Motifs can be expressed by symbols. Motifs are any elements that appears in one or more works of literature of art. Motifs explains the Theme in stories. It adds images and ideas to the theme to present throughout the narrative. Motifs provide compositions with a traceable pattern, meaning it can mean something.
Throughout Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead’s name serves as a constant reminder of his unhealthy relationship with his mother, Ruth Dead, which in itself is a reflection of her deep-rooted issues with her own personal life that are out of Milkman’s control. The significance of Milkman’s name has multiple layers to it. For example, it is important to recall that his real name is Macon because he makes a significant effort to distance himself from Macon Jr. and prove himself to be different from him. Ruth’s breastfeeding him well past his infancy results in his being stuck with the nickname “Milkman” before he is even old enough to understand the situation.
Furthermore, Ruth’s endless, captivating love restricts Milkman and thwarts his personality’s development to a mature man. His search for his self cannot be satisfied at home since he has no space to become independent or is regarded as a separate
In Viramontes’ novel Under the Feet of Jesus, the author composes symbolic representations about the daily life of a migrant worker. Symbols used throughout the novel was the barn as a figure to represent a church, Petra’s statue of Jesus that symbolized her faith in Christianity and the baby doll with no mouth that represented the views on silence. The author uses symbolism to get her message across on how the difficulties of migrant workers. The symbols, the barn, Jesus statue, and the baby with no mouth represent the migrant workers’ stance on faith.
Milkman discovers his family name and history, and while on his journey, Milkman finds happiness, understanding, and a sense of identity. While the actual findings of his family is important, Milkman’s discovery of his own identity through his family’s history is the true take-away from the
Pilate and her family did not live in the best conditions, as they lived in “A narrow single-story house… [and] had no electricity because [they] could not pay for the service. Nor the gas”, yet they were still the characters who were the most satisfied with their lives even when they had the bare minimum to survive (27). Compared to Macon Dead, Pilate was much happier with her life in her small house caring for her family than Macon was in his nice house with his family. This was evident to Milkman as he felt more comfort while in Pilate’s house than he ever did in his own house, which was more associated with materialism than Pilate’s house was. Because of the lack of materialism in Pilate’s life, it is simple to see how Pilate was able to thrive and live in
As a mother, teacher, and spiritual guide, she gives Milkman the affection, comfort, and wisdom that he does not get at home. Catherine Carr Lee states that: ”Pilate begins by instructing Milkman in practical, everyday knowledge: to say what you mean...Because she values nothing but human relationships...” For instance, Milkman and Guitar attempted robbery for the “gold’ in Pilate’s house, but end up getting arrested until Pilate comes to the rescue and they realize it was just a sack of bones. She pays no mind to the fact that they stole from her and puts on an act to prevent them from going to jail. “She didn’t even look the same.
Without familial ties and history, Milkman lacked the wisdom that comes with knowledge of the past, causing a disconnect between Milkman and his people. Milkman’s journey provides him with the answers to his identity problem allowing his family’s past to provide instruction, and protection, and a certain kind of wisdom necessary in finding his true self. Although Milkman must ultimately define himself, he is also defined by his relationships. He cannot learn these lessons in isolation but only within the context of the present community and relations of
His social awakening also inspires a change in attitude towards the treatment of women. Initially, Milkman objectifies Hagar and treats her as an inferior, but when he encounters Sweet, he begins to reciprocate her affections and treat her with respect. Furthermore, Milkman’s change in motivation for his flight south illustrates the development of his maturity through his pursuit of his family’s history, proving that attaining wealth is no longer his sole purpose. During his time south, Milkman was maliciously pursued by Guitar. His attempted murderer of Milkman creates the illusion of a resurrection to which Milkman develops social awareness.
He is represented with an oblivious mind, and sees everything around him irrelevant if it does not relate to himself in a way. As he continues throughout his journey, Milkman encounters, for the first time, a struggle of not getting what he wants. As he digs for the gold, for the first time, his mind shifts from the capitalistic north and embrace nature, “His watch and his two hundred dollars would be of no help out here, where all a man had was what he was born with, or had learned to use” (277). As he begins to separate himself from white culture, he embraces in his natural skills. This was just the first step to shape Milkman into embracing and seeing his ethnicity.
Milkman eyes are warm and brown and can tell who she is by looking into her eyes. Reba and Pilate Dead try to comfort Hagar by disagreeing with her thoughts about Milkman’s likes and dislikes because she does not have to compare herself to a Caucasian female. With this in mind, Hagar Dead is not aware of her self-worth because she is too caught up in trying to impress a men that does not want her. Not along she should not trying to impress a man at all. A man
Pilate kept repeat “I’m not inhuman, I’m not a beast. ”(Theissen p.25) While he kept repeating the same phrase, his features tuned into a caricature which mean he turned into a parody of what he was saying. But then the beast started nipping at Andrea’s feet. He could not move to save his life.
I ate his liver. I cut off great pieces of his flesh.” (Martel 173). Furthermore, the narration enabled the readers to witness Piscine’s development, throughout the story. At the beginning of the book, the boy was known to be determined, imaginative and hopeful person, reliant on his faith for guidance.
Pilate’s use of singing builds her feminine characteristics, and builds her strength as a mother. Singing has been a cultural symbol in the black community for many years. It was a symbol of comfort and hope to the people in slavery, and even things as simple as comfort to a child before bed. These are traits that are present in the “typical mother” and Pilate has these despite her masculine physical features and personality traits. In the very beginning, she is seen singing in the line “The singing woman wore a knitted cap pulled far down over her forehead.”
“”I know zoos are no longer in people god graces . Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both” trough this quote the reader can notice that there are parallels drawn between zoology and religion in Life of Pi. In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to zoology and religion when the author make it quite clear to the reader that Pi had majors in University in both subjects zoology and religion and later on in the novel help him to do things one can say is impossible and hard to understand. Zoology can be described as the scientific study of animals which has always been a very big factor throughout Pi’s childhood as he grew up with a father who ran a zoo in India.
