In this autobiographical narrative by Gary Soto, he reflects on his six-year-old self and the feelings and thoughts he had while stealing and eating a pie. Soto recreated the experience of his guilty six-year-old self through the use of contrast between light and dark, and the imagery of dirt representing sin. Soto uses light and dark to represent what his thought process is at that moment, the symbol of light representing good and dark representing evil. For example, when he is walking out of the grocery store, he grins at the “bald grocer whose forehead shone with a window of light.” (17-18) He uses the light in this situation to show how the grocer is in a place of authority and is watching over him. This mention of the window of light relates …show more content…
The shadows represent a place to escape, or a safe haven from the beating sunlight that watched him while he ate his pie. He soon forgets about his earlier actions until he steps into the dark light from the house. The use of dirt and dust is used to represent the sin that Gary Soto committed, whereas cleanliness represents innocence. When Soto starts to eat the pie, he first goes in with his “cleanest finger” before he is interrupted. (23) The act of him trying to use his cleanest finger shows that his hands have not yet been stained with the sin he is about to commit. After he gets a taste of the pie, he doesn’t care about cleanliness and shoves pieces into his mouth. While eating, Soto is interrupted by Cross-Eyed-Johnny, who asks for a bite of his pie. When Gary declines to give him any, Johnny tells him “Your hands are dirty.” (59) This statement by Cross-Eyed-Johnny is not only literal, but also a metaphor for the greed Soto has, and the sin he committed. It is almost as if sharing with his neighbor would have made the situation better because he would’ve only committed one sin instead of two. Gary Soto does a great job at showcasing the guilt he felt at only six years
“Maybe it was / because the only time / I hit a baseball / it smashed the neon cross / on the church across / the street” (1-6). The readers are clearly presented with a scene of a boy playing baseball and accidentally breaking a church cross. The boy then explores and toys with the possible divine consequences for accidentally breaking a cross with a baseball. “Maybe it was the demon-stoked / rotisseries of purgatory / where we would roast / hundreds of years / for the smallest of sins” (11-15). Here the poet effectively uses imagery to show the reader how a child’s imagination may perceive hell. This may also show the impressionability of the Church on a freethinking child and how the combination can be profound on a young boy with internal conflicts. This can also apply to children’s fantasies and their carefree attitudes which allows them to blend what mindsets they were forced into with that of their
I think the main idea the narrators is trying to emphasize is the theme of opposition between the chaotic world and the human need for community with a series of opposing images, especially darkness and light. The narrator repeatedly associates light with the desire to clear or give form to the needs and passions, which arise out of inner darkness. He also opposes light as an idea of order to darkness in the world, the chaos that adults endure, but of which they normally cannot speak to children.
Contrast is used when Soto compares himself to Eve, a biblical character, when God punished her for stealing an apple from a sacred garden. Also in the first line of the story Soto explains he “knew enough about hell to stop me from stealing”, but later in the story he states that, “the best things in life come stolen.” It is obvious these two statements contrast each other. Soto also uses repetition in this story and starts off with the driver, Mrs. Hancock, and his mom who all “knew” that he had stolen the pie. The thing is “knew” is repeated too many times in too little writing. Also though I think using “knew” so many times brings out the element of diction into the narrative because by using the word so many times, it is obviously used to show how paranoid Soto was. The word pie is at least 14 times while “I” is also used at least 42 where in the third paragraph it is used to begin the last three sentences.
In the poem The Glass Jar we witness the heart-wrenching episode in a little boy’s life, where he is made to discover a distressing reality. Putting his faith first in a monstrance and then in his own mother, he finds himself being betrayed by both. With the many allusions to nature (for example the personification of the sun and references to animals and woods and so on) Gwen Harwood constructs a dynamic backdrop which allow the responder to dwell on the subtle shifts in the child’s personality. The setting is the terrain of nightmares and dreams, where conscious will is suppressed and the reigns are handed to the subconscious mind.
The title of Soto’s “Black Hair” is very ordinary. The image that forms from the color “black” serving as an adjective to describe the common noun “hair” paints a mundane picture that does not allow for any analysis beneath this concrete image. But in cases where the title is not an attention getter, the content of the poem is usually more of a challenge and Soto’s “Black Hair” is a perfect example. As the title suggests, there are many concrete images and figures presented throughout the poem, but after a close reading it is apparent that the underlying themes of family and culture lay beneath these tangible images through the poetic elements of the metonymy, the metaphor, color imagery, and the pun.
He gives specific examples as to where we see the light. He begins to talk about education and describes how some have a dream, yet all they do is dream. Blanco mentions the twenty children who were killed in Newport, Connecticut and honors them. I believe he wanted to not only connect with some of his audience, but also reach out and touch the hearts of many. He writes, “….the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won't explain the empty desks of twenty children marked absent today, and forever” (9-10). He describes how the families of those who died in that event are feeling. Blanco explains that the only hope, or life, they find is on the “stained glass windows”, which signifies church
Though in conventional literature light is representative of a higher power or enlightenment, The Stranger uses light in a confusing, suffocating sense. The unusual use of light leads to Mersault’s ironic enlightenment in the darkness of his prison cell, when he realizes the true “indifference of the world” (122). After all of the instances where the light was overwhelming to Mersault, he finds peace in the darkness. He is able to recognize the truth.
At first glance, one might assume Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" illustrates the awakening of an insensitive and insulated husband to the world of a blind man. However, this literal awakening does not account for the fact that the husband awakens also to a world of religious insight, of which he has also been blind. The title and story structure are the first indicators of the importance of the religious thesis. It is also revealed when one examines the language and actions of the characters in the story. Finally, Carver’s previous and subsequent writings give an overall background for the argument that "Cathedral" has a significant religious import.
In Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral” the narrator learns what it means to “see” through someone who cannot. To see is to be able to view the things around us while putting aside preconceived notions or fear about these objects or people. In order for this to occur once must overcome what they feel is out of the ordinary and learn to accept things as they are. At first the narrator is doesn’t accept the man and uncomfortable around Robert. The narrator soon comes to understand this when he puts aside his fears, and judgments that he can see more than what meets the eye, and the freedom that comes along with this seeing.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. We have all heard this cliché at least once in our lifetime. But how many times have we ever followed through with this expression? The author Raymond Carver writes about an experience where a couple is visited by the wife’s acquaintance Robert, whose wife has recently passed. The fact that Robert is blind belittles him in the eyes of the narrator, causing tension and misjudgment. In “Cathedral”, Carver uses irony, point of view, and symbolism to show the difference between looking and truly seeing.
Raymond Carver’s short story, “Cathedral,” portrays a story in which many in today’s society can relate. We are introduced from the first sentence of the story to a man that seems to be perturbed and agitated. As readers, we are initially unsure to the reasoning’s behind the man’s discomfort. The man, who seems to be a direct portrayal of Raymond Carver himself, shows his ignorance by stereotyping a blind man by the name of Robert, who has come to stay with he and his wife. From the very beginning, Carver shows his detest for Robert but over the course of the story eases into comfort with him and in the end is taught a lesson from the very one he despised.
As my father and I finally fit the statue of the little Virgin Mary in the back of the car, it was time to get on the road. I could already taste the guavas from my great grandfather’s ranch. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. The smell of my aunt’s cooking. Hearing the excitement of my great grandmother’s voice. I wanted to be there already, be in the beautiful country of Mexico. My thoughts wandered as we left my house. How much welcome, love, and the sadness of leaving was going to happen. It was too soon to find out.
Initially, the story endorses the conventional views of Western society, exhibiting light as a positive and reassuring presence without truly comprehending the truth it reveals. Before Marlow begins his story, the sky around the boat he reclines on is full of light.
The repetition of the word "blind" introduces the theme of light and darkness. The streets of Dublin are described as "being blind"(2236) suggesting they do not lead anywhere. The houses are personified as being sombre and having "brown imperturbable faces"(2236), creating the shift from a literal setting to a state of mind. The streets remain silent until the boys are set free from school (2236), comparing the school to a prison: mundane and repetitive, and comparing their departure from school to a type of liberation for the children.... ...
In the dark unknown dialogues of Ernest Hemingway short stories symbols can be easily hidden. “A Clean Well Lighted-Place” written by American Ernest Hemingway is a mysterious short story that leaves readers thinking about life filled with nothing. The theme of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” that life has no meaning unless order and purpose is created individually is supported three symbols of shadows, darkness, and cleanliness. The use of the symbol of shadows gives readers description about the old man and his thoughts about a dull life and the past that was behind him.