Within the context of any given moment in history, the passage of time allows reflection on the attitudes and emotions of people. The political atmosphere, commercial fads, social trends or religious fervor of the time we observe, all lend spice to the attitudes that we will find there. Some aspects of our human nature are as timeless as eating or sleeping, such as the bonds of a family or the conflicts which tear them apart. In Lorraine Hansberry’s work “A Raisin in the Sun” we can see clearly not only the drama each of us lives through in the ties of family and love, but it gives us an immortal slice of history of the times in which it was written.
Much of the political action that occurred during the time described within this play is specific to the era which it portrays. In Chicago and elsewhere, the economic affliction of minority families was …
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Carlisle, David K. 1998. Black Combat Units In Korean War Action. [Online] Available: http://members.aol.com/warlib/dkc2.htm [2000, June 12].
Hansberry, Lorraine. “A Raisin in the Sun”. Beatty, J., Hunter, J. P. (Eds.)(1998) Norton Introduction to Literature (7th Ed.). New York: Norton (pp. 1381-1485).
MSN Microsoft Network. Encarta. W.E.B. DuBois. [Online] Available: http://encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/2E/02E91000.htm?z=1
Style Over Substance in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood
Style Over Substance in Capote’s In Cold Blood
In “Murder, He Wrote,” William Swanson believes the stylistic techniques employed in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood are more memorable than the story itself. For Swanson, Capote not only captures the readers’ attention with a story about a horrific crime, but his use of diverse voices, sounds, and silences make it an event people will never forget.
Almost two decades after his initial exposure to Capote’s novel, Swanson discovered it was still a “brilliant study of crime and punishment” being more “haunting than ever” (32). When Swanson first read the novel, he was more impressed with Capote’s “audacity” and stylistic techniques than with story (32).
Throughout the 1960s, journalists were “rewriting the rules of the craft, creating a fusion of journalism and literature . . . that was often breathtakingly fresh and powerful” (32). After the release of In Cold Blood, Swanson believed Capote not only invented “a new art form”, but also established a standard against which a…