Marvi Shaikh Ms. Devitt ENG3UI Thursday, July 2nd, 2015 Poet’s View On “Oppression” Oppression means prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control over someone or something. It’s also known as persecution, abuse, mental pressure or distress (www.dictionary.refrence.com). Oppression is a common topic for authors and poets to write about. The poet Jimmy Santiago Baca also used Oppression as his topic in his poem called “Oppression”. The poem talks about equality and justice from Baca’s point of view.
19 May 2011 Explication of Theodore Roethke’s “Root Cellar” A popular theme of a variety of art and media, life and death are often focused on individually. In the poem “Root Cellar,” Theodore Roethke creates a vivid depiction of life fighting for survival. To give a sense of the struggle life is facing, the poet uses a vocabulary that conveys a sense of unease and degradation. Perhaps drawing on his upbringing, Roethke shows a contrast of existence amidst backdrop of downtrodden cellar in the throes of decay, giving readers an insight into the intrinsic power of life’s resilient capabilities. The poem opens with heavy imagery to show the difficulty that one would expect life to have surviving in a root cellar.
To an increasingly large extent gothic literature is concerned with and obsession or fascination with death, however some may argue that this notion of death presents merely a sole characteristic of the gothic, and that perhaps there are alternative features that take predominance over it, such as the supernatural. We are first introduced to death almost immediately in Shakespeare's Macbeth although not presented to us we hear of Macbeths bloody actions and vicotrious acts of murder in war. Indeed, perhaps a strategic structural choice by shakespeare, to innitially present this almost positive side of 'death' to heavily contrast Macbeth's later actions, intensifying the extent of corruption and thus feeling of terror from the audience. Not only are we introduced to 'death' almost immediately, death proves to lie at the very heart of the play, highlighting the fascination with it, as it becomes almost the ultimate sin, this act of regecide, the death of the king provides the fundamental plot line. Not only are we as the audience fascinated by this concept of death, the main protagonist too becomes somewhat
This is demonstrated in the poem, “Red” by Hughes, where his perspective of Plath as a passionate but tortured individual contradicts the view of her gentle and happy persona. Hughes uses the colour red to symbolise Plath’s torment such as “poppies thin and wrinkle-free as the skin on blood” where Hughes connects Plath to poppies which have connotations of blood and death. The effect of this compounds the symbolism of the colour red, ultimately depicting Plath as a tortured soul. However, in contrast, Hughes reflects that at times Plath was untroubled by her psychological issues, such as when “kingfisher blue silks from San Francisco/ folded your pregnancy”. The poet’s use of the kingfisher uses the bird in flight as a symbol for the freedom which Plath occasionally experienced when separated from her obsession with her father.
He describes death as being, "the profile of night Ortiz 3 slanted against morning"(590)”. This metaphor causes death to become something unknown, unseen and unfamiliar. Komunyakaa suggests that death is like nighttime; it is dark and, therefore, has a feeling of unfamiliarity about it. As a result, Yusef Komunyakaa presents death as something we should fear and fight against, while Woody Allen presents death as a natural inevitability we must all face. In the short story, “The Red Convertible,” by Louise Erdrich, death is represented in an unexpected situation.
Collins has a strong sense of reality about death in how it is not always fair. In the poem entitled “On The Death Of A Next-Door Neighbor,” Collins explains death through the use of personification, “If only death had consulted his cracked leather map, / then bent to wipe the fog / from the windshield with an empty sleeve” (71). Collins personifies death by giving it human actions and need of assistance, but having no body, to show that it is only with us in spirit. This poem portrays death by showing that it is not to be feared, but rather accepted, because it is in everyone’s future. Making death into a person is a creative technique because it makes it so real.
His method of presenting the details of a dramatic situation adds a sense of mystery that contributes to the fearful surroundings and helps build towards a climax. Poe’s ability to take even the most supernatural and unnerving details from his stories and make the emotions that they evoke apply to his audience suggests that the fear and terror associated with his stories are universally applicable and gives his writing a sublime flavor. In the beginning of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator immediately sets a murky tone to the story by describing the scenery as he approaches Roderick Usher’s house. “I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthy sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium—the bitter lapse into common life—the hideous dropping off of the veil” (Poe 1508). Immediately we know that
People such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King are all tributes to the original horror story writer, Edgar Allen Poe. Poe's haunting linguistic descriptions, unnerving parallelism between his life and his works, and alarming yet purposeful exploration of symbolism and situations draws the reader into a state of pity and sorrow while at the same times leaving them with a feeling of
The idea is communicated throughout the poem that not only people are beautiful, but also that nature possesses just as much beauty. The speaker uses metaphors to talk about death in his own perspective. The speaker discusses death from his own point of view, “Her hardest hue to hold” (2). By talking about her own death, the speaker shows the reality of death. The speaker shows the brutality of death.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee has used symbolism with emotive language, frequent use and symbolising people to help the reader understand the timeless idea of how infested with prejudice people and societies can be. The word ‘sin’ is used in “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” rather than a word like ‘wrong’ because of the strong negative connotations associated with it. These make the reader understand how unforgivable it is to ‘kill a mockingbird’ which is a symbol representing innocent people that are harmed undeservedly. Using a powerful word such as ‘sin’ conveys the extent of the evil shown by those who ‘kill mockingbirds’ with prejudice. An example of this are the rumours circulating around the “tired, old town” of Maycomb about the recluse ‘Boo’ Radley.