In Moon of the Crusted Snow, written by Waubgeshig Rice, tragedy befalls a northern Anishinabek community, home to Evan Whitesky, the main character. The characters in this captivating story must navigate the challenges and hardships as they unravel. Indigenous characters in the book and Justin Scott are the main focus of the book. Themes that arise within these characters aid in the definition of what the book's overarching genre is. Justin Scott is mainly characterised in Misery Lit, the genre of depressing and sad themes, as he is the main antagonist of the story. He also inflicts suffering, pain, and despair on the people of the community. However, families like Evan Whitesky’s found ways to experience joy, brilliance, resurgence, and resilience in times of crisis. Despair, brilliance, and suffering in both Justin Scott and Indigenous peoples in …show more content…
This time, the suffering they endured was terrible. There were numerous factors that continued to affect the well-being and quality of life in the community. The cut off of power meant the complete isolation of the community. Diesel, water, food, heat, and other necessities ran dry as time went on. People were suffering from malnutrition, depression, grief, and the rising death toll that plagued the community. It was getting to those in the community. “With each body, the three friends hoped it would be the last. Jacob McCloud was found hanging from a tree in the bush. Dion McCloud. He had shot himself a few days later, near the tree where Jacob died.” (Rice, pg 155-6). Death and suffering in the community spread like the plague. One death led to another, and it didn’t seem like there was an end in sight. Suffering was the largest overarching theme throughout the entire book. This final comparison pushes the theme of Misery Lit even further. The author pushes the theme of suffering until most of the book is all about the suffering of the
Before this tragedy occurred the suffering of the workers was very evident. Take for instance this first hand account by Sadie Frowne.
“Winter Evening” by Archibald Lampman, and “Stories of Snow” by P.K Page are two poems describing the human experience of winter. Winter is seen, by some, to be blissful, magical and serene. Winter could also be described as pure and heavenly, with the white snow resembling clouds. However, others have a contrasting viewpoint; they paint winter in harsher light, giving the impression that winter is bitter and ruthless. Others still, have a mixed viewpoint and may recognize both the positives and negatives to the season.
In the novel Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston and the novel Maus by Art Spiegelman the theme of suffering has a damaging effect on the human spirit. Suffering in both these stories come in different forms such as emotional, physical, and mental. No matter the form, it is still suffering.
“Silent Snow, Secret Snow” is a short story by Conrad Aiken. It tells the story of Paul Hasleman, a twelve year boy who lives a double life as he escapes to his secret world of snow. He struggles to maintain normality in the real world when his parents begin to get worry. Paul is desperate to keep his frozen world a secret from his parents, even though it’s all in his head. By analyzing the different literary elements, a greater understanding of “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” can be reached.
There is an old cliché that talks about how life isn't a bowl of cherries and that it presents hardships to everyone. Thomas Hobbes takes this cliché to another level when he says, "The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." To most this quote is depressing and dismal, but in many literary works, it portrays the plot that develops throughout the work. From Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, to Hamlet in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, and even Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, the life of man doesn't seem all that it's cracked up to be. These characters face struggles that lead them to become depressed, lonely, senile, and even mad. Whether they are losing their fathers, the love of their lives, or themselves, these characters are a part of a story that shows very little light. The themes of these various works are fall across a similar spectrum as they deal with the misery that life can bring.
The presence of death in the novel looms over the characters, making each of them reflect on the
Suffering is apart of life, just like joy and love is. We can never choose how life treats us but we can always choose how we react and get back up again. Through Fever 1793 we see up close and personal how suffering can affect us, and how sometimes it can affect us in positive ways. How suffering can help turn the page to the next chapter in our lives. How suffering doesn’t always mean losing but also gaining.
Despite its prevalence, suffering is always seen an intrusion, a personal attack on its victims. However, without its presence, there would never be anyway to differentiate between happiness and sadness, nor good and evil. It is encoded into the daily lives people lead, and cannot be avoided, much like the prophecies described in Antigone. Upon finding out that he’d murdered his father and married his mother,
Because the means to suffer is more than people know, such things give people the message to be thankful for society’s luxuries. The Road characters face the sights of horror. The Ukrainians face similar events of poverty such as cannibalism and starvation. McCarthy wanted to inform reader’s life is pretty dang good compared to roasting over a fire. Appreciating every minute of life without abusing or misjudging the evils of life will only send the human population further to empathy.
Suffering arises early in the story and is a theme is a them that will preside over the entire text, valuable to the reader because of The Buddha’s first Noble Truth: human life is consists almost entirely of suffering. When the Buddha is just a baby, the relief from suffering he will provide is predicted. “Be steadfast, therefore, give up anxiety, be cheerful, for your clan will flourish without a doubt; The one born here as your son is the leader of those overcome by the suffering in the world” (B 1.33). The
Misery memoirs attract readers because it is a way for them to find their sympathetic self. They have a hard time letting go of the things that make them miserable, which brings them some type of pleasure. For example, sympathy is one form of pleasure. In today’s society, sympathy is a form of virtue. If you complain about being sick, or struggling with a personal problem, there is always a sympathetic ear to listen and offer you advice that makes you feel special and indulge your egotistical need of acknowledgement and attention. Another form of pleasure would be desires and opportunities. This is attaching yourself to a misery now in order that your future desire will occur. This is true for Darin Strauss, the author of Half A Life.
The village had shutdown, the once giddy streets became grim. Flowers that once flourished in the meadows around the village wilted and rot. Death took over homes. Blissful faces became helpless.
... authors conclude that it is through alienation within a small society that ultimately leads to the primary characters’ demise and death. Whether their individual cases are self imposed or externally imposed, the results and the impact are the same, annihilation of the human soul. Their craft make emphatic use of setting to the successful depiction of this theme. Both characters ultimately fall into the abyss of loneliness and despair proving that human existence cut-off and on its own is more destructive than positive . Thus their message seems to suggest that as humans, we need society in order to truly belong and have a connection, purpose and worth in this life, in order to truly live.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
... then five more, one after another… they allowed themselves to eat those bodies… They said, ‘it was the great unbearable famine that did it.’” The struggle to find food was real. It was a heavy burden for people to bear. The need to stay a live became a daily struggle many civilian and soldiers.