Eric Peuterbaugh English 19 September 2012 William Carlos Williams William’s “To Waken An Old Lady” In this poem the speaker is attempting to portray the life of a woman. More specifically, the poem is speaking of the later years and eventual death of an old lady. The title of this poem is a metaphor for the afterlife of an old lady. Her death leads to her awakening. The speaker uses, “a flight of small cheeping birds,” as a metaphor for old age (2-3).
Really, what is the theme of these novels? In The Girl Named Disaster, Nhamo is the main character, the storyline revolving around her. Although many readers would say the obvious theme is strength, courage, or survival, I seem to have found that the center theme of this novel was Nhamo herself. Nhamo has struggled with problems even before her journey to Zimbabwe. Her aunt’s unwilling adoption after her mother’s death was the main tragedy that occurred before the first pages of the book.
“ A summer Tragedy” by Arna Bontemps uses great examples of foreshadowing to successfully entice Bontemps’s reader to figure out what is to come in “A Summer Tragedy”. To enhance the foreshadowing clues Bontemps’s also uses elements of characterization and imagery. Playing major roles of intrigue and interest; theses literary terms help the reader experience the impact one can receive from reading this short story. I felt as if I could relate to this story the most out of the other selections because of someone that I am very close to. This short story has reminded me of what my own mother is currently going through right now.
Gwen Hardwood The emotive qualities of Gwen Harwood’s poetry resonate with her readers. She uses her own memories to illustrate love for her family, her loss of innocence and the swiftness of time passing. She demonstrates this in her poems Father and Child, The Violets and At Mornington. The poem The Violets opens with the line “It is dusk and cold,” the time of day symbolising that this persona has reached old age and is metaphorically drawing closer to nightfall or the end of her days. Death is made apparent with the negative adjective “cold.” The flowers she is picking at the beginning of this poem are clearly what stimulate her memory of childhood as they are referenced later in the poem.
From reading this short story “Used to live here once” I gathered that the theme was about the beauty of life after death. I was felt the theme could also be the spiritual journey of a woman after death. We learn the theme of the story how the writer has written the story, and how the sentences flow. Throughout this short story Rhys is giving the reader hints that this woman maybe dead, but that isn’t confirmed until the end of the story. For example, “The only thing was that the sky had a glassy look that she didn't remember” (Clugston, 2010).
I will be discussing the way Dickinson explores the theme of death and how death and its relating subjects are portrayed in a number of poems namely poem 712. In poem 712 the speaker almost seems to be describing her first date. The unusual thing is though the date is death. The speaker and death travel in a carriage with immortality as a chaperone, as was the custom of the time, to different places from a school to her grave representing her passage in life. At the end of her journey we realise she has already died and is speaking from the afterlife.
Arthur Kipps is summoned to attend a funeral of the late Alice Drablow but discovers the tragic secrets of Eel marsh house which stands at the end of the causeway. As the novel progresses the reader is aware of the woman in black as the description builds the imagery in the readers mind. The appearance to the woman in black to Kipps has a strong effect on the reader as they find they are engaged to the following events. Mr Kipps during the first official appearance of the woman in black states “I had become paralysed” The word paralysed is normally associated with being incapable or unable to think or act
Hemingway's story however is written with a sense of mystery. Of the many techniques a writer may use to create a short story, the ones that add to the reader's enjoyment most in these stories are: the key themes, characters and the moods in relation to the time line of the story. Joyce and Hemingway use these differently however they have both created enjoyable texts. [2] Both authors have created their stories in different ways, however there are some similarities. Joyce's 'An Encounter' is written in first person, from the point of view of the protagonist, creating a more personal effect for the reader.
In this short story, it is through her experiences, that she realizes she is no longer living, hence the last line of the story, (Rhys, 1976) “That was the first time she knew.” Although the story may seem basic at first, the ending can be quite surprising. You will find in this story, an underlying theme as the plot thickens with symbols of life, experiences and the spiritual world. The author, Jean Rhys, begins this story as the narrator telling the story of a woman on a journey in a limited omniscient view. Clungston (2010) explains in the Journey into Literature, “A limited omniscient point of view is when the thoughts and feelings of only one of the characters are related through the narrator.” In this story, it is just that, as the narrator, who in this story describes a woman who is not given a name or any type of background, guides the reader onto a journey in which she explains the little things the woman is experiencing and remembering as she walked along on that fine blue day. The narrator continues to engage the reader on how the different things along her walk are not the same as what the woman remembers them to be.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry is unconventional and striking poetry. She is honest in penning her poems and revealing her fears and uncertainties from her own personal view point in relation to death. One of the most commendable aspects to these poems is her ability to portray death in an essentially positive way, as seen in “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” and “There’s a Certain Slant of Light”. Dickinson’s poetry also creates vivid visual images which gives the reader a greater understanding of her poetry evident in, “The Soul Has Bandaged Moments”. Finally her economy of language was an element of her poetry which her ideas accessible to wide audience we see this technique used in all of her poems, particularly “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” Firstly, Dickinson’s poetry stands apart for its ability to explore themes, such as, death.