Frank McCourts Angelas Ashes Essay -- Essays Papers

Frank McCourts Angelas Ashes Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes is a powerful and emotional memoir of his life from childhood through early adulthood. This book is a wonderfully inspired piece of work that emotionally attaches the reader through McCourt’s life experiences. Its effectiveness is primarily due to McCourt’s evolving ‘innocent-eye’ narrative technique. He allows the reader to experience his own life in a changeable form. Through this unique story telling technique, the reader is able to watch Frank grow and evolve. Between the ages of four, eleven and fourteen changes in his writing can be easily identified. It is evident that the written text, McCourt’s thoughts, and the resultant relationship with the reader evolve and become more complex during this part of his life. When describing his experiences at the age of four, McCourt's writing style is very much like a story told from a child’s perspective. He uses simple dialogue and a ‘tell it like it is’ approach: â€Å"We’re on the seesaw. Up, down, updown. Malachy goes up. I get off. Malachy goes down. Seesaw hits ground† (19). At this point, he demonstrated a basic, staccato-like sentence structure. McCourt presents information as if heard and interpreted by a child. On page38 Mrs. Leibowitz, a kind neighbour who lives in the same building as the McCourt family, says, â€Å"Nice Chewish name, have apiece of cake, eh? Why they give you a Chewish name, eh?† The reader knows that the word Jewish is spelled as it is heard and that this is typical of child interpretations. Just as simple dialogue is used throughout the book, so are simple pattern thoughts. Children have a tangible stream of consciousness and often have a tendency to change subject matter quickly throughout a conversation: â€Å"They have their tea†¦uncle Pa Keating, who is my uncle because he’s married to my aunt Aggie, picks up Eugene† (87). The reader already knows from previous information that Pa Keating is the children’s uncle. Just as children often incorporate needless information into a conversation, McCourt does the same in his writing. The reader acquires an image that a real conversation is taking place. Frank McCourt also shows the reader, through examples such as on page 16, that his thoughts as a child are quite simple. He tries to describe the anger he feels by stating â€Å"a blackness comes over me.† Because of his age, he... ...scriptive and has an involved sentence structure characteristic of a mature writer. His thoughts and his feelings are deeply profound. The relationship with the reader has changed extremely and is quite noticeable. In the beginning and parts of the middle of this book, the reader is ‘shown’, not described, a scenario where the result is often left to be interpreted. This is not so at the end of his memoir. Frank McCourt, instead of using a ‘show and tell’ narrative method, which applies in the beginning, is in a didactic mode where he explains everything in detail and there is nothing left for the reader to interpret. To conclude, there is an evolved Frank evidently noticed from the start through to the end. As Frank McCourt grows and develops into an adult, so too does his writing. The written text, thoughts and the relationship with the reader indeed evolves and becomes more complex as Frank matures. Examples taken from the ages of four, eleven and fourteen show these noticeable differences. Through an evolving ‘innocent-eye’ narrative technique McCourt is able to establish a powerful emotion connection with the reader. Bibliography: Frank McCourt. Angela's Ashes

Personal Statement: Graduate school program in teaching at the secondary level Essay

I believe I am more than qualified to be admitted to the secondary education program of the Graduate school as I possess the needed knowledge, talents, skills, and most of all, attitude that would help me become successful in my profession. I firmly believe that teaching is the right career for me because I find joy in seeing people, particularly the youth, grow using the lessons and values I have taught them. For me, one of the greatest pleasures in life is to see my students transform into intellectual, highly-versatile, and law-abiding citizens who would make an impact on their respective careers and who would contribute greatly to society in general. Moreover, I am the type of person who adapts very well to pressure and difficulties. It is a well-known fact that secondary level students are very challenging to educate as they are very diverse in terms of attitude, emotions, and intellect, among others. I am more than willing and capable to meet those challenges and insurmountable obstacles that would come along my way just as long as I am able to teach my students and help them reach their dreams, what ever they may be. Most of all, I basically find enthusiasm in teaching. I believe that the knowledge, skills, and information I have acquired over the years would be useless unless I share them with others. In this regard, I realize that the best way to share what I know is through teaching which is why I am pursuing a post-graduate degree because I want to be a highly-effective teacher to my students. In short, my capabilities, my various skills, and most of all, my attitude and passion towards teaching would no doubt allow me to make an impact on my students and to equip them with all the tools and lessons they need to survive in the real world. Once accepted, I will work hard and do my best to become a well-rounded and highly adept educator who would provide students with the quality education they deserve.

Destructive Love in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon Essays

Destructive Love in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committedÂ…in the name of love? In Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating love and hate in many different forms and on many†¦show more content†¦Morrison includes much intimation to prove that Ruth lacks true love: she is unable to perform basic domestic tasks such as cooking, suggesting that she cannot adequately provide for her family at even the most quintessential level of what woman during that time were expected to provide. When Macon found Ruth with [Dr. Fosters] fingers in her mouth, the love that Ruth had for Dr. Foster has evidently become destructive as it not only estranges her from Macon and the rest of the family, but also forces her to live an impersonal, emotionless life (73). Although at the onset of the novel, she attempts to rekindle these emotions not through Macon who utterly refuses to please her, but through her own son Milkman, a gross exploitation of filial love: His mother had been portrayed not as a mother who simply adored her only son, but as an obscene child playing dirty games with whatever male was nearÂâ€"be it her father or her son (79). It seems, however, that her willingness to emotionally satisfy herself finally comes to an end when Freddie blatantly points out her misjudgment of breastfeeding Milkman who is twelve years old at the time. Thus, instead of looking for emotion, she learns to take comfort in the emotionless, the inanimate such as the goldfish, rhod odendron, and other flowers she constantly surrounds herself with. And to simply remind herself that she exists as an animate beingShow MoreRelated Essay on Identity in Song of Solomon2147 Words   |  9 PagesSearching for Identity in Song of Solomon      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract: Whether Africans really fly or just escape a monumental burden, perhaps only through death, is a decision Toni Morrison has apparently left to her readers. Never the less, no matter what you believe, within Song of Solomon, the suggestion is, that in order to fly you must go back to the beginning, back to your roots. You must learn the art from the old messages.    O Sugarman done fly away Sugarman done gone SugarmanRead More Definitions of Self in Community in Morrisons Sula and Song of Solomon6961 Words   |  28 PagesDefinitions of Self In Community in Sula and Song of Solomon        Ã‚  Ã‚   In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there once was a neighborhood (Sula 1). Toni Morrison begins the novel Sula with these powerful words, describing more than a physical place, but a spiritual place where a community once stood. She begins with the destruction of the community, ultimately beginning at the end because her novelRead MoreAnalysis Of Milkman In Toni Morrisons Song Of Solomon1606 Words   |  7 Pages In Chapter 12 of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Milkman makes an offhand comment on the children playing the game depicting his family’s history, reporting: â€Å"The boy in the middle†¦ (it seemed always to be a boy) spun around with his eyes closed†¦ pointing† (Morrison 299). Like the boy at the center of the circle, Milkman blindly points his attention and â€Å"hog’s gut† in the direction of the women around him, causing them nothing but pain (216). His behavior is symptomatic of the possessive masculinityRead MoreToni Morrison and Historical Memory5014 Words   |  21 PagesNational amnesia of minority history cannot be tolerated. Toni Morrison is a minority writer has risen to the challenge of preventing national amnesia through educating African-Americans by remembering their past and rewriting their history. In her trilogy, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise, and in her other works, Morrison has succeeded in creating literature for African-Americans that enables them to remember their history from slavery to the present. Toni Morrison has been called Americas national authorRead MoreEssay on The Song of Solomon2983 Words   |  12 PagesBook Title Song of Solomon Author Toni Morrison Summary The first black boy ever born in Mercy Hospital in a town in Michigan comes into the world the day after an insurance agent named Robert Smith kills himself by trying to â€Å"fly† from the roof of the hospital across Lake Superior. The boys mother, Ruth, nurses him until he is eight or nine years old, thus earning him the ridiculous nickname Milkman. Milkman befriends an older boy named Guitar, visits his Aunt Pilate, and falls in love with Pilate’s