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My papa's waltz by theodore roethke analysis
My papa's waltz by theodore roethke analysis
My papas waltz analysis
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Connell uses imagery to show the reader how intense and fearful Rainsford feels in the story. For instance, Zaroff first look to Rainsford was “menacing look” (17) This quote is imagery because it describing the look in his eyes did not change and it was a menacing look also. Another example for imagery would be when “Ivan conducted him was in many ways remarkable.”
Imagery is used throughout, in order to engage the reader and assist them in understanding things from Saul’s perspective. For example, the sense of sight was touched on when it describes the string of light bulbs, the shadows of the ice and the rocks and spindly trees. It creates a mental image with the use of sophisticated adjectives such as humped, spindly and eerie. Also, the description of the smell is very detailed by saying that it was a “potent mix” of various unpleasing scents. This proves that imagery is a device that is essential in helping the audience imagine the setting, make connections and hold interest.
Particularly when Andy Barber in Defending Jacob describes the days leading to Jacob’s trial as daunting due to “the intense awareness of time, the heaviness of the passing minutes, the dizzying, trippy sense that the days are both too few and too long (Landay 154.).” These words portray imagery because it recounts the agony the Barber’s experienced each day. This quote supports the theme because even though they were living a temporarily grueling life, they decided they would strive for a normal one. Similarly, the narrator of “The Art of Resilience” explains that Steven Wolin, a psychiatrist, shares the past of a client who “had been whipped by her father throughout childhood anytime he felt challenged (Marano.).” This addition is an example of imagery because it clarifies the intensity of the woman’s state, which allows the reader to visualize the brutality of her childhood.
Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” discusses a child and father’s interactions within their kitchen as the mother watches while frowning. Roethke delivers his work through the child’s perspective, an unreliable speaker, which enables an ambiguous tone. This allows the reader to interpret the child and father’s relationship in many ways. Words involved in Roethke’s diction, such as “waltzed,” “romped,” and “dizzy,” indicate enjoyment within the relationship. On the other hand, “beat,” “death,” and “battered” create a sinister picture of abuse.
The relationship between father and son is one that is both sacred, yet complex as each side of the relationship faces hardships. This relationship between a son and his role model, a father and his child, is one, has its ups, but one must also know it has downs. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke’s use of ambiguity through diction allows room for the audience to interpret the text in a positive or a negative way, representing the relationship between a father and a son, which on the outside can be interpreted in an either positive or a negative way. Roethke’s use of diction creates an element of confusion for the audience of his poem.
Meanwhile, Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker implies abuse through a metaphor about dancing, where, in lines 5, 6, and 11- 13 the speaker vaguely mentions abuse, saying “We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf”, “at every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle./ you beat time on my head.” These lines imply the father is abusive, boisterously beating the child in the kitchen so much so that pans fell, without actually saying so. In both poems, the speaker experiences abuse from the father figure in their
In Beowulf, there is a couple of good examples of imagery. Whether it is in the battles that Beowulf goes through, in just the description of scenes, or in his farewell. When he said farewell to his followers in beowulf's last battle before he goes to fight against the dragon in the cave where the dragon was awaken when protecting the treasures. An example of imagery is Beowulf is “I swam/ in the blackness of night, hunting monsters/ out of the ocean, and killing them one/ By one.” In this part of beowulf i imagine the heroic beowulf swimming in darkness fighting with monsters that he hunted out of the ocean killing them each one by one.
In Poe’s stories, the main characters experience fear, but they all handle it distinctively. Poe uses irony, symbolism, and imagery to show how fear affects the narrator’s mindset, along with their future. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of Red Death”, the main characters try to isolate themselves from evil, but Poe uses irony to show that death is inevitable.
Imagery allows a reader to imagine the events of a story within their mind through mental images. Imagery can describe how something looks, a sound, a feeling, a taste, or a smell. Imagery is especially important when the author is describing a character or a setting. The short story The Man In The Black Suit by Stephen King has several excellent examples of imagery.
“Hate Poem” by Julie Sheehan describes how she transformed hatred to love. By looking at her pattern of thinking, it involves her own experience in the daily life that result the conflicts between her loves and hates. This poem begins with “I hate you truly. Truly I do” (1). This opening did not match the idea of a poem about hate; instead it is a poem about love.
Before the start of this class, I overused common imagery such as “shine bright like a diamond” to try to convey my feelings. Writing with clichéd imagery dilutes the reader’s attachment to the story because emotions are absent. In this class, I have learned that I have to reflect on my true feelings and emotions before writing. Hopefully allows my readers to feel what I once felt. My favorite imagery that I have written in this class was the spider web in the essay about my grandfather.
The reason this example of imagery stood out to me was because of how much Perry had changed from being a kid until and adult. When Perry was a kid he loved Barbara and cared for her, whereas once Perry was an adult he physically harmed Barbara and scared her. Corresponding with Perry's actions of harming his sister, the time between them being children and being adults, Perry suffered mental and physical abuse from his father once forced to
The way Poe sets up his story with the tension could create a fearful atmosphere. He did not just focus on portraying a narrator with a certain fear, he would use language that would make the reader feel fear. He packed in images of darkness and horror in order to create these atmospheres that presented fear in many different ways. Poe being known as a master of the horror
one of the many times he uses imagery throughout this story is when the narrator says, “on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows” (Pg 1). By using imagery to compare walking through the neighborhood as walking through a graveyard shows that it is completely silent and there is no activity in any of the houses. Most people wouldn't describe their neighborhood as a graveyard, this also develops the mood. Another time he uses imagery is when the narrator says, “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country” (1). This shows mood because the narrator describes him as a hawk in mid-country, that means that he is all alone in what he feels to be like a barren or abandoned place.
“A Short Guide to Imagery, Symbolism, and Figurative Language Imagery” describes imagery as “a writer or speaker’s use of words or figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or physical sensation”(Clark). In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses nature imagery to portray the journey of emotions that Mrs. Mallard experiences
