Insert Flap "A" and Throw Away by S. J. Perelman

S. J. Perelman is a man known for his humorous writing and contribution to the creation of many screenplays. He won an Academy Award, for best screenwriter, for his work on the film Around the World in 80 Days. His essay, Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away, details a man’s struggle and eventual nervous breakdowns while performing seemingly simple tasks. Initially, he tells of a breakdown he had in the late summer months, then he moves into telling a story of a breakdown he had while trying to assemble his children’s toy on Christmas. Perelman writes for everyone, to bring light to the realness of insanity and some doctors’ capitalization of it.

Perelman achieves his purpose well with the use of satire, humorous hyperboles, and even personification. After reluctance, the man in Perelman’s story tries to build the children’s toy, but with great trouble. He says, “... the only sentence I could comprehend, ‘Fold down on all lines marked ‘fold down’.” He shows the reader through humor that he actually is having difficulty following the simple instructions. Later when he asks his son for a knife to continue with the assembly, his son replies, “I dowanna … you always cut yourself at this stage.” Since the man made no indication that he was taking extra precaution, the son’s reply indicates his father’s insanity; he repeatedly makes the same mistake. After the man cuts himself, Perelman implements the use of the hyperbole, “I was in the bathroom grinding my teeth with agony”, to show the man’s exaggeration of not only simple tasks, but small cuts as well. Perelman even further exemplifies the man’s insanity with the man personifying the tab and slot of the toy by saying they were “thumbing their noses” at him. After, the man becomes hysterical and loses consciousness, and wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed with doctors hovering over him. He hears them say, “If we play our cards right , this ought to be a long, expensive recovery.” The doctors’ conversation reveals part of Perelman’s purpose in informing the audience of the corruption of some doctors who deliberately extend patients’ stays to pilfer more money.

A photo depicting a corrupt doctor pocketing money that doesn't rightfully belong to him. (From an article by James Salwitz on the Sunrise Grounds website)

Graven Images by Saul Bellow

Graven Image: an object (such as a statue) that is worshipped as a god or in place of a god

Saul Bellow was an accredited writer who received numerous awards throughout his life. From a young age he took interest in English literature and writing. Having graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in anthropology, he took his talents to prestigious institutions such as Princeton University. Later, he won many awards for his writing. In Graven Images Saul Bellow criticizes photographers for exposing our amour propre, or privacy, that we have all spent time fortifying. He was inspired to share his thoughts after many times being photographed and not liking how he appeared. Bellow explains how we all, including him, have an image of ourselves that we wish to present. He writes that photographers deliberately aim to destroy our facades and uncover the real us. They believe that they are doing us a favor by granting us immortality with their skills. While, being raised in the Jewish faith, Bellow was taught by his grandfather it is a sin to have your photo taken. Understanding this, Bellow’s aim is to inform us that in the end, our facades don’t matter; our conceived images of who we want to be don’t matter. What’s remembered and immortalized is our reality, our surface, whether we choose to accept it or not.

Saul Bellow does achieve his purpose through the connotation of his words and the use of irony in his examples. In the beginning, speaking of being photographed, he writes, “One can only submit to the merciless cruelty of ‘pure objectivity’.” The connotation of the words merciless, cruelty, and others such as demonic, and sadistic that Bellow uses to describe photographs and photographers, gives the reader the impression that he wishes to outright get rid of photographs. However, he unveils his purpose towards the end when he describes how his mother had his grandfather photographed, towards the end of his life, in order to remember his face. He writes, “Perhaps the old man [Bellow’s grandfather] knew perfectly well that his picture was being taken.” Some form of objection to having his picture taken is expected from his grandfather, yet there was none. This exemplifies that we can’t fight how we are and should instead embrace it, no matter how much we dislike it.

A photo showing the paparazzi relentlessly taking photos. (From an article written by Nick Allen of The Telegraph)

The Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday, is a Native American, Pulitzer prize-winning English professor and novelist. Being from Kiowa descent, he shares stories of his people that were told to him by his grandmother. In The Rainy Mountain, Momaday writes about the history and plight of the Kiowa people in order to bring light to the dismantling of Kiowan culture. After his grandmother passed, he decided to visit the places that she told about in her stories. He wanted to better understand the stories and feel a connection to his ancestors who had traversed the path years prior. Momaday shares his experience and a message with the reader in The Way to Rainy Mountain. He writes for non-Kiowa people, specifically modern-day Americans. Writing in the second person, using words like “your”, lets him reach his audience on a more personal level. In addition to teaching readers of his culture and history, Momaday tells a story as an allegory and wants the reader to understand how the US’s oppressing of Native American cultures eventually dismantles them and hurts future generations.

Momaday achieved this purpose by using figurative language. His grandmother symbolized the final fight of the Kiowa people with her knowledge of her ancestry and her presence at the last traditional Kiowan Sun Dance, which was shut down by American soldiers. After describing how his grandmother’s house was once full of “excitement and reunion” Momaday writes, “Now there is a funeral silence in the rooms.” Kiowan culture and tradition died with her after a long fight for survival. Referring to his ancestors’ surrender to US troops, he writes, “My grandmother was spared the humiliation … by eight or ten years, but she must have known from birth the affliction of defeat.” Because of his ancestors’ pain, he and his grandmother felt pain within their lives. Using these examples, the reader is able to empathize with Momaday and better understand how his family was affected. This long-standing pain led to the eventual dissolving of Kiowan culture and tradition. Reading The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday has undoubtedly given me more insight as to what has happened to Native American cultures in the US.

A drawing of a traditional Native American Sun Dance drawn by Jules Tavernier.