Nine Stories free essay sample

For those like me who couldnt find any insightful analyses about this collection on the Internet: Youre welcome. I have finally figured out what this is about (I think). So the fancy book club met a couple weeks ago to discuss Nine Stories by JD Salinger. Much despair was had because of our varied and confused insights into Salingers stories. Was Seymour a pedophile? Whats up with the random last line in Just Before the War with the Eskimos? How should we interpret Nine Stories? And although I havent answered most of these questions, I can at least answer the last. So for those of who dont know how to absorb the collection, heres a little solace: All of these short stories are about the loss of innocence and the attempt to gain it back. The characters are stuck between innocence and adulthood. And, interestingly, nearly all of the stories feature an interaction between a child and an adult, the child generally being an ideal or a tool for the adult to regain innocence but not always. We will write a custom essay sample on Nine Stories or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In some, even the child is struggling with the loss of ideals. Seymour Glass is the main character in A Perfect Day for Bananafish, and hes recently returned from the war with mental wounds serious enough to require psychiatric help. The first half of the story shows a telephone conversation between his new wife, Muriel, and her mother. Their discussion revolves around Seymours problems, and when compared to our firsthand experience with those problems we realize how little they grasp and how little either of them has invested in his well-being. In the second part of Bananafish Seymour speaks with a young girl named Sybil about catching (mythical) bananafish a fish whose quest for food leads to its a demise. The encounter is a bit disturbing sexual language abound and we get a feel for Seymours anguish, although specifics are murky. Salinger uses every word to his advantage in a very subtle way and, needless to say, the encounter is quite unsettling. We have that distress confirmed when, at the end of the story, Seymour retires to the hotel room where his wife is sleeping sits next to her, and shoots himself. The significance of the bananafish is, of course, Seymours alignment with it. The fishs quest for food translates to Seymours quest for innocence. His quest, like the fishs, ends in death. Sybil represents Seymours ultimate goal, which is why their interaction is so unnerving. It seems, on the outside, like hes preying on her (like the bananafish does its food), but hes actually after what she represents: innocence. He gets his fill and bloats so that he cant fit back into a world where people like his wife and mother-in-law rule. They are Sybils antithesis, and Seymour is caught between the two different existences. Its in this limbo where Seymour and many of Salingers protagonists in Nine Stories perish. Eloise and Mary Jane are former college roommates who reconnect in Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut (my personal fave). Mary Jane visits Eloise at her house, and thus ensues a night of drunken revelations. Immediately, Eloise appears unhappy to the point of severity, and Mary Jane takes a back seat to Eloises readily apparent issues. We learn that Eloise lost the love of her life in the war (a common villain in Nine Stories) and has resigned herself to a lackluster, unwanted marriage. Shes so unsatisfied with her life and her past that she takes it out on everyone, especially her daughter Ramona who has an imaginary friend symbolic of dreamy innocence and also indicative of a void shes trying to fill (the lack of compassion from her mother). In one poignant scene in Uncle Wiggily, Eloise berates Ramona with incredible rage. In the end after a LOT of alcohol Eloise admits her weakness: transposing her anger onto others. She resents the loss of her first love, resents her loss of innocence, and resents the people who still have it. Its really an agonizing story about lost hope, the recognition of no longer having hope, and the desperation to if nothing else remember what its like to have hope. Shes trapped in a sort of external realm, watching herself, aware of her circumstance, and yet not being capable of moving forward. Just Before the War with the Eskimos is about a frugal young girl, Ginnie, who comes into her friend, Selenas home to collect a cab fare and encounters her brother, Franklin, a grubby Holden Caulfield-type of character. Eskimos really eludes any obvious meaning, but its in there somewhere. Okay, here goes . he larger theme is war. Its the backbone of most of Nine Stories. Franklin was not drafted, because he has a bad heart, and he and Ginnie talk about this briefly, but long enough for Ginnie to connect it with what they are subconsciously discussing: rejection. From the get-go with her demanding to be reimbursed for the cab fare Ginnie appears to be a girl who takes things for granted; she gets everything she wants. Ginnies not deliberately mean, but she doesnt accept things as they are, but rather demands that they be how she wants them and easily dismisses things/people she doesnt care for. She wants to throw the furniture in Selenas home out the window, for example. Then, in walks Franklin, who is boldly himself. Their conversation begins with his rejection from the draft, then moves to his rejection by Ginnies sister, then Ginnies rejection of the sandwich he offers her. Ginnie is connecting with a person who has been rejected his whole life by people like her and the types of institutions that she represents. Unconsciously, Ginnie links her behavior with the behavior of war, and in the end, decides to keep the sandwich a growth in character. The sandwich is sort of symbolic of the rejection Franklin has experienced in the past(his loss of innocence), and it parallels the dead Easter chick (death=death of innocence/hope) in the last line. I may be stretching it, but the story is so tightly wound that its hard to unravel. Ginnie is undoubtedly changed for the better because of her interaction with Franklin. Her taking the sandwich may have given him hope for future acceptance, and he gave Ginnie forgiveness and a little child-like compassion. Eh? The Laughing Man Yeesh. This story is a mind-squeeze if I ever saw one, but I think Ive got it figured out. The premise is that a college-aged guy takes a bunch of young boys on little field trips to the baseball diamond, for example (What are his motives? Where are these boys parents and how do they feel? I dont know, but alas ) During these outings, The Chief as hes called narrates a fable about The Laughing Man, a sort of creepy-roguish-Robin Hood character with a deformed face, a sense of adventure, and an Inspector Clouseau type-of-character after him. The Laughing Man may or may not be narrated by Buddy Glass, a member of Salingers Glass family. The boys-only outine comes to a halt when The Chiefs girlfriend, Mary Hudson, starts tagging along, presumably because of dentists appointments she has in the city. With the entrance of Mary, the Laughing Mans fate takes a turn for the worse. The narrator notices frustration between Mary and The Chief, and in the end, the Laughing Man meets his maker and the boys never see Mary Hudson again. The Laughing Man is primarily a story about los t innocence. The Chief, a college student, spends his afternoons with relatively young boys questionable, but without a doubt, an attempt to sustain his youth. Immediately, with the entrance of Mary Hudson, the narrator senses stress between her and the Chief. The Laughing Man symbolizes boyhood and innocence, and when Mary Hudson arrives, the Laughing Mans fate becomes less certain. Thanks to Wikipedia, a plausible explanation would be that Mary Hudson is pregnant and is actually coming into the city for doctors visits, not dentist appointments. (Who has frequent dentist appointments? ) This is most likely the case, but its irrelevant. The moral of the story and what the Chief is teaching the boys through the Laughing Mans story is that boyhood ends. Innocence ends. Kind of depressing, but there it is, consistent with the rest of Nine Stories. Down at the Dinghy opens with two house servants discussing Lionel, the son of Boo Boo Glass (their employer). (Another Glass appearance woohoo! ) We gather from their conversation that Lionel has a penchant for running away. One of them is also concerned that Lionel will repeat something she said (apparently, he has a penchant for that as well). Thus, after Boo Boo arrives at the house, speaks with the women for a moment, and goes down to the pier to see Lionel, hes trying to sail away. Where the Wild Things Are? anyone? The rest of the story is devoted to Boo Boos attempt to entice Lionel back to shore, as it were. She tries to go with him, tries to find out why hes leaving (one of the house servants called his dad a kike), and then finally challenges him to a race back to the house. (Lionel wins. ) Down at the Dinghy is so understated that it seems like a day-in-the-life. But Salinger isnt a day-in-the-life kinda guy. Soooooooooo . Im gonna squeeze this baby open. Two instances in this story are noticeably darker than the rest: the housekeeper calling Lionels father a kike and Lionel wearing Seymours goggles. Seymour was Boo Boos brother). Now, Lionels problem isnt as shallow as a boy with a penchant for running away. These two instances are more significant than the anatomy of Down at the Dinghy would lead you to believe. This young boy has recently (Im assuming) lost his uncle, and additionally, he believes that other people think poorly of his father. Its a double-blow, and Lionel reacts by ru nning away. What seems like a story about a kid just being a kid, read from this perspective, transforms into a story about a person grappling with the loss of ideals. Lionel is realizing that the world is not as it seems; theres more going on. I believe he feels blindsided. Lionel throwing Seymours goggles into the water is so significant, because hes disposing of distractions from the truth. Finally, Boo Boo coaxes him back into being a kid, distracts him from his disillusionment. So there is Lionel, another of Salingers characters who is straddling the line between innocence and adulthood. For Esme with Love and Squalor is one of Salingers more obvious stories. During the war, Sergeant X recollects his brief but impressionable meeting with Esme, a young girl in a restaurant before the war. Esme is totally simple, thus it doesnt need to be dissected; I dont even need to give you a rundown of their interaction. Basically, Esme represents innocence for Sergeant X during the war, a time of squalor and adult concerns. Innocence and squalor both constitute the sergeants existence. Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes relates a phone call between Lee and Arthur. Arthur believes his wife, Joanie, is having an affair, while were led to believe that the woman with Lee is in fact Joanie. Arthurs life appears to be in shambles (lost a court case, wife cheating on him, etc. , but soon after the two men hang up, Arthur calls Lee back and makes up a story about Joanie coming back home even though shes still with Lee. Arthur is, for all intents and purposes, a man who prides himself on having a trophy job and a trophy wife, two naive ideals. When those ideals are torn down in a sheer act of childish pride Arthur pretends they still exist. This would generally go unnoticed, but is readily apparent to Lee and Joanie, hence why Salinger chose to tell the story through their points of view. De Daumier-Smiths Blue Period is about a pretentious young man (De Daumier) who fakes his way into a professorship at an art school. Once there, he reviews his pupils work and struck by a religious painting by a nun. Thats basically it. De Daumier-Smith is a wayfarer, devoid of spirituality and ideals, extremely pretentious and this piece of art forces him to question his convictions. Blue Period is about a man who pretends to be a complex adult but is stripped of his pretensions through an artist who evokes spirituality and idealism. Teddy is a boy genius/profit who has an existential conversation aboard a ship with Nicholson, a curious grad student. Teddy believes in past lives and karma, and from what I know about Salinger represents his spirituality du jour. Salinger, in every one of his Nine Stories, is painting innocence the protagonist and adulthood the villain but is concerned with those characters torn between the two. Teddy rounds out the collection nicely, because its main character lives and dies by his ideals. Teddy is the martyr of Nine Stories and hes meant to be the example for its characters, readers, and even its author.

5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers

5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers 5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers 5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers By Mark Nichol Brainstorming is useful whether you have too few ideas, or too many. It can help you whether you don’t know how to organize your thoughts, or whether you don’t even have any thoughts. But before you start, remember the first rule of brainstorming: Enumerate, don’t evaluate. Just get the ideas down, and don’t judge them or organize them until the creative phase has wound down. 1. Cubing In this strategy, a topic or idea is examined from six distinct viewpoints hence the name. Describe the topic (what is it?), compare it (what is it like or unlike?), associate it (what does it make you think of?), analyze it (what constituent parts is it made of?), apply it (how can it be used?), and argue for and/or against it (how can you support or oppose it?). Cubing was developed as a critical-thinking exercise to help students express their thoughts in opinion essays, but it can be adapted for general nonfiction writing, though it is of limited value for fiction. A similar technique is to explore three perspectives: The first is to describe the topic and its features, its constituent parts, and its challenges, and to compare and contrast it with other topics. The second is to trace the history of the topic and the influences on it throughout that history, and the topic’s evolution. The third is to map the topic to similar contemporary topics as well as to its influences, and to topics that it influences. 2. Freewriting Write. You don’t know what to write? Then write that. Just write. Have a quantitative goal: 500 words, three pages, five minutes it doesn’t matter. Just write. Do not pause in order to spell correctly or write flawlessly, and don’t go back to rewrite. Turn off your inner editor. Do not strive for coherence. Just write. Consider closing your eyes while you’re writing or typing, or turn the computer monitor off. Just write. 3. Listing If your intent is to write an essay or a review or profile, what do you want to communicate? If you wish to craft a story, which ideas and elements do you wish to convey? Jot down a list of phrases or single words you will return to later. For nonfiction, the list can consist of opinions, arguments, facts, questions, or components, or any combination of the above. For fiction, list people, places, and things, values and qualities, goals and obstacles. Don’t outline at this point. Outlining stalls the creative act of brainstorming by requiring you to evaluate and organize your thoughts. Remember, brainstorming should be an uninhibited activity. 4. Mapping Mapping, also known as clustering and webbing, is a graphic form of listing that simply involves jotting down ideas on a large writing surface and then making connections by associating similarly themed ideas with color-coded circles or underlines of distinct patterns and then indicating other relationships by linking with lines. How you produce the map, exactly, is up to you, but as with any other brainstorming tool, wait until you’ve (temporarily) run out of ideas before you begin making connections but don’t hesitate to continue recording new ideas as you marshal others. The Creately blog has a great article with several other visual brainstorming strategies you can try. 5. Researching You know the topic you want to write about, or the outline of a novel’s plot, but you don’t know how to populate the piece with ideas? Go to the reference section of a library, or call up reference Web sites. As you read about a current or past event, or a contemporary or historical issue, record the ideas in list or map form. You might find the key point you’ve been looking for, or change the one you had in favor of this new detail. If you’re planning on writing a novel, learn more about the city or country in which it takes place (even if it’s the one you live in). If it’s a historical novel, read about the social structure and cultural atmosphere of the time and place, and take notes about how people dressed, talked, ate, worked, and engaged in other quotidian activities. The Next Step If one of these strategies doesn’t work for you, try another until something clicks. Even if one does work, try more than one. Then, whichever technique(s) you’ve employed, review your result. Don’t feel that you’ve failed if your work does not yield eloquence or epiphanies, but search for whatever may help you develop your writing assignment or project. If you feel that an outline is useful, make one after you complete the brainstorming activity. If you don’t, launch into whatever part of the topic attracts your attention based on your brainstorming output. You don’t have to start at the beginning, and you don’t have to complete one part of your assignment or project before you move on to another one. Just build on your background work one piece at a time as it develops. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What is the Difference Between "These" and "Those"?The Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English Alphabet15 English Words of Indian Origin

After the Sirens

As soon as the radio is switched on it is described as screaming and it startles the man. He also recognized the radio announcers voice but it this was the first time his voice did not sound upbeat and happy as it usually was during his morning show. The author also describes his voice as Cracking with hysteria (Hood, pig. 161) which clearly sets the mood in the story. The way his voice is described stresses the role that the announcer plays in this story.The radio announcer uses repetition right from the beginning of the story and creates suspense, when he repeats This not an pig. 160) three times. He also repeats This Is an air raid pig. 160) twice right after the radio Is turned on. He continues with the count down right until ten seconds before the bomb hit. The radio announcer sets this man Into action to save himself and his family. The man responds Immediately by telling his wife not to ask questions and to dress her self and the baby In many layers of heavy clothing.While she Is doing that he gathers up food, Hater. Canned goods and two can openers. The radio announcer also helps the man to decide where they should take cover in the house because he reported the target and the man knew where the blast would be coming from. The radio announcer helped them survive. I was captured immediately by his voice and was taken on a Lorene of anticipation and suspense.

I don't understand artwork I saw Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

I don't understand artwork I saw - Essay Example malist movement of the time, choosing to indulge in her own vibrant, pulsing style of art that reflected not only her talents but her personal experiences as well (Kimmelman). Murray’s art consists of bold paintings which are usually centered around depictions of domestic objects and interiors; but these everyday objects are transformed into diverse, fluid, multi-layered designs which often carry double meanings. The paintings borrow generously from the strong canvassing of Cubism and free floating forms of surrealism to turn the objects of the art into pliable formations (Moyer). While overly humorous or even cartoonish, her paintings have a deeper edginess which stems from her negative experiences in the art world. "Theres a great deal of pain and a great deal of tragedy and a great deal of anger in her work, so she expresses that anger and that pain in forms that seem kind of comfortable ...when you get close to them you realized that they can bite." Quoted by Robert Storr, the Dean of the Yale School of Art (Sydell). Her 2005 piece is titled â€Å"Do the Dance† based on the name of a song by Ray Chalresand Betty Carter. The painting features a clear influence from the visuals of comic books and cartoon, with eye popping colors and shapes that seem to bulge and distort moving from one corner of the piece to the other. Murray counted Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso  and Jackson Pollock as her main inspirations, but her own work is a blend of the styles of these different masters and she adds her own brand of insanity to the work. The painting features some familiar objects like an overturned and over flowing bottle, faces in various stages of abstractism as well as bodies, organs and vaguely human shapes. But the overall picture is shape shifting and gives a dizzy impression to the viewer. The painting showcases the fine painterliness and strong palettes (Horsely) that Murray was known for; the edges between each object are finely defined and the shapes seem not

Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Memo - Essay Example The challenge has been brought forth due to the over consumption of oil by the nation and the recent developments in global warming and its connection to some energy sources. The Government and supporting organization have continued to develop energy sources, which are cleaner, and efficient. This has mostly been experienced in the domestic energy sector. More households have taken up renewable energy sources in the form of wind, geothermal, hydro, marine and solar energy to provide for their needs. Renewable energy comprises of just over 6 percent of the total energy used in the United States, but this figure is set to grow given the technology advancement within the energy field (Worldwatch Institute, 2006, p.6). On the other hand, fossil fuels which are non renewable (Miller & Spoolman, 2012, p.370) still account for the majority share of the national energy consumption with a figure of 85% (Worldwatch Institute, 2006, p.6) Energy and Pollution A study in 2002 by the Journal of th e American Medical Association states â€Å"exposure to air pollution poses the same risks of dying from lung cancer and heart disease as does living with a smoker.† (Worldwatch Institute, 2006, p.18). ... Lead, mercury and arsenic are some of the toxic metals that are released during combustion at source and during consumption. Coal is said to emit approximately 48 tons of mercury in the air annually combined with oil they produce 42 percent of such emissions (Worldwatch Institute, 2006, p.18). Studies have shown that these emissions are directly affecting American women of childbearing age because their blood mercury concentration is high enough to kill a growing fetus (Worldwatch Institute, 2006, p.18). Water pollution is a resultant effect during energy production from fossil fuels. Water is needed for cooling in power plants and the discharge contains heat and chemicals which pollute land and water where it is released (Miller & Spoolman, 2012, p.383). Energy Sources There are numerous sources of energy that can be used in combinations to provide for all kinds of energy needs such as heating, transportation and electricity. These sources can be divided into two for renewable and n on renewable sources such as fossil fuels. America needs to improve on its renewable energy sources to cut on costs of purchasing fossil fuels from other countries, instead focus on becoming self sustaining by use of renewable sources (CSIS, 2011, p.5). The growing tensions, change in political ideologies and security concerns with oil producing countries have over the years increased risk of over reliance on oil imports (CSIS, 2011, p.14). This has seen the threat of war and fuel import restrictions between the countries grow. This has led America to seek other sustainable alternatives within its borders. Nuclear, it is used mostly in the production of electricity by boiling water to

21st Century Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alternatives to animal testing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Imagine you are walking down the cosmetics isle at your grocery store. While picking up some deodorant or toothpaste, have you ever stopped to think if your favorite product has been tested on animals? You probably haven’t, but the chances are very high that it has been. Two of the main reasons why companies continue to use animals to test their products are to determine possible dangers to human health and to avoid product liability suits, but now there are many reliable tests that can be conducted to determine the safety of products without the use of animals. To better understand this important issue I will discuss how animal testing began, what companies do and do not test products on animals, some alternatives to animal testing, and the awareness and prevention that demands our help.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Experimentation on live animals began as early as the 17th Century. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham rejected Philosopher Rene Descartes’ theory that animals are not able to reason and therefore do not feel pain. Bentham’s philosophy on animals was: â€Å" The question is not can they reason? Nor, can they talk? but, can they suffer? â€Å". The practice of testing cosmetics on...

The letter R

Monica Silva Radiant R Every word in the English language derives from 26 seemingly simple letters. Each letter has gone through a unique transition in order to end up how it is today. Some letters have been erased, while some added, and others Just transformed. The complex Journey of the written language can somewhat be seen through the transition of R. The letter R is one of the letters that has been around since the very beginning of writing. R is a unique letter in its pronunciation, history and its place in cultural artifacts as well as math and sciences.While looking at the English alphabet, one would come across the eighteenth letter of the alphabet; R. R can be classified as an ancestor for written language today. While most letters have been around for a very long time, R is one that has residency and that has not had a very large change throughout history. R is a letter that has appeared in some of the oldest writings found. These include inscriptions from the Semitic cultu re. In these writings, R was represented by something that looked like a â€Å"human head in profile† (David Sacks 283) (figure 1).They called this ymbol resh, which translates to ‘head' in the Semitic language. This letter also appears in the Phoenician alphabet. At this time it still represented the word ‘head' but its shape had changed. The illustration turned from a human head profile to something that looked a lot like a modern day backwards P (fgure 2). This illustration could still be classified as a human head, Just with more defined, longer neck. As the Greeks studied the Phoenician alphabet, they took great influence on their letters and took a large part of it as basis for their own alphabet.As for the letter R, they did not hange it much from what it had originally been. They decided to only modify its name so that it would fit better into the sound of their language, thus it became rho. This had â€Å"no special meaning in Greek aside from the letter † (Sacks 285). In early Greek writing, rho could be either turned to the left or the right. It was not until about 500 B. C. that the Greeks decided to permanently have rho facing towards the right, thus making the visual practically the same as the Phoenician alphabet.They made this change because the Greek reading permanently changed from left to right. The tail that is on the R today did not appear until in was formed in ancient Rome. The tail was at first a very short line, but then developed into a complete stroke all the way to the baseline. The lowercase version of r is unique in the fact that it is the only letter that has an uppercase closed section, while its lowercase version does not. This was due to the style of handwriting in the early Middle Ages. Instead of drawing the entire loop and tail, they only drew the top of the curved line (fgure 3).They did this in order to save time and pen strokes while writing. This shortcut has been carried along all the way up to modern day writing. The letter R has a variety of different sounds depending on what word you are saying, what language you are speaking, or even what part of the country you are from due to different accents. The eight different rhetoric consonants are alveolar trill, alveolar approximant, alveolar tlap, voiced retrotlex tricative, retrotlex approximant, retroflex flap, uvular trill, and voiced uvular fricative (Wikipedia).One sound heard in English is the alveolar trill; it is described as a rolling R. Leading air ver articulator so that it can vibrate makes this sound. This sound deals with the tip of the tongue and while making this sound the vocal cords will vibrate. Another rhetoric consonant found in the English language is alveolar approximant. Narrowing the vocal tract where it articulates creates this sound and it also deals with the tip of the tongue and the vocal cords vibrate while making it as well. Another consonant found in English is retroflex approximant.Like alve olar approximant, narrowing the vocal tract at articulation creates this sound. This sound deals with the tip of the ongue as it is turned up and vocal cords will vibrate while creating this sound. The last rhetoric consonant found in English is retroflex flap. This sound is created with one contraction of the muscle, making the tongue thrown against the bottom of the mouth. Like retroflex approximant, the tongue is curled up when making this sound and the vocal cords will vibrate as well. Each of these explained sounds are oral consonants meaning that air can escape from the mouth only.They are also all central consonants meaning that the sound is produced by instructing airstream on he center of the tongue instead of to the sides of the mouth. (Wikipedia). Recordings of all eight rhetoric consonants can be found on the reference page. While making some simple R sounds you could find that if you lift up your tongue, you will then be making the sound of the letter L. This would be b ecause of the fact that R and L are phonetically sisters and they are called liquids. The term liquid consonants mean that these two letters behave in a similar way.These two letters are going to have â€Å"an effect on a vowel sound that precedes them in a word† (Sacks 280). This effect is that of drawing out the vowel's pronunciation and thus making it stronger. Some examples that Sacks gives are the words ‘pole' and ‘poke'. Saying these words aloud, one can hear how the ‘e' in ‘pole' is more prominent than the ‘e' in ‘poke'. This is unique in the fact that the only other letter that makes this effect in the English alphabet is obviously L. Phonetic writing is not the only place you will land eyes on the letter R, it has an importance in science as well as mathematics.In the sciences, the gas constant is represented by the uppercase R. The reason R was chosen to represent the gas constant is unknown but there are three ideas as to why thi s may be. The first idea is simply that it was random. The second idea is that it could possibly stand for ratio. Scientists thought this could be because of the fact that this value of R was found by calculating the constancy of the ratio over pressure and time. The third idea for this representation is that it was named after Henri Victor Regnault. Regnault was the French chemist who calculated the early value of the constant densen 2).In mathematics, the letter R represents the set of all real numbers. R was chosen because Rn refers to the Cartesian product of n copies of R. Another reason is it thought to represent all real numbers is because of the fact that the word real starts with an r (O'Connor 1). Just like R plays a role in mathematics and science, it can be caught playing a role in cultural artifacts as well. The letter R is also known as the dogs letter'. There are many people who have made a connection between the sound of r and a dog. In 1529 Geotry Tory compared the r growling sound to dogs when they are angry and about to bite each other.During the mid first century, a poet named Persius referred to R as ‘dog letter' as well. Also in the Spanish language it is called canina littera, which may be of even greater importance because in Spanish language rolled r's is a major part of their pronunciation. Another person who referred to R as the dogs letter was Ben Jonson in his book English Grammar (Sacks 280). This reference can be found in the famous Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in Act 2, scene 4. In this part of the play, Juliet's nurse calls the letter R, the dogs name' referring to Romeo as a dog.