There is an average of 823.7 deaths in a population of 100,000, 2,626,418 deaths per year and a life expectancy rate of 78.8 years. People die every day from illness, accidents, and natural causes. In this play the concept of mortality is woven throughout using comedy to get the point across. Mere Mortals by David Ives is piece made up of six one-act comedies put together to create one big play. With the first look at these six acts it is as if there is absolutely no connection to them, as if they are just six random plays thrown together. However, with further inspection it is seen that these plays have a few things in common. For one, theme, they all have a different main theme but looking more closely they have one thing in common: Mortality, life, and death. Ives also wrote all of these acts using many forms of figurative language. Mere Mortals, by David Ives inspects the concept of mortality using figurative language and a few different themes. The first act is “Foreplay”. “Foreplay” uses repetition …show more content…
to achieve its theme. This act is about a guy named Chuck, who goes on the same exact date with three different girls at different points in his life. The first two girls seem to not like him all that much and are not impressed with his jokes and humor. The third girl however, does not seem to understand the fact that Chuck is making jokes and takes what he says literally. The theme of this act is that life moves on even when we try to keep it from passing. Chuck uses his same tricks and goes on the same date with three different girls, all who are the same age even as Chuck is getting older. It is as if he does not want to face the fact that he is getting older and still does not have a date. He keeps going on the same date using the same tricks of seduction as if he is still in his early twenties. Nevertheless, no matter how much Chuck just wants life to slow down, time will keep ticking no matter how hard he tries to act as if it is not. There are a few uses of figurative language in the act. One of the biggest is repetition, throughout all three dates Chuck repeats the same stories and jokes to the different girls, and all three girls say he has a reputation of a Don Juan. There are also a few metaphors scattered throughout. The biggest being one the characters talked about, mini golf can be a metaphor for life or death. Although, in this play the mini golf was just what the girls said, a metaphor for sex, which is what Chuck wanted from the girls after the game. The use of repetition helps convey the theme that Chuck does not want life to keep moving on, he is using the same stories and jokes as if he hopes to be young like he was on the first date. The second act in the play is called “Mere Mortals”. Foreshadowing is used in this play to help convey the theme. Three guys, Joe, Charlie, and Frank, are building a skyscraper, during this act they are on their lunch break and sitting on the very top of the building eating. The theme of this act can be seen as: sometimes fantasy and pretend is better than reality. While talking the three men all make something up about themselves. They are most likely making up these facts about themselves to entertain and have some fun on their lunch break, nevertheless it is obvious that whoever they pretend that they are it is a cool, famous person and makes them seem mysterious and better than they really are. Because in reality, these men are not famous and widely known, they are just mere mortals like everyone else. The first part of the play sort of foreshadows who the men later pretend to be. Frank wants to know “What’s the news from the Ukraine” (Ives, 34)? Later he says he that he is the son of Czar Nicholas the second of Russia, who is the Sovereign of the Ukraine. In the beginning of the act Charlie has a corned beef sandwich and Joe says that there must be some sort of occasion, then Charlie brings out a cupcake with a candle on it and has a mini celebration for himself. Charlie later says that he is the Lindbergh baby who’s anniversary of his kidnapping is today. Joe in the beginning is reading about a lady named Astoria Queens, then later says he used to be a queen, Queen Marie Antoinette. The use of foreshadowing helps convey the theme in that in the beginning they are talking about normal everyday stuff, and then in the end they are sort of still talking along the same topics but they have made themselves out to be somebody amazing. The third act of Mere Mortals is “Time Flies”.
Irony is scattered throughout the whole act making it humorous how Ives chooses to get theme across. The name in itself is a play on words because it’s a story about mayflies, but also about how fast their life flies by. The theme of this act is life is too short. For these mayflies, it actually is, they have a lifespan of one day. Though, putting the theme into a human perspective: life is too short to waste it doing meaningless activities. Irony is shown throughout the act. First, both mayflies figure out that both their parents died around dawn that morning, then they realize that they were both born around 7:30 that morning, and there are many more instances of this. Later it is found out that the reason that both of them have some many dates in common is because mayflies only live for one day. This irony helps convey the fact that life really is too short and the amount of time on this earth should be used
wisely. “Speed-the-Play” is the title of the fourth act. Stereotyping is used in the whole act. Ives captures American human nature to the best degree. It shows how humans talk and act with each other on a regular basis. The theme of the play is that human nature is different for males and females but the same for all males and all females. “All men are alike” (78), and “all women are alike” (78). The play portrays men and women in a stereotypical fashion. The men in the play just want sex and are doing anything to get it. While the females feel attacked by the men and do not like them. Howbeit, with a little, almost no persuasion at all, the women agree to what the men want. Throughout the entire act there are many things said that are stereotyping men and women. Men cuss a lot, they just want sex, women will sleep with men to raise their status, women don’t need much persuasion to get out with a man, etc. The whole act is portraying different stereotypes of men and women. This use of stereotyping helps show the theme in that all men are the same and all women are the same. “Dr. Fritz” is the next act in Mere Mortals the theme of the fifth act is don’t judge people at first glance. Ives’ choice of diction throughout this entire act really brings the theme into perspective. Tom needs a doctor and so he keeps asking Maria for one. Never does he consider that she could be the doctor. It turns out that she is in fact Dr. Fritz, but Tom judged her by the clothes she wore, by the way she dressed, and didn’t even stop to ask who the doctor was. He also assumed that doctor Fritz was a guy with no proof whether or not Dr. Fritz was male or female. She even says that the shop they are in “is the souvenir shop of Maria, and the offices of Dr. Fritz”, but she never says who she is or who Dr. Fritz is (86). Maria never gives any hint that she could be Dr. Fritz, but she also never gives a hint that Dr. Fritz could be someone else. One example of this is when she says “Dr. Fritz can cure everything… terminal disease is more difficult” (86). The way she says this could indicate that she is talking about herself in the third person, or that she has been around Dr. Fritz for so long that she knows how good of a doctor he really is. Although we later find out that the former is true. Tom shouldn’t have judged Maria by appearances, and should have just asked who Dr. Fritz was. Because he didn’t specifically ask who the doctor was, Maria just talks in circles around him without ever really giving a clue as to who she really is. Now, the sixth and final act is Degas, C’est Moi. This act is about a guy who wakes up one day and suddenly decides he will be someone else that day, so he becomes Edgar Degas. He has this idea that everyone he comes across that day will recognize him as Degas instead of himself and he gets annoyed when he realizes people aren’t recognizing him as a famous artist who died many years before. The theme of this act is it is not always better to be someone else just because they are popular, everyone is loved in their own special way In the end Ed realizes this when his wife doesn’t recognize the fact that that day he is Degas but instead recognizes him as just Ed, but Ed is the man she loves and he realizes that is enough for him and he doesn’t need to be a famous artist to feel appreciated. The whole situation is ironic, he goes about his day normally but he expects people to realize, without him telling them, that today he is not Ed, but instead Degas. Because no one recognizes him as Degas, he starts to get frustrated and starts wondering what the real Degas’ life was like. The real irony is when he realizes that all day he’s been pretending to be someone else when the person who matters most to him just wants him to be himself. All six of these acts have different main themes, despite there being one theme hidden among them all: mortality. All the acts are about life moving too quickly, being someone better than yourself, or judging people based on stereotypes. All of which when scrutinized closely can be brought back to the subject of mortality. Everyone is going to die eventually, but most would rather it be later rather than sooner, this is the concept of life moving too fast. No one wants to die a nobody, people want to be remembered after life, this is shown through the characters in the play pretending to be someone else. Finally, we are all just humans, we are all going to die someday, in the perspective of life and death everyone is the same, we live for only moments on this earth and then we die, just like everyone else. This is what the stereotyping shows, it doesn’t matter if everyone is different, in the long run of life everyone is the same. Mortality is a hidden theme scattered throughout all the acts along with figurative language and six different main themes.
What form of figurative language does the author use in line 5 of page 212 to make his writing more interesting?
The title of the short story, “Four Directions” is symbolic for Waverly’s inner misconceptions. As she goes about her life, she is pulled in different ways by her past and her present. She is torn between her Chinese heritage and her American life. She never thought that instead of being pulled in four directions, she could take all of her differences and combine them. In the end she realizes this with the help of her mother. “The three of us, leaving our differences behind...moving West to reach East” (184), thought Waverly. Her whole life she misconceived her mother’s intentions. Lindo never wanted Waverly to solely focus on her Chinese heritage, but rather combine it with her new American ways. The idea of being pulled in four
Salt to The Sea is a book by Ruta sepetys about 4 people trying to escape the grasps of the russians and in the case of Florian the nazis. They cross the countryside and land at a port. On the way there they lost people and possessions. When they get to the boat they get hit by a torpedo and 2 of them die, Alfred and Emilia.
What is figurative language? Figurative language is saying something other than what is meant for effect. For example a metaphor, simile, symbol, hyperbole or personification. In the sermon called Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God and the Iroquois Constitution there is a lot of figurative language.
A Pulitzer Prize is an award for an achievement in American journalism, literature, or music. Paul Gigot, chairman of the Pulitzer Prize board, described the award as a “proud and robust tradition”. How does one carry on this robust tradition? By mastery of skilled writing technique, one can be considered for the awarding of this prize. Since its creation in 1917, 13 have been awarded annually, one of which, in 1939, was given to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for her novel, The Yearling. Rawlings is an American author from Florida known for writing rural themed novels. Consequently, The Yearling is about a boy living on a farm who adopts an orphaned fawn. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings procured a prestigious Pulitzer Prize for her effectual use of figurative language, sensory details, and syntax.
There a lot of literary devices used in the excerpt from All the Pretty Horses that convey the true meaning in the scene. The hallway the man walks in has portraits of his ancestors whom he vaguely knows. This is connected to the present day when the man who he has gone to see now is also dead. The paragraph also uses figurative language like “yellowed moustache” and eyelids that are “paper thin” to tell us that the man he went to see is dead. The next sentence following that says “That was not sleeping. That was not sleeping.” putting emphasis on how the man in front of him isn’t sleeping and is truly dead. It also references the way that death is associated with sleep and called the long sleep. The excerpt also mentioned that the man is
There are several times in life where people have to be determined to surmount their challenge. Paying the monthly rent, trying to get a promotion, or shooting the game winner to win the finals or to get in the playoffs. There are some downfalls from being determined, but being determined is a crucial character trait that people need. That's why being determined is a common theme in writings. Common themes are explored in literature because they can be explained in different ways of forms, and there the most important lessons to learn. Nobody wants to read a book with an unnecessary and unsatisfying life lesson since they are common they are used more than once.
Tatiana de Rosnay used different literary tools to assist her writing in order to deepen the story, including figurative language, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing. The use of figurative language helps to clarify a description in order to place an image in the mind of the reader. Similes are the main type of figurative language used throughout Sarah’s Key, allowing the reader to see what is happening. Many images conjured up make comparisons as a child would make them, as much of the story concerns the innocence of a child, such as “[t]he oversized radiators were black with dirt, as scaly as a reptile” (Rosnay 10) and “[t]he bathtub has claws” (Rosnay 11). Other descriptions compare Sarah, and Zoe, to a puppy, a symbol of innocence, as children are known to be
Poetry conveys emotions and ideas through words and lines. Long Way Down gives the story about a boy named Will, who wants to avenge his brother. He believes that a guy named Riggs killed his brother. He takes his brother’s gun and leaves his family’s apartment on the eighth floor. On the way down the elevator, he is stopped at each floor and a ghost from his past gets on.
Throughout the story Kurt Vonnegut uses figurative language in order to explain the extensive thought or pain George is going through. Time to Time bergeron’s “mental handicap” buzzes in his ear “ A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm” (6) this smilie explains how whenever George’s get his mind starts to think more “intelligently” than everyone else the alarm goes off breaking his train of thought until his mind goes blank again. Also Kurt Vonnegut uses figurative language to explain the different sounds and noises george hears “ Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer”. To describe Harrison he uses a similes to explain the sheer power of harrison “Harrison
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - J.R.R Tolkien
Through references to disease and illness found in Ophelia’s heartbreak and Hamlet’s madness, to the metaphor that under Claudius’ rule Denmark is like an unweeded garden, and finally in the rotting and decay of royal court, Mortality is a dominant motif. Understanding what influences mortality is an important aspect of Shakespeare’s play and is most definitely something to consider in the real world. Perhaps if society considered all the factors contributing to the final demise of something, like if there is a form of diseases or rottenness present, maybe there would be fewer ends and more
Being that death is a universally explored topic, William Shakespeare, a master of English literature, opted to thoroughly investigate this complex notion in his play Hamlet. Shakespeare cleverly and sometimes subtly brings the reader/viewer through a physical and spiritual journey of death via the several controversial characters of Hamlet. The chief element of this expedition is undoubtedly the funerals. Every funeral depicts, and marks, the conclusion of different perceptions of death. Shakespeare uses the funerals of the several controversial characters to gradually transform the simple, spiritual, naïve, and somewhat light view of death into a much more factual, physical, serious, and down to earth outlook.
In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.
In this play Everyman makes a point and big emphasis that death is inevitable to every human being. This play is simply in its morality and in its story. You shouldn’t be so keen on all the material things in life and forget the purpose of your life. Your personal pleasures are merely transitory, but the eternal truth of life is that death is imminent and is eternal. It is the bitter truth that everyone has to accept it. If you are born you will die one day. Science does not believe in religion. But one day Science will also end in Religion. Everyone should live their life fearful of God and accept Christ as their Savior.