In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, the forest best represents the idea of individuality. In most works of literature, forests are used as a place of mystery and wonder or even fear. Like a forest, the idea of individuality is very rarely discussed and the mention of it is a capital offense; the result of which is that everyone in Anthem’s society views themselves as not just a person in the community but a cell of one person. The forest itself is regarded as being mysterious and like mentioning individuality is a capital offense, going into the Uncharted forest is rumored to lead to death. One example of the symbol of the forest applying to the concept of individuality is when toward the end of the novella, the main character,
As the world went into Anthropocene, the disscussion of the relationship between human and natural became more frequnt than in before. Human being and the inviroment are not isolation based on the theory of Anthropocene, ont he opposite, they art related and effect each other.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s work, The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price is a character which responds to injustice in some significant way. Out of all the other characters, Nathan is the one who responds the most to an act of injustice by going on a campaign halfway around the world to somehow repay his obligation to God. He plans to do this by spreading Christianity, or at least his version of Christianity, to the native people of the Congo. The whole reason for him doing this is that he believes being wounded and leaving battle right before the rest of his company dies is an act of injustice and feels as if though he should have died there with his men. Nathan feels like he is a failure and is guilty for not dying with his brothers on the battlefield.
John Steinbeck uses meaningful diction to expose the different manners by which vile humans and humble animals benefit from the forest. In the first two paragraphs of Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck describes the magnificent nature before introducing humans to the scenery. The scene takes place in spring right after winter, when nature is blooming again and it is at its best. Then the transition is very contradicting as the author uses adverse diction to display the careless humans.
Have you ever been in such a bad situation that all you can do is laugh? After reading Ayn Rand Anthem Equality laughed when he remembered he is the damned. In the story when Equality finally became free in the forest he forgot about how he used to live and forgot about being damned. Equality felt that he did not need anyone and that he can be his own person and that’s what took his mind off being the damned.
In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, a missionary family travel to the African Congo during the 1960’s, in hopes of bringing enlightenment to the Congolese in terms of religion. The father, Nathan, believes wholeheartedly in his commitment, and this is ultimately his downfall when he fails to realize the damage that he is placing upon his family and onto the people living in Kilanga, and refuses to change the way he sees things. However, his wife, Orleanna, and her daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, take the Congo in, and make the necessary changes in their lives, and they do this in order to survive with their new darkness that they are living in. Curiosity and acceptance help the ones with curious minds,
The book I’ve chosen is called Impossible and is written by Nancy Werlin. She is the author of many other books such as The Killer’s Cousin, And Then There Were Four, and The Rules of Survival. I haven’t read any of her other works. The book is a fiction book, this book is mostly directed towards teens and young adults. Normally I do read fiction books and I find this genre of books quite interesting. The characters in this book are Lucy (main character), Sarah, Zach, Gray, Miranda, Leo, and Soledad.
Kingsolver addresses this need with her novel, creating a “thing of terrible beauty”. The Poisonwood Bible is centered around these controversial themes, luring the reader into considering the difficult topics and the various aspects of each topic that are presented. The “terrible beauty” of Kingsolver’s work is her ability to craft such an effective novel which simultaneously intrigues and creates discomfort in the audience. She does not shy away from this discomfort and attempts to diminish ignorance; throughout her novel, Kingsolver forces readers to withdraw from the comforts of their own lives and to look to places of dirt and destruction. Readers are repelled by the abrupt harshness of many chapters, from Rachel’s racist ignorance to Ruth May’s taught entitlement. At the same time, Ruth May instills hope as she plays silly children’s games with local children, and Leah’s passion for everything and everyone she loves deepens. Kingsolver writes with confidence, her “steady hands” crafting a story that ruthlessly covers painful topics in pursuit of establishing what she feels is the truth. Her novel is a thing of terrible beauty, a thing of appalling truths, a thing of loss and love and an endless amount of unknowns. Most importantly, however, it is a thing of total
From Georgia to the Belgian Congo, a white southern missionary family during the late 1950’s moved to Africa with the hopes of exposing the native people to the Christian way of life. Throughout the novel, the Price family is met with many obstacles while trying to learn this new culture in which they were surrounded. Many of the obstacles were directly due to their ignorance of the country. A character in the novel, Leah Price, was faced with the challenge of following her father’s will but also assimilating to the people of Congo. Leah was the older twin, and a young, free-spirited, passionate girl who once worshipped her father and believed in his philosophy. However, throughout the novel because of her growing interest in discovering more
Dana Gioia’s poem, “Planting a Sequoia” is grievous yet beautiful, sombre story of a man planting a sequoia tree in the commemoration of his perished son. Sequoia trees have always been a symbol of wellness and safety due to their natural ability to withstand decay, the sturdy tree shows its significance to the speaker throughout the poem as a way to encapsulate and continue the short life of his infant. Gioia utilizes the elements of imagery and diction to portray an elegiac tone for the tragic death, yet also a sense of hope for the future of the tree. The poet also uses the theme of life through the unification of man and nature to show the speaker 's emotional state and eventual hopes for the newly planted tree. Lastly, the tree itself becomes a symbol for the deceased son as planting the Sequoia is a way to cope with the loss, showing the juxtaposition between life and death.
The Poisonwood Bible explores multiple different meanings ranging from love and loyalty, to ignorance and political oppression. While it is a story of the journey of the Price family in the Congo, Kingsolver uses these narratives to draw a bigger picture of the geopolitics that are at play in the Congo. I think the overarching theme of the novel is ignorance and its opposite: empathy. We follow the journeys of ignorant characters such as Rachel and Nathan Price and are given a parallel with the journeys of Adah, Leah, and Orleanna. However Kingsolver showcases the realities of life here or beyond by the end of the novel where it is clear that none of the characters we met at the beginning would end up with lives that fulfilled all their dreams
She writes about a man taking his family on a journey to the Congo and during this time the Congo is in a fight for Independence from Belgium. In the novel some of the characters depict are real historical people affecting the Congo during their fight for independance. Some of these people being Patrice Lumumba who was the prime minister in the Congo and Joseph Kasa-Vubu who was the Congo’s president. These people play an important role in the Congo’s war for Independence from Belgium and the different things that each wanted for the Congo. This affected the people in The Poisonwood Bible on their journey to the Congo. In the time of the Price’s stay they go through many seasonal things that the Congo also goes
The Poisonwood Bible is an adventurous tale of an American family settling in Congo, Africa for a mission to spread their Christian faith. The family member in charge of the mission is Nathan Price, a Baptist preacher. It is a story of the effects of culpability on people’s lives. The characters develop and drastically change throughout the story because of their experiences of living in the Congo. It is a dangerous place where “the land owns the people” (Kingsolver 283). Leah, the tomboyish daughter of Nathan Price, is an excellent example. She matures through her experiences with religion, meeting new people in the Congo, and the death of a beloved sister.
The Poisonwood Bible is a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is set in the late 1950’s in a small village in the Congo where a fanatically religious man named Nathan Price forced his wife and four children on a mission trip to bring the word of God to the villagers of Kilanga. The story is told from the points of view of the Price women: The matriarch Orleanna, and her daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. While there are some issues with the writing style of The Poisonwood Bible, it tackles tough topics such as racial, gender, religious, and political inequality and tension through the voices of these five women in a completely real and relatable way that makes it a book not easily forgotten.
Movies are proposed to entertain us and lead us to a different time or place. But if you look at a movie deeper you see the themes and ideas put into the movie. Directors strive to show, the theme of the idea not just in the characters, but in the setting and camera work. Throughout the play knight riders, the director and producers use characters and images to project to the audience, what they hope that they see. Using this movie to project themes of leadership, even if they were not trying to this start even in the first scene. In this scene you see, you are not part of a normal community, but also opening up with the trees and nature. You see Billy fantasies of what society should be. You see the pure beauty, but also see his unrealistic view of the