English Contemporary Historical Fictions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

English Contemporary Historical Fictions - Essay Example Romance is for each character a state of mind and emotion that dominates the women’s affections toward another person; even one of the same sex. In each of the works, the protagonist’s perception of romance is subject to the views formed by each woman based on her own experiences. It is secondarily formed by the environments that each woman lives in. The notion of romance changes on the whole as the protagonists move from adolescence, into young womanhood, and into maturity. This essay examines the notion of romance, and the experiences of the protagonists in each of the works as their perceptions on romance evolve with their own sexual and family experiences. In Atwood’s book, Alias Grace, the story opens with a lengthy poem/song about the young servant girl, Grace Marks, who, along with her lover, James McDermott, murdered their employer, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper/lover, Nancy Montgomery (pp. 11-15). It is a poem/song that is typical of the day, when tepid and sordid and often gruesome gossip was turned into poetic sing-song, which would survive in infamy down through the ages. Much like the poem about Lizzy Borden: These kinds of poems or sing-songs become obscure as to their origins, but the stories with which they were born out of are pieces of American history. This is the case with Lizzy Borden, and this is the premise upon which Atwood built her story of Grace Marks. The story that is about to unfold is told in the poem: For Atwood’s story, the experience of unrequited love that leads to the double murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery at the hands of Grace and McDermott relies upon the reader’s interest in the tabloid-like story that surrounds the arrest and trials of Grace Marks and James McDermott. However, the attention, like the poem, is more focused on Grace because any time

Cat's Cradle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Cat's Cradle - Essay Example However, a successful military asset, the machine on the other side had destructive impact to the environment as it could destroy the whole nation’s water supply. This would then lead to the eventual demise of any water body. In the end, Hoinekker’s search for truth ended up with an invention presenting pending threat to the entire humanity (Vonnegut 22-25). After the invention, the scientist comes to terms with the reality that scientific quest for the truth does not in any way result to the solution of human problems. According to Vonnegut, science main aim is to discover new problems to humans rather than discovering solutions.However, scientists have never come to realize the injustice that they are doing to humanity because of their obsession with the pretext of discovering the truth. The writer through the referring to Jonah presents religion as more relevant and less dangerous when compared to science.However,religion does not lack its fare share shortcomings and paradoxes though they are mild when compared to those of science. Religion derives its usefulness not from its ability in telling or finding the truth but from its function in giving people elaborate lies to believe in. Similarities between Bokonon and Jonah come in the ability of both to offer lies that make human beings feel better. Religion is able to achieve this within the people’s destitute nature and lack of purpose. Jonah despite pending disaster gave people home and even went as far as declining to take God’s message of destruction to the people of Nineveh. The core theme derived from Bokononism is that it is the responsibility of man to give life meaning necessitated by the fact that it inherently has no meaning.Bokonon therefore exploits this avenue to provide people with one lie after the other so long as they continue making people feel better. It prevents people from identifying with the truth of Hobbes