The Christmas Hunt, By Borden Deal

Annie Dillard, in “A Christmas Story,” expresses the difference between seeing and understanding, and simply looking without understanding. She begins the story by describing an extravagant banquet. This banquet took place in a hall filled with chandeliers, decorated tables, and centerpieces. Young adults and adolescents were present, while musicians entertained the guests.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is about six of the worst children in the history of the world, they include Gladys, Claude, Imogene, Leroy, Ollie and Ralph Herdman. Mainly, because they lie; steal, smoke cigars, talk dirty, hit little kids, cuss at teachers, and take the name of the Lord in vain. A small town is turned upside down when the Herdman decide they want to take part in the annual Christmas pageant. According, to Charlie Bradley the best thing about Sunday school is that there are no Herdman there.

• First half of the novel is about Tom’s descent and the second half is about Tom’s

He had friends, the squirrels and birds, he even had a brother, the grizzly cub. When he was forced into the new ways at the reservation school, he became destructive and got into fights. For instance on page 93, Tom was being teased because he made such good baskets and that was considered to be a job for a girl. So “Thomas hit Luther in the face with his fist, and the fight was on. He knocked Luther down, and another boy leaped on his back. He caught the boy by the hair and threw him to the floor.” That certainly wouldn’t have happened if he stayed in the mountains. When he was sad on the mountains, he chanted the songs of the old ways; there was one for sorrow, for mourning, for a new day, etc. He chants the sorrow and mourning songs on page 43. The text says, “The boy buried his mother there, in the old way, and he sang the old songs.” The songs of the old ways helps Tom stay more positive and violent on the mountain. The old ways were much better for Tom in every

Tom’s initial perspective of on his transition he and his family must undertake is on of despair and reluctance. This despair is emphasised through the emotive language that is used throughout the prologue such as ‘groan,’ ‘dump,’ and ‘shuffling.’ Tom’s despair also creates a sense of tension throughout the family as for the line, ‘no one spoke,’ the line reinforces the tension and their reluctance to face the new change in their life. The line ‘down, down we glided in silence,’ could be interpreted metaphorically.

The film adaptation of “A Christmas Memory” does very little that differs from the original piece by Truman Capote; however, the film takes the heart of the original, and adds even more through the main characters’ casting and memory-like direction. On the other hand, this move is far from faultless and features some questionable decisions that take away from the movie’s greatness. Even with its faults, “A Christmas Memory” is still a decent movie that would be a treat to any fan of the original work, but those who are unfamiliar with Capote’s work would find very little interest in the story or the characters within.

In the story “How to Talk to a Hunter”, by Pam Houston takes place in the frigid winter of Alaska. The story is about a hunter and how he cheats on his girlfriend with the narrator. The narrator tells the story in second person, and talks about her and the hunter’s love life. She talks about all the things the hunter will do when they are in his house to make love to you. Also, during the story she talks about her friends giving her advice on what to do with the situation of her and the hunter. The advice the narrator receives from her girl friend is much different than the advice she receives from her guy friend. Using Imagery and Point Of View Houston does a great job of showing how each character is portrayed.

Everyone has a favorite holiday. There is Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, the Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then there is everyone’s favorite- Christmas! Christmas comes with the feeling of warmth, of family, and of home. What happens, though, if all one ever knew during Christmas time was completely changed? What happens if home just is not home anymore? Sandra M. Castillo addresses that situation that actually occurred in her own life in her poem, “Christmas, 1970.” Castillo moved from Cuba to the United States in 1970 and as an eight-year old she reveals her true feelings during and about the Christmas season. Throughout the poem, she reveals a theme of what home means to her, written in her point of view as she sits under her aunt’s Christmas tree at her aunt’s apartment. Castillo uses devices like symbolism, imagery, and flashback to support her them that no one can return to their childhood home.

Tom was not responsible in the beginning of the book and he know it. He made others do his work like how he made another kid wash the fence as he crunched on a apple. By the end of the book tom was doing things on his own. Tom went out of his way to find a way out of the cave and save Becky.

Tobias Wolff is a writer known for his memoirs and realistic short stories. “Hunters in the Snow” is a story about three friends, Tub, Frank, and Kenny, who go hunting in the snow. Wolff writes about humanity through the friendship of the three friends and the events they go through.

Tom fears that his own kind will be overrun by others, such as dreamers like Gatsby. Tom hides “behind his wealth” (Pidgeon 179) and “leave others to clean up [his] messes” (Pidgeon 180). Tom’s arrogance and racism help create his character and establish his place in the society. Tom’s personality depicts his cruel ways of protecting the old money’s ways of life from the new money people. He considers himself above of everyone else.

The plotline is scattered and difficult to follow from chapter to chapter. Memories from Tom’s childhood and her conversations with animals and ghosts are oddly added in with the rest of her narration. Tom as a character clearly does not have a firm grip on reality. There is no true resolution. Nothing involving Bill is clearly solved, and the novel ends just feeling incomplete. When studying a novel, not only the theme, and character, but also the plot of the book is important in order for students to understand. And with unrelated storylines of Tom’s past intersecting with real time events, it is very difficult to learn and understand the message of the

Unlike animals, humans are able to observe past the mere monochromatic vision of survival. We have an impeccable ability to desire more than just living to breed, and breeding only to someday perish. Thus, we gradually brush this canvas with the colours of ethics, control, and knowledge. Whether the colours fade or become prominent through time, this canvas becomes our perception of normality and we allow it to justify our actions; favorable or harmful. We, as well as the narrator in the short story The Hunt by Josephine Donovan represent this. However, because of the narrator’s difference in perception, self-indulgence, and greed for power, the story introduces a feeling of infuriation to the reader.

As Tom grew older he began to take notice of his surroundings, the people around him and learnt how to see the light at the end of a very dark mental tunnel. Initially Tom didn’t want to come out of ‘the cave’, he wanted to be isolated from the rest of the world. Although as he got back into enjoying playing rugby at his school, Bennies, as well as running with his uncle Brendan, he began to become ‘Tom Brennan again’. When Tom started talking to the girl he liked, Chrissy, he became much more confident and starting to come out of the ‘dark tunnel’ he was seemingly trapped in. Not long after they started to go out with each other, with this completing Tom’s ‘comeback’ to being the person that he wanted to be. ‘…that was the morning Tom Brennan came back, forever.’ The only reason Tom Brennan went away was because of Daniel, his brother, who is not that much older than Tom, decided that driving while heavily intoxicated was a logical thing to

At the onset of the book, Young Tom has just been released from prison and is interested in making up for lost time and enjoying himself. He is a strong family support during the journey but is among the first to begin reaching out to a larger family. At the end he has focused on the plight and abuse of all the homeless farmers and recognizes that they must