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Let The Dead Bury The Dead: A Literary Analysis

1857 Words8 Pages

Most individuals are able to succeed in life based on their past occurrences. Normally, everyone’s life is the way it is based on what they have done or experienced in the past. However, how one reacts to to their experiences determines their outcome in life. History, memories, and the past encounters are never entirely separated from current events. In order for things to be set in motion in the present, past transgressions precede to teach valuable lessons that connects to the present. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Let the Dead Bury the Dead by Randall Kenan are novels written that showcase how black people in America were treated during a time of civil unrest in the black community. After reading both novels, characters from each …show more content…

A man by name of Ellsworth Batts, who never recovered from the death of his beloved wife, Mildred, comes to Clarence for help. With the help of Clarence, Ellsworth was able to communicate with his dead wife. This gave Ellsworth the closure he needed to recover from the pain he encountered since the death of his wife.“The next day Ellsworth came at dusk dark, and lo and behold, said Miss Eunice, he’d fixed himself up washed and trimmed his hair,and had on a nice clean set of clothes -God knows where he got them from- looking in a spirit she hadn’t seen him in since he got off to the army” (Kenan 18). The death of his wife was his past and it had a remarkable impact on his present life. Ellsworth was not taking care of himself and let the days pass him. He became reclusive and days and nights blended together in his grief. The closure he experienced in his present allowed him to let go of his past and enjoy what the present and future had to give

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Literary Devices in the Cremation of Sam McGee Literary devices are used to help readers understand an author’s idea. Robert W. Service uses literary devices throughout his poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” These devices can be easy to spot or sometimes have to be studied in order to find them. The poem tells about a man who was panning for gold in the Yukon and froze to death in the cold. While his accomplice made a promise to dispose his body no matter the circumstances.

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