English 104 - Introduction to Narrative
Emily Sheffield
A Child's Lesson in Death
Category: 2 Essay: Carroll, Twain, Faulkner, Sebold | Emily Sheffield
Death is a frightening and complicated concept; it is especially challenging for a child to comprehend what it means to die. The über narrator’s use of interior monologues in As I Lay Dying allows the reader to peer into the mind of Vardaman, the youngest Bundren, as he grapples...
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Posted by esheffie on December 08, 2003 at 09:53 PM
Susie's use of the past to accept and understand the present
Category: 10 Blog: The Lovely Bones | Emily Sheffield
After witnessing her mother’s first adulterous act (kissing Len ), Susie takes the reader back several years to her early memories of her mother, bathing her and her sister. Susie reflects on the gentle, attentive woman she knew, the caring mother and the devoted wife. However, Susie is now able...
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Posted by esheffie on December 03, 2003 at 01:48 PM
Cora and Addie and the trouble with words
Category: 09 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Emily Sheffield
It is not surprising that Faulkner places Addie’s one and only narration after one of Cora’s most notable monologues in As I Lay Dying. Faulkner uses Cora, a gossiping, condescending and small-minded woman to foil Addie and her lack of faith in others and their words. Addie mistrusts words because...
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Posted by esheffie on November 21, 2003 at 06:39 PM
Dewey Dell and Vardaman in the barn
Category: 08 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Emily Sheffield
Although both Dewey Dell and Vardaman escape to the barn to be alone with their thoughts and emotions, each character describes a different experience while in the barn, and both misinterpret the other’s reasons for being there. Vardaman runs to the barn to be alone because he is so overcome...
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Posted by esheffie on November 17, 2003 at 09:52 PM
Tom's imagination is revealed to be a destructive agent
Category: 07 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Emily Sheffield
Tom’s revelation about his knowledge of Jim’s freedom is one of the most surprising and disconcerting representations of fraudulence in Huckleberry Finn. Tom has been so engrossed in his fantastical game of playing the hero who sets Jim “free” with candlesticks etc, that he neglects to inform anyone that...
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Posted by esheffie on November 10, 2003 at 09:46 PM
Huck's Sympathy for the Life of the D. and D.
Category: 06 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Emily Sheffield
Although Huck and Jim have proven themselves to be much more honorable and kind individuals in their actions and manner than the Duke and the Dauphin (they never lie to make money off of others, but only to secure their safety), Huck feels he must make "allowances" for the swindlers....
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Posted by esheffie on November 03, 2003 at 06:07 PM
Huck's Moral Inferiority vs. the Widow's Moral Superiority
Category: Emily Sheffield
Through Huck's reflections on the widow's good nature and his thoughts concerning his own less honorable behavior, it becomes evident to the reader that there is a disparity between Huck's perception of his character and his true worth. Huck's reverence for the widow is strongly contrasted by his degradation...
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Posted by esheffie on October 27, 2003 at 08:05 PM
Character Manipulations
Category: 11 Essay: James and Bronte | Emily Sheffield
The novels Wuthering Heights and The Turn of the Screw tell the convoluted tales of households torn apart by the manipulative actions of a pair of troubled individuals. In The Turn of the Screw, author Henry James frames his story around siblings Miles and Flora. The children are able to...
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Posted by esheffie on October 22, 2003 at 09:22 PM
The mysterious caterpillar hinders the reader's understanding
Category: Emily Sheffield
Communication is repeatedly haulted in chapter 5 in Alice in Wonderland, when Alice is first acquainted with the caterpiller. The caterpillar (understandably) has a great deal of difficulty comprehending Alice's predicament when, after asking her name, she replies that she "hardly know[s]". (Carroll, p.35) However, the caterpillar fails to...
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Posted by esheffie on October 05, 2003 at 10:03 PM
Isabella as a catalyst for Heathcliff's revenge
Category: 03 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Emily Sheffield
The shift in the narration from Nelly to Isabella in chapter 13 does not solely demonstrate Isabella’s poor condition (she is in absolute despair), it more importantly provides the reader with a first-hand account of Heathcliff’s transformation into a vindictive, manipulative revenge-seeker. Nelly could not give such a detailed and...
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Posted by esheffie on September 30, 2003 at 01:44 AM
Nelly's Motives
Category: 02 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Emily Sheffield
Although it is difficult not to want so fervently to believe the kind-hearted servent Nelly, and view her as an unbiased narrator, it is clear in the discussion that takes place between Nelly and Cathy in chapter 9 that Nelly could have her own personal motives for her behavior toward...
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Posted by esheffie on September 22, 2003 at 11:23 PM
Assumptions
Category: 01 Blog: Turn of the Screw | Emily Sheffield
After being disturbed from her fantasies during her "hour to herself", the Governess becomes startled by the unexpected sight of a strange man standing atop the tower of the estate. Although she claims, at the top of page 27, to have "no account whatever of the visitor with whom (she)...
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Posted by esheffie on September 14, 2003 at 11:12 PM