Eddy Learns How to Read

In Roman Fever, Edith Wharton creates an uneasy tension between two polarizing characters, Ms. Ansley, and Ms. Slade.  Grace Ansley is a rather dull character compared to the "spectacular" Alida Slade.  However, both their daughters seem to have a rather bright characterization.  Even, the mysterious Barbara Slade whose initially supposed parents were rather dull compared to her.  It was to the point where Ms. Slade questioned the possibility of such a character being produced from the couple.  In the end, it is shown that Barbara is in fact Delphin Slade's daughter, implying that an affair occured between Ms. Ansley and Delphin. The relationship in the story has been called by many as a "friendship" or a frenemy relationship.  Considering the resulting circumstances, I would most definetely not call it a friendship.  However, what I am arguing, is that this was never a friendship to begin with.  In the past, the philospher Aristotle presented ...

"There was a long pause, while they talked up there in the indigo light and after awhile I saw the girl put a scotch and milk on top of the piano for Sonny.  He didn't seem to notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked toward me, and nodded.  Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as the began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling" (48) In Sonny's Blues, the narrator is a Sonny's brother, who acts as both an observer and catalyst in his life.  Sonny, a "free" guy, wants to pursue jazz as a career as he notes several legends of the jazz era have.  In the introduction, he is shown to sell and use recreational drugs.  Additionally, he has caused trouble around the people he lived around.  Take for example, the narrator's in-laws and the tense relationship Sonny held with his father: it was mostly the result of his outrageously rebellious be...

Note: I want to take a second to make a different turn on my interpretation of Barbie-Q.  In my original interpretation, I thought of the story as a critique on the female image using the barbie doll as an example.  However, in order to relate it to current events, I wanted to try mirroring it with the current state of America's economy. In the story, the two sisters play with their barbies under certain financial conditions.  They can only afford a small amount of accessories and refuse to buy a "stupid-looking boy doll" as they would rather buy more accessories.  Instead, in their play-scenes, they imagine the Ken doll, as it is required for their subliminal plot.  As a result, they seem satisfied with their made-up scene as it lets their plot or story continue without disruption.  Later on, they discover that a nearby toy factory has burned down and its products (barbie dolls) are on sale at an extremely low price.  Despite the flaws that come wit...

Is the lottery a story about how humans are inherently evil; or is it just a critique of mindless human error (mob mentality)? The renowned philosopher Immanuel Kant once postulated a theory on human nature.  We, as humans, are born inherently evil.  We have violent tendencies and its very core, human nature is selfish.  He goes on to say that we use religion, laws, and order to suppress these evident natures and live a "civil" life.  In The Lottery, it is shown that people have an annual tradition where a "lottery" occurs, and the person who "wins" is stoned to death.  It is a practice that seems almost indubitably (Sam Li told me to use this word to make me sound smart) barbaric by our modern standards.  Of course we could make the argument that I set up, saying that human nature is violent and evil.  However, another possibility exists.  We as humans, don't realize the huge "errors" or mass "evil" we create because of mob menta...

"The dog, once huge and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores, moved in and through the house, tracking mud.  Behind it whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience." (Bradbury 324) This sentence reveals the whole background and development of this short story.  Something that was once healthy and living is reduced to a shriveled corpse, unfit for survival.  It is a drastic change that faces the living.  While, it does not directly describe the nuclear war that occurred before the story, it emphasizes the almost lifeless world by describing the only thing living in the story as a dog.  (In this sense, dogs may be lower on the biological hierarchy of life compared to humans.)  In addition, the fact that the dog tracks in mud into the house describes the relationship life has with new technology.  Technological advancement can be correlated to the fall of quality of human life.  (The technology utili...