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Reflection of society in literature
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Reflection of society in literature
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In the Bible, we hear of the old story of the tower of Babel and how mankind attempted to reach God. In the parable, we learn that this is to man’s folly, as he only realizes his own destruction. Likewise, the theme in the short story, "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet is that "even Gods can die in New York". Benet uses a variety of moods, symbols, imagery, figurative language devices, and foreshadowing to demonstrate the fact that none of us are immortal gods, also the tone in the beginning of the story is hopeful then it fades to dismal as John goes on his quest. Instead, the closer to gods we become, than the closer we come to our own self-destruction.
Benet fills his short story with a variety of symbolic images. For example,
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when the narrator, John, finally crosses into the forbidden land, which in reality is New York, he says “It is there that spirits live, and demons. . .”. This shows that New York has become a place of legends and myths. This is because it is a symbol for what has become of mankind; they are now reduced to only a shadow of who they once were. As a result, Benet uses spirits, demons, and other ethereal creatures to show us that the very notion of man becoming gods is nothing more than a myth. The first tone in the story is hopeful as John goes out to visit land many people are terrified to even think about going into.
John hopes to find his true meaning for his life on his adventure to the Forbidden land. Instead the tone changes to dismal as he finds out the gods that his people worshipped had died out and actually been the mortal mankind the entire time. In the end of the story John speaks of gaining knowledge and rebuilding the world from the very bottom. He was to fix the way everyone is looking at the land they live in and wants to lead his people to a better life on the nuclear wasteland they live …show more content…
in. John is the narrator and the story is in first person. Him being the main character and narrating the story hinders the reader’s understanding. A curious mood carries on throughout the story, while being a little afraid. Benet wrote,”... when I came to the Place of the Gods, I was afraid, afraid… yet, after awhile, my eyes were open, and I saw”. Benet uses vivid imagery to help us experience the death of mankind firsthand. For example, near the end of the story, John discovers the rotting corpse of a man who he thinks is actually a god when he utters the words, “Then I saw the dead God” . This shows that in John’s mind, even gods were capable of dying. This is because he can actually see this god with his own eyes, which previously was an impossible idea. As a result, by creating vivid imagery, Benet shows us the harsh realities of life and death by making the otherwise intangible gods becoming mere flesh and bone. Finally, Benet employs a variety of figurative language devices to communicate his theme.
For example, as John journeys across to the forbidden place, he observes, “I saw that once there had been god-roads across it, though now they were broken and fallen like broken vines”. This simile compares the roads to broken vines. This is because both the roads and the vines were probably at one time glorious to behold, but are now in a decayed and fragmented state. As a result, we see that man is a frail and fallible creature, and that even attaining the highest status of “gods” is only a temporary state of being. Also the author uses foreshadowing, one example of foreshadowing when John’s father says,””my son,’ he said. ‘Once I had young dreams. If your dreams do not eat you up, you may be a great priest. If they eat you, you are still my son. Now go on your
journey’”. In conclusion, we can see that the theme, "even Gods can die in New York" holds true when considering the types of moods, symbols, imagery, figurative language, and foreshadowing used by Benet. The tones are contrasting hopeful and dismal as it changes in the story.Today, we live in a society where people take pride in how much better they are than others. Benet reminds us of the brutal realities of life and death and that as long as we live under the illusion that we can become like gods, humility while strike us like a metaphorical nuclear bomb.
“The Hills Like White Elephants” and “Babylon Revisited” are two different stories but still have many similarities. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Babylon Revisited is a story that is very similar to what he himself went through in his life. Ernest Hemingway’s The Hills Like White Elephant is a story that has to do with the tough decision a couple will have to make that will either make or break their relationship.
What is the you thoroughly understand the term “allegory” and that you can discuss “Babylon Revisited” as an allegory?—This question is garbled and does not make sense.
A simile is a rhetorical device that can be used to compare two unlike things and cleverly bring them together to give the audience something to relate to. In other words, a comparison of two seemingly different things. One particularly powerful simile is, “the wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and mores and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given (Edwards 97),” In this quote, Edwards compared God’s wrath to a raging body of water. He goes on to say that the longer the stream is stopped, the harsher it will be. The word choice, or syntax, Edwards had was simply spectacular. The comparison of His wrath to great waters gives the people an idea as to how ferocious the wrath of God is to Edwards. This word choice struck fear into the hearts of the audience and also shows that Edwards directed his anger at the audience. One can almost feel the passion and hatred within his
An example is, when Grummore makes reference to the heir the nurse tearfully said, “never had no hair. Anybody that studied the the loyal family knowed that.” This is funny because the nurse says hair instead of heir and loyal not royal.To support his purpose and tone, the author uses literary devices such as simile and personification. Simile uses like or as to compare unrelated items. When Kay was trying to convince Sir Ector to go to London, White uses the phrase “eyes like marbles” to describe Grummore’s eyes. He also uses simile during the scene where Merlin is giving up his position as tutor and is leaving the household. White describes Archimedes as “spinning like a top” when he disappears from Merlyn's shoulder. Also, in the scene where Wart pulled the sword from the stone, thousands
Alas Babylon, by Pat frank, is a story that revolves round the actions of a single idea, survival. This is reflected in his choice of the title in itself. It is a phrase that is repeated several times in the book, and brings a sense of uneasiness each time. These words come from a part of the “Revelations of St. John, which describes the decadence of Babylon and the evils that surrounded it at the time (Pg.14-15).” The characters in this book, Mark, and Randy Bragg, began using this phrase from a preacher that they used to listen to as kids. “Randy and Mark never forgot preacher Henry’s thundering, and from it, they borrowed their private synonym for disaster, real or comic, past or future (Pg.15).”
Once upon a time, castles watched the seas and pigs could fly. Often, when we are young fairy tales are read to us to offer happy endings in a world of darkness. They give us one specific ending and put our minds at rest knowing that Belle found her Beast. In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman Dead is not afforded the luxury of his journey having one specific pathway of going through life. Milkman’s story can be seen as a fairy tale with elements of good and bad. His world is trapped in a bubble, and it is not until the fairy tales of other people and books end that he becomes his own fairytale. He finds himself through the twists and turns of his own story. Because of the magical elements within Milkman’s life,
"He would come back some day; they couldn’t make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact. He wasn’t young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldn’t have wanted him to be so alone."
The adult John comes to civilized society as an experiment by Marx and Mond to see how a "savage" would adapt to civilization. Frankly, he does not adapt very well. He is appalled by the lifestyle and ideas of civilized people, and gets himself into a lot of trouble by denouncing civilization. He loves Lenina very much, but gets very upset at her when she wants to have sex with him. He physically attacks her, and from that point on does not want to have anything to do with her. When his mother dies, he interferes with the "death conditioning" of children by being sad. Finally, his frustrations with the civilized world become too much for him and he decides to take action. He tries to be a sort of a Messiah to a group of Deltas, trying to free them from the effect of soma. He tells them only the truth, but it is not the truth that the Deltas have been conditioned to believe, so to them it is a violent lie and they begin to cause a riot. When the riot is subdued, John is apprehended and taken to have a talk with Mustapha Mond.
In life, one must realize that it is impossible to be perfect and so there are always going to be things that one will regret. Modernist author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his short story, "Babylon Revisited", tells the story of a man who has made many mistakes in his life and is living with these regrets and trying desperately to bring his life back together. In the story, Fitzgerald draws heavily upon the current events of the world he is living in and uses the present to depict the past.
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the author Scott Momaday uses the theme of a journey to drive this story. He begins his journey after the passing of his grandmother, the journey to reconnect and rediscover his own culture. He shares this moment on page 10, “I remember her most often in prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of suffering and hope, having seen many things…the last time I saw her she prayed standing by the side of her bed at night, naked to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp moving upon her dark skin…I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow”. The passing brought a realization upon him to have to keep the culture going. He can barely speak Kiowa, while his grandmother was one of the few members who were completely fluent. I believe this book is a call out to his tribe to take the same journey Momaday took.
Thus, there is imagery tied in with biblical images when a character decides to lie or when a character decides to be honest. For example, when Proctor decides to confess his affair to the court he says, “A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you-see her what she is.” (II. 131-133.
In a person’s life, his/her history can have a significant impact on his present and future. Every person has a different attitude toward her/his past. Some people are trying to ignore or escape their past and to create a bright future; others prefer to immerse themselves in the memories of their past. The best approach is to remember the past mistakes and learn from them for a better future. In the story “Babylon revisited “ each of the main characters deals with their past in a different way. Charlie is trying to move on in his life, but his past creep back to him. Honoria, his daughter lives the present. She is missing him and wants to leave with him. The only person, who remains and remembers vividly the past, is Marion, who is the most influential person in the story. During the story, Charlie is trying to get his daughter back, to forget his negative past and build a bright future along with her. Even though, Charlie is trying to change, the first place he visits in Paris is the bar. In addition, one of the first thing Charlie does in Paris is living his address to the bartender, so his old friend Duncan Schaeffer can find him. Later on that day, Charlie walks to the peters’ house to ask for his daughter and the legal custody on her. At this time, Charlie is sober, he is well and seems like a nice guy. Charlie is trying to prove himself in front of the peters’ family. Charlie promises he will provide proper care for his daughter, unfortunately, Charlie’s’ actions speak louder. On the surface, it looks as he is well and sober, but his change transformation is superficial. Charlie does not indulge himself, but he still has one drink a day and keeps contact with his old friends Duncan and Lorraine; those who were drunk and infl...
The tone and allusions are important for John to portray how death is insignificant and irrelevant and that after death one moves on to a better place: heaven.
"East of Eden deals with the inexplicability of the emotion we call love" (Wyatt xxii). John Steinbeck’s East of Eden explores love’s inexplicability and attempts to explain the pernicious effects of love through the characters’ relationships. Proving very complicated, love takes many forms, from a simple coquetry to deep romance.. East of Eden explores three main types of love; parental love, sibling love, and romantic love. Romantic love, typically one-sided in the novel, has negative effects on the characters who fall for one another. All the men who adore Cathy, along with Aron’s and Abra’s relationship, have love that revolves around idealization and manipulation. Parental love, or the lack of it, causes sibling rivalry, which spurs jealousy
In the short story “By the Water of Babylon” a young man is a son of a priest who yearns for knowledge and wants to learn more and more. He is then sent out on a quest through a vision and finds something he was definitely not expecting. In the society he lives in idolizes priests, allowing them to omit knowledge, as they have all the knowledge and they are the only ones allowed to go to the “Dead Places”. What he finds out is an incredible discovery and one that he cannot take lightly.