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Slade House: Embrace the Frustration
There comes a time in every reader’s life when you come across a book at precisely the right moment. That is the case with David Mitchell’s Slade House. A twisted blend of horror and sci-fi and detective fiction, Slade House challenges narrative conventions and plot structure in a way that entices you read the next chapter, and then the next one as you search for answers about this mysterious Slade House. In order to fully appreciate the story Mitchell is telling, it is necessary to throw all preconceived notions of what a novel is out the window. Otherwise you will set yourself up for disappointment, because Slade House doesn’t work…
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Inseparable Places in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the author Ransom Riggs employs a lot of symbolism in order to paint an effective portrait of the Jacob’s life. For our main character, Florida represents monotony and a life of normalcy. Through his environment and social factors, Jacob is unable to break out of his shell and is left yearning for something not so ordinary. The stories his grandfather Abe tells him about “peculiar children,” and his cryptic last words propel Jacob on a journey in search of answers about his grandfather’s past. In doing so, he enters a world far from anything he could have imagined. The interactions he has in…
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The Tragedy of a Life of Abandonment
Emerson believed in the happenings of our lives to take place in the metaphorical character of a circle, to which there is always an inevitable tie of sorts to which connects the ends and the beginnings of our experiences. We leave home to grow into new surroundings and out of old friends, we go to universities to grow into new understandings and out of old trivalent thought, we grow into new lovers and out of old comforts, we grow out of the places and the people that make them and we inevitably begin to grow into ourselves. Our lives are inherently made up of the collection of things in which…
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I Believe in Yesterday
Life is a funny thing. One day, you’re in school, not paying attention as your economics teacher drags on and on about the importance of taxes, and all you can think about is the minutes counting down to freedom while you doodle horrible scribbles in the top corner of your textbook. Then, suddenly, you’re at the hospital every day of the week, morning until night for three weeks with the worst cup of coffee in your hand and anxiety constantly creeping up on you to say hello. Life is like that sometimes; one day the smallest of things can escalate in a fashion that no one was expecting. It’s a…
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Falling into Abstract Season
For most people, Fall means the temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing colors, and it is time to breakout the sweatshirts and boots. However, for English majors it is abstract season. This means students are spending hours writing, editing, and staring into computer screens in hopes that their work will be accepted to a conference. As if writing an acceptable piece was not hard enough, the dreaded abstract must be written and submitted. While some conferences allow both the abstract and the paper to be sent in, many only ask for the abstract. This is why it is so important to have an abstract that can stand alone. Do…
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An English Degree Matters
I could feel the tension exhibiting from the new freshmen English majors filling the room. They are worried, contemplating and searching for answers as to why their degree is so valuable. Most of us have heard the well-known question, “what are you going to do with an English degree?” Although I am an Secondary English Education Major, I still face this wrath. The English department hosts an event where an Alumni of the English Department comes in and talks about what their degree has done for them. As some may know, Autumn Moss came into to talk about how her English degree from SRU has helped her career in healthcare.…
