Monday, July 6, 2020

The Interlopers and The Lottery Comparative Essay - Literature Essay Samples

In the short stories â€Å"The Lottery† and â€Å"The Interlopers,† the authors Shirley Jackson and Saki (respectively) use pacing, text structure, and strong moods to build suspense. Through the use of the literary elements mentioned above, the reader is left surprised at the end of both stories. The authors might not have used the literary elements in entirely similar ways, but they have the same effect on each story: causing anticipation for the reader. Through the use of pacing, the authors are able to develop their stories and cause suspense, as the surprise endings of their tales draw near. From the very first sentence in the book â€Å"The Lottery, Jackson sets the pacing of the book for the reader by saying, â€Å"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green†. Throughout the book, the author never strays from the painfully slow pace thus creating anxiety within the reader to figure out what the lottery is and why it is important. While Shirley Jackson creates suspense by keeping a slow pacing, Saki creates suspense and tension by increasing the pace of the book as more action happens. Although the author’s use of pacing creates tension and suspense, the author’s structure of text also creates suspense. The authors of â€Å"The Lottery† and â€Å"The Interlopers† also use the structure of the text to build their stories. Through character development, both authors show how the characters’ life affects what happens. For example. In â€Å"The Interlopers† the structure of text develops the characters by showing there has been a lasting rivalry between the Gadwitz and Znaeym families, it also creates tension because it shows that the rivalry has lasted a very long time. This is shown in the second paragraph when Saki writes, â€Å"A famous lawsuit, in the days of his grandfather, had wrestled it from the illegal possession of the neighboring family of petty landowners; the dispossessed party had never acquiesced in the judgement of the courts, and a long series of poaching affrays and similar scandals had embittered the relations between the families.† The quote indicates why the Gadwitz and Znaeym families dislike each other which sets off a chain re action of events taking place in the book. While Saki uses character development, Shirley Jackson uses chronological order so the reader can get all the details of the lottery and what it is. Jackson describes the procedure of the lottery without actually telling what it is when she says, â€Å"There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open. There were the lists to make upof heads of families. heads of households in each family. members of each household in each family. There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery.† By saying what happens without actually saying what happens makes the reader anxious to find out the purpose of the lottery. In addition to pacing, and structure of the text, the author uses the mood to create suspense and tension. In the stories â€Å"The Lottery† and â€Å"The Interlopers,† both authors’ uses of mood builds suspense. In â€Å"The Lottery† the opening sentence of the book gives the setting of the story. The opening sentence says, â€Å"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green†. the reader can imagine in their head what the scene and what the atmosphere is like. The mood evokes feelings in the reader at the end of the book that contradicts the calm setting used in the beginning. Whereas in â€Å"The Interlopers† the author starts off with a suspenseful mood saying, â€Å"In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians, a man stood one winter night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within the range of his vision and, later, of his rifle. But the game for whose pr esence he kept so keen an outlook was none that figured in the sportsman’s calendar as lawful and proper for the chase; Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolled the dark forest in quest of a human enemy.† This statement causes the reader to wonder who the human enemy is and why he is hunting them. Like Jacksons, Sakis word choices and setting increase the suspense and tension in the narrative. In the stories â€Å"The Lottery† and â€Å"The Interlopers, authors Shirley Jackson and Saki use pacing, the structure of text and mood to build suspense. The importance of using these literary techniques is to keep your audience interested. If there was nothing to look forward to, the readers wouldn’t want to read onward. I predict if the authors hadn’t used pacing to build suspense, the endings would have been more surprising and more confusing because there was nothing that led up to such finishes.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

What No One Told Me About Grad School ProgramsLong Distance Means Far Away

Friends To say that I underestimated moving across the United States is an understatement. I grew up in a small-ish town in Southern California and went to college a short 50-minute drive away. I thought this meant that I had â€Å"moved out,† like a real adult. But I would soon learn that going to your childhood home every other weekend to do laundry doesn’t count. Like most Californians, I was certain that I was never leaving California. I planned to go to gradschool programs somewhere close, but not too close, like San Diego or Los Angeles. I wasn’t even letting my imagination venture as far as Davis or Berkeley. It’s almost endearing to look back at how naà ¯ve I was. So of course, after powering through a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, I got accepted into the mathematics Ph.D. program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You know, 3,000 miles away from my beloved California. I was so excited, and all my friends and family were ridiculou sly proud of me. I was accepting that offer faster than you can say, â€Å"Pack your bags.† Every time someone mentioned how far away it was, I thought, â€Å"Pshhh, I’m an adult. I’ve lived away from home. I’ll be fine!† True, it’s not like everyone abandoned me. I had Facebook, a smartphone, and Skype. How could I be alone when technology was on my side? But a pesky three-hour time difference, a dramatic change in scenery, and new cultural norms meant reading texts and occasionally seeing the faces I love on a screen wasn’t cutting it. Now, I know that for international students, this shock is way more extreme. I have the utmost respect for someone who, not only leaves their state or province, but leaves their country to pursue educational or work-related opportunities. I’m hoping those individuals will give me a little slack here and relate to my story, even though I didn’t have to learn a new language or currency sy stem. I don’t write this to discourage anyone from traveling for college, work, or graduate school. I write this so that, when the time comes, you’re ready to make that transition and are prepared to work harder in your social life than you had in the past. Long-distance relationships can mean many things, so I’ll break mine down into three categories: Friends, Family, and My Partner. Friends No one tells you this on graduation day, but making friends as an adult can be rough. There’s no compulsory reason for you to be in the same place at the same time. There are no more convenient times where you all happen to be free every week to hang out. And the people around you are most likely no longer at the same life stage as you. My advice to you here? Invest in others. Be proactive, and be reliable. It may seem weird at first to have to schedule extremely specific times to hang out, (Can you get coffee with me this Tuesday from 1:30-2:00 PM at *inset central location here*?) but it’s worth it. And don’t flake out! For faraway friends, I recommend scheduled online group chats like Google Hangout. This takes investment from all parties, but it allows you structured, intentional time to catch up on everything going on in your lives. It can be a lifesaver to have something familiar like this to look forward to, especially when you’ve gone on a few awk ward coffee dates with potential new friends. Family: None of these topics have an easy answer, but this one may be the most difficult. Family relationships are tough, and this section only really makes sense if you want to stay in touch with your family. Some things that helped me were frequent, predictable phone calls. My mom commutes to work around 5:30 AM in California. I commute to work around 8 AM on the East Coast. Perfect timing for a daily car ride chat about the goings on in our lives, the weather, the news, anything that was on our minds. Another thing people typically love is getting real mail. I send more birthday cards than birthday texts, and I made it a conscious point to send a Christmas card every year. I didn’t know if these made a difference, but when I visited my husband’s side of the family, the Christmas cards were almost the first thing everyone mentioned. Finally, book some trips. And remind your family that planes fly in both directions. I visited home often, but it was nothing compared to the e xcitement of showing my mom, grandma, and aunt around my new home in New England. It made me truly appreciate where I was living and created a fondness for my new home now that I had memories of my family having brunch at one of my favorite local breakfast spots. My Partner: I consider my husband and me pretty much pros at long distance. Not only am I a grad student, but he’s in the US Navy. Talk about jobs that take you to faraway places. We met in California weeks before I flew to Massachusetts for grad school and he flew to Illinois for boot camp. While I continued to live in the Northeast, he moved to South Carolina and upstate New York over 2.5 years of training. Oh, and did I mention that somewhere in there we got married in California? Planning a wedding from 3,000 miles away when your partner is 1,000 miles from you is no joke. The â€Å"two-body problem† of coordinating where you and your partner will be in a transitionary period of your lives is always difficult. You both need to be understanding and, above all, excellent at communicating. Compassion is key. This type of situation only works when you’re each willing to support the other, no matter how much you don’t understand what they’re going through. The enemies here? Jealousy, immaturity, and insecurity. Despite what magazines, romantic comedies, or Nick Jonas tell you, unfounded jealousy is not a compliment. These are things that need to be communicated through early and often. Nothing says grudge like waiting to address something until you see your partner in person 57 days from now. The moral of the story is: Long distance means far away. Be realistic about where you’re going, and be ready to put in more effort than you’ve had to in the past. Relationships of all kinds require investment, communication, and empathy. But investment in others often leads to investment in your own wellbeing. â€Å"When you really want something, you will find a way. When you don’t really want something, you’ll find an excuse.† – Rachel Hollis. Interested in learning more about how we help applicants into grad school programs of their dreams? ;