Lense In Persuasion Nation

Sexual transgression and sexual exploration is one of the most highly talked about topics in today’s society. The path to sexual liberation within society begins with experimentation and exploration, followed by personal acceptance, and finally, although not always, societal acceptance. Although we have come a long way on the path of acceptance of different sexual transgressions, the stories of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Tennessee Williams’ “Vieux Carre,” and Lyle Saxon’s “The Centaur Plays Croquet” show that this type of acceptance has not always been the case. Each story plays an integral role when looking at the steps on the path to societal acceptance. Chopin 's story dives deep into the area of experimentation and exploration, whereas Saxon 's story looks more at the areas of personal acceptance, and Williams ' story lies more along the area of societal acceptance, and whether or not acceptance is always the end result.

Jon Krakauer had the same experience as McCandless with his family and travel to Alaska, but Krakauer knew more about survival and had company in case of any danger. Krakauer compares, “as a young man, I was unlike Mccandless in many important regard… And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul” (55). Acknowledging McCandless’s background, Chris left society because, in Krakauer’s point of view, of the “agitation of the soul” and the “similar heedless” of society. McCandless didn’t agree with society’s standards that being successful meant having a well paid occupation, especially when McCandless’s parents enforced it onto him. McCandless truly did not want to uphold the wishes of his parents, for Chris to go to college and get high paying career, but it wasn’t what Chris really wanted, so he left all of his conflicts with his parents and his values or “agitation of the soul” to create a new identity as Alex Supertramp and live in the wild. In today’s modern world, humanity lives in an environment where people are controlled and dependent on others. Chris’s father is someone he despises because of his characteristic of being controlling. Walter becomes controlling over Chris, who pressured him into college. As a result, Chris has an “agitation of the soul” to become independent, and a “heedlessness” for society and had an “intensity” for

Unreciprocated romantic feelings that are extremely difficult to control, especially during puberty, a time when one is filled with new and complex emotions they cannot comprehend. As a result we often tend to produce fictional scenarios that cater to our strong feelings. However, one must acknowledge the falsity of his/her imagination. Melanie McCabe’s “Paperboy” uses a vivid sense of imagery to convey the strong emotions of a pubescent girl toward an older boy, despite the fact that the boy will never feel the same way.

We present pasted together parts of our lives to the public, parts of our lives that make us look like winners, likable people. Again, Whitehead helps readers visualize this process through posing questions.“‘Should I wear glasses in my profile pic?’... ‘Do you think it’s working?’ ‘Did you get away with it today?’... ‘Why do you think they call it Survivor?’” (Whitehead 415). The rhetorical questions, again, help his audience to picture themselves going through the same process as the producers, making an obvious winner out of themselves. Whitehead also alludes to a popular reality show, Survivor, in which loser and winner edits are present every episode. This allusion helps readers to compare the processes they go through daily to those of the producers. They string together parts of their lives just as parts of contestants’ lives are strung together to form clear story arcs. Through the use of rhetorical questions, Whitehead clearly engages his audience and has them reflect on their own tendency to “edit” events in their lives.

The narration in this novel adds so much dimension to the story. It all starts with John telling his own life story. His story becomes much of Owen’s life story when John and Owen meet. John narrates his and Owen’s life along with telling his own thoughts and feelings about how everything happened. John also flashes back and forth between his present day life in Canada and his past life in Gravesend. This is what adds dimension to the story because Johnny is relating his present life to his past life. He has many political aspects when it comes to the time period that he grew up in. Growing up in the sixties was not a pretty time. There was war, assassinations, and social inequality. John even states, “Whenever I hear someone generalizing favorably about ‘the sixties,’ I feel like Hester, I feel like throwing up”(510). Referring to all the times that Hester threw up in the rose bushes on New Year’s Eve.

Reflecting on their story and their ability to live, Johnathan re-finds himself and realizes that its ok to be different.

I appreciate the author’s attempt to fully submerse herself back into an adolescent mindset in order to understand the complex issues of masculinity, sexuality and gender

In many works of American literature, protagonists attempt to forge an authentic identity for him in spite of social expectations and circumstances. Some of the struggles that happen in the novel “The Things They Carried” was that the author was describing the lives and deaths of his company. The men include Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders, Dave Jensen, Lt. Jimmy Cross, Lee Strunk, Rat Kiley, Curt Lemon, Henry Dobbins, Azar, and Eddie Diamond. Rat Kiley is a very good friend to Tim, and he writes about how they've learned to tell war stories. One of the ways in which he explains it was in this line "How do you generalize?

he power that the female cultivates in her adolescent years during the prime of her sexual awakening is alarming. The theme of adolescent females not realizing the power that comes with their sexual awakening can be noted in two different short stories, An Ounce of Cure and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In the short story jon in George Saunders’ In Persuasion Nation, the protagonist Jon is confined in an authoritarian institution that has pulled the strings of his life for as long as he could remember, and many obstacles arise in his journey to break free. Using its social privilege as a higher governing power, the institution impacts Jon’s choices and actions not only through the strict regulation, or in some cases, falsification, of information provided to him, but also institutional power to either appease or force Jon to behave in certain manners. To truly discover himself and pursue his aspirations and desires, Jon must go against the ways of this institution and follow the subjectivity of his own thoughts.

When examining the 1980s film Puberty Blues, using techniques of content analysis and personal reflection, I have observed certain differences and similarities between the culture depicted in the film and my own society and culture. The subject of the film is the journey that two young people go on as they transition from adolescence into adulthood, I will be outlining what exactly that means.

When John was led back into life in the futuristic society, he was mocked and treat as a strange attraction. He was at the awful end of a sick joke - people came from all over to understand this simple “savage” who has spent his life in curiously primitive manners. John was so poorly received, he went as far as wanting to commit

Though the narrator has the full ability to see, he lacks the ability to connect to the world and to the people around him. He is described as an egotistical, superficial being who is very shallow in the way he views the people and events in his life. The man,

Within one’s lifetime, the mark to finding oneself is being able to overcome hardships and difficulties in order to unravel the full potential concealed within them. From being manipulated and deceived, this manages to bring about an ability hidden within oneself that can only be triggered by experiencing what it is like to be a victim of deception. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and As You Like It by William Shakespeare, each author entraps their protagonists with the role of being manipulative or the victim of being manipulated to further enhance the author’s purpose of revealing or unlocking the hidden potential that arose within the characters.

emphasizes that although reality is constructed by our social interactions, our perceived reality, including those of a sexual nature are not the same for everyone. It is critical that a situation is defined by the establishment of relevant identities of those involved in the interaction. It is this construction that involves