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S.E Hinton’s The Outsiders, was published in 1967 by Viking Press. A novel depicted as coming-of-age themed, Hinton started writing the novel at age 15 and had published it by the age of 18. The author, Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Oklahoma. A place that she roughly describes as a ‘place to be, where nothing happens’. It is well known that when Hinton came to publish her novel, her publishers advised her that by initialising her name (S.E Hinton) and authorising herself with just her last name, she will create a genderless name for readers. This was a concern for the publishers as they predicted that readers would not be willing to read her novel about violence and prejudice if they knew it had been written by a female. The knowledge that being a female writer and not having the ability to sell your book to an audience because it contains violence, depicts the context and what kind of societal norms was in place in the 1960s.

The Outsiders is a novel based off the story of a 14-year-old boy named Ponyboy Curtis. It follows through two weeks of his struggles to survive in society. Ponyboy believes that he is an outsider. The story begins with an exposition of Ponyboy walking home and bumping into a group of Socs. The Socs, short for Socials, are from the higher-class area in town and The Greasers, is a term the men from the lower class of town are referred as. Pony gets beaten up by this group of Socs before a few members of his own gang arrive at the scene and fend off the Socs. Organized gangs are rarities … the warfare is between the social classes. This event sets the tone of the story and how the audience will perceive the relationship between the Socs and the Greasers.

I have chosen to analyse chapter four of The Outsiders; whereas I will be exploring the different techniques of description and voice, which allowed this chapter to become one of the novel’s best chapters. Chapter four begins with a description of the setting. Hinton uses deeply descriptive language to set the scene: “The park was about two blocks square, with a fountain in the middle and a small swimming pool for the little kids. The pool was empty now in the fall, but the fountain was going merrily. Tall elm trees made the park shadowy and dark”. This park is where Johnny suggests he and Ponyboy go to cool off before going back home. At this point Ponyboy is feeling his lowest, thinking “things gotta get better, they couldn’t get much worse”. Another technique that Hinton uses is a strong use of colour. “White as a ghost” is used to depict how Johnny felt and was seen. The colour white is often used as a combination of colours, which will not be affiliated with either the Socs, nor the Greasers. Feelings of fright is a universal feeling; thus, this allows the readers to recognise the similarities between the two different gangs. The use of voice, Ponyboy’s voice, progressively develops the more you read. The boy who once felt misplaced and confused, living behind his brother’s shadow; understands that there is more to life than being labelled as a greaser and that he holds potential to make something of himself.

The Outsiders is a classic novel read by young adults. It is a fictional story that has transformed the young adult genre by depicting teenagers unlike their typical presentation. Seemingly as the opposite of what a typical teenager is portrayed as. Although it is categorised as “young adult”, The Outsiders for me was a novel I found myself constantly relating to at many points. Although it was published over 50 years ago, it still conquers the ability to resonate with young adults today. Many critics over the years have praised the work of Hinton, some even going on to say that she “revolutionised the genre” and that “it is easily relatable- a book that resonates with us all”.

The type of language written in the novel, proves the story to be set in the 1960s. Examples used to show this, use of discourse such as “rumbles” instead of fights; the gangs listed to bands such as The Beatles etc. The type of language written in the novel, proves the story to be set in the 1960s. Examples used to show this, use of discourse such as “rumbles” instead of fights; the gangs listed to bands such as The Beatles etc. In chapter 4, Ponyboy and Johnny are both assuming that they are going to get the blame for the killing. Although the killing was a result of self-defence, neither Ponyboy nor Johnny realise that they did not need to run from the scene. Whilst reading this scene, it came to my attention just how big the extent of differences between The Greasers and The Socs were. It is apparent in this chapter that the difference between the two gangs lie greater than just economic status, but rather a wider social injustice.

To conclude, Hinton did an excellent role in demonstrating the importance of upbringing and how it will impact children in the long term. The use of themes throughout the novel such as, action and consequence, economic-based prejudice, violence and the importance of friendship; are all vital themes that are still relatable to readers today. The use of technique such as the type of language, description and voice of character, allowed us to follow and empathise with each character in the book, namely Ponyboy Curtis. 

Works Cited

1. Hinton, S. E. (1967). The Outsiders. Viking Press.
2. Fusco, D. (2005). S. E. Hinton: The Collection: The Outsiders / Rumble Fish / That Was Then, This Is Now. Speak.
3. Davis, C. (2002). Understanding S.E. Hinton. University of South Carolina Press.
4. MacLeod, A. (2010). The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success. Penguin.
5. Butler, M. J. (2013). The Legacy of The Outsiders: A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge. Springer.
6. Bickley-Green, J., & McCarthy, K. (Eds.). (2017). S.E. Hinton: An Annotated Bibliography, 1967-2017. Rowman & Littlefield.
7. Davidson, C. (1996). Reading in America: Literature and Social History. Johns Hopkins University Press.
8. Collins, P. L. (2008). The Outsiders: The Lives and Legacies of S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola. Praeger.
9. Malin, I. (2007). Children's Literature and Social Change: Some Case Studies from Barbara Hofland to Philip Pullman. Wiley.
10. Simpson, M. J. (2011). Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century. McGraw-Hill.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there is one character who changes drastically throughout the play. That character is Macbeth. In the beginning, Macbeth is an honest and loyal thane to King Duncan. However, he lets greed and evil desires drive him to an act of regicide. His guilt and fear slowly begin to overcome him as the play progresses, and his sanity begins to slip away. By the end of the play he has been rendered insane from the surmounting guilt over all those he has killed. In the end, all his killing and deception gets him killed. With this Shakespeare shows that people will reap what they sow.

Macbeth starts out as an honest man who is faithful and loving of King Duncan. Duncan trust him too as he says: “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall recieve / Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death, / And with his former title greet Macbeth” (1.2.64). Duncan has given a new title to Macbeth, making him Thane over two regions. But after the Weïrd Sisters tell him that he will be King and Duncan appoints Malcolm as his heir, Macbeth’s conscience is filled with greed and dark desires. After some convincing by Lady Macbeth, he takes power into his own hands with regicide, killing Duncan. This starts his downward descent into insanity.

In the middle of the play, Macbeth has started to grow paranoid about negative repercussions for his actions. In his fear, he deems that Banquo and Fleance cannot be allowed to live. He hires three murderers and tells them “Fleance, his son, that keeps him company, / Whose absence is no less material to me / Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate of that dark hour.” (3.1.140-143). His paranoia of Fleance somehow overthrowing him drives him to get rid of him and any of those who may get in his way. Later, at the grand feast that he throws for the Lords and himself, he begins to see the ghost of Banquo sitting in his chair and Macbeth is incredibly disturbed by it. He is wrought with fear and screams for the ghost to leave. He has become so filled with guilt and and fear that he is seeing the reincarnate of people that he has killed.

At the end of the play, Macbeth has lost his mind, he has gone so crazy and self obsessed that his paranoia is trumped by his sense of invulnerability. When the English army is advancing upon his castle, Macbeth says “Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. / Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane / I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?” (5.1.1-3). He believes that he cannot be defeated as everyone is woman born and the woods could never just suddenly move to his castle. He thinks that he can rule for the rest of his life because everything is in his favor. And that false sense of security, while overrun with insanity, is what let to his ultimate demise.

Macbeth’s mental state throughout the play shows the negative repercussions he has received from all of his dark actions. The guilt of killing those who trusted and respected him is overwhelming, and he is unable to handle it all. He goes from being a loyal happy man to breaking down in fear and guilt. Shakespeare uses this progression to shows that even the most powerful people will reap what they sow.

Table of contents

1. Main Characters
2. Summary
3. Opinion

The setting g takes place in two major places. Reston Maryland which is a suburb of Washington DC. and the second major area is in Kenya Africa. The story takes place in the 1980's.

Main Characters

Since this story is a true story there is no one character that is a main character. The author does not create the story around any one main character so I'll just list every character I can remember from the book.

1. Charles Monet: He was the first host to the deadly ebola virus breakout in Africa. He was 56 years old and was kind of a loner according to the authors interviews with people.
2. Dr. Mosoke: He was Charles Monets doctor when Charles crashed and bled out which means when the host suddenly starts bleeding infectious blood out of every orifice in the body.
3. Nancy Jaax: She was a veterinary pathologist at a military fort in Maryland..
4. Jerry Jaax: He was a veterinarian and husband to Nancy Jaax.
5. Peter Jahrling: He was a disease expert at Fort Detrick
6. Gene Johnson: He was in charge of the Reston operation. He also was the discoverer of Ebola Sudan.
7. Nun: The Nun's name was unknown but she had the very first recorded case of Ebola Zaire which is the most dangerous of the three strains.

Summary

This is a true story. On New Year's Day 1980 a man named Charles Monet went on a trip with a girl friend of his up to Mnt. Elgon in West Kenya. They spent the night there and went to a large cave there called Kitcum cave. After his trip to Kitcum cave he went home and three days later had a huge headache that wouldn't go away. That is the first symptom of this deadly disease. A few days later he went to the doctors and they told him he should go to a bigger hospital in Nairobi.

Charles caught a flight to Nairobi an the ninth day after his visit to kitcum cave. All through the flight to Nairobi he was throwing up blood mixed with a black liquid. When he got to the hospital he sat down and waited to be served. Then his spine went limp and nerveless and he lost all sense of balance. he started going into shock. He then started throwing up an incredible amount of blood from his stomach and spilt it on to the floor.

The people who were there said the only sound was the choking in his throat from his constant vomiting while he is unconscious. Then came the sound of bed sheets being torn in half which is the sound of his bowels opening up and venting blood from the anus. The blood is mixed with intestinal lining. His gut is sloughed. The linings of his intestines come off and were being expelled from his body along with huge amounts of blood. This dying process which happens to nine out of ten people who come in contact with the deadly disease is called crashing and bleeding. Samples of his blood were flown to all the major disease labs in the world. The disease was a Marburg Strain.

In Sudan the same types of deaths were wiping out whole tribes. So Gene Johnson flew over there and worked with sick members of the tribes to try and find a cure. This strain of Marburg was called Ebola Sudan for were it was found. Later in Zaire there was an out post of missionaries who would give vaccine shots and penicillin to local tribes. One of the nuns there became sick with a similar disease. She died and her blood was sent to disease labs all over the world. The strain was called Ebola Zaire since it was discovered in Zaire.

In Reston Maryland there was a monkey house that would ship monkeys all over the US. to labs for medical experiments. Suddenly all the monkeys started dying in one room. Tom Jahrling from fort Detrick came down and took a look at the monkeys and took some samples. He took back and he and Tom Geisbert looked at it and thought it was just a small monkey virus and try smelled it which is a way to tell what something was. They couldn't tell what it was so they looked at it under a electron microscope and it looked allot like Marburg. They were scared because they had smelled the container of the marburg. They didn't tell anyone that they had been exposed.

The Military and the C.D.C. (Center for Disease Control) sealed off the whole building and Nancy Jaax and Jerry Jaax led squads of people inside the building wearing space suits. Two people while working inside the building were cut and their space suits were torn which means they were exposed to the virus. They found out that the virus they were working with was a close relative to Ebola Zaire. They killed all the monkeys in the building and locks their corpses up because they were predicting that if the virus got out it would total the human population. It would be like another Black Plague, but the Black Plague only killed 50% of those infected while this killed 90%.

They put a special chemical in the building and let it sit four three days. After the tree days nothing was alive in the entire building not even a tiny microscopic virus could live. But four people had been exposed to the virus and surprisingly they all lived they later realized that the virus must have mutated so it would not harm humans but if it mutated again and could effect humans it would be devastating. This new virus was called Ebola Reston.

Opinion

I thought the book was really scary. It was scary to see that there are diseases that could completely wipe us out and that we got really lucky at Reston. I thought the book was also very educating. From a scale of one to ten I give it a ten because the author uses great detail. for instance when the author tells the effects of the disease.

During the 17th century, women were seen as an object rather than a human being and men had many desires for women. For example, women were expected to keep her dignity, wait for courtship, and marry a suitable suitor before succumbing to the flesh’s pleasures. In the poem “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, the author portrays the male of the seventeenth century’s impatience and anger, ready to convince his lady to take advantage of her youthful beauty. The speaker utilizes visual imagery to convey his tone and intention by using point of view in an attempt to demonstrate his love and in a voice that is as urgent as it is both compelling and sensual, to lure his mistress to carnal delights.

Marvell portrays his poem by convincing his love towards his lady through the use of visual imagery. It states “And your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust”. This evidence indicates that Marvell is referring to his lady’s honour turning to dust and then into ashes. This contributes to the poem by showing the love he has towards his lady and that they should be together because they won’t be young forever and should take advantage of it while they can and that should show their love for one another, because one day, it may be too late. It also states “Now therefore, while the youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew and while thy willing soul transpires at every pore with instant fires”. This evidence conveys that the lady soul breathes out in ‘instant flames’ of enthusiasm and passion for love through her beautiful skin. The author now wants his mistress to give in to her desire as she can still respond before time takes her toll. Marvell declares his core argument for his lover that she must decide to have sex with him and to make use of the time together wisely.

In conclusion, Marvell tries to make himself seem reasonable by saying that he is going to wait for his woman, but ultimately he just looks at her as an object and wants her to live up to his lustful desires and have sex with him. The woman’s concern for her appearance, her vanity, is the device that the author is attempting to use to threaten her with the passage of time. His first flattery of her beauty is abstract, without any description.He expresses this through the use of visual imagery to express his tone and purpose in an attempt to demonstrate his desire and love to his lady. 

Works Cited

1. Abrams, M. H., & Greenblatt, S. (Eds.). (2018). The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Seventeenth Century, Volume B. W. W. Norton & Company.
2. Baldwin, T. (2004). William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Research & Education Assoc.
3. Brooks, C. (1947). The Waste Land: Critique of the Myth. The Sewanee Review, 55(1), 9-24.
4. Burrow, C. (Ed.). (2006). The Complete Sonnets and Poems. Oxford University Press.
5. Ferguson, M., Salter, M., & Stallworthy, J. (Eds.). (2015). The Norton Anthology of Poetry (6th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
6. Marvell, A. (1681). Miscellaneous Poems. Printed for Robert Boulter.
7. Nelles, W. (2019). Andrew Marvell: The Chameleon. Cambridge University Press.
8. Parfitt, G. (2017). Andrew Marvell: The Poems. Routledge.
9. St. John, I. (Ed.). (2013). The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell. Cambridge University Press.
10. Williamson, G. (2018). A Reader's Guide to Andrew Marvell. Bloomsbury Academic.

In this essay I will be looking for examples of poetic devices such as theme, imagey and tone, in the poem created by Robert Frost ‘The Road Not Taken’. As a literary device, the theme of a poem lies in the meaning of the story it tells.It is the central topic or idea explored in a text. Usually the theme of a work of literature can be stated in one word, such as “love” or“sadness”. A poem or text can have more than one theme. The theme is not stated explicitly in the text, but instead is expressed through the characters’ actions, words, and thoughts. This is an excellent example of theme in the poem ‘Road Not Taken’. This is an ambiguous poem that allows the readers to think about choices they make in life. Robert Frost’s work The Road Not Taken conveys a very simple, yet pensive theme. The poem describes the problems and choices one must take in life, and how those specific decisions impact that person. Frost establishes this theme with a depiction of two paths in the woods. Later in the poem, the author reveals the attributes and personality of the main character as he or she ponders past life choices. This characterization helps to bridge the gap between the reader and the character, allowing the poem to communicate a deeper meaning. Frost strengthens the reader’s figurative presence in the poem by presenting such diction and setting of two roads. The use of such devices again add to the connection between the reader and the character-forcing Frost’s message to become even more insightful.

Another literary aspect Frost utilizes to express his tone in setting. In the poem, he states, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”. The phrase “a yellow wood” may be a symbolism of the color the trees radiated. This suggests that the story takes place in the middle of autumn, most likely, contributing to the sense that time is running out-as in life-for the character. Here, Frost again outlines his tone as he demonstrates the character’s rational contemplation and, eventually, regret. The author further establishes the setting as, in the second stanza, it states, “Then took the other, as just as fair, / And having perhaps the better claim, / Because it was grassy and wanted wear…”. In this section of the poem, it almost seems as if the character unexpectedly wanted life to desire him or her to enter it, as the poem suggests the grass wanted to be worn down. This is probably one of the reasons why the character feels a sense of regret later in the work. Again, Frost communicates his solemn and contemplative tone by familiarizing the reader with the character’s experiences.

As a result, it can be said that Poetic devices are tools that a poet can use to create or enhance a poem’s meaning, or intensify a mood or feeling. These devices help piece the poem together.

Works Cited

1. Frost, R. (1916). The Road Not Taken. In Mountain Interval. Henry Holt and Company.
2. Bloom, H. (Ed.). (2010). Robert Frost (Bloom's Modern Critical Views). Infobase Publishing.
3. Pritchard, W. H. (1966). Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Oxford University Press.
4. Lentricchia, F. (1997). Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscapes of Self. Duke University Press.
5. Galbraith, H. W. (1978). Robert Frost's Poetry of Motion. The Sewanee Review, 86(3), 448-465.
6. Fagan, D. L. (2015). The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong. The University Press of New England.
7. Thompson, L. B. (1996). Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915-1938. St. Martin's Press.
8. Evans, W. R. (2012). The Theme of Identity in Robert Frost's Poetry: The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. In M. Schaub (Ed.), Poetry Criticism (Vol. 136, pp. 146-160). Gale.
9. Poirier, R. (1997). Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing. Oxford University Press.
10. Paraskevas, J. A. (2012). The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Sir Author Conan Doyle was most popular for his detective fiction short stories starring the famous character Sherlock Holmes. He used various writing techniques to create suspenseful short stories to gain credit for creating the most popular fiction detective of all time. Doyle became an expert at detective fiction because of his ability to use different writing styles and methods to create exciting stories filled with anticipation and tension. One of the greatest examples is “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” where Doyle’s use of characterization, setting, and story structure contribute to combining a horror gothic and a detective fiction into an exciting short story.

The use of characterization is one way Doyle creates a suspenseful story. The narrator, Watson, tells the story in first person. The narrator is a partner and friend to Sherlock Holmes, yet he is not the main detective of the case. He sees the same crime scenes, same evidence, same stories of victims as Holmes, yet he never can fully solve the case himself. This is essential to creating a suspense throughout the story. Because Watson is not analytical enough to solve the cases on his own, the reader is also left clueless to solve the case. Doyle does this on purpose because if the readers knew the whole time what the mystery of the speckled band was, then there would be no excitement or tension as the readers are waiting for the case to be solved. For example, Watson and Holmes both saw the same evidence in Helen’s house, and Holmes was able to draw conclusions, while Watson stated that “(he could) not see any connection” (15) between any pieces of evidence to the crime. The reader therefore does not know how to solve the case and then can anticipate and even try to guess what the answer may be. Doyle cleverly leaves false clues throughout the piece, including adding dangerous animals and bands of gypsies. Doyle does this so the reader will have a hard time solving the case on his or her own and grow excited to finally find out what the real cause of death is. The anticipation in revealing the cause of murder builds up tension throughout the piece because of how mysterious and puzzling the case really is.

Another use of characterization that Doyle added to create an anxious and worried feeling in reader’s heads is the victim of the case, Helen. She is an innocent and helpless lady who fears for her own life. She rushes over to Holmes’s apartment early in the morning wearing a black veil over her head which she raises to reveal the terror in her eyes. She shivers and claims that the cause is not of cold but of fear, pure terror. “Her features and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard” (Doyle 2). Doyle uses a helpless, scared woman as a victim to make the readers want to feel scared for her. Doyle’s use of body features and dramatization of the sense of fear that she feels is added so the readers feel that the case must be very serious and dangerous if it is taking a toll on Helen’s own physical features and mental health. The readers feel fear for Helen’s life since she is living in the same room where her own sister died and next to a man of pure evil, Dr. Roylott.

Dr. Roylott is another use of characterization added to scare the readers. The man is very violent and short tempered, and even served a sentence in prison. He is known as the terror of his village. Dr. Roylott barges in Holmes’s house and Watson describes him as a huge man with “a large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion” (8). Doyle creates the perfect villain. This man is described as an immoral, malicious person who is capable of doing awful things. The readers get a sense of uneasiness after Doyle reveals Dr. Watson’s true self because this man is living right next to the innocent and terrified Helen. He is cunning enough to track Helen, and strong enough to beat her, or possibly murder her. Helen is not safe in her home. This makes the readers feel very anxious because Helen’s own home is not safe, and she has no place to go to escape her fears.

Helen lived right next to a villainous man which is a perfect setting Doyle created to add tension to the piece. Doyle purposefully had Helen living in the same room where her own twin sister died. This adds a creepy and suspenseful mood to the entire story. The home she lives in is a huge mansion that is somewhat falling apart. Doyle creates an eerie atmosphere because the house is very old and “the windows were broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly caved in” (11). The house is not exactly the type of place someone would place a “home sweet home” doormat in front of. The uncomfortableness of the house causes the readers to feel discomfort of their own. It is a perfect setting for a sinister crime to take place.

Doyle also uses the weather to create a creepy atmosphere to the readers. On the night of Helen’s sister’s death, “the wind was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows” (5). This stages the ultimate scene for a spooky crime to take place. If Doyle set the scene on a bright sunny day, rather than during a storm in the dead of the night, then the readers may feel less fearful towards the situation. Even modern suspense and horror movies use weather in their favor to create a tenacious atmosphere. Doyle foreshadows the next repeating crime when he adds that there is “a chill wind blowing” (15) on the night that Holmes and Watson stake out in Helen’s room. Doyle sets the scene to get to the fears of readers. A reader can relate to the gothic aspect of the narrative more if the surroundings are as dark and dreary as the plot.

Doyle’s gothic writing techniques used to create the plot of the story also adds to the sensational effect of the passage. Doyle creates the plot of the story so that the readers are at a sense of tension throughout the entire passage. This is because a life is on the line. If the case is not solved in time, then Helen may be killed. Doyle achieves this sense of a ticking time limit to the readers through the use of events leading up to Julia’s death correlating with similar events that Helen is going through. Julia heard a soft whistle each night days before she died. Helen says that she hears the same low whistles at night. Julia died days before her wedding. Helen is getting married soon. The readers know that it may be foreshadowing an approaching death. Sherlock then finds out that Dr. Roylott had very strong motives in standing in the way of his step-daughters’ marriages. The readers also find out that Helen was moved into Julia’s room not actually due to the construction, but because Dr. Roylott simply used the construction as an excuse to get her into the same room her sister died in. Doyle gives many clues that Dr. Roylott is attempting to murder Helen to give a sense of irrational fear to the readers because she is so close to death each and every night she sleeps in that room.

Doyle also takes advantage of smaller scenes throughout the story to create tension. One example is the night of Julia’s death. The death is rather dramatic and gothic. Helen reveals that she could not sleep that night because “a vague feeling of impending misfortune impressed (her) “(5). She says that because Julia and she were twin sisters, their souls were closely allied. The strange connection between the two sisters is a gothic approach Doyle took to writing this scene. The gothic atmosphere continues to add to the creepiness and suspense of the piece. Julia’s actual death was very dark and tragic. Helen really emphasizes the terrified look Julia had as she slowly swayed back and forth only to fall to her knees and die. She was able to get out just a few sentences before her life came to an end. Doyle’s use of a slow, dramatic death gives an atmosphere of mystery and tension.

Another scene Doyle adds to create an atmosphere of suspense is the night of Watson and Holmes’s stakeout. The detective and associate begin their night in an inn discussing the case. Holmes is at a sense of uneasiness because he thinks the case is very dangerous and horrible. He even offers Watson a pipe to “turn (their) minds for a few hours to something more cheerful” (15). Holmes is not the type of character to feel scared or worried easily so this causes the readers to also worry.

Holmes and Watson then start staking out from inside of Helen’s room. Doyle drags this scene out to create suspense. The nervous narrator states that “the parish clock boomed out every quarter of an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for whatever might befall” (16). The readers are left in anticipation to finally be informed on the mystery of the speckled band. The sound of a low whistle eventually appears after hours of staking out. Holmes rushes up strikes a light and lashes at the bell-pull. The horrified narrator is still clueless as to what Holmes is lashing out at. A loud “dreadful shriek” (17) is the last thing the narrator hears. Doyle adds the sudden quickness of events to create an exciting scene and to make the readers even more anticipated to find out what the speckled band is.

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Doyle’s use of damsels in distress, villains, old mansions, and dark plots all contribute to making “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” a suspenseful and sensational short story. Doyle is able to get to the viewers’ emotions by creating an atmosphere of irrational fear. He fuses a classic fictional detective story with a gothic tale of fear and surprise.

Works Cited

1. Doyle, A. C. (1892). The Adventure of the Speckled Band. The Strand Magazine, 4(24), 129-136.
2. Doyle, A. C. (2009). The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I. Random House Publishing Group.
3. Durham, J. (1992). The dynamics of fear: Sherlock Holmes and the adventure of the speckled band. Literature and Psychology, 38(4), 41-48.
4. Eyles, A. (1986). Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration. HarperCollins Publishers.
5. Fisher, B. (1985). The Murderous Magi: A Study of Doyle's Villains. Popular Press.
6. Furtado, D. (2016). Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Speckled Band: A Literary Analysis. Lulu Press, Inc.
7. Hussey, M. (1983). Conan Doyle: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
8. Kottler, J. A. (2003). On Doyle's The Adventure of the Speckled Band. Explicator, 62(2), 118-121.
9. Lewis, B. (1977). Arthur Conan Doyle: A Profile. John Murray Publishers.
10. Symons, J. (1979). The Quest for Sherlock Holmes. University of Michigan Press.

Both Yeats and Quincy Troupe used spiritual imagery in their poetry. Both “The Root Doctor of Rock n Roll” and “The Second Coming” are full of spiritual imagery, but the main pieces used were the sphinx, the apocalypse, the spiritual interconnectedness of all people, and the “Root Doctor” or supernatural healing power.

In William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming”, he used an immense amount of spiritual imagery, most likely because this was a poem about the apocalypse, which is a spiritual concept. The poem describes what would happen at the end of the 2000 year cycle of the reign of Christ, when the anti Christ would rule. He describes a very horrific scene, where complete anarchy is in action and the world as we know it is falling to pieces.

Yeats writes, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” (Yeats 884). This is a very eloquent way to show the complete and utter chaos that he believed would happen when the Christian age came to its end. It means that all good people will give up hope, and the worst people will be full of “passionate intensity”, or extreme motivation. This is a pretty scary concept, as well as a good piece of spiritual imagery. He also talks of viewing an image from the “Spiritus Mundi”, or Great memory. This is an image of a creature with “a shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.” (Yeats 884), or better known as the Sphinx.

This Sphinx a good piece of spiritual imagery because it represents a very apocalyptic being, with the head of a man but the body of a lion. This represents having the intellect and cunningness of a human, but the raw ferocity and killer instinct of a beast such as a lion. He sees this image not because he is there when it arises, but through a universal storehouse of symbolic images from the past. This is a key universal spiritual concept that is also discussed in Quincy Troupe’s “Poem for the Root Doctor of Rock n Roll.”

Both poems speak of the way in which we are all spiritually connected. Yeats’s method is slightly more universal than Troupe’s, but both methods speak of how you can acquire information from others, through a spiritual storehouse. This can be seen in Troupe’s poem when he says “back to the magical hookup of your ancestors, their seamless souls threading your breath, their blood in your sluicing strut.” (Troupe 868). This implies that his ancestors are feeding him his music through some sort of spiritual tie. This is similar to how Yeats uses the Spiritus Mundi. They both use this great spiritual storehouse to access information, an image of the destructive sphinx for Yeats, and music for Troupe.

Another piece of spiritual imagery discussed is the Root Doctor. This is a hoodoo term used to describe the healer, or shaman of a group of people. These people are extremely important in the hoodoo religion, and their insight is highly regarded. The very title of the poem speaks volumes, because if you call Chuck Berry the “Root Doctor of Rock n Roll”, you’re implying he’s the healer or head spiritual leader of the religion of “Rock n Roll”. This would also mean that his music would have healing power, which Quincy troupe believed. This is present when he says “the poetry of hoodoo down & you were the mojo hand of ju-ju crowing.” (Troupe 867). A mojo hand was a bag of spiritual items used to protect an individual from evil and rid them of sickness, so if it is said that Chuck Berry was the mojo hand, it means that he has the supernatural healing powers that the mojo hand does.

Troupe also takes a stab at the “white devils”, or men who took Chuck Berry’s music and made it their own for profit. He uses spiritual imagery to paint these people in a negative light, stating that they “never duck-walked back in the alley with you & Bo Diddley, Little Richard & The Fatman from New Orleans” (Troupe 868) meaning that they weren’t there from the beginning, to experience the roots of it, or the spirituality from where it originated. This makes them evil, and if you were to describe them using spiritual imagery, you would call them devils, as Quincy Troupe does.

These authors were worlds apart, yet they both used spiritual imagery, and very similar spiritual imagery at that. What does this mean? Clearly, regardless of your nationality, culture or how you were raised, spirituality is an innate characteristic in all human beings.

While reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Selected Essays “The American Scholar”, I personally could not really understand the essay. I really need more time to process and study the messages Emerson wanted the readers to understand. However, I understood when Emerson said that, “In self-trust all the virtue are comprehended”. If a person wants to live a full and virtues, that person should conduct their life by having good morals and ethical principles at all times to be free from chaos. Having chaos in one’s life is confusion and anger because the individual cannot process anything. Living a life of chaos is unhealthy but to be virtuous is peace. Right now, my life is chaotic, but, someday, I want to live a virtuous life, but in order for me to obtain my virtue, I have to complete my college degree to take my life to the next level to have my virtuous peace. For me, having virtue is purchasing a house that I own without the help of a loan or a mortgage. However, Emerson mention the word comprehended. Comprehended means, to understand the nature of the meaning of something. When Emerson speaks of the word nature is he really speaking about people upbringing, genetic make-up or just the meaning of the way the a person learns or understands a lesson. I really think I understood what Emerson said, but the question is, am I wrong?

Emerson explained in the essay that “we are the cowed, we the trustless and to ignorance and sin, it is flint.” If a person does not have an understanding and confidence then fear and ignorance will replace the lesson learned. If someone is ignorant, the person will not change their way of thinking and the person will never understand the lessons. Ignorant people never what to listen to what no one has to say, also ignorant people think they know it all. To be ignorant is to have no trust. On the other hand, if the person has understanding and confidence the person will open their mind up to the lesson and learn what is being taught to them. Anyone that has confidence and understanding has acquired how to listen and departmentalize what is right and what is wrong. All educated people have understanding and confidences.

The Past

Our past makes us better in life. Learning from a mistake is a lesson taught and a lesson learned. If anyone makes the same mistake twice, the person did not learn from the consequences the first time. In my past, I helped person get a cellphone in my name because they had bad credit. The person that I got the cellphone for ran up the bill to $3,400 dollars. When I got the second cellphone bill, I was furious! I called the person to ask them are they going to pay the cellphone bill, the person said NO! All I can do was cry because I did not have three thousand dollars, so I promised myself I would never help anyone again, but I did help other people in other ways and guess what, I was the one crying again. Now that I am older and wiser, I do not help anyone, when it comes down to me owing money on my credit. Being wiser is the best lesson to learn in life. When a person becomes wiser, they can teach other people what they went through before, so that person will not make a mistake that they cannot fix.

My readings

I read many books that were not educational. The most of the books was about drug, stripping and swindling, but this one book called Push, messed my mind up. When I think about that book chills. The movie Precious was based on the book Push. The movie had nothing on the book. Push was about this little girl passed through the educational system, both of her parents molested her, she live in absolute poverty and all the systems failed her until she met other people and changed her way of life. I am still sad about that book.

In closing, I hope my journal is correct.

The Things They Carried explores the experiences and emotional rollercoaster faced by war soldiers, during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien explores these emotional experiences from his perspective, but he also gives an insight into his fellow soldiers’ thoughts during warfare. Tim O’Brien is primarily faced with the death of his close friends and fellow soldiers, during warfare. Death is final and inescapable and it is also sudden and leaves those who remain incapable of moving on. Tim O’Brien utilizes vulgar imagery and impactful figurative language, to demonstrate this.

Death is often shown through vulgar and painful imagery. In the following quote, O’Brien describes the appearance of his close friend that had been killed, “Kiowa came sliding up to the surface...A piece of his shoulder was missing; the arms and chest and face were cut up…”.

O’Brien utilizes imagery by thoroughly describing Kiowa’s missing limbs and wounds, to visualize how unsettling the death of Kiowa was during the Vietnam War.The sentence can be rephrased to "Through describing Kiowa’s missing limbs and wounds, O'Brien creates an unsettling image of death during the Vietnam War". In this following quote, O’ Brien meticulously observes the appearance of a man killed during the war, “His neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny”. O’Brien utilized imagery in this quote, by going in-depth and describing the wounded body and the many injuries faced by a man he had shot.

O’Brien carefully displayed this effective imagery to alert the readers that war comes with many risks, that may result in life-threatening and deadly outcomes. Death can be conveyed through impactful figurative language. In this following quote, Tim O’Brien visits a field he was in during the war, “This little field I though, had swallowed so much...My best friend...My pride”. The perspective of the field swallowing the pride of O’Brien and his best friend uses a form of personification, to acknowledge the impact this field had on O’Brien’s life in warfare.

The impact of this field can be concluded as being severe and life-changing from this quote because O’Brien’s best friend Kiowa had been killed as a result of being trapped inside the field for multiple days. The little field in Vietnam that is being described by O’Brien can also be viewed as being demoralizing, after it caused Tim O’Brien to lose his confidence and dignity, during the Vietnam War. O’Brien also observes the feeling of death through Linda’s perspective with the quote, “I’m not dead… But when I am it is like… being inside a book… an old one… upon a library shelf”.

The comparison made by Linda of death feels like an old book on a library shelf uses a simile, to show the effect death may have on a person’s morale. Death may be viewed as being melancholy and full of sadness, as a result of Linda comparing it to an old and outdated book, with no use other than sitting on a shelf. Overall this simile used by Linda comparing death to an old book sitting on a shelf contributes to the statement, death can be shown through effective forms of figurative language.

Death is a common and established theme in Tim O’ Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried. The in-depth description of Kiowa’s body and the man that O’Brien killed, uses vulgar imagery to convey the many life-threatening and deadly outcomes of the war. O’Brien’s significant use of figurative language contributes to the conclusion: death is melancholy, demoralizing and filled with sadness. Overall O’Brien’s significant use of figurative language and in-depth description of the death of two individuals leads back to the message, death is final and inescapable and leaves those who remain incapable of moving on.The sentence can be rephrased to "Overall, O’Brien's use of figurative language and in-depth descriptions of death illustrate the theme that death is final and inescapable, leaving those who remain unable to move on."

Two Kinds by Amy Tan: essay

The short story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan provides a thought-provoking literary analysis of the conflicts that arise between parents and children when their goals and aspirations differ. In this first-person narrative, Tan depicts the struggle that Jing-Mei Woo and her mother face in reconciling their differing views on success. Through the use of symbols such as Shirley Temple and allegories such as "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented," Tan highlights the lasting effects of misunderstandings caused by a lack of communication in personal relationships. Through "Two Kinds" literary analysis, this essay emphasizes the importance of communication and understanding in maintaining healthy kinship relations.

In the beginning of the story, it is made clear that there is a lot of pressure on Jing-Mei Woo to be a “prodigy” and fit the idealized image of American success. For her mother, she only saw this exhibited by Hollywood. She longed for her daughter to be a, “Chinese Shirley Temple”. By using this perception of prosperity and accomplishment, her mother thought that she was going to be able to shape Jing-Mei into it. As first-generation Chinese immigrants, their family saw success in western culture in the form of celebrities and people on TV. This heavily influenced what Mrs. Woo wanted her daughter to strive to become. At one point Jing-Mei shared this same dream when she said, “I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect: My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk, or to clamor for anything”. But often with family ideals, pressure is attached to become something you may not want to be. The conflicts became apparent when Jing-Mei started to tear away from the “prodigy” label and wanted to be her true self, regardless of the expectations her mother had. The “Shirley Temple” ideal was impractical. This root idea was where her mother and her sprouted their altercations and unhealthy energy towards each other. Her mother's anger and forceful tactics made it difficult for them to correspond with each other and figure out each other’s intentions and true wishes.

Mother had inner thoughts with feelings, she wanted to start a new life as her history in china. “Mother was so determined that you could be anything you wanted to be in America, you could open a restaurant you work for the government and have good retirement you can buy a house with almost no money down”. Her mother was so determined that America was where one could accomplish anything they put their psyche to, regardless of what their identity is. A great many individuals move to the United States each year from various pieces of the world to approach these sorts of chances. This is what is known as 'the American dream”.The author showed us her point of view of her new life and new id of life and a good backstory of her to understand the problem that will come of her and daughter.

Through the metaphorical song titles, Tan expresses how the experiences we have as children, positive and negative, stay with us, but it might not be until later in life that we see how these experiences shape us. The missing communication component lasted throughout the mother and daughter’s relationship until it strained and broke when the latter lashed out verbally to cause hurt at the deep-seated anguish of her mother’s loss of twin daughters. The song, “Pleading Child”, was one that her mother made her learn as a child on the keys, and when revisiting the piano, Jing-Mei realized that the next song after that was called “Perfectly Contented”. She came to realize that, “After she had played them both a few times, she realized they were two halves of the same song”. The allegory that is revealed in this ending statement is that their relationship had reformed. Through all the conflict and pressure and trauma, her mother’s true intention was to help her. The things she experienced in her childhood shaped her into becoming who she was as a human being.

In her short story, Tan shows how the lack of communication and misunderstanding of intention causes disconnect in family. In the beginning, Tan made the characters’ standards different; her mom wanted her to become a “Shirley Temple” and she wanted to go on with her life as who she truly was. As the story came to a close it was shown that their relationship had transformed from being disembodied and chaotic, to content. This transformation highlights the importance and need for proper communication as well as the closure it can bring with it.