The Symbolism Of Water In Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi

In the story “Color Of Water” Ruth and james both change when Hunter died. James became the opposite of what he was. He began to snatch purses and he would smoke as much as he could with his friends. “ Which we smoked in as much quantity as possible. I snatched purses” (McBride 9). James also shoplifted and he robbed a drug dealer once. “ I shoplifted. I even robbed a petty drug dealer once” (McBride 9). James dropped out of highschool eventually because he would skip school and he was failing all his classes.

Fire was used to represent Wright’s development educationally when Richard begs for Granny's house guest, Ella, to read to him. Richard says “my imagination blazed” (Wright 39). In this context the word has much meaning about Richard’s yearning passion for reading. This shows that Richard has a desire for learning and reading and once, and even after Richards Granny had told him he could not read in the house again, he vows to read as many books as he could when he got older.

Throughout the novel, fire is used as a metaphor for the legacy of slavery. The novel begins with Effia Otcher being born during a village fire. Effia’s father states “... the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued” (3). By saying this, Cobbe is making a connection to fire and slavery. Slavery, similar to fire, is also a force that leaves wreckage behind without any concern for those it hurts. The imagery of fire in this example is used as a metaphor for slavery and the lasting impact it has on the world. Later in the novel, Akua, who is raised by a conservative missionary community, thinks to herself “[the yam] was a hungry sound, the sound of oil swallowing whatever it was given” (178) while cooking dinner. The description of Akua cooking her food is a metaphor for slavery. Similar to how the yam is swallowed by the oil, people’s lives are also destroyed by slavery. Akua often has dreams about fire and states “It’s the fire. I keep dreaming about fire” (178). Akua’s dreams about fire are a parallel for what is happening in Africa during this time.

In the passage, Josan is worried the “stone tower [will] crumble beneath the fury of the storm” (31-33). The reader experiences the violence portrayed by Bray through her dramatic literary illustrations. She personifies the monstrous storm to increase the tension between Jason and the storm. Bray symbolizes “the lighthouse [as] being swallowed by the ocean” to gradually develop suspense in the story (48-49). The author keeps using personification throughout the story to create imagery. The malign in the storm continues to destroy the lighthouse, eventually causing many shipwrecks. The ocean spares no one “[n]ot even the most sheltered flame was proof against the howling wind” (26-29). Now, Patricia Bray introduces the howling wind to symbolize the hurricane coming Josan’s way. The reader infers that the forceful winds and the powerful storm create disaster together. Bray uses vibrant imagery to develop a suspicious

The author utilizes multiple metaphors in the poem to create vivid imagery in readers’ mind about the poem. Additionally, John Brehm widely utilizes nautical metaphors to bring out its intentions. For instance, the poem is entitled “the sea of faith.” The term “Sea” is used to show how deep, broad, and everlasting the act of “faith” can be. John Brehm does not mean a geographical body of water, but rather that the way people are unsure about faith and the level of believing, as though one is drifting on water without the reassurance of firm ground beneath his or her feet. The comparison made is people’s faith to a full body of water. In realism world, a sea is a wide and deep body of water as far as the eye can see. The author in this poem intends to give a reader a clear image of people’s faith which is like an unending body of water which is always full. John Brehm also goes further to use the

The quote “by morning flames had all dimmed” (16,19) is symbolic to the theme that life continues after an obstacle is faced and overcame. The burning flame of fear waned, and a sense of relief was exposed by the narrator through the dimming of the lit flame. The wick of the candles is a symbol of the narrator himself. “The wicks trembling in their fonts of oil” (12) is symbolic to the fear the narrator and his family displayed in their homes as they watched the action peering through the window with their shades drawn. The word “trembling” is a direct declaration of how the narrator and his family felt in their homes as they watched with fear. The family was scared of what was going to happen to them as they watched the “white men in their gowns” (13) gather around the trussed cross. The cross burning symbolizes the impact the event had on the narrator. The narrator feared that he was watching his life burn before his eyes as he was watching the white angels in their gowns burn the

In the book the Color of Water, Hunter Jordan, James ' stepfather, died of a sudden stroke when he was younger. His mother first married a man named Andrew McBride, that was James’ biological dad, but was only alive to see the moment where his mother, Ruth, re-married to Hunter. When he had died each one of them had a different way of grieving. Ruth rode a blue bicycle Hunter had brought in before he died. For example, James explains how his mother rides the bike around everyday and “... what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what i perceived to be imminent danger from the blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world.” (McBride 8). She ignored everyone and everything that came across her.

I see fire! I see fire!” Mrs. Schachter would scream (26%). Mrs. Schachter was seeing fire from the crematoriam, no one believed her, they thought she was crazy. “Mrs. Schachter had lost her mind. On the first day of the journey, she had already begun to moan,”(27%). The water signifys the feeling of when there is a fire you can put it out with the water and you wouldn’t

The images of waves, simmering, and bubbling all relate to water. After Stephen vomits and weeps, both signs of self-cleansing, “The rain had drawn off, and amid the moving vapours from point to point of light the city was spinning about herself a soft cocoon of yellowish haze. Heaven was still and faintly luminous and the air sweet to breathe, as in a thicket drenched with showers" (Joyce 145). This scene–dewy, comforting, and reviving–contributes to the purifying meaning of water in regards to Stephen’s spiritual awakening. When Stephen confesses, Joyce employs water imagery: "His sins trickled from his lips, one by one, trickled in shameful drops from his soul festering and oozing like a sore, a squalid stream of vice. The last sins oozed forth, sluggish, filthy" (Joyce 150). Stephen’s confession flows out of him like water, and the priest’s words “fell like sweet rain upon his quaking parching heart” (Joyce 151), contrasting before Stephen confessed when “He could not weep” (Joyce 143), illustrating his impure and uncleansed state. Adilbek Sultanov, student at Nazarbayev University in School of Humanities and Social Sciences, notes that water

Imagine being stranded on island with a bunch of strangers and no possessions. Having to leave your old life, family, and civilization all behind. Just imagine. Meanwhile, In William Golding’s novel,  he  uses symbolism to tell the allegory of a few boys whose flight crashed into a deserted island in which they were left to fend for themselves. In the novel Ralph and the fire both connect to the theme that Golding references as a good vs evil where evil ultimately overtakes humanity.

Fire symbolizes the compelling emotion of the characters, and fire is portrayed throughout the novel to capture the growing passion of specific characters. The two most significant occurrences of fires in the novel are both situated at Thornfield Hall; and both are caused by Bertha Mason. The first occurs at the end of Volume 1 (Chapter 15), when Bertha sets fire to Mr Rochester’s bed and clothes, and the second is at the end of Volume 3 (Chapter 10), when Jane learns that Bertha managed to burn down the whole of Thornfield by setting fire to what was once Jane’s bedroom; and she succeeded. Bertha Mason, who has no control over her feelings, is a pyromaniac. The inferno at Thornfield illustrates the danger of letting passion run wild. “Tongues

The next quotation that supports this trait from the story would be: “and the fire was blotted out”

In the novel We Were The Mulvaneys the author Joyce Carol Oates gives the readers an insight of the thoughts of one of the characters, Judd Mulvaney. Judd, who a young boy around the age of eleven or twelve, is on his driveway by a brook and he’s looking down just watching the brook’s water flow by; spending his time thinking alone. Oates put a lot of symbolism of death with the thoughts Judd is having. It gives the reader a clear idea of what Judd is feeling about reality. It gives the reader a somber tone for Judd’s thoughts, while he thinks about the brook, the facts “most of the leaves blown from the trees”, and the fact Oates doesn’t bring up vibrant colors.

The novel Homegoing written by Yaa Gyasi and set in Ghana in the late 19th century. The Gold Coast was known for high volumes of frequent trade. Focusing on the Asante and Fanta villagers—specifically the sisters, Effia and Esi, Gyasi reflects on multiple parts of trials in hundreds of years of hardship for both sisters’ descendants in Africa and America. While the protagonist endures a multitude of events Gyasi gives the reader a vivid image of several social issues that plague the black community in modern times. The issues of domestic and physical abuse, racial identity and double consciousness, culture and tradition, freedom, religion and colonization, power and wealth, parting of the black family, prison complex system, police brutality,

What is the answer? Why not use a big asteroid to kill off the humans? These are questions the reader wants to know, and is left hanging to think about. But the reason I don’t think it’s a cliffhanger is because it’s a restatement of all the questions that have come about with the plot. These aren’t new questions that have just been introduced to the readers. In reality, these questions have been with the plot all along, but the excess wordiness of the book has distracted the reader from these questions. Since the reader has been distracted, these questions do seem to appear new and unanswered, and make the reader want to the read the next book. The Infinite Sea also does a great job of continuing with the theme introduced in the first book: Love is the most powerful force. “‘He fell in love, and love is the only weakness.’ ‘Why?’..... ‘Because love is irrational,’ I tell Vosch. ‘It doesn’t follow rules. Not even its own rules. Love is the one thing in the universe that’s unpredictable.’” (Yancey, 294) This quotation comes directly after the dialogue asking the overarching questions of the plot. In effect, this quotation contributes to the cliffhanger effect, edging the reader on the last and final book: The Last