While I was looking through chapter 16, I was trying to figure out what literary approach would fit. The approach I found the most fitting was the reader response approach. A Dog's Death could be considered a double entendre. On one hand, John Updike is replaying an emotional tone of sadness, frustration, and the feeling of losing a family pet. To the reader, you are able to feel his pain. But, it is even more emotional if you can relate to the poem. I lost both of my grandparents in a three month span to cancer. I instantly felt the tug of hurt, pain, and emptiness the family must have felt. If you have never had the experience of losing a loved one, or pet, Updike's use of imagery, tone, and imagination allows you to experience it all. Dog’s Death instantly captured my attention because of the tone that was set with the opening line. “She must have been kicked unseen or brushed by a car” (Updike, 1953). The line ultimately lets the reader know that the poem is about to be sad, and you are going to feel one or more emotions before you are done with the poem. “Notice how particular details in Frost's and Updike's poems about dogs are used to evoke initial feelings—feelings that set the stage for thinking that eventually touches profoundly on matters beyond the welfare of animals” (Clugston, 2010). Along with the tone, Updike draws on your imagination to bring the images to the forefront. For example, “To use the newspapers spread on the kitchen floor and to win, wetting there, the words, "Good dog! Good dog!" (Updike, 1953). This play on imagery and imagination allows you to picture the puppy being potty trained. You are able to see the excited expression and the wagging tail for using the bathroom in the right place. Personall... ... middle of paper ... ...ething truly honorable and right in dragging herself to the newspaper […] (Armbruster, 2002). In conclusion, the poem helps you to realize and accept that just like birth is natural, death is a natural process in life. No matter what, death is inevitable. But instead of holding on to the sad memories, you can use the happier memories to cope and deal with the loss of a loved one or family pet. However, you are able to be at peace with the fact that you loved them until the end. References Armbruster, K. (2002). “Good Dog”: The stories we tell about our canine companions and what they mean for humans and other animals, 38 (4), 351, 26. Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/PLL/ Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/sec2.3
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans, by Katherine Rogers, articulates the history of the relationship between dogs and humans. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, investigates if and how dogs exhibit morality. In both texts, anecdotes and observations are used to portray instances of dogs displaying cooperation, empathy, altruism, and, by extension, morality. Consequently, it stands to reason that dogs have a capacity for sociality, but how can the sociality of dogs be described? A dog’s capacity for sociality is the ability to form long term relationships with members of the same or other species. Dogs, in particular, dogs who hunt as well as dogs who play, are able to form long term relationships with humans and other dogs through trust, love,
Another way that death and loss is evidenced by this novel is when Lennie killed Curley’s wife. When Lennie is in the barn (after killing his new puppy) Curley’s wife came into the barn and came on to Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley’s wife became flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (121).”
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
Although death seems to be a theme for many literary poems, it also appears to be the most difficult to express clearly. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “death” as, “A permanent cessation of all vital function: end of life.” While this definition sounds simple enough, a writer’s definition goes way beyond the literal meaning. Edwin Arlington Robinson and Robert Frost are just two examples of poetic writers who have used death successfully as the main theme of their works. Robinson, in the poem “Richard Cory,” and Frost in his poem, “Home Burial,” present death in different ways in order to invoke different feelings and emotions from their readers.
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
Death can both be a painful and serious topic, but in the hands of the right poet it can be so natural and eloquently put together. This is the case in The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe, as tackles the topic of death in an uncanny way. This poem is important, because it may be about the poet’s feelings towards his mother’s death, as well as a person who is coming to terms with a loved ones passing. In the poem, Poe presents a speaker who uses various literary devices such as couplet, end-stopped line, alliteration, image, consonance, and apostrophe to dramatize coming to terms with the death of a loved one.
Death is one of the only true constants in the universe and is the only guarantee in life. Everyone knows of death and everyone will experience it, but to the living death is still one of life's greatest mysteries. In some cultures death is celebrated and embraced, while in others it is feared. However it is perceived, death holds different meanings for different people. Through the art of poetry a writer can give a reader many different outlooks and maybe a better understanding of life and death.
In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker
Thesis Statement: While most owners are aware of the amount of joy and laughter dogs bring to them and their family, they are unaware that their dogs love them unconditionally and can help them have better lives
Meyer, M. (2013). Bedford introduction to literature: Reading, thinking, writing. Boston: Bedford Bks St Martin’s.
In the poem, if you don’t stop and think over what you are reading, you will miss the big picture and not enjoy it as much. In Life, if you keep thinking about the big goal in your mind, then you forget to stop and cherish the little things, making Life that much harder to get through. I found in my own analysis that the poem switches from a sort of sweetness to dying, but to Death the tone is completely bitter and makes Death seem evil, because in the poem it is. Death is seen as many things to different people. To E.E. Cummings, Death is the bad guy, the black sheep. Dying is the good guy, the normal family member. The poem does seem o increase in length in each line as each line goes through , much like life. You pick up on certain things through life, adding to the lessons you learn and the advice you receive and take to heart. Cumming’s poem “dying is fine)but Death” talks about the unpredictability of dying, and how it is welcomed. To the steadiness and finality of Death, and how it is
In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.
The dog quotes other characters whose presence is questioned by the woman. The referred-to characters are her lover, family members, and enemy. The poem is essentially a dialogue between the woman and her dog. She is astounded to sense that someone is “digging” on her grave, and is disappointed every time she provides an anxious guess. The woman’s first guess is her lover, and asks if he is planting a rut on her grave.
Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. Everyone will experience death, whether it is of a loved one or oneself. In W.H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” (1003), he describes such a catastrophic event and the drastic effect that it has on his life. It is interesting how people choose to accept this permanent and expected event, death. Similarly, Emily Dickinson has written many poems about death, such as “The last Night that She lived” (843), which describes a family waiting for a woman or girl to die and the dreary and depressed mood that exists within the household. Mourning is considered a perfectly healthy reaction when someone who is deeply loved and cared about passes on, and this is illustrated in “The Memory of Elena” (1070-71) by Carolyn Forche. She writes about the events following a funeral and also flashes back to the actual moment that a wife has watched her husband die. W.H Auden’s “Funeral Blues,” Carolyn Forche’s “The Memory of Elena,” and Emily Dickinson’s “The last Night that She lived” are all poems which share death as their subject matter, but differ in the fact that they discuss death in a unique style with a variety of literary devices to make them more effective.