ipl-logo

Personification In The Vacuum By Howard Nemerov

589 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: People you may know poem analysis

The poem “The Vacuum” by Howard Nemerov tells the life of an old man after the horrific loss of his wife. His wife did everything he could ever imagine for him. She was his heart and soul and didn’t know what to do without her. The man saw her as his hero. Throughout the poem the man struggles to keep his emotions in as he thinks his wife soul has traveled to inside the vacuum. He never wants to hear the vacuum come to life because every time he hears the vacuum turn on, his memories with his wife start to rush in his head. In the “The Vacuum” Howard Nemerov uses symbols, similes and personification in order to reveal losing a spouse can be devastating. The author uses a symbol to reveal the theme and focuses on his hero which is also his wife. The reason why the wife is the man’s hero is because she took good care of him. The poem explains …show more content…

Howard gives the vacuum qualities by saying the bag smiled “it’s mouth/Grinning into the floor” (line 3-4). Vacuums do not have a mouth which makes it physically impossible to grin, therefore he used personification. Howard Nemerov used most personification on the vacuum because his wife’s soul went into the vacuum. The man also says “eating the dust/ and the woolen mice” (line 9-10), meaning the vacuum is full with dust and trash from the floor that his wife had cleaned. All through the poem Howard Nemerov did an excellent job using different literary devices to show the man’s struggles after the loss of his beloved wife. Throughout the poem he uses literary devices such as a symbol, similes and personification in order to reveal his pain after a tragic loss. The husband became depressed as the days went by without his wife. His wife became symbolized as a vacuum because she made sure the house was clean each and every day so he could be happy. The similes and personification showed that the vacuum was the main symbol in the

Show More
Related

How Did Jackie Robinson End The Jim Crow Law

344 Words | 2 Pages

IN the horrid times of the Jim Crow Law one man made an impact to help stop racial tension, and that man is Jackie Robinson. One boldly stated example to show how Jackie robinson help stop JimCrow is, “The nation was divided at first. Many whites and nearly all blacks applauded the move and said it was long overdue. But a large number of whites, including many major league baseball players, objected to his presence.” This example boldly presented how Jackie was able to try and overrule the jim crow law and help overcome segregation, another example to prove how Jackie Robinson helped end segregation and end the Jim Crow Laws is, “Robinson 's action had repercussions far beyond the sports world.

Read More

Sacrifice In Bruce Dawe's 'Drifters'

1833 Words | 8 Pages

The conflicting interests of the mother and the father result in a situation where one must make a sacrifice in order to preserve the connection in the family. The flat depressed tone of the poem reflects the mother’s unhappiness and frustration about having to constantly

Read More

Personification In The Veldt

896 Words | 4 Pages

In The Veldt created by the one and only Ray Bradbury, he uses multiple examples of author’s craft such as personification and tone or mood. These crafts were written into the story to help prove and point out the theme of influencing children with so much technology early on can not only stir up violent thoughts but, can also cause breaks between friend and family relationships. The first author’s craft that can prove this theme to be true is personification. One example is, “the walls began to purr and recede.” Although walls can not do this, Ray Bradbury uses it in his story to show how much technology the family living in the Happy Home have given to their children.

Read More

Rita Dove Daystar

1814 Words | 8 Pages

In Rita Dove’s “Daystar”, there are several phrases and words that lead the reader of the poem to a profound understanding of the struggles that the main character of this poem experiences. According to the context of the poem, the main character appears to be a mother and wife in distress. Throughout the poem, she is presented as having a dreary, lethargic, and disconnected outlook of her current situation. The main question that must be asked is what the narrator tried to convey by stating that “she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day” (21-22). There are many possible answers strung across the poem that suggest why this mother describes her state of being in this way, such as the words that were being used to express how

Read More

Frederick Douglass Kate Chopin Analysis

916 Words | 4 Pages

Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. (Chopin III)” Chopin uses the super detailed description of Edna crying to appeal to the audience and demonstrate how Edna’s current situation is exceedingly unpleasant. In both situations the authors use pathos to appeal to the audience and show the characters in dark and unpleasant situations to display how horrendous their situations

Read More

Reflection Of John Adams 'On The Transmigration Of Souls'

1545 Words | 7 Pages

Upon listening to the few minutes of John Adams’ piece, On the Transmigration of Souls, my memory was immediately brought back to the emotions I felt while standing at the reflection pools at Ground Zero. Not until reading the playbill from the New York Philharmonic’s production of Adams’ piece did I realize that the piece was in fact created as a meditative “memory space” for those who suffered a loss from the attacks on September 11, 2001 and any other loss humans experience. John Adams’ piece creates a “memory space” those suffering a loss from the horrific events of 9/11 but also for those enduring losses from all aspects of life. Through the noise from the city streets, repetition of the word “missing” and “remember”, reading of victim’s names and text from missing-persons posters, listeners enter into a time

Read More

Marshall Davis Jones Essay

991 Words | 4 Pages

Firstly, the speaker is the one who is telling the poem

Read More

Poem Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

793 Words | 4 Pages

The poem “A Story” by Li-Young Lee depicts the complex relationship between a boy and his father when the boy asks his father for a story and he can’t come up with one. When you’re a parent your main focus is to make your child happy and to meet all the expectations your child meets. When you come to realize a certain expectation can’t satisfy the person you love your reaction should automatically be to question what would happen if you never end up satisfying them. When the father does this he realizes the outcome isn’t what he’d hope for. He then finally realizes that he still has time to meet that expectation and he isn’t being rushed.

Read More

Hi Howya Doin Literary Analysis

781 Words | 4 Pages

The theme of the story is about the happiness in life so many people have numbed themselves to or feel as though they are forbidden to feel. Through the surprise and ironic death of the protagonist, Oates shows how easily that joy and happiness can disappear or be ripped away. The setting and theme of this story relates to our current society and how individuals within society feel entitled to extreme privacy and personal space and are unable to cope with stress, anxiety and the struggles of everyday life. Oates also depicts and how an invasion of this could trigger irrational reactions to something as small as a

Read More

Personification In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

779 Words | 4 Pages

The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.

Read More

The Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

828 Words | 4 Pages

Louise’s victory in accepting her husband’s death is a feeling that she now cannot live without. The ultimate death of Louise Mallard is one that represents physical and emotional defeat. In this dramatic short story, Chopin uses imagery to sew together a tapestry of emotions all encompassed in an ill-stricken widow. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”

Read More

Analysis Of The Wife's Story By Ursula K. Leguin

740 Words | 3 Pages

The Wife’s Story Ursula K. Leguin is a short story describing a wife retrospective of her husband who she thought of as a loving and caring father and husband a somewhat perfect person always gentle. Yet he had a fatal flaw that led to his death that the wife failed to recognize until it was too late. Throughout the story, the wife recounts important events that led to his deaths events that should have been clues to aid her to recognize the flaw within her husband. In the story, Leguin shows us how the wife’s perception was deceiving her. She was looking at her husband but couldn’t see him for whom he really was.

Read More

The Symbolism Of Absence In Ann Beattie's Snow

542 Words | 3 Pages

Being away from a person or place for a period of time causes differing underlining emotions in a person, whether the feelings are good or bad. Absence, sometimes, creates a sense of loneliness, regretfulness, or longing for the past. Ann Beattie’s short story, “Snow” reveals the emotions of the narrator as she reminisces on her past life. A central theme of absence is prevalent throughout the short story, which is conveyed to the readers through the use of symbolism.

Read More

Why Did Kate Chopin Write A Story Of An Hour

897 Words | 4 Pages

Kate Chopin wrote a story about Mrs. Mallard, a married woman who suffers from heart problems and also has to cope with her husband recent passing. Mrs.Mallard, she showed sincere grief about her husband passing. However, looking back at how controlling her husband Mr.Mallard were in their marriage, Mrs.Mallard felt a sudden joy when processing her husband death After her sudden emotional change, Mrs Mallard felt liberated when she started thinking about what her life would be like without Mr.Mallard, but regardless of the happiness she feels, she knows that once she sees her husband in corpse that sadness will return. Through her writing, author Chopin readers/ audience would be women who feel trapped and controlled in their marriage. Anger, loneliness and heartbroken are feelings that women who're coping with the death of their loved one feel.

Read More

Poem Analysis: Nothing But Death By Pablo Neruda

1000 Words | 4 Pages

There are seven stanzas in this poem and the techniques appeared in the poem are Imagery, Simile, Metaphor, and Alliteration. The imagery is the techniques used all over the seven stanzas in this poem to describe the image of the Death the movement, and the sound which included Auditory, Visual, and Kinetic. The First stanza described the environment in the cemeteries, the heart refers to the dead bodies in the graves and a tunnel could be coffins. The dead bodies sleeping in a tunnel which give the image of the coffin and in this stanza the poet also used a Simile in the last three lines by using word “like” and “as though.”

Read More

More about Personification In The Vacuum By Howard Nemerov

Related Topics

Open Document