Stories are the foundation of relationships. They represent the shared lessons, the memories, and the feelings between people. But often times, those stories are mistakenly left unspoken; often times, the weight of the impending future mutes the stories, and what remains is nothing more than self-destructive questions and emotions that “add up to silence” (Lee. 23). In “A Story” by Li-Young Lee, Lee uses economic imagery of the transient present and the inevitable and fear-igniting future, a third person omniscient point of view that shifts between the father’s and son’s perspective and between the present and future, and emotional diction to depict the undying love between a father and a son shadowed by the fear of change and to illuminate the damage caused by silence and the differences between childhood and adulthood perception. “A Story” is essentially a pencil sketch of the juxtaposition between the father’s biggest fear and the beautiful present he is unable to enjoy.
In the beginning of The Great Divorce (Lewis, 1973), the narrator finds himself in a desolate place: a never-ending city of gray buildings and deserted houses. While this description appeals our visualization of how hell, represented by the city, might appear, Lewis (1973) also uses the landscape to paint an emotional understanding hell. As stated by one of the narrator’s acquaintances, “the trouble is, they [the citizens] have no Needs” (Lewis, 1973,
In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”
According to the late, tragic folk hero, Joe Hill, “A good song could be learned and remembered, while a pamphlet would be read once and thrown away.” (Weissman, 175) Such an idea proves its validity when examining the long-lasting professional and societal success of the depression-era folk protest singer, Woody Guthrie. Throughout his adolescence and his adventures as a box-car musician during the early 1930s, Guthrie faced hardships unparalleled by popular singers of his day. Taken aback by the horrors he witnessed as the dust bowl and the Great Depression tore through the badlands he called home, Guthrie faced emotional turmoil, both in himself, and in the society that surrounded him.
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men portrays the migrant workers during the Great Depression, telling the downfall of two migrant workers, George and Lennie, working on a ranch, pursuing their American Dream – having their own land with rabbits, in a straightforward style. The author used not only major but also minor characters to bring out themes and reflect social issues during that time, for instance, social hierarchy, social injustice, sexism, the weak against the strong and innocence versus violence, also to foreshadow different events of the plot. First of all, the author uses the boss to illustrate the social hierarchy and injustice in the society during the Great Depression. In the novella, the boss is the one who runs the ranch and is well-dressed. He only appeared in the second chapter, interviewing George and Lennie, and acted quite generously, had a good impression in the workers mind – “he’s a pretty nice fella,” as Candy once said.
Cheever would write about about characters who tried to deny that “their lives are fraught with problems” (“John Cheever:Parody and The Suburban Aesthetic”). Cheever also tried to deny feelings by telling a fictional story “about his own life” (Simon). Both Cheever and his characters would “feel isolated in moral dilemmas” (“John Cheever:Parody and The Suburban Aesthetic”). This connection between Cheever and his characters was just one aspect of his writing. Throughout Cheever’s short stories, a few common themes have recurred.
With the world being described this way in the novel, it created a melancholy feeling. Finally, through the use of conflict, loneliness had played a part in the novel, considering that many things had happened, due to the feeling of
“Sometimes it’s better to be alone, then no one can hurt you”. John Steinbeck illustrates throughout his novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ the secluded and detached ranch life in the early 1930’s and explores the lives of itinerant workers who share the same dream of escaping the lack of friendship as well as drifting from ranch to ranch desperately trying to make a living. Steinbeck shows that all his characters demonstrate isolation, although some suffer this more than others. By these ranchers living in the town of Soledad (Spanish for loneliness), the readers get the impression of the depressing environment and that the characters are constantly facing overwhelming challenges and stress of being alienated. Loneliness is the feeling of isolation
Junior, the main character from Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Jim Donnini, the main character of Vonnegut’s story “The Boy Nobody Could Handle”, both of them and their stories demonstrate how hopelessness leads to finding hope quite
Vanderhaeghe’s writing often specifies the importance of going against society’s standards. Through his story, he shows the comparison between a round, dynamic character, to a flat, self-indulged woman. His writing proves that those who suffer undergo change in a way only they can understand. Vanderhaeghe was a writer that felt strongly towards speaking out for those who could not. Many of his stories represented a fight for emotional survival that were not always won.
Mortality and Existence in As I Lay Dying Born in the poverty stricken South in the late nineteenth century, William Faulkner was one of the first authors to draw upon this environment for inspiration in his novels. His literary works did not go unrecognized; he won the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for his various novels and is regarded as one of the most successful southern authors. In As I Lay Dying, an 18th century novel set in the post-Civil War South, Faulkner utilizes the raw reality of America’s South to portray the harsh reality of our human existence. Through this rich environment, Faulkner is able to explore ideas of mortality and existence through the varying perspectives of Addie, Darl, Vardaman, and Cash in As I Lay Dying.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is an interesting novel to read about a time in which there was racial problem and the ways they healed themselves through music. The ending is depressing, but it teaches us about human emotion. The novel’s central focus is on a deaf-mute who finds himself the sounding board for four members of a small Georgia town, a restaurant owner, a political activist, an African American doctor and a teen-age girl. Through their stories, the characters reveal their frustrations, their loneliness and their isolation from those around them. According to Richard M. Cook, the final impression conveyed by the novel is one of tragic waste, which is the natural outcome come of a disillusioned society.
Unless it can be proven to me- to me as I am now, today, with my heart and my beard, and my putrefaction – that in the infinite run it does not matter a jot that a North American girl-child named Dolores Haze had been deprived of her childhood by a maniac, unless this can be proven (and if it can, then life is a joke), I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art (Nabokov
Throughout the Nick Adams stories many recurring themes are presented. In many of Ernest Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories, the theme of avoidance is evident. Nick shows reluctance toward what his future will hold, primarily his romantic future, and coming to terms with his feelings about war. This theme is prominently featured in “The End of Something,” “The Three Day Blow,” “Cross-Country Snow,” “Big Two-Hearted River: Part 1,” and “Big Two-Hearted River: Part 2.” In Hemingway’s short story “The End of Something,” Nick’s avoidance of his romantic future with Marjorie creates a strain on the relationship.
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.
