Fiction

With its relatively simple plot, sparse language, and seemingly traditional background of love and war, Earnest Hemingway’s third novel, “A Farewell to Arms” stands as one of the most highly regarded novels of the twentieth century.

Beneath the traditional surface of the novel revolutionary narrative techniques and penetrating appraisals of political and social themes interact to produce, perhaps, the most richest and profound work of Hemingway’s career.

The themes and  emotions of “A farewell to Arms” are stated indirectly, through an unreliable narrator, but beneath the familiar-seeming surface of the story, like an iceberg, “which   Hemingway often took to be the apt image of his art.” (Bloom 10)

One important technique Hemingway uses in “A Farewell to Arms” is to tell the story from a 1st person narrative point of view. This allows for the inclusion of ambiguity and unreliability in the story, so that the reader can never be exactly certain (as one can in omniscient narration) of the nature and specificity or meaning of the events that are being recounted.

The first step toward this ambiguous and unreliable narrative is to create a character with an outward traditional “face:” that of a soldier; but with a non-traditional inner-self: “the book is cast in the form which Hemingway has apparently delimited for himself in the novel-diary form.

It is written in the first person, in that bare and unliterary style[…] in that tone which suggests a roughly educated but sensitive poet who is prouder of his muscles than of his vocabulary.” (Meyers 121)

The poetic narrator caught in a war that he is only ambivalently engaged in at an emotional level, and then caught up in a whirlwind love-affair that he may or may not be faking,generates an enormous degree of novelty in Hemingway’s characterization. The fact that the narrator spends a great deal of his time contradicting himself or acting in direct opposition to his expressed beliefs endows “A Farewell to Arms” not only with verisimilitude, but also with a multi-layered theme, one which must be searched for by the reader as he or she follows along with Fredrick Henry’s own quest.

Henry says he is in love with Catherine, but then immediately remarks: “I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes.” (Hem 30-31)

This dynamic use of theme marks one of several innovative narrative techniques at work in the novel. By subsuming even his character to the (hidden) theme of the novel, Hemingway allowed for an intense degree of reader-identification and thematic resonance. The theme of the novel is probably most directly and explicitely stated by Frederick Henry’s observation that:

 “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them.

The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very      gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill      you too but there will be no special hurry.” (Hem)

This theme, one of bitterness, regret, and mortality — where heroism and courage are met only by death is decidedly not a traditional theme for war novels or love stories.

By digging deeply beyond the surface layers of the novel, an astute reader will find that the aforementioned traditional themes of the heroic soldier and the happy lovers gives way to a more probing, penetrating — and accurate — view of love and war, at least in light of Hemingway’s personal beliefs and experiences.

Beneath the romantic surface is a brutal truth of death and regret and waste and sadness: “For a war novel, however, A Farewell to Arms ends rather surprisingly, with the strangled and stillborn death Of Frederic’s and Catherine’s infant, and Catherine’s subsequent death by hemorrhaging.” (Pozorski)

In fact, this theme is foreshadowed and hinted at throughout the course of the novel by way of  Henry’s unreliable narration and also by way of the use of symbols and wordplay through the novel’s rising action. Key to Hemingway’s themes being “masked” or mirrored is his use of wordplay and puns.

The title of course operates as a “pun” of sorts: “A Farewell to Arms involves a play on words relating both to Frederic Henry’s desertion from the Italian army and to his later leave-taking of Catherine Barkley after her death in Switzerland.” (Harrington 59)

However, there are other instances of puns and wordplay which specifically point out to the astute reader that Henry’s surface level narration cloaks the deeper more desolate themes recounted above.

“One highly revealing play on words in A Farewell to Arms involves Frederic’s returning to the front before his knee is completely healed. He has only “partial articulation” in the wounded leg (96), a pun that captures his reticence and failings as narrator… Similarly, while making their diagnosis, the doctors in Milan “[t]est [Frederic’s] articulation” (96), which matches the reader’s task in working through this intricate text.” (Harrington 59)

There is no doubt that “A tale of two cities” is a tragic novel. It certainly contains a large number of melodramatic and sensational incidents and situations, but Dickens has not given us these scenes and situations merely for the sake of melodrama and sensationalism. It would be unfair to say that he loves violence and bloodshed for its own sake.

The melodramatic and sensational incidents and episodes here are integral to the plot and the design of the novel. Dickens’s object in writing this story was to depict the fortunes or the misfortunes of a group of private individuals against the background of French Revolution and to show how private persons are drawn into the whirlpool of injustice and violence much against their own will.

The tragedy in the lives of Dr. Manette, Lucie and Darney and that of Sydney Carton amply illustrates this point of view. Almost all the melodramatic and sensational incidents are connected with the French Revolution which was a historical fact.

This novel is first of all the tragedy of Dr. Manette. This man was a promising young physician, leading a quite and peaceful life with his wife in the city of Paris.

His life was blighted by the cruelty of the two Evremonde brothers who took him to attend upon a dying young girl and her dying young brother, and who afterwards had him thrown into the Bastille because he had the daring to report to the authorities the gross misdemeanor of the Evremonde brothers and their responsibility in bringing about the deaths of an innocent young girl and an innocent young boy belonging to one of their tenant-families.

He remained a prisoner in the Bastille for as many as eighteen years during which he lost his mind and took to shoe-making in order to occupy himself, even after his release from imprisonment he his still a broken man both in body and in mind. His life is a wreck.

“A tale of two cities” is a preponderantly serious and tragic novel.  But it is not lacking in humor. According to some critics this novel is notoriously deficient in humor. But to expect too much humor in a novel which is designed as a tragedy would evidently be absurd.

Too much of humor would have weakened and diluted the emotional effect which the author intended to produce by his tragic scenes and situations. In spite of the tragic quality of much of the story, the novel contains an abundance of humor, which provides emotional relief and which breaks the monotony of the serious and somber tone of much of the narration.

The chapters which deal with Mr.Stryver and his plans to marry Lucie are wholly comic. So are the chapters dealing with Jerry Cruncher, his family life, and his fishing expedition.

Jerry Cruncher is meant to be a comic character. In this novel the comedy produced by this character is very amusing and interesting. For instance, as he rides back to London with Mr. Lorry’s message “recalled to life” for his employers, he feels puzzled and bewildered by the wording of the message and thinks that Mr. Lorry must have been drunk when he spoke these words. Jerry tells himself that he would be in a “blazing bad way if recalling to life were to come into fashion”.

We realize the significance of this remark only later in the novel when we find that jerry is carrying n the side-business of digging out dead bodies from their graves and selling them to a surgeon. Evidently, if recalling to life were to come into fashion, jerry would be deprived of this side-business.

Mr. Stryver is another comic character n the novel. About this man, the author tells us that he had a way of ‘shouldering himself morally and physically into companies and conversations’. Mr. Stryver is really a go-getter and a gate-crasher. He is a self-opinionated man with an inflated ego.

He is proud of having made a rapid progress in the legal profession of which he is member; and he speaks to Carton and to others in a pompous manner about his achievements. He is pig-headed enough to think that what a girl expects in her would-be husband is just wealth and position; and so he thinks that, if he makes a proposal of marriage to Lucie, she would jump at the opportunity.

The characters of this novel are symbolic. Madam Defarge, for instance, is a symbolic character and she symbolizes unlimited hatred and evil. She certainly has a motive and a reason for her revengeful and blood-thirsty attitude, but all her vindictiveness and blood thirstiness cannot be explained in terms of that motive and that reason.

She becomes almost a personification of hatred, revenge and violence. Her very knitting acquires a sinister significance and becomes a symbol of revolutionary ruthlessness and resolve because in the knitting are “registered” the name so f those who must be exterminated.

Miss Pross is a personification of love. Her attachment to Lucie is deep and abiding. In the tussle between Madame Defarge and Miss Pross, the Frenchwoman is killed by a bullet from her own pistol. The symbolic meaning of this incident is that hatred and evil are self-destructive, and that, in any contest between hatred and love, love must come out victorious.

To Build a Fire by Jack London is a story of a man who believed that he is larger than nature itself, that he could conquer anything-even seventy-five degrees below zero. Throughout the story, London clearly depicted a very cold place, a place which obviously no human could survive. According to one critique, the story “pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature”. Probably due to humans’ achievements, the man has become engulfed with pride and has carelessly ignored the power of nature. The protagonist was described as a man who is keen to details and, through most of the story, exuded confidence that he could cross the place. In fact, he already had a targeted time when he could reach his other companions. He did not have apparent fear of danger and seemed to rationalize to himself so as not to face the real situation: “Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys”. It was only near the end of the story did he realize the danger that he entered himself into, the death that he could have easily avoided. If he was not as arrogant enough to perceive the “old-timers” as “womanish” and heeded their advice, the man would never have died and would have enjoyed “camping out with the boys. ” His arrogance took its toll-nature took his life.

Reference

1. Rhodes, K (1994). To build a fire: Overview. In N. Watson (Ed. ).
2. Detroit, MI: St. James Press. London, J. (2002).
3. To build a fire. In L. Jewell (Ed. ), Reading and writing about literature (1st ed. ).
4. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Edgar Allen Poe is considered the father of the modern mystery novel as well as a premier short story writer and poet. While it may not be “CSI”, his novella “Murders in the Rue Morgue” also discussed rudimentary forensics with detectives discovering that hair left on the murder victims is not human. Not bad for a guy born almost 200 years ago. Poe was the son of an actress, born in Boston in 1809. He attended the University of Virginia after being raised by the Allen family after his mother dies.

In his short life, Poe developed a drinking and drug habit (Wilson) and his love to disease. Poe lived only 40 years, but was prolific, writing some of the best-known horror short stories of all time. Most children grow up shivering to the tales of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” and as adults, the equally chilling tales of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Hop-Frog” inspire horror. His created horror and love with a deep atmosphere, with poems like “Annabelle Lee”.

And, stories like “The Masque of the Red Death” are both social and historical commentary on the plight of the plague victims. His poem “The Conqueror Worm” also talks about the struggle of good versus evil. Part of the appeal of the works of Poe is that he is so diverse. Though best known for the poem “The Raven”, stories like “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” show the diversity of his abilities. The ability to write mystery stories and horror is not a given and his works gave rise to ideas that would later become the industry standard.

For example, the idea of hiding in plain sight developed out of the short story “The Purloined Letter”. The very concept of forensics was introduced in the “Rue Morgue” and Poe was also a major force in the development of the detective novel. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Poe’s life and works was that his life was marred by tragedy. His lover, a cousin, died within two years of their marriage and his mother died while he was young. His dark and tragic life is blamed and credited for his genius.

Whether his poetry can be put down to the fleeting fantasy of laudanum induced hallucinations or the words of a tortured soul, no one can say. What we can say is that Poe is one of the first truly great American writers.

WORKS CITED

1. Girando, Robert. “Welcome to PoeStories. Com” http://www. poemuseum. org/, October 29, 2007.
2. “Poe Museum” <http://www. poemuseum. org/>, October 29, 2007.
3. Wilson, James Southall. “Poe’s Life” http://www. poemuseum. org/poes_life/index. html, October 29, 2007.

The Story of an Hour and A Sorrowful Woman: the plight of women From time to time, marriage is not always bring happiness to a couple, also makes a couple to be imprisoners with the commitment. The marital bonds of intimacy, respect, and trust must be developed, nurtured and enforced. When this fails, most couples are given a chance to make important changes.

In a sorrowful woman, character of a woman is center around the idea of marriage, motherhood and housewife. As the author begins actually with an epigram emphasizing with the ironic of the plot “once upon a time, there was a wife and mother one too many”.The secluded woman had already the fulfillment of being married and having a child, but was now at the point of not wanting that kind of life anymore. The woman is unhappy with her marriage and isolates herself from her family. She is being so sad and depressing. The loneliness and solitude was that she had wanted out of her family member role throughout the story. She was placed to bed the first night and was given a sleeping draught that was guaranteed to put her to rest swiftly after informing her husband that she wanted to be away and out of the sight of him and their little boy.

She could not any longer fulfill her role of being a mother to her child. She did not know how to be a loving mother to him anymore. For many days straight the wife remained there alone and only appears to wonder throughout the house aimlessly a few short times when the house was vacant. She seems to be a very selfish and self-centered person who cares only for herself. It seems like the end of her world. I mean she doesn’t want to improve or fix her relationship with her husband and also she ends up her duty with her child. In contrast, I see that the woman, Mrs.

Mallard, in the story of an hour has a different moment from the wife in sorrowful woman story. She is a normal housewife who depends on her husband. The news of her husband’s death gives her freedom and sets her free from restraints, marriage and a lifetime of dependency. After she knew about her husband’s death, she locks herself in her room. She thinks about what life is going to be like from now on.. She concealed her happiness.

In the story, As Mrs. Mallard is sitting in her chair whispering over and over “Free body and Sole free”.This shows her experience of a freedom. For probably the first time in a long time she feels truly happy, happy that she is now free from her husband and the life they once shared together. Her death is due to shattered dreams brought on with shock. The doctors announce that she had died of heart disease “- of joy that kills”. This concluding line is probably the most interesting.

The reader knows, through the limited omniscient narrator, the true sentiments of Mrs. Mallard and the irony lays in the fact that she could not endure the confines of her superficial marriage.From these two authors, from different time periods, A sorrowful woman and The story of an hour are both similar pieces of literary work in that both stories offers a revealing glimpse of extremely unhappy marriages. They are so unhappy with the lives they lead. For female protagonist in “A sorrowful woman”, her marriage was a torment. Both of women are imprisoned in their own marriages and even more so in their own minds, which eventually lead them to death. It shows that marriage does not always bring happiness they expect like a fairytale.

Common type of story is the fable, which presents a moral, or lesson about human behavior. Fables usually feature animals behaving and speaking as humans. Among the most widely known are those from the ancient Sanskrit Pancatantra (Five Chapters), which was first written down in India perhaps 2,000 years ago. Known in Europe as The Fables of Bidpai, this collection presents animal characters in entertaining stories and poetry. Many European animal fables have at least in part descended from the Pancatantra. Among the most renowned Western fables are those attributed to Aesop, a (probably fictitious) slave from ancient Greece.

One of the best-known of Aesop’s stories is “,” which teaches the need to be industrious and save for the future during times of plenty. Stories that point out lessons are called fables. Nearly everyone knows the fable about the three little pigs. They leave home and go out into the world to make their fortunes. Of course, they have to build places in which to live. The first little pig makes his house of straw. The second little pig also takes things easily, building his house of sticks. The third little pig works hard and long to make a house of bricks—a good, sturdy house.

Along comes a wolf who blows down the houses of straw and sticks and eats the two lazy little pigs. All his huffing and puffing, however, cannot blow down the house of bricks. In this fable the three little pigs show human characteristics. Two little pigs are shiftless and meet an unhappy end through their own fault. The hard-working little pig earns the reward of a good life. History of fables In very early times people told stories in which animals talk. By their actions the animals show how foolish or wise people can be. Folklore scholars think that fables probably originated among the Semitic peoples of the Middle East.

The tales spread to India and then west to Greece. Many fables go back to an ancient Sanskrit collection from India called ‘Pancatantra’ (Five Chapters). These stories were told and retold through many generations. Eventually they reached Greece. The Greeks added detail and action and made Aesop master of all the fables. The Romans translated Aesop’s fables into Latin. They were translated into French in the 13th century. The first of many versions of the folktale of “Reynard the Fox” appeared in about the 12th century. Fables of Aesop’s The greatest teller of fables was Aesop (see Aesop).

He was believed to be a slave in ancient Greece. His stories are simple moral lessons illustrated usually by the actions and speech of animals. Some of his best-known fables are “The Lion and the Mouse,” “The Fox and the Stork,” “The Hare and the Tortoise,” “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” “The Frogs Desiring a King,” and “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf. ” In Aesop’s “The Lion and the Mouse” the great, strong lion is tired of hunting. He lies down to sleep under a shady tree. A mouse runs over his face and awakens him.

The angry lion is about to crush the tiny mouse with his huge paw, but the mouse begs so hard to live that the lion lets him go. Some time later the lion is caught in a hunter’s trap. He roars with surprise and fury. The little mouse recognizes the roar and races to the trap. He gnaws the ropes and sets the lion free. The powerful lion is grateful for the help that his tiny friend gave him. The king of beasts thinks to himself “Sometimes the weakest can help the strongest. ” Aesop’s “The Fox and the Stork” shows that a tricky person does not always win. A fox invites a stork to dinner.

The fox serves soup in a shallow dish. The poor stork can wet only the end of his long narrow bill in the soup. The sly fox makes false apologies and laps up all the food. The stork pretends to be satisfied and invites the fox to dinner. When the fox comes a few days later, he finds the food served in a tall jar with a narrow neck. Down in the jar goes the stork’s long bill. All the fox can do is lick his chops. This fable may have suggested the old proverb “he . ” Many proverbs and maxims are expressions of the wisdom found in fables.

Some of these sayings and the fables from which they come are listed after the “History of Fables” section. Fables by La Fontaine Another great teller of fables was Jean de La Fontaine (see La Fontaine). He wrote in France in the 17th century. La Fontaine based many of his fables on those of Aesop. In the writings of both men are “The Fox and the Crow,” “The Dove and the Ant,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” “The Maid and the Pail of Milk,” and “The Fox and the Stork. ” Some of La Fontaine’s titles vary slightly from Aesop’s. “The Fox and the Crow” tells that a fox sees a crow ith a piece of cheese in her beak settle in a tree. The fox wants the cheese. He looks up at the crow and says, “Good day, Mistress Crow. How well you look today! I feel sure that your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does. Let me hear you sing but one song so I may greet you as queen of the birds. ” The crow begins to caw her best.

As soon as she opens her mouth, the piece of cheese falls to the ground and is snapped up by the fox. “That will do,” he says. “That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese, I’ll give you a piece of advice for the future. Do not trust flatterers. Another of La Fontaine’s fables is “The Animals Sick of the Plague. ” The lion, who is king of the beasts, asks all the animals to confess their sins. The guiltiest will be sacrificed to save the rest. The lion begins by confessing that he has “devoured an appalling number of sheep” and “the shepherd, too. ” Reynard the Fox defends the king. His plea is applauded by the lion’s flatterers. Finally a poor donkey is sacrificed after he confesses that he has eaten grass on the monastery grounds. The moral of the tale is: “Thus do the courts acquit the strong and doom the weak as therefore wrong. ”

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone? ” By Andrew Lam Nonfiction Reaction University of Phoenix ENG/125 Jill Greene Nonfiction Reaction “Salvation” by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes, author of the nonfiction short story “Salvation,” was born James Mercer Langston Hughes on February 1, 1902 to Carrie and James Hughes in Joplin Missouri (New World Encyclopedia, 2008). Langston Hughes was among the principle figures of the Harlem Renaissance. He is a major influence to writers and poets of different races and creeds.

His writings, inspired by the rhythms and language of the black church and blues and jazz music of his era, send messages of equity, harmony, and unity. Hughes believed music to be the true expression of the black spirit. In Hughes’ nonfiction story, “Salvation,” he writes about his salvation from sin that was instead an abandonment of his belief in Jesus. The story begins with the revival at his Auntie Reed’s church. Hughes was told: When he becomes saved he would see a light, and something would happen inside. Jesus would come into his life and God would be with him from then on. He would be able to see, hear, and feel Jesus in his soul. Hughes, 1940, p. 351) During the revival that night the children were brought to the front of the church. At the end of the sermon the preacher asked the children enter the fold of Jesus and save their soles from sin. Some of the children went right away. People of the church prayed for the other children until they went to the altar. Hughes did not go because he was waiting to see Jesus and the light. Hughes and Westley were the only children left. Westley became tired and went up to the altar to save his sole from sin. Hughes was still waiting to see the light and Jesus. The congregation continued to pray for Hughes.

Hughes was waiting to see Jesus. Jesus never came. Hughes began to wonder why he could not see Jesus and what would happen to Westley for taking Jesus’ name in vain and lying in the church. He finally rose and went to the church alter to join the other children. The congregation began to rejoice with shouts of Amen. That night in bed he cried. His aunt thought his crying was because the Holy Ghost had come into his life, and he had seen Jesus. He was crying because the Holy Ghost had not come into his life, he had not seen Jesus, and he could not tell her of his lies (Hughes, 1940, p. 352).

He could not tell his aunt he no longer believes that there is a Jesus. In this nonfiction story Hughes uses irony to show that no matter how bad a person wants something to happen, chances are that something may not happen. Hughes was told that he would see a light and Jesus. Jesus does not come. This causes Hughes to doubt his salvation and religion. Hughes has to give in to the painful truth that he would not see a light or Jesus. As the preacher sang of “the ninety and nine safe in the fold,” Langston could not help but believe he was the “one little lamb left out in the cold” (Hughes, 1940, p. 51). This song was a comparison of the children to lambs. The children were lambs, innocent and with a need to be led to Jesus. Within this flock Hughes and Westley were the strays that needed to be led back to the right path to Jesus. These boys came to the altar for the wrong reasons. Hughes demonstrates that temptation still exists, much like the temptation of the apple in Eden. Hughes gives in to the temptation of lying about seeing Jesus. This causes Hughes to doubt the existence of Jesus because “he did not come to help him” (Hughes, 1940, p. 352).

This story reminds the reader of the pressure that adults can unknowingly place on children. “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone? ” by Andrew Lam Andrew Lam, author of the nonfiction short story “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone? ” was born in 1964 in South Vietnam. He came to the United States in 1975 at the age of 11. The nonfiction short story “Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone? ” is about the loss of old traditions. When Lam’s mother turns 70, she and her sister wonder who will keep the tradition and light the incense to the dead when each sister is dead.

Their children have become Americanized and do not want to keep the tradition. Their grandchildren will not because they do not understand this tradition. The ladies assume that the ritual will end with them. The children, born in America, know nothing of their ancestors in Vietnam. The ritual consists of lighting joss sticks at the ancestral altar. Then talking to the ghosts and saying prayers to the spirits of dead ancestors asking for protection. Lam uses imagery about the incense slowly burning and his mother mumbling indecipherably to dead people to show how this tradition is old and nonsensical to him.

Lam’s mother is afraid that he has become too American. She believes that he has become a cowboy. “A cowboy in Vietnamese estimation is a rebel who, as in the spaghetti westerns leaves town—the communal life—to ride alone into the sunset” (Lam, 2003, p. 1078). Lam uses metaphors, cowboy, to describe how his mother views him. Lam expresses his fear to be left alone in the world when his mother leaves, but hesitates to take up her traditions. Lam’s mother wants her children to be Americans, to finish high school, go to college, and receive employment in the field of study.

She would also like them to keep Vietnamese traditions. Lam believes he and his mother live in two different worlds. “His is a world of travel, writing, and public speaking; hers is a world of consulting the Vietnamese horoscope, attending Buddhist temple on the day of her parents death anniversaries, and telling stories of the past” (Lam, 2003, p. 1078). When Lam considers the traditions that will be lost, he has feelings of guilt. “I wish I could assure my mother that, after she is gone, each morning I would light incense for her and all the ancestor spirits before her, but I cannot” (Lam, 2003, p. 078). His mother and other Vietnamese mothers connect him and his generation to the traditional past. When she is gone this will be lost. “I fear she’ll leave me stranded in America, becoming more American than I expected, a lonely cowboy cursed with amnesia” (Lam, 2003, p. 1078). Both of these stories, “Salvation” and “Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone? ” are about loss. Hughes writes about the loss of his faith and Lam writes about the loss of his family tradition. I understand these feelings of loss. Traditions that my family did when I was younger, I no longer do as an adult.

When gathering together with family and talk of these times, one begins to wonder why these times had to stop. Our lives have gone in different directions, and we no longer make time for extended family outings. Nonfiction stories such as these bring back memories to the readers. Everyone has a time when they have lost faith in something or questioned the loss of a family tradition. While reading these stories one can imagine themselves becoming a part of the story. Imagination is more useful for the reader. I believe that imagination is already a part of nonfiction writings. The writer is using imagination while writing about the past.

The writer has to imagine as he writes. References Hughes, L. (2011). Salvation. In S. Barnet, W. E. Cain, & W. Burto, Literature for composition: Essays, stories, poems, and plays. (9th ed. , p. 351-352). Boston, MA: Pearson. (Original work published 1940). Lam, A. (2011). Who will light the incense when Mother’s gone? In S. Barnet, W. E. Cain, & W. Burto, Literature for composition: Essays, stories, poems, and plays. (9th ed. , p. 1077-1078). Boston, MA: Pearson. (Original work published 2003). New world encyclopedia. (2008). Retrieved from http://www. newworldencyclopedia. org/entry/Langston_Hughes