Alice Ann Munro
is a Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner.
Munro's work has been described as having
revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to
move forward and backward in time. Her stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than
parade." Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron
County in southwestern Ontario. Her stories explore human complexities in an
uncomplicated prose style. Munro's writing has established her as "one of
our greatest contemporary writers of fiction," or, as Cynthia Ozick put
it, "our Chekhov." Munro is the recipient of many literary accolades,
including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of
the contemporary short story", and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize
for her lifetime body of work. She is also a three-time winner of Canada's
Governor General's Award for fiction and was the recipient of the Writers'
Trust of Canada's 1996 Marian Engel Award, as well as the 2004 Rogers Writers'
Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.
Boys and Girls
is a short story by Alice Munro, the Canadian winner
of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 which deals with the making of gender
roles
Alice Munro’s
short story, “Boys and Girls," has a very interesting detail written into
it. The narrator’s brother is named Laird, which
was carefully chosen by the author. Laird is a synonym for lord, which
plays a important role in a story where a young girl has society’s unwritten
rules forced upon her. At the time of the story, society did not consider men
and women equal. The name symbolized how the male
child was superior in the parent’s eyes and in general. Along with that,
the name also symbolizes the difference between the sexes when this story took
place. The time when this story took place was a time when men and women were
not equal. Mothers had traditional roles, which usually left them in the house,
while men also had their roles, outside of the house.
The male was the
dominant figure in the house, while the woman had to be subservient. It was an
off thing to see my mother down at the barn. She did not often come out of the
house unless it was to do something – hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the
garden. She looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, not touched by the
sun, her apron still on and damp across the stomach from the supper dishes. The
narrator had problems coming to terms with the role in life that she was
expected to lead. She wanted to work outside with her father doing the work
that she deemed important. The mother tried to get the narrator to work inside
doing work deemed appropriate for a lady, however it was not something she
enjoyed. “I hated the hot dark kitchen in the summer” (p. 530). The narrator was not considered of any consequential help
to her father, simply because she was female. “Could of fooled me,” said
the salesman. “I thought it was only a girl” (p. 529). Even though the narrator
could do more work than her younger brother, she was still under appreciated.
“Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have a real help” (p. 530).
Thomas Hardy
was
an English novelist and poet.
A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot,
he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism,
especially William Wordsworth. Charles
Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly
critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining
rural society.
While Hardy wrote
poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first
collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame
as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor
of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure
(1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his
lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a
significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including
Philip Larkin. Most of his fictional works – initially published as serials in
magazines – were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored
tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances.
Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came
to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and
much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
Faithfully Presented
is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in
a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated
newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a
major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional
masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first
appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian
England.
Stonehenge(2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of
Salisbury.)- where Tess lies down to rest on an ancient altar in the novel.
Nelle Harper Lee
was
an American novelist widely
known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published
in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become
a classic of modern American literature. Though Lee had only published this
single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her
contribution to literature.[1] Additionally, Lee received numerous honorary degrees,
though she declined to speak on those occasions. She was also known for
assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold
Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a
Mockingbird. The plot and characters of To Kill a
Mockingbird are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family and
neighbors, as well as an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936,
when she was 10 years old. The novel deals with the irrationality of adult
attitudes towards race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s, as depicted
through the eyes of two children. The novel was inspired by racist attitudes in
her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
To Kill a Mockingbird
The
plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her
family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in
1936, when she was 10 years old.
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing
with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father,
Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of
integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing,
"In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most
widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus
Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."
As a
Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a
Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also
addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the
American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States
with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes,
To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public
classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.
Additional Supplement
American
Institute in Taiwan: is a non-profit organization established under the
auspices of the United States government to serve its interests in Taiwan.
Primarily staffed by employees of the United States Department of State and local
workers, it provides services normally provided by a United States diplomatic
mission.
Romeo and Juliet
is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his
career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile
their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays
during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently
performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young
lovers.
Romeo
and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to
antiquity.
"It is nor
hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face,
nor any other part
Belonging to a
man. O be some other name!
What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other word
would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would,
were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear
perfection which he owes
Without that
title. Romeo, doff thy name,
and for thy name,
which is no part of thee,
Take all
myself."
Glossary
Didacticism: is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative
qualities in literature and other types of art
Ode: is a type of lyrical stanza. A classic ode is structured in
three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode.
Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist.
It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or
individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.
Greek odes were
originally poetic pieces performed with musical accompaniment. As time passed
on, they gradually became known as personal lyrical compositions whether sung
(with or without musical instruments) or merely recited (always with
accompaniment). The primary instruments used were the aulos and the lyre (the
latter was the most revered instrument to the Ancient Greeks).
There
are three typical forms of odes: the Pindaric, Horatian, and irregular. Pindaric odes follow the form and style of
Pindar. Horatian odes follow conventions of Horace; the odes of Horace
deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon.
Irregular odes use rhyme, but not the three-part form of the Pindaric ode, nor
the two- or four-line stanza of the Horatian ode.
Vocabulary
didactic: designed or intended to teach people
something
didacticism: is a philosophy that emphasizes
instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art
obs:
hinder
obsolete
meaning: no longer
used because something newer exists : replaced by something newer
Example: These
goods are obsolete and will not fetch much
on the market.
instruct:
to teach
instruction
meaning: a
statement that describes how to do something
Example: The instruction of the program has to be written in a numeric
form.
The Catcher in the Rye
is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. A controversial
novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with
adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been
translated into almost all of the world's major languages. The novel also deals
with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, and connection.
Song
The Irish Tenors:
Danny Boy
