The Old Dead Tree Essays

Dead Poets’ Society is a film released in 1989, it takes place at an elite boarding school for boys. The film follows the senior year of seven students as a new professor, Mr. Keating played by Robin Williams, comes in and teaches the boys through poetry what it means to “make your lives extraordinary” (Dead Poets’ Society). With demonstrations and activities, Mr. Keating helps the boys to become individuals and to “suck the marrow out of life” (Dead Poets’ Society). As Mr. Keating helps the boys

project. All different objects, Melinda gets a tree. Through the novel Melinda and the tree seems to grow from her darkest moments in life or the warm up to life and better yet, her acceptance about what happened to her. “The room screams Heather. Why can’t I figure out how to do that? Not that I want my room to scream ‘Heather!’ -that would be too creepy. But a little whisper of ‘Melinda’ would be nice……. I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of

people. Through the use of the tree motif, Anderson reveals Melinda is a depressed tree that’s trying hard to grow. At beginning of the novel, the tree motif reveals Melinda is in a dark place as she’s showing a sign of depression and sadness. When Melinda is painting watercolor trees in art class she says “I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lighting. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not totally.” (Anderson 30-31) Here the tree motif symbolizes Melinda’s severe

She says, "I have already ruined six linoleum blocks I can see it in my head: strong old oak tree... But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree... I can 't bring it to life. I 'd love to give it up. Quit. But I can 't think of anything else to do, so I keep chipping away at it" (p. 78). This shows how she wants the tree to be a perfect "strong old oak tree" and if it is anything different, it seems dead to her. This quote could be used to infer that she is picturing a perfect version of

from pagan beliefs, rituals and festivities. Much of what we celebrate during Christmas are the result of the blend of pagan religions and Christianity and it also has got to do with historical contexts and events. The assumption that the Christmas tree and holly are only for decorational purposes has to do with the commercialization and consumerism that has infiltered the minds of people. Christmas in most countries, is celebrated on the 25th of December, some celebrate it around January or some

in ‎‎“The Sky Tree” and Barry Lopez in “Coyote Finishes His Work” are both Native American ‎literatures that demonstrate the importance of earth. In the “Sky Tree” a sick man asked his wife ‎Aataentic to cut down a tree because he believed that the fruit that grew from the tree would ‎heal him. When the tree was cut it fell through a hole; eventually, the tree grows in a new earth. ‎In “Coyote finishes his Work” Coyote the main character teaches the Indians how to survive. An ‎old man comes to earth

learn from her fears to thrive. In the book the tree symbolizes Melinda's growth, to overcome fears and to progress you need to learn from the past. To start, the journey of Melinda’s growth she chooses a topic for her art class that she will be working on all year. When Melinda pulls her topic out she is disappointed. “I plunge my hand into the bottom of the globe and fish out my paper. "Tree." Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade.” (12). After this Melinda tries

Percy Jackson is a 13-year-old who is a Half-Blood. His father is Poseidon and his mother is human. Percy has dyslexia so he has trouble with writing and reading English, but he understands Greek perfectly. Annabeth Chase is also 13 years old. She is the daughter of Athena, the Goddess of war, strategy and wisdom. She attends camp Half-Blood together with

She realizes that she will never be the same person she was before. “I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching towards the sun...But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing” (Anderson 78). Melinda can’t bring life to her trees because she can’t find life within herself: she has become little more than a robot, going through

By the end of the book, the only things left of Black Elk and hsi home is the remnants of a dream full of life and prosperity, and a sorrowful old man who still only wants the best for his people. “And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream” (218). While Black Elk finishes the recount of his story, he remembers the people butchered there, and the pieces of a dream filled with life, prosperity

This inscription is located on a pomegranate tree, near the entrance of an old cemetery in Kabul. The Amir and Hassan of this inscription were friends since their childhoods, and this phrase is a product of their relationship. This pomegranate tree is not only a tree, but a representation of the relationship between Amir and Hassan. It shows the love and dedication of Hassan to Amir, through the tree and it’s fruits. The fruits of the pomegranate tree become a showing of Hassan’s faithfulness and

highschool after she got raped. The author uses the tree in Melinda’s front yard as a metaphorical image to convey to audience how Melinda is dealing with her issues and showcasing the theme, which is “facing your issues head on pays off”. Melinda’s dad starts by saying “He’s not chopping it down. He’s saving it”. Although the tree is sick, in pain, and close to dying, the worker is not killing it, because he knows it has potential. Just like Melinda, the tree has potential to grow, so it should not be cut

story along with the tree progressing through the seasons. Throughout the story a tree is used as a symbol because of its complex nature and relatability to Melinda’s life. Melinda is in art class when she is struggling on drawing a tree thinking that the tree needs to be perfect. Melinda believes that

of this Native American community had shown Teofolio and his family following his death is indicative of a close bond that these people share. For instance, when Leon and his brother-in-law Ken found Teofolio dead under the cottonwood tree, they ritualistically tied a gray feather into the old man’s hair, sprinkled corn meal and pollen into the win and then painted his face with a traditional white steak across his forehead, a blue streak across his cheekbones, a yellow streak under his nose and a

its such great impact on Naomi. “Your leg is a tree trunk, and I am branch, vine, butterfly. The tree is a dead tree in the middle of there prairies” (291) Naomi once again uses the tree imagery to describe her mother’s death. Naomi uses the word “dead” directly to describe the tree, which is the symbol of her mother. When the tree is dead, the branch must be dead too, and this suggests that along with Naomi’s mother’s death, Naomi also becomes dead, not literally, or physically, but in a way that

experiences as one of these Jewish prisoners, in Night, the tree imagery helps convey the physical, emotional, and spiritual toll that dehumanization takes on the Jewish prisoners. First, the tree imagery illustrates the physical toll on Elie, his father, and the other Jewish prisoners. Idek is in a bad mood and beat Elie’s father with an iron bar: “At first my father simply doubled under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning. I had watched it all happening without

Old growth forests are rare to come by, especially in the United States. The Camillus Unique Forest Area, located in northeastern New York, has many characteristics of an old growth forest. It is unclear how old the forest actually is, as the tree species that reside there have a life span of 100-200 years. This could mean that the forest is thousands of years old, with hundreds of generations of these species, or only a few hundred years old, with the first generation just reaching maturity. Either

Halse Anderson exhibits the tree symbol archetype through Melinda changing throughout the book, shedding off her old reputation and starting growing anew for her sophomore year. Speak is about a girl named Melinda who was sexually assaulted at a party before her first year of high school. All her friends are mad at her because she called the cops at the party because she was assaulted. Melinda’s dad states “By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grow again” (Anderson 187)

‘where the red fern grows ’ tells us about a boy named Billy and the two hunting dogs called ‘Old Dan’ and ‘Little Ann’. Billy and his dogs were very good at hunting. I am going to tell you about Billy, Little Anna and Old Dan and the steps of training the dogs and hunting. In the first scene, Billy is coming home from work and he sees a dog fight. Billy saved the dog because he reminded himself about the old days with his dogs when he was young. When Billy was a kid, he wanted to have a hunting dog

In Sharon Olds’ “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941”, Olds uses imaginative similes in her narrative poem about the Siege of Leningrad by the Germans in Russia on 1941. Olds makes connections between the graphic effects of the siege to nature infused imagery. The poem’s dark and somber tone are elaborated on by the similes made by Olds. The similes in Olds poem are meant to symbolize a contrast between life and death. The similes exhibit the meaning that life with suffering is better than death.