At first glance, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks instantaneously permitted me to feel a sense of exclusion and restriction. The title combined with the general contrast of colors in the painting immediately placed me on the outside, in the dark. The scene Hopper shows us is a late-night city street-corner setting, where an all-night diner is open and serving a few people. Judging the lack of detail in the people’s faces, I was given a restricted and limited role in the painting. It felt as if I were a stranger walking on the desolate sidewalks outside.
The unchanging rhythm indicates that his emotions don’t change. The poem is split into 2 parts, but is still contained within one stanza because it revolves around one single metaphor, rain. The poet’s state of mind is revealed in the opening line, while creating an atmosphere of sorrow, depression and anxiety, “Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain.” The poet’s use of ‘midnight’ reflects his state of mind, where light is used to symbolise hope. It thus signifies complete, utter darkness which entails no trace of light and thus no hope for the poet’s survival at all as he is completely certain he will die. The word ‘Nothing’ is another metaphor used as a means of showing that he has no future, his life is to come to an end and he feels devoid of emotions, resigned to his fate.
I was jabbering about it for days. You seem to be insinuating something in a vague way. Outside, the sun was as yellow and happy as a child’s crayon creation; inside, Hood’s soul was a black ruined landscape of misery and fear. He sat there all morning watching a swag-bellied sky refused to rain. The story underneath was brief, saying only that the fire department had ruled out arson.
Morgan helps to create a deeper understanding of the theme of isolation though use of poetic techniques such as imagery and sentence structure. The narrator encounters the old man at the start of the poem by chance and it is clear right away that he is isolated. “A cup capsizes along the formica, Slithering with a dull clatter. A few heads turn in the crowded evening snack bar.” The only reason the narrator’ attention has been drawn to this old man is because of this sudden noise which is shown by the onomatopoeia “clatter” and reflected in the alliteration of the “c” sound in “cup capsizes”. Nothing of particular importance has occurred; most people in the bar would not have even looked round, only a “few heads.” This shows however that the man is isolated as even a loud noise does not cause people to take notice.
The actual birth of the Monster is something of an anti-climax. The weather outside is dull and dreary, “the rain pattered dismally against the panes”. There is nothing dramatic about its birth, “by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open…” The play however, is much more focused on the build up to the birth of the monster, making it dramatic, fast-paced and scary in order to keep the audience interested and entertained. There are many sound effects such as thunder and wind, and rain furiously drumming against the windows, which contrast massively with the quite pit-pattering of rain in the novel. Props like mysterious machines add mystery as we don’t know their purposes, and the body of the monster under a white sheet.
Silence. There are no bodies roaming about this small town, all but one lonesome lad creeping about at the dead of night. Most are tucked away, hoping to reach their long awaited slumber before the clock strikes 12. Others linger in the bar trying to forget the mishaps of a soon-to-be forgotten day. If you stay quiet you can hear the tumbleweeds brush across the dirt roads.
Bartleby was basically hired for copying the text but eventually he started refusing the work requested by the lawyer. The story reflects the mental and physical breakdown of the character Bartleby through the eyes of other people. Even as the story progresses and different people come into contact with Bartleby, he remains unchanged. The narrator repeatedly states that “Bartleby did nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery” (Melville 607). This is yet another way that Bartleby’s static character, along with his flat nature, is shown.
The Hollow Men ------------------------------------------------- The sense of stasis is the most important concept within “The Hollow Men”. Discuss this in reference to language, form and structure. “The Hollow Men” by T.S Eliot is a dark and very meaningful poem, written just after the war and when Eliot was going through a difficult marital stage. Within the poem Eliot seems to write a lot about the hollow men’s sense of stasis, which seems to reflect the stasis in his marriage at the time and almost reflect how he felt at this period in his life. In Section 1, Eliot immediately points out the sense of stasis the hollow men feel by calling them the “Stuffed men”.
In order to draw attention to Icarus, William states, "Unsignificantly/ off the coast /there was/ a splash quite unnoticed". Similarly, Auden states, describing the way "everything turns away quite leisurely from the disaster". They both point to the fact that in the painting Icarus is drowning and people don't care to help or even look. These people practice ignorance, confirming the common saying that "ignorance is bliss". This does not necessarily mean that the bystanders are better off not being bothered, but that they don’t even seem to be bothered at all by a man drowning.
Desire—The Viper in your mind By reading the short stories” A&P” and “The Lottery Ticker”, it is evident that both of them talk about the power and the negative effect of desire. In some situations, desire or emotional thoughts may impair people’s judgments, and even lead to some negative consequences. The character development in both stories highlights the power of desire and how desire makes people impetuous, They get influenced by the strong feeling deep down inside, For instance, in the story “A&P” , the main character Sammy is just a lazy and cowardly boy who complains about everything inside his mind. He rings up the purchase by mistake and “ the customer starts to give me hell ” (Updike, P134) He dislikes his job and describes the customer like“She’s one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty…” （Updike, P134）He has rebellious thoughts but he dose not dare to speak it out loud. All the things he can do is "…got her leather smoothed and her goodies into a bag” ( Updike, P135 ) For him, life in the A&P store is boring and also vulgar.