A Stroke of Good Fortune explores more forms of death, including how female dependence on men and the emerging technologies of post-war America can bring about the death of an idea, and the death of femininity. Ruby Hill's unexpected pregnancy thwarts her plans for a life in post-war America. On her walk to her apartment, Ruby's internal monologue and interactions with neighbours convey her judgemental nature. She describes her own mother as 'getting deader with ever one' of her eight children, a statement which ironically confirms the pregnant Ruby to be lacking any maternal instinct. This fleeting thought relates back to her 'long illness', as foretold by Madam Zoleeda. Ruby's belief conveys the idea that children (life) are not independent from death, a view not unlike Dickinson's in her paradoxical poem A death-blow is a life-blow to some, whereby she suggests that there is no separation between life and death, but rather the imminent presence of death instigates a person to live life to the fullest – a moment in which 'Vitality' …show more content…
However, an alternative interpretation of Dickinson's poem could be the idea that the experience of life is relative, and what is seen as a problem to one person may be seen as a blessing to another – Ruby's predicament in being pregnant whilst possessing an intense dislike towards anything relating to motherhood. Despite believing that she is superior over others, including her own brother who is 'good for absolutely nothing', her own accomplishments only came about through her dependence on Bill Hill, despite her inability to see this. Her sisters' apparent lack of 'sense to leave' the town, 'either by dying or moving to the city' is derisive given that her female dependence on Bill Hill is what allowed her to relocate. This communicates the idea that, without him, her only real route was
The poem explains her hardships. Reading poetry is different from reading prose because you really have to dig deeper and study harder. A poem is not always straight forward like many other writings. You have to use context clues and understand imagery, tone, and sense. Summarizing a poem becomes difficult if you do not re-read several times. I learned that figurative language and lifestyle really tells a great story. Language especially helps you understand what is going on between the lines. Overall, family is always there at the end of the day. Sometimes situations get tough, but there is always a light at the end of the
The speaker introduces the idea of the natural cycle of life, where something becomes born and eventually dies. This reflects back to the Native culture where the cycle of life was much celebrated. The idea of "death and birth" symbolizes the speaker 's love that was once born to die in the end. It also symbolizes the pleasure and pain that comes with falling in love. She was born again with the new knowledge and pleasure the love had to offer. However, it is an undeniable fact that the same love that gave her so much joy at one point, gave her just as much pain. A part of her past- self had to die in order for the speaker to be reborn.
This quote encompasses both the loving side of Alice's mother, as well as her refusal to define her life by the possessions she owns. In death, one cannot take their worldly possessions with them. Kubler-Ross explains that only in experiencing total poverty and adversity, like Walker’s mother, can one come to a complete understanding of what is most important in life. Money and possessions are temporary, but family is forever.
Life is sad and tragic; some of which is made for us and some of which we make ourselves. Emily had a hard life. Everything that she loved left her. Her father probably impressed upon her that every man she met was no good for her. The townspeople even state “when her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad…being left alone…She had become humanized” (219). This sounds as if her father’s death was sort of liberation for Emily. In a way it was, she could begin to date and court men of her choice and liking. Her father couldn’t chase them off any more. But then again, did she have the know-how to do this, after all those years of her father’s past actions? It also sounds as if the townspeople thought Emily was above the law because of her high-class stature. Now since the passing of her father she may be like them, a middle class working person. Unfortunately, for Emily she became home bound.
For some people, the meaning of life is to be a good parent. When a parent loses a child for a moment or a lifetime, the pain that comes with is unbearable. Some people lose control of his or her entire life due to the loss of loved ones. The ability to gain control over life is tough because of the emotional and sometimes physical obstacles. While there is a meaning to life for some people, others feel as if there is no hope to live after losing a child. In Joan Didion’s novel, Play It as It Lays, Maria exhibits a lack of identity and the struggle to regain control over her life is shown through her journey to be with her daughter Kate.
For the most part of the poem she states how she believes that it is Gods calling, [Then ta’en away unto eternity] but in other parts of the poem she eludes to the fact that she feels more like her granddaughter was stolen from her [or sigh thy days so soon were terminate]. One of the main beliefs in these times was that when someone died it was their time; God needed them and had a better plan. Both poets found peace in the idea that God had the children now and it was part of the plan, but are also deeply saddened and used poetry as a coping mechanism.
...Dickinson has for the most part conquered her fears. As the second poem gave us the unsettling idea that the author of the poem we were reading was afraid to compose poetry, this poem shows us her coming to terms with that. Her list of creatures blessed with wonders they had not dared to hope for extends quite naturally to include her. She has come to her “Heaven” through poetry—“unexpected”, but eventually with confidence brought about by the trials dealt with throughout the fascicle. The poems are very closely linked, each one showing us some new aspect of Dickinson’s personality that leads toward her confidence. Finally, Dickinson has found her voice and in this final poem proclaims that she has found a peace to which she had not dared aspire at the beginning. Now she has both nature and poetry within her grasp—this is “Heaven” and “Old Home” all at once.
Throughout the novel death is portrayed as normal, something not too worry about. An example of this is shown when the director takes the students through the facility, “Bernard, whispering, made an appointment with the Headmistress for that very evening, ‘from the Slough Crematorium. Death conditioning begins at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course’”(109). The portray death to children as relaxing and fun so they do not fear or get sad about deaths of a loved one. Another example of this is shown when the director talks about how everyone dies when they are sixty. The world state does this because when the are sixty they do not want to work or play their expensive games. During their life the always look you, they are fit, and healthy. The people in the world state see not having too grow old as a luxury. They see the elderly as gross, fat, disgusting creatures with growths and blemishes. Both of these views are highly contrasted with what the concepts of love and marriage are like in the world today. People view death as a new beginning. We believe that when we die our spirits go on into either heaven or hell based on our actions. This makes us strive to do good in the world so we would be compensated for our actions. Another example is that People view old age. As children we are taught to love and respect the elderly because the give the next generation values and morals to help guide their lives. We all honor the elderly with medical assistance and holidays made to celebrate
person lives the more apparent the truth of demise. With birth comes pain; with living comes
Death is something that is sometimes misunderstood and hard to accept. In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the reader learns of four deaths that had occurred during the narrator’s life time. One of the deaths that the narrator describes was of his daughter, Gracie. Gracie had died of polio. Originally, she was thought to only have a cold. Four days later, Gracie fell and there was no sound. When Isabel decided to go see, she found her daughter curled up on the floor and not breathing. By the time Gracie found her breath, she let out a horrifying scream. “And when she did scream, it was the worst sound, Isabel says, that she'd ever heard in all her life, and she still hears it sometimes in her dreams. Isabel will sometimes wake me up with a low, moaning, strangling sound and I have to be quick to awaken her and hold her to me and where Isabel is weeping against me seems a mortal wound” (92). From the quote above, the reader can picture the suffering Isabel is under from the lost of her daughter. One can also tell that she has not been able to deal with it completely by her reoccurring nightmares. Losing a child is very hard to deal with. It brings a lot of pain, sadness, but most of all much suffering. It is s...
...o curb the appetite that humans have to know the secrets of life and death. This, then, is the central theme of all her poems: Though she believes strongly in idea of an afterlife, even she understands that nothing is certain, but that a bit of logic and a large amount of faith will guide her through the chaotic journey towards her final resting place—wherever or whatever it may be.
This poem is very interesting in many aspects because it reminds me of a person that I use to know. In my life I have met people just like Emily Dickinson who were mentally depressed and very unsociable. In this poem it shows how unstable her mind was in words that she wrote in her poems. I do not want people to get me wrong she was a very smart woman it was said that she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, it also said that she was one of the best poets of all times. I do not understand were she went wrong because she lived a normal childhood in which she was very bright, witty, friendly to people, she had friends, and she went to parties. So where did she go wrong? By her early 30's she began to separate herself from everyone, even the people who she obviously loved had to speak with her from the other side of a closed door. In her life it was that she was in love with some man who died this maybe her for become very depressed. Emily Dickinson was very suicidal (meaning she tried to kill her many times, but was afraid of what it would be like).
Fortune governs people's lives -- a reasonable conclusion considering the continuing presence of billboards advertising palm readers, colorful displays of horoscopes in magazines, and late night commercials marketing tarot card readings for only two dollars a minute. In her farcical comedy The Rover, Aphra Behn traces the fates of ladies of fortune, ladies of the night, men of honour, and men of disrepute as that sneaky rogue called Love entangles their lives. Throughout the play, Behn uses fortune in every sense of the word to guide people's actions until finally Fortune personified becomes an active character in the plot.
One thing that we often hear is that “death is just a part of life.” So often in our day and age do we hear people utter these words. However, death is far more significant and impactful than some would allege. True death is not merely a time when we cease to exist; it is an entombment, a mindset in which we are dead to this world. Throughout our lives, it is true that we can all be dead in one way or another, but it does not have to be that way. When we have our eyes opened to what death actually is, it is far easier to grasp what the true meaning of life is, and to embrace it. Often, we will come across individuals who are enveloped in death and others who are immersed in true life. The shadow of death and entombment lies upon some, encompassing
Living life to the fullest has different meanings to every person, and we all live our lives differently, but we all choose our outcomes. As writer Dylan Thomas writes about how to go against dying in his poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” old men that are near their ends of living should resist death as much as they can, they should only go out kicking and screaming by raging “against the dying of the light.” On the other hand, Gwendolyn Brooks has a different perspective on living, in her poem “We Real Cool,” a group of kids does what they want when they want, getting into mischief for fun, leading them to “die soon.” Two different viewpoints but also two different scenarios. Thomas writes about one of his loved ones, specifically his father, who is a role model to him, and one part of