¶ … wondrous our senses are when we focus on them....It had to be one of the most beautiful days of the year at Golden Gate Park. The lifting fog unveiled a bright blue sky, leaving just a slight chill in the air and a hint of dew glistening on the grass. A drop of rain remaining from the night's shower dropped on my cheek and rolled slowly down to my chin. The rich odors of flowers floated with the breeze, making a strange potpourri with the scents of popcorn, hotdogs and Belgian waffles. As I walked toward the band shell, the atmosphere charged with anticipation.
Although the band always struggled for survival from one year to the next, people of all ages thoroughly enjoyed the weekly musical performance. The young parents proudly watched their children, while chatting with friends about the latest news of their families. The boys and girls, glad to be out doors in the wide open spaces, ran back and forth, twirled, jumped and did cartwheels. Many of the seniors and elderly were already humming some of their favorite songs. They had been attending these concerts for years, but never tired of the melodies of youth.
The band took the stage and the oboe struck its woeful "A," with the other instruments following suit. Chairs and music stands screeched across the floor as the musicians found the right positioning. The women's black skirts draped near their feet, and the men's black shoes shined from the recently applied polish.
A hush and then the sound of loud clapping waved across the audience, as the 85-year-old Maestro, Robert Mclure Hanson, climbed the stairs, bowed to the audience and tapped his baton on the music stand. All rose as one when the band played its first notes of the National Anthem. In a few minutes, young and old were tapping, dancing and singing together. For now, the cares and worries were put aside, while the senses were delighted and charmed by the mixture of eclectic sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch.
(Diaz) Clearly, Junot Diaz is using symbolism throughout the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, to illustrate how a host of events would shape the kind of person that Oscar would become. This is accomplished by looking at: science fiction and how it helped Oscar to escape. Early on this was used to show the way he dealt with: the sense of isolationism and rejection he felt in
Dominican Fantasies, Written and Unwritten: The use of science fiction in the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Juan Diaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao details the life of an overweight Dominican boy who has aspirations of being a romantic hero that are continually thwarted by his great size and unattractive physical appearance. However, one of the dominant themes of the book is that appearances can deceive. Despite the
However, this may not have been Diaz's intention at all. He may have simply been trying to emphasize the third person viewpoint and that the reader is merely witnessing the events. This opening statement requires the reader to place themselves in a position somewhere, hovering above the lives of the characters, viewing them from an unattached vantage point. This is much the way in which one views an ant hill.
Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age tale told from the perspective of a young girl in the Deep South. The perspective of the novel provides the reader with a fresh, innocent view of a world that is eventually stripped away of its gloss: the innocent eyes see a world that is riddled with injustice, lies, hatred, and evil -- yet in spite of the world of fallen nature
Sexual Fantasy: Coming of Age in Modern America Portnoy's Complaint and The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao are two bildungsroman (coming of age stories) that suggest there are profound discrepancies between exterior and interior realities. Like The Bonfire of the Vanities, another classic chronicle of the tension between social personas and the dark underbelly of individual psychologies, these stories suggest that to be an American is to have a divided
Diaz's Examination Of Culture: Clashes And Identities Diaz's Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a combination of cultural experiences and influences that are as rich and imaginative as the stories the book contains. Within the main character, Oscar, lies the power to both transcend definition of culture and become victim or prey of a specific culture's stereotypes and norms. Oscar is an obese, alienated person within his own culture, but he
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