Sorrow, the Straight Matter of Life During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself. The poem “Tips from The pain from the childhood, the betraying of lover, countless secrets are settling during the period of life, which can absolutely not be shared and understood by others. Are we gradually becoming the dead man? To be kind of people who are rather sensitive especially, the only way to encourage them remain on the world is to kill some of their nerve and pretend to be as happy as others. Nevertheless, when the secret sorrows are so many to hide, the sea of sorrow will drown them, but they always pretend to be happy. The last poem “The Fish” illustrates the sorrow of life itself. The skin, the blood, the entrails, everything of the fish depicts vividly and dramatically. The poet seems to share the same pain with the fish observing the scene and enjoys the detail just like enjoying an artwork. The poet lets the fish go because she is totally touched by the process between life and death; she loves life but meanwhile, is deeply hurt by the life. In the poem, the fish has no fear towards her; the desire to life is in the moving and tragic details when faces the
In fact, the fish story has become a metaphor reflecting the technique used by Finney for expressing the difficult thing beautifully, to compress a poem choosing what should be kept in a poem and what should be thrown away (Finney, “Interview with: Nikky Finney”), to express whatever difficult feelings she has without much noise or rage. Finney sees activism as a basic part of her work.
The article "“Whoever We Are, Loss Finds us and Defines Us”, by Anna Quindlen, invokes the necessary emotions needed to understand an agree with the notions stated about death and grief. Yes, Anna Quindlen succeeded in proving her position by her use of emotion, credibility as an accomplished writer, experiences with death and grief and her writing style. Some people live with grief for the rest of their lives, such as Anna Quindlen and some of her examples, while others can overcome the fight. Effectively using all three elements in this article, Quindlen started her engine, shifted this article into gear and ultimately won the race.
In Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman, he illustrates the full desire of direction and the constant flow of life. A boy experiences a chain of life changing series of events that cause him to mature faster than a boy should. Death is an obstacle that can break down any man, a crucial role in the circle of life. It’s something that builds up your past and no direction for your future. No matter how hard life got, Culver fought through the pain and came out as a different person. Physical pain gives experience, emotional pain makes men.
The title of the poem itself dictates the simplicity Bishop wishes to convey regarding the narrator's view of his catch. A fish is a creature that has preceded the creation of man on this planet. Therefore, Bishop supplies the reader with a subject that is essentially constant and eternal, like life itself. In further examination of this idea the narrator is, in relation to the fish, very young, which helps introduce the theme of deceptive appearances in conjunction with age by building off the notion that youth is ignorant and quick to judge.
In The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister tells how a beautiful, extraordinary, yet, self-centered blue fish learns that being beautiful isn’t the key to happiness. The blue fish came to find this lesson when he lost his friends. Pfister takes a simple ocean setting and explores the consequences of an individual’s arrogance toward their peers, the process of humbling of oneself, and the tremendous reward one feels when they learn to share. The story achieves these morals by the author’s use of detailed imager and also, the influence of minor characters on the antihero in order to reveal to the audience the true thematic message; selfish actions bring true happiness.
Although the world today seems completely corrupt at times, some happiness and hope can be found when one is determined enough. Even in the middle of the worst day ever most humans manage to smile at least once in that day. However, in the two poems “For My Daughter” by Weldon Kees and “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds the speakers are both quite acceptant that there is no hope for a good life in this world. In these poems the speakers are parents concerned that their children are doomed to live a life of war and hurt. The authors of these poems relay a theme that even the most innocent of children will eventually be tainted by the villainous ways of society.
All life proves amazement. When life becomes lost, there proves great sadness. The loss of a loved one or loss of oneself proves great sorrow. Many writers wrote about loss and sadness. Subsequently, only great writers can write about loss in a truly happy story. In the three short stories “Gwilan’s Harp” By Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Washwoman” by Bashevis Singer, and “The Last Leaf” by William Sydney Porter, more commonly known as O. Henry, all experienced loss in stories with a happy domineer.
“Nobody heard him, the dead man, / but still he lay moaning:” This is how many people go on through life. Many are dying inside but you would never know. It is possible for people to create masks to hide their emotions. Sometimes these masks are so deceptive that even close friends or family members cannot see through then until it is too late. In Stevie Smith’s poem, “Not Waving but Drowning” the writer effectively highlights how someone’s cry for help can be mistaken for joy. It is important for people to at least have someone who cares about them and knows them well enough to see when something is going wrong in their lives. This can often be the lifeline that saves one from drowning.
experiences are reflected in their writing. Both of these writers present the reader with the concept of human mortality in such a way that not only is the fear of death prevalent in their work, but also the love of life.
This poem is an expression of the author’s troubles in her life. The “tears” from her neglect and the memories of her long-dead grandmother are mentioned. The author is descriptive throughout the poem and produces a picture for the reader to see “the black cow grazing with her newborn calf long-legged, unsteady.” Creating this visual through this analogy was effective. Words and phrases like “soft dampness of my tears” and “squirrels slipping in and out of the mango trees” were also a useful way to plant imagery for the poem.
Suffering can be defined as an experience of discomfort suffered by a person during his life. The New York Times published an article entitled what suffering does, by David Brooks (2014). In this article, Brooks explains how suffering plays an important role in our pursuit of happiness. He explains firstly that happiness is found through experiences and then, suffering can also be a motivation in our pursuit of happiness. In other words, suffering is a fearful but necessary gift to acquire happiness. This paper is related to motivation and emotion, two keys words to the pursuit of happiness (King, 2010).
The narrator speaks about the fish in terms of commercial, where every part of the fish can be sale for different purposes, but as the speaker look in the fish eyes, starts to compare the human life through the existence of the fish. What the speaker found beautiful about the fish is that as the speaker looks into the fish eyes and start looking in a different way to the creature, she starts to identify a living creature instead of a creature that will die imminently. The speaker starts seeing the beauty of the fish when she start to compare the fish to a soldier, when she sees through the eyes of the fish the victories over death that this creature has won, and I believe that the speaker compares her own battles and victories to the one of this creature in order to survive. I believe that the “ personality” of the fish is humble, brave and that this fish have been battling for a long time for his life, that he has been involved in some sort of violence many times in order to exist. I also feel that this fish is tired of fighting and that he is venerable to the speaker
Somehow, it always seems that the most important memories are always hidden by some unknown force. I am almost certain to forget facial features or marking traits of someone special to me. If I try to remember, it is lost. Memories are not always an accurate recollection of the truth; sometimes they are not real at all. For whatever
This idea is reinforced by the sombre, dark tone throughout the poem, as well as the use of metaphorical pathetic fallacy in reference to the author’s life (“of a most stormy life-was drawn” [10]), which further emphasises feelings of alienation and displacement.
When facing the harsh realities of life during a child’s development, it hinders their emotional process which can cause confusion and early maturity. In the poem “The Laburnum,” Ted Hughes writes about a child’s rejection of their family being toxic and struggles with understanding the truth. Where lack of control of the situation begins to interferes with the speaker’s emotional growth. The intimacy caused by first and second person point-of-view, the vivid symbolism and intense imagery helps Hughes, create a loss of innocence from the speaker’s emotional distress of suffering in a destructive family. Hughes uses strong emotions from a child going through a parent’s divorce, evoking empathy for the speaker because of the child’s awareness of family issues occurring making the child vulnerable to pain and early development.