Images in the Literature of the Fate of Women - Admission/Application Essay Example

Compare and contrast Literature is an art just like any other and provides with an opportunity to analyze and criticize different aspects of their societies. In doing this, authors assume the role of creators and therefore create characters among other vital elements that facilitate their work. fictional writing provide authors with more freedom as they create both the characters and plots in their stories thereby enjoying complete control over such features of their stories. Authors use various literary devices that enable them to write. Such include literary techniques and styles that sustain the plots. In their novels, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and W. G. Sebald portray experience in writing as they investigate different features of their respective societies. The two stories, Dictee and The Rings of Saturn have several similarities and difference owing to the authors’ utilization of the literary devices and techniques. The factors, whether different or similar facilitate the writing process thereby enabling the renowned authors to develop their respective novels as portrayed in the discussion below. Among the major similarities in the two novels lie in their structures, the two novels tell real life encounters but in different societies and capacities. Termed as the magnum opus of the Cha society, Dictee tells the stories of several Korean women during the Korean revolution. The novel therefore investigates the role of the women in the revolution and the effects of the revolution on the women. During revolution, women and children are always among the most affected group. The author therefore investigates the effects of the revolution on the women and the roles played by the women. The author provides a realistic explanation of the setting and the occurrence in each society. Additionally, the author provides a detailed analysis of the effect of the revolution on the women by apportioning each woman a section of the novel thereby providing them with an opportunity to provide a realistic recount of their experiences. The two authors address several similar themes in their separate novels. Among the themes in The Rings of Saturn are identity, memory and time. The narrator who takes a walking tour discovers several things that the author portrays through his recount of the same. Throughout the hectic tour, the narrator faces numerous challenges, which help him discover his innate skills and life survival tactics. Such help in the identification crisis that ensues as the tour provides him with ample time to meditate and therefore discover himself all over. “For days and weeks on end one racks ones brains to no avail, and, if asked, one could not say whether one goes on writing purely out of habit, or a craving for admiration, or because one knows not how to do anything other, or out of sheer wonderment, despair or outrage, any more than one could say whether writing renders one more perceptive or more insane” (Sebald 34). The themes are similar to those addressed by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha in his novel, Dictee. Among the themes in the novel are memory as the women recount their experiences during the war. They provide chronological recount of events and their experiences during the revolution that destabilizes the entire country thereby throwing the previously peaceful society into disarray. The violence and confusion that ensues thereafter cause stress to the women and children since they are among the most vulnerable in the society. The several women in the novel provide a sequential account of the events as they occurred and as they could remember. This therefore portrays the memory theme. The revolution arises owing to the identity crisis in the country. The crisis thus leads to the separation of a country in order to restructure the society. Through their experiences, narrate the role that the identity crisis caused as the once peaceful country plunged into confusion thereby leading to the division of the country into two. The torture and suffering that the women underwent during the conflict are results of the identity crisis that made neighbors turn against each other in a politically instigated wave of violence. The structure of the novel is therefore similar to the structure adopted by Sebald in his novel, The Rings of Saturn. The novel that covers several themes including travel, myth and bibliography tells the experiences of an unnamed narrator who recounts his experiences while on a walking tour in Suffolk. He therefore explains the intricate features of the tour and his experiences while on the tour. Through his own unique themes, the narrator recounts his experiences. Through his narration of the experiences, the author portrays the development of the narrator thereby providing the audience with an opportunity to observe as the tour changes the narrator. No matter whether one is flying over Newfoundland or the sea of lights that stretches from Boston to Philadelphia after nightfall, over the Arabian deserts which gleam like mother-of pearl, over the Ruhr or the city of Frankfurt, it is as though there were no people, only the things they have made and in which they are hiding. . . . And yet they are present everywhere upon the face of the earth, extending their dominion by the hour. (Sebald 21). This resembles the approach the author of the novel Dictee employs as he provides the numerous women with an opportunity to retell their experiences during the revolution thereby providing the audience with an opportunity to observe as the characters grow owing to the influence of the revolution. The other similarities are in the authors’ utilization of language among other literary techniques with the view of gaining rhetoric. Emotional appeal is vital in the process of wooing readership of a novel; authors therefore use different literary techniques in order to appeal to their audience. The two authors portray their understanding of this fact and experience as writers since they portray artistic use of language with the view of achieving emotional appeal. The two authors use simple sentence structures a conventional way of increasing readership of a novel. The use of simple sentences ensures that the novel is readable by audience of varying ages and academic experiences. Additionally, the two authors use different literary techniques including suspense to sustain readership. The two authors understand the value of conflict in the development of a plot. They therefore portray different types of conflicts in the novels thereby sustaining the sequential flow of the plot. In The Rings of Saturn the author uses the main character who sums up as the narrator to portray different levels of conflicts in the novel. The most conspicuous conflicts in the novel are intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. The authors manage to infuse different levels of conflicts in the two separate novels thereby succeeding not only to communicate to their target audience but also to sustain the readership to the end of the novels. The authors use suspense and dialogue thereby engaging their audiences. Dialogue for example introduces the aspect of interactivity in a novel thereby enabling the audience to develop mental pictures of the plot as they read the plot. This increases their interest in the novel thus facilitating the relevance of the novel. The structures of the two novels however exhibit some fundamental difference a feature that portrays the differing experiences of the two authors. Dictee for example has an unorthodox structure as the author incorporates blocky paragraphs in which the author provides vivid description of the revolution and the experiences of the different women. The author incorporates captioned images thereby creating a visual aspect of the action in the plot. The captioned images validate the claims the author makes in the plot since they provide photographic evidence to the claims and experiences of the women. The story as explained revolves around a real life event that occurred in Korea. This differs with the conventional writing structure that the author of the Rings of Saturn adopts in his novel. He maintains a conventional prose structure as he relies entirely on his utilization of the literary techniques and styles to sustain readership of the novel. The two styles have varying success since they position the two novels differently in the market. In a summary, the two novels are different and have different target audience. The two authors employ the literary techniques differently owing to the differences of their target audiences. The authors achieve relative successes in their works as they exhibit professionalism in writing. They select their target audiences carefully and therefore employ literary features and styles that enable them penetrate the respective groups. Among the critical features of the novels, that portrays the authors’ competence in the language is the choice of words and the sentence structures. The two authors use simple structures with ordinary words. They rarely use vocabularies owing to the fact that vocabularies discriminate against the audience. The authors therefore maintain simplistic sentence structures thereby enhancing the readership of the two novels. Besides the simple sentence structures, the authors use other several literary techniques and stylistic devices that further enhance the readability of the novels and sustain the readership. The success of an author is exhibited in the response their articles receive. The two novels are masterpieces depicting fundamental issues in the society. The two authors select their themes carefully with the view of capturing several social and cultural features of the society. They therefore position the different themes effectively; the realistic selection of the themes contributes to the emotional appeal that every author wants. As explained earlier, conflicts sustain plots in novels. The two author portray this understanding as they select appropriate conflicts that occur at different levels thereby succeeding in sustaining the readership. The two authors use such stylistic devices as suspense and dialogue among many other stylistic and literary features that engage their audiences. In retrospect, the two novels are exhibit different success level owing to the fact that they address different issues and target specific audiences. Works cited Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn. New York: New Directions, 1995. Print. Theresa, Kyung. H. C. Dictee. Englewood: MGMA Press, 1982. Print. Read More