David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard explains the devastating force of an intense blizzard, which caught several people unprepared, and it tells the tragic stories of these people. On January 12, 1888 a massive blizzard struck the center of North America, killing between 250 to 500 people and affecting thousands. There were many factors that made this blizzard exceptionally deadly. Many farmers and children who were outside were unprepared to deal with any cold conditions, “a day when children had raced to school with no coats or gloves and farmers were far from home doing chores they had put off during the long siege of cold” (Laskin 2). The reason for this is because they had no idea the blizzard was coming. In this time the weather forecasts
The Holocaust was one of humanity's darkest events and was the most devastating genocide in history. Even in the darkest event in history, there were those who didn’t give up hope and survived. One of these survivors was Elie Wiesel. He recounts the horrors he faced in Night, a retelling of what happened inside the concentration camp Auschwitz. Elie was only fifteen when he was deported in 1944. He tells the story about how he survived through the camps. With Night, Wiesel hopes that it can convince future generations to not make the same mistakes that were made which caused suffering and death. They often dealt with issues like starvation and selection. However death always loomed over them. Wiesel often uses words with dark connotations and meanings to describe the horror he experienced and to get his message across.
The short story “What Happened During the Ice Storm” utilizes two major literary elements; one of which expresses a current social issue. The author, Jim Heynen, employes allegory and imagery to represent charity and self-sacrifice. Imagery is often used in this short story to create a somber tone, for instance “most animals were safe…But not the pheasants” and ”The boys stood still in the icy rain. Their breath came out in slow puffs of steam.” The boys and the pheasants are allegorical representations: The pheasants represent someone who is in need, and consequently, the boys using their coats to warm the pheasants represents the choice self-sacrifice over self-preservation. The purpose of the short story is to make the reader ask themselves
With caution, you take a further step towards the unfamiliar world that only lies in the pages of a story. As you move on, details continue to unravel new, fascinating scenarios that make you want to stay in this particular universe for as long as you can. This is all thanks for imagery. Novels rich in detail can lead us anywhere the author wants us to. In Woodsong, Gary Paulsen brings us to the wild. With the use of imagery, Gary Paulsen shows us that the outdoors is unpredictable. Furthermore, with the help of description, the reader can experience what it's like being in Gary Paulsen's shoes without going through the cruel, frigid temperatures and gruesome deaths. Finally Paulsen can change the mood with his words faster than you can say WOODSONG!
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the idea of the natural world is recurring and helps
In Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel, Frankenstein, Romantic themes are strongly represented in order to propagandize Romanticism over the elements of knowledge and the Enlightenment. In her novel, Shelley uses gothic nature settings to foreshadow dark events that are about to happen in the novel. She also uses nature to intensify the effect that is brought during significant scenes, a strong example being, when Victor Frankenstein’s monster approaches him after a long period of time. Nature and its use to influence mood is one of the most paramount themes of both Frankenstein and Romanticism.
Victor Frankenstein describes nature as calming and it brings him great happiness when he is surrounded by nature because he himself is happy and adored by friends who surround him. Frankenstein has friends whom he holds strong bonds with where “harmony was the soul of [their] companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsided [their] characters drew [them] nearer together” (29, Chapter 2). He is surrounded by companions that give him plenty of love and affection that in turn, bring him happiness and a favoring outlook on nature. Victor takes pleasure in wandering through various scenes of nature, feeling accepted by it, therefore, he can portray it as full of life and “awful and majestic” (82, Chapter 10). Nature has the “power of bestowing on
Nature is visible throughout "Frankenstein" in all its glory and contrasts. Natural surroundings have been shown to have therapeutic powers. The natural beauty of St. Petersburg beckons Robert Walton to keep heading towards the North Pole. The immortal beauty of the mountains and lakes is contrasted with the ephemeral nature of human existence and grief. Nature overwhelms mankind with its gigantic presence. The realization of one's smallness in front of Nature's vast stature and mammoth power exerts a truly humbling
The struggle of man versus nature long has dwelt on the consciousness of humanity. Is man an equal to his environment? Can the elements be conquered, or only endured? We constantly find ourselves facing these questions along with a myriad of others that cause us to think, where do we fit? These questions, crying for a response, are debated, studied, and portrayed in both Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. The settings in these stories, the Yukon in “To Build a Fire” and an island in the south Atlantic in “The Most Dangerous Game”, take a toll on the main characters in a very different fashion. Both of these short stories provide excellent demonstrations of this topic but the most obvious are the environment The Man is in, the, application of nature in Rainsford’s survival, Connells animal-like description of Rainsford, and the symbol of fire.
A few of the ways the author shows that Nature overpowers Man is through a muck fire, a sinkhole, and a freeze. When the main character, Paul Fisher, and his mother arrive to their house in Tangerine, they soon realize that they are living near a muck fire, which is a fire that burns underground forever. “Muck fires don’t go out. They’re burning all the
The monster has to deal with solitariness and reclusiveness because he is an outcast and is not welcomed in society. Both of these characters find a sense of healing within nature. Victor states, “These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized it.” (Pg. 92) The monster states, “I have wandered here many days; the cavers of ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which man does not grudge.” (Pg. 82) He feels that nature is the only tolerance he has. Nature briefly calms their minds. It seems to be the only outlet they can find to liberate their fears and angers, and for a moment be at a serene
It gives nature a “face” so the audience can more vividly imagine what the environment looks like. It as well showcases nature as a larger being, a titan possibly if the audience knows any ancient Greek stories. For the main character, he must face the wrath of the world as he travels the road not taken in Alaska. London also personifies nature as having thin skin later in the story by saying, “He had felt the give under his feet and heard the crackle of a snow-hidden ice-skin (36).” Again, he makes nature act more realistic by personifying it with a human
Robert Frost was a great poet for many reasons. He was well known for the complexity of his poems and the imagery associated with it. He describes places, people, and interactions between them that you wouldn’t think about. He also used very intricate diction in his writing so everyone could understand and appreciate his work. The reason why he appeals to most people is that he tells life lesson’s in his poems. When you read a piece of his art you feel like you get all the benefits. One of Frost’s more popular poems is “Fire and Ice” and this poem is short but hits you with raw emotion. It explores the two forces and how they bring destruction to the world, while, “The Mending Wall," is slower paced and shows us that humans like separations
The final ending of the world is in question to many individuals. In the short poem, “Fire and Ice”, by Robert Frost, he outlines a familiar topic, the fate of the world’s destruction. In nine lines, Frost conveys the contradiction of the two choices for the world’s end. Frost uses symbolism to convey the meaning of fire and ice as symbols for human behavior and emotion.
There is a powerful meaning of nature in “Ethan Frome,” whose author is Edith Wharton describes the changing cycles of nature. The story takes place in a small New England town in the middle of winter adding to the tension of the story. This literature piece is from the realism era; literature in this time describes how this could happen to you. Nature is at its meanest during the winter where it’s very vengeful to everything. Winter is the time for death in nature by taking out those animals who can’t find enough food to stay alive. The winter season is already vengeful before this story even began by taking away Ethan Frome’s mother and is also the same season his wife got sick. This is showing us that people also face the same hardships