ipl-logo

Theme In Catch The Moon

1095 Words5 Pages

Grief V. Love: The Ultimate Emotional Brawl “Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim,” was once written by the author Vicki Harrison. In the short story Catch the Moon, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the character Luis learns to “swim” with the assistance of the power of love. Cofer creates this story with the underlying message, grief has negative effects on people, however, love has the power to overcome the obstacles created by grief. Luis is experiencing one of the “overwhelming waves” of grief at this time. Luis’s mother died three years ago from cancer. As a way of coping with his own grief he becomes a part of a group …show more content…

Luis is working at the junkyard when a girl around his age drives up to ask for a part for her car. Luis stares off to the side and begins to space out. Luis describes the girl saying, “She stood in the sunlight in her white sundress waiting for his father, while Luis stared. She was like a smooth wood carving. Her skin was mahogany, almost black, and her arms and legs were long and thin, but curved in places so that she did not look bony and hard- more like a ballerina. ... Luis let his breath out, feeling a little dizzy.” This quote illustrates how Luis is lovestruck and how all of Luis’s previous thoughts and worries disappeared for that time period. Cofer uses much more specific words when describing the girl, all of which have a much more positive connotation and create a much more positive mood. This contrasts the pessimistic mood that Luis creates around himself due to the grief from the loss of his mother. Cofer also uses longer sentences to create the illusion that Luis is dreaming about this girl, almost to the point to where she doesn’t seem to be real. This demonstrates the immediate affection that Luis develops, even though there was no interaction between the two. Luis follows his love and meets the girl at her house. After briefly conversing through sign language, Luis returns to the junkyard and begins searching for the part that she requested. Luis

Show More
Related
454 Words | 2 Pages

In out of the dust, Billie Jo and her father suffer from a lot of loss and grief. Billie Jo’s father loses his wife and son and Billie Jo loses her best friend, Livie when she moves to California to get out of the dust. Billie Jo also loses the ability to play the piano for a little while because of her hands being burnt from the fire. They learn to overcome these hardships by living without the things they lost. They also learn to have a stronger relationship with each other and bond more.

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

Miranda writes how her friend is too willing to die. She is greeting death too kindly in her mind. By the end, Miranda’s family is desperate for food and water. The family is slowly falling apart. When Miranda walks to the post office in the cold only to see that is is closed, she thinks about giving up.

Read More
1536 Words | 7 Pages

Luis recognizes how she reacted to the event but he didn't do or say anything, he only observed and also objectified her unconsciously because he still looked and analyzed her body. In a sense this is more harmful than being completely mindless about it because he is letting her get hurt and not doing anything about

Read More
531 Words | 3 Pages

Some readers can interpret this as Chente trying to get Luis to forget Lomas and his background all together to start over completely but Luis is able to recognize that Chente was trying to show him that, “A bigger world awaited” (p.8) This is able to demonstrate how Luis having an adult to assist and support him in making decisions to determine his future has helped him be able to see the bigger picture and be able to look at future possibilities from all directions. Furthermore, this section allows the author to communicate that without the guidance of Chente, Luis would have most likely stayed in Lomas with the idea that he has to start helping from there. The audience should be able to recognize that having the involvement of an adult in decision making will help broaden their view on the

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

She vows to god she will never ask him for anything for her son” (260). This shows us how Lourdes once cared for her son, but now is burdened with him for all of his actions. The point of view shows us how how Enrique once cared for his mother but now his mother is crying because of what Enrique has turned out to be. In conclusion, the POV shows us how different perspectives show us how Enrique ended up because of how he changed. Analyzing how Nazario uses literary devices show us how Enrique has changed throughout the novel.

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

She watches people walk to his coffin, some cry, others just say something to him. Each person touches the coffin, too afraid to touch his body. Hazel notes that no one wants to touch the dead” ( Green 248). Cancer takes a toll on the people around them and very hard for the family. Hazel notices the toll Augustus’ death has taken on his parents, reminding her of her own fears for her parents after she dies.

Read More
1664 Words | 7 Pages

As a child, he is burdened with worry for his mother because she is not near him for many formidable years of his life. He is troubled by a perceived lack of love from his father, grandmother, and many members of his family still residing in Honduras. Enrique experiences the pressures of living within a low economic status when Lourdes is unable to send a sufficient amount of money for his livelihood. In later years, Enrique uses drug use as a coping mechanism and cannot release the stronghold that drugs have in his life so much so that he still uses drugs today. Enrique is also plagued with the increasing violence in his area.

Read More
887 Words | 4 Pages

The book Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is a nonfiction book based on a real story told throughout 367 pages. The reason why I decided to read this book is that it was highly recommended by one of my former English teachers. I was extremely persuaded to read this book by her but I also personally believed that by reading this book I would gain a new understanding of life by really opening my mind to new experiences that other people go through.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

In this scene, the man recalls the final conversation he had with his wife, the boy’s mother. She expresses her plans to commit suicide, while the man begs her to stay alive. To begin, the woman’s discussion of dreams definitively establishes a mood of despair. In the

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

When people are traumatized by an event they are pushed to experience the five stages of grief. The “Gospel”, by Philip Levine and “the boy detective loses love”, by Sam Sax both use characters that are going through one of the stages of grief. Levine and Sax both explain the thoughts and process of what a person thinks when they go through these stages with imagery. Levine uses symbolism, a sad tone, and a set setting in “Gospel” to illustrate that grieving takes you into a depth of thoughts. Sax uses anaphoras, an aggressive tone, and an ambiguous setting to convey that grieving takes you into a tunnel of anger and rage.

Read More
584 Words | 3 Pages

In this short story, “In the Gloaming” by Alice Elliott Dark, the main characters learn that you should spend as much time as possible with family, make and never forget memories together, and how to accept death. Although the characters learn these lessons the hard way, in the end they come to understand the value of them. People will always tell you how valuable time is, but I didn't realize how true this statement is until reading this short story. In the story, it is mentioned how Laird’s dad and mom didn’t spend a lot of time with him. In the story, it states, “She had as much of him now as she had when he was an infant.”

Read More
1326 Words | 6 Pages

Dreaming in Cuban explores the interpersonal and familial relationships of one Cuban family. The matriarch Celia and her American granddaughter Pilar serve as the two main protagonists. Much of the novel focuses on their struggles with identity and their relationships with their families, though the novel dedicates a significant amount to tell the story of Lourdes Puente, the mother of Pilar and the daughter of Celia. Throughout Dreaming in Cuban, Lourdes is shown to be unable to properly cope, which began with the trauma of miscarrying her son shortly before the family fled to the United States. She lacks the proper familial support system outside of her father to do this, so she is shown using sex and food to cope with her helplessness as

Read More
437 Words | 2 Pages

The techniques, such as, imagery and tone, help create the theme of memory and loneliness throughout the poem. The poem is very simple and complex as the same time where the speaker is using simple everyday objects to represent life and death. Using those literary techniques, Lee creates a tone and image of grief over the father’s death where the speaker lives through his memories leaving him forever

Read More
863 Words | 4 Pages

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.”

Read More
1212 Words | 5 Pages

Esperanza tries to wear high heels like a woman, tries to have a boyfriend like an older woman, and she tries to get a job like an adult. Esperanza’s longing to grow up quickly causes her to confront the reality of being an adult. Although Esperanza desperately wants to be an adult, she is not prepared for the responsibilities that accompany adulthood; she is unable to successfully make the transition

Read More

More about Theme In Catch The Moon

Open Document