Breaking Down the Wall
I can still remember clearly the first time that I listened to The Wall, and how it initially confused me. They continuously referenced a wall in the album and never truly clarified what it was. The Wall is immensely rich in symbolism which makes it harder to make out what they are truly talking about in their songs. It delves into themes that are complex and are hard to make out. The Wall is an amazing story which many people don’t truly appreciate because of the heavy symbolism, and the fact that it’s music. In this paper, I will clarify the plot of The Wall, the themes that reside within it, and the symbolism in it.
The Wall starts out with our main character, Pink, as a young child in the 1950’s with a mother still
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What people don’t realize is the true weight of the dark themes that go on in the background of this story. The main theme within this story is isolation, about how fame can truly isolate someone famous from their masses of adoring fans and how fame will isolate them from their friends and family. Pink Floyd’s bassist, Roger Waters, wrote most of the album and most of it was a reflection on his life. Pink in the story shuts himself off and isolates himself, as opposed to isolation being a product of fame. This is evident by the symbolism of the wall which he has begun building since elementary school when he was abused for what he pursued and the wall that grew ever higher when his wife had an affair. He isolated himself as well by abusing his girlfriend/wife which is shown in the “The Trial” where we hear her take on events. “You little shit, you’re in it now; I hope they throw away the key. You should have talked to me more often than you did, but no! You had to go your own way; have you broken up any homes up lately, just five minutes, worm, Your Honor, me and him alone.” This quote also helps shed some light on his wife’s anger towards Pinks actions, and how it affects those around him. The isolation continuously grows for Pink until the very end where the metaphorical wall is destroyed as mandated by the Worm and semi-self-imposed isolation dissipates and he is revealed before his
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
One of the many factors that have contributed to the success of Australian poetry both locally and internationally is the insightful commentary or depiction of issues uniquely Australian or strongly applicable to Australia. Many Australian poets have been and are fascinated by the issues relevant to Australia. Many in fact nearly all of these poets have been influenced or have experienced the subject matter they are discussing. These poets range from Oodgeroo Noonuccal Aboriginal and women’s rights activist to Banjo Patterson describing life in the bush. Bruce Dawe is also one of these poets. His insightful representation of the dreary, depressing life of many stay at home mothers in “Up the Wall” is a brilliant example of a poem strongly relevant to Australia.
In the memoir The Glass Castle, Walls makes the reader feel a certain way. After reading I would say Walls leaves the readers thinking about society, and how people don’t need to conform to how society wants them to be. This books shows us that both Rex and Rose Mary try to teach their children not to conform to how society wants them to be like. For example, Rose Mary didn’t want to become a teacher just because her mother told her to do so. Rose Mary was a happy-go-lucky person. She was an artist. No one could really tell her not to paint her paintings or draw her drawings because, Mary knew what she wanted to do from the beginning. Rex on the other hand kind of grew of depending on himself. Rex was a man who didn’t like authority. He was a self sufficient man, and both parents taught their kids to be self sufficient. They taught them to be strong on their
The story of Jeannette Walls and her dysfunctional family gives insights of hope and growth. To get these points across, author, Jeannette Walls wrote her autobiography using many different literary devices to tell the story of her childhood. She used themes that were apparent her whole childhood. She used symbolism to say the things that needed to be said in a discrete way. And her similes gave her audience insight to the people around her. Devices like symbolism, similes and theme have been used in all great literature to convey information, as well as in this story in a refreshing, thought-provoking way.
Knowing that there are other families out there just like the Walls, possibly some that are even worse, makes me think about how lucky I am and how good I have it. This book really brings to light the neglect that some people are raised in. The thought that someone could come out of such a negligent past with compas...
All through the story the yellow wallpaper acts as an antagonist causing her to become very annoyed and disturbed. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. Her constant examination of and reflection o...
A description of the wall is necessary in order to provide a base for comparison with the rest of the story. Because we only get the narrator s point of view, descriptions of the wall become more important as a way of judging her deteriorating mental state. When first mentioned, she sees the wall as a sprawling, flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin, (Gilman 693) once again emphasizing her present intellectual capacity. Additionally, the w...
The central characters in both “The Yellow Wallpaper” and A Doll’s House are fully aware of their niche in society. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s husband believes her illness to be a slight depression, and although she states "personally, I disagree with their ideas,” she knows she must acquiesce their requests anyway (Gilman 1). She says, “What is one to do?” (Gilman 1) The narrator continues to follow her husband’s ideals, although she knows them to be incorrect. She feels trapped in her relationship with her husband, as she has no free will and must stay in the nursery all day. She projects these feelings of entrapment onto the yellow wallpaper. She sees a complex and frustrating pattern, and hidden in the pattern are herself and othe...
Wall’s also writes using informal diction and simple sentence structure, to make her story more personable and relatable. By using this simple and casual style of writing, the reader is able to draw a connection to her experiences. “Since she never used curse words, she was calling Dad names like ‘blankety-blank’ and worthless drunk so-and-so.” This sentence exemplifies Wall’s casual and personable voice. By telling her story in a straightforward way she is able to convey her challenging life to the reader effortlessly. It is also interesting to see her writing develop and progress, and she matures as a character. She does this by expanding her vocabulary and knowledge on certain things, (alcoholism).
...ndurance of poverty, as we witness how Walls has turned her life around and told her inspiring story with the use of pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to inspire others around her (that if she can do it, so can others). Jeannette made a huge impact to her life once she took matters into her own hands and left her parents to find out what life has in store for her and to prove to herself that she is a better individual and that anything is possible. Despite the harsh words and wrongful actions of Walls’ appalling parents who engage her through arduous experiences, she remained optimistic and made it through the most roughest and traumatic obstacles of her life at the age of three. Walls had always kept her head held high and survived the hardships God put upon her to get to where she is today; an author with a best selling novel to tell her bittersweet story.
...he wall, he thinks about his rejected opportunities and his unbearable regret. As he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his life is ending in his catacombs dying with his finest wine. The catacombs, in which he dies, set the theme, and relate well with the story. Without the yellow wallpaper in the short story, the significance of the wallpaper would not mater, nor would it set the theme or plot. At night the wallpaper becomes bars, and the wallpaper lets her see herself as a women and her desire to free herself. She needs to free herself from the difficulties of her husband, and from her sickness. The settings in both, set up the elements of the stories and ads to the effect in both of the short stories.
The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.
In conclusion, this story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, provided a great social and psychological criticism. It shows the reader how women have progressed so far in the recent years. This woman was the start of many, which finally led to making men and woman more equal, and this is the society that this woman wanted.
In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the ideas of barriers between people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humour, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbours in their friendship.
"Mending Wall" is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them. In this situation the "I" voice wants to tear down this barricade while his "neighbor" wants to keep it.