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Narrative Rapport: A Feminist Lens of The Parvenue Mary Shelley’s short story, "The Parvenue" has innumerable and complex themes and motifs on the surface upon an initial reading, such as class, feminism, familial and romantic relationships, societal issues, and mental health. It’s up for interpretation from many perspectives, with varying degrees of criticism or pity for the narrator. But close study and understanding of Shelley’s intentions with her choices of rhetorical devices reveals that her intentions are to provide a sympathetic view on girls’ and women’s experiences, an often overlooked facet of the century that she brings attention to. She reveals the complex challenges they faced by shedding light on her narrator's intentions and regrets. Mary Shelley’s "The Parvenue," shocks readers into an feminist and sympathetic reading experience upon the utilization of specific punctuation and emotion driven diction in introductory and concluding asides from the...

The Fault in Our Stars : Romance as a New Religion      Despite some beliefs that our current generation is drawing away from religion as a more liberal stance permeates our culture, novels and media continue to romanticize the thought of a greater being’s existence. Themes of religion, self reflection, and both platonic and romantic love are depicted in the wildly successful and still relevant novel, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. The novel follows the lives of precocious teenagers Hazel and Gus, to illustrate a tear-jerking coming of age story. They grapple with their respective cancers against the backdrop of adults in their lives urging them to turn to Christianity as a means of finding solace within their shortened life trajectories. As the reader steps into the shoes of Hazel, it is evident that her understanding and skepticality with religion intermixes with her growing romance with Gus, who is one of the few people who can truly understand her and her circ...

The Hunger Games : Child Soldiers Veiled as Tributes      War has and will always be a significant concern and topic of discussion in any society, evident with its prevalence in widely popular media that fictionalizes war for education or entertainment. Such can take on the task of distilling an explanation or lesson about war and its widespread detrimental effects to future generations, the thought of which is paralyzing to most. Suzanne Collins does so for young adult audiences through her massively popular series The Hunger Games. The first book outlines Katniss’s participation in Panem’s 74th Hunger Games, which serves as the catalyst for the subsequent uprising, rebellion, and war that follows in the later books. During an interview with Time Magazine, Collins discusses her motivations. She credits her father, who was a Vietnam and Korean war veteran, for serving as inspiration for the “larger goal [she] has, which is to write a war-appropriate story for every age of...

     San Francisco’s Chinatown has been known for its bustling environment, multiple tourist spots, and large Chinese population. But what is beneath the surface of red lanterns and cobblestone streets? There is a long history of injustice and suffering by the group who immigrated to the United States in hopes of a better future for themselves and their families. Most were met with demeaning labels, discriminatory immigration laws, laborious work, and life and relationships full of toil, as described in Fae Myenne Ng’s novel, Bone . There were countless occasions of being used by the government and various privileged groups in America for personal gain at the expense of the Chinese, who offered their labor and their resolve to work hard for a better life that they were determined to have and provide for their children. Furthermore, after climbing up the ladder of social-economic status in the late 20th century amongst lessening immigration policies and an influx of educat...

     The first well-known introduction of the theory of evolution was in 1859, introduced by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species . It is difficult to find ideas that challenge or add revolutionary ideas to the basis of evolution. However, Richard Wrangham presents radical concepts regarding the role that fire, and more specifically cooking, had in the development of the human body and society as we know it. In Wrangham’s book, Catching Fire , he convincingly argues that learning to cook caused the change of human physiology, introduced a domestic lifestyle, and allowed the brain’s expansion.       Firstly, a main concept discussed in Catching Fire is that cooking has significantly altered human physiology. For example, Wrangham states, “Our small mouths, teeth, and guts fit well with the softness, high caloric density, low fiber content, and high digestibility of cooked food” (44). This is supported by the concept that humans had to adapt to th...

     Being an adult and attempting to understand what it is like to be a child is difficult, as is the search for a piece of media or literature that can accurately make a child feel understood or seen. This is why Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is so enduring in its impact on worldwide culture; It is effective in taking familiar “boring” actions and rituals most children experience, and turning them whimsical and wacky, thus creating an extremely vivid and wonder-filled experience for a person of any age to enjoy and step into Alice’s, or any child’s, shoes. Carroll manages to accurately depict and communicate a young girl’s experience with growing out of childhood and into a more aware member of society through this transformation.       Often times, adults shake their heads when children show their tendency to cry, in response to seemingly anything, but Alice demonstrates how it feels to be a child experiencing such large emotion...

Roald Dahl has been heralded for his mastery over storytelling in his works of children's literature best known for their fantastical and whimsical nature. His most popular is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , which follows the humble “hero” Charlie Bucket as he lives out his dreams of visiting the famed Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and escaping the poverty that pervades his home life. Such a culturally significant piece is worth analyzing with a fresh set of mature lenses, bringing about the observation that the Chocolate Factory in the story can take on multiple identities that each hold deep and significant layers of meaning. The Chocolate Factory most accurately depicts itself as a symbol of Hell rather than as a form of Heaven, through motifs such as Oompa Loompas being imprisoned and enslaved, as well as Wonka’s use of the factory to carry out his twisted desires and motivations.       There are strong similarities between Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory ...