It has been 6 days since we have been missing from society. Each passing day strips away hope of being found. Surely, we believe, people are searching for us after realizing that our plane crashed in the forest, but are their efforts futile? There are just 4 of us teenage boys out in the open with no protection except for our trusty hunting knifes and the remaining few items in the first aid kit Tom found. None of us has ever been in the forest before. We know so little that except for starting occassional fires to attract anyone searching for us, we have no way to make ourselves detectable.
We decided that today we will venture out into the forest. Our supply of food and water has run out, but our willpower hasn’t. As long as we keep on moving, Tom says, we’ll be fine. So imagine the delight we felt when we woke up to the sound of rain for the first time. I’ve never noticed how euphoric the drop-drop-drop of the rain can be as it trickles from the canopy to the forest floor. We danced around in glee as we drank from the gifts of the clouds, but we could not celebrate for long. We still needed to find food or we were going to die.
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“Tom, is that you?” Paul enquires as I cross the fallen tree. “He’s right here, you idiot,” Max yells. The verocity of the rain has steadily increased over the past 2 hours. The rain has so diminshed our visibility that we can barely see each other even though we are yards apart. Suddenly, we hear a cry of despair from Paul. “Ahhhh, it’s got me!” he yells in agony. “What….what happened?” barks Tom as loud as he can, but it is too late. We hear an unmistakable sound of a drop on the ground—Paul has fallen. I can see Tom and Max running over to where the sound of Paul’s voice had come from, so I ...
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... fighting against the wolves, leading to thir deaths. Rain also represented death in A Farewell to Arms. At the beginning of the book, the rain-induced cholera killed 7,000 people. Furthermore, Catherine and her son both died in the rain. Snow, on the other hand, is intended to signify hope in both A Farewell to Arms and my short story. Although everyone around him is dead, the main character is content because now he has water that he had collected from the rain and he has food in the form of the slaughtered wolves. With hope, he has the three things that are required to persevere and eventually be found. In A Farewell to Arms, Henry and Catherine go to the Swiss Alps with snow all around them. They achieve a sense of hope that they can be together. Snow also covers the Italian artillery in the beginning of the book, representing the hope that the war will end.
In “A Brief Encounter with the Enemy” by Said Sayrafiezadeh, Luke, a pessimistic soldier, walks down memory lane as he travels the path to get to the hill during his last recon. He remembers appreciating nature, encountering and writing to Becky, the first time he’d shot a gun, and Christmas leave. Luke identifies the moment when he realizes that he had joined the army for the wrong reason, after crossing the bridge his team built in order to cross the valley, and at the same time dreading the return to his former office job. Boredom and nothingness destroy him mentally as he waits for enemies to appear. When the enemies finally appear, he shoots them down and goes home the next day. Sayrafiezadeh proposes that expectations don’t always equate
...and often sits in the dark when the sun is not out to express his dissatisfaction with exploiting the resources of the rain forest. McKibben inserts this example because it makes the reader feel that he has an obligation to save the rain forest at the expense of their comfort. Therefore, McKibben’s tactics aim to move the reader into an emotional ride of responsibility to the rain forest versus living life normally.
Death is often represented by traditional symbols ranging from the color black to the common tombstone. Besides these icons, other signs can stand for mortality including rain. In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway associates rain with death many times. Although rain is not usually considered a symbol of death, the main character Fredric Henry discovers this natural occurrence is a personal theme he relates with death.
I prepared myself for the upcoming adventurous day. I set out along a less-traveled path through the woods leading to the shore. I could hear every rustle of the newly fallen leaves covering the ground. The brown ground signaled the changing of seasons and nature's way of preparing for the long winter ahead. Soon these leaves would be covered with a thick layer of snow. The leaves still clinging to the trees above displayed a brilliant array of color, simultaneously showing the differences of each and the beauty of the entire forest.
I wasn’t even outside but I could feel the warm glow the sun was projecting all across the campsite. It seemed as if the first three days were gloomy and dreary, but when the sun on the fourth day arose, it washed away the heartache I had felt. I headed out of the trailer and went straight to the river. I walked to the edge, where my feet barely touched the icy water, and I felt a sense of tranquility emanate from the river. I felt as if the whole place had transformed and was back to being the place I loved the most. That day, when we went out on the boat, I went wakeboarding for the first time without my grandma. While I was up on the board and cutting through the wake of the boat, it didn’t feel like the boat was the one pulling and guiding me, it felt like the river was pushing and leading me. It was always nice to receive the reassurance from my grandma after wakeboarding, but this time I received it from my surroundings. The trees that were already three times the size of me, seemed to stand even taller as I glided past them on the river. The sun encouraged me with its brightness and warmth, and the River revitalized me with its powerful currents. The next three days passed by with ease, I no longer needed to reminisce of what my trips used to be like. Instead, I could be present in the moment, surrounded by the beautiful natural
Jean Hegland’s curious future fantasy Into the Forest challenges the reader. It confronts two teenage girls, Nell and Eva, with an extraordinary series of catastrophes, and yet seems to seek a positive message in the courageous and almost implausibly stoic way in which they deal with isolation, near-starvation, rape and death. Hegland relies in part on the behavioral models presented by the girls’ parents, first present and then absent, to explain their exceptional ability to survive conditions of life, which most people would find intolerable.
Ernest Hemingway uses water as a metaphor that foreshadows events in A Farewell to Arms. He distributes water through the entire story. Escape, or a cleansing effect, of Frederic Henry takes place in a river. Rain predicts unfortunate events, such as the death of Catherine, which causes Frederic to sadly begin a new life. However, this time he does not have a companion - he must learn to survive alone. Hemingway uses a lot of water to show many symbols and affect the story.
Tranquility fills the dull atmosphere. Not knowing how much water the clouds contain before the downpour starts, we innocently set ourselves up for an endless journey; a journey to find the purpose in life. A droplet of rain trickles down onto the top of your head, following a shower of many more droplets. Lightning flashes and booms of thunder take over the sky. Many are hesitant of whether to continue their journey or hide from this storm; an umbrella can only give so much protection against the rapid winds and stinging raindrops. Many describe thunderstorms in a frightening way, but the strong willed individuals who embrace the storm think with positivity - rain is changing the environment and bringing life to the world. Once the rain subsides, the atmosphere, exhausted and worn out, settles down back into the calm tranquil environment that it once was. The sky, once filled with dark and murky clouds, is filled with blue. One may either face the challenge they have been approached with to move on, or decline and stay caught in a storm. An individual’s view of the world has immense power of whether one’s obstacles will result in failure or achievement. It is the mentality that we approach life’s challenges that determine the positive or negative outcomes in our lives.
Halfway up it was beginning to look doubtful, the wind was picking up and everyone was getting out rain gear to prepare for the storm. I voiced my doubts to Phil and he said we might as well keep going until the lighting got too close. So we did. The thunder grew in volume and the echoes magnified the noise to a dull roar sometimes. Then suddenly it began to ebb. The wind died down and lightening came less frequently. I exchanged relieved looks with Phil after a bit, but kept the pace up--I didn’t want to take chances. Eventually it hit us, but by then it was nothing more then a heavy rain. We kept moving, if slower, and made it over the ridge with no other problems. That night I enjoyed the meal a little more and slept a little deeper realizing how much is important that easily goes unnoticed until something threatens to take it away.
As the first rays of the sun peak over the horizon, penetrating the dark, soft light illuminates the mist rising up from the ground, forming an eerie, almost surreal landscape. The ground sparkles, wet with dew, and while walking from the truck to the barn, my riding boots soak it in. The crickets still chirp, only slower now. They know that daytime fast approaches. Sounds, the soft rustling of hooves, a snort, and from far down the aisle a sharp whinny that begs for breakfast, inform me that the crickets are not the only ones preparing for the day.
My pale, toned long shapely legs swiveled through the dry hard burning hot sand to a beautiful lime leaved tree. I saw bright fresh green apples, they were smooth and extremely moist. The juice dripped into my mouth forcing me to taste the mixture of sour and sweetness. As I looked down this long wide rocky path I saw thousands of shimmering apple trees. Stretching my hand I pulled a numerous amounts of fresh apples from the rough dark brown pokey tree branch. Acting as the leader, I grabbed each hand picked apple and placed it in the swollen sweaty palms of each survivor. As a source of water we woul...
...fall of snow and the unremitting “sweep” of “easy wind” appear tragically indifferent to life, in turn stressing the value of Poirier’s assessment of the poem. Frost uses metaphor in a way that gives meaning to simple actions, perhaps exploring his own insecurities before nature by setting the poem amongst a tempest of “dark” sentiments. Like a metaphor for the workings of the human mind, the pull between the “promises” the traveller should keep and the lure of death remains palpably relevant to modern life. The multitudes of readings opened up through the ambiguity of metaphor allows for a setting of pronounced liminality; between life and death, “night and day, storm and heath, nature and culture, individual and group, freedom and responsibility,” Frost challenges his readers to delve deep into the subtlety of tone and come to a very personal conclusion.
We slowly crept around the corner, finally sneaking a peek at our cabin. As I hopped out of the front seat of the truck, a sharp sense of loneliness came over me. I looked around and saw nothing but the leaves on the trees glittering from the constant blowing wind. Catching myself standing staring around me at all the beautiful trees, I noticed that the trees have not changed at all, but still stand tall and as close as usual. I realized that the trees surrounding the cabin are similar to the being of my family: the feelings of never being parted when were all together staying at our cabin.
The writing is typical to Hemingway’s style and depicts Frederic as being lonely and isolated after Catherine, who is described as being “his other half” has died leaving him alone. I have shown this by using the motif of the rain, which is featured throughout the novel. This is an important motif as it is used in A Farewell To Arms to foreshadow Catherine’s impending future as she explains “sometimes I see me dead in it” .The effect of this is that whenever the rain is mentioned, the reader will be wary as Hemingway creates a clear link between death and rain even in the first Chapter of the book , “At The Start of the Winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came chlolera….in the end only seven thousdand died of it in the army”. I have continued to include the rain to show that the ...
It’s a beautiful morning, as my group of friends and I wake up, we hear the pounding and the thrashing of the water slamming on the moss covered granite rock, I go down the eroded leaf covered pathway to fetch water just like I would do every morning, the sun had just begun to rise, the mixture of scarlet red, orange, and a bleach-like yellow beaming against the hurried water of the river that led into the waterfall shone like flakes of gold floating on top of the whitening water. The serene environment of the surrounding rocks overlooking the waterfall, the ambience of water clashing against the granite, and the aroma of the white pine filling the forest is an awe inspiring experience to all who dare make their way down the narrow and lengthy