30 Stunning Opening Lines From Famous Works of Literature

30 Stunning Opening Lines From Famous Works of Literature From the scandalous opening lines of Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita to the arsonist rant that begins Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451, weve collected some of the most stunning literary openers out there. If you are a writer looking for inspiration for your own novels opening, look no further, weve got you covered.Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.William Faulkner, The Sound and the FuryShips at a distance have every mans wish on board.Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching GodIt was a pleasure to burn.Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451You better not never tell nobody but God.Alice Walker, The Color PurpleHe- for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it- was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters.Virginia Woolf, OrlandoThe cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.Stephen Crane, The Red Badg e of CourageIt is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.Jane Austen, Pride and PrejudiceCall me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.Herman Melville, Moby DickOnce upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo†¦James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist of Young ManWheres Papa going with that axe? said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.E B White, Charlottes WebI first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up. I had just gotten over a serious illness that I wont bother to talk about, except it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that e verything was dead.Jack Kerouac, On the RoadMother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I cant be sure.Albert Camus, The StrangerLolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.Vladimir Nabokov, LolitaIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two CitiesAs Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.Franz Kafka, Me tamorphosisQuiet as its kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941.Toni Morrison, The Bluest EyeIn my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that Ive been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world havent had the advantages that youve had.The Great Gatsby, F. Scott FitzgeraldThe sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.Samuel Beckett, MurphyThere was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderIt was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.George Orwell, 1984The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.William Gibson, NeuromancerThey shoot the white girl first.Toni Morrison, ParadiseI had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.Edith Wharton, Ethan FromeIf you really want to hear about it, the first thing youll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I dont feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the RyeI am a sick man†¦ I am a spiteful man.Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from UndergroundWhat if this young woman, who writes such bad poems, in competition with her husband, whose poems are equally bad, should stretch her remarkably long and well-made legs out before you, so that her skirt slips up to the tops of her stockings?Gilbert Sorrentino, Imaginative Qualities of Actual ThingsFrancis Marion Tarwaters uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it wa s still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.Flannery OConnor, The Violent Bear It AwayOf all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, Ive come to learn, is women.Charles Johnson, Middle PassageWe were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las VegasI am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye To Berlin

102 MLA Style and Peer Review Professor Ramos Blog

102 MLA Style and Peer Review Quick Write Quick Write He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. – Edmund Burke Write for two minutes on this quote. MLA Style Why do we cite sources in academic writing? Establishes credibility. A road map. Scholarship is an ongoing conversation. It gives credit. Acknowledges those that contributed to your ideas. We will be going over the 8th edition MLA citation Style. You can look under our  resources page  for MLA or APA guides. There are three things to consider for each style guide you use: Page Formatting In-Text Citations /References Page In-Text Citation Also called parenthetical citations. One Author: (Ramos 1) Two Authors: (Smith and Ramos 1) Three or more Authors: (Ramos et al. 1) Peer Review Argument –  a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong. Remember, an argument uses reasons and evidence to persuade. Have you provided enough reasons and evidence to convince us that a) the problem is clear, and b) the proposed solution makes sense? This is the first of many peer reviews. Keep these things in mind. Peer edit the same way you revise your own work. Be specific in identifying problems or opportunities. Offer suggestions for improvement. Praise what is genuinely good in the paper. For the Proposal, make sure you: Define the problem Recognize an audience Create, explain, and justify a plan of action. Persuade readers of the problem and proposed solution. Problem Solution Example â€Å"The Danger of a Single Story† by  Chimamanda Adichie. To quote a  CNN article on the Danger of a Single Story: Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie believes in the power of stories, and warns that hearing only one about a people or nation leads to ignorance. She says the truth is revealed by many tales. She illustrates this with a story about coming to the United States, as a middle-class daughter of a professor and an administrator, and meeting her college roommate. Adichie says that her roommate’s â€Å"default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning, pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa. A single story of catastrophe.† Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children eating apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in literature. That changed as she discovered African writers, particularly the Nigerian Chinua Achebe. This is a great quote that highlights some of the moves we need to do in our article. It summarizes her topic, problem she is addressing, and solution; including examples she uses. Topic:  Many people do not realize that they are getting only one story. A single story is incomplete and she says dangerous. Problem:  Having a single story about an issue or group of people leads to stereotypes and incomplete information. Solution:  To look for multiple stories of whatever issue or topic you are hearing. She recommends we get our news and stories from multiple perspectives. Reasons and evidence:  She gives examples from her personal life to highlight that she has a personal connection. Background:  She gives background information, citing quotes and examples that place her issue in a historical context. She also uses current examples to place the issue in a contemporary context. Quick Write What is your plan of action for revising your essay?