Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it.
In the poem Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind by Stephen Crane, Stephen talks about the aspects of war and the effects it has on people outside of the war. Another poem called the sonnet-ballad by Gwendolyn Brooks, talks about a woman who has just lost her lover do to the war and is asking her mother where happiness is. In both texts, the authors focus on the negative and how cruel war really is. Although the authors focus the the horrific parts of war, Brooks sees beauty in war and how tempting it is. However, Crane only focuses the dreadful and grim parts of war.
In the opening chapter of the book Memorial Day, by Vince Flynn, the CIA has got some intimation that a nuclear bomb is set to go off in Washington D.C., in a week. It is up to Mitch Rapp, a CIA counterterrorism expert, and a handful of others to track down the bomb, and terrorists, and catch them before it is too late. Mitch Rapp flies all over the world piecing together the clues they need to come out ahead. The whole plot of the book Power Down, by Ben Coes, is set into action when two of the most successful United States Energy companies just merged into one. And not a day later, their two biggest energy plants are being blown up.
In “Federico’s Ghost” by Martin Espada, the claim is that poor, hard-working families are often stuck in negligent situations. Pathos creates the strongest appeal because the author is describing families that are just getting by, being killed by a pilot flying a crop duster, just doing what he can do to get by as well. Love can be everlasting if it is expressed correctly; this is the claim in “Sonnet 18.” In this case, it is expressed in a poem, and it has lived on through hundreds of years. William Shakespeare uses an abundance of pathos to describe how his lover is everlasting because of the poem he wrote.
In The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Maya Lin employs rhetorical devices in order to elucidate, the gross cost of the Vietnam Conflict in U.S. lives. The minimalist design used in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial emphasizes the overwhelming amount of human lives lost. On the Wall, a small diamond is depicted next to the names of people confirmed dead, if a person is MIA(Missing in Action) they get a small cross next to their name. The cross can easily be carved into a diamond if the person is confirmed dead ,or turned into a circle, a symbol of life, if they are found alive.
It illustrates when troops are back from the war their are considering taking their lives because their feel like murders since; they took someone else’s life and all the killing that happens within the war. For example, when one of their comrade’s is killed they feel guilty, and it will lead them to feel like their should have done a better job protecting each other. As a result, what they experience during the war can cause trauma to the brain, trigger the memory system and every man’s life
In Chris Semansky, in an essay for Poetry for Students Chis Semansky explains how the poem "Facing It" and a memorial, Vietnam Memorial, are relatable. The Vietnam Memorial and the poem both are not as they seem is the first point Semansky makes in his article. He believes that people who view the monument and the poem keep having "perceptual mistakes"(121) about them, and that in order to not have these we must look deeper. The monument itself has a few mistakes, so even if we understand everything about the monument as it was intended we will still experience a mistake.
Edgar Allan Poe used similar settings in his work to establish mood. There are similarities in the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Raven,” and “The Tell Tale Heart.” In all three of the selections, Poe created a creepy mood. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” the setting was at night in the catacombs of Montresor’s home.
Scientific experiments can have little significance. Others can change lives. In Daniel Keyes’ 1966 novel Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon partakes in an experiment designed to increase his intelligence. However, the experiment ends up failing. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.
Metaphors are an influential piece to the literary world due to, “the process of using symbols to know reality occurs”, stated by rhetoric Sonja Foss in Metaphoric Criticism. The significance of this, implies metaphors are “central to thought and to our knowledge and expectation of reality” (Foss 188). Although others may see metaphors as a difficult expression. Metaphors provide the ability to view a specific content and relate to connect with involvement, a physical connection to view the context with clarity. As so used in Alice Walker’s literary piece, In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens.
Comparative Essay How can different perceptions about one topic be expressed in poetry? The main theme that the two sets of poems convey is war, but it’s expressed in different point of views through the use of diction that builds tone. The tones of these poems play a big role in conveying the differences between the different eras that these poems are written in, and shows how societies have changed from the Victorian era till the time of World War I. The diction and tone in Borden and Owen’s poems is so much different than the diction and tone in Lovelace and Tennyson’s poems due to different perspectives and point of views. In all four poems the main idea is war, but each set conveys a perspective of war, a positive perspective
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.
As Dan Padilla, a singer, once said, “People die and the world keeps turning.” Seibles shows this in his poem, Faith, by using tone, metaphor, and free verse to portray the theme of how the world doesn’t stop--on the grand scale of things, or even just everyday actions. Destruction or not, the world is going to keep turning. The poet utilizes many metaphors in his writing to convey the theme.
Bruce Dawe wrote his poem “Homecoming” in 1968 during the Viet Nam war. The poem is an anti-war poem giving the author’s negative view of his home country Australia’s involvement in the dehumanizing conflict. The title of the poem provides irony. When one thinks of homecoming, it is usually a happy time or one that both parties find reviving.