`The Little Willow' is one of the short stories of author Frances Towers, collected in the book `Tea with Mr. Rochester'. Barely recognized in the field of literature, Frances Towers was born in 1885 in England and died in 1948 at the age of 63. It is said that Towers was a reluctant writer, who did not find writing easy. She wrote only eighteen stories during her lifetime, which was later on collected in the book `Tea with Mr. Rochester'. All of Towers's fiction is populated by sensitive, innocent women in search of love and hence, she is sometimes compared to Jane Austen. Her story `The Little Willow' depicts the same essence and talks about a secret love.
The story `The Little Willow' is about a girl named Lisby Avery, eternally outshined by her two extremely charming sisters Charlotte and Brenda. The story is set in the heart of London during the Second World War. Lisby is innocent, introverted and aloof and she knows nothing of love until a similarly shy boy, Simon Byrne, comes in her life. Simon, who is a soldier on leave, is brought to Avery's house by a friend of Charlotte's as a guest. Lisby forms an unspoken bond with Simon and both of their feelings seem mutual. But sadly Simon heads off to war again without either of them ever able to profess their secret love, and all Lisby is able to give Simon is a little willow tree, which she had treasured all her life. She never hears from him again. Time passes by. Lisby gets more aloof than ever and Charlotte's wedding comes around. In the Wedding Lisby meets the best man Captain Oliver, who also happens to be a dear friend of Simon's. He informs Lisby that her soulmate had been killed, and that the boy's last words were stuttering declaration of love for her. It leaves Lisb...
... middle of paper ...
...ory. I also found some of the phrases in the story very profound, something that one could dwell upon and cherish, like "Death, perhaps, is poetry, and life, prose. Or was it the other way round?" These are perhaps the vision of the author, which emanated from the story. By and large, I found the story interesting and very memorable, something I will be keeping close to my heart.
Hence `The Little Willow' is a beautiful story, giving impressions of pure romantic love, innocence, fate, irony, sadness, hope and tragedy. It tells us of various shades of life, without which life is incomplete and tasteless. It gives an insight into human emotions and teaches us about love and it's existence, which extends beyond death. All in all, the story `The Little Willow' is a beautiful story, which talks about one of the most important and indispensable things in life- Love.
Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy Tree is a brilliantly written, simple story. The themes of family, prejudice and death affect all readers. Life is not always a “bed of roses”, but Burns uses humor to strip away the thorny problems and leaves only the beauty of the rose.
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
Junot Diaz’s “Wildwood” is a roller coaster of emotions. The author gives us a full view of the tempestuous relationship between Lola and her mother who discovers has breast cancer. Lola, a young girl who lives in New York with her brother and mother, early on we can see that Lola’s mother is particularly abusive and channels her frustrations towards her daughter. When her mother asks Lola to examine her breast for a lump, she has a premonition her life would change.
When Lee first introduced his readers, he started off with a beautiful metaphor to summarize how every human’s life goes as he wrote, “We are circuit boards swallowing the electricity of life upon birth,” (Lines 2 to 3, Lee). To clarify, Lee is explaining the beauty of life when we are alive and how we essentially use this electricity to create unforgettable memories along with emphasizing the importance of existing. However, not long into the poem, a sudden change in the emotion occurs as Lee depicted Stephen’s death with, “…as though his chest were an auditorium his life an audience leaving single file,” (Lines 24 to 25, Lee). In consideration with how the main lesson Lee was applying on his poem, it is easily visible that this sudden change in mood was done purposefully. With this dark simile, readers will be captured and feel that sudden shock in mixed emotion when someone’s death occurs. In effect, not only will readers who have seen death understand, but Lee also taught readers who have not seen a similar event what will happen, allowing any reader to understand the topic even without any past experiences. Quickly after though, Lee re-introduces a cheerful environment with similes to describe the people he has found as he visualized, “…his lungs flapping like sails,” and, “…teeth shinning like
Out of all the stories I have read so far in class, I found this story the most interesting and realistic piece. It never occurred to me that thoughts such as those mentioned in the story could actually be going through a dieing man’s mind. In fact, I show even more ignorance in that I have never thought about what is it truly like to experience a process of expected death. This kind of tragedy once happened on a day-to-day basis. Imagine all the other elaborate emotions going through the minds of others dieing. Bierce did a great job in putting true emotion into this story. I along with most of my class members agreed that we had no idea Peyton’s escape home did not occur at all until the final words of this story. For an author to create something so realistically disguised until the bitter end is truly an amazing accomplishment.
In the novel Jane Eyre, it narrates the story of a young, orphaned girl. The story begins shortly after Jane walk around Gateshead Hall and evolves within the different situations she face growing up. During Jane’s life the people she encounter has impact her growth and the character she has become.
did it give the reader something exciting to read, but it also was able to put an interesting perspective on life itself.
Yes, learning that I could truly enjoy poetry was an amazing, but also, a highly involved discussion. One I would rather focus on at another time. I would, though, like to elaborate on the profound similarity I felt in with the feeling of the narrator.
“The Pain Tree” written by Olive Senior tells the story of a woman who comes back home after many years and begins to think about her childhood in a new light, which changes much of what she thought she knew of her family and childhood. The story shows the main character, Lorraine, revisiting the memories of her family and the woman who had taken care of her as a child, Larissa. Children mainly focus on the happy memories which may be tied to more important topics that they do not understand until they are older. Most children do not pick up on many of the complicated things happening around them. Lorraine can now see the bigger picture of her relationship with Larissa and how large the divides were between Lorraine’s family and Larissa’s
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre as her base to find out how a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with her responsibilities. . Mistreated abused and deprived of a normal childhood, Jane Eyre creates an enemy early in her childhood with her Aunt Mrs. Reed. Just as Mrs. Reeds life is coming to an end, she writes to Jane asking her for forgiveness, and one last visit from her.
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
These two themes are fairly good representations of the poem, though they would be nothing without the events, motifs, and events that back them up. They all combine to tell an epic story of large proportion that was withstood the tests of time and is still an amazing and astonishing tale of good and evil. It is amazing to think that someone from hundreds of years ago could be able to sum up almost all of the pitfalls and high points of human life in one poem. It was done though, and all in one piece of literary work that is 12,000 lines long and was written in 8 BC.
The speaker’s language towards the woman’s death in “The Last Night that she lived” portrays a yearning attitude that leads to disappointment; which reiterates human discontent with the imperfections of life. The description of woman’s death creates an image of tranquility that causes the speaker to aspire towards death. Her death compares to a reed floating in water without any struggle. The simile paradoxically juxtaposes nature and death because nature’s connotation living things, while death refers to dead things, but death becomes a part of nature. She consents to death, so she quietly dies while those around her refuse to accept her imminent death. The speaker’s description of death sounds like a peaceful experience, like going to sleep, but for eternity. These lines describe her tranquil death, “We waited while She passed—It was a narrow time—Too jostled were Our Souls to speak. At length the notice came. She mentioned, and forgot—Then lightly as a Reed Bent to the water, struggled scarce- Consented, and was dead-“ .Alliteration in “We waited”, emphasizes their impatience of the arrival of her death because of their curiosity about death. The woman’s suffering will be over soon. This is exhibited through the employment of dashes figuratively that form a narrow sentence to show the narrowing time remaining in her life, which creates suspense for the speaker, and also foreshadows that she dies quickly. The line also includes a pun because “notice” refers to the information of her death, and also announcement, which parallels to the soul’s inability to speak. “She mentioned, and forgot—“, refers to her attempt to announce her farewell to everyone, which connects to the previous line’s announcement. The dashes fig...
“Tuck Everlasting”, written by Natalie Babbit, is a novel that young adults and children love to read. The novel features Winifred Foster and a family of four, the Tucks, who came across an adverse secret in the form of a spring some eighty-seven years ago. Miles Tuck is one of the main characters who represent the major themes in the story in an engaging, yet dignified manner. Focussing on the character Miles Tuck, who is the elder brother of the Tuck family, it will be clear that his demeanour and doings represent the main themes in the story of; immortality, family, friendships and the troubles of breaking rules and
It is not the tragic subject matter of the text that is of primary interest - but rather the manner in which the plot is developed. The story line progresses as if the reader is "unpeeling an onion."