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Figurative Language In The Bean Trees

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Recommended: The Bean Trees analyzing figurative language

In Barbara Kingsolver’s story, “The Bean Trees”, something that makes it so effective is her use of figurative language to depict scenery. In chapter 12, Mattie takes Taylor, Esperanza and Estevan to a beautiful desert at the time of the first rain, so they can see the natural world come to life. In order to make the scene come alive, Kingsolver uses sillies, metaphors and personification as a mean of figurative language. Kingsolver personifies the mountains and city. “The sloped desert plain that lay between us and the city was like a palm stretched out for a fortuneteller to read, with its mounds and hillocks, its life lines and heart lines of dry stream beds”. By describing the landscape as the palm of a human hand, she gives living qualities …show more content…

“A cool breeze came up behind us, sending shivers along the spines of the mesquite trees.” The text contains elements of the unconscious process of shivering and allows Taylor to project her inner feelings onto the landscape. The language mirrors how Taylor’s mind works and shows this by sending “shivers along the spines of the mesquite trees” as well as up her own spine, almost personifying the trees. Kingsolver’s descriptions of the natural landscape, shows her consciousness of the environment. “The whole Tucson Valley lay in front of us, resting in its cradle of mountains”. Her phrase, “resting in its cradle of mountains” makes an analogy of the valley to a baby. The rest of the phrase includes “city like a palm” and “life lines and heart lines”, which suggest an adult. This quote is an example of personification and unusual use of metaphor. In chapter 12 of “The bean Trees”, Kingsolver shows the beauty of nature through her figurative language. Her descriptions of the natural landscape, show that the land embodies a life of a baby to an adult- from birth to death. Taylor falls in love with the Arizona’s desert land and sky, and her appreciation for nature is mirrored in the landscape that is in front of

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In the story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier there are several figurative language sentences and symbols that have meaning to the overall theme of the story. "Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion." (Collier 11) This means that Lizabeth is explaining everything she is going through and how her life and emotions are. She uses an accordion to describe this because an accordion is a fun and upbeat instrument and a "broken accordion" is the complete opposite.

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In the book A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith uses many literary devices like imagery and characterisation. Betty also uses social stratification, ethos, pathos, and logos in the book to help create a well rounded book. She writes about a poor family that lives in brooklyn and their struggles to survive and climb the social ladder. Johnny and Katie go through hard times, losses and success to try to survive and to have a better life for their children Francie and Neeley. They give everything they have and sometimes sacrificing food so Francie and Neeley will graduate high school and have a better life.

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My claim is that the Woods Runner paints a better picture in our minds if it uses figurative language opposed to not using figurative language. Without figurative language the picture you get from the story won't be as detailed. To begin one point of the story where figurative language is important is on page 21,” willing it to not be what was coming into his mind like a dark snake a slithering horror. ” I really think this paints a wonderful picture of what he is thinking about. Another example would be when it says on page 21,” it would be like Running Blind.”

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To began with, Symbolism is literary element used often in The Bean Trees and Mirror Image. In Kingsolvers book, symbolism is used in the very title The Bean Trees. Turtle’s first word is bean which she gets from seeing a wisteria plant that has gone into seed form and produced bean like pods. Later the author emphasizes the symbolism by having Turtle read about how the plant thrives in bad conditions.

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The Bean Trees is can be seen as another The Thing They Carried styled writing. Tim O’Brien wrote a fictional story, inspired by his own time in the Vietnam War. The Bean Trees is a fictional story, inspired by Barbra Kingsolver’s own personal motherhood journey. Kingsolver has two children, Camille and Lily (Kingsolver, http://www.kingsolver.com/biography). Using her own experiences unmistakably makes The Bean Trees truly hers as she drew from her experiences as a mother to accurately show Taylors transition from adolescent to motherhood.

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In the short fiction story “The Monkey Garden” by Sandra Cisneros, the author uses deep, rich figurative language to effect the exotic setting. “There were sunflowers, big as flowers on Mars and thick cockscombs bleeding the deep red fringe of theater curtain” (Cisneros 1). A simile is used to create a scene of being on another planet, a place where the monkeys once lived. The usage of descriptive words such as, “ bleeding the deep fringe” (1), and “ thick cockscomb” (1), to give the reader a sense of being in a jungle filled with tropical life and pleasure. The author uses words that are exotic in nature to emanate the jungle scenery.

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3. In "Making Peace" Kingsolver establishes that the wild is something that can be peculiar and with its originality one must adjust to what happens. At the point when the author sees that her garden is eaten by wild hoards every night even after she encompasses it with metal wall. 4. "

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In Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees, many themes appear as the reader analyzes the novel. Themes of womanhood, friendship, responsibility, and community tend to be a highlight of the novel. Taylor Greer goes through many of these themes and learns more about herself than she ever did in her hometown with her mother.

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For example, Latour finds a juniper tree that is in a shape of a cross. This shows the reader how Cather tries to describe faith ‘unconsciously’ through his mind. The landscape plays a big role in Latour’s personal experience by believing “an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love” (Cather 40) and how he projects himself onto it. From the beginning of his journey, New Mexico manages to captivate him when he relates the symbol to the Holy Trinity. By using direct characterization, Cather begins to develop Latours character and faith throughout the chapters.

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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.

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Specifically, the mentions of the changing of the garden from flourished with shrubs and tress to overturned with abandonment. These images of decay perfectly represent the attempt to replicate an English garden on the soil of New England. Readers see Hawthorne’s use of personification throughout his descriptions of nature by bringing lifelike qualities and appearances to their

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Nature abounds in Hawthorne’s novel, as he uses it as a backdrop for several forms of juxtaposition: light and darkness, obscurity and clarity, and community and individual. These contrasting themes deal specifically with Hester and Dimmesdale’s sinful affair, and appear more sinister due to the Gothic ambience created by the forest surrounding the town. Because of the foreboding created by the woods on the Puritan community, the novel is given an overall atmosphere of misery and dimness, a proper and fitting milieu for the

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Kingsolver describes the environment by stating statements such as “these looming conifers held an old grudge, peeved at being pissd over”, “the branches seem to writhe”, and “the burning trees were put here to

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Emerson on Nature In The Prairies, William Cullen Bryant writes about the prairies in Illinois which to him seem peaceful and serene. Bryant 's view of the prairies goes hand in hand with Emerson 's statement of "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows" (Chapter 1, Nature 510). As Bryant gazes at the prairies he is captivated and subsequently lost in its beauty "These are the garden of the Desert, these

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Gaining your freedom. Aunty Ifeoma and her family are clearly shown to be the group with power or privileges. They might not be rich or loved by the community, but they all have their voices. The ability to speak out is portrayed as power in Purple Hibiscus. Kambili, Jaja, and Mama could not speak against their Father.

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