“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted, or take them with gratitude.” This quote by G. K. Chesterson, representing people’s struggle to show future generations what life was like by preserving classics. This is shown by the phonograph in “The Portable Phonograph” by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. “The Portable Phonograph” has many examples of symbolism including the portable phonograph, the needle, the records, the lead pipe, the books, and elements of setting including the prairie, the cell and the cell block, and the black cloud strips.
The first tangible objects in the story that is symbolic are the phonograph, the needles and the records, which symbolize the characters’ desire to hold onto civilization. The phonograph is symbolic to the characters’ desires when the narrator states:
“He returned and placed tenderly upon the packed floor, where the firelight might fall upon it, an old portable phonograph in a black case. He smoothed the top with his hand, and then opened it.” (Clark 141)
This quote expresses the main character’s want to hold onto civilization by trying to preserve the phonograph for future generations to use. By the main character, also known as the host and the old man, preserving the phonograph, this symbolizes that he wants to keep this phonograph safe, so future generations could see what life was like for him and his generation. Next, the needles typify the characters desire to hold onto civilization. When the narrator states:
“’I have been using thorns as needles,’ he said. ‘But tonight, because we have a musician among us’ . . . ‘I will use a steel needle. There are only three left.’ . . . ‘Oh, don’t,’ cried the young man, as if he were hurt. ‘The thorns will do beaut...
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...s almost like a time capsule. It holds important items to one generation for future generations to see, just like the old man is doing with the books and the portable phonograph. Within the deep hole that the old man is keeping his belongings, as stated on page 143.The setting is a very important aspect of the symbolism in “The Portable Phonograph”.
The elements of setting including the cell, the black cloud strips, and the hole in the cell wall, as well as tangible objects including the portable phonograph, the books, the lead pipe, the records, the needle, all are examples of symbolism in “The Portable Phonograph”. The civilization in this short story is falling apart, and is wanted to be preserved for future generations to see and use. Once said by G.K. Chesterson, “when it comes to life, it is critical for us to take not things for granted, but with gratitude.”
He needed to make the choice to stop yearning to find that sense of belonging in physical aspects of his life such as described in this quote, ‘machinery, clothes, transport, a Victorian bedroom – hay knife, draining plough, shoulder yolk, box iron.’ Illustrated by the quote, and the use of asyndeton, Skrzynecki is listing off all these different relics as he sees them but does not find a connection with. In the line, ‘I look at words’ the short diction, word choice and line length shows us different variations of disconnection. He is looking at these relics and says they are ‘to remind me of a past that isn’t mine.’ How is one supposed to remember a past they never knew? Rather than try to uncover a past he had no connection with he ought to have sought solace in the present. Things he could connect to without his Polish heritage. In the third stanza, Skrzynecki uses the quote ‘the grey clay bottle that’s cold as water to touch.’ This simile and use of the word cold is symbolic of his uncomfortable interaction with the museum. Belonging is the feeling and sense of warmth and light. When
In this novel, The Piano Lesson, we learn that some characters are doing their best to leave their mark on the world. A main character, Boy Willie, continually attempts to do so. For instance, he says, “I got to mark my passing on the road. Just like you write on a tree, ‘Boy Willie was here.’” By this, he means that he wants to make sure the world knows that he was here, and that he left something behind. Just as his grandfather carved beautiful, intricate designs into the piano and left it for his family, Boy Willie wants to do something similar. For example, he wants to buy Sutter’s land and make it nice for generations to come. Ironically, Boy Willie wants to sell his grandfather’s statement in order to make his own.
It symbolizes Sister Husband herself, and her life that was deeply rooted in religion. Novalee, in one of the most emotional moments in the book, remembers a quote Moses Whitecotton, who said during their first conversation that “You’re gonna die. But your name’s not. No. It’s gonna be written in somebody’s bible, printed in some newspaper. Cut into your gravestone. See, that name has a history. And that history is going to be there when you’re not.” Novalee writes this quote in Sister’s bible after she died in the tornado, and writes at the end “Thelma Idean Husband, born October 9, 1922 died May 6, 1991”. This symbolizes Sister’s life and legacy, and how her history will forever be recognized and remembered. Secondly, the bible symbolizes Sister Husband’s life achievements. She used to drive around in “The Welcome Wagon” and give strangers bible passages. When she first met Novalee, she regretted that she couldn’t give her a bible passage, saying “Wish I had a bible chapter to give you, honey, but I went by the bus station and gave away my last Deuteronomy and two Lamentations. Met a woman going to New Orleans. Any woman on her way to New Orleans can’t have too many Lamentations. But I don’t have a chapter left. I feel really bad about that.” Sister Husband’s actions symbolize her good natured personality, and how she wanted to spread good luck and
Joan Didion in her essay, “On Keeping a Notebook”, stresses that keeping a notebook is not like keeping a journal. Didion supports her claim by describing entries that are in her notebook. The author’s purpose is to enlighten the reader as to what a notebook is. The author writes in a nostalgic tone for those who are reading the essay, so that they can relate to her. She uses rhetorical appeals; such as flashback, pathos, and imagery to name a few. By using these devices she helps capture the reader’s attention.
We have all had those memorable moments that send us back in time; a song on the radio, the smell of cookies baking, driving in the car. They make you think of good times passed. But Billy Collins’s poem, “The Lanyard”, is not only a recollection of the past, but a personal insight to about the things his mother has done for him and what he has done in return.
Author, Joan Didion, in her essay, On Keeping a Notebook, expands the importance of keeping a notebook. Didion’s purpose is to elucidate why having and using a notebook is essential and give examples of how to keep one. She adopts a forthright and didactic tone in order to emphasize notebook keeping with her audience. Didion provides rhetorical question, flashbacks, and the use of pathos to support the purpose of writing her essay.
In D.H. Lawerence's short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner”, and Grahm Greene's “The Destructors, there are many truths to consider. Although these two stories are considerably different, the message is the same. Whether in a life-like story, such as “The Destructors”, or a fantacy, like “The Rocking Horse Winner”, the seeds of materialism are planted and nourished in lives of the characters. The aspects of materialism in these two stories develop desired conclusions by its characters. In order to understand the similar message of Greene short story “The Destructors” and Lawerence's “The Rocking Horse Winner”, one must scrutinize the various aspects of each story.
However, despite the monetary value of precious metals, attaining such superficial items does not allow man to gain any true fulfillment. For example, in the opening stanza, all the treasures "In jasper cask, when tapped, doth briskly vapor" (ll. 4). The material items mean nothing in the larger scheme of the world and therefore "briskly vapor" and disapp...
Symbolism is commonly used by authors that make short stories. Guin is a prime example of how much symbolism is used in short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Sur.” In both of these stories Guin uses symbolism to show hidden meanings and ideas. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” there is a perfect Utopian city, yet in this perfect city there is a child locked in a broom closet and it is never let out. A few people leave the city when they find out about the child, but most people stay. Furthermore, in “Sur” there is a group of girls that travel to the South Pole and reach it before anyone else, yet they leave no sign or marker at the South Pole. Guin’s stories are very farfetched and use many symbols. Both “Sur” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have many symbols such as colors, characters, objects, and weather. The four types of symbols that Guin uses help the readers understand the themes in her short stories. Although her stories are farfetched, they need symbolism in them or the reader would not understand the theme; therefore the symbols make Guin’s stories much more enjoyable.
“And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.” (Bradbury 76)
Even though in the beginning of the story the Westcotts’ old radio is outdated and constantly malfunctioning, it has the same innocence and simplicity as the couple. The radio, being "an old instrument" (817), and the couple, resembling "statistical reports in college alumni bulletins" (817), are both average and uncomplicated. Neither Jim nor Irene "understood the mechanics of the radio" (817), just as the radio, a machine, did not understand the human music and language it transmitted. Eventually the couple’s life begins to fall apart. This happens as the old radio get worse and finally "the music [from the radio] faded away all together" (817).
Berniece tries to show Boy Willie that the piano experienced more than pleasant events during those days. She interprets their Mama Ola’s pain by saying, “ ‘Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled...she rubbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over it...seventeen years’ worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what? For a piano? For a piece of wood?’ ” (52). The tragedy of their Mama Ola is an almost mythic quality in their unified imagination, but the time has robbed it in Boy Willie’s face. He forces himself to think of his Mama Ola’s suffering as a metaphor than an actual event.
Every person has a past, every race has a heritage, and every family has a legacy. In Wilson’s play, four protagonists, Boy Willie, Berniece, Doaker and Wining Boy are all wounded by their traumatic pasts’ and have only have one reminder of their family history – the piano. During the beginning of the play, Wilson describes the setting and illustrates a piano that is dominating the parlor and gathering dust in the Charles’ home. The piano is covered with carvings of events and “mask-like figures resembling totems.” Wilson then begins to describe the carvings as “graceful” and rendering a “power of invention that lifts them out of the realm of craftsmanship and into the realm of art.” Nevertheless, to the Charles’ family, the piano is not just an ornately carved piano but rather the only symbol of their family legacy; the only way to understand the piano is to go back to the period of slavery. In the play, Doaker begins to reveal the family history to Boy Willie and explains the significance of the piano. During the slave period, Boy Willie and Bernice’s' grandfather's (Willie Boy) was owned by a man named Robert Sutter. Sutter had traded their grandmother and uncle for the piano as a present for his wife, Miss Ophelia. After getting tired of the piano, Miss Ophelia missed her slaves so much, Sutter made Willie Boy hand-carve the faces of his wife and son's faces all over the piano. However, Willie Boy didn't end there; he carved all of his ancestors onto the piano and “all kinds of things that happened with [the] family.” Miss Ophelia became ecstatic when she saw the piano, because “now she had her piano and her niggers too.” When she looked at the carvings in the piano, she could see all the faces of the slaves she missed and the...
The analysis argues the use of symbolism as it applies to the aspects of the characters and their relationships. Henrik Ibsen’s extensive use of symbols is applied to capture the reader’s attention. Symbols like the Christmas tree, the locked mailbox, the Tarantella, Dr. Rank’s calling cards, and the letters add a delicate meaning to the characters and help convey ideas and themes throughout the play.
A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. (2009 Open-Ended Question for AP English Literature and Composition).