In the essay “The Things with Feathers That Perches in the Soul “, Anthony Doerr asks “What lasts? Is there anything you’ve made in your life that will still be here 150 years from now? Is there anything on your shelves that will be tagged and numbered and kept in a warehouse like this?” (Doerr 97). The idea the author is trying to imply there are things in this world that will fade.
When Rahm started flying, he “seemed to fall down the air...streaming beauty in spirals behind him.” This example of imagery juxtaposes to the previous mundane details in order to convey how once Rahm entered the plane, he became one with it.
Flying is a thought that everyone wishes to do, however some wishes don’t come true. “Waxen Wings” by Ha Songnan is about a girl named Birdie, a nickname she earns because she wishes to fly. Birdie tries to fly, but struggles every time. Throughout the story, Ha Songnan utilizes cause and effect, second-person point of view, and repetition of ideas emphasize the importance of rising after a fall. Songnan uses cause and effect structure to show structure in the story to highlight the importance of rising after a failure. When Birdie attempts to dabble in gymnastics, her achievement falters because of her body.
Tracey Lindberg’s novel Birdie is narratively constructed in a contorting and poetic manner yet illustrates the seriousness of violence experience by Indigenous females. The novel is about a young Cree woman Bernice Meetoos (Birdie) recalling her devasting past and visionary journey to places she has lived and the search for home and family. Lindberg captures Bernice’s internal therapeutic journey to recover from childhood traumas of incest, sexual abuse, and social dysfunctions. She also presents Bernice’s self-determination to achieve a standard of good health and well-being. The narrative presents Bernice for the most part lying in bed and reflecting on her dark life in the form of dreams.
They look up from their lives, woman and animal, amazed to find themselves in the same place… Without taking his eyes from her, he twitches a little at the knee, then the shoulder, where a fly devils him. Finally he surrenders his surprise, looks away, and drinks… It lasted just a moment, whatever that is. One held breath? An ant’s afternoon?
Because of this, Smith looks to take his soul on a flight to have a less grueling, shameful, and horrible life. Next, Morrison describes the length of time between when Smith decides to fly and when he actually does. Morrison does this through imagery when she writes, “They stood this way for some time, none of them crying out to Mr. Smith, all of them preoccupied with one or the other of the minor events about them, until the hospital people came.” (12) Morrison gives readers a time scale of how long Smith has been trying to fly by using the image of a crowd gathering in the place of where Smith is trying to fly and how long it they have been standing there. This further helps readers further develop theme of no matter how long it takes, the flight of the soul will always lead to a better life by portraying how long it can take a soul to fly.
Johnson speaks of a Bohemian shepherd who listened in on a vulture’s tale: the vulture described to her children the dynamics of man, and how through their battling with each other they provide the vultures food. The vultures ponder why man is so self-destructive to a degree not shared by any other animal. The purpose of the piece
The peacocks become a central point of the narrator’s life. The narrator describes the appearance and attitude of these grand birds in great
Another bullet point that helped me out is to really know about my subject before I decide write a whole paper on it. Nobody can write a whole paper that makes sense on something they didn’t research or even put effort in trying to learn about it, and sometimes that's how I feel when I write papers for classes. After I turn a paper in I think to myself: Did I do enough research about this? , Did I tell them the main points or just the details? , Did I even tell them enough of the topic I researched?.
“There had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one--the one that was part of memory. I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt
Adventure and desire are common qualities in humans and Sarah Orne Jewett’s excerpt from “A White Heron” is no different. The heroine, Sylvia, a “small and silly” girl, is determined to do whatever it takes to know what can be seen from the highest point near her home. Jewett uses literary elements such as diction, imagery, and narrative pace to dramatize this “gray-eyed child” on her remarkable adventure. Word choice and imagery are necessary elements to put the reader in the mind of Sylvia as she embarks on her treacherous climb to the top of the world. Jewett is picturesque when describing Sylvia’s journey to the tip of one unconquered pine tree.
This passage from “A white Heron”, by Sarah Orne Jewett, details a short yet epic journey of a young girl, and it is done in an entertaining way. Jewett immediately familiarizes us with our protagonist, Sylvia, in the first paragraph, and our antagonist: the tree. However, this is a bit more creative, as the tree stands not only as an opponent, but as a surmountable object that can strengthen and inspire Sylvia as she climbs it. This “old pine” is described as massive, to the point where it, “towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away.” (Line 8).
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, describes the spectacle of an angel that falls into the yard of a village family. Told by a third-person narrator, a unique character is discovered outside of Elisenda’s and Pelayo’s home. They precede to place him in a chicken coop on display for all of the village to see. The old man is an attraction that people travel near and far to observe. The atrocious conditions in with the decrepit angel lives in are a direct result of the village peoples’ scorn for oddity.
Narrative point of view can express a different perspective to the reader by presenting experience, voice, and setting. Perspective is a particular way or attitude of considering events, by whatever character’s point of view the narrator takes. A character’s background and experiences in their life is a key to help the reader relate to the character. Culture may provide more insight about the circumstances, and can change a reader’s perspective, as well as the voice of the narrator - sophisticated or naive.
Primarily, Jason Reynolds criticizes the concept and notion that everyone possesses the same ability for flight, the same ability to achieve greatness: “To spread my wings and change the world without ever addressing the fact that not all of us have wings. There are those of us whose wings have been clipped”(Reynolds 7:32). Jason Reynolds vividly appeals to the emotions of the audience of the immense symbolism and parallelism within his statements about wings. Repeatedly, Reynolds reinforces the wings as a sign and symbol of opportunity for those who have them, but for those whose “wings have been clipped”, they are stuck, unable to fly in the air, appealing to the audiences’ emotions to reflect on the differences of people and what they had had to allow them to graduate. Such symbolism and metaphor used masterfully by Jason Reynolds provides a further appeal to emotions through poignant and deeply meaningful words not conveyed through direct
