It is wholly recurrent to blindly skim through a detailed piece of literature and be unconscious to the likeness it shares with other pieces of literature. I am surely guilty of this ignorant practice, however. As I was reading “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, I didn’t truly perceive the connection right away. The obvious was already divulged in my mind; they’re both in the points of views of children. They, however, both have a mutual theme; growing up brings uncertainty and disappointment.
We often encourage people to actively pursue their happiness while also wanting to discourage them to escape from reality. However, avoiding your issues is also a way of pursuing happiness, even though this route will prove to be temporary. In the literary piece, “Horses of the Night” by Margaret Laurence, the author describes the story of a boy named Chris, who, due to his financial conditions, is forced to move from his home in Shallow Creek to dwell in Manawaka, in order to attend high school. Chris’ character is used to demonstrate the idea that individuals may escape from the miserable aspects of their lives in order to stay happy. Through the course of this work, you witness the changes Chris undergoes, through the eyes of his six-year-old cousin Vanessa, which ultimately lead to his downfall.
The speaker in this poem uses diction, specifically colors, to create a warm tone that is associated with aspects of her childhood in order to shape the image of her identity. Phrases like “the yellow brown of Mama’s cheeks,” “burnt umber pride,” and “ochre gentleness” employ unconventional adjectives
The author, Sandra Cisneros, uses literary techniques in “Eleven” to characterize Rachel by using metaphors, comparisons, and repetition. In the beginning of Sandra Cisneros’s short story, she states that when a person becomes an age older they will not feel a difference. The character Rachel explains that in different situations, for example, “Like some days you might say something stupid, and [you will feel ten]” a person might feel different from their actual age. She then competes growing old to layers of an onion, rings of a tree, wooden dolls that fit inside each other because, according to her, “that’s how being eleven years old is”.
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.
“Nineteen”, by Elizabeth Alexander uses language and tone to form a multi-sensory poem about remembering her youth and desire to connect to her past Vietnam vet lover. These aspects of language and tone are embedded in the outer form of the poem, as the author forms an imaginative recreation of her young adult life, which directly impacts the reader to allow for an enjoyable simple read. The elements of language and tone formation ensure the translation of Alexander’s emotions or feelings of her youth for the audience to relate and understand. In the first place, the language within “Nineteen” is casual and not really poetic.
In this poem “Schoolsville,” Collins explains how life can relate to school, as well as using the elements of comedy, seriousness, memory, and poignancy to express a general idea on life. Life’s experiences can be happy or sad, serious or funny but in the end we all know what we have accomplished within our time. Trials and tribulations may shape us but we all are responsible for the outcomes of our
Coming of age is a time when a young adolescent’s life begins; A new chapter in their lives where life will start to become a roller coaster. There will be the ups in their lives and there will be the lows. However, the roller coaster of life will not be the only obstacle that the adolescent will encounter. As problems in the young adult life come and go, the young often pray for everything to go well and when it does they believe faith has taken its course causing the Generation-Z to rely heavily on faith. The book, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, tells a story of two boys, John Wheelwright and his childhood friend, Owen Meany.
Everyone Grows Up Sometime: Coming of Age in To Kill a Mockingbird Prior to the spring break of my seventh grade year, I didn’t know how harsh the world could really be. I mean I knew about sickness, violence, death, all that good stuff, but I just sort of blew it off because nothing in my life had happened to where I needed to face those things. When I was 12 during spring break, I was as happy as any child would be on their spring vacation, but one day my parents pulled me and my brother aside and told us some pretty devastating news. They had told us that our grandfather had passed away in a house fire a few days ago.
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
A poem written almost 3 decades ago, can be assumed to symbolize the childhood of the speaker. My Wicked Ways radiates an unsatisfied tone from the speaker, has a unique rhythm and meter of poem, and attributes different sound and consonants to help the poem flow better. My Wicked Ways radiates an unsatisfied tone. Sandra Cisneros reminisces about her childhood and her father
Revision of “On Turning Ten” Essay Growing up and living in the adult world requires responsibility, knowledge, and independence. A poem by Billy Collins, “On Turning Ten,” describes a young child as he attempts to grasp the concept of growing up and facing the harsh reality of adult life. The narrator uses a melancholy tone to argue that adult life is challenging, and the best way to cope with these challenges is to reminisce about young childhood memories. The young narrator is convinced that adult life will not be much fun.
In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke illustrates the complex relationship between a little boy and his father by juxtaposing images of love and violence through word choices that portray feelings of fear yet affection for his father. Roethke’s shifting tone encompasses distress and a sense admiration that suggests the complexities of violence both physically and emotionally for the undercurrents of his father and son relationship. The poem begins with a series of negative images, each of which are considered violent and undesirable in a family. For example, “The whiskey on your breath” suggests alcoholism, and “Could make a small boy dizzy” emphasizes that a boy is suffering from the effects of the alcoholic parent.
I. Introduction A. Lisa Parker is snapping beans with her grandmother on the porch, but she is in the process of being changed by her college experience. B. The poem is “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker C. Lisa is a Southern girl, who is home from college in the North; she is going through struggles that are bringing about questioning and changing. D. Lisa is letting go of her safe past so that she can move forward into her own life. II.
Angelou recounts her great pain by using effective hyperbole in the passage. Angelou displays this: “I prayed earnestly that I’d be allowed to sit under the house and have the building collapse on my left jaw. ”(Angelou, 1969, p. 95) Through using hyperbole, Angelou portrays the physical pain she is enduring. Angelou exaggerates the physical pain showing the magnitude of agony experienced at the time.
