“The willow tree,” they told me as I walked out of the store. I never really listened to the townspeople as they were practically insane, so when Mr. Brown told me about the tree, I didn’t think much about it. I had never even seen a willow tree in Oasis Springs before that walk home. I remember walking out of the store and seeing a massive long-leafed willow tree at least forty-five feet tall. I was shocked; it were as if it magically appeared. The bark was chipping and it looked sick. I reached up and pulled a leaf off the tree. I decided to keep it as a reminder of this amazing occurrence. We didn’t get many big trees in Oasis Springs, especially in the town. By the time I got home, it was night. I remember running up the stairs to my mom to let her know I was home. I had a really hard time sleeping; there was a huge storm outside. I’d never seen so much rain in my life. By the time I actually fell asleep, it was morning. When I next looked outside, the ground was struggling to get rid of all the water. I remember running outside, but I was stuck on the deck; there was too much water. The …show more content…
The willow tree! I knew I had to get to that tree. I jumped onto a floating piece of debris, which looked as if it used to be part of someone’s house. I used my hands as the paddle. I remember approaching the tree; practically all the leaves were gone. When I went up and touched the tree, a wave came and I was stuck! It was a tsunami! I remember being so confused; We didn’t have an earthquake. . . ? I couldn’t worry about that, the wave was approaching too fast. I jumped off the sheet of metal and started swimming. I was too tired because I didn’t get enough sleep and collapsed. I felt the water rushing over me. I survived. It was Mr. Brown who grabbed me and brought me to the largest hill; he saved my life. Mr. Brown and I were the only survivors of that tragedy. Later, we returned to Oasis Springs by helicopter, and all that was left was the willow
Throughout the memoir the Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the struggles and trials the family endures are akin to the struggle of the Joshua tree that RoseMary admires in the Desert. They swim in places like the Desert and New York, where there is a balance of adventure and anchoring, and sink in places like Welch, where the balance between adventure and anchoring is weak to nonexistent. If there is a means of support and a solid rule system, the tree grows straight, and the family swims, with a normal life. But when they are left to the elements, or, in the family’s case, their own devices, the family sinks, and the tree grows gnarled and twisted, especially in Welch.
The tree is meant to stand out from everything else and is disregarded by society. In the line “Oh fellow citizen, what have they done to us” it represents what the Indigenous people have had to go through and what pain the English brought with them. Similes are a powerful tool used by writers, they are used in communication as they help to create vivid and memorable descriptions by drawing comparisons between things that may not be inherently
“It had loomed in my memory as a huge lone spike dominating the riverbank, forbidding as an artillery piece, high as the beanstalk” (13). When Gene referred to the tree as an “artillery piece” it is assumed that this tree may have caused destruction. The foreshadowing continues as the story moves on. Gene and Finny seem as though they are best friends, but it is starting to go downhill.
This passage from “A white Heron”, by Sarah Orne Jewett, details a short yet epic journey of a young girl, and it is done in an entertaining way. Jewett immediately familiarizes us with our protagonist, Sylvia, in the first paragraph, and our antagonist: the tree. However, this is a bit more creative, as the tree stands not only as an opponent, but as a surmountable object that can strengthen and inspire Sylvia as she climbs it. This “old pine” is described as massive, to the point where it, “towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away.” (Line 8).
As stated by the Iroquois, “In the middle of the Sky-World there grew a Great Tree . . . The tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky-World” (Iroquois 34). Likewise, the tree in
Melinda picks the word “tree.” Annoyed, she goes to pick a new word, but is stopped by her art teacher. Melinda struggles with her project, unable to make her trees look alive and un-child like. “I can see it in my head: a strong oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun…. I can’t bring it to
Although at first glance the tree seemed ugly to most people, Rose Mary found it beautiful even though it was twisted and bent as well as scraggly. Inspired by the beauty of the Joshua tree she tells them to go into town, and
”(Walls 38). In this quote, Mary Walls indicates to Jeannette to stop thinking about preventing the tree to grow ordinary and un-special; she describes that it struggles for a reason and that is to give it its beauty. This quote metaphorically represents how the hidden, unique beauty that the Joshua tree acquires after it goes through difficult environmental circumstances makes it exotic, and stand out from any other tree.
Inside of the tree was a bird. And what that bird was doing was singing a birdsong. Yet, Sal did not want to believe that it was a bird singing but instead it was a tree singing as she did back In Bybanks Kentucky, when a bird started singing at the top of her favorite sugar maple tree. Yet she did not believe that that was a bird singing but the tree was singing. Or when something as simple as kissing a tree brought back memories of the farm back in Bybanks Kentucky and sometimes even brought back memories of her mom.
The tree symbolizes hope again in chapter thirty-one. Brooks gives Alpha Company orders to blow up the tree on top of the knoll (Del Vecchio 551). After the tree was blown up, enemy soldiers surrounded Alpha Company and started to attack them. The enemy soldiers appeared out of nowhere and killed soldiers from Alpha Company, which resulted in the lost of hope amongst the boonierats (Del Vecchio 560). Rebirth is shown after Alpha Company leaves the knoll where the tree used to be.
All kids that grow up in Morcoast are often told the stories of the tree with a scar in it’s trunk. This is one of those stories that can be passed from generation to generation, and told over and over again without getting old. Of course it wasn’t long enough ago to be passed down to even a generation. The most popular telling of this story opened up with the line. I could have swore I was there that morning a few years ago....
Forbidden love… Murder…Ghosts… Hidden treasure… Holy water… Voodoo… All of these take place at Whispering Willows. Whispering Willows Plantation was a place that knew love, loss, heartache, and anger. When things take place that causes a chain reaction that affects not only Whispering Willows, but also the people who live there, you learn that sometimes people leave more behind than they realize.
There once was a young willow tree that lived by a big rushing river surrounded by large, flowing meadows. The willow tree lived in harmony with the few insects and animals that lived nearby. It had a happy, simple existence. It would watch the birds fly all day, and listen to the crickets play their calming symphonies all night in the summer and the wolf’s howl in the winter. One bright and sunny day, a family of foxes came to the willow’s waterfront home.
The trees with their vines swaying in the wind resembled the willow in the Harry Potter series. This was my new attraction. I climbed these trees several times, each time from a different side. Every time, I would go up a different course and discover a new feeling of fright. Sometimes my foot would slip, sometimes I would be left hanging by my arms like a monkey who hasn’t perfected the swing yet, and sometimes I would climb too high and feel completely stuck.
At the start of their trip, the hobbits have to venture into a mysterious and dangerous forest, the Old Forest and although they are steering away from it as best as they can, they still find themselves by a murky river “bordered with ancient willows, arched over with willows, blocked with fallen willows, and flecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves”(130). One of these willows is Old Man Willow, who lulls two of the hobbits to sleep and then sucks them into his trunk. The whole forest worked together in a human-like way to get them to the Old Willow. Later, after the hobbits have joined up with more men and have become the Fellowship, the group has to pass the Caradhras mountain. They are hindered, however, by a blizzard caused by the mountain that lasts for several days.