Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
A little learning poem analysis
A little learning poem analysis
People you may know poem analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: A little learning poem analysis
Mastery Assignment 2: Literary Analysis Essay Lee Maracle’s “Charlie” goes through multiple shifts in mood over the course of the story. These mood are ones of hope and excitement as Charlie and his classmates escape the residential school to fear of the unknown and melancholy as Charlie sets off alone for home ending with despair and insidiousness when Charlie finally succumbs to the elements . Lee highlights these shifts in mood with the use of imagery and symbolism in her descriptions of nature.
In Rachel Sherman’s “A Very Expensive Ordinary Life: Conflicted Consumption,” the argument centres around the “legitimization” of wealth by the New York’s upper class in order to be seen as not only rich, but morally worthy. The possession of great wealth alongside their less fortunate peers could be uncomfortable also for those that hold the city’s riches. Hence, New York’s affluent has “legitimized” their wealth and consumption, or on a more macro level, the inequality between the social classes in the city in order to feel more comfortable in their spending, and to manage the impression of the wealthy in the eyes of the greater public in the much morally contested behaviour of lavish spending in an unequal society. This is supported throughout the reading by the justification of excessive spending and consumption by the claim that the rich live an “ordinary” life. The need that they feel towards justifying their spending comes to show that their amount of spending is excessive in the eyes of the ordinary person, in which they also acknowledge themselves as well.
The poem “From this Height” by Tony Hoagland explores the ideas of the power of wealth, individual versus society, and the circle of life. The speaker, a very wealthy man, uses his money to support his opulent lifestyle. His wealth gives him a very affluent place in society and access to many things a middle class man would only dream of. The speaker struggles with the fact that society played a huge role in his success, yet most people do not get to life the way that he does. The idea of the “circle of life” gives the speaker a reason to justify the way he uses his money and lives his life, because he realizes “it would be a sin not to enjoy” all that he has been blessed with.
The whole passage focuses on a woman’s flashback to her childhood, and the story of her coming of age, for instance: “‘When I think back to the home town of my youth’” (Collier, 1) and “‘The years have taken me worlds away from that time and that place, from the dust and squalor of our lives,” (Collier, 63). Juxtaposition is used many times aswell. In the story the narrator compares the magnificent amount of dust to the idea of green and lush grass and trees that may have been there, “I don’t know why I should remember only the dust. Surely there must have been lush green lawns and paved streets under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but memory is an abstract painting,” (Collier, 1).
He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
This usage of imagery persuades the reader to look at nature in the same manner as he did as a child, which aids his assertion that the separation occurring now is
How can one become one with their environment? Connection with one 's environment was always easier to maintain until the industrial age came into existence. With the birth of modern society came the birth of social responsibilities and burdens unknown to man. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “A place for literature,” Barry Lopez and N. Momaday Momaday explain the impact of lands on its occupants. In “the white heron,” Sarah Jewett explains the feeling of reconnection with one’s inner voice though nature.
In the poem by Sax, he uses anaphoras in the end of the poem by using “this is … this is…” (l. 9-11) in the beginning of each sentence to describe the likeliness of each object to his emotion. The setting of his poem is more ambiguous than Levine’s poem but it could be inferred that it’s at night during winter it could also be in the character’s house during that time as the character remembers the memories that cause him to grieve. Levine’s poem uses symbolism to describe the character’s time of revelations during his process of grieving which is mentioned as a dance but is really the time spent walking in the woods (l. 19). The setting of Levine’s poem is in the woods which can be inferred from the imagery of pinecones and mountain
Wordsworth also uses imagery to expresses a similar experience. In the first stanza he describes “A host, of golden daffodils; /beside the lake, beneath the trees, /Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” (Wordsworth Ln 4-6). Words such as “host”, “golden”, “Fluttering” and “dancing”, all appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, and smell. It brings us into the scene.
A common theme of life that can be seen "Nostalgia" is remembrance. Throughout this poem Collins talks about these characters who remember a time period, "These views assume that nostalgia depends, in some way, on comparing a present situation with a past one" (Howard). The first character begins with, "Where has the summer of 1572 gone? Brocade and sonnet marathons were the rage" (6-7). The first character is remembering a time when a certain activity
Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the poem, “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, both authors are in fact pointing out; don't judge someone for how they look or what they posses, because no one knows what they feel inside and what they are living. In The Great Gatsby, there are many characters whom live the American Dream, but only one best fits with the theme and that is Jay Gatsby. As the final lines of the poem get closer, it becomes more clear that the author's point is; Luxury does not fulfill someone's life. The people in town see Richard Cory with all his luxuries and wish to be in his place, “In fine, we thought that he was everything/ To make us wish that we were in his place” (Robinson 11-12).
He argues that we should treat our land with care and respect as we now treat one another, for we will be ushering a new era of change the is all for the better. The second half of the essay begins with "The Ecological Conscience". Starting off by stating “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” and going on to describe how our fight for land is improving it is moving far too slow. This transforms into the
The picture perfect life that the American Dream promotes is unrealistic and superficial because money is unable to fill the void of happiness or love. Contrary to earlier days, we now life in a time when even a strong work-ethic does not guarantee money, success or opportunities. While many are so ensorcelled by the illusions of the American Dream, we often fail to realize its falsity and constraints. Whether financially or socially, the society coaxes in the unsuspecting American dreamer, only to then spit them out in a wave of despair, failure and hopelessness. As demonstrated by numerous non-conformist individuals, the Dream lies not in the realm of materialism but rather in that of the intangible; often requiring an extreme leap of faith
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.
Even within "Tintern Abbey," Wordsworth shows an unpleasant time through his lamentation of the loss of youth. In some ways the poem refers to a crisis of passing time, maturation, and the effects of memory on "that best portion of a good man's life" (34). By claiming "all its aching joys are now no more," (85) he laments the passage of time. Memory helps to highlight the good in these times long passed.