Through Janet and Geoff Benge’s unique style of writing in their biography of Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime, one can easily visualise, feel, and travel with Gladys to and through China’s harsh mountain terrain and mainland. The use of words and feelings described throughout this biography help readers envision the environment and share Gladys’s feelings in physical form. The first good example of this is when Gladys is making her way through the miserable cold up the railroad tracks to get to the train station. “An icy wind whipped at Gladys’s exposed face…its bitter cold seep through her woolen stockings…”(Benge & Benge, 1998, p. 15). Through this, the reader can feel and imagine the same cold Gladys felt and experienced. The
A. Introductory statement: A research article by Sherry Turkle titled, The Documented Life, discusses how modern technology has caused us to put our lives on hold.
Maya Angelou said “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” This can't be anymore true of Judy Hopps. In the beginning of the film she was naive, ambitious, and optimistic. Although Judy Hopps is considered a dumb bunny, Judy Hopps is an hero because she stands up for what's right , she is brave, and she follows the Hero’s Journey.
This essay will be looking at and examining the theme of characters having or going through a Journey, and how they are conveyed by author, Gwen Harwood, in her poems, ‘Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day’ and ‘In the Park’. With the journeys in these two poems seemingly being written as reflections, where the characters are going through and struggling with the journeys they’re undertaking, I’ll be looking at what the journeys in these poems are representing and what they are showing readers about the characters who have had them.
The novel ‘Winterdance’ , written by Gary Paulsen, is an autobiographical story of author’s own experience both training for and running the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska. The harsh, vicious conditions of Iditarod effects Paulsen both mentally and physically. Author describes these
Both Helen Maria Williams and Lady Morgan are important representatives of the genre of Romantic travel literature. These two accounts were published more than twenty years apart, and while they regard different countries, thematic and stylistic parallels and contrasts can, not surprisingly, be established between the two works. Social and cultural commentary, as well political and historical criticism, are prominent in these two accounts. Another point of comparison is the theme of the relation of man with nature. Williams' style leans toward the sentimental tradition in travel writing; it is personalized and her perceptions tend to be mediated through the emotions. Lady Morgan's descriptions rely more on intellectual rather than emotional elements, and are often polemical, while also remaining self-consciously subjective.
An example of the cycle followed by her father, his father, and his father before him is told when Blunt recalls a major blizzard in December 1964 that trapped the family and some neighbors in their small homestead. She unemotionally describes how her father simply proceeded to go through the motions of keeping the pipes from freezing, calmly accepting the fact that he could do nothing as the storm progressed and he could not prevent loss of a of their livestock. Or how when he first ventured out to check on the animals in their nearby barn and nearly lost his way back in whiteout conditions. Later, when the storm passed, she told of playing amongst the frozen corpses of the cattle, jumping from ribcage to ribcage, daring her older brother and sister to cut off pieces of the animals, all with the calm acceptance that this was so normal, nothing strange about it.
As characters in the poem are literally snow bound, they find that the natural occurrence actually serves a relaxing and warming purpose, one that brings together family. This effect is further achieved through the use of meter throughout the work as a whole. In its simplistic yet conversational tone, the author uses meter to depict the result that nature has forced upon these humans, who are but a small sample size that actually is representative of society that that time. Due to nature, the characters can talk, represented by the conversational meter, and thus, they can bond within the family. A larger representation of this more specific example can be applied to a more general perspective of human’s relationship with the natural world. Although “Snowbound” captures what humans do as a result of nature, it can also represent a larger picture, where nature appears at the most opportune times to enhance relationships from human to human. In “snowbound,” this is symbolized by the fire, “Our warm hearth seemed blazing free” (Whittier 135). This image relays a spirited, warm, mood full of security, which is expertly used by the author to show how fire, a natural phenomena, can provide such beneficial effects on humans. This very occurrence exemplifies how such a miniscule aspect of nature can have such a profound effect on a family, leaving the reader wondering what nature and its entirety could accomplish if used as a
Beryl Markham’s West with the Night is a collection of anecdotes surrounding her early life growing up as a white girl in British imperialist Africa, leading up to and through her flight across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West, which made her the first woman to do so successfully. Throughout this memoir, Markham exhibits an ache for discovery, travel, and challenge. She never stays in one place for very long and cannot bear the boredom of a stagnant lifestyle. One of the most iconic statements that Beryl Markham makes in West with the Night is: I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead.
The story opens by embracing the reader with a relaxed setting, giving the anticipation for an optimistic story. “…with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (p.445).”
Introduction: The novel Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan follows the hapless journey of twelve Bay Area tourists destined for Burma, accompanied by the ghost of their dear friend Bibi Chen, who died under “mysterious circumstances” just before the departure. The journey continues in a downward spiral until eleven of the tourists go out on a misty lake one morning and disappear. Miss Chen, the omniscient voice of the book, is caught between two worlds and is along for this journey. It isn’t until the end of the book that readers realize many events that occur are actually a metaphor for human relations; and the central theme is that the line between reality and fantasy can be tricky to discern, and things can be vastly different from
The beauty of poetry is the ability to cross boundaries of description that prose cannot reach. In poetry there does not need to be a linear structure, a plot, or a coinciding reason for everything. Thoughts can become objects, emotions can become environments, and objects can become subjects. It is these qualities that I found in “0 Degrees” by Elizabeth Spires that drew me to undertake a further exploration of this poem and the symbolic elements of nature, memory, and emotion that work in tandem to draw in the reader. The title itself draws attention by the connotation of “Zero Degrees”, which in weather terminology, is the point in degrees Celsius where water freezes. Freezing or immobility is a theme ...
Julia Alvarez. “Snow”. Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Lauren G, Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston, Wadsworth 2011. 75-76. Print
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small portion of his writing helps to illuminate a major theme of the Romantic poets, and can even be seen in contemporary writings of today. One such work is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This story follows two characters, Inman and Ada, who barely know each other and are forced apart by the Civil War. As Ada waits in North Carolina Appalachia for Inman to return home from three years of battle, Inman decides to abandon the war effort and journey across the Southern states to reach his beloved.
James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, and Johanna Spyri; Authors from Different Places and Times with Experiences they Chose to Share
Standing on the balcony, I gazed at the darkened and starry sky above. Silence surrounded me as I took a glimpse at the deserted park before me. Memories bombarded my mind. As a young girl, the park was my favourite place to go. One cold winter’s night just like tonight as I looked upon the dark sky, I had decided to go for a walk. Wrapped up in my elegant scarlet red winter coat with gleaming black buttons descending down the front keeping away the winter chill. Wearing thick leggings as black as coal, leather boots lined with fur which kept my feet cozy.