Argument: Both Orwell's nonfiction and fiction works deserve further attention. His novels are able to fully grasp social and political struggles while captivating the audience. Saunder's book makes a convincing argument describing the captivating authors importance.
Claim: Clerke acknowledges that many academics including, Orwell himself saw the author of 1984 as a nonfiction writer. Although many of his novels have not been studied, they deserve attention because they capture a character's conflict in a unique light. Character's are brought to life as they share real-world experiences with those living in Orwell's time. His powerful voice as analyzed by Saunder's bring economic, social, and political conflicts to for front of the reader's mind.
Evidence:
"Orwell was acutely aware of the political connotations of such words and the complex economic and cultural structures they attempted to describe. His use of them shifted as his ideas developed, and it was always shaped by a sensitivity to context"
"Saunders's emphasis on artistry enables her to engage with the texture of Orwell's prose, even in this relatively short critical study, and she is at her best in her close readings of specific passages, which expose the varied, often sophisticated methods Orwell employs to achieve particular effects. She is especially illuminating in her analyses of his use of free indirect discourse, and the dangers of identifying the narrative voice with Orwell himself"
"insisting that his own voice tended to intrude in his narratives and that he was continually tempted to incorporate accounts of experiences that interested him even when they did not fit the design of a novel"
Argument:
Orwell's 1984 is a work of fiction reflecting real-life experiences. Orwell's personal life, from his upbringing to his political experiences, played an important role in the novel.
Claim:
Inspiration for "Big Brother" came from brutality Orwell experienced at an early age. Beginning in preparatory he was viciously tormented. Later he witnessed oppressive cruelty while stationed in Burma. After Burma Orwell chose to live among the poor to experience poverty. His decision would later give birth to "the proles". Through Orwell's experiences he was able to create fiction based on his real events and people. The novel was intended to warn against corruption in any society after witnessing such corruption in the Spanish Civil War that forced him to flee the country. Although it was wrongly mistaken as a prophecy or attack on socialism it was a warning to all countries the results of corruption.
Evidence:
"Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four toward the end of his career, at a point in his life when many of his experiences and political complexities had aged with him through a decades-long internal contemplation"
"he intended to warn society of the potential perversions of bureaucracy and the state, the perversions of power that he had witnessed over the previous decade, in a variety of forms, in England and Spain"
"His work for the POUM had shown him the contradictions of official appearance, doctored news, class conflict, and the basic human desire for power. Lines can easily be drawn to the thematic structure of Nineteen Eighty-Four"
Argument: Flashbacks, if utilized efficiently, can be a revealing part of a story.
Claim: Flashbacks have to have a proper transition in and out of the story.
They connect with the story and give more exposure however cannot deter from the main story itself so much that events are overshadowed.
Make sure flashbacks are motivated
Evidence: "By all means use flashbacks, but for good reason: not because you want to use them, but because your story demands them. Ask: Does the flashback deepen our understanding of a character or a relationship? Does it provide needed background? In the end, it comes down to what a story needs."
Argument: This article provides an interview with Jodi Picoult and her reasoning behind the consroversial themes of her novels. The interview also asks particular questions reguarding nineteen minutes and Picoult's resoning behind writing such a dark novel.
Claims: Most of Picoult's novels pertain to controversies and that Nineteen Minutes required a lot of research. The Picoult also claimed that Nineteen Minutes and My Sister's Keeper are similar books in the interview.
Evidence: "Nineteen Minutes to My Sister's Keeper I see them as very similar books - they are both very emotional, very gut-wrenching, and they're situations that every parent dreads"
"I think that sometimes when we don't want to talk about issues that are hard to discuss or difficult to face, it's easier to digest it in fiction instead of nonfiction"
"Fiction allows for moral questioning, but through the back door. Personally, I like books that make you think - books you're still wondering about three days after you finish them"
Argument- Bradbury has an issue letting go of an idea or a point, "squeezes it dry." This is order to make sure his point gets made through all types of his literature.
Claims - Since he began writing his final works acquired a large amount of depth and polish, much more extensive than his sometimes disturbing first works.
-Bradbury attempts to display machines and large things as evil as they tend to represent the adult life, something Bradbury seems to fear.
-Most of his earlier stories, lacked the idea of a true story and were rather just intensely realized fragments.
Evidence- "but because they are grownup things; because they symbolize the big, loud, faceless, violent, unromantic world of adults"
-The author discusses how like other science fiction writers, that Bradbury's goal is to demonstrate new ideas not normally thought about.
-Also, the author demonstrates his opinion of the dark side of Bradbury and his inability to properly adress the things he hopes to, as his works are sometimes more sickening than intended.
made an interesting discovery: what failed as poetry succeeded marvelously as
prose. The capricious line breaks were annoying as hell, but Hopkins’ attempt to
write something poem-shaped had the salutary effect of producing incredibly
tight and evocative sentences, not a word wasted.
So much so that when her sister writes, telling Pattyn that their father has
started beating his younger children, you fully expect that Pattyn is going to
kick ass and take names.
I do demand that the plot twists, especially the drastic ones, be explicable
upon careful re-examination of the story, and that tragic endings be
justifiable, thematically, philosophically, geographically, whatever. Just so
long as there’s a reason.
ending was so wrong, so incredibly
unjustified by the story preceding it, that it made the verse-format look like
the greatest structural innovation in novels since the first person
narrator.