Most recent public comments by Dustin Coker https://nowcomment.com/users/12990 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331355 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331355 The first sentence tells us she is decided to die, preparing. The rest is visually active and urgent. The reader can clearly see that morning, the final moments. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:52 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331345 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331345 "It is likely" is a confident assumption based upon the previous paragraphs. Jillian Becker, a friend, accounts that Sylvia, who visited her home, took sleeping pills in desperation and later an antidepressant. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:52 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331312 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331312 The winter is an extra assault in her life that compacts with all else that she endures. The metaphor builds on the fierceness of the winter that was earlier described as an "ice age" and its detrimental effect on Plath. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:52 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331292 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=331292 There is the correlation between the image of a relentless winter and Plath's increasing loneliness and depression. Also, the simple descriptions taken from her letter to a friend, the words of desperation that enforce her inner conflict. She is in the middle of a fierce winter, England's untypical "new ice age," in a new home, a single mother struggling to write under her circumstances. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:52 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=328448 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25279?scroll_to=328448 Through her own words the reader is given deeper, personal understanding of Plat's conflict of emotions on that particular day. She was dealing with the split from her husband, happy briefly, and coping with depression. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:48 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=327350 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=327350 I was referring to the sentence, "It all seemed so nineteenth-century, Sontag told the interviewer." Not completely sure what she meant but this followed after the whites only bench. I was thinking of 1800's slavery, emancipation, and on to segregation. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:46 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=325675 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=325675 The nineteenth century description gave me an impression that she felt that segregation should have been archaic, something that should have been stopped long before. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:44 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324112 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324112 A good word to express depression, more questioning, an interesting way to describe the condition than using a more direct word such as despondent. Mon, 16 Mar 2015 15:54:47 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324100 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324100 Mon, 16 Mar 2015 15:54:47 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324099 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324099 Mildred seems to be most likely depressed at that time by what she was going through and her indifference toward her children, such as being unresponsive to the "all-A report cards." "Likely" is more confident a word than "perhaps" to describe if Mildred was depressed, determined through in-depth research. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:43 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324071 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324071 Here is a detailed image of Sontag's life in Miami as a child. Her stay is short lived but the reader gets a glimpse of that time. Sontag enjoys the cook's company. She notices the "For Whites Only" bench but, as with "high-strung," is unsure of its meaning. She wants to sit there with the black cook, oblivious to segregation. This recollection gives us further insight into her character, a time that she perceives as "nineteenth-century," perhaps expressing her views on that aspect of history, segregation as something archaic for that time. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:43 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324070 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324070 The mother is unsure how to tell her daughter. She wants to avoid the subject. Simply a quick explanation and then left alone. But the authors quickly move to her asthma trauma, the struggle. Although, later we see that Sontag tries to escape her reality, creating her own world. She wants to know more about her father while trying to fill an emptiness, the pain of his absence. All she has are remnants of the man, things kept. She finds solace in literature such as Poe. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:43 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324069 https://nowcomment.com/documents/25280?scroll_to=324069 The question is a good transition into the new paragraph that pulls the reader along, intrigued, wanting to know the answer. Sontag is a lonely child who is being cared for by relatives. The parent question is what the reader has been pondering since paragraph six. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:43 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321794 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321794 The excerpt seems to be influenced by the transcendental movement of Melville's time. The narrator is finding refuge in nature, finding a place that is calming--escaping the pressures and concerns of society. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:36 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321789 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321789 The word suicide wouldn't be enough to put us into Ishmael's mindset but the direct descriptions are effective and relatable to the reader. Ishmael is weary, bound up on land. He wants to live but he can't go on in his current condition. The sentence,"This is my substitute for pistol and ball," shows the reader the severity of Ishmael's situation. He simply gets on a ship to save himself. The sea is his release, his reason to live. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:36 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321667 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321667 "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." The quote is by Henry David Thoreau. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:36 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321666 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30622?scroll_to=321666 Ishmael had to escape his surroundings. Melville's descriptions put the reader into Ishmael's gloomy, bleak perspective. He is depressed and desperate for change, desiring to sail out into the vast sea. Sailing a ship is his only way out, in constant motion, never stagnant or complacent. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:33 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30619?scroll_to=315301 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30619?scroll_to=315301 Egdon is described to have been strategically placed to withstand any natural destruction. "Those surfaces were neither so steep as to be destructible by weather, nor so flat as to be victims of floods and deposits." Seas rise and recede, streams dry up, and towns are vacated but the Heath only has minor wear described as only the gentle touch of earth's subtle changes. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:22 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30619?scroll_to=315299 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30619?scroll_to=315299 Hardy personifies Egdon by describing that it has a "natural and invariable garment" referring to its layout. Edgon's "clothing" consist of its natural components that refuse to change, it can always exude expectation. Yet the human civilization that surrounds Edgon is ever-changing, and unexpected in physical appearance. The Heath is the true Native that never leaves. Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:21 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30612?scroll_to=312677 https://nowcomment.com/documents/30612?scroll_to=312677 My ranking of the rules: 1. Write for yourself 2. becoming a writer is simply reading and writing 3. Read, Read, Read 4. Eliminate distractions 5. Turn off TV 6. Don't worry about making others happy 7. Write one word at a time 8. Don't obsess over perfect grammar 9. Stick to your own style 10. Writing is for getting happy 11. Take a break 12. Leave out boring parts 13. Don't use passive voice 14. Avoid adverbs 15. and especially after "he said" or "she said" 16. Dig 17. Research shouldn't overshadow the story 18. The magic is in you 19. You have three months 20. Two secrets to success Sat, 20 Feb 2016 08:46:20 -0500