“Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God" by John Donne
Feeling & picture of the text
The ‘feeling’ of the text can be deduced from the tone of the words that are used. The beginning and the middle of the text uses ‘difficult’ words arranged next to each other. Examples include “break, blow, burn, and make me new” and “o 'erthrow me, and bend”. This could imply that the persona is bitter or dissatisfied with the current situation because it is not the one he is supposed to be in. However, towards the end, a feeling of hope is evident in the use of the words “enthrall” and “ravish”.
The text also uses words, images and symbols to create a picture of how remorseful the persona is for having been wayward. The text presents a person who is having
For the persona to rise, stand and walk towards God, he must be detached (overthrown) from the enemy. However, ‘overthrow’ and ‘divorce’ are used in different tones. While ‘overthrow’ is forceful (the persona says “o 'erthrow me, and bend…your force to break”), ‘divorce’ is not forceful. To bring out this distinction, the persona says “Divorce me, untie or break that knot again”. Therefore, the tone changes towards the end of the text. These two metaphors or symbolic words are used with regard to ‘movement from the enemy’. The ‘movement towards God’ is defined by the term
Infact, he already has a strong past relationship with Him, which he wishes is restored. He loves Him (“Yet dearly I love you”) and defends Him (“me should defend”). It can also be argued that the persona cries unto the God because he (persona) knows His (God’s) abilities. From the text, the three-personed God can ‘knock, breathe, shine, and…mend’ and ‘break, blow, burn, and make…new’. Since God can bend the personal from the enemy and mend him to be in line with His statutes, and since the persona has a burning desire for Him having tasted his relationship in the past, he believes He can make him His again. Nevertheless, the persona knows that God renews, breaks, mends and bends by
This alarming tone is further supported when Dillard narrates, “Wordless, we split up… He chased [us] around a yellow house and up a backyard path… under a low tree, up a bank, through a hedge, down some snowy steps… We smashed through a gap… we ran across Edgerton… He chased us silently… [We] had nowhere to go… we were losing speed… He caught us…” This final use of tone reveals her intention of creating an unnerving atmosphere. She outlines the situation in a manner that will make the readers feel worried and scared for her and her friend’s life. This supports her purpose by describing what “excitement” feels like. The use of tone allows the reader to feel her anxiety and her terror. The audience feels as if her life is in danger, and the use this nerve-racking tone is how we know when we are feeling what she intends for us to feel. It shows us what excitement is
Initially, Mailer used diction through imagery and emotional words to give the reader how the situation felt to him and to describe to the reader the situation. In the passage, emotional words such as “bad maulings”, “three disgusted steps away”, and “referee’s face came a look of woe” pop up. Mailer utilizes these negative emotional words to impose a tone that is solemn towards Paret and a tone that is disdainful towards Griffith. Consequently, the reader’s mood coincides with the tone of the author. For example, the phrase “referee’s face came a look of woe” gives the reader a grievous feeling because of the word “woe”. Another instance where a reader can see this is in the phrase “three disgusted steps away”. Mailer could have just stated “three steps away”, but he wanted to enforce the negative connotation of the story and to show the reader how he had felt. Additionally, imagery is used in...
The tone is set in this chapter as Krakauer uses words to create an atmosphere of worry, fear, and happiness in McCandless’s mind. “The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing”(4). McCandless is on the path of death, which creates worry and fear for the young boy. “He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited,” (6). Alex is very excited and care free, which Krakauer used to his advantage in making the tone of Alex’s mind happy. The author creates tones to make the reader feel the moment as if the readers were sitting there themselves. Krakauer uses dialogue and setting to create the mixed tones of this chapter. As one can see from the quotes and scenery the author uses tones that are blunt and are to the point to make the reader feel as though the emotions are their own. Krakauer uses plenty of figurative language in this chapter. He uses figurative language to support his ideas,to express the surroundings, and tone around the character. To start the chapter he uses a simile describing the landscape of the area, “…sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed,” (9). This statement is used to make reader sense the area and set the mood for the chapter. The use of figurative language in this chapter is to make a visual representation in the readers mind. “It’s satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain” (9).
Shame and guilt are often used interchangeably as they are often perceived to be the same or eerily similar. Yet shame is more associated with feelings of poor personal character and guilt is associated with what a person’s character does. Studies have shown that shame rather than guilt is a significant risk factor for the onset and maintenance of mental health difficulties and it has been further theorized that guilt is actually an adaptive response in which movement from shame to guilt represents a stage of mental health recovery (Dyer, et al., 2017). Though shame over particular events in the moment are not uncommon due to humanities imperfect nature, the problem resides in lack of shame resolution. May (2007) exemplifies this in that the
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
One must look at this poem and imagine what is like to live thru this experience of becoming so tired of expecting to die everyday on the battlefield, that one starts to welcome it in order to escape the anticipation. The effects of living day in and day out in such a manner creates a person who either has lost the fear of death or has become so frighten of how they once lived the compensate for it later by living a guarded life. The one who loses the fear for death ends up with this way of living in which they only feel alive when faced with death. The person in this poem is one who has lost their fear of death, and now thrives off coming close to it he expresses it when he states “Here is the adrenaline rush you crave, that inexorable flight, that insane puncture” (LL.6-7). What happens to this persona when he leaves the battlefield? He pushes the limit trying to come close to death to feel alive; until they push
The author is trying to convey the brutality and pitilessness of growing into a man when he says that “My knees buckling and my lip bleeding while my friends, sympathetic but out of range, watch resignedly”. He used imagination of being anguish by saying “I bled a little more. Rat was scrawled in crayon across my desk”. He also adds the painful tone to the article by using this sentence “His eyes were moist and he was struggling for control”. The author 's tone does not intend to sway the reader’s mind, but his tone appears indifferent at parts. He effectively captures his own struggle to gain sensitivity as an adult. Despite his harsh diction that explains the struggles of growing up boys, it also suggests to the reader that he also poses the strong impenetrable exterior of a man. Through the conflicting tone, he effectually captures the experience that is new to his intended
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
Guilt is a result of sin, and sin is a result of misaction. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist, Amir, goes on a journey to redeem himself for his sins. When Amir was 12, he witnessed his best friend, Hassan, get raped in an alley. Instead of standing up for his friend, Amir ran away in selfishness and cowardice. The guilt of his choice plagues Amir for the rest of his life, until one day, he gets a call from an old uncle, who tells him that “there is a way to be good again.” (2) The Kite Runner follows Amir on his odyssey to redeem himself for his hurtful actions. Through this journey, Khaled Hosseini delivers the message that sins and guilt can always be atoned for.
Overall, the lifestyle changes brought forth by guilt are portrayed through Hawthorne’s use of Biblical allusions. When guilt shadows over an individual’s mind, they often forgot how to differentiate between what they should do and what they’re actually doing. Instead of accepting the guilt and moving on, many express their guilt through actions. When the choice of destroying guilt, or letting it destroy you, comes up, individuals tend to select the option that involves less doing, since they are already ashamed of their deeds.
LeGuin, Ursula K. “Forgiveness Day.” Four Ways to Forgiveness. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1995. Pp. 47-124.
Guilt is a strong emotion that affects many people around the world. It can either lead people into a deep and dark abyss that can slowly deteriorate people or it can inspire them to achieve redemption. Guilt and redemption are two interrelated subjects that can show the development of the character throughout a novel. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, are two literary works that convey the connections between guilt and redemption and show the development of the character by using theme and symbolism that are present in the novels.
Holt, Michael. “Guilt, Its Effects and How to Overcome Regretful Feelings”. Yahoo, 30 April 2007. Web. 16 February 2014.
I don’t believe the past can be repaired, only exceeded,” a man says as he re-encounters someone he knew for a brief but emotional time. Most of the solitary souls who populate Richard Ford’s A Multitude of Sins, whether they’ve sinned or been sinned against, ceaselessly interrogate their lives in the hope that they can indeed be improved.
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...