“A Stone is Nobody’s” Russell Edson Prompt 3. Pay attention to the way the lines are constructed in the poem. How does the use of enjambment, line length, end-stops, caesuras, meter or syllabics, and/or rhyme work to enhance or enact meaning in the poem? The poem “A Stone is Nobody’s” is a clear example of […]
Author Archive | A. Stollar
Narrative Technique in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Though not nearly of complex a read as As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, Phillip K. Dick does try to create a little bit of his own version of stream-of-conciousness narration in a more relaxed way. This story is told in third person narration (limited omniscient) about the two main characters the reader is following around for the […]
Pulling at the Strings: The Manipulation of the African American Race Through History
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is wrought with symbols that accurately depict the conditions African American’s faced in 1930’s Harlem. One of the most iconic symbols from the novel is the Sambo Doll, a pitch black puppet, manipulated by the strings attached to it. Tod Clifton masterly manipulates this symbol of the degradation of the ‘stereotypical’ African American […]
“But Dos Passos does not stop there” How 42nd Parallel Lives on Today
The Literary Canon refers to a body of books, narratives, and other texts considered to be the most influential or important of a particular period of time in history. Often reflecting the American experience of the era, certain works in literature would either solidify their place in the ever-changing Literary Canon or they would […]
Not a Preacher, a Professor, or a Doctor; Just Jim
An important part of any novel is the character development of any number of the main protagonists. In My Antonia, we see a number of characters develop over the course of the novel but I found a passage in which I would like to analyze in order to truly understand the character of Jim Burden. […]
A Gilded Cage in a Gilded Age: A Sociological View on Society in the 19th Century
In the second half of the 19th century, society shifted from being agriculturally based to reaching the height of urbanization. With the rush toward cities and ports, and away from the country side, industrialized America began to shine in the eyes of its inhabitants. The Gilded Age was glittering on the surface but revealed itself […]