Written in 1899, Frank Norris" novel, McTeague serves as a view of San Francisco at the turn of the century. Norris illustrates what life was like in an ordinary community in San Francisco, by using descriptive imagery throughout the novel. In addition, Norris gives detailed accounts of the inner workings of society along with the emotions of the time. Through his characters, Norris shows the separation of classes and the greed that grew abundantly during the late 19th century. He also gives a grim picture of survival in his depiction of San Francisco at the time.
The first chapter of the book had to probably be the most descriptive in terms of setting, in which Norris went all out in describing the atmosphere in which this story was to take place. In the first chapter Norris paints a picture of a town setting. He describes Polk Street as "one of those cross streets peculiar to Western cities, situated in the heart of the residence quarter, but occupied by small trades people who lived in the rooms above their shops. There were corner drug stores with huge jars of red, yellow and green liquids in their windows, very brave and gay; stationers" stores, where illustrated weeklies were tacked upon bulletin boards; barber shops with cigar stands in their vestibules; sad-looking plumbers; offices; cheap restaurants, in whose windows one saw piles of unopened oysters weighted down by cubes of ice, and china pigs and cows knee deep in layers of white beans." (p.8).
Though quite long, this paragraph is essential to the readers understanding of the way San Francisco look and felt at the time. From this paragraph, the reader gets a visual image of the town during the 19th century. Cozy, quaint and rather poor, this town exists as an example of any other town at this time. Also, in setting the activities of the time period, Norris describes the morning ritual on Polk Street to display the stratification of the classes.
Well hopefully not, because this is not an ordinary thought to run through a person's mind. ... Two totally different stories, with one fierce topic. ... In the short story "The Birds" the setting took place right after World War II in London, England. While in the movie, the attacks took place in Bodega Bay right outside of San Francisco. ... The characters of the short story and the movie are also very different. ...
They seem like diffuse phantoms moving around in an inspired and detailed description of San Francisco's Chinatown. ... At the beginning this is a bit frustrating, especially as the setting in the Chinatown section of San Francisco is so fully described. ... Up to then Meimei is described as an ordinary child who plays with other children and makes trouble in the alleys. ... She goes from an ordinary child to a calculating chess machine. ... Meimei is the heroine of the Chinese community in the Chinatown section of San Francisco. ...
However, the story has inspired some. ... Tuttleton says in an article he wrote that "Huck Finn is regularly denounced as racist trash" (The San Francisco Chronicle [1885] 6) . ... The San Francisco Bulletin says that "The author turns his knowledge of Western dialects to account... "( San Francisco Evening Bulletin [unsigned 1885]). ... He views slavery as an ordinary incident in everyday life and the lower nature of slavery to be of little meaning. ...
On Robert Frost Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California. ... Although Frost uses ordinary subjects, he tends to use a wide variety of emotions, allowing his poems to shift from humor to tragedy. ... The setting is in England around the early 1900's, a story about a wall made of stone. ... He adds humor and tragic tones in his poems which he concentrates on ordinary subject matters of life. ...
The railroad's publicity department flooded the nation with articles and stories extolling the charms of California's natural beauty, climate, and romantic heritage (Dumke). ... Expansion of rail service in California had one result that was never anticipated by the businessmen and politicians of San Francisco and Sacramento who worked so hard for the transcontinental link; Northern California lost its monopoly on the state's population and wealth. ... But now rail travel meant that ordinary Americans could see the natural wonders of California, scenic wonders that early miners ...
I am sure that you know as well as I do that during the few months following the World Trade Center disaster, the newspapers were filled with stories of brutal beatings that the innocent people of Middle Eastern decent received in cities and towns all across the United States. On September 13, 2001 The New York Times reported that the backlash following the terrorist attacks are impacting "the lives of ordinary Arab- and Muslim-Americans -- and surprisingly, those who are neither Arab nor Muslim but look to untutored American eyes as if they might be." ... Here is an example of a business sig...
His first job, from 1868-72, was a journalist for the San Francisco Newsletter and California Advertiser. ... However, the trick ending is the very point of the story. ... They offer an escape from the well-known and unbroken laws of ordinary. ... Another twenty-two of the stories are satires. The remaining eighteen are mainly Civil War stories. ...
Arrangement of story the story is told from the point of view of Spade and makes us empathize with him and at the same time leaves us in the dark as to what Spade has planned. ... The reader also has to piece things together throughout the story by the dialogue and Spades facial expressions. ... (On a side note, it is interesting to point out that the falcon led all these people to commit left and murder and is actually fake) It shows us the characters personalities, and motivations all layed out in the last couple of pages) The reason they use wealthy people, like Brigid in detecti...
After a short period as Confederate volunteer, he spent remainder of Civil War years in Nevada and San Francisco, writing humorous newspaper items under pseudonym of "Mark Twain", and establishing himself as popular lecturer. He soon discovered his talent as a humorist and by 1865 his humorous stories were attracting national attention. ... Each writer had his particular patter, in them the ordinary sensual American had his say, shrewd, cynical, and sometimes refreshingly vulgar in a country. ... His short story, The Man that corrupted Haleyburg'(1990), tells of a practical joke of the...
