Rules of the Game Essay Example for Free

Rules of the Game Essay The scratchy collar symbolizes the entrapment of Waverly by her mother. Waverly’s hobby of chess is important to her and her mother â€Å"[has] a habit of standing over [her] while [she] [plots] out [her] games. † (p. 98) This habit of Waverly’s mother is a symbol of how she controls Waverly. As her mother stands over Waverly, it displays her as a dominant figure and shows that Waverly should be submissive and obedient towards her. Waverly’s mother expects her to listen to everything she says and not have any opinion towards anything. However, Waverly’s attitude towards her mother is shown to be negative and instead disagrees with her mother as she â€Å"can’t practice† properly. (p. 98) The victory of winning tournaments is not triumphant for her, but for her mother â€Å"who [wears] the triumphant grin. † (p. 97) The game of chess for Waverly is something she enjoys, but as she begins to gain fame for her talent, Waverly feels as if she is playing for her mother and to only win. Because of her mother’s entrapment, Waverly is unable to be free and break away from her mother’s grasp. The â€Å"window [encasing] a fresh sheet cake,† (p. 97) is internally framing Waverly’s new life. Before, Waverly is unaware of a game called chess and she is unknown and unpopular to those around her, but as she begins to play, her mother realizes that Waverly has talent and continues to make her play chess. The â€Å"dust-covered cakes† (p. 97) are exchanged for â€Å"fresh sheet [cakes]† (p. 97) when Waverly begins to win more and more tournaments. The â€Å"dust covered cakes† (p.97) represent Waverly’s life before she begins to play chess and after she begins to play, more people begin to notice her as a â€Å"fresh sheet cake. † Additionally, because Waverly is bringing fame to her family, her mother is proud and feels that Waverly has brought honor to the family. Because her mother wants to keep this honor, her mother forces chess upon Waverly, not as a hobby, but a job that she must do. Also, the transition of the two cakes shows that Waverly is starting a new life as a chess player and is drifting away from her old self. The relationship between Waverly and her mother is like a game of chess. In the game of chess, there are usually black and white pieces, this is parallel to their relationship. Waverly and her mother are always in some sort of disagreement as â€Å"her black men† (p. 101) and â€Å"[Waverly’s] white pieces† (p. 101) are always versing each other. The term â€Å"men† contrasts with the term â€Å"pieces† because it shows itself to be more powerful, just like Waverly’s mother and is more influencing and strong. It signifies the power that Waverly’s mother has and how she uses it to make Waverly obey her. Also, the color black is used to represent power as well. It is often associated with the enemy/villain and in Waverly’s relationship with her mother, her mother displays herself as the enemy. This is because she forces her own beliefs and values upon Waverly. When Waverly does not agree with her mother and tries to speak up about it, her â€Å"mother’s eyes [turn] into dangerous black slits,† (p. 99) which indicates that she does not want to listen to anything Waverly has to say. However, in Waverly’s situation, her â€Å"white pieces† present her to be the opposite of her mother. The color white symbolizes innocence and purity which is found in Waverly’s personality and the â€Å"pieces† are found to be weaker than the â€Å"men† as Waverly finds it difficult to overcome her mother’s dominance and power. This leads to Waverly feeling overwhelmed and unable to venture out and away from her mother. Although Waverly and her mother have their share of quarrels, they find a way to balance each other out even if they are opposites of one another.

Father Child Relationships in The Chosen, Dead Bodies Everywhere, and S

Father Child Relationships in The Chosen, Dead Bodies Everywhere, and Sherwood Anderson's Tandy      Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok presents an important theme that is mirrored in other works of literature. The Chosen's portrayal of a dysfunctional father-child relationship is present in the song "Dead Bodies Everywhere" by the band Korn and in Sherwood Anderson's short story "Tandy". All three works depicted fathers who attempted to change their children into someone different. The works showed how this could hurt the children's relationship with their respective father. The pieces of literature also show how this type of dysfunctional father-child relationship can lead to the child finally disavowing their father and previous life. The Chosen, "Dead Bodies Everywhere", and "Tandy" all show Fathers that try to change their children, the damage caused by this effort, and finally the total renunciation by the child of their previous life.    In The Chosen, "Dead Bodies Everywhere", and "Tandy" the major factor in a dysfunctional father-child relationshi...

Language and vocabulary Essay

Language can be defined as a means of communication through spoken sounds, written symbols, or hand and body gestures. Subject to this simple definition language is neither human nor animal exclusive, meaning that all living creatures use some form of language to communicate. Humans have created the most advanced system of language. Human language has advanced to include listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visual representation. These components are known as the six language arts and while they are individual components they are as well interdependent. What you learn about one affects what and how you learn about the others. Listening is the foundation for speaking, reading and writing. Listening is how we interpret sounds that we hear and what those sounds mean. In the beginning listening is merely receptive. Our brain receives sounds and begins to catalog those sounds. Listening is both an auditory and a visual skill and begins at birth. Children of normal hearing begin by creating mimicking sounds those sounds then become words. Visual listening is often most specifically noted in young children with a hearing impairment and is referred to as sign language. Sign language is not just for the hearing impaired. Parents/caregivers use hand gestures to increase the meaning of a word or to add value or impact to a word. An example of this is seen when a mother shakes her head or finger at a child as she says â€Å"no†. In the classroom children will generally begin a regular routine of listening. Students learn by example and repetition. Teachers explain what is needed, demonstrate the desired task or skill, and repeat. Students will gain good listening skills as they learn their class routine, listen to stories and instruction. Students gain an understanding of the task, and interpret what they have heard. As an understanding has been obtained they evaluate for an appropriate response. Speaking or the act of making a meaningful word comes later than does listening. Speaking is commonly referred to as an expressive skill and must be learned. A child begins to form words somewhere between ten and eighteen months of age. The first word of a child is often momma or dada. The child repeats the sounds or utterances heard from the adults around him. Speech does not actually occur until the spoken word is deliberate and meant to communicate. By the time a child reaches  kindergarten he has likely gained a 2000 – 3000 word vocabulary. While this number may seem excessive Dr. Mary E. Dahlgren states that a beginning kindergartener should have a 6000 word vocabulary for optimum grade and class performance (Dahlgren, 2008). In the classroom a student’s vocabulary size was an effective predictor of reading comprehension. Children with a restricted or limited vocabulary also had declining comprehension scores in the third grade. The elementary teacher can promote speaking by allowing the student the opportunity to speak and by listening to the student completely. Discussing a recently read book, or open discussions are ways in which a teacher can aid a student’s speech development. Reading is the interpretation of written symbols and involves the visual perception of those symbols. Reading connects the meaning of symbols with the words that has been spoken or heard. Kindergarten students build reading skills as they progress from letter recognition to early phonics. They begin to learn the beginning and ending sounds of common or high frequency words. As their vocabulary increases students begin to use words in context. In the classroom reading should be encouraged, should be intentional, and should be fun. Students who learn to read well achieve more and enjoy the learning process more fully. Active readers make for active listeners and intentional speakers and this is when comprehension of the text is experienced. During early reading development children learn by lessons designed around phonemic awareness. Usually this can be seen as student interaction with rhyming games, sing-a-longs, and listening games. As these games become familiar the teacher will integrate visual aids such as letter cards, word flash cards, independent reading time, and writing assignments. All of these early reading techniques aid in the development of early reading skills. Writing like speaking is expressive. This is where the students begin to place their own thoughts into print. This is the most magical of all six language arts experiences. Writing incorporates prior knowledge of reading, speaking and listening. Children begin to exhibit early writing as they experiment with crayons, chalk, and markers. They make scribbles and later form letter-like forms as toddlers. As the child is building his early listening and reading skill they are as well building the early writing skills through pre-phonemic spelling and copying techniques. Some children utilize invented spelling and finally conventional spelling techniques. Writing as it evolves  over time allows for communication on a broad level through time and space that may not have been possible otherwise. In the classroom writing is a means to relay a lesson, message, or concept. Students should be encouraged to write or draw in the best way they know how to. Students should be comfortable making mistakes as this leads to new discoveries and personal satisfaction. Viewing is an important component of literacy and language development. Viewing is extremely broad and is not limited to children’s books. In fact viewing should be stated as any visual content including TV, print ads, multi-media, and even computer software. Students must learn how to comprehend and integrate visual knowledge in the same way that they must learn to comprehend written, spoken, heard and read information (Roe & Ross, 2013). As students begin to build on their foundation skills in reading and writing, they are also beginning to use critical thinking skills. This is where children begin to understand that people view things differently. It is important that students learn how to gain important and relevant content from what they see. Students learn to comprehend the message, evaluate the message, and determine the validity of the message. This is an on-going process that follows from infancy through adulthood. Students in the classroom should be taught how to use specific comprehension strategies and to critically analyze the content in everything that they view. Visually Representing is a way of communicating through visual images. It was common practice for the art teacher to have us cut up a magazine and to create a collage of our favorite things. We never thought of this as visual representation, it was just art class. In fact while not always part of the language arts standards it has been used and in practice for many years. In the classroom we make dioramas, models, graphs and maps all of which are visual representations of an idea or concept. Visual representation requires a unique set of strategies such as organization, data collection, and audience identification in order to convey a message. It appears to be impossible at this point to separate the six components of language arts thus far; as one builds on the other, knowledge or insight is gained, it is clear we must have each in order to process the other. Works Cited Dahlgren, D. M. (2008). Oral Language and vocabulary development Kindergarten & First Grade. Nashville: Reading First National Conference. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/2008conferences/language.pdf Roe, B., & Ross, E. (2013). The Language Arts. Education.com.

The Cathedral By Raymond Carver - 978 Words

In â€Å"The Cathedral† by Raymond Carver, a man named Robert is coming to spend the night at the narrator’s house. Robert is a friend of the narrator’s wife who happens to be blind, which doesn’t sit well with the narrator. Robert and his wife have a ten year relationship which started with her working for him. Since then they’ve stayed in contact by sending audiotapes to each other. When Robert reaches the house, the narrator is a bit uncomfortable. The first reason being because the man is blind, and secondly he’s not really sure what to say to a man who has a past with his wife. Soon after, the narrator sees that Robert isn’t initially what he thought the man would be like. Robert’s suggestion for the narrator to close his eyes while drawing the cathedral creates a different perspective for him, which allows him to realize it is he who is limited and cannot see, not Robert. The narrator’s prejudice of blind men makes him unsure of Robert’s arrival. He wasn’t sure why or how his wife was able to retain a relationship with this blind man for so long. When he hears that Robert had a wife named Beulah that passed away he wonders how someone could have married such a man like Robert and stayed with him for eight years. The narrator thought it was just pitiful marriage on Beulah’s behalf because to his understanding there would be restrictions since Robert cannot see. The narrator’s ignorance is clearly revealed when he says, â€Å"He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me.Show MoreRelated`` Cathedral `` By Raymond Carver992 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Cathedral† is a short story that was written by Raymond Carver in 1981. Raymond Carver is most well known for his short stories and is even an writer credited with reviving the then dying form of literature. A part of a collection of short stories, â€Å" Cathedral† was the last to be published and was included in 1982’s Best American Short Stories. â€Å"Cathedral is different from the other works of Carver due to the humanistic realism that is given to his characters, which had not been seen before in hisRead MoreCathedral (by Raymond Carver)1131 Words   |  5 PagesCathedral: A Lesson for the Ages Raymond Carver s short story, Cathedral, portrays a story in which many in today s society can relate. We are introduced from the first sentence of the story to a man that seems to be perturbed and agitated. As readers, we are initially unsure to the reasoning s behind the man s discomfort. The man, who seems to be a direct portrayal of Raymond Carver himself, shows his ignorance by stereotyping a blind man by the name of Robert, who has come to stay withRead MoreThe Cathedral By Raymond Carver Essay937 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Cathedral† Born on May 25, 1938 in Clatskanie, Oregon, Raymond Carver was destined to be a writer. He was a son of a sawmill worker and grew up working hard majority of his life. He married year after he finished high school and had two children with his wife at the time. He raised and supported his children with normal working class jobs such as delivering, janitorial and gas station services. Carver discovered his interest in writing after taking a creative writing course in collegeRead More`` Cathedral `` By Raymond Carver1027 Words   |  5 Pagesfirst, I thought she was ridiculous, and I laughed at her. But later, I realized that she was suffering a hard disease and that was the reason she had lost her hair. I felt bad myself because at the end I was the ridiculous. In the story, â€Å"Cathedral† by Raymond Carver the narrator was thinking wrongly about Robert because Robert was a blind man. The narrator was accustomed to what we usually watch on TV about blind people. He thought that Robert was one of those who walked slowly accompanied by a dogRead MoreThe Cathedral By Raymond Carver1202 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Cathedral† written by Raymond Carver is a short story that unfolds as a first-person narrative of the main character named Bub. The story beautifully depicts the process of an individual who transforms from a person with lack of knowledge and ignorant towards knowledgeable soul, due to an encounter with his wife’s blind friend Robert, to an individual that is enlightened. The cathedral, in this story, is a mere subject brought up at the end of this story which becomes the object of his enlightenmentRead MoreThe Cathedral By Raymond Carver1294 Words   |  6 Pagesthat with self-awareness, a person â€Å"comes to know what [their] destiny is, who [their] wife or husband will be, what [their] mission in life will be† (Maslow 440). In the cases of those who aren’t aware of their self, like the narrator of â€Å"Cath edral† by Raymond Carver, they lack all behaviors of self-actualization as well as the experience of transcendence that follows suit. In order to open the door to their selves, a â€Å"metacounselor† guides them through their mind or activities that would embrace individualityRead MoreThe Cathedral by Raymond Carver1281 Words   |  5 PagesThe Cathedral by Raymond Carver is an exemplar of a literature with the use of realism in which a realistic, non-ideal, ordinary life of an individual is depicted to represent a wider meaning in life or the society. The anecdote is narrated through the narrators point-of-view about a blind man, Robert, who is a friend of his wife. A theme is presented using a foil, Robert, or a character whose traits are ideal and contrast with the protagonists to highlight some qualities in the central characterRead MoreThe Cathedral By Raymond Carver1758 Words   |  8 PagesIn Raymond Carver’s â€Å"The Cathedral†, the unnamed h usband narrators the tale of his wife’s old blind friend Robert coming to visit after not seeing each other for years. They had remained in contact through audiotapes, but the husband seems to not understand the significance of their relationship, showing distaste with the visit for the majority of the story, due to his uncomfortableness. In this story, the writer displays his tale and its morals; by using the narration of the husband; Carver showsRead MoreThe Cathedral By Raymond Carver1280 Words   |  6 Pages Raymond Carver’s short story â€Å"The Cathedral† is one that was published with a collection of other books in 1983. This particular short story is one that presents multiple views, including real life ethical and stereotypical situations correlating with the specific time this story was published in. Through these ideas and also the symbols created through the characters one receives a vital message. This message that the author is trying to con vey is to look further past what one may see at yourRead MoreCathedral Raymond Carver Analysis1212 Words   |  5 PagesIn â€Å"Cathedral,† Carver’s use of visualization and climactic change of character emphasizes the theme that looking and seeing are two very different things. When Raymond Carver had his wife’s blind friend, Robert, join them for a few days, he should’ve been more understanding and empathetic with Robert’s blindness instead of just avoiding it or brushing it off as if it’s not there. Carver did very well in changing his ways and learning to accept and understand Robert. Carver also did a good job of