Reinhold Niebuhr once said, “All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions”(Sarkis). Throughout history, society has seen amazing ideas such as the Prohibition Act turn out horribly. The intentions of ideas like these are not misguided, they are actually meritable; however, all actions have harsh consequences whether they are obvious or not. In All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren and Native Son by Richard Wright, the authors’ purpose was to show that all actions in life have negative consequences; they showed this through the use of similes, metaphors, imagery, and arrangement. As Jack Burden reflects over his actions in life and the consequences he faces for them, it is important that Warren uses similes, …show more content…
so the reader understands his pity. ...He learned that the world is like an enormous spider web and if you touch it, however lightly, at any point, the vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the tingle and is drowsy no more but spring out to fling the gossamer coils about you who have touched the web and then inject the black, numbing poison under your hide. It does not matter whether or not you meant to brush the web of things. You happy foot or you gay wing may have brushed it ever so lightly, but what happens always happens and there is the spider…(Warren 283) In this quote, Warren uses this simile of “the world is like an enormous spider web” to explain how there is a consequence for every action.
The “drowsy spider” Jack describes is consequence and his “poison” is guilt. The message of this quote is very heavy because what he is saying is that no matter how delicately a person touches the world, he or she will wake the drowsy spider and be injected with guilt (Ferriss 146). By using a simile here it allows the reader to more easily accept the message being conveyed. The second example of a simile is, “It's [A decision is] like a single-bed blanket on a double bed and three folks in the bed and a cold night. There ain't ever enough blanket to cover the case, no matter how much pulling and hauling, and somebody is always going to nigh catch pneumonia”(Warren 181). In this quote, Jack is frustrated because he realizes every option carries its own risks and consequences. Warren uses a simile here to show how Jack is learning that nothing is perfect (LE COR 128). Using a simile to compare Jack’s options to a single bed blanket helps illustrate rather simply how every action carries its own repercussions. If the reader can understand that one blanket is never going to be enough for three people, they can understand that no action is exempt from ramifications. The final example of simile is, “...it [Guilt] aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you've been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom
when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened”(Warren 37). In this quote, Jack is interpreting the guilt Cass Mastern felt for owning slaves. Warren uses a simile here to illustrate the genuine sorrow Cass felt for owning and beating slaves. When Warren says owning slaves is like a toothache or a broken heart, it is not to make light of the seriousness of owning slaves, but to show the lasting affect guilt has had on Cass. “What filters through the first pages of the novel, then, is the idea that crime, ... is linked to the ‘crime’ of the South, to its history of slavery and guilt” (LE COR 124). A toothache and broken heart are similar to the guilt slave owners felt because the pain from a toothache and broken heart does not go away quickly; the pain, like guilt, persists for a long time.
This technique allows readers to sympathise with David and this hurdle faced on his journey. Wyndham does this to inform and educate readers on how the obstacle of punishment in one 's journey can impact an individual. This example of punishment forced upon by another reveals that as David was faced with this obstacle, the journey being undertaken was also faced. To David, Sophie needed protection just as the other deviations did which consequently resulted in David 's punishment. David was confronted by an obstacle he did not foresee. Nevertheless, by overcoming this obstacle, David fought to protect the other deviations, a journey which David was already
This example describes how his sole purpose in life seizes to exist, the revenge that he lived for was taken at that exact moment and he had no other reason to live. Roger Chillingworth is the most troubled character in the book; He wanted to be light but revenge slowly ate him alive until he was a dark
In order to represent that the narrator's pride caused him to act with ill manners towards Doddle, Hurst creates the internal conflict which portrays the narrator’s struggle to choose what is more important, his pride or his brother. As the narrator confessed his past to the reader, he described a memory about how Doodle walked and he announced to the family that the narrator was the one who taught him. The narrator thus responds with: “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices; and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (Hurst 419). It is important to note how the author compares the narrator to a “slave” of pride, the word slave connotes that the narrator is imprisoned by pride and creates the appearance that the force is inescapable. Throughout the story pride dictates the narrator, if
Thereby, the two works that is Macbeth and The Kite Runner not only present before the humanity, the immense power and potency of guilt, but also emphatically reveal the eventual consequences of the guilt traceable to an evil act or an act of cowardice or betrayal. These two works expose the psychology of guilt in a very vivid and threadbare manner, which explains their appeal and the human interest they accrue.
When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society.
A diamond ain't a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got
The search for knowledge and truth is a compelling theme woven throughout All the King's Men, and it is especially evident in the story of Jack Burden. When Jack embarks on a quest toward self- knowledge, he realizes that most of his problems in life have risen out of his lack of knowledge and understanding of people, events, and ideas. Jack's shortcoming in this area often leads him to think about the past and hinders his ability to grow emotionally, an aspect of Jack that has been in arrested development for twenty years. Another important aspect of this theme is how Jack's incomplete picture of the world around him affects his actions and decision. In the end Jack gains vital knowledge but it comes at a costly price through the deaths of his friends and father. Jack concludes that "all knowledge that is worth anything is maybe paid in blood" and it is this knowledge that allows Jack to finally move on with his life and to come to terms with many issues such as life, love, and responsibility.
He illustrates the agony of thinking and the burden it places on him. Through his self-reflection, Douglass explains the pain and discomfort his expanding knowledge bears upon him, a young boy exploring his present world to discover that maybe ignorance really is bliss. Through the use of several literary devices such as specified diction, irony, and parallelism, the speaker relays a desperate tone throughout this section of his narrative elaborating on the torment
When anyone thinks of the word “evil” they do not think it is within themselves. In reality, without a structured and well-followed society, people are apt to follow their own corrupt desires and neglect the thought of consequence. In the allegory, Lord of the Flies, William Golding reveals that man’s selfishness and sinful nature will be unmasked when the structure of a society deteriorates.
The cruel nature and intentions of people can either hurt or harm individuals or it can bring about resilience and determination. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee revealed that humans often have other motives in life; some are born to be evil in nature, some are naturally innocent and then there are some that are born to protect the innocent. Lee utilized a variety of symbols and themes that correlated with each other and thus had the ability to create questions in the minds of the readers. Are humans calculatedly cruel or is there some moral good in each of us? The impiety of a few can create a movement, imprison the innocent or reveal the sincerity of others.
One example demonstrates Prynne’s conflict with society and her punishment. After Prynne’s public punishment on the scaffold, she obtained a shameful reputation throughout society. For Prynne, “the days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame” (73). This sad description of Prynne’s life shows how the unending waves of pain become more unbearable as the days go by. However, Prynne accepts her punishment with patience while maintaining a sense of humility. Hawthorne uses this conflict to reveal Prynne’s humility and patience in the midst of a painful
Metaphors are used by Chesterfield, whereby he uses them to portray his son’s values. Chesterfield builds his son up, and provides all the obstacles that could come into his life in the near future. He takes his time to warn his son about the problems, and struggles that he is to face in the future through a metaphor where he says, “thorns and briars which scratched and disfigured me in the course of my youth” (Stanhope 91). He refers to these problems as thorns and briars. He was frightened that his son was going to make the same mistakes he made while he was a youth and so, he had to warn him in advance of what awaits him. He uses metaphors in his warnings just to emphasize his points. Later on, in his warnings to his son; Chesterfield also uses anastrophe in contradicting his points. He uses anastrophe as an understa...
Society has a great impact on our lives. It tells us how to act, what to wear, what to eat and what decisions to make. Society, though, is often corrupted and shapes us in a certain way. Jean Jacques Rousseau, a late Enlightenment thinker felt strongly about this and stated that humanity must be free of society and its bounds and therefore argued that we should act like the savages who were free of society’s bonds. Rousseau was not alone in this thinking as evidence of societal corruption is seen in D.H. Lawrence’s poem, “Snake,” and in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Rousseau’s ideas of societal corruption are quite prevalent in both the novel and the poem. In addition, the theme of choices and their consequences can also be seen.
of whether or not mankind is good or evil, illustrating the characters’ understandings of human
... a fatherly connection toward Billy. He had no remorse toward his decision to execute Billy because he believed that that was the only decision he could make. Where his remorse lied was in the fact that the young boy that he care so deeply for, in a fatherly way, received no justice. It was that the same boy whom he groomed to be like himself, so young, so full of innocence and youthfulness was hung, out of precedent.