Flannery O'Connor’s The Enduring Chill
Flannery O'Connor’s story, "The Enduring Chill." focuses on Asbury, a young man who fancies himself as a writer but who is convinced he is going to die young. Right from the very start we have the feeling that, as in the other stories, Christ/God is present through the figure of the sun:
The sky was a chill gray and a startling white gold sun, like some strange potentate from the east, was rising beyond the black woods that surrounded Timberboro. (82)
As the story proceeds it centres on the relationships between Asbury, his mother and Dr Block who attends Asbury and Asbury's growing conviction that he is shortly going to die, hence the title of the story, "The Enduring Chill."
Another major symbol in the development of Asbury's obsession figures through the watermark or the water stain on the ceiling of Asbury's bedroom:
When she was gone, he lay for some time staring at the water stains on the gray walls. Descending from the top moulding, long icicle shapes had been etched by leaks and, directly over his bed on the ceiling, another leak had made a fierce bird with spread wings. It had an icicle crosswise in its beak and there were smaller icicles depending from its wings and tail. It had been there since his childhood and had always irritated him and sometimes had frightened him. He had often had the illusion that it was in motion about to descend mysteriously and set the icicle on his head. He closed his eyes and thought: I won't have to look at it for many more days. And presently he went to sleep. (93)
Clearly what is being suggested here is the peace of the Holy Ghost.
In what is the climatic centre of the story, Asbury has a visit from a Roman Catholic Priest who accuses him of ignorance:
"How can the Holy Ghost fill your soul when it's full of trash?" the Priest roared. "The Holy Ghost will not come until you see yourself as you are-a lazy ignorant conceited youth!" he said, pounding his fist on the little bedside table. (107)
This is confirmed as the story proceeds because we find out that Asbury isn't really that sick at all: he only has a form of undulant fever and is going to live.
At the very end of the story Asbury seems to give up his aspiration to be a great writer as he accepts the presence and power of Christ instead:
We never believe it will happen to the ones we love or us. In The Big Chill, these aging friends are facing that death is becoming an aspect of their lives. They have reached an age where individuals who are not typically in their lives very often anyway, are taken from their lives forever. As a result of this aging dynamic, when people get older they move away and create their own lives. The relationships they have built are made distant, and as a result, they begin to lose touch with one another.
While staying at Mel’s home, the adolescent female narrator personifies the butterfly paperweight. The life cycle begins with the narrator “hearing” the butterfly sounds, and believing the butterfly is alive. The butterfly mirrors the narrator’s feelings of alienation and immobility amongst her ‘new family’ in America. She is convinced the butterfly is alive, although trapped inside thick glass (le 25). The thick glass mirrors the image of clear, still water. To the adolescent girl, the thick glass doesn’t stop the sounds of the butterfly from coming through; however, her father counteracts this with the idea of death, “…can’t do much for a dead butterfly” (le 31). In order to free the butterfly, the narrator throws the disk at a cabinet of glass animals, shattering the paperweight, as well as the glass animals. The shattering of the glass connects to the shattering of her being, and her experience in fragility. The idea of bringing the butterfly back to life was useless, as the motionless butterfly laid there “like someone expert at holding his breath or playing dead” (le 34). This sense of rebirth becomes ironic as the butterfly did not come back to life as either being reborn or as the manifestation of a ghostly spirit; instead its cyclic existence permeates through the narrator creating a transformative
An impulse of affection and guardianship drew Niel up the poplar-bordered road in the early light [. . .] and on to the marsh. The sky was burning with the soft pink and silver of a cloudless summer dawn. The heavy, bowed grasses splashed him to the knees. All over the marsh, snow-on-the-mountain, globed with dew, made cool sheets of silver, and the swamp milk-weed spread its flat, raspberry-coloured clusters. There was an almost religious purity about the fresh morning air, the tender sky, the grass and flowers with the sheen of early dew upon them. There was in all living things something limpid and joyous-like the wet morning call of the birds, flying up through the unstained atmosphere. Out of the saffron east a thin, yellow, wine-like sunshine began to gild the fragrant meadows and the glistening tops of the grove. Neil wondered why he did not often come over like this, to see the day before men and their activities had spoiled it, while the morning star was still unsullied, like a gift handed down from the heroic ages.
The short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge", by Flannery O’Connor tells the story of Julian, the main character and his thoughts and feelings toward his mother. Julian is a college graduate who has a fair understating of the world he lives in, and because of this finds difficulty dealing with his mother and her views of the world. The story begins with Julian and his mother taking their regular trip downtown to the YMCA. Julian is often embarrassed by his mother’s feelings toward Blacks; she refers to them as the lower class and reminisces of life on the plantation in the south. Julian takes every opportunity of opposing her views because he finds her thoughtless remarks annoying. He often dreams of holding conversations with "distinguished-looking blacks" and contemplates bringing one home as lover. Despite his urges toward Blacks, the black women sitting next to him on the bus annoys him. By this encounter, it clear that Julian himself has not fully embraced multiculturalism despite how much he wants to. His mother carries herself as a woman of upper society and this is reflected by her actions and attitudes. For example, when Julian and her are waiting for the bus and Julian takes off his tie, she tells him he is embarrassing her because he looks like thug. She also does not want to show up for weight loss class without her hat and gloves. These actions were reserved exclusively for ladies when she was younger and she continues with them, however in today’s world it is not customary.
Clouds are an archetypal symbol for mystery as they can obfuscate and hide things within their shadows. Similarly, in Frankenstein, clouds are characterized for their ability to conceal. As Victor tries to discard of the chunks and members of the torn apart female creation, “Clouds hid the moon, everything was obscure” (210). The moon can serve as a symbol of light in the midst of darkness; light is intrinsically tied with the illuminating qualities of truth. By extension, the ability of a character to see through clouds is a measure of the character’s ability to see past physical constructs that hampers one’s ability to see truth that is shrouded in mystery. Victor has a strange fixation with the eagle that is capable of, “[soaring] amidst the clouds” (110). The creature’s fascination with eagles is linked to their ability to soar among clouds. Shelley uses the juxtaposition of positive and negative diction to emphasize an eagle’s ability to break through the physical. While soar indicates ascension, clouds denote mystery and confusion, two opposite forces: a one-way movement (ascension) and a multitude of directions (mystery). Yet, the eagle is able to break through the confusion and fly upwards, toward the sun - toward truth and knowledge. Mary Shelley’s description of clouds and
"When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him." (pp26-27)
The poem, “Field of Autumn”, by Laurie Lee exposes the languorous passage of time along with the unavoidability of closure, more precisely; death, by describing a shift of seasons. In six stanzas, with four sentences each, the author also contrasts two different branches of time; past and future. Death and slowness are the main motifs of this literary work, and are efficiently portrayed through the overall assonance of the letter “o”, which helps the reader understand the tranquility of the poem by creating an equally calmed atmosphere. This poem is to be analyzed by stanzas, one per paragraph, with the exception of the third and fourth stanzas, which will be analyzed as one for a better understanding of Lee’s poem.
confession without implicating himself. We get a glimpse into the true character of the Friar,
Matteo Alacrán (otherwise known as Matt), is a clone of the wealthy and powerful drug lord El Patrón who rules the land of Opium. Opium is a vast country that lies from the southern border of the United States of America to the edge of Aztlán. Even though Matt is blessed with high intelligence and musical abilities, he is treated by most people he meets as being worse than even a ragged flea-bitten dog. The motivation for this is that unlike Matt, all clones are supposed to be mindless. A clone’s use is only to be harvested for organs. This treatment affects Matt as he grows older; he struggles between deciding whether he is truly human or beast. Yet despite this internal conflict, Matt shows he is capable of emotions and human desire, therefore proving he is human.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
This essay will argue that the eschatology of the Book of Revelation forms an integral part of John’s attempt within the pages of his book to form a literary world in which the forms, figures, and forces of the earthly realm are critiqued and unmasked through the re-focalization of existence from the perspective of heaven. It will attempt to show that, in response to the social, political, religious, and economic circumstances of his readers, the Book of Revelation forms a counter imaginative reality. Through drawing upon an inaugurated sense of eschatology and evocative imagery, John is able to pull the reader in and show them the true face of the imperial world and consequences of its ideology, forcing the reader allegiance to fall with either ‘Babylon’ or the New Jerusalem.
continual suspicion of his fellow man, always expecting the worst of them. The priest describes
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No part of the Bible and its interpretation is more controversial than the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the last profound book in the New Testament. It conveys the significant purpose of Christianity by describing God’s plan for the world and his final judgment of the people by reinforcing the importance of faith and the concept of Christianity as a whole. This book was written by John in 95 or 96 AD. What is, what has been, and what is to come is the central focus of the content in Revelation.
Alexander Cold awakened at dawn, startled by a nightmare. He had been dreaming that an enormous black bird had crashed against the window with a clatter of shattered glass, flown into the house, and carried off his mother. In the dream, he watched helplessly as the gigantic vulture clasped Lisa Cold's clothing in its yellow claws, flew out the same broken window, and disappeared into a sky heavy with dark clouds. What had awakened him was the noise from the storm: wind lashing the trees, rain on the rooftop, and thunder.