ipl-logo

A Bolt Of White Cloth Analysis

782 Words4 Pages

Leon Rooke shares the quality of love in his short story, “A Bolt of White Cloth”. Rooke shows that love has the ability to produce the greatest happiness in the lives of people, but hardships must follow in order to achieve this love. Love comes in many forms as it is an emotion that can be expressed differently varying from person to person. Rooke uses magical realism by introducing an Eastern stranger that sells white cloth with magical qualities. The price, however, is love. This stranger is the bearer of happiness as he travels determining whether a person has expressed a great deal of love and hardship in exchange for his cloth. The characters discuss the types of love that exists in the world. The reader can easily submerse themselves …show more content…

Leon Rooke uses magical realism to portray the Eastern man as a carrier of happiness. His bolt of white cloth also has magical characteristics. This is most clearly present in the unrolling of the bolt of white cloth when “the bolt did not seem to get any smaller.” The bolt symbolizing love, showed the idea that love is never ending because the bolt did not get any smaller even when he rolled off about fifty yards. To achieve this never ending love you must have an undeniable bond with this person. This gives the cloth the quality of love, if given time it’ll flourish into unending happiness. This magical element in “A Bolt of White Cloth” grabbed my interest. The passing traveler is an interesting character to come across. My first impression of him was not positive. I thought that he may have scammed this couple with this white cloth. This is just me being skeptical of strangers trying to offer me anything. In turn, the strange traveler bears no harm and is rather friendly when conversing with the couple. I find it fascinating that he has this supernatural power to determine a person’s expression of love by just trusting their words. The stranger is able to read the bond of the couple and thinks nothing less or more of it. I believe the writer tries to develop the idea to display that love is a magical thing and it needs to be treated that …show more content…

This doesn’t mean that I’m not a loving person, but rather I think it’d be hard to come up with so many ways of expressing love. My experiences up until not could not amount to the same as the farmers have. Life is a great journey to explore and discover its many wonders. Encounters of love will cross any journey of life: it is inevitable. The stranger explains that “love might exist between close friends, between a man and his wife, or parents and children or for that matter the love a boy might have for his dog” (438). In whatever form it comes in, love will bring happiness with time. When time permits, I can see that it will eventually be possible for everyone to hypothetically buy the white

Show More
Related
514 Words | 3 Pages

Love is unconditionally caring about someone else that you care more about yourself. Love may give us joy, and happiness, but it also brings the worse out in us. In Celeste Rita Baker’s short story Jumbie from Bordeaux, the author presents love and the price paid for love through the indirect characterization of Jumbie, his aunt, and parents. In the story the author uses courage to show the love that Jumbie had for his parents. For example, when Jumbie witnesses the harsh beating of his parents, he immediately jumps in to interfere, by attacking the master.

Read More
792 Words | 4 Pages

(Deleted beginning of the sentence) The emphasis on the word quilt is important. Before that she had a blanket, so the emphasis on the word quilt shows the change that has occurred. Not only does Marylin Nelson Waniek the author of “The Century Quilt” use enjambment to show the meaning of the Century Quilt, (Deleted first part of the sentence) different forms of imagery are also evident. Line 10 says “How we used to wrap ourselves at play in its folds and be chieftains and princesses”, this is imagery because one can picture a little girl actually wrapping themselves in this blanket and becoming something different while being in it.

Read More
1138 Words | 5 Pages

Essay Outline (5%) 1. (Introduction) a) Thesis statement: In her poem “Nineteen”, in which she remembers about one summer, Elizabeth Alexander mentions the need for continuous psychological transformations, which are triggered by the curiosity of differences and the desire of learning from others. b) Plan of development: Through the use of symbolism, tone and contrast, Alexander puts the emphasis on the coming-of-age of the persona, which is significant regarding her personal growth. 2.

Read More
1606 Words | 7 Pages

Which allows me to signify that another theme that this story hides is sorrow, there’s a lot of sadness and grief throughout the story. “Have patience with me, Elizabeth!” “ Do not desert me, though this veil must be between us here on earth” (242). “The black veil separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love.” Hence, one of the major themes of “The Minister’s Black Veil” is that those who acknowledge the secrets of their hearts and those who choose to stand apart from their fellows will often find that they are ostracized and may well lead lives of loneliness, prisoners in their own hearts”( Reed 3 ).

Read More
252 Words | 2 Pages

The theme of the story is that material possessions and external appearances are not as important as inner character and personal growth. The boy learns that the jacket he receives, while not what he initially wanted, helps him to become more confident and independent. He realizes that he doesn't need

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

The characters perceptions of the meaning of love differ vastly, leading them to lose sight of love’s meaning or purpose.

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

In conclusion, the author of this story has shown that the theme of this novel is to know people before you trust them, for not everyone can be

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

Ali eckermann describes a feeling of ribbons “tying” her to the land forever in the ending lines of the poem. Contradiction is shown between being “tied” to the land while consequently driving away from it. This illustrates the poet’s spiritual bond and connection that ties her to the land and the people even though she is physically driving away from the land. Effective choice of diction is demonstrated through Positive connotation placed on the word “ribbon”. Ribbons are symbolic of beauty, lightness and freedom, shown by ali eckermann’s deep and nonrestrictive spiritual connection she feels towards the land.

Read More
595 Words | 3 Pages

Love has always had a place in every culture and society since the origin of time. Love binds individuals, lives of harmony, or places a person in an overpowering state of elation or misery. Literature has adapted its beliefs, people’s views, and even society as well. It first emerged into doctrine in European literature. Love will forever be common in literature.

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

As it is very clear that wealth cannot buy love from that significant other, and no one in this book was every truly in love with each other. We are then left with the combining of social statuses, and a deep obsession of the past as well as a dream

Read More
1534 Words | 7 Pages

When the word love is heard, what comes to mind? Is it that special connection once shared with a long lost lover? Or maybe it wasn’t a lover at all but a friend, who not only loved you for you, but showed you how to love yourself. In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns,author Khaled Hosseini portrays love in many different ways. Three vital themes concerning love outshines many of the themes throughout this novel.

Read More
1396 Words | 6 Pages

The short story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” by Raymond Carver is about four friends- Laura, Mel, Nick, and Terri, gathering on a table and having a conversation. As they start to drink, the subject abruptly comes to “love.” Then, the main topic of their conversation becomes to find the definition of love, in other word to define what exactly love means. However, at the end, they cannot find out the definition of love even though they talk on the subject for a day long. Raymond Carver in “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” illustrates the difficulty of defining love by using symbols such as heart, gin, and the sunlight.

Read More
1046 Words | 5 Pages

Themes in “The Storm” Kate Chopin was an American author that wrote many stories that are based in Louisiana. She bases most of her work on women’s movement of the nineteenth century. One of Chopin’s prevalent stories called “The Storm”, focuses on the expectation of women’s marriage in the 1800’s. This story demonstrates multiple significant elements that give the reader a sense of what is going on throughout the story.

Read More
1074 Words | 5 Pages

(1-2). This shows how the speaker thinks he is being robbed of the sight of reality. He is blinded by his love, and does not know how to see the truth. He uses a desperate and somewhat regretful tone; he says that his love does not correspond with “true sight”, and that all he sees are lies. Love often highlights the better attributes of a person, and hides their flaws, which is exactly what happens to the speaker.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life’s relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flower on the window- panes, which vanish with the warmth. (Soren Kierkgaard) Vikram Seth’s first novel, The Golden Gate(1986) is a survey of contemporary love relationships in an urban society and the search for harmony with or without love relationships when situations are adverse. Love and survival are the central themes in Vikram Seth’s novels. The present chapter focuses on TGG, which is a novel written in verse form with rigid sonnet parameter.

Read More

More about A Bolt Of White Cloth Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document