This story strangely portrays a relationship between a brother and sister who are going through depressing times: "Loneliness left clues, and I would pick up his while he picked up mine, neither of us ever mentioning them"(82). The short story that I chose is from the February, 2002 edition of Harper's Magazine. Antonya Nelson is the author of the story titled "Ball Peen", which refers to a hammer that the narrator describes as a ball peen hammer. This title is significant because it is referred to and used figuratively throughout the story. The author doesn't let the hammer slip your mind, relating back to it whenever there is a chance. The ball peen hammer symbolizes the narrator's strength. Much of her strength is derived from her brother, who gives her confidence and consoles her. .
A young woman, placing you in her thoughts and perceptions, narrates the story. Her name is not mentioned in the story so I will acknowledge her as the narrator. She begins her story by glimpsing back on one Christmas when she is fifteen. This is the Christmas that her brother, Sonny, gives her a hammer as a gift. At first this gift meant that he had forgotten to get her a present, but later she realizes that he picked it out just for her. She comes to appreciate it and finds that it was actually very useful. She explains that she even grew fond of it: "For comfort, I often slip my hand in my purse, as if in a pocket, to cup that smooth ball peen"(77).
After introducing the hammer the narrator then starts telling her story at hand. She lives in a town called Telluride where she was born and raised. She is the only one out of her family left there, babysitting her parent's old house for them. Her brother moved away as a teenager to Colorado Springs following his girlfriend who moved there. Her parents moved there soon after when Telluride becomes famous for it's skiing. The narrator reveals that she is having a hard time dealing with the break up of her recent relationship.
Education There are many things I care about in my life. One is my family who has been behind me. My friends who have given me advice when I needed it and helped me in school and in my life as well. My own personal health without it I do not think I would have made it this far. One thing I...
In the story, " A Stillness in the Air", the old lady and the author are characterized as having similiar characteristics of lonliness. ... Lonliness was enjoyed by this women and the author revelled in the gift of solitude as well. ... As one, the old lady and the author shared the same passion for lonliness. ...
There are many characters where lonliness is evident throughout parts or all of their life. ... Characters like Curley's wife and Crooks are unmistakably lonely, but they show how their lonliness is the opposite of the two main characters, George and Lennie. ... Therefore lonliness is quite a strong and influential theme in the story but it only features as a bakground th! ... Themes such as sacrifice, comradship and freindship feature under very similar circumstances as lonliness but are also evident within the main characters. ... Lonliness may very well be a pervading theme but only a...
At that time the prince of Shanouk was visiting Paris, a pro-American general by the name of Lon Nol overthrew Sihanouk and joined the communist party of the Khmer rouge. ... Lon Nol was proven to be not a well skilled military and political leader. ... Soon the Khmer rouge overthrew the over Lon Nol as he fled form the city April 1, 1975. ... He started to evacuate all people from all towns, abolish all markets, abolish currency, make monks grow rice, execute leaders of the Lon Nol regime, establish cooperatives throughout the country, dispose of the Vietnamese minority, and dispatch troops...
For example, the fight with Lon Everett, and having to sit outside of the white church during services. ... When drunk Lon Everett was slashing at Dick, Dick must not fight back because society doesn't deem a black man hitting a white man as appropriate. ... Turning the other cheek, Dick passively suffers Lon Everett's hits once more. ... Anger sweeping through Dick because his strength exceeds that of the drunk Lon Everett, Dick must firmly stand and take the punches thrown at him. ...
The massive bombings and the corruption of the Lon Nol military and civil administration, "made it easier for the Khmer Rouge to attract popular support and march victoriously into Phnom Penh" allowing them to take control over the government. ... More then a million people had been "killed, wounded or maimed" in the months before the fall of the Lon Nol government. ... To achieve this, the lives of the urban and middle class people and employees of Lon Nol's government, were considered "expendable" . ...
The Nuremberg Trials following the Second World War are often subjected to a problematic question: were they the application of actual law or simply the exercise of arbitrary power? While the Nazis caused unspeakable damage, many would still argue that the punishments they received should have been ...
In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men there are three such characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife that shows signs of lonliness. ... All of these characters are alike, not just because of their lonliness, but that they wanted to end their problem. ... Lennie and George's friendship help them to cope with their lonliness. ...
To show how a poet achieves a sense of menace, using part of "Glasgow Green" by Edwin Morgan. Edwin Morgan's "Glasgow Green" is a poem that deals with male rape. Morgan confronts the reader with the violence of the rape and focuses on the outcasts of society. In doing this he eexplores the lonl...
Perchance it never departs from one's essence, but is simply veiled because of a fresh hero that comes to one's heart to distract the effects of lonliness untill that attatchment runs dry, or maybe loneliness is simply a state of mind that comes and goes as it pleases in this emotionally dented world in which we exist, but never actually clings. ... There is never a lonliness with a child and parent because that special bond will not fade. ...
