Insignificant Gestures By Joe Cannon

One of the many questions brought up while reading this book was the relationship between Celia and her

The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched

Despite his lack of a medical license or ability to practice medicine, everyone goes to him when they need help. They do not have the luxury of finding a real doctor or going to an actual hospital, so they full-heartedly accept what is available to them without question. Accepting what is available without question is a common theme seen throughout the story.

The narrator was writhing in the misery of the burden of brotherly love. The narrator’s mother, via tasking him with looking after Sonny, asked him to serve as his sibling’s keeper and protector. The narrator was riddled with grief throughout his life right from the burden of brotherly love that was placed upon his shoulder, to the dilapidated living conditions he and Sonny had to endure while shaking up in the projects, to the imprisonment of his younger brother and the death of his own daughter-

On page twenty-eight it says, “Then she would light the holy candle in front of the Virgin of Guadalupe.” Celia believes in Catholicism. She is very serious about her religion and goes to church often. This statue is super important to her. She lit the candle frequently. On page forty-six it says, “Celia said the Virgin loved all kind and gentle things.” She was dedicated to her unbreakable faith and beliefs. She obviously cared about it a lot if this was a common, everyday type of thing, which it was. Celia wanted to do right by Matt by teaching him about being Catholic too. By this, she meant that the Virgin loved Matt because he is nice and careful. She hopes for him to feel like he matters even though he is a clone. She even has a huge portrait of the Virgin hanging on her bedroom wall. By examining Celia’s interests, the reader can determine more about her

Celia really cares about Matt when she only focuses on freeing him from the prison. In the book,”The House of the Scorpion”, it states, “You reminded me that the most important thing is to get Matt free.”(48). To Celia, getting Matt out of the prison was her priority and it didn’t matter the cost. This shows that Celia has a really strong motherlike connection with Matt even though Celia isn’t his mother. Celia is a very courageous character. In the book,”The House of the Scorpion”, it claims,”He accepted what God gave him and when God told him it was time to go,he did it.” Matt was amazed by her courage.” (234). Celia has a lot of courage to stand up to El Patron, a very powerful leader who haves people turned into eejits who question him. Celia is probably one of the bravest characters in the book. Celia is very clever. In the book, “The House Of the Scorpion”, it emphasizes ,”I poisoned Matt with foxglove from my garden. I made Matt’s heart to unstable to transplant.” (235). Celia also is very smart for learning about poisonous plants. Celia is also probably one of the smartest characters in the

2.How does the writer let us know that this is an unreliable narrator telling the story?

First, let’s talk about the narrator in the story. The narrator is the “I,” the main watcher who has

Throughout the essay, the use of vernacular speech can be observed when looking at the dialogue between characters. For example, “Good day, Mrs. Henderson. Momma responded with “How you, Sister Flowers?”. In the dialogue between Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Flowers, it can be seen that Flowers speaks respectively with sophistication while Mrs. Henderson speaks carelessly using an older southern tone. This results in a clear comparison between the characters in the essay which represent the importance of education and vocabulary. The constant use of the wrong verb by “Momma” bothers the author, giving us a better idea of language’s role in her life. In addition, the author foreshadows part of the lifeline, so we gain a better understanding of the story when the lifeline is presented later on.

There is a strong presence of love all throughout the story; first with Celia and her friend Danny and then with Celia and her mother towards the end. Even if the love is denied, hidden, or just simply implied, the characters are used to show that its present no matter what. The format of the writing is able to keep it interesting with the reader going back and forth between emotions. When in the past tense, the reader feels the love for Celia and Danny, but also the neglect Celia receives from her family. Although, when in the present tense, regret and nervousness is felt for what Celia must deal with. It is a constant change that keeps the reader hooked. Pain and sorrow are also revealed through the character’s past. When her mother is on her way back from the hospital with her baby brother, she designs a colorful sidewalk. Instead of being proud, her mother shuns her for the generous action. “I guess we won’t spank her this time,” the mother says in dismay of the sidewalk. (Collins, 25) When Celia admits to falling in love with bad-boy Danny, her mother refuses to accept it. Guilt-ridden and grieving, Celia is driven from her hometown and family. It is upsetting and heart-wrenching for the reader to follow. Collins provides a powerful and emotionally charged story, compelling the reader to feel a certain way due to the descriptive

Often times we find ourselves thinking about the past only to try to force the memories away and return to our current delusion. We can never erase the past, but if the past is who we are, then should we just welcome pain back into our lives? Embarrassment, guilt, and pride betray us as we choose to bury our darkest memories in our head and look to a positive future without ever having to readdress them and acknowledge that they had ever happened in the first place. Thinking back now my weakest moment caught me by complete surprise.

After further and cumulative study of the story, one may come to the conclusion that the man in the story has totally influenced reality both in his refusal to allow perceptions persuade him from his mission as he set out to it and also in his utter confidence in his own perceptions of his unique and higher judgment maintaining an overly optimistic outset in regards to his own abilities. One particularly dire incident began, “The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (London 130). One can see by the word “shocked” that he clearly assumed nothing would go wrong, until it actually is done already.

After analysing the level of uncertainty which arises, both in the narrative and the reader’s experience, ‘stream of consciousness’ adds to the narrative a more immediate and a more powerful shift of viewpoints. When Joana stops the narrator’s narrative of her own life story through the exclamatory sentence ‘No, no, I want no god, I want to be alone.’ (193), Joana imposes her will through her intervention in the narrative; Joana turns, as a result, the narrative more personal. Also, the subject pronoun ‘I’ preserves the existent intimacy between character and reader besides the theme of uncertainty discussed earlier. Moreover, the more Joana takes control over the narrative, the more Joana is in control of her life. The reader senses that Joana

A bad decision, a horrible decision, or a terrifying decision, these may lead to repressed memories. The person, who made the horrible decision, tries to forget about the dreadful happening, by repressing the memory. the person avoids small things, thereby, the repressed memory is not thought of, and the feelings associated with the happening is left out. Insignificant gestures could open the repressed memory, thereby, the decisionmaker and another person talk about the feelings associated, and this might lead to new courses in life. The short story “insignificant gestures” written by Jo Cannon in 2007 enlightens these problems.

This pieces of writing is relating to " An Inspector Call" , J.B Priestly's play. The Birlings were having dinner together and talking about the marriage between Shelia and Gerald. My aim for this assignment is to show the change of Sheila and Mrs. Birling and the inspector's impact on the family. These two characteristics are showed in this text through what they said. There are two themes that are related to this dialogue. The first one is class. Mrs. Birling and Sheila are living in a high quality life with a high social standard. Some comparisons can be made between them and Eva Smith by showing the discrimination from Sheila and Mrs. Birling to Eva Smith because of jealousy. Another theme is the lack of social responsibility of Mrs. Birling. For instance, though she was the leader of the charity, she treated Eva