Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
That dynamic was so familiar to the boy that he responded, probably automatically, by adopting the correspondingly appropriate demeanor on his part, as clearly evidenced by the following passage:
The woman was sitting on the day-bed. After a while she said, "I were young once and I wanted things I could not get." There was another long pause. The boy's mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing he frowned. The woman said,
Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn't you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn't snatch people's pocketbooks. Well, I wasn't going to say that." Pause. Silence. "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son -- neither tell God, if he didn't already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable."
The natural ability of the woman - even (presumably, from her autobiographical descriptions), an ordinary woman without advanced education or training in adolescent psychology - to understand the importance of allowing the boy to identify with her experiences is also characteristic of a time period when (virtually all) adults seemed to understand how to reach out to troubled adolescents. The...
Mrs.
Jones got up and went behind the screen. The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now. [emphasis supplied]
Do you need somebody to go to the store," asked the boy, "maybe to get some milk or something?"
The reader is left with very strong doubts that a similar exchange or outcome would ever transpire today. Therefore, aside from mere superficial conversational differences attributable to contemporary values and norms, this attitudinal and linguistic evolution (or devolution, depending on your point-of-view), seems to correspond to other changes in social values that one could argue have been much more detrimental than beneficial to American social culture.
To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient
English Literature Death in Venice - Cultural Criticism & Reader Response Criticism Reader-Response Criticism is a legitimate, proven method for readers to use when digging into the deeper meaning of a piece of literature; it's always a good idea to broaden one's understanding of literature by gaining a grasp at how others view the same work. And meantime, employing the use of Cultural Criticism as research into the meaning of literature is
In the Vanderhaeghe story, the old man could have jeopardized his life and that of his horse just because he could not admit that he had injured himself. The other element of courage illustrated by the story is particularly relevant to the stage of life of high school upperclassmen. By the time we are seventeen or eighteen years old, we are beginning to develop our own ideas about life and
English Literature - Flowers for Algernon Though Flowers for Algernon is a fictionalized account, it addresses genuine issues, many of which are universal. Published in 1966, the novel reflects the less sensitive treatment of mentally disabled people during that time period. Allowing a unique perspective through the eyes of a man who lacks, gains, then loses genius, the novel is both tragic and inspirational, making definitive statements about high intelligence's great
I had my hopes up for the exam and I was well aware of the fact that the competition would be tough. Yet I studies as we had been taught in college, in the most academic way possible. Yet now I realize that it was not enough. More than that, I know now that the world of academic studies is a different world from that of the practical world of
This theory essentially states that myths are designed in order to tell a story, or to explain how, through supernatural means, a particular event took place (Eliade, 1998). Using this definition from Eliade himself, it is much easier to discuss the importance of religious ritual and its tie to myths. Because myths perform the task of explaining what may have only been explainable through sheer faith without myths in