The Glass Menagerie, Their Eyes Were Watching God, And My...

In the books Candide, The Glass Menagerie, Their Eyes were Watching God, and My Name is Asher Lev written by Voltaire, Tennessee Williams, Zora Neale Hurston, and Chaim Potok, they are all discernibly different stories, yet they all appear to share the common theme of perseverance in varying degrees to find that happiness is not always awaiting them. I have found that the various symbolic language combined with each author’s different style of writing not only makes each story unique, but they also affect each reader’s perceptions. When I had finished reading each book once, each story appeared to have such contrasting meanings. For example, Candide initially gave me the impression that his innocence dwindles consistently as he experiences countless people who have suffered outrageous hardships, deceptions, and the people who dole out these miseries. The Glass Menagerie was a bit complex to understand because I was not accustomed to reading books in play format, but I thought that it was trying to establish the mother’s relationship with her children. I could relate to this due to the fact that being a teenager along with my brother, we have disagreements on almost everything and what mothers may want best for their children. Also, Amanda -- mother to Laura and Tom -- tries her best to instill values she thinks is essential in Laura’s gentleman caller and Tom due to her horrid experience with her husband who â€Å"gave up his job with the telephone company and skippedShow MoreRelatedEssay P rompts4057 Words   |  17 PagesRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Ghosts The Scarlet Letter Great Expectations Sister Carrie The Great Gatsby The Sound and Fury Gulliver’s Travels Sula Heart of Darkness The Sun Also Rises Invisible Man Their Eyes Were Watching God Joe Turner’s Come and Gone The Things They Carried King Lear The Turn of the Screw Major Barbara Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf 2004 (Form B): The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in whichRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words   |  14 Pagesceremoniesï ¼Ë†Ã¥â€¦ ¸Ã¤ » ªÃ¯ ¼â€° songs / chantsï ¼Ë†Ã¦â€º ²Ã¨ ¯ Ã¯ ¼â€° Anglo Settlers’ Writings Highly religious and pragmatic - John Smith, founder of Jamestown, Virginia; Pocahontas - John Winthrop, â€Å"A Model of Christian Charity†: â€Å"†¦ We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  - William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-50, pub. 1856) - Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), The Tenth Muse (1650), the first volume of poems published by a resident of the New World - Edward Taylor (1642-Read Morewisdom,humor and faith19596 Words   |  79 PagesBanquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France—1885 to World War I, rev. ed. (1968), 248. â€Å"Humor is, in fact, a prelude to faith; and laughter is the beginning of prayer. . . . The saintliest men frequently have a humorous glint in their eyes. They retain the capacity to laugh at both themselves and at others. . . . To meet the disappointments and frustrations of life, the irrationalities and contingencies with laughter, is a high form of wisdom.† Reinhold Niebuhr, â€Å"Humour and Faith,†