Joshua Ferris, the author of the short story, “The Breeze”, closely links seasonal conditions and activities to different lifestyles. Specifically, Joshua links outdoor activities and spring in Manhattan to a life that needs “more adventure” and “thrills”. He also chooses to link indoor places and winter to the picture of a life that is “limited”, “dying” and “misspent”. Light and dark are also used as a binary within this story. What shows the connection between the ideas described is how the author uses repetition and patterns to emphasize his most important details. “The Breeze” is a short story about a young couple, Sarah and Jay, who try to make the most of a spring day. Sarah then becomes very indecisive about their night in Manhattan. The story gives many different scenarios of how the night could have played out. Throughout the whole story, Sarah is unable to express her feelings to Jay. The story ends with Sarah questioning what she was hoping for from Jay and them leaving and watching movies. …show more content…
116] and is determined not to miss out on anything in life [pg.120]. The author not only explicitly states these two things, but also portrays it through different repeated elements in the story. “What if she failed to make the most of this perfect spring day [pg. 107]?” “Then the reminder, this windfall. As thrilling and irretrievable as a first kiss [pg.110].” Sarah’s thoughts have made a connection within her head that moments in life are like the first breeze in spring. The author paints a picture in the readers mind by connecting an idea such as a first kiss to the idea of life being full of moments that can never happen again. She believes in enjoying as much of life as possible and that is clearly portrayed through his description of spring in
In the book “Hear the Wind Blow” by Mary Downing Hahn takes place in Virginia during the Civil War. Haswell’s problem is that his home was burnt down by Yankee soldiers and his mother died of a fever leaving him and his little sister Rachel orphans and nothing but a horse, old blankets and a root cellar with minimal food. Haswell decides to travel with his sister to the grandmother's farm but when they find the house in shambles and no one there they head for Winchester to find their uncle. When they get there they find the uncle is housing a Yankee soldier. Haswell's main conflict is that he needs to find his older brother Avery, who is fighting in Petersburg. Haswell travels down to southern Virginia in search of his brother. His conflict
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
With concern over global warming growing, people are starting to turn a more serious eye toward cleaner sources of energy. Instead of solar power making a comeback as the ideal form, we are seeing a growth in the use of wind power. Wind farms are beginning to crop up all around the country. This new trend has gathered significant attention. Questions are being raised concerning the effects wind farms may have, from critics and supporters alike. Michelle Nijhuis, in the article “Selling the Wind” discusses the arguments on behalf of and in opposition to the increasing use of wind power, addressing what the consequences may be on the United States.
cold, harsh, wintry days, when my brothers and sister and I trudged home from school burdened down by the silence and frigidity of our long trek from the main road, down the hill to our shabby-looking house. More rundown than any of our classmates’ houses. In winter my mother’s riotous flowers would be absent, and the shack stood revealed for what it was. A gray, decaying...
The speaker in “Five A.M.” looks to nature as a source of beauty during his early morning walk, and after clearing his mind and processing his thoughts along the journey, he begins his return home feeling as though he is ready to begin the “uphill curve” (ln. 14) in order to process his daily struggles. However, while the speaker in “Five Flights Up,” shares the same struggles as her fellow speaker, she does little to involve herself in nature other than to observe it from the safety of her place of residence. Although suffering as a result of her struggles, the speaker does little to want to help herself out of her situation, instead choosing to believe that she cannot hardly bare recovery or to lift the shroud of night that has fallen over her. Both speakers face a journey ahead of them whether it be “the uphill curve where a thicket spills with birds every spring” (ln. 14-15) or the five flights of stares ahead of them, yet it is in their attitude where these two individuals differ. Through the appreciation of his early morning surroundings, the speaker in “Five A.M.” finds solitude and self-fulfillment, whereas the speaker in “Five Flights Up” has still failed to realize her own role in that of her recovery from this dark time in her life and how nature can serve a beneficial role in relieving her of her
The science fiction novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman has a central idea, being ‘life’. This novel opens up our ideas to when a human’s life actually begins which is a sensitive topic for most people. This is a concept that everyone has their own opinions on usually based on the way you were raised; however this book opens up these ideas and decisions for you to make. It relates to abortion and the controversy over it. One example of how Shusterman gets us to think about life is when Connor (one of the main characters) is in a crate with three other unwinds. They are discussing life and what happens after you are unwound. In reality we know very little about life so we come up with our own conclusions. This unwinding experience that Connor Lassiter has really changes who he is as a person and his outlook on life.
Authors use literary elements throughout short stories to give an overall effect on the message they give in the story. In his short story, “Doe Season” by Michael Kaplan, illustrates a theme(s) of the hardships of not wanting to face the reality of death, losing of innocence and the initiation of growing up. Kaplans theme is contributed by symbolism, characterization, setting and foreshadowing.
The scene that introduces the audience to Matthew Harrison Brady, in Inherit the Wind, (Dir. Stanley Kramer. With Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, and Gene Kelly. MGM. 1960) uses dialogue, composition, camera work and music to develop Matthew Brady. Kramer reveals important information about the plot of the film in this scene. The scene opens with a bird's eye view shot of the town of Hillsboro, and focuses in on the movement of the parade below. The camera comes to rest on the convertible that transports Brady and his wife. The town of Hillsboro welcomes the well-known politician. He will serve the town by being the prosecutor in a trial about evolution, similar to that of the historical Scopes Trial. This scene, where we first meet Brady, reveals his strong character, and the role of savior that the town expects him to play. Through the development of Brady, Kramer also introduces us to the issues of religion and politics. Stanley Kramer, the director, introduces the audience to two key ideas in the very first shot of the scene. He does this through the use of background tools, like music and scenery. As the camera fades in from the previous scene, music begins to play, and a group of women sing a religious hymn, "Give me that old time religion." The extremely loud music continues for the duration of the parade. At first the audience doesn't know the source of the music, but as the parade comes to an end, the camera focuses on a group of militant looking women, who march and sing. This song draws the audience into the impending controversy over religion. It expresses the entire town's point of view on the issue. The audience can see that religion affects the soc...
Richard Brautigan’s short fiction stories incorporate protagonists that are recognizably fictionalized versions of the author himself. He writes in order to extract his own struggles of the past and the difficulties of discovering himself in the present. Through the characters in The Weather in San Francisco and Corporal, the portrayal of his optimistic view of life as a consequence of the rigors of daily life, and the use of symbols, Brautigan presents his personal story through the words on the paper.
Her bedroom was closed but with an “open window” (463), with a roomy armchair she sank into. As she is looking out the window she sees “the tops of trees,” “new spring life,” “breath of rain was in the air,” and she could hear a peddler below in the street, calling to customers, and “patches of blue sky showing” (463). The author depicts in the previous sentence that when she uses “breath of rain was in the air,” rain is more like a cleansing so she could be feeling a sign of relief but can’t recognize it. She sat with her head on the cushion “quite motionless,” except when a sob came in her throat and “shook her,” like a child “continuously sobbing” (463) in its dreams. The author uses imagery in the previous
Before we explore Zora Neale Hurston’s literary content of “Sweat” in relation to feminism theory, we must first understand the meaning behind feminism theory as well as the Author and setting in which this short story takes place. I intend to use multiple sources from scholarly peer-reviewed journals and websites that help back my sentiments of Zora Neale Hurston using her literature to illustrate a time of women empowerment. While some may argue that this story paints a picture of great sorrow for women, I believe that it is that very argument that can used to show how women still thrive after being mistreated with inadequate respect in comparison to men overall. There are many aspects of “Sweat” that allows the woman to not be depicted as
Imagine standing outside trying to farm your dying crops. All of a sudden, the sky gets dark. You look up and see a big, black cloud heading straight towards your town. You attempt to seek shelter, but it is too late. Cars come to a complete stop, and people rush to get cover. The cloud of dirt sweeps into your small town, and you can no longer see anything but only feel the gritty dirt blowing against your skin. This occurrence is what people experienced during the Dust Bowl. In the historical fiction book, Out of the Dust, the author, Karen Hesse, describes the hardships that Billie Jo and her family faced during the worst years of the Dust Bowl. Hesse depicts the effects of the dust storms, reasons for the occurrence of the dust storms,
What elements are needed to create a good short story? As John Dufrense quoted "A good story has a visionary quality, a personal voice, a signature gesture(1969). The elements used should be used so strongly that it pulls you in; forcing you to connect to the people in the story. Not every story is written well enough to be capable of doing this. This also creates a connection with the reader; leaving some type of effect or impacting the reader along with the characters’ lives. Although there are many elements in writing but one of the greatest things of writing is the ability to make the reader empathize with the characters. This goes beyond than just a connection with the characters; when the reader is able to apprehend with the characters he or she is truly relating and reaching out to them. The author has accomplished something truly special when the reader has the ability to feel the agony that a character is feeling.
In both “Dimension” by Alice Munro and “The Breeze” by Joshua Ferris, the authors address aspects of marriage that impact the characters mindset and actions. Doree in “Dimension” struggles with a marriage that has been altered by the death of her children and the knowledge that her husband was responsible for taking their lives. Her unexplained effort to sustain her marriage is driven by her need to hold on to positive elements from her past and not engage in her current situation. Also in “The Breeze” Sarah constantly battles with her internal feelings about her marriage but cannot inform Jay because of his naivete, this causes Sarah to be trapped in a marriage that is filled with repetitiveness centered in denial. These characters struggle
...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.