How hard is it to risk one’s life just to keep a promise? The short story Magpies by Thomas King is about a promise made by a character named Ambrose, and how he must keep the promise he made, even if it causes distress. Magpies is written in a first person point of view so that the story is being told directly to the reader, which helps the reader to further understand the archetypes within the story. King delivers the message to always keep a promise through his utilization of archetypal characters, archetypal themes and archetypal symbols throughout the story Magpies.
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.
There are many young individuals that struggle with their own identity and individuality. Many of them have a hard time coping to figure out who they are and want to be. When a parent is raising a child they teach them their own set of morals and beliefs. In the short story “The Glass Roses” written by Alden Nowlan it shows the struggles of a fifteen year old boy who is trying to live up to his father’s expectations to make him proud. Stephen’s partner, Leka, teaches him that it is important to be your own individual and not let anyone shape who you want to be by sculpting you own ideals and values. Stephen wants to have the choice to gain his own set of values and ideals that will steer his life showing that he has begun to find a path to
Chrysanthemums are beautiful, delicate flowers, which often symbolize happiness. In the short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” John Steinbeck walks the readers through the lives of Elisa and Henry Allen. They live on a foothill ranch in Salinas Valley, California, where they spend most of their days living a simple lifestyle. The Allens focus their time on maintaining their ranch, but in the eyes of Elisa, this meant more time for her to tend to her beloved chrysanthemums. Steinbeck incorporates quizzical diction and repetition to characterize Elisa and to define happiness, to convey the message that it is more important to be happy than to try to please everybody else.
In John Steinbacks “The Chrysanthemums,” the shift of the setting from the ranch to the road plays an important role in the development of the main character, Elisa. Therefore, in the first setting, Elisa is in her garden attending to her the chrysanthemums, which she loves and cares for. Immediately, we’re placed in a rural setting, where women happen to live in isolation and man is manly. Elisa sneaks quick glances towards the men by the tractor shed, who is talking to her husband, waiting for them to leave, so she can throw aside her gloves and work her fingers into the soil of the garden. However, Elisa shows her fearless side by quickly digging in the garden, with her eagerness to grow her chrysanthemums, right after the men leave. Consequently,
Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of foreign people or ideologies, and is the forefront theme in the short story The Glass Roses by Alden Nowlan. Deeper than the idea of unsolicited hatred in society, is the idea of support and understanding which is heavily influenced by the aforementioned prevailing theme: xenophobia.
In the story Ashes of Roses written by MJ Auch, point of view contributes to the overarching theme. The story begins with a young girl named Rose immigrating from Ireland, to the U.S., through Ellis Island. During one of the inspections, Rose’s little brother Joseph is denied entry due to the disease Trachoma. Rose, her two younger sisters, and her mother enter N.Y. by themselves. During the entry to N.Y. through Ellis Island, immigrants were required to have relatives in the city to pick them up. Rose’s family is worried about if Uncle Patrick has gotten there letter or not. So they sneak onto the boat using a random man as their decoy uncle. Once they arrive at Uncle Patricks, there is immediate conflict between the two families, because
In life we all have goals and aspirations. So what we do is we spend our whole life searching for this satisfaction. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the main character Janie was on an exhibition to find happiness. This exhibition was called “the pear tree goal”. Janie’s ambitions in her life were sexuality, marriage, freedom, maturity, and Family. Janie was ill-fated in completing some her goals. This short dissertation will discuss the three pear tree goals that Janie did not acquire; marriage, family, and freedom
“At home, after Sunday School, Kiam always demanded to know: ‘How can anyone walk on water? How can so few baskets of bread and fish feed hundreds?’ And Santa Claus never once visited our house” (Choy 23). Everyone is familiar with myths and legends. They are read to children by teachers. The stories of battles, immortal beings, ghouls and monsters that are out there to catch people and the ever-successful hero that always saves the day. These stories have been around for many centuries, told even before the first paintings were painted and first books were written. People’s beliefs have all derived from these old stories, as they bring hope to those in despair and inspiration to those lacking ideas. Myths and legends can be seen in all cultures
In the novel, Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the reader is able to notice many characteristics about Jeannette and her father such as Jeannette being optimistic and her father being a little off. One quote that shows these character traits is, “‘We’re not poor,’ I said. She had used that word one too many times. ‘Of course, you’re not,’ the lady quickly replied. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’But I could tell that she had. The lady grew quiet, and for the rest of the trip, no one said much. As soon as she dropped us off, dad disappeared. I waited on the front steps until bedtime, but he didn’t come home.”(121). From this quote the reader can tell is that Jeannette is very optimistic because after the lady picked them up and called her family
The chapter evaluates how the physical traits of a character are a representation of their personality, as well as their past and future in the story. Considerably ironic in part of Doerr, Marie-Laure’s blindness, a part of herself usually perceived as a burden, is what marks her for greatness.
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.
Layers of illusions are burned away and all Paul has left is reality. In Willa Cather’s tragic short story “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament,” the flowers capture the reality world Paul departs from. For instance, critic Sherry Crabtree asserts that the red carnation symbolizes Paul’s alienation from the world of Cordelia Street (Crabtree 206). Crabtree observes the patterns of how the flowers reveal Paul’s negative outlook on life. On the other hand, some critics claim that the flowers capture the fantasy world Paul envisions. For example, author of short stories Edward Pitcher claims that the flower in Paul’s lapel portrays his world of illusions with his “own sense of color and need for embellishment” (Pitcher 547). What Pitcher fails
The book “ The Sun and Her Flowers” written by Rupi Kaur. The book is a poetry book which consist of five segments in the book including; Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising, Blooming. The book is based around love and the authors experience with it and the ups and downs to it. The author also brings in her experiences with love written in the style of poetry.
The book "Flowers Of Algernon" by Daniel Keyes is a science fiction short story based on a man named Charlie, who has a learning disadvantage. He gets a chance to mend himself by getting surgery. The surgery was a dangerous idea which leads to his death. Charlie was better off before the surgery because it changed Charlie's life by making him a miserable and grievous person. One of the reasons Charlie felt this way was because the knowledge he obtained from the surgery was short-term. He also became bitter which made him all alone without friends or family at the end of the story. The surgery was a disturbing encounter physical and intellectually and just caused Charlie to feel isolated.