Andre Dubus \'\'The land of No\'\' PDF

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reading responses. andre dubus. the land of no. diana schoolman. NYIT. FCWR 111...

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FCWR-111 M04 Prof. Diana Schoolman 11/05/2019

‘’The Land of No…’’ by Andre Dubus Summary In Andre Dubus’ writing ‘’The Land of No: Love in A Class- Riven America’’, the author narrates his experiences in concordances with his girlfriends, Emily. He presents the social differences between and his beloved. Emily comes from an affluent background as opposed to his less advantaged upbringing. The author argues that the experiences people face from different classes can differ totally and therefore it makes it difficult to identify with someone outside of your class. In his writing, both the author and his girlfriend are resentful of the gaps between the social classes of America. The writing ‘’ The Land of No: Love in A Class- Riven America’’ starts by making an analyzing Emily’s situation; it introduces her age and the amount of money in her trust fund. After closing the second paragraph with the remark ‘’someone who could just buy

whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it’’, Dubus continues his text by talking about the homeless families in New York City. In America, the majority of people are divided by what we comprehend as a class system. Within the society, a multitude of people finds themselves not interacting often with those outside of their class and can rarely find similarities with people with a different financial status. Right after analyzing his family’s holiday memoirs, the author points the divergences between him and Emily’s family mainly describing her parents’ house and their assets. The couple’s tensions occur throughout the entire text but it is intensified during their conversation about Dubus’ old friend. Emily tries to identify with the woman’s struggles and look at the situation from a different point of view however, she still bashed for her lack of understanding leading her to feel resentful.

Questions: 1.

‘’Difficile’’

I can definitely say that sometimes life is raw with some people. He lived in a mono-parental family, raised by a mother who pushed her limits for her sons’ good. Furthermore, his affirmation ‘’then they seemed to rise up out of your skin: fleas, gnats, bedbugs, lice-whatever they were exactly we didn’t know, only that we were besieged by them’’ denotes the inhuman conditions he lived in.

“Ambitious’’. As a teenager, the author was definitely rebellious, but his motivation to do the things right pushed him to the most prestigious American universities. The fact that he never gave up and changed his jobs often makes him a real fighter, a person who combats the problem, not avoiding them. Moreover, the amount of prizes for his writings reflects his hard-working personality. To sum up, all the facts wrote above demonstrate that he was an ambitious person. 2.

Emily is ‘’from the Land of Yes’’. She comes from the upper blanked of society.

She is a member of those aristocratic and “high-society” families who can have everything because their financial situation allows them that luxury. Andre Dubus, on the other hand, is a member of the “Land of No’’. He needs to accept the world he belongs to because he cannot have whatever his heart desires. Poverty makes him understand that he needs to fight not only for a position in society but also for daily food and accommodation. 3.

Emily seems to be a sympathetic young woman with a big heart. She tries to

understand her boyfriends’ society and even to be a part of it. As proof of her loyalty, she left the comfort and luxury of her parents’ home only to live with her beloved in a ‘’tiny first-floor apartment’’. Despite all of this, she will never completely understand what poverty means because she was raised in other conditions and most importantly, she will

always have someone who will protect and ensure her life. This aspect is greatly emphasized in the last part of the article when she recognizes that ‘’we’re paid up for six months’’. 4. After their ‘’fight’’ regarding his friend, the author and Emily realized better the differences between them. They understood that there is no way to adapt the poverty. The barriers between them led the relationship to an end, and they both observed that. The author even points ‘’we both knew we would never be living in together’’....