ipl-logo

Roll Of Thunder Foreshadowing Analysis

423 Words2 Pages

“When we reached Horsehead Landing, lightning was playing across half the sky and thunder roared out, hiding even the sound of the sea. The sun disappeared and darkness descended, almost like night. Flocks of marsh crows flew by, heading inland to their roosting trees; and two egrets, squawking, arose from the oyster-rock shallows and careened away. Doodle was both tired and frightened, and when he stepped from the skiff he collapsed onto the mud, sending an armada of fiddler crabs rustling off into the marsh grass”(10).
James Hurst uses personification, foreshadowing, and diction to express a serious, grim mood.
Personification is used to give character and spirit to the different weather elements in the story. Hurst uses words like “playing” and “roaring” to describe lightning and thunder in a storm, making it sound chaotic. According to his representation of how the lightning moved through the sky, the narrator and Doodle didn’t think that the lightning was frightening when they first saw it. Another verb that is used to add on to the feeling of chaos is “hiding”, as the thunder does to the sounds of the ocean, since in order to completely conceal something a sound would have to be extremely loud.
Hurst begins to include foreshadowing in the passage, as he says that “darkness descended, almost like night”. …show more content…

Other words could have made Doodle’s fall sound like a mere accident that could happen to anyone, but by using “collapsed”, the author obviously shows that he fell because of his own weakness. Hurst also describes the group of fiddler crabs scuttling about as an “armada”. This contributes to the darkness of the passage because it shows the crabs in a war-like positioning. Usually, troops in a war are made extremely cautionary of mistakes before a coming storm, and the crabs may be preparing themselves for Doodle’s

Show More
Related

  • Figurative Language In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

    278 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” the author, Richard Connell uses the wonders of figurative language to spice things up in many ways throughout the story. Almost every page had something lying within itself, hidden behind metaphors similes, personification, and the list goes on. Some examples of how Richard Connell uses figurative language were clearly displayed on page 62: “Didn’t you notice that the crew’s nerves were a bit jumpy today?” This page also began to reveal the main feeling/emotion of the story(eerie/suspicious) came to be-which was set off by the example I used above. In this scene, the author uses very descriptive words and/or adjectives in his choice(s) of figurative language when he writes, “There was no breeze.

    Read More

  • Narrator's Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

    638 Words  | 3 Pages

    Just after Doodle rowed them to shore, they realized it was going to rain. They decided to go home. Narrator started to run home, telling Doodle to catch up. Doodle slipped and fell, calling for his brother to not leave him. Narrator and Doodle knew they were not going to be successful with their plans, and "...that streak of cruelty within me awakened" (604).

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In Tangerine, By Edward Bloor

    1143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the entire novel, the author’s use of literary devices is very clear. These literary devices, specifically similes and personification, help the reader get a better idea of the exact sounds and feelings which will allow them to know what it feels like to be there in that moment. “ I stood there, trying to think of a comeback, when suddenly, I heard a whooshing sound, like the sound you get when you open a vacuum-sealed can of peanuts. Then the brown water that had puddled up all over the field began to move. It began to run toward the back portables, like someone pulled the plug out of a giant bathtub.

    Read More

  • The Great Scarf Of Birds Analysis

    428 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Great Scarf of Birds” by John Updike, the speaker concludes that his heart has been lifted by the image of a gray scarf. The poem is marked with joy and reverence to the natural world around the speaker, but there is sadness in his last few words. The speaker prepares the reader for this conclusion through an abundance of imagery, similes, and poem structure. The speaker opens the poem by describing his setting through a series of individual but connected natural images. The reader is immediately shown ripe red apples from Cape Ann in October, and one after another, the speaker uses similes to compare one part of nature to another.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

    319 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the conflict of the story, the narrator abandons Doodle to try to help him by leaving him behind to learn to catch up on his own but the opposite happens, and Doodle collapses and perishes. The narrator admitted that “at times [he] was

    Read More

  • Summary Of Foreshadowing In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

    483 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is an exceptional story which demonstrates several separate examples of foreshadowing. The author James Hurst most strongly uses foreshadowing in order to predicts the death of Doodle. Now to elaborate on the examples and importance of foreshadowing in The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst. The first chance we get to see the brilliant foreshadowing used is quite early on when Doodle is named William Armstrong.

    Read More

  • Katherine Weber Use Of Diction In Sleeping

    670 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout one’s life, there is a constant and harsh reality, that one will constantly deal with loss and grief. This encounter with loss causes people to go far out of their way in order to cope with their loss, and this fact is demonstrated in “Sleeping” by Katharine Weber. In “Sleeping,” by Katharine Weber, the Winters are characterized as offputting and mysterious, through the employment of ominous diction, and auditory imagery, ultimately demonstrating the drastic measures one will take when confronted with loss. Through the use of dismal diction, Weber illustrates the eeriness of the Winter’s house, proving how the Winters’ have shifted as a result of their loss. In literature, diction is a device primarily used to convey emotions,

    Read More

  • Rash Foreshadowing Analysis

    822 Words  | 4 Pages

    Has there ever been a time when something was seen and a thought was brought to mind, what if, the universe was trying to speak to you saying that would happen to that you in the future? What about when it actually happened? Pete Hautman’s book Rash does just this in the act of foreshadowing. There are many times in the book when something is said or happens and then later in the book, a larger scale of that event or act happens. It brings about a strange sense of Deja vu.

    Read More

  • Tea Cake And Road Boat Figurative Language

    334 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author also uses a hyperbole to emphasize exactly how powerful this wind was. She described it as, “…Tea Cake went out pushing wind in front of him…” Hurston’s use of figurative language helped explain what all was happening during the hurricane. Another asset that Hurston used to prove one of the conflicts of the novel was

    Read More

  • The Narrator Causes Doodle's Death

    618 Words  | 3 Pages

    "It is strange that all of this is still so clear to me, now that the summer has long since fled and time has fled its way. A grindstone stands where the bleeding tree stood, just outside the kitchen door, and now if an oriole sings in the elm, its song seems to die up in the leaves, a silvery dust. Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had"(416). In the story "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst the narrator wanted a brother that he could wrestle and run with but, Doodle was handicapped and the narrator was embarrassed. The narrator causes Doodles death by getting him too excited, pushing him too hard, and leaving Doodle when he knows how bad his condition is.

    Read More

  • Doodle's Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

    557 Words  | 3 Pages

    Doodle decided, whether out of loyalty or personal aspirations, to force himself to learn how to do what his brother could actively do. Furthermore, critics of the brother, will state that Doodle’s death was caused by the narrator abandoning Doodle in the storm. At first glance, one would agree with the above statement. Nevertheless, one must take into consideration the fact that the narrator is a young boy who is still coming to terms with his brother’s invalidity. He is still not able to decipher Doodle’s special needs.

    Read More

  • Death Exemplified Gore In War By Stephen Crane

    323 Words  | 2 Pages

    Traditionally, war and gore alike are not taken lightly in literature. Writing commonly uses death as a device to convey sorrow and fear. However, author Stephen Crane exemplified gore in war by using a neutral tone and avoiding directly addressing death (a common subject within the poem). He paints scenes that implicate someone has been killed such as someone throwing their hands up in a desperate attempt at surrender or a horse who has just witnessed the murder of its rider “Your lover threw wild hands toward the sky and the frightened steed ran on alone” (Crane). Forcing the reader to address death in a passive tone and not allowing them to sympathize with the victims creates the illusion that the readers themselves are dehumanizing the

    Read More

  • The Crossing Cormac Mccarthy Analysis

    504 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout life, we all go through rough moments where we think all is lost. However, we as humans always grow from these experiences and turn into beings with a new awakening and understanding of the world. In a passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, the narrator describes a striking ordeal, in which a man is coping with the death of a she-wolf. Despite the cause of death being left ambiguous, this dramatic experience has a vivid effect on the main character—causing him to change and grow into a new man by the end of the passage. McCarthy uses eloquent and expressive diction to create imagery which gives the reader an understanding of the narrator’s experience, supplemented by spiritual references as well as setting changes, elucidating the deep sadness and wonder felt by the protagonist.

    Read More

  • The Landlady Foreshadowing Analysis

    419 Words  | 2 Pages

    Key Assignment One: “The Landlady” In “The Landlady,” by Roald Dahl, the author uses foreshadowing to alert the reader of the possible calamity that will befall the main character, Billy Weaver. Immediately, readers are provided with foreshadowing clues to the outcome of the story such as, “But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks” (Page 62). Roald Dahl drops hints ‘deadly cold’ and ‘flat blade of ice’, in the text, to foreshadow Billy's fate. Being that both statements are associated with violence, Billy may be in unavoidable grave danger.

    Read More

  • Storm Warnings Poem Analysis

    725 Words  | 3 Pages

    The use of imagery in "Storm Warnings" conveys the literal and metaphorical meanings of the oncoming physical and emotional storms. Rich uses to imagery show the anxiety she is feeling about the storm in the beginning. For example, "The glass has been falling all the afternoon," and, "gray unrest moving across the land. " Both of these images have negative connotations, which show what she is feeling and what she sees.

    Read More

More about Roll Of Thunder Foreshadowing Analysis

Open Document