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Symbolism as a literary tool essay
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The interactive oral was beneficial in increasing my awareness and comprehension of cultural and contextual considerations. My understanding of these considerations grew by discussing the role and symbolism of snakes and elephants in the novel. Throughout the book, there are many examples of connections between the characters and nature. A primary example is when Fiela Komoetie thinks, “Slither like a snake, Fiela! When you want something from a white man, stoop low,” (Mathee 150) where Dalene Mathee uses snakes as a symbol for the hierarchical power. Specifically in this quote, Fiela tells herself to get low, like a snake to show respect to white males and to express how she knows her place in society. Becoming a snake and existing close
Mary Oliver was a famous poet and nature-lover, she used nature as center of her poetries. She was observant and thoughtful, which endowed her poetry a unique charm and depth. In her poem “The Black Snake” also manifests everything in the natural world is equal. This poem narrated that the speaker found a black snake was killed by a truck and thus to start thinking death and life. Meanwhile, Mary’s poetic language also has strong power. This poetry is a simplicity and short but she used many elements of poetry to make this poetry more profound and meaningful, and the symbolism and figures of speech are the two main element in “The Black Snake”. Figures of speech brings value
The emotive language Lawson utilises conveys the protectiveness and fear the Drover’s wife experiences when faced with the knowledge that the snake is in the house with them. The love for the family can be seen in the text ‘The Drover’s Wife’ by Henry Lawson as the main character faces many challenges trying to keep her children
This idea is expressed prominently in John Foulcher’s For the Fire and Loch Ard Gorge. For the Fire entails a journey of someone collecting kindling as they witness a kookaburra kill a lizard, Foulcher represents his idea through the use of metaphor, “a kookaburra hacks with its axe-blade beak.” This metaphor represents the beak in weaponised form, as it is compared with a violent axe. This evokes a sense of threat and intimidation towards the kookaburra, which contrasts to societies general interpretation of the ‘laughing kookaburra,’ thereby challenging the reader's perceptions of beauty in the natural world. Also, this comparison of the kookaburra offers a second understanding for the readers to interpret of the kookaburra. Similarly, in Loch Ard Gorge, Foulcher uses strong visual imagery, “savage dark fish are tearing their prey apart, blood phrasing the water decked with light,” to communicate the violence of the ‘savage’ fish to readers in a visual, gruesome manner. Thereby evoking a feeling of disgust towards the situation, as a visual description of blood is shown and Foulcher uses provoking, gruesome adjectives to communicate the fish's brutality. Foulcher expresses these ideas to communicate the abilities of nature, and provide a necessary ‘reality check’ for the readers, to review the beauty they see nature and understand the barbarity at the heart of everything. Although ruthlessness and brutality that nature can show are unintentional and immoral, this harm is a large part of the cycle nature needs to survive and thrive, and these factors can counteract assumed beauty and
First she begins by writing about elephant culture, and explaining their traditions within a few pages. Then she begins to describe either a flash-back going back in one of the 4 main characters lives, or she will start to portray one Mud’s highly descriptive psychic visions. The content and theme of this book is built/revolves around the use of multiple techniques to foreshadow upcoming events. It is almost as if the author wants the readers to be able to predict what occurs within the novel.
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.
There is symbolism present in this short story. In the beginning of the story, Hurston describes a whip as resembling a snake, “something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took hold of her” (705). When Delia sees the whip, she is frightened. Then, towards the end, she just sits there while her husband screams because of the snake biting him. As some people say, what goes around comes around. The snake also symbolizes evil at one point. One article states that there is some evil present in Delia. That evil does not show take over Delia because of her strong Christian faiths and beliefs (Hurd 2). Furthermore, the snake “represents a bosom serpent within Delia that forces her to acknowledge her ability
The effect the reader perceives in the passage of Rattler is attained from the usage of the author¡¯s imagery. The author describes the pre-action of the battle between the man and the snake as a ¡°furious signal, quite sportingly warning [the man] that [he] had made an unprovoked attack, attempted to take [the snake¡¯s] life... ¡± The warning signal is portrayed in order to reveal the significance of both the man¡¯s and the snake¡¯s value of life. The author sets an image of how one of their lives must end in order to keep the world in peace. In addition, the author describes how ¡°there was blood in [snake¡¯s] mouth and poison dripping from his fangs; it was all a nasty sight, pitiful now that it was done.¡± This bloody image of snake¡¯s impending death shows the significance of the man¡¯s acceptance toward the snake. In a sense, the reader can interpret the man¡¯s sympathy toward the snake because of the possibility that he should have let him go instead of killing him.
In Mary Oliver’s poem “The Black Snake,” the narrator contemplates the cycle of life with the unpredictability of death. Mary Oliver’s work is “known for its natural themes and a continual affirmation of nature as a place of mystery and spirituality that holds the power to teach humans how to value one’s life and one’s place” (Riley). In the poem, The Black Snake, the narrator witnesses a black snake hit by a truck and killed on a road one morning. Feeling sympathy for the snake, the narrator stops, and removes the dead snake from the road. Noting the snake’s beauty, the narrator carries it from the road to some nearby bushes. Continuing to drive, the narrator reflects on how the abruptness of death ultimately revealed how the snake lived his life.
In the biblical book of Genesis, Eve is tempted by a serpent to commit an ungodly act of eating a forbidden fruit. As a result of the snake's temptation, Eve eats the fruit, resulting in the presence of worldwide sin and the downfall of perfection. From this story of Adam and Eve, the figure of the snake has become generally associated with temptation, evil, and cynicism. William Shakespeare employs this symbolic imagery of snakes in Macbeth, to enhance the story of the rise and fall of Macbeth's power. For poetic and playwright purposes, Shakespeare uses serpentine imagery to reveal the malevolence of characters, and portray the threatening position of the throne, all while provoking a heightened emotion of fear and tragedy from the audience.
The first play, A Midsummer's Night's Dream has a lot of nature metaphor is in families. The very first conversation in it has a king blaming the moon and night time for his not being able to marry. Theseus wanted to marry Hippolita right away but four moonshines were delaying him. Another example comes from Lysander. He saw roses in Hermia's cheeks and rain falling from her unhappy eyes. When Lysander wakes up and sees Helena, He decides he wants her instead of Hermia. He says, " things growing are not ripe until their season . . . [which] leads me to your eyes" (MND II, 2,100-110). He compares himself to unripe fruit or something that has not reached its final or mature stage in growth. Lysander said that he only fancied Hermia because he was young and naïve but now that he was "ripe", he wanted Helena. This is a parallel made by Lysander to nature. Not only did he believe that nature controlled all actions but he truly believed everything followed the same life pattern. Later, Lysander is confronted by Hermia and he compares her to terrible things like animals and serpents because he no longer saw her as his love but as someone he outgrew. This reference shows a part of life that is not wonderful and pretty but loathsome and dirty.
The snake has acted as a diverse symbol throughout history, representing immortality, evil, femininity, and masculinity. In the book Dream Animals, Marilyn Nissenson and Susan Jonas further reveal the awe that the snake has inspired throughout the centuries, "They [snakes] were believed to mediate between life and death, earth and sky, this world and the next" (19). The snake slithers through our subconscious, evoking varying associations. Cleopatra identified with the snake during her life, and it becomes even more highly symbolic in her death. By examining three movies (DeMille's Cleopatra, Mankiewicz's Cleopatra and the ABC version of Cleopatra) and two dramas (Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Mary Sidney's Tragedy of Antonie) different symbolic representations of the snake emerge along with contrasting depictions of the Queen of the Nile. These varying representations of the asp and slightly contrary portrayals of Cleopatra prove to us that we know very little about the enigmatic ancient Queen.
"The Snake" is a short story written by John Steinbeck. It tells about a biologist, Dr. Phillips and a mysterious woman. One day while Dr. Phillips was doing an experiment on starfish, a woman with black came into his room mysteriously. She came to him just wanting to buy a male rattlesnake from Dr. Phillips, the biologist. And then she asked Dr. Phillips to feed the male rattlesnake a rat so that she could watch the whole process. Then at last the women left him and never came back again.
People read literature an abundance of times, but yet many don’t actually undergo the appreciation of the novel. Some overlook pieces of the novel and consider it insignificant to the whole story because those readers are inexperienced. The book, How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, allows readers and students to fully comprehend the meaning behind the book, making them assured to read “like a professor”. Letting the reader to go further in depth surely helps their analytical thinking to flourish. Having no boundaries when analyzing, Foster sure provided plenty of creative imagination discussing about archetypes and how we should consider the character’s perspective.
Lawrence uses figurative language in order to present his ideas of societies expectations of a man. Lawrence changes the structure and style of “Snake” in order to highlight the struggles of the narrator. Specifically, when writing about the snake he uses repetitive and flowing words. He also uses traditional devices like alliteration, for example “and flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips.” The use of these technics gives the snake an almost human like feel that the reader can connect to. At the same time, Lawrence writes about the log used to hurt the snake in a different style creating such a contrast between the snake’s description and the log. The words describing the log are much different, “and threw it at the water trough with a clatter.” The changing styles helps emphasize the internal struggle the narrator is experiencing as he tries to figure out if he should do as society dictates and kill the snake like a man or do as he wishes and leave the snake in peace as his guest at the water
... Nature, including human beings, is `red in tooth and claw'; we are all `killers' in one way or another. Also, the fear which inhabits both human and snake (allowing us, generally, to avoid each other), and which acts as the catalyst for this poem, also precipitates retaliation. Instinct, it seems, won't be gainsaid by morality; as in war, our confrontation with Nature has its origins in some irrational `logic' of the soul. The intangibility of fear, as expressed in the imagery of the poem, is seen by the poet to spring from the same source as the snake, namely the earth - or, rather, what the earth symbolizes, our primitive past embedded in our subconsciouness. By revealing the kinship of feelings that permeates all Nature, Judith Wright universalises the experience of this poem.