Earnest Hemmingway: An Autobiography

Ernest Miller Hemingway, personifies an image of successful author; yet ironically he committed suicide in the end. The complexity of his life and personality still fascinates the prose and poetry vernacular, but his nobel prize award sealed his destined stature.

For Whom The Bells Tolls

7.1 The best features of the leading character - Roberto is his unrelentless trust to men even when they are failing because he set his face like flint to his goal. He will do everything to fulfill his goal. The weakest feature of the character is lack of nerve to fight through the war and survives it.

7.2 The theme the story is all about the issues of courage in the face of hard adveristy.

7.3 The values that are represented by the Spanish insurgents is life of sacrifice for the greater cause. They knew that stepping up to the plate will get things done.

Comment on Roman Fever

The story opens with two middle-aged American ladies enjoying the view of Rome from a restaurant’s terrace. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have been lifelong friends, thrown into intimacy by circumstance rather than by true liking for each other. Both are spending the spring in Rome, accompanied by their daughters, Jenny Slade and Barbara Ansley respectively, who are roughly the same age. The story begins with a description of two wealthy, middle-aged women at a table on a restaurant balcony in Rome. After glancing at one another, both women gaze down at the majestic view with the same mildly disinterested, but content expression.
Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have been friends since they first met as young women in Rome, when Alida (Mrs. Slade) was engaged to Delphin Slade. This friendship forms the enduring tie between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. However, their friendship is undercut by the deeper, hostile feelings they have for each other, feelings that they hardly dare to admit. Because each has something to hide about the early days of their friendship, they have not been honest with each other in their friendship.

"Roman Fever" is set in Rome, Italy, around the mid-1920s. On the one hand, the ruins of Rome become the focus of Wharton's skill at descriptive writing. On the other hand, the ruins of Rome remind both women of an earlier time spent in Rome together when their friendship and rivalry both began. More generally Wharton shows the kind of life a woman of independent means could lead in Rome at that time.

The setting of Rome is contrasted with the home neighborhood of the two women on Manhattan's East Side in New York. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have lived across the street from each other so close that each woman knows all the mundane details of the other's everyday life. But this setting is too confining to allow them to communicate their true feelings. It is only in Rome that Mrs. Slade feels able to reveal the truth to Mrs. Ansley. The setting of Rome is contrasted with the home neighborhood of the two women on Manhattan's East Side in New York. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have lived across the street from each other so close that each woman knows all the mundane details of the other's everyday life. But this setting is too confining to allow them to communicate their true feelings. It is only in Rome that Mrs. Slade feels able to reveal the truth to Mrs. Ansley.

Comment on the short story Reunion

Reunion

(John Cheever)

This short story is told on a young boy’s point of view, Charlie, who brought back to mind a meeting with his father who he hasn’t seen for more than three years. He meets up with his father during a stop over between trains in New York.

The author relays this image with the use of formal language during the communications between Charlie and his father, “His secretary wrote to say that he would meet me at the information booth at noon”. This in contrast to the less formal style of writing used when Charlie is involved, “at 12 o’clock sharp I saw him coming”. That last quote also shows that his father is punctual which strengthens the businessman stereotype we have already placed him in, yet to his surprise this image was kind of confused, when his father invited him to go to club and hinting him to pick up some girls in and around where they at……… (to be continued)

Barn Burning

Barn Burning is a discourse morality and beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge of the past. Throughout the story is confronted with painful choice and that is going with his father’s influence or choosing rather to surpass his father’s estranged ways, Sarty is a young man who recognizes that he must follow his own code of morality with respect to his willingness to tell the truth even though it may bring punishment to his father. Sarty allows three of his father’s actions to help him realize that he does not want to be like his father: a burned barn, a ruined rug, and a second attempt to burn a barn…….(to be continued)

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO WOMEN & GOOD YOUNG MAN BROWN

These two stories are distintively different from one another. The Two Women is all about practical sense; it talks about reality of life. While the latter, is all about spiritual. The element of human resolve is what these two stories have one thing in common.

I GOT SAVED BY THE BELL

I Got Saved by the Bell

(by Blessed Tamayo)

It was last Saturday, a sunny afternoon at exactly 4:00 o’clock when I started my Bird Creek to Girdwood twenty mile round trip bike tour. I had mixed emotions as I pressed down the pedals. One part of me was apprehensive, because I had not stretched myself physically this far. On the other hand, there was a surging sensation of excitement for new adventure bubbling up within me, and I thought to myself, “…finally, I get to do this!” It felt different compared to past four successive of Alaskan summer fishing. This time it was no longer, “fish on” but, “bring it on.” As I got out of the underground trail tunnel, a refreshing cool breeze coming from Turnagain Arm hit my face as I leisurely watched the sun’s crystal reflection bouncing on the sea waves. On the horizon, mountains came into view captivating me as their residue of snow from the last winter dissipated from the top. Shortly after, I was approaching a snake-like uphill climb; I capitalized all strength I could muster to constantly press the foot lever forward. While my throat was drying up, the nagging thoughts of doubt gnawed my mind, “Can I make it to the top?” With ample amount of sweating and my bike on the lowest gear; yes, I made it to that hill. After getting through that hurdle, I saw a hairy brown creature coming down from the mountain. Instinctively, I hit the brake at a screeching halt and I turned around. My heart was fast palpitating, my adrenalin was pumping, and goose bumps covered all my skin. It was a grizzly bear coming after me and he happened to spoil my joy ride day. My speedometer reads 53 kilometers per hour as I go downhill; at that speed rate, my front wheel hit a dried tree branch lying dormant on the ground. I descended out of control towards the slant rough shoulder, and innately I prayed, “My God, save my soul!” Out of the blue, the door bell went off, “…oh great, it was Sunday morning!” I got up from my bed, and uttered these words, “…it was just a dream …it was just a dream.” Truly, with countless people who went before me, I can also identifiably say, “I got saved by the bell.”

UNPLUG ME

Unplug Me
By Blessed Tamayo

You got up but found yourself still down
It seems like a long time for a little while
Basking your mind on this daily grind

“Where am I?” Oh, you are stuck
Between the middle of the center
No where to be found, no starting point to crack

You make haste for all things that waste
You make waste for all things that daze
Better yet for worst this self inflicting holocaust
Unplug me please before I lost my Holy Ghost

Settle down and yet you’re spinning round
Taking stand on your Almighty sinking sand
Places to trod are places that you can’t find

Twilight years are more evident now
Where will you be going friend?
As the time slowly moving around

You make haste for all things that waste
You make waste for all things that daze
Better yet for worst this self inflicting holocaust
Unplug me please before I lost my Holy Ghost

Second Comment on Two Women

The book tells the story of two peevish, complaining but frailer elderly women. They were regarded as burden that slow down the hunting tribe. Keeping them will jeopardize the tribe’s survival and legacy. Choosing between two options, in unison they decided to leave the two old women; they were left behind on their own schemes. The two women ultimately survive the winter by tapping onto their age enriched wisdom in trapping games that they hadn’t used for years. The occasion point, gave them an opportunity to seize their moments against their own comfort zone. When the storm settled down they came face to face with the tribe, and of course with themselves in matters of forgiveness and self acceptance.