In the story of Tom Brennan by J.C. Burke, the protagonist Tom experiences a traumatic catastrophe of his brother’s drink driving incident leaving his brother Daniel in jail, two dead and one paralysed which left Tom’s beliefs of his family shattered. Tom’s response to such a chaotic event in their social position is one of self-hatred, this is portrayed through the extended metaphor of darkness, “In the dark I could see the grime… I could feel it pasted crawling on my skin,” emphasising the despair and melancholy which fills Tom’s heart, and the sense of paralysis. The author demonstrates Tom’s progress of transition maturity throughout the physical motif of running, as Uncle Brendan quotes “Start running tomorrow, i’ve never seen you so..
"The Race" by Sharon Olds the author uses, similes, allusion, and anaphora to deliver and engage the reader to go more deeply into the passage. Not only did the author uses a powerful repetition but the author had an overall meaning to the short story. The overall tone of the short story was delivered to the readers and helped support the literary elements. Throughout the poem, the author used imagery to deliver an important image to the readers. It states on line 33-35 , " I have seen pictures of women running, their belongings tied in scarves grasped in their firsts.
Olds also uses vivid descriptions in order to inject a realistic approach into the poem. Olds beginning of similes start in the seventh line of the poem and is used to show the similarities between the bodies of gravediggers’ preparation to be buried and a tree’s preparation for life. The speaker says, “ They lay on the soil, some of them wrapped in dark cloth bound with rope like the tree’s ball of roots when it waits to be planted”(Olds Lines 5-8). After the gravediggers’ fight against starvation they are taken on a “child’s sled” to a cemetery (Olds Line 4). The “child’s sled” as being a
For the entire duration of the poem, the reader is able to infer how the complexity of the relationship changes and how the father feels about his son through the techniques and methods stated above. Within A Story, Lee uses point of view from both characters to convey the idea that the father’s relationship with his son is indeed, increasingly complex. The reader also learns from this point of view technique that the time of thought within the poem constantly changes. The boy’s young age is shown clearly in the beginning of the poem as: “His five-year-old son waits in his lap.”
Every story consists of different elements, such as characters, plotlines, and settings. Nonetheless, many stories portray the same messages or ideas. “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, depicts a reckless father who is loved by his child, while “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, depicts a hardworking father whose child is indifferent to him. Though the poems depict exceptionally different childhoods, both contribute to the idea that perceptions of parents alter as one grows into adulthood. Both poems use harsh words and critical tones in order to convey this notion, however in “My Papa’s Waltz,” they signify the recklessness of the father and how the narrator perceives his father as an adult, while in “Those Winter Sundays,” they
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, The Race Beat, was a novel written by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff; who were both American journalists and editors. The Race Beat was written based on the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. The centralized idea of this novel was to show how racism was finally brought forth and acknowledged as a whole from the nation. This idea was presented from both televised media and printed media. The way The Race Beat was organized was through a bunch of collected interviews, unpublished articles, notes from secret meetings, and even private correspondences.
Beth E. Brant's "Swimming Upstream" uses a variety of symbols to explore complex issues such as addiction, trauma, and resilience in the lives of Native American communities. Her three key symbols used throughout the story are torn fins, alcohol, and water, representing different aspects of these themes and providing insight into the struggles and challenges the characters face. The torn fin, which is discovered on Anna May's son after he drowns, serves as a metaphor for the damage and trauma he has experienced in his life. The symbol represents the obstacles and challenges that he faced in his constant struggle against the forces that threatened to overwhelm him.
She grabbed him whimpering; held him under till the struggle ceased and the bubbles rose silver from his fur. (Hood 414) In Mary Hoods “How Far She Went” A grandmother struggles with the burden of experience, loss and a life of hard decisions; where a girl strives to live in a naïve and free spirited illusion. The paths of a grandmother and her granddaughter soon collide when experience and naivety meet on a dirt road in the south. “How Far She Went” illustrates how generational struggles and tragedies can mold people influencing their lives and the way they live.
This also symbolizes that she has grown up and grown further away from her father since she has grown up. She no longer has that relationship with him, and it is something she cannot rebuild or
Also, the fish represent the obstacles that one may face while trying to reach their goal and shaping their ability to achieve it. This ultimately challenges them to decide whether to accept the task and grow or abandon their dreams by giving up. The girl’s the environment around her influenced her hard work ethic and her decision to have patience to accomplish her
This representing how fast childhood ends. The next lines poem, “Her early leaf’s
She addresses her father as “daddy” like a little kid, speaks in a child-like abrupt manner, and begins the poem with “you do not do/you do not do/ anymore black shoe,” lines that resemble the old nursery rhyme “There is an old woman who lived in a shoe”. However, this is not a happy child, but one with frustration and unresolved conflicts with her father, as she calls him “evil” and a “bastard”. Furthermore, the way an adult woman completely turns into her childhood self suggests an obsession and a fixation within the past, a phenomenon commonly associated with psychological deficiencies stemming from unsolved childhood issues. These observations correspond to how the speaker metaphorically refers to her father as a “black shoe” that she had to live in, showing her inability to overcome the shadow of her late father. Thus, by addressing him directly instead of referring to him in the past tense, the speaker confronts her obsession and tries to escape the
The balance between her reminiscing the past or holding on to so much aggression that she is forced to let go. These balances of struggle hold true throughout the entire poem to highlight the subliminal metaphors equipped with items typically used to destroy rather than build, along with symbolism that alludes to fighting
In stanza one, the speaker uses paradox to establish the fact that she is in awe about how fast her children have grown up. She portrays her daughters as “enormous children” and seems to be mesmerized with the contrast between their appearance and their age (1). The speaker’s thoughts reveal a bewildered tone towards her children and initiate a thought process on how and why they behave and appear older than they are. In stanzas two and three, the speaker reveals the irony of her children’s
Young’s poem portrays life’s hardships and the struggle between a person and the world. Young encourages his readers to venture out of their comfort zone and to live life to its fullest potential, which is the theme. Al Young develops and supports his argument by using literary devices. Including symbolism, hyperbole, and metaphors.
