Narrative poetry

Have you ever thought about the deeper meaning of a story? Have you ever looked beyond the horizon right in front of you? If not, the short stories “Contents of a Dead Man’s” Pockets by Jack Finney, “The Leap” by Louise Erdrich, and “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, all have their additions that contribute to the deeper level intended. This can be created through the topics of setting, conflict, characters, and theme. These topics help make up the plot of each story as well as the conflict and…

Borges’ “The Mirror of Ink” embodies the essence of a quintessential moral anecdote. Brief, deliberate and insightful, “The Mirror of Ink” certainly asserts to its readership a particular set of lessons and imperatives but, as the title implies, there is a complex and nuanced ambiguity to the content of Borges’ short story. The title of this piece is something of an oxymoron. A mirror is by nature a pure reflective surface. Ink, conversely, is muddled and opaque. A mirror of ink seems…

In the beginning of the chapter one of Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts, by Joseph Harris, he tells of how Pierre Menard rewrote Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes as a joke to show the readers that “to understand a text you need, in a way, to rewrite it, to take the ideas and phrasings of its author and turn them into your own. Text simply reveal their meanings to us: we need to make sense of them.”(Harris 15) This is one of the key points Harris is trying to instill in the readers of his…

In the crucible it shows how two people can have opposing views and each having valid points, but at the end they can both be wrong. In this analysis I will describe three different points about the crucible. Many moments throughout this book where you see this type of stuff. It's something not only seen in the book and is also seen in real life moments. Many people encounter these type of things because everyone thinks they're right, but in reality and at the end of the day they're wrong. It's…

2) The narrator's point of view is in the third person. Catch-22 is centered on the main character, Yossarian; the reader is aware of his thoughts and Yossarian is informed of other characters thoughts. 3) The tone portrayed in Catch-22 is satirical. The attitude is demonstrated by the author exaggerating characters ludicrous qualities and using self-contradictory statements. 4) Rome, Italy, and the island off the coast, Pianosa is where Catch-22 takes place. Catch-22 is during World War II…

The Perfect Setting When telling a story how do you start? Do you jump right into the main events, or do you lay out the setting for the person to get a mental image of the action taking place? The setting plays a major aspect to a story, it can become boring if you do not understand the time, place, or atmosphere the story took place in. In Kate Chopin’s short story, The Storm the setting plays a major role. The setting portrays more than where The Storm takes place, the atmosphere, weather,…

The purpose of this paper is to examine Walter Besant’s lecture “The Art of Fiction” in light of Henry James’ published response of the same title. I will argue that James’ is correct and warranted to critique Besant’s approach, but that James’ concerns are ultimately overstated. Besant’s lecture “The Art of Fiction” aims to defend fiction and elevate the novel among the “higher” arts. Historically, critics wouldn’t dare speak of fiction in the same breath they praise the fine arts – to even…

Narrative and literary techniques are used within various forms of literature to help portray the author’s intentions and thoughts to the reader, specifically to give artistic and emotional effects to the story. These techniques such as style involve the use of metaphors, imagery, alliteration, symbolism and several more. Common techniques applicable to the plot of a story consist of various elements including flashbacks, flashforwards, and foreshadowing specific events. Literary techniques can…

This quotation utilizes the literary device of rhetorical question. The rhetorical question in this quote is “have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?” This question is posed to the reader, who obviously can’t actually respond to Lina. Instead of being answerable, the question serves to get the reader to consider how much value is actually placed on the lives of the Lithuanian deportees in the novel. The blunt statement of Jonas’s worth being equal to that of a pocket watch sets the…

Symbolism is used in literature to show not only the importance but also to signify the ideas the writer is presenting to the reader. The symbolic meaning sometimes differs from original form of the meaning. It is an object that is explaining/ showing another similar object in a completely different way that is much more meaningful and has a bigger impact. In The Story Of The Hour written by Kate Chopin is a heartfelt and an emotionally drawn story. The first theme that first caught my attention…