The poem “American Hero” by Essex Hemphill, is about a competitive match of basketball, however, towards the end the author describes a social denial from other neighborhoods that despise his team. To convey his feelings, the author’s tone in the beginning of the poem is thrilling as it stimulates the feeling of playing competitively in a game of basketball when reading until the game is over when the tone gets wretched as the thought of being denied by the opposing team’s school sinks in to the author’s mind. Furthermore, the tone and the use imagery are used to convey the sense of being in the game and knowing the environment in this tense basketball game. An example of this is on lines 5-9, it states “It’s a shimmering club light and I’m
It is like a breath of fresh air, in contrast to the somber and heavier sections mentioned previously. It”s a noteworthy part of the story because it drives the plot forward, as the author displays Saul’s newly found passion for hockey, as well as his brotherly bond with his teammates. In the text, the reader is introduced to concepts such as laughter, expression and freedom. This demonstrates that, in the midst of the most gruelling and sorrowful times at the residential school, Saul has finally found a safe haven. The spirit of the game is an excellent outlet to distract him from the everyday upheaval and abuse.
In the poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman and in the article, "Excerpt from OTL: Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building" by Wright Thompson, both writers advert to athletes such as Michael Jordan to suggest that those who live a long life of accomplishments will remain in the public's memories. Housman and Thompson suggest this because of how those who support the athlete are described once the athlete is out of the game and how the athlete's life is predicted. In "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman and in "Excerpt from OTL: Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building" by Wright Thompson, it is suggested that a long life of accomplishments will result as a long-term memory to the public based on how the supporters of the athletes are described. Michael Jordan realizes how crazy it is to know that everyone who looks up to him will eventually forget about him when
In John Updike’s poem, “Ex-Basketball Player”, he uses the narrative poetry genre to effectively demonstrate his purpose: to convince readers that specializing in one specific area may not offer a reliable career, so it is important to consider additional options. Narrative poetry genre is effective because it allows Updike to convey his story through narrative elements such as characterization and setting in an elevated way through poetic elements such as rhyme and figurative language. Two narrative elements that assist in portraying Updike’s purpose are characterization and setting. Characterization of the main character, Flick Webb, effectively displays Updike’s purpose.
“Execution” by Edward Hirsch is about an adult recollecting his thoughts about his high school football career and especially how his coach inspired him because his authoritative role model was battling cancer. The speaker talks about the coach’s goal for “perfect execution” and the infinite strategies the coach would draw up in order to reach his goal. The speaker concludes with their team’s loss against “the downstate team” and how they were ironically defeated by “perfect execution.” A superficial reader might assume that the poem was about the disappointing results that came from his team working hard to reach a goal, but the author’s use of impersonal tone and irony in the fact that their team’s loss is caused by “perfect execution” shows how a strong force can be conquered even when putting your best foot forward when accepting a challenge. Have you ever been a part of a team that seemed invincible and you lost?
He employs a reminiscent tone to appeal to the emotions of the readers, making them, too, yearn to relive their childhood days of family car rides. Louv writes, “In our useful boredom, we used our fingers to draw pictures on fogged glass as we watched the telephone poles tick by. We saw birds on the wires and combines in the fields” (lines 62-65). This imagery paints a picture of the nature one sees as a child and helps the reader relive the experience. Louv ends the piece with the statement, “We considered the past and dreamed of the future, and watched it all go by in the blink of an eye” (lines 71-73).
The Poverty-stricken area is filled with death and sickness. He describes it as a horrible place to have to live and work with starving orphans and many sick and dying people living in morbid conditions. The waste filled streets and fire prone buildings were just a regular thing for the people living under the poverty line. 2.) The story takes place in the slums of New York City.
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.
The scene then changes to the narrator’s childhood, a lonely one at it. “I lay on the bed and lost myself in stories,” he says, “I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.” The main narrative starts as he recalls a
EXTENDED RESPONSE ASSESSMENT TASK Post-Apocalyptic Literature Post-apocalyptic literature encourages us to consider what our society values are, through observing human relationships and the ways in which our connections to others either builds or destroys a sense of community, and how the failure of these relationships can lead to a loss of innocence. Mark Smith in his novel The Road to Winter, explores the value of relationships, particularly as a means of survival; also, he suggests that the failure of society to regulate its own progress will lead to a future where innocence is lost. Margaret Atwood in her poem "Burned House" similarly explores the loss of innocence that results from a post-apocalyptic event, suggesting that the grief
Now he came down to earth. I wanted the glory to last forever” (Dillard 102-19). Here she see’s this older adult with a car, a nice suit going to work, but having put all that aside just so he could chase a group a young kids through the snow and yards till he finally caught them. She see’s that even though he has all these things and is an adult he still has exciting moments in his life, she could also tell from how he ran after them that he had glory days in football as well and that chasing them must have been like playing football again. Her style of writing has a fine mixture between narrative writing and expository writing, she tells us a lot about her story, but she also tells us about the people there and what all happened.
In addition to her being tough, young Annie Dillard illustrates herself as a creative child with an imaginative mind. She uses figurative language, such as simile, to compare the tire tracks as “crenellated castle walls” (❡ 5), and goes into describing the ideal snowball: “a perfect iceball, from perfectly white snow, perfectly spherical, and squeezed perfectly translucent…” (❡ 6). The purpose of using these rhetorical strategies is to set a setting of the story and give a background of the
The small town of Odessa’s pride and joy is its football team, which explains the sacrifices are made for the sport. Bissinger’s points on the realities behind high school football that are very surprising to the audience. This overarching case explains why fans are so emotionally dependant on the success of the boys on the team, and how far the coaches will go have the dream team. Several factors about the football team is kept away from the public's eye to maintain the sense of excitement and glory among the community members. A preacher and politician, Laurence Hurd criticizes how
In John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player” the poet uses literary devices to depict the existing way of life of a once-famous sportsperson. Flick Webb was in before times a gifted athlete on his high school basketball team, and he was commendable of much awe. However, Flick never acquired any other skills to prepare him for a future. Accordingly, he now is locked into an unskilled job and his former glories have pale to all but Flick himself. Updike has created a character that is at this point in time going nowhere and spends most of his time thinking about his former days of glory.
The authors want their audiences to use these tales and examples as life lessons and hope for them to utilize these sources in their future lives. These two ideas are presented through the use of figurative language, mainly metaphors. In addition, the similar tone of these pieces allows the author to connect more deeply with the readers. Toni Morrison’s Nobel lecture, folktales, and several poems illustrate how metaphors and tone are used to describe experience and caution the readers.
