Monday, October 17, 2011

Ironweed - William Kennedy

Set during the depression, Ironweed tells the story of Francis Phelan, an alcoholic vagrant originating from Albany, New York, who left his family after accidentally killing his infant son while he was inebriated. Frances throughout the book is pursued by the disapproving ghosts of his past, waiting for a chance to have a dialogue about what he has done.
"Bodies in alleys, bodies in gutters, bodies everywhere, were part of his eternal landscape; a physical litany of the dead"
Paying a life on penance for a drunken accident, Francis spends the rest of his restless life traveling, unmoored, unstable, with nothing but guilt to propel him forward.

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Henry V - William Shakespeare

In this essay, I will examine the rhetorical and dramatic effectiveness of King Henry’s speech to the Governor of Harfluer in Act 3 Scene 4 ...