Amy Bloom's By-And By Metaphors

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Death is an inevitable process that every being must in endure in their lifetime. The loss of a family member or close friend can shower the survivors with numerous emotions. Despite the emotions, grieving the loved one is a natural process in which helps with coping and healing. The short story “By-and-By”, by Amy Bloom uses symbolism and imagery to demonstrate how a person navigates through the fluctuating, short-term, or long-lasting stages of grief. The nonlinear chronology of the story complicates the reader’s comprehension of the narrator’s grieving process.
Amy Bloom begins her literature piece, “By-and-By” with this short phrase “Every death is violent.” (526) From this point on the reader is lead to believe that this will be a dark …show more content…

Death is beyond human understanding, “as iris, the rainbow of the eye, closes down” all hope is lost in that particular moment of despair. A human’s natural response is to avoid confronting their fears of death. Bloom demonstrates this natural response with the use of imagery and metaphor. “It seems natural, if you are there, to push the lid down, to ease the pleated shade over the ball, to the lower lashes. The light is out, close the door.” (526) By closing a deceased human’s eyelids, it is imagined that the door to their soul is closed.
The narrator and Anne’s mother are having a telephone conversation. They are both speaking about Anne in present tense, even though there is very little hope that she will be found alive.
“I told her Anne had spray-painted some of our third-hand furniture bright gold and when we lit the candles and turned out the lights, our apartment looked extremely glamorous.” “Oh we love glamorous,” Mrs. Warburg said.” (527)
An additional phrase where the narrator expresses her feelings of denial is when she envisions a funeral scene. She visualizes Teddy dead and Anne standing right next to the grave. She tries to convince herself that since Teddy is dead then Anne must be alive. Anne’s mother and the narrator meet with two distinct psychics, perhaps to get answers or gain some hope that Anne is still

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