In “The Trout,” Sean O’Faolain creates a character who is in an important stage of her life that will bring many important changes. Julia is 12, about to be a teenager, yet she is still a child, something that can be a time of much confusion for many. She is questioning everything that is happening and asking why it is so. She gets the typical explanation for such questions from her parents, which always involves some fantastical or mythical figure, and she is figuring out these figures are not real. As she learns that there are many things her family cannot control, she realizes her parents don’t know everything after all, and so she begins finding things out for herself, showing the beginning process of a teenager, going from a child to being more of an adult, taking on things by herself, becoming more individual. Sean O’Faolain clearly shows the struggles many go through during this process, and gives everyone reading it the ability to reflect and understand why they themselves might have felt how they did during such times in their lives. …show more content…
Julia, “... was… at that age… beginning to suspect most stories... already found out too many, from Santa Claus to the Stork.” This is the first stage of the process, as she questions the common explanations for hard questions. She also thinks to herself much, “How could there be a well! In The Dark Walk… she had visited year after year?… `Nonsense.’” Julia is in a process that we all go through. This also shows a deeper meaning, because during that phase is when she realizes that nobody can know everything, which is a realization that we all have at different times and affects us to varying degrees in varying
In “Eleven”, written by Sandra Cisneros, Cisneros uses literary techniques such as diction and imagery to characterize Rachel’s character during her transition from age ten to age 11. These literary techniques help to describe how Rachel feels in certain situations while also explaining her qualities and traits. Through the use of these literary techniques Cisneros also collaborated on Rachel’s feelings when she was other ages and how she felt at that time during her life.
The story is seen through the innocent eyes of a 13 year old boy called Charlie Bucktin. The first person central point of view helps us to understand Charlie, to identify with him and his attitudes and values and for reader positioning. Silvey uses language conventions such as descriptive language, dialogue, diction, register and imagery to construct Charlie’s point of view. Since we only see and know what Charlie does thus this helps us create and certain bond with him as he grows, learns, and faces new problems throughout the novel. The fact that Charlie is a teenager and the readers are provided with teenager reactions the teenager audience is able to identify with the character and why he does things that way. Charlie starts of as a the model son, ever the obedient never to do anything wrong… to eventually losing his innocence and naivety and having a better understanding of what is right and what is wrong.
“Why? Why? The girl gasped, as they lunged down the old deer trail. Behind them they could hear shots, and glass breaking as the men came to the bogged car” (Hood 414). It is at this precise moment Hood’s writing shows the granddaughter’s depletion of her naïve nature, becoming aware of the brutality of the world around her and that it will influence her future. Continuing, Hood doesn’t stop with the men destroying the car; Hood elucidated the plight of the two women; describing how the man shot a fish and continued shooting the fish until it sank, outlining the malicious nature of the pair and their disregard for life and how the granddaughter was the fish had it not been for the grandmother’s past influencing how she lived her life. In that moment, the granddaughter becomes aware of the burden she will bear and how it has influenced her life.
Her struggles are of a flower trying to blossom in a pile of garbage. Growing up in the poor side of the southside of Chicago, Mexican music blasting early in the morning or ducking from the bullets flying in a drive-by shooting. Julia solace is found in her writing, and in her high school English class. Mr. Ingram her English teacher asks her what she wants out of life she cries “I want to go to school. I want to see the word” and “I want so many things sometimes I can’t even stand it. I feel like I’m going to explode.” But Ama doesn’t see it that way, she just tells, Julia, she is a bad daughter because she wants to leave her family. The world is not what it seems. It is filled with evil and bad people that just want to her hurt and take advantage of
The son is somewhat imprisoned as well. He struggles throughout the story to choose what he wants to do in life, either go to school or stay at home and help his father with fishing. This is a difficult decision for him as he is pulled in different directions as his mother wants him to stay, and his father told him to go back to school. At the beginning of the story the readers realize that the narrator works at a university. This displays that the narrator, or son, chose to go down the path of education after his father died. He feels as though he owes it to his father to live his dreams. Another part to this story is the mother’s relationship with her husband and children. It is clear that she strongly is against anyone doing something other than fishing with their lives. Why is it that she strongly dislikes anyone going against fishing, while her husband is the total opposite? Her husband is fisherman, whose desire is education, but the mother can’t stand anyone wasting time on useless books. I feel as though this may be because the mother frowns upon what her husband loves, and she is upset that he has to escape the life he lives with her and their children, using books.
The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.
Based on a true story, this biographical drama centered around Antwone “Fish” Fisher. In the beginning of the story, he was a sailor prone to violent outbursts. On the verge of being kicked out of the Navy for repeated fighting, he is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing to open up, Dr. Davenport slyly slips his way into getting Antwone to talk. Antwone eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood with neglect and abuse. With the help of Dr. Davenport, he is able to face his past and strive for success to find the family he has never met. At the same time, he is able to turn his life around and change it dramatically. In the end, he is reunited with both his father’s side of the family and his mother who has abandoned him.
“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.
Throughout the story, O’Brien speaks about his adventure with man by the name Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O’Brien stays at while on he want to run away from his responsibility. O’Brien describe Elroy as “Elroy Berdahl: eighty-one years old, skinny and shrunken and mostly bald... His eyes had the bluish gray color of a razor blade, the same polished shine, and as he peered at me I felt a strange sharpness, almost painful, a cutting sensation, as if his gaze were somehow slicking me open.” O’Brien give the reader a clear idea about what Elroy looked like and how he the big influence on his, he eels Elroy can see the pain and desire inside of him. The circumstance of O’Brian has while he was their helping him to find and realize what his true believes and personality. The author of the story gives the audience the sense that our personal understanding of self is built on the role of relationship we have with others. There are many things that could influence the person choices such as family, friend...
In order for Jeannette to learn how to swim, she had to try over and over when faced with predicaments. Rex taught Jeannette from a young age to learn how to swim, and he told her, “if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (66), by facing Jeannette with life or death challenges she manages to learn. Forcing Jeannette to learn how to swim is a life lesson in dealing with teaching her to learn how to survive by herself. Jeannette wanted to get out of her house and the city of Welch to do bigger things rather than stay in a house that’s falling apart. Jeannette and her sister, Lori, had a dream of leaving Welch for a while and hatched a plan. The girl’s big dream led them to hide a piggy bank to save money for New York. Jeannette took the opportunity of moving to New York to live with her sister quickly upon her high school graduation. Leading up to Jeannette’s graduation she had to take on several jobs just to raise enough money to leave her house on Little Hobart Street. Things in Jeannette’s life did not come easy. She had to work for everything she earned and if she did not succeed in something at first she tried until she grasped the concept. From a young age Lori and Jeannette knew they wanted to do something with their lives. Rose-Mary said, “things usually work out in the end,” Jeanette replied “what if they don’t,” and Rose-Mary said “it
Coming home from the grueling experience of being a soldier in World War I, he felt ecstatic when he saw a trout swimming in the stream. The perils of war took a devastating toll on Nick, as he suffered from a physical wound while in action. The camping trip here is like an oasis, which will let Nick to recover from all the distress. “Nick looked down into the pool from the bridge. It was a hot day. A kingfisher flew up from the stream. It was a long time since Nick had looked into a stream and seen trout. They were very satisfactory...Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling.” (178) The healing process begins here with Nick re-acclimating himself with one of his favorite hobbies: fishing. “He started down to the stream, holding his rod...Nick felt awkward and professionally happy with all the equipment hanging from him...His mouth dry, his heart down...Holding the rod far out toward the uprooted tree and sloshing backward in the current, Nick worked the trout, plunging, the rod bending alive, out of the danger of the weeds into the open river. Holding the rod, pumping alive against the current, Nick brought the trout in...” (190,193,195) Nick finally reels in a trout after the big one got away, getting to the feeling of relaxation and washing away the horrors of war. By pitching his tent out in the forest and being able to function by himself so smoothly, Nick shows how he represents the trait of stoicism. He did not complain or stop living, coming back with the trauma of war. Going camping, he is able to relieve himself through using all the nature around him, showcasing his
Hemingway is trying to show that the trout are better then Nick, since they are not bothered by emotions or their surroundings. Nick is, he is bothered by the war, which created internal emotions that he is trying to resolve. Hemingway used the trout in t...
Throughout the narrative, the text utilizes the conflict over the crisis of cognition, or the very mystery regarding the Marquise’s lack of knowledge surrounding her mysterious pregnancy, as a catalyst for the presentation of the plurality of opinions associated with the Marquise’s current status in society and presumptions to the father’s identity. In itself, this state of cognitive dissonance prevents the Marquise from making any attempts at atoning for her supposed sin, as she herself is unaware of any possible transgressions responsible for her current predicament. In turn, this separation from the truth pushes the marquise to fall into the conviction that the “incomprehensible change[s] in her figure” and “inner sensations” (85) she felt were due to the god of Fantasy or Morpheus or even “one of his attendant dreams,” (74) thereby relinquishing her subconscious from any guilt. However, despite her self-assurance of innocence and desperate pleas at expressing her clear conscience, the marquise becomes subject to external pressures from both her family and society, who come to perc...
...on family would not have been able to survive. Though each of them handled their loss differently, the actions of one person molded the decisions of another. Sebold expresses the need to constantly move forward despite loss in order to grow as an individual and also teaches readers to appreciate the little things that remind them that they are alive. The Salmon’s may not be perfect, but neither is Heaven.
Conchita, Charly Carlyle Ph.D. “Alice’s (& Lady Gaga’s) Sense of Self in Wonderland: A Psychoanalytic Formulation.” nymphobrainiac.wordpress. 5 March 2010. Web. May 2015.