In Mary Oliver's poem, the Black Walnut Tree is a symbol of their family and generations of history. The speaker and the mother are confronted with a conflict between the literal and figurative meanings of the tree. The literal meaning begins at the beginning of the poem when the speaker and the mother decide whether to sell the tree. The next half will be the transition to a figurative meaning, where the tree is a symbol that represents a family legacy passed down through generations and all the hard work that their ancestors have done for their family to this day.
At the beginning of the first line, the speaker and the mother are in a financial situation. They have a very valuable tree in their backyard, and selling it to the lumberjack might solve their problem. Because the word “debating” in the first line does not explicitly mean that they are doing it to each other, but to themselves, since they are both giving ideas of what they should do. Details about the tree are
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Oliver uses the words “brighter” and “moves in our blood” in lines 16 to 17 to show that the tree represents ancestral work, treasured history, and heritage, a part of the family that continues to grow or plant that can be preserved as something of great value for future generations. Then, from lines 18 to 19 “sharp and quick as a trowel that wants us to dig and sow '' Oliver uses this simile to refer to the roots from which they emanated and the tree or other plants refer to the hard work that went into planting them. They understand that cutting down the walnut tree would ruin all the work of their ancestors and turn it all worthless. The imagery was used from lines 21 to 25 when the speaker had a dream associated with a generation who were growers and migrated to Bohemia. They filled a whole state of plants meaning that they contributed to
(2) The poem was written in 1979, and is told through the view of the persona, which is a young child, most likely Oliver herself who lost their father. This story is told through the setting of her own personal home in Ohio, and with the struggle of dealing with this “Black Walnut Tree” and the decision on whether to cut down and pay off their house mortgage or keep the tree because its symbolism towards their family history. The dramatic situation of this individual poem is found at the end of the poem where the persona is saying, “What my mother and I both know/is that we'd crawl with shame/in the emptiness we'd made/in our own and our fathers' backyard./So the black walnut tree/swings through another year/of sun and leaping winds/of leaves and bounding fruit/and, month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” This is the persona’s way of describing the guilt and difficulties of deciding whether or not to cut this tree down because of the symbolism of the tree; the presence of their deceased father/husband.
To began with, Symbolism is literary element used often in The Bean Trees and Mirror Image. In Kingsolvers book, symbolism is used in the very title The Bean Trees. Turtle’s first word is bean which she gets from seeing a wisteria plant that has gone into seed form and produced bean like pods. Later the author emphasizes the symbolism by having Turtle read about how the plant thrives in bad conditions.
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
’ This is symbolism because the tree symbolizes Melinda’s destiny. Another time where symbolism is obvious is on page 16. “Homework is not an option. My bed is sending out serious nap rays. I can’t help myself.
The tree signifies the decisions and changes Janie makes throughout her life. Things that are done are her marriages. She cannot undo many things including herself experiencing passionate feelings for the wrong people and Nanny's perspectives on marriage which constrains Janie to marry Logan. She suffers in her marriages with Logan and Joe on the grounds that they both makes it harder for her to discover her freedom. However she enjoys her marriage with Tea Cake and surprisingly encounters a genuine love, the easy ecstasy of being with somebody.
The symbolic meaning of the pear tree in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God is sexuality, as Janie’s ideas of love are manifested and developed through her various relationships; each in which she hopes to truly find the best and most candid love; one she had not felt ever
It symbolizes how Janie believes the pear tree represents her. The memories etched in her mind are rooted in the ground, and her visions are rooted in the branches of the pear tree. As the pear tree sprouts, so do her dreams. Also, the pear tree gave her a sense of life and it gave her a view of harmony.
The tree represents all the poor inhabitants of the tenements and how strong they are, and how they manage to survive with almost nothing. However, the tree of Heaven more specifically
The only piece of allusion which I was able to find was “the whip-crack of the mortgage,” in lines 34 and 35. This quote has many different interpretations, but one meaning which connected to the ideology of debt, money and success was the connection to slavery. The main reason why I found slavery to be connected to this quote is the use of a whip, and whips tend to correlate with slavery and being beaten. Slavery and debt go hand in hand, both cause people to do some things that they don’t want to such as long hours at work and the constant worry of what is to come. In the poem, the family is worried about whether they should sell their tree or not and this is one sign of being enslaved to something, a constant worry and thinking about doing something that they don’t want to.
It is used to show how the world they live in is so deadly. McCarthy utilizes the color black to represent how cold and heartless their world is. On page 277 he writes, “downcountry a storm has passed over the isthmus and leveled the dead black trees from east to west like weeds in the floor of a stream” (McCarthy, pg 277). This novel is infused with death. The setting of this quote is an example that portrays how plant life in this world are dying or dead.
The street signs are the marking of a town, a neighborhood, which alludes to the mother saying “it doesn’t look like we’ll be leaving here any time soon”. Trees grow roots, and
Meanwhile, in art class, Melinda still does not know how to draw the tree she sees in her mind, the “strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun¨ (78). Using symbolism, Anderson displays the person Melinda could be, the image of the strong tree, while also keeping Melinda the person she is now, struggling and ruining linoleum blocks with failed carvings of the simple trees she cannot get
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.
In the book “Roll of thunder hear my cry”, Mildred D. Taylor uses symbolism to provide context, and background information of the how their community is, and who the Logan’s fit in it. A great example when the author provides context and background information would be the fig tree. When the author is describing the fig tree, she describes it as “It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year, knowing all the time it’ll never get big as them other trees.” (pg 206) The author is trying to describe how the Logan family fits in in the community.
Dana Gioia’s poem, “Planting a Sequoia” is grievous yet beautiful, sombre story of a man planting a sequoia tree in the commemoration of his perished son. Sequoia trees have always been a symbol of wellness and safety due to their natural ability to withstand decay, the sturdy tree shows its significance to the speaker throughout the poem as a way to encapsulate and continue the short life of his infant. Gioia utilizes the elements of imagery and diction to portray an elegiac tone for the tragic death, yet also a sense of hope for the future of the tree. The poet also uses the theme of life through the unification of man and nature to show the speaker 's emotional state and eventual hopes for the newly planted tree. Lastly, the tree itself becomes a symbol for the deceased son as planting the Sequoia is a way to cope with the loss, showing the juxtaposition between life and death.