At its core, “The Black Walnut Tree” is a conflict between the sentimental and what practically needs to be done. Throughout the poem, the author utilizes a very matter-of-fact and almost dismissive tone as the daughter and her mother debate whether or not to sell the tree and finish paying off a loan that they owe. As the poem progresses, this matter-of-fact tone transitions into figurative language as the black walnut tree takes on a more symbolic view. Mary Oliver shows in “The Black Walnut Tree” that the tree symbolizes the family’s heritage and all that their father has sought to accomplish, and, while the mortgage weighs down the family, cutting down and selling the tree would, in a sense, betray the family and what it stands for.
In the poem, To This Day. Shane Koyczan uses symbolism in the poem to really get the reader to relate to his point of view. An example of symbolism that he used in his writing was comparing a boy to a broken branch, “he was a broken branch grafted onto a different family tree…” (Koyczan Part 4). This quote is representing that the boy is broken and lonely. Shane also tells the reader that he was grafted onto a different family tree which means that he is not with is real family. We can interpret that he was adopted or his parents couldn't take care of him. This takes us to the rest of this quote when shane explains more about boy, “...adopted but not because his parents opted for a different destiny
Although the tree may be hard to bear , it mustn't be chopped down because it is equal to that of a family member, Family may be a burden occasionally, but shall never fail and wither away. Mary Oliver shows the importance of the family’s tree by applying to a moral , spiritual , literal , and historical context with the utilization of personification , imagery , and symbolism. The readers view that The moral aspect of this poem is that the mother and daughter , the women of the family are unable to chop the tree down because they believe the tree is what has held the family together for all of this time , and it has so much value to the family. Literally the tree may present a burden to the family due to its age , however historically the tree’s leaves are getting heavier every year because the tree has been been in the family for years. So the weight is associated with all the years the tree has been passed down and the past members of the family.The spiritual aspect of this poem is the spiritual connection the family has with this specific tree. The family believes this tree is the root of what has held their family together through generations. And it is that same spiritual connection that will keep the family together that is founded upon the
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on July 28, 1868. The amendment granted citizenship to everyone who was born or naturalized in the United States, which included former slaves and African Americans who were freed after the Civil War. Also, the amendment allowed African Americans to be treated equally as all other citizens. However, the Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, and the result of the Plessy v. Ferguson case took away these rights that were guaranteed to African Americans.
Before we look at the different Social/Psychological Determinants of Health it is important firstly to define what a social determinant of health is. According to the World Health Organization (2017) “The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” These conditions are as a result of a wide range of factors that are ultimately governed by the way in which money, power and specific resources are shared at different levels including those at global, national and local levels. We have all been a part of and will experience different social determinants of health throughout our lives but it is the standard at which we experience these determinants that will ultimately lead onto them affecting our health or ultimately leaving us unaffected.
The typical perception of the “Roaring 20’s” is viewed as a glamorous and grandiose era. However, many are unaware of the realization of corrupt dealings concealed by the joyfulness and carelessness of this era. The idea of the 1920’s being an ideal time to have lived in is a matter that spectators have disagreed upon over the decades. In Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” he contradicts the typical perception of the “Roaring 20’s” by gloomy descriptions, a wistful journey, and a desperate trek to win over a “golden girl.”
Lead author of the Harlem Renaissance and first African-American anthropologist studying his own culture, Zora Neale Hurston is, in many ways, an exceptional writer. Indeed, unlike others such as Robert Wright or Alain Locke, Hurston does not deny the cultural legacy that represents the black folklore, folklore that will influence both the form and substance of his art. As a trained anthropologist, Hurston has been able to capture the American black culture and use it through vernacular oral transcriptions. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, we will analyze the mobilization of language that Hurston uses in order to create a pictorial world. Firstly, we will explore the use of vernacular language. Then we will show the importance of rhetorical figure of speech used by the author. We
The personification of “black walnut tree swing through another year of sun” is used to convey the fresh and renewed spirit of the family once they decide to keep their family together. The idea of the tree “swinging” represents a cheerful spirit. Since the author chooses to embody this cheerful spirit in her writing, it demonstrates the idea of family and home; money tends to draw people apart, but happiness and favor comes with the idea of an object like the walnut tree that forges the relationship in a family. Since the mother and child decided to keep the tree for the
Everybody will die eventually, and every one of your heartbeats brings you closer to death. This is Judd Mulvaney’s recurring thought and the theme of the excerpt from the novel, We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates. Set in the Mulvaneys’ driveway overlooking the brook, the excerpt gives an insight of the thoughts of Judd Mulvaney. Judd is hypnotized by the water and has an epiphany that makes him realize something terrible. In order to characterize Judd, Oates uses different literary techniques throughout the passage.
Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, Wordsworth also uses imagery to expresses a similar experience. In the first stanza he describes “A host, of golden daffodils; /beside the lake, beneath the trees, /Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” (Wordsworth Ln 4-6). Words such as “host”, “golden”, “Fluttering” and “dancing”, all appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, and smell. It brings us into the scene. These images show Wordsworth’s relationship with nature because he personifies this flower allowing him to relate it and become one with nature.
In The Way To Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday, Momaday uses stylistic devices and rhetorical strategies such as imagery, sensory details, and alliteration. The use of alliteration helps Momaday create the vivid imagery of the piece by displaying the active environment with the “brittle and brown grass“, “willow and witch hazel” and “Great green” grasshoppers. Through this, the great plain in Oklahoma is displayed as a landmark with an overactive and lively nature. Furthermore, sensory details are used by Momaday listing the “steaming foliage”, “cold rains of autumn”, the sound of “the frogs away by the river” and feeling “ the motion of the air.” Such stylistic devices help the author write his eulogy to his grandmother, by describing all the sights he saw, that his grandmother Aho once saw. Furthermore, these devices help Momaday connect back to his Kiowa culture and tribe, and displays his prideful tone towards his grandmother's memories, and
In speaking of “special destruction,” his choice of diction contrasts special’s positive and destruction’s negative connotation (“Reservations” par. 12). Muir enhances irony through personification when he says “[the tree] was skinned alive … to show how fine and big that Calaveras tree was” (“Redwoods” par. 1). By using “skinned alive,” he appeals to ethos and pathos by making the action seem morally wrong, thus invoking feelings of pity. Muir continues his mourning of the tree like an epitaph: “This grand tree is of course dead, a ghastly disfigured ruin, but it still stands erect and holds forth its majestic arms” (“Redwoods” par. 1). Once again, this serves the ethos and pathos by drawing stronger, human-like qualities out of the tree, elevating the audiences emotions. Muir does not only touch people’s passions and emotions; he reaches
After his introduction, Thomas introduces the elm tree that fell in his backyard with an anecdote. Thomas begins to appeal to the mournful emotions of his audience admitting that the “...normal-looking elm…” , (in one week) would be “...gone, passed over, departed, taken” (Thomas 1). Thomas shows how, like humans, life can be taken away quickly at moment’s notice. Thomas appeals to mournful emotions in order to make his audience think deeply of the death of an elm tree. Thomas discusses
Alberto Rios in “Faithful Forest” helps the reader imagine the petrified wood as once part of a living forest with the use of imagery and asking the reader to think about the past. In the first stanza, the author sets the time frame of the woods as ancient, helping the reader imagine the past where the wood was trees and leaves blew in the wind. In the second stanza, Alberto Rios asks the reader to again picture the forest that once existed. Letting the reader know, “it is still forest here, the forest of used-to-be”(Rios 8) pushing readers to imagine the past. In the third stanza, the author uses images of leaves taken by the wind leaving the branches bare, reinforcing the picture of a tree filled forest. The constant mentioning of leaves,
One of the ways the theme of determination is underscored is through the use of imagery. Imagery is evident throughout the poem, when Roethke describes the conditions the plants are fighting through. “Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch, Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark.” This shows how the environment is toxic and cold but the plants refuse to give up. With this one can visualize the plants fighting for survival and pushing out of the darkness. The technique of imagery allows Roethke to assist the reader in seeing the theme of determination.