In “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, she uses the repetition of the phrase “you finally knew what you had to do” (92:1-2). She uses the phrase throughout three parts of the poem. Each phrase goes with the beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning of the poem, the phrase is used to convey the feeling that the individual is having this awakening in his or her life of what they finally need to go out and do. Oliver uses the words “one day” that tell us that the individual is getting this feeling to go on the journey all of a sudden (92:1). This leads the individual to begin out on this journey of their life. They have to break away from the shouting voices and the tugging at their ankles that have been holding them back from finding themselves. I believe that Oliver used this phrase as a way to guide us through the poem. She is keeping the point known of “you knew what you had to do” but repeating in different places throughout the poem (92:13). …show more content…
Between the first time she used it and the second time in the middle of the poem, Oliver is now going on to talking about going on through this journey how “the wind pried/ with its stiff fingers” is the individual walking through this hard wind trying to make a way through (92:14-15). The journey has not been an easy one but the individual will have to push their way through it. We now are seeing the weight of the voices and things that may have been holding the individual back being lifted off of their shoulders as Oliver states, “little by little,/as you left their voices behind” (92:23-14). Oliver wants us to see that the individual is making process on this journey that they have set forth on. The things that may have been clouding their path before are starting to clear up. The individual is starting to see the light at the end of the
There are thousands of novels written every year, and only a select few win awards. It’s a competitive market, and the Pulitzer Prize is one of the toughest to win. Back in 1939 (wikipedia.com), The Yearling won this prestigious award. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings deserved the Pulitzer Prize for her novel for many reasons, including her creative uses of figurative language, syntax, and sensory details. Her several uses of figurative language enhanced her writing by describing the situations in the novel in creative ways.
"Crossing the Swamp," a poem by Mary Oliver, confesses a struggle through "pathless, seamless, peerless mud" to a triumphant solitary victory in a "breathing palace of leaves. " Oliver's affair with the "black, slack earthsoup" is demonstrated as she faces her long coming combat against herself. Throughout this free verse poem, the wild spirit of the author is sensed in this flexible writing style. While Oliver's indecisiveness is obvious throughout the text, it is physically obvious in the shape of the poem itself.
Did you know that only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported? Melinda was one of the 690 people that didn’t report her sexual assault. Speak was about this girl named Melinda and she had something happen to her right before school started and she didn’t tell anyone. Then as the school year progressed she wasn’t making any friends and even the only friend she had unfriended her. THen at the end she finally told someone.
Tim O’Brien Research Essay Truth is something that Tim O’Brien wants his readers to comprehend about war throughout his writing. For example in The Things They Carried O’Brien mentions that he doesn’t support the Vietnam war, but he supports the fact that he is fighting for his country and for their safety. “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.” (The Things They Carried,39) O’Brien uses figurative language to emphasis his writing and uses symbolism to convey the importance of a message to the readers.
The Nature of Symbolism within Trethewey’s “Elegy” In this poem “Elegy,” Natasha Trethewey depicts the relationship between herself and her late father by means of a metaphor that carries throughout the entire poem. We see that an elegy is typically used to lament the dead, however the abstract language of this poem sends a more demining message. This connotative thought is exactly what Trethewey chooses to address through subliminal metaphors equipped with items typically used to destroy rather than build, along with symbolism that alludes to fighting adversity.
In The Road, Cormac McCarthy uses figurative language, to demonstrate the difference in the people’s decisions and values when compared to the real world. The survivors of the apocalypse, including the father all had to undergo a series of radical changes in order to adapt and survive in the new world. When the father enters the house, where the people are kept for food, not only does he see naked people both male and female but also a man with his leg cut off. McCarthy writes, “On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and stumps of them blackened and burnt” (McCarthy 110).
In her poem, “Crossing the Swamp,” Mary Oliver uses vivid diction, symbolism, and a tonal shift to illustrate the speaker’s struggle and triumph while trekking through the swamp; by demonstrating the speaker’s endeavors and eventual victory over nature, Oliver conveys the beauty of the triumph over life’s obstacles, developing the theme of the necessity of struggle to experience success. Oliver uses descriptive diction throughout her poem to vividly display the obstacles presented by the swamp to the reader, creating a dreary, almost hopeless mood that will greatly contrast the optimistic tone towards the end of the piece. While describing the thicket of swamp, Oliver uses world like “dense,” “dark,” and “belching,” equating the swamp to “slack earthsoup.” This diction develops Oliver’s dark and depressing tone, conveying the hopelessness the speaker feels at this point in his journey due to the obstacles within the swamp. As the speaker eventually overcomes these obstacles, he begins to use words like “sprout,” and “bud,” alluding to new begins and bright futures.
In detailing the events that led up to her change in perspective, she made note of the honeysuckle that covered the walls of the well-house, the warm sunshine that accompanied going outdoors, and the cool stream of water that she felt as she placed her hand under the spout. These details kept the reader with her in the moment as she felt something less simple, but still universal; the returning of a, “ misty consciousness as of something forgotten.” In using rich diction, she maintained a sense of intimacy with the reader which allowed her to call on personal details from her own life and theirs. Later in the passage, she described how, once the reality of language was opened to her, and she returned to the house, “every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.” She had gone through a complete shift of perspective, one that, to her, was felt entirely through senses other than sight or sound.
This is followed by the use of words such as “reflecting”, “becoming”, and “answered” which shows that the speaker has finally accepted this new life that has been brought to her by reading this book of poems and decided to not steal the poetry
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino struggles through high school, all while dealing with the aftermath of a rape. Throughout the story, she creates artwork of trees for art class. These trees symbolize Melinda's growth throughout the novel as she deals with being raped, depression, anxiety, drama, her parents, her grades, and her rapist continuously teasing and tormenting her. On Page 12 of Speak, Melinda is in art class and is told to choose a slip from a broken globe.
In the novel, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, there is a young high school girl that is named Melinda, she has something to hide from people that she know and love but eventually she will reveal her dark secret. I believe that symbolism plays a major role in the novel because many of the symbols represent how Melinda sometimes acts at times. Throughout the novel, Unarmed is used to symbolize Rabbits, Prey, and Fear in relation to how Melinda develops. I believe that Rabbits represent Melinda as an unharming animal who can’t defend herself from problems in life. This symbol also represents Melinda in a way that she can’t fight back, all she can possibly do is hide like a rabbit in her closet or run away from Danger.
In the story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier there are several figurative language sentences and symbols that have meaning to the overall theme of the story. "Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion." (Collier 11) This means that Lizabeth is explaining everything she is going through and how her life and emotions are. She uses an accordion to describe this because an accordion is a fun and upbeat instrument and a "broken accordion" is the complete opposite.
"A young woman, about nineteen or twenty, and slender, she moved like a heavier one or an older one, holding on to furniture, resting her head in the palm of her hand as though it was too heavy for a neck alone" (66-67). Morrison uses imagery, similes and syntax to portray the girl that showed up in the front porch of 124 after Sethe, Denver and Paul D returned from the concert, to be the dead baby of Sethe, Beloved. In chapters three-five, Morison’s use of imagery of the girl named Beloved and the flash backs and descriptions of characters and events, more district dialogue between the characters, syntax and characterization in the novel, portray the theme of the haunting past. The girls to “rest her head in the pal of her hand as thought it was too heavy for a neck alone” reminded me of the baby Beloved that her
I have interpreted these lines in one way, yet there are a million different possibilities. The author puts the words onto the paper, but the reader’s job is to interpret their own emotion, memory or belief and actually apply it to the poet’s words in order to create an
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in" is exactly how Paul Lawrence Dunbar begins his poem, "life". In the poem " life" Paul Lawrence Dunbar discusses the sadness in life, but demonstrates how that sadness and emptiness can be overcome with by a bit of happiness you have in your life. Although this is a relatively short poem, it does a great job of portraying the good and the bad that comes with being alive. To get his point across Dunbar uses figurative language to convey the meaning of life.