Greg Smith is a novelist who lives in New York City. An undergraduate of Bowdoin College, Smith wrote four popular novels throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, including The Divine Comedy of John Venner and The Devil in the Dooryard. Afterwards, Smith stopped writing novels so he would not be as far from his friends and family and wrote short stories instead. A majority of his short stories came together in issues known as The Midwest Quarterly, a collection of short stories and poems dealing with specific controversies. One of his issues of The Midwest Quarterly talks about literary criticism of fictional stories by popular authors. With Washington Irving’s case in criticism from Smith’s perspective, he writes about the ambiguity of Irving’s …show more content…
The goal of the company is to discover what foods included in media (books and films) could be acceptable for public use. In this odd review called "Gut Reaction: The Enteric Terrors of Washington Irving", he criticizes Washington Irving’s works as a “sin” to food, from his poor portrayal of food to Ichabod Crane being a gluttonous for the wrong reasons. In Irving’s first known novel, “Diedrich Knickerbocker’s History of New York”, as Irving encourages people from around the world to visit New York for its beauty, he depicts the food of New York as a delicacy that puts other countries to shame. Kaufman, however, calls this action a “yankee action”, as Yankees enjoy to make pranks to fool people, meaning that Irving foolishly said that food in New York was the best in the world, even though higher and more expensive countries and empires had more delicious food than New York alone. Another example Kaufman talks about while describing Irving’s incorrect message of food is how Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is actually a glutton for food. The real reason Ichabod wanted to marry Katrina, according to Kaufman, was not because he wanted a proportion of her father’s wealth, but because he was after their food. Another trait of yankees is that they admire every kind of food they can get their hands on, which Ichabod highly admires. He wants nothing more of Katrina or her father except their food. I can understand with the second opinion, as many sentences in “Sleepy Hollow” deal with Ichabod’s obsession over rich and valuable food, but I do not understand why being a yankee makes Irving a complete prankster who loves food. It just does not make sense to me why somebody promoting their country as being an attention wannabe and why they should be criticized for the taste of his
Throughout the course of his The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson describes Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair through the eyes of two different main characters: Herman Webster Mudgett—a psychopathic serial killer who builds his famous “death castle” on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, and Daniel Burnham—the director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Larson employs the use of many contrasting themes within his writing including success and failure, but perhaps most importantly, murder and beauty. In order to emphasize said themes, Larson juxtaposes the accounts of his two main characters: Mudgett and Burnham. There is no doubt that the manner in which Larson portrays Mudgett is sketchy at best. Rather than introducing him with a concise description, Larson familiarizes the reader with Mudgett over the course of several chapters.
Rhetorical Analysis of Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild ” Jon Krakauer ’s purpose in writing Into the Wild is to recount Chris McCandless’ journey, physical and metaphysical, from college in Georgia to his death in Alaska, through the use of factual, and anecdotal evidence. Krakauer uses factual evidence to establish that he is a trustworthy narrator capable of giving the reader a realistic scope on the events in the story. Jon uses anecdotal evidence to see into Chris’ psyche from the various perspectives found in the book’s excerpts, including how Jon understands the events.
The juxtaposition of two opposing stories is enough to get anyone’s head spinning. Comparing the glamorous production of the Chicago World Fair to the ominous destruction and killing caused by H.H. Holmes in the background is all the more interesting. Erik Larson’s 2003 nonfiction novel does just that. One would never think to relate murder to art until after reading this book. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses figurative language, imagery, and juxtaposition to create a vivid illustration of the contrast between good and evil in Chicago in 1893.
Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle is a story with great meaning. Looking from the outside in it seems as though the story is merely for a child. Although, this can seem true, Rip Van Winkle is a story with a very credible moral and many literary techniques. Focusing on the tone is just a fraction of literary examples Irving incorporates into his short story. Irving seems to have not only one, but three different attitudes in Rip Van Winkle.
“I 've eaten this food all my life not knowing what was in it and how powerful the food industry was." (Kenner, Food Inc.) “The industry doesn 't want you to know what you 're eating because if you did, then you might not want to eat it" (Kenner, Food Inc.) Ethos components in the film strengthen the documentary claim about the food
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild investigates the life and adventures of Chris McCandless. The author provides information about Chris’ life to illuminate his journey. Krakauer also uses rhetorical appeals to defend Chris’ rationale for his journey. Through Krakauer’s use of pathos, ethos, and logos, he persuades the audience that Chris is not foolish; however, Krakauer’s intimacy with Chris and his adventures inhibits his objectivity.
The love that Ichabod has for Katrina was just over money. Katrina was the daughter of a very wealthy man, once Ichabod found out, was all that mattered to Ichabod and many other suitors before him. He never had much money due to being a teacher. He was technically homeless while living in Sleepy Hollow.
Sherwood Anderson is an essayist whose notoriety is constructing fundamentally with respect to a solitary book, Winesburg, Ohio. However whether that book is a novel or a progression of short stories, regardless of whether it is a confession of a residential community's ethical rot or a nostalgic amusement of the residential area before it was destroyed by industrialization, whether it is sex-fixated or exceptionally moral — these inquiries have been discussed for the 50 years since Winesburg was distributed in 1919. One thing is sure: Anderson exhibits in his book a gathering of characters that are baffled and desolate, characters who are repressed by tradition and turned by realism, and characters aching for adoration and flexibility however
The novel Schooled by Gordon Korman is a fantastically fabulous story. The main character is named Capricorn Anderson or Cap for short. He is a flower child,or hippie, and to his luck,Cap gets dropped in the real world at a real school for the first time because his grandmother, Rain,broke her hip. This caused Cap to drive her to the hospital where they said that Cap couldn’t go back to Garland,( The alternative farm commune that Rain has owned since the 60’s to keep the ways of the hippies alive for all this time.)Cap is very different from the other students at C Average because he practices tai chi, a kind martial arts,hadn’t heard of most modern technologies,or wedgies,and is filled with hippie wisdom,causing him to be like an alien compared to the other students. Fortunately, like anyone in a new area,he adapts and changes even in his two month stay.
Washington Irving published, “Rip Van Winkle,” four years after the War of 1812, which was just part two of the Revolutionary War. The concept of the Revolutionary War was for the colonies to win their freedom from Britain. After the colonies won their freedom they started to focus on who they were as a country and nationalism. Most of the colonists concluded having the freedom for the purist of happiness: hard work, freedom, being able to choose your own job, and education. Irving gives readers the portrayal of Rip Van Winkle, who is in a morally grey area and ends up contradicting values set up in post-revolutionary America.
The Americanness of Washington Irving ---through the Analysis of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Washington Irving, who is regarded as “father of American short story”, has a profound influence on American Literature. Professor Wu Dingbo stated “all writers in America read Washington Irving” (26). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is one of his most outstanding stories and it is greatly admired even at the present time. There are five basic qualities of American writers: independent, individualistic, critical, innovative and humorous (Wu Dingbo 3). As a typical American writer, therefore, Washington Irving’s
The approach of Irving to the creation of national literary icons which will be accepted and read by every new generation could not be estimated. The activity of Irving in this direction almost always makes him different from the other authors. In “Rip Van Winkle” among the features which could be able to attract the attention of the reader we can point out the tone of the story. Indicating
Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015]. Another bestseller work of Washington Irving is “The Spectre Bridegroom” that also included in “The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”. If Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” headed to mix the physical and metaphorical dream reflecting the sigh of freedom in colony, in this work he brought the new American breath to the old Europe. Unlike other works, Irving described the happened events in Germany. All these hinted at that Irving wanted to ruin the old fences around Europe that formulated for many years.
From reading the story, I observed Irving reveal Rip as a storyteller, social, kind, a famous man loved in his community, especially by children and dogs. He goes an extra mile to assist others unfortunate he forgets about
The story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is a moral allegory; a story that represents an abstract or spiritual but is portrayed in a literal way. “Rip Van Winkle” is a tale that is comprised of multiple abstract and hidden meanings, which are all cloaked by material forms. Irving’s use of setting, symbolism, and characterization help to produce a tale that intertwines mysticism with history. Together these create a deeper meaning behind the life of a simple man oppressed by his wife, truly standing as a symbol for the ruling of the British crown over the Thirteen Colonies.