Kobo Abe begins his novel, The Woman in the Dunes, in an unnamed village where the residents trick the protagonist, Junpei Niki, to climb down a steep rope ladder into a sand hole. The ladder leads Niki into imprisonment, and its disappearance causes Niki to panic. Although a simple tool, the rope ladder continues to appear in the novel physically and in Niki’s desires. The rope ladder in Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes is a layered symbol used to intensify the reader’s understanding of Niki’s imprisonment, his feelings of hope, and his quest for freedom.
Upon waking up in the hole, Niki asks the woman about the ladder which “[has] vanished from the place it had been the night before” (46). Niki’s means of escape are gone. The ladder, however, has not seemingly vanished; the rope has been removed by the village leaders. By removing the ladder, they force him to stay in the sand hole. Though Niki “sank his arms into the sand, groping for [the ladder],” he was unable to find it and “he never would, no matter how much he searched” (47). Niki’s imprisonment is not an accident, and the loss of the ladder highlights that.
The ladder plays a primary role in Niki's imprisonment because “[he] can’t get out of a place like this without a ladder” (49). His decision to climb down has entrapped him with an unnamed woman. The pair is stuck with a Sisyphean task; no matter how much sand they move, it quickly pours back, filling the holes; billions of 1/8 mm grains of sand pour down the slopes, erasing all previous work. Niki frequently notes the size of the sand, revealing an important choice by the author. Abe adds a distinct character aspect, Niki’s obsession with the individual, to intensify Niki’s feelings of imprisonment. Bec...
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...ped in the hole because he simply could not escape, or because he allowed the ladder to determine his mental freedom? Perhaps Niki was trapped simply because chose to focus only on the ladder.
Abe creates an interesting juxtaposition when he uses the ladder to represent freedom and imprisonment, two opposite ideas. Yet, this juxtaposition leads the reader to question whether the things that free them also imprison them. Does having a two-way ticket in life, the opportunities, the good times, the abilities, does it cause them to become trapped? Through his use of the ladder as a symbol, Abe opens the door to greater questions about imprisonment, hope and freedom, while also adding to the reader’s understanding of The Woman in the Dunes.
Word Count:1,500
Works Cited
Abe, Kobo. The Woman in the Dunes. Trans. E. Dale Saunders. New York: Vintage, 1964. Print.
Lana Lanetta was born and grew up in the quaint town of Ogre, Latvia. Coming from a blue-collar family, she marches to the beat of her own drum and has achieved the American dream and beyond. Don’t let her certification in gardening fool you, she is anything but a girly girl and She had no time to try to conform to anyone’s standards, early on she began to shape her own future, working her way up from a street janitor to becoming an adept artist. In her youth she was incredibly active, contributing to her amazing figure that she still maintains today, getting great aerobic workouts from soccer and gymnastics. Extracurricular activities aside, sewing has always been an enduring passion that has stayed near and dear to her heart. Despite her
Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek and other stories. New York: Vintage Books Gale Writing Group, 1991.
Unlike typical short stories that give a clear overlook of who the protagonists and antagonists are in the beginning of the story, Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” needs to be critically analyzed in order for the reader to determine the characters’ roles. Each entity in the selection possesses versatility that enables him to switch from left to right at any point of the story. However, the accumulation of versatility would not be possible if it isn’t for a certain object in the story. In the translated selection of “In the Penal Colony” by Willa & Edwin Muir, they call it “the apparatus”. This apparatus as mentioned by the speaker is composed of three essential parts – the bed, the designer and the harrow.
He creates a vision of relief at the beginning of the passage by means of diction, similes, and an impeccable amount of imagery. Douglass also applies an approach for the application of syntax, diction, and connotative sense to amplify the feelings of loneliness and paranoia presented after emancipation. The result is the masterpiece that fluently runs from one state of mind following his escape to another. It is a masterpiece with a timeless sense of moral values being unconsciously taught to its audience, whether or not they succeed in deciphering it. Works Cited Frederick Douglass.
In the passage of the Narrative by Fredrick Douglass, the author masterfully conveys two complimentary tones of liberation and fear. The tones transition through the use of diction and detail. The passage is written entirely in first person, since we are witnessing the struggles of Fredrick Douglass through his eyes. Through his diction, we are able to feel the triumph that comes with freedom, along with the hardships. Similarly, detail brings a picturesque view of his adversity.
“A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the boot-strap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion in his heart for those has left behind him in the cruel up climb.” (pg 129)
The second scaffold scene is momentous, but seemingly less important in comparison with the other two. This scene, in general, is quite different from the other two scaffold scenes. The first and third take place during the day, in front of large crowds. However, the second scene takes place at night, in which only five citizens pass before the scaffold, or glance out their windows at it. At the beginning of this scene, the reader finds Dimmesdale by himself on the scaffold.
In her essay, “Loopholes of Resistance,” Michelle Burnham argues that “Aunt Marthy’s garret does not offer a retreat from the oppressive conditions of slavery – as, one might argue, the communal life in Aunt Marthy’s house does – so much as it enacts a repetition of them…[Thus] Harriet Jacobs escapes reigning discourses in structures only in the very process of affirming them” (289). In order to support this, one must first agree that Aunt Marthy’s house provides a retreat from slavery. I do not. Burnham seems to view the life inside Aunt Marthy’s house as one outside of and apart from slavery where family structure can exist, the mind can find some rest, comfort can be given, and a sense of peace and humanity can be achieved. In contrast, Burnham views the garret as a physical embodiment of the horrors of slavery, a place where family can only dream about being together, the mind is subjected to psychological warfare, comfort is non-existent, and only the fear and apprehension of inhumanity can be found. It is true that Aunt Marthy’s house paints and entirely different, much less severe, picture of slavery than that of the garret, but still, it is a picture of slavery differing only in that it temporarily masks the harsh realities of slavery whereas the garret openly portrays them. The garret’s close proximity to the house is symbolic of the ever-lurking presence of slavery and its power to break down and destroy families and lives until there is nothing left. Throughout her novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs presents these and several other structures that suggest a possible retreat from slavery, may appear from the outside to provide such a retreat, but ideally never can. Among these structures are religion, literacy, family, self, and freedom.
The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).
The next job was an early firefighter, whose only equipment was a man-powered helmet that had fresh air pumped into it by a contraption called a bellows from outside the building so that the wearer could breathe. The firefighter helmet was very heavy, bulky, and awkward and the wearer couldn’t see the ground due to the rectangular eye windows that didn’t allow sight below eye level. There were two more jobs that went along with the firefighter. One job was the Pumper, who stood outside and pumped on the bellows with their foot in order to pump air to the firefighter helmet. If they stopped pumping, then the firefighter would suffocate and die. The next job is the climber, who’s only equipment was a long ladder that...
Furthermore, Birney portrays David as realistic. After falling from fifty feet high and having a rock thrust in his back, David knows his chances of survival chances are slim: “Perhaps … For what? A wheelchair, / Bob?” and again, “I looked / At last in his eyes. He breathed, ‘I’d do it for you, Bob.’ ” (ll. 133-134 and 151-152) Birney reveals how realistic David is through his words. Both him and Bobby know that it would take days for help to come, and whether David would be still be alive by then is uncertain. He wants Bobby to push him over, knowing what to expect if he remained by the ledge
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Griffin, Susan. Excerpts from Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. Toronto: Harper & Row Perennial, 1978. 14 30
The lamppost casts a soft spotlight effect on the bus stop bench where Freddie sits in deep thought. He looks at the place he will call home for the night with a mystified stare. Even though it is a different bench, he has put himself in this position, sleeping on benches for the last five years. Battling his conscience, he questions,
Solomon, Barbara H., ed. Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832-1916. New York: Penguin Group, 1994.