All life proves amazement. When life becomes lost, there proves great sadness. The loss of a loved one or loss of oneself proves great sorrow. Many writers wrote about loss and sadness. Subsequently, only great writers can write about loss in a truly happy story. In the three short stories “Gwilan’s Harp” By Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Washwoman” by Bashevis Singer, and “The Last Leaf” by William Sydney Porter, more commonly known as O. Henry, all experienced loss in stories with a happy domineer. “Gwilan’s Harp” By Ursula K. Le Guin A remarkable writer, that went by the name Ursula K. Le Guin, wrote an amazing short story called "Gwilan’s Harp.” Gwilan’s Harp focused on a girl, a girl with a gift. “She was young; her hands were iron and her
Sven Birkerts essay, “The Owl Has Flown” taken from The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age 1994 focuses on the immature thoughts of using electronics with our reading. He refers to the past on multiple occasions, giving the reader the sense that Birkerts may think that the past was a much better way of reading. When Birkerts talks about reading he also means learning and interpreting, getting the understanding from what we read. The depth of reading has changed a lot since the middle ages and Birkerts believes that it has changed and will continue to change for the worse. A quote from my reading of this essay that really tore at me is, “As we now find ourselves at a cultural watershed—as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to screen—it may be time to ask how modifications in our way of reading may impinge upon our mental life. For how we receive information bears vitally on the ways we experience and interpret reality.” the reason for this becoming an obstacle for me is that I agree and disagree with him.
Are adults overprotective of their children? To what point do we protect children? Where should the line be drawn? Along with those questions is how easily children can be influenced by these same adults. Two poets, Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins, express the ideas of how easily children can be manipulated and how sometimes adults think they are protecting their innocent children, when in reality they are not. Wilbur and Collins express these ideas in their poems through numerous literary devices. The literary devices used by Wilbur and Collins expose different meanings and two extremely different end results. Among the various literary devices used, Wilbur uses imagery, a simple rhyme scheme and meter, juxtaposition of the rational and irrational, and a humorous tone to represent the narrator’s attempt to “domesticate” irrational fears. Conversely Collins uses symbols, historical interpretations, imagery, diction and other literary devices to depict the history teacher’s effort to shield his students from reality. In the poems, “A Barred Owl,” by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher,” by Billy Collins, both poets convey how adults protect and calm children from their biggest, darkest fears and curiosities.
People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
Through appeals to ethos and appeals to pathos, “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett and “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde both accomplish to get across the importance of selflessness in humanity. During these two stories the protagonists of each sacrifice something that could have helped them or what they wanted to help others around them.
Grief played a large role in the lives of the Boatwright sisters and Lily Owens. They each encountered death, injustice, and sadness. Grief impacted and left an imprint on each of them. Grief proved fatal for May. August knew that grief was just another aspect of life; that it had to be accepted and then left in the past. June and Lily learned to not let grief rule their lives. Life is not inherently good or bad – events not solely joyful or grievous – it is glorious in its perfect imperfection.
The harp had come to Gwilan from her mother, and so had her mastery of it, people said. “Ah,” they said when Gwilan played, “you can tell, that’s Diera’s touch,” just as their parents had said when Diera played, “Ah, that’s the true Penlin touch!” Gwilan’s mother had had the harp from Penlin, a musician’s dying gift to the worthiest of pupils. From a musician’s hands Penlin too had received it; never had it been sold or bartered for, nor any value put upon it that can be said in numbers. A princely and most incredible instrument it was for a poor harper to own. The shape of it was perfection, and every part was strong and fine: the wood as hard and smooth as bronze, the fittings of ivory and silver. The
In dealing with depression, alcoholism, and suicide, Dorothy Parker turned to writing to escape from herself. Through out her life, she struggled between the idea of life versus death, which has a major impact on Dorothy’s handful of books, filled with poems. In “Resume” and “One Perfect Rose” Parker recalls personal events to integrate her world of fiction and wit with reality. In all of her work, Dorothy Parker illuminates her poetry with wit, imagery, and symbolism to convey that wealth and privilege do not provide comfort of one’s soul in death.
Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 poem, “Annabel Lee”, explores the common themes of romance and death found in many of Poe’s works. The poem tells the story of a beautiful young maiden named Annabel Lee who resides by the sea. The maiden and the narrator of the poem are deeply in love, however the maiden falls ill and dies, leaving the narrator without his beloved Annabel Lee. Contrary to what many might expect from a poem by Poe and yet still depressing, the poem ends with the narrator accepting Annabel’s death and remains confident that they will forever be together despite her parting.
Life can often serve trials of character as food for thought.Instances such as the death of a loved one, unrequited love, or broken dreams can offer a person thoughts not available in other circumstances. When William Butler Yeats finds out his close friend, Lady Gregory, is suffering from a life-endangering illness, he comes to a startling conclusion. In A Friend’s Illness, Yeats concisely uses a simile and an allusion towards Job to establish that having a dear friend sick can be a devastating event. Then in the same poem, Yeats uses another allusion to Job and reflective diction conveying a wondrous tone to conclude that there is slight narcissism in being in a deep state of woe while a dear friend is sick.
Everyone in this world starts somewhere, thousands of new beginnings each day, a new story drafted every moment. A story can be written, told by mouth, or acted out, but it is the original telling, the occurrence of such a story, which remains the most engaging and interesting, leading to the stories that will be told long after the characters are gone. With each birth a new story begins, with each achievement the plot of a story is established, and with each death a story is passed on. Some people create more stories than their own, weaving their words into a tale of their choosing. All of these stories are equally significant, some more popular than others are told often, some are shared only amongst few, and yet these stories all maintain a uniform weight of importance. Each story has a meaning. Sir Philip Sidney not only had a story of his own, but told many other stories, passing them on through his sonnets, songs, psalms, and other works. Sir Philip Sidney may not be one of the most renowned poets in history, however the stories that he told have impacted not only himself, but everyone around him, and people for generations to come. Sir Philip Sidney was born in 1554, and yet we continue to enjoy his work today, in 2010, the stories surrounding his life have been passed on for almost five hundred years, no small feat to be sure. His story was short, but his memory lives on, the tales being passed on for years yet to come.
“Annabel Lee”, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a work of art portraying loss, love, and beauty. The narrator, Poe, grieves over the loss of his one true love, his lovely woman. Every thought, every feeling, and every dream that he encountered, had so much to do with the love he shared with his darling. She was the dearest to him, so dear that she was his entire life. Without her, there was nothing in his life; his life was left empty, blank, and hollow. For this, he could not see himself separated by her and therefore, he kept her by his side through everything. The highest of angels, known as “winged seraphs of Heaven” (Poe 11), couldn’t even come between them. They had something special, something that was ignorant to all bad, and something that was just innocent and pure. They had the emotions, feelings, and experience of everlasting love.
To begin with, the theme of loss dominates the short story “Gwilan’s Harp”. Although, at the very beginning of the story Gwilan, the main character, lives a live of satisfaction and ease, loss eventually rains down on
Oates, Joyce Carol. Foreword to: The Complete Stories & Parables. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, n.d.
Grief is the price we pay for love, and it can comes in two parts. The first is loss, and the second is the remaking of life. In Katherine Mansfield’s short story “The Fly”, a man, who has built his whole business for his son only to lose him to war, feels as if he was grasping for grief and believed “he wasn 't feeling as he wanted to feel” when an old friend brings up his son’s death. It wasn 't until he notices a fly stuck in his inkpot, which the boss begins to feel something. “The Fly” depicts the theme of grief and sorrow, showing how the loss of his son has a lasting effect on the boss, however, he continues to move on from his mourning, and like how the fly slowly dies away in the end so does the boss’s grieving memories.
A shadow of despair and disappointment is dominant in all of her collections and it becomes more in her last poems. In a way that she calls herself an addict to the disappointment. She experiences not only the individual disappointment but also the social one.