Claim: The Ibsen hero is a tragic hero. Evidence: "Th...

Colleen Quinn

Literary Analysis #2-Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult - 0 views

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    Literary Analysis #2-Nineteen Minutes Throughout the literary critic of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, the main argument given by author Julie Ellam is based upon the fact that Picoult's work lacks depth. Throughout the critic, she gives examples such as the fact that one of the main characters Peter lacks characterization, as well as the fact that the author shies away from the central concern of the novel which is based upon the violence developed in schools. Ellam goes on to explain the way in which Picoult uses over description of her characters and hence lacks insight from the main focus once again. "These parts feels bolted on and overdone, and have the effect of making the reader even more impatient for a greater insight into the thought processes of the bullies and victims." (Ellam) This passage is significant to the work as a whole because it describes the way in which Picoult over analyzes characterization throughout her novel as well as the way in which she uses subplots to carry her story as a whole. Ellam goes on to discuss the way in which Picoult uses excessive description on main characters and background information that is unnecessary to the whole of the novel. She states that the reader tends to feel impatient throughout the reading and is frequently distracted from the main theme attempting to be expressed. "It is possible that the subplots that diverge from the massacre are used to give light as a contrast to the shade, but they appear instead as elements from a soapy romance." (Ellam) The way in which Ellam uses specific descriptions and examples from the novel give to the overall effectiveness of the critic by justifying her argument. This gives to the overall significance as the text as a whole by questioning the way in which the novel is written and taking in the novel from a diverse perspective.
Taylor Collins

Walkley on "Man and Superman" by Shaw - 0 views

  • Walkley was an English drama critic for the London Star, the Speaker, and the Times from 1888 through 1902, and a major contributor to the Times Literary Supplement after it was founded in 1902. He has been noted for his disciplined, urbane literary tastes; in fact, his criticism is generally considered to have primarily a literary, and not a theatrical, basis. In the following excerpt from a review of Man and Superman—the play that Shaw dedicated to Walkley and claimed was inspired by his suggestion —Walkley regrets that while the play serves as an effective vehicle for “the Shavian philosophy and the Shavian talent,” it is imperfect as a theatrical work.
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Shaw wrote a letter to Walkley, describing his take on a suggestion Walkley made for Shaw to write a 'Don Juan'. Shaw ultimately flips the whole concept of a 'Cassinova' on its head with a modern, feminist twist, but still credits Walkley as providing him with the challenge. In the letter Shaw expresses his 'lukewarm admiration' of Shakespeare for the strength of his female characters in a maternalistic world. In this regard Shaw finds a fresh opinion of Shakespeare as a playwrite, and a connection to the women in his own plays. Though Shaw sees Shakespeare as having put his own 'tissue' around the plots and ideas of earlier, successful works (which, we can all admit, was true-) it seems that he could still have a respect for the unique and insightfulness played out in the roles of his female characters.
  • For Mr. Shaw and Shakespeare have at least one conspicuous bond of fraternal relationship; they both use the same stage technique.
  • liaison des scènes
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Roughly, the idea that the stage should never be empty during an act or a scene.
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  • Thus for the sake of something which may be very fine, but certainly is not drama, both dramatists cheerfully let the quintessential drama go hang.
  • We want a play that shall be a vehicle for the Shavian philosophy and the Shavian talent and, at the same time, a perfect play. Shall we ever get it? Probably not, in this imperfect world. We certainly do not get it in Man and Superman.
  • he is perpetually energizing outside the bounds of drama,
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Since when does drama have bounds? Drama is not a formula, it is an art. Walkley says that there is a distinct form of art that he, and every other theater goer looks for in a play. Why, since Shaw's plays are entertaining, does it matter if this 'perfect' construction is not apparent? Is not a play perfect (as possible) if it is both entertaining and insightful? Literature is MEANT to convey ideas. No one creates works work taking note of unless he (or she) has something he (or she) wants to convey.
  • raison d'être
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'reason for existence'
  • nexus
    • Taylor Collins
       
      "1. a means of connection; tie; link. 2. a connected series or group. 3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation." -- Dictionary.com
  • the action-plot is well-nigh meaningless without the key of the idea-plot; that regarded as an independent entity it is often trivial and sometimes null; and that it is because of this parasitic nature of the action-plot, because of its weakness, its haphazardness, its unnaturalness, considered as a “thing in itself, ” that we find the play as a play unsatisfying.
  • We use the term action, of course, in its widest sense, so as to cover not merely the external incident but the psychologic and, more particularly, the emotional movement and “counterpoint” of the play.
  • The idea-plot we are not called upon to criticize. In the playhouse a dramatist's ideas are postulates not to be called in question. Theories of Schopenhauer about woman and the sex-instinct or of Nietzsche about a revised system of conduct are most assuredly open to discussion, but not by the dramatic critic. His business is, first and foremost, with the action-plot.
  • à propos de bottes
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'For no apparent reason'
  • dans cette galère
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'In this mess'
  • For Miss Ann is the new Don Juan, the huntress of men—no, of one man (that is to say, no Don Juan at all, but for the moment let that pass)
    • Taylor Collins
       
      In the previously mentioned letter from Shaw to Walkley, Shaw begins by telling him that he has taken up his challenge- to write a 'Don Juan story'. But, in Shaw's terms, the Don Juan is the one being pursued, rather than the pursuer. Walkley knows very well what Don Juan is doing 'in this mess'.
  • Tanner lectures poor mild milksopish Octavius about the devastating egoism of the “artist man”—how the “artist man” is (apparently) the masculine of the “mother woman,” how they are twin creators, she of children, he of mind, and how they live only for that act of creation, so that there is the devil to pay (examples from literary history) when they happen to become man and wife.
    • Taylor Collins
       
      These ideas are also included in the letter, noted by Shaw as being his "character's, and for a time, also [his] own".
  • The properly dramatic development would have thrown all the onus upon Ann—we should have seen Ann energizing as the “mother woman,” and nothing else—and would have kept Tanner's mouth shut.
  • If Mr. Shaw's play were a real play we should have no need to explain the action-plot by laborious reference to the idea-plot. The one would be the natural garment of the other; or rather the one would be the flesh of which the other was the bones.
  • Ann would exhibit Mr. Shaw 's thesis “on her own,” instead of by the help of Mr. Jack Tanner's lecture wand and gift of the gab.
  • the action-plot, being as we have said a mere parasite of the other, is bound very rapidly to give out.
  • We must not forget two subordinate characters —Ann's mother, middle-aged, querulous, helpless in her daughter 's hands, and the cockney chauffeur, the fine fleur of Board school education, Henry Straker. These two small parts, from the point of view of genuine and fresh observation, are among the best things in the play. In them Mr. Shaw has been content to reproduce, instead of deducing.
  • Mr. Shaw, as we have tried to show, has conceived Ann not as a character, but as a pure idea, a walking theory;
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    I'm having some issues with the website, but I do have the analysis saved if you end up needing a hard copy :)
Mustafa Khan

John Steinbeck Criticism - 0 views

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    The purpose of McKay was to demonstrate the womes inferior roles in Steinbecks novel, "Grapes of Wrath". Men's patriarchal role overshadowed the womens efforts in the hosehold, because he was viewed as the primary breadwinner. Attention is also drawn to the fact that it was socialy acceptable to hit women at the time to, due to the many abuses Ma Joad suffers from her husband. Evidence "tired because they are always attending to the needs of everyone but themselves." "Even domestic violence against these women is socially acceptable within the group" "Ma Joad has the opportunity (or perhaps the duty) to assert herself and still maintain her role as selfless nurturer of the group. In this respect, she is leader and follower, wise and ignorant, and simple and complex" "in particular the mother and her son Tom (the other Joad men never develop as fully), gradually shed their naïveté and achieve a sound political consciousness of class and economic oppression" Analysis McKay povides a lot of evidence to support his thesis. Throughout the novel men are shown as superior to the women, and make the critical decisions regarding the family by themselves. This proves the inferiority of women in Stienbecks time, and he incorperates it within his novel
Maria McGilton

Article Analysis #2 - Jane Eyre - 0 views

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    The author of the Bergsonian Critique criticizes and explains the novel, Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte. It says how it could be an example of feminist text because of a women's quest. They critique that it is a mythic and gothic text because they believe the author was "unappealing and unremarkable". The strength of will of the main character allows the novel to develop through the quest. The purpose of this analysis and critique is to show how some of Bronte's life or personality is portrayed through the novel and characters. The author of the analysis gives Bronte credit because of the way she writes due to the autobiographical structure of the novel. The character Jane says in the novel that she will not "announce to the world that she is trying to begin any type of feminist movement". The author of this analysis believes that it is all about feminism and either an example of being "unfeminine" or feminine. The thinking of the main character could have had a movement for women in the 19th century when the novel was written. Most of the time, throughout, the author talks mostly about Jane and her "defiance of authority". They feel like Charlotte Bronte proves that Jane is a part of her and her beliefs. The purpose of this from the article was to show how the main character thinks and questions that may arise from the reader of the novel.
Nicole Keefe

Death of A Salesman Critic - 0 views

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    The Early Work of Arthur Miller Critic In this larger analysis by Leonard Moss on the complete works of Arthur Miller, the subsection regarding "All My Sons" explored the use of diction and other literary techniques to develop the complex family relationships of this novel. The family unit in "All My Sons" enjoys strong bonds and affections according to Moss; nonetheless, they are plagued with uncertainty and distrust among other members of the family despite this closeness. Moss progresses through the plot sequentially in order to support this claim about the family. Along the way, the article notes the language used by Miller to supplement the work. Colloquial language is used frequently, for instance, along with many allusions which are employed to reveal secrets of the family and signify shifts in emotions found within the story. Specifically noted is the "verbal contrast bringing out a psychological contrast" such as "harshness starting to displace simple folkiness, fearfulness displacing the comfortable self-assurance." Once accounting for the social truths and themes put forth by Miller, and the many supporting details, the author of this article concludes that much of the plot is centered on characters whose existence thrives in their pride as an honorable family member. This claim is supported by the actions of Joe Keller; after learning of his sons' discontent with his job as a father, he gives up everything and commits suicide because his life has no worth. These sentiments are definitely reflected within "Death of a Salesman" as well, which leads Moss to further conclude that Miller has strong opinions regarding family norms of this time.
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    The author of this critic, Terry Thompson, examined the family relationships and themes of Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman". Specifically the author examined two central symbolic elements to these aspects of the play, the first being the names of and the second being the physical characteristics of Willy, Biff, and Happy Loman. When closely examined, Thompson points out, the only character who is not addressed by a childish rendition of their name is Willy's brother, Benjamin Loman. Coincidently this is the only character of the novel that is viewed as successful; Willy, Biff, and Happy all continue to use immature pseudonyms which reflect their perceived shortcomings in life. In this same manner, the only characters who have facial hair and other features typical of grown men are Benjamin Loman and the father of Benjamin and Willy Loman. Again, this signifies their superiority, maturity, and success over the characters of Willy, Biff, and Happy. These minor details solidify the relationships between the male characters in the play, which lead to the conclusion by Thompson that Willy and his sons were truly inferior to other males. Moreover, this definition of inferiority was purely devised through standards put forth by Willy's idea of success stemming from the influences he had from men as he was growing up. This is clearly shown when Willy asks Benjamin to describe their father to his sons in order to show them a real role model and guide for success. Overall, Willy had a very harsh view about what success and self-worth comprised of.
James Cadena

Literary Analysis #3-Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien - 1 views

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    Argument: In Going After Cacciato Tim O'Brien uses a method of utilizing personal experiences and feelings to provoke more real like emotions and ideas from the characters. Evidence: "…Tim O'Brien develops themes such as true courage, loneliness, and psychological effects of war by using narrative techniques, such as recounting thoughts and emotions of characters, in order to emphasize their fantasies, confusing, and obsessions. Thoughts: I believe that this is a very accurate claim because the story does have much more emotion in the style of writing O'Brien chose. If the novel was written in a different way like in a way with less true attachment or feelings the book would've lost its feel and would not have been as big a success.
Gina Awanis

Literary Analysis #3- Pride and Prejudice - 1 views

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    The author's ( Maureen Cutajar) purpose is to explain the irony and structure of Jane Austen's view on the society of her time and to explain Austen's purpose in Pride and Prejudice in terms of the romance in the novel. Cutajar writes on how Austen describes two ways of falling in love and how those reflect on the society of the time. The two ways to fall in love that Austen writes in her novel Pride and Prejudice, is that of instant meeting (or love at first sight) and the love that develops slowly over time as is the case with Elizabeth and Darcy. What Cutajar concludes then is that, "Nevertheless, it seems that the 'rational' choice is not based on how quickly one falls in love but rather on what grounds" (Cutajar). Also, according to Cutajar, she concludes that, "Love therefore is not enough on its own and does not lead to happiness if it goes against the social system" (Cutajar). As for my own thoughts, I am interested in Austen's views on society, especially pertaining to marriage and the social "norm" at the time, especially because Austen's novels mainly reflect the idea of society and marriage. It is also interesting to compare the norm when it comes to marriage then and now and see how they differ or relate.
Austin Joy

Analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns - 0 views

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    A Thousand Splendid Suns is a book about women in Afghan and their struggles. In the article Harvey Thompson discuses the problems women face in Khaled's book A Thousand Splendid Suns. "At first, Mariam shows only contempt towards the "interloper," but slowly a friendship develops between the two women. They make common cause and endure degradation, starvation and brutality at the hands of their husband until they are forced to take up a desperate, joint struggle." This shows how women are treated. These women lives are mostly like property being married off to much older men, and having their children. Why have to be a mother at the age of 15 is beyond me but this it's their religion and they are not able to change this life. Thompson also discusses the problems of relationship destroyed at such young ages. For example, Mariam and her father. "The story begins in 1974, as Mariam, an illegitimate child of a wealthy businessman from Herat, is growing up. Her father did not have the courage to marry her mother after "dishonouring" her" (Thompson). The tragedy behind this lost relationship is that her father was the one to marry her off Mariam. Many problems are seen throughout both of Khaled's book. The main factor of both is relationship problems. "Hosseini was born in Kabul, where his father worked for the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry. In 1970, the family moved to the Iranian capital where Hosseini's father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan. In 1973, Hosseini's family returned to Kabul" (Thompson). It almost seem that he has had some problems within his own family making him want the world to know what happens behind close doors.
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