Jewish American Literature Essay Example for Free

Jewish American Literature Essay Jewish American Literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States. It encompasses traditions of writing in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish. While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a distinctive corpus and practice of writing about Jewishness in America, many writers resist being pigeonholed as Jewish voices. Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered representative of Jewish American literature, one example being Isaac Asimov. Beginning with the memoirs and petitions composed by the Sephardic immigrants who arrived in America during the mid 17th century, Jewish American writing grew over the subsequent centuries to flourish in other genres as well, including fiction, poetry, and drama. The first notable voice in Jewish- American literature was Emma Lazarus whose poem ‘The New Colossus’ on the Statue of Liberty became the great hymnal of American immigration. Gertrude Stein became one of the most influential prose-stylists of the early 20th century. The early twentieth century saw the appearance of two pioneering American Jewish novels: Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky and Henry Roth’s Call it Sleep. It reached some of its most mature expression in the 20th century ‘Jewish American novels’ by Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, and Philip Roth. Their work explored the conflicting pulls between secular society and Jewish tradition which were acutely felt by the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and by their children and grandchildren. More recent authors like Nicole Krauss, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer andArt Spiegelman have continued to examine dilemmas of identity in their work, turning their attention especially to the Holocaust and the trends of both ongoing assimilation and cultural rediscovery exhibited by younger generations of American Jews. Arguably the most influential of all American- Jewish novels was Leon Uris Exodus. Its story of the struggle to create the modern state of Israel translated into Russian became the inspiration for hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel. Modern Jewish American novels often contain (a few or many) Jewish characters and address issues and themes of importance to Jewish American society such as assimilation, Zionism/Israel, and Anti-Semitism, along with the recent phenomenon known as New Anti-Semitism. Two Jewish- American writers have won the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow. Bernard Malamud is considered one of the most prominent figures in Jewish –American literature. BERNARD MALAMUD ( 1914-1986). Malamud’s stories and novels, in which reality and fantasy are frequently interfaced have been compared to parables, myths and analogies and often illustrate the importance of moral obligation. Although he draws upon his Jewish heritage to address the themes of sins, suffering, and redemption, Malamud emphasizes human contact and compassion over orthodox religious dogma. Malamud’s characters, while often awkward and isolated from society, evoke both pity and humor through their attempts at survival and salvation. Sheldon J. Hershinow observed: â€Å"Out of the everyday defeats and indignities of ordinary people, Malamud creates beautiful parables that capture the joy as well as the pain of life; he expresses the dignity of the human spirit searching for freedom and moral growth in the face for hardship, injustice, and the existential anguish of life. BIOGRAPHY Malamud was born on April 28, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents, whom he described as â€Å"gentle, honest, kindly people,† were not highly educated and knew very little about literature of the arts: â€Å"There were no books in the house, no records, music, pictures on the wall. † Malamud attended high school in Brooklyn and received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York in 1936. After graduation, he worked in a factory and as a clerk at the central bureau in Washington, D. C. Although he wrote in his spare time, Malamud did not begin writing seriously until the advent of the Second World War and the subsequent horrors of the Holocausts. He questioned his religious identity and started reading about Jewish tradition and history . He explained: â€Å"I was concerned with what Jews stood for, with their getting down to the bare  bones of things. I was concerned with their ethnically –how Jews felt for they had to live order to go on living. † In 1949, he began teaching at Oregan State University; he left this post in 1961 to teach creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont. He remained there until shortly before his death in 1986. Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at Oregon State University (OSU), an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel ‘A New Life’. Because he lacked the Ph. D., he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years his rank was that of instructor. In those days, OSU, a land grant university, placed little emphasis on the teaching of humanities or the writing of fiction. While at OSU, he devoted 3 days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. In 1967, he was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 March 20, 2007), an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective parents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952). Janna Malamud Smith is the author of a memoir about her father, titled My Father is a Book. Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71. WORKS OF MALAMUD Malamud’s first novel, ‘The Natural’ (1952 ) ,is considered one of his most symbolic works . While the novel ostensibly traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an American baseball player , the work has underlying mythic elements and explores such themes as initiation and isolation. For instance, some reviewers cited evidence of the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail; others applied T. S. Eliot’s ‘wasteland’ myth in their analyses ‘The Natural’ also foreshadows what would become Malamud’s predominant narrative focus: a suffering protagonist struggling to reconcile moral dilemmas, to act according to what is right, and to accept the complexities and hardships of existence. Malamud‘s second novel, ‘The Assistant’ (1957), portrays the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling to survive financially, Bober hires a cynical anti-semitic youth, Frank Aloine after learning that the man is homeless and on the verge of starvation. Through this contact Frank learns to find grace and dignity in his own identity. Described as naturalistic fable, this novel affirms the redemptive value of maintaining faith in the goodness of the human soul. Malamud’s first collection of short stories, ‘The Magic Barrel’, (1958) was awarded the National Book award in 1959. Like ‘The Assistant’, most of the stories in this collection depict the search for hope and meaning within the grim entrapment of poor urban settings and were influenced by Yiddish folktales and Hasidic traditions. Many of Malamud’s best known short stories, including ‘The Last Mohican’, ‘Angel Levine’, and ‘Idiots First’, were republished in ‘The Stories of Bernard Malamud’ in 1983. ‘A New Life’ (1961), considered one of Malamuds most true-to-life novels, is based in part on Malamuds teaching career at Oregon State University. This work focuses on an ex-alcoholic Jew from New York City who becomes a professor at a college in the Pacific Northwest. It examines the main characters search for self-respect, while poking fun at life at a learning institution. Malamuds next novel, ‘The Fixer’ (1966), is one of his most powerful works. The winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this book is based on the historical account of Mendel Beiliss, a Russian Jew who was accused of murdering a Christian child. With ‘The Tenants’ (1971), Malamud returns to a New York City setting in a contrast between two writers—one Jewish and the other African American—struggling to survive in an urban ghetto. Malamud further addresses the nature of literature and the role of the artist in ‘Dublin’s Lives’ (1979). In this work, the protagonist, William Dublin, attempts to create a sense of worth for himself, both as a man and as a writer. Malamuds last finished novel, ‘Gods Grace’ (1982), studies both the original Holocaust and a new, imagined Holocaust of the future. The novel is a wild, at times brilliant, at times confusing, description of a flood similar to that in the Bible story of Noahs ark. Malamud continued to place stories in top American magazines. Mervyn Rothstein reported in the New York Times that Malamud said at the end of his life, With me, its story, story, story. In Malamuds next-to-last collection, ‘Rembrandts Hat’, only one story, ‘The Silver Crown’, deals with Jewish themes. Malamud is also renowned for his short stories, often oblique allegories set in a dreamlike urban ghetto of immigrant Jews. Of Malamud the short story writer, Flannery OConnor wrote: I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself. He published his first stories in 1943, ‘Benefit Performance’ in Threshold and ‘The Place Is Different Now’ in American Preface. In the early 1950s, his stories began appearing in Harpers Bazaar, Partisan Review, and Commentary. ‘The Magic Barrel’ was his first published collection of short stories (1958) and his first winner of his first National Book Award for Fiction. Most of the stories depict the search for hope and meaning within the bleak enclosures of poor urban settings. The title story focuses on the unlikely relationship of Leo Finkle, an unmarried rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a colorful marriage broker. Finkle has spent most of life with his nose buried in books and therefore isn’t well-educated in life itself. However, Finkle has a greater interest – the art of romance. He engages the services of Salzman, who shows Finkle a number of potential brides from his magic barrel but with each picture Finkle grows more uninterested. After Salzman convinces him to meet Lily Hirschorn, Finkle realizes his life is truly empty and lacking the passion to love God or humanity. When Finkle discovers a picture of Salzman’s daughter and sees her suffering, he sets out on a new mission to save her. Other well-known stories included in the collection are: ‘The Last Mohican’, ‘Angel Levine’, ‘Idiots First’, and ‘The Mourners’. This last story focuses on Kessler, the defiant old man in need of social security and Gruber, the belligerent landlord who doesnt want Kessler in the tenement anymore. Malamud’s fiction touches lightly upon mythic elements and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values. His prose, like his settings, is an artful pastiche of Yiddish-English locutions, punctuated by sudden lyricism. Writing in the second half of the twentieth century, Malamud was well aware of the social problems of his day: rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. But he also depicted love as redemptive and sacrifice as uplifting. In his writings, success often depends on cooperation between antagonists. For example, in The Mourners landlord and tenant learn from each others anguish. In ‘The Magic Barrel’, the matchmaker worries about his fallen daughter, while the daughter and the rabbinic student are drawn together by their need for love and salvation. Malamuds third story ‘Rembrandts Hat’ collection is noteworthy for its consistently pessimistic tone and theme of failed communication in stories such as ‘My Son the Murderer’, ‘The Silver Crown’, and ‘The Letter’. ‘The volume The People’, and ‘Uncollected Stories’ contains an unfinished novel about a Russian Jewish peddler in the American West who becomes a marshal and is kidnapped by Indians. It also includes fourteen stories written between 1943 and 1985. LIST OF OTHER NOTABLE JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS †¢ Aimee Bender — novelist and short story writer, known for her often fantastic and surreal plots and characters †¢ Saul Bellow, novelist that won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts †¢ Bernard Cooper, novelist, short story writer †¢ E. L. Doctorow, novelist †¢ Richard Ellmann, literary critic, won National Book Award for Nonfiction †¢ Barthold Fles, literary agent and non-fiction writer †¢ Emma Goldman, anarchist writer †¢ Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 †¢ Christopher Hitchens, literary critic and political activist †¢ Irving Howe, literary critic †¢ Roger Kahn. The Boys of Summer 1972 †¢ Jerzy Kosinski, author of The Painted Bird †¢ Emma Lazarus, poet and novelist †¢ Fran Lebowitz, author, known for her sardonic social commentary on American life through her New York sensibilities †¢ Seymour Martin Lipset, political sociologist. †¢ Reggie Nadelson, novelist known particularly for her mystery works †¢ Mark Obama Ndesandjo, author, half-brother of President Barack Obama †¢ Cynthia Ozick, short story writer, novelist, and essayist †¢ Jodi Picoult, novelist †¢ Ayn Rand, novelist and founder of Objectivism †¢ Lea Bayers Rapp, non-fiction and childrens fiction writer †¢ Philip Roth, known for autobiographical fiction that explored Jewish and American identity. †¢ Norman Rosten, novelist †¢ J. D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye †¢ Gary Shteyngart (born 1972) Russian-born writer †¢ Isaac Bashevis Singer, leading figure in Yiddish literature, won Nobel Prize †¢ George Steiner (born 1929) literary critic †¢ Daniel Stern, novelist] †¢ Leopold Tyrmand, writer †¢ Judith Viorst (born 1932) author, known for her childrens literature †¢ Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of 57 books CONCLUSION The situation and the position of the Jewish-American writer have always been different from that of the other ethnicities in America and still remain so until today. One difference is highlighted by a comparison with the African-American writers. The marginal position of black authors has disappeared on the book market in the United States, but the themes of alienation and anger will not vanish as readily from their works. Instead of integration into the Literary and artistic mainstream, black writers and artists wanted, especially since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, to arrive at their own forms of literary expression which would have direct relevance for their lives. They wished to answer the question of their relationship to white mainstream culture by implementing a multicultural strategy: their literature is not that of assimilation, but in many ways that of establishing difference, separatism, and cultural resistance. While with the African-American writers there is no sense of the success or even desirability of social and cultural integration into the predominantly white mainstream of American society, many Jewish-American authors felt it as necessary and desirable, and as a result even managed to acquire it. Indeed, a great number of contemporary Jewish-American writers such as Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Bernard Malamud, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth and others have had literary success. The language employed by these writers is standard American English, they are socially accepted, and their works are read by a wide Jewish and non-Jewish audience. For this reason it is widely considered that their texts form part of a recognized literary canon, and belong to the American literary center or mainstream, as far as this may still be defined today. As much as we agreed to this idea we cannot ignore several facts which underline the necessity to view Jewish American literary productions as shaped by strong ethnic forces, and Jewish American literature as both belonging to and standing out in the multicultural American landscape. BIBLOGRAPHY Books Sanford, Sternlicht Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature Cristina, Nilsson Jewish American Literature: Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick Websites http://en. wikipedia. org http://www. swiftpapers. com http:// Top of Form.

Comparison of the American and French Revolutions Essay -- American Fr

Comparison of the American and French Revolutions The American and French revolutions both compare and contrast in their origins and outcomes; both revolutions began due to the common peoples need to obtain independence and liberty from an oppressive government. The American Revolution was triggered by the American colonists need for financial independence from the overpowering nation of Great Britain, while the French revolution was a struggle to gain social equality among the masses. Although the American and French Revolutions were fought over the same ideas, the American Revolution is considered more â€Å"conservative† than the French. The intent of the American revolutionaries was not to initiate a revolution, but rather to gain their freedom from a â€Å"long train of abuses,† The French however were trying to cause a true revolution they were not just fighting for freedom but instead to over throw and remove the monarchy. The American revolutionaries had no choice but to defend their liberties; the tactics used by the Americans were not as directly aggressive as those used by the French. The American Revolution, beginning in 1776, was initiated due to the tension that existed between the thirteen American colonies and the island of Great Britain due to the war debt Great Britain had incurred when defending American colonists against the French and Indians. As a solution to the debt the British began passing legislation, which increased the taxation of American colonies, tightening their control over the colonists. One of the regulations that Parliament passed was the Stamp Act of 1765. This taxed all printed documents, including: wills, newspapers, and pamphlets. The colonists felt they were not fairly represented because they held no seat in Britain’s parliament. The rallying cry for the colonists became â€Å"no taxation without representation." After years of boycotting and peaceful protest the American colonists could no longer stand the abuse from Great Britain and decided that they had had enough. In 1775 the British troops and American Militia exchanged first shots of the Revolution. On July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, written mostly by Thomas Jefferson. Due to a decisive American victory at Saratoga, the French agreed to aid the Americans, mainly because of a longstanding hatred between the French... ...g an impartial solution for all. The National Assembly took the Tennis Court Oath, which stated that no one was to leave unless a constitution was enacted for France. On August 26th, the Assembly drew up the Declaration of The Rights of Man and citizen. In contrast to the American Revolution, the French Revolution was more violently approached. Both the American and French revolutions ended with a victory of independence. In the American Revolution, the American colonists gained their independence from Great Britain while the French gained social equality and converted from an overpowering monarchy to a republic. They differed, however, by the means in which each set of revolutionaries went about revolting. The American Revolution was less violent and the Americans had attempted to first establish a compromise with King Louis XIV. The French Revolution was much more aggressive; the storming of the Bastille and massacre of many French nobility are prime examples of the violent tactics used during the revolution. Both revolutions have not only adequately show the importance of individual and universal rights, but also show two different ways of achieving liberty through revolt.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 45

Break Free of a Nimbostratus A week after my cast has been removed, I stand alone on the footbridge in Knight's Park, leaning my weight on the railing, gazing down at a pond I could walk around in less than five minutes. The water underneath me has a thin layer of ice on top, and I think about dropping rocks through it, but I do not know why, especially since I have no rocks. Even still, I want to drop rocks through the ice so badly, to puncture it, proving that it is weak and temporary, to see the black water below rise up and out of the hole I alone will have created. I think about the hidden fish – mostly those big goldfish people stock the pond with so old men will have something to feed in spring and little boys will have something to catch in the summer – fish now burrowed in the mud at the bottom of the pond. Or are these fish burrowing just yet? Will they wait until the pond freezes completely? Here's a thought: I'm like Holden Caulfield thinking about ducks, only I'm thirty-five years old and Holden was a teenager. Maybe the accident knocked my brain back into teenager mode? Part of me wants to climb up onto the railing and jump off the bridge, which is only ten yards long, only three feet above the pond; part of me wants to break through the ice with my feet, to plunge down, down, down into the mud, where I can sleep for months and forget about all I now remember and know. Part of me wishes I never regained my memory, that I still had that false hope to cling to – that I still had at least the idea of Nikki to keep me moving forward. When I finally look up from the ice and toward the soccer fields, I see that Tiffany has accepted my invitation to meet, just like Cliff said she would. She is only two inches tall in the distance, wearing a yellow ski cap and a white coat that covers most of her thighs, making her look like a wingless angel growing and growing – and I watch her pass the swing sets and the large pavilion with picnic tables inside. I watch her walk along the water's edge until she finally reaches her usual height, which is five feet and a few inches tall. When she steps onto the footbridge, I immediately look down at the thin layer of ice again. Tiffany walks over to me and stands so her arm is almost touching mine, but not quite. Using my peripheral vision, I see that she too is now looking down at the thin layer of ice, and I wonder if she also wishes she could drop some rocks. We stand like this for what seems like an hour, neither of us saying anything. My face gets very cold, until I can no longer feel my nose or ears. Finally, without looking at Tiffany, I say, â€Å"Why didn't you come to my birthday party?† which is a stupid question to pose at this time, I realize, but I can't think of anything else to say, especially since I haven't seen Tiffany for many weeks – not since I screamed at her on Christmas Day. â€Å"My mom said she invited you. So why didn't you come?† After a long pause, Tiffany says, â€Å"Well, like I said in my letter, your brother threatened to kill me if I made contact with you. Also, Ronnie came to my house the day before your party and forbade me to go. He said they never should have introduced us in the first place.† I had already talked to Jake about his threat, but I have a hard time imagining Ronnie saying such a thing to Tiffany. And yet I know Tiffany is telling the truth. She seems really hurt and vulnerable right now, especially because she is sort of chewing on her bottom lip as if it were a piece of gum. Surely Ronnie said these words against Veronica's wishes. His wife would never let him say something so potentially ego-damaging to Tiffany, and the thought of Ronnie keeping Tiffany from attending my party makes me a little proud of my best friend, especially since he went against his wife's wishes to protect me. â€Å"Bros B4 Hos† is what Danny said to me every time I would lament Nikki, back when we were both in the bad place – before he had that second operation. In art therapy class, Danny even made me a little poster with the words written in stylish gold letters, which I hung on the wall space between my bed and my roommate Jackie's – back in the bad place – but one of the evil nurses took Danny's artwork down when I was not in the room, a fact Jackie confirmed by blinking and banging his head against his shoulder. Even though I realize the phrase is sort of sexist (because men should not refer to women as hos), saying â€Å"Bros B4 Hos† in my mind now sort of makes me smile, especially since Ronnie is my best bro in New Jersey, now that Jake and Danny live in PA. â€Å"I'm sorry, Pat. Is that what you want to hear? Well, I'll say it again, I'm really, really fucking sorry.† Even though Tiffany uses the f-word, her voice sort of quivers like Mom's when she says something she truly means, and it makes me think that Tiffany might actually start crying right here on the bridge. â€Å"I'm a screwed-up person who no longer knows how to communicate with the people I love. But I meant everything I told you in my letter. If I were your Nikki, I would have come back to you on Christmas Day, but I'm not Nikki. I know. And I'm sorry.† I don't know what to say in response, so we stand there for many minutes, saying nothing. Suddenly – for some crazy reason – I want to tell Tiffany the ending of the movie, the one that was my old life. I figure she should know the ending, especially since she had a starring role. And then the words are spilling out of me. â€Å"I decided to confront Nikki, just to let her know I remember what happened between us but do not hold any grudges. My brother drove me to my old house in Maryland, and it turns out that Nikki is still living there, which I thought was sort of strange, especially since she has a new me – this guy Phillip who works with Nikki as a fellow English teacher and always used to call me an illiterate buffoon because I never used to read literary books,† I say, leaving out the part about my strangling and punching naked Phillip when I caught him in the shower with Nikki, â€Å"and if I were Phillip, I probably would not want to live in my wife's ex-husband's house, because that is just sort of weird, right?† Tiffany doesn't say anything when I pause, so I just keep on talking. â€Å"When we drove down my old street, it was snowing, which is a little more rare in Maryland and therefore a big deal to little kids. There was only maybe a half inch on the ground – a dusting – but enough to scoop up in your hands. I saw Nikki outside with Phillip, and they were playing with two children – by the colors each was dressed in, I figured the one in navy blue was a little boy and the one mostly in peach was an even littler girl. After we rolled by, I told Jake to circle the block and park the car half a block away so we could watch Nikki's new family play in the snow. My old house is on a busy street, so we weren't likely to draw Nikki's attention. Jake did as I asked and then killed the engine but left the windshield wipers on so he could see. I rolled down my window, as I was in the backseat because of my cast, and we watched the family play for a long time – so long that Jake finally started the car back up and turned on the heat becaus e he was too cold. Nikki was wearing the long green-and-white-striped scarf I used to wear to Eagles games, a brown barn coat, and red mittens. Her strawberry blond hair hung freely from under her green hat, so many curls. They were having a snowball fight; Nikki's new family was having a beautiful snowball fight. You could tell the kids loved their father and mother, and the father loved the mother, and the mother loved the father, and the parents loved the children – as they all tossed the snow at each other so lovingly, taking turns chasing each other, laughing and falling into one another's heavily bundled bodies, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I pause here because I am having trouble getting the words out of my throat. â€Å"And I squinted hard trying to see Nikki's face, and even from a block away I could tell she was smiling the whole time and was so very happy, and somehow that was enough for me to officially end apart time and roll the credits of my movie without even confronting Nikki, so I just asked Jake to drive me back to New Jersey, which he did, because he is probably the best brother in the entire world. So I guess I just want Nikki to be happy, even if her happy life doesn't include me, because I had my chance and I wasn't a very good husband and Nikki was a great wife, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I have to pause again. I swallow several times. â€Å"And I'm just going to remember that scene as the happy ending of my old life's movie. Nikki having a snowball fight with her new family. She looked so happy – and her new husband, and her two children †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I stop talking because no more words will come out. It's as if the cold air has already frozen my tongue and throat – as if the cold is spreading down into my lungs and is freezing my chest from the inside out. Tiffany and I stand on the bridge for a long time. Even though my face is numb, I begin to feel a warmth in my eyes, and suddenly I realize I am sort of crying again. I wipe my eyes and nose with my coat sleeve, and then I am sobbing. Only when I finish crying does Tiffany finally speak, although she doesn't talk about Nikki. â€Å"I got you a birthday present, but it's nothing much. And I didn't wrap it or get you a card or anything, because, well †¦ because I'm your fucked-up friend who does not buy cards or wrap presents. And I know it's more than a month late, but anyway †¦Ã¢â‚¬  She takes off her gloves, undoes a few buttons, and pulls my present from the inside pocket of her coat. I take it from her hands, a collection of ten or so heavily laminated pages – maybe four by eight inches each and held together by a silver bolt in the top left corner. The cover reads: SKYWATCHER'S CLOUD CHART An easy to use, durable identifying chart for all outdoor enthusiasts â€Å"You were always looking up at clouds when we used to run,† Tiffany says, â€Å"so I thought you might like to be able to tell the difference between the shapes.† With excitement, I rotate the cover upward so I can read the first heavily laminated page. After reading all about the four basic cloud shapes – stratus, nimbus, cumulus, and cirrus – after looking at all the beautiful pictures documenting the different variations of the four groups, somehow Tiffany and I end up lying on our backs in the middle of the exact soccer field I used to play on when I was a kid. We look up at the sky, and it's a sheet of winter gray, but Tiffany says maybe if we wait long enough, a shape will break free, and we will be able to identify the single cloud using my new Skywatcher's Cloud Chart. We lie there on the frozen ground for a very long time, waiting, but all we see up in the sky is the solid gray blanket, which my new cloud chart identifies as a nimbostratus – â€Å"a gray cloud mass from which widespread and continuous rain or snow falls.† After a time, Tiffany's head ends up on my chest, and my arm ends up around her shoulders so that I am pulling her body close to mine. We shiver together alone on the field for what seems like hours. When it begins to snow, the flakes fall huge and fast. Almost immediately the field turns white, and this is when Tiffany whispers the strangest thing. She says, â€Å"I need you, Pat Peoples; I need you so fucking bad,† and then she begins to cry hot tears onto my skin as she kisses my neck softly and sniffles. It is a strange thing for her to say, so far removed from a regular woman's â€Å"I love you,† and yet probably more true. It feels good to hold Tiffany close to me, and I remember what my mother said back when I tried to get rid of my friend by asking her to go to the diner with me. Mom said, â€Å"You need friends, Pat. Everybody does.† I also remember that Tiffany lied to me for many weeks; I remember the awful story Ronnie told me about Tiffany's dismissal from work and what she admitted to in her most recent letter; I remember just how bizarre my friendship with Tiffany has been – but then I remember that no one else but Tiffany could really even come close to understanding how I feel after losing Nikki forever. I remember that apart time is finally over, and while Nikki is gone for good, I still have a woman in my arms who has suffered greatly and desperately needs to believe once again that she is beautiful. In my arms is a woman who has given me a Skywatcher's Cloud Chart, a woman who knows all my secrets, a woman who knows just how messed up my mind is, how many pills I'm on, and yet she allows me to hold her anyway. There's something honest about all of this, and I cannot imagine any other woman lying in the middle of a frozen soccer field with me – in the middle of a snowstorm even – im possibly hoping to see a single cloud break free of a nimbostratus. Nikki would not have done this for me, not even on her best day. So I pull Tiffany a little closer, kiss the hard spot between her perfectly plucked eyebrows, and after a deep breath, I say, â€Å"I think I need you too.†

Waiting For Godot, By Samuel Beckett - 1581 Words

A play that seemingly contains nothing delivers a universally opened-ended message to all of mankind. Playwright Samuel Beckett successfully crafts the theatrical production, Waiting for Godot, which portrays nothingness through the use of dialogue, setting and plot. However, it is because of this meaninglessness and the futility of human existence as shown through the lives of the two main characters in the play that allows the audience to realize the insignificance of their own lives and therefore the senselessness of human existence in general. Beckett explores through disjointed dialogue, absence of setting and the cyclical structure the significance of meaninglessness in relation to man’s search for meaning. The language within absurdist drama is often repetitive and useless excess jargon that holds no meaning other than to serve the purpose of misinterpretation and repetition. The characters Vladimir and Estragon often talk just for the sake of hearing their own voices even if their conversations carry absolutely no source of relevancy nor importance, Vladimir: Moron! Estragon: That’s the idea, let’s abuse each other. Vladimir: Moron! Estragon: Vermin! †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Vladimir: How time flies when one has fun! Silence (Beckett 76-77) By partaking in these worthless attempts towards a conversation, it becomes clear to the audience that both characters are just purely feeding the deafening void of silence that threatens to consume their existence. This highlights not onlyShow MoreRelatedSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot1696 Words   |  7 PagesWaiting for Godot: Theatre of the Absurd. Who is Godot and what does he represent? These are two of the questions that Samuel Beckett allows both his characters and the audience to ponder. Many experiences in this stage production expand and narrow how these questions are viewed. The process of waiting reassures the characters in Beckett s play that they do indeed exist. One of the roles that Beckett has assigned to Godot is to be a savior of sorts. Godot helps to give the two tramps in WaitingRead MoreSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot2241 Words   |  9 Pages1429631 17/02/2015 Literature Endgame, Samuel Beckett and Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett The vogue for Beckett started with the success of Waiting for Godot which was produced in Paris in 1953. It was his first play apart from one, Eleutheria, written in 1947 which was never published or performed. In 1946, Samuel Beckett wrote Mercier et Camier which according to Ronald Hayman in his critic essay entitled Contempory playrights Samuel Beckett show how the dialogue of the male coupleRead MoreSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot1209 Words   |  5 PagesAssignment In Waiting for Godot, a simplistic view can be applied which makes the play frustrating and seemingly worthless, which exemplifies how different views can be applied to different pieces of literature. If an existentialist view is applied to the play, it is easy to see how the nothingness that fills the main characters’ lives can be connected to the readers’ own lives and how the play exposes the lack of meaning thrust upon them. In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the suppressionRead MoreSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot1574 Words   |  7 PagesIn Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the use of seemingly useless repetition with subtle differences is seen throughout the play in a way that Beckett allows the audience to put their own meaning into the play. The play writer does this through the repetition of his setting, character’s actions and the creation of almost two identical days. In Waiting for Godot, we see a tragic comedy in which no thing happens, not once, but twice. In between the two acts, which are separate days in the playRead MoreSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot1970 Words   |  8 PagesSamuel Beckett was born in Ireland on April 13, 1906. Waiting for Godot was composed between 1948 and 1949 in French. The premiere was on January 5 1953 in Paris. After World War II, he wrote Waiting for Godot. In Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, it is essential that the play is characterized by time and hopelessness. That the purpose of life is unanswerable; there is no apparent meaning to it. When first analyzing the play, there is an uncertainty if anything happens within the play orRead MoreSamuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot1501 Words   |  7 PagesSamuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a theater of absurd which pictures the world that has lost its meaning due to the absence of God and features two protagonists who are incapable of acting upon themselves and who are heavily dependent on a mystical figure named Godot. Given that Beckett is profoundly influenced by existentialism -- a philosophical study in which an individual is required to act upon oneself rather than passively relying on religion -- the audience may find a non-existential aspectRead MoreAnalysis Of Samuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot 1378 Words   |  6 Pageswithout being controlled or stoppe d. Freedom is the power to act, speak, and think without any hindrance. In Samuel Beckett’s, â€Å"Waiting for Godot,† freedom is one of the main issues throughout the story. Characters are unable to think for themselves, they are being controlled by other character, and they are unable to move about freely. Samuel Beckett’s concept of freedom in â€Å"Waiting for Godot† is being portrayed through the characters of Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, and Lucky. Each character is imprisonedRead MoreThe Belief in a Savior in Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett967 Words   |  4 Pages Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett entails more than one moral or lesson within the story. I feel that the moral of the story is up to the perception of the reader, however. It has been discussed that there is no relationship between God and waiting for salvation. However, in my opinion, I think that Estragon and Vladimir were waiting for God to â€Å"show up† for them and were unable to receive any salvation. This ties into the idea of struggling and striving for a better life whileRead MoreAnalysis Of Samuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot Essay1767 Words   |  8 PagesTheatre is a complex art that attempts to weave stories of varying degrees of intricacies with the hope that feelings will be elicited from the audience. Samuel Beckett’s most famous work in the theatre world, however, is Waiting for Godot, the play in which, according to well-known Irish critic Vivian Mercier, â€Å"nothing happens, twice.† Beckett pioneered many different levels of groundbreaking and avant-garde theatre and had a large influence on the section of the modern idea of presentational theatreRead MoreAnalysis Of Samuel Beckett s Waiting For Godot871 Words   |  4 PagesWaiting for Godot, a tragicomedy written in two acts, was written by Samuel Beckett in 1949. The plot of the play revolves around two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, w ho wait in hope to meet someone or something named ‘Godot.’ While on the other hand, there is Pozzo and Lucky who appear venturing on the country road. Beckett uses the characters in Waiting for Godot to embody specific meanings to their relationships and how it may parallel to the world as people know it. Vladimir and Estragon