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Lisa Parker's Snapping Beans

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Life has been and will continue to be full of changes. From the time humans are born, their bodies, their minds, and their surroundings will be at a constant transition. It is inevitable. Change can be sad and hard to go through, but it should never be something that someone is ashamed of. Lisa Parker conveys change frequently in her poem “Snapping Beans” through imagery, similes, internal monologue, repetition, and foreshadowing. Parker introduces her poem by using imagery to announce the simple development in the setting. It begins by saying, “as the sun rose” (line 7) and continues until she writes, “We didn’t speak until the sun overcame” (line 10). It is an uncomplicated way to provide an additional thought of change. By mentioning the small difference in the setting, Parker wants the reader to understand the importance of the many different aspects, large and small, that are evolving. The author then begins to use literary devices to represent the change that the speaker is going through. First, she uses similes to show the alteration of the speaker's mind and knowledge. She writes, “the revelations by book and lecture, / as real as any shout of faith, / and potent as a swig of strychnine.” (lines 17-19). The speaker’s mind is being reshaped by the previously stated revelations. Shouts of faith are not to be taken lightly. By comparing the two, the …show more content…

The motif is made evident multiple times through imagery, similes, internal monologue, repetition, and foreshadowing. People hate to see change because of its negative connotation. However, like in the poem, change is necessary for life. If the speaker would not have gone to school and undergone all the changes, he or she would have been doing the same old things that were being done before going to the North. Therefore, change is as important in everyone’s life as the theme of change is in “Snapping

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