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Thematic Definition Essay

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When someone says the word ‘literature’ I think of classic books, something with meaning, like To Kill a Mockingbird, the Great Gatsby or the Hobbit. I also think of plays like Shakespeare’s or “the Road not Taken”, a poem by Robert Frost. All these have some things in common that makes them all literature, they have meaning and make you think and they are imaginative and creative. The definition of the word is one that is widely searched for and is in the end a matter of opinion, and as time changes so do opinions so the word literature never has a static definition. But should we really be trying to define something that is only a concept because of its constant chances and subjectability to interpretation? Using the two short stories “a Night of Frost and a …show more content…

The meaning could range from the consequences of lying or the meaning to our very existence, all it has to do is make you think. The Short story “A Night of Frost and a Morning of Mist” by Janet Frane is about a woman who spots a blowfly on her window and despite the blowflies pleas for her to spare him and his attempts to impress her she decides to kill him anyway. A homeless tom cat then appears in the story, and much like the fly he belongs to no one, just roaming around, but instead of killing the tom, she just shoos him away. The text raises the issue of where humans will draw the line at killing. The fly on one hand has an entire display devoted to his lifestyle and his role as food to other animals makes him important to conserve but humans will dismiss this and kill him anyway. Cats on the other hand are responsible for the extinction of at least 33 avian species world wide, yet we keep them as pets. This short story raises questions that make the audience think about where we as a species will stop killing. This is one of the features that make “A Night of Frost and a Morning of Mist” an interesting piece of

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