River Of Names Essay - 1457 Words

amp;#8220;River of Names; is part of a collection of short stories in the book Trash published in 1988, written by Dorothy Allison. It is the basis for the later novel Bastard out of Carolina. In her powerful writing, Allison draws on her own harrowing childhood in 1950s Greenville, South Carolina: the stigma of growing up a bastard, the shame and pride she felt toward her family, and her association with her stepfather who beat and molested her. amp;#8220;In this story, amp;#8220;River of Names,; Allison writes about her life as a way to come to terms with her past, honoring the attempt to make contemporary literature out of her experience as a working class lesbian addicted to violence, language and hope.; Her emotionally intense†¦show more content†¦In that aspect her characters are not one-dimensional and it is because of this autobiographical pretense that some of the images are so horrifying. One detestable mental picture is given by her choice of title for this story. amp;#8220; River of Names; is informing the reader there are more names of family members than one can possibly remember. She then continues on to parallel the family to tadpoles and that no one would notice if one were missing from time to time. This concept is further demonstrated by the narrator trying to list the method of death that each lost one went through. One did this, one did that, one fell in the river, one ran away, etc. The list seems almost endless. This does not include any of the individual incidents that are then told. The people in these tales do get names and the reader is swamped with many different names and different tragedies all more horrifying than the previous tale. In every paragraph there are truths and deaths, plenty of accidents, sickness and sorrow and there is life. Another reason Allison gives for her survival is that she is a lesbian and she incorporates this homosexuality into her story as well. The narrator has a lover, Jessie whom she loves deeply. Her relationship with Jesse seems to be used as a contrast and also as a relief between some of the appalling events that are told. Jessie isShow MoreRelatedThamirabarani Rive1630 Words   |  7 PagesThamirabarani River From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Thamirabarani River (also spelt Tamaraparani,Tamiraparani or Thamiravaruni, Tamil: à ® ¤Ã  ® ¾Ã  ® ®Ã  ® ¿Ã  ® °Ã  ® ªÃ  ® °Ã  ® £Ã  ® ¿) originates from the famous Agastyarkoodam peak in the hills of the Western Ghats above Papanasam in the Ambasamudram taluk and flows through Tirunelveli amp; Tuticorin districts of the Tamil Nadu state of southern India. It was called the Tamraparni River in olden days and it is also associated with Sri Lanka. Contents[hide] * 1 EtymologyRead MoreEssay on The Importance of Mark Twain in American Literature840 Words   |  4 Pagessteamboating on the Mississippi River. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in a small village of Florida, Missouri. His parents names were John Marshall Clemens and Jan Lampton Clemens, descendants of slaves in Virginia. They had been married in Kentucky and move to Tennessee and then Missouri. When Sam was four, his father, who was full of the grandiose ideas of making a fortune, moved the family to Hannibal, Missouri. Here, the mighty Mississippi River with its mile side wideRead MoreVarious References of the Congo Essay711 Words   |  3 Pagesrainforest, a river, or a river basin. The Congo River is also known as the Zaire river and the world’s deepest river and due to its depth, it gives the wildlife plenty of places to live but the main use for the Congo River was for hydro power. The Congo river, also known as the Zaire river, originates from an ancient society dubbed, â€Å"Kingdom of Kongo† where the river receives its name. The reasoning behind it’s second name comes from the 1970’s government of Zaire, who called it the Zaire river. CountriesRead MoreWater Names Short Story Summary1535 Words   |  7 Pagesstory â€Å"Water Names†, a grandmother tells her granddaughters a story as a way to introduce them to their cultural heritage. This frame story was about Wen Zhiqing’s favorite daughter whose fascination with water escalates after she claims to see a prince in the reflective water. The daughter comes to the conclusion that her prince is real, wants to marry her and wants to take her away to his underwater kingdom. 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