Where Things Come Back begins with the main character, a teenager from Lily, Arkansas named, Cullen Witter in a morgue with his mother and younger brother, Gabriel because Cullen was asked to identify his cousin, Oslo, who has recently died of an overdose. During the next couple of weeks, Cullen goes on with his normal, yet boring life in Lily with his best friend, Lucas Cader and finishes high school unsure of what to do next in life. However, during the summer, Lucas lands Cullen a date with Alma Elber who has just returned to Lily after a divorce. Unwillingly, Cullen agrees to go on a date, but when he gets home he is worried to find that Gabriel has gone missing. Cullen spends the whole summer trying to find Gabriel only to come up empty …show more content…
handed, leaving him to believe his brother may be dead. At this exact same time, John Barling excites the town with news of a sighting of the thought-to-be extinct Lazarus Woodpecker. Yet, this only upsets Cullen more because it seems people are more interested in a woodpecker than his brother’s disappearance. Cullen also decides to dump Alma and rather starts dating his high school crush, Ada Taylor. Meanwhile, the book switches to a seemingly unrelated story of a missionary in Africa named, Benton Sage. But Benton does not believe he can reach people in Africa and returns home to find that his family is disappointed in him and he has been completely forgotten. So he decides to go to college where he meets his roommate, Cabot Searcy, and they become close friends. Unfortunately, Benton believes God has abandoned him and jumps off a bell tower on Christmas Eve leaving behind his missionary journal. Cabot finds this journal and after reading it believes that he has been chosen to carry out God’s plan so he goes to school to study ancient theology. The story becomes intertwined when Alma runs into Cabot at the movies and they fall in love. When Alma finds out she is having a baby, they decide to get married. However, they end up losing the baby and Alma decides to divorce Cabot after realizing he has begun to go insane. So she goes back to Lily where she meets her old friend Lucas and he convinces her to go on a date, which connects the story to Cullen. However. Cabot does not want to get a divorce and chases after Alma only to find she has already found a date. Furious, he then goes to Cullen’s house in hopes of kidnapping him to stop the date, but mistakenly takes Gabriel instead. Instead of admitting his mistake he convinces himself that this is all part of God’s plan for him and still keeps Gabriel hostage for 10 weeks, positive that he is the actual angel Gabriel. However, Gabriel tries to tell Cabot he is not an angel, and the story abruptly ends when Gabriel miraculously returns home and the town of Lily is disappointed to find out the Lazarus Woodpecker does not exist. Where Things Come Back uses various literary devices.
One of these are allusions such as The Book of Enoch. Benton Sage was once told, “But it is said, if you read The Book of Enoch, that he did this because the Grigori were teaching the humans too many things like astrology and the arts.” (Waley page 42) The Book of Enoch is a book used by the Ethiopian Orthodox church which states that because humans know too much, more problems can be made. Another way literary devices are used is through the author’s cynical tone. “I lay there silent beside my brother, my best friend and his girlfriend wading in the water before me, and I knew we were all just in the prelude to disappointment after disappointment.” (Waley page 35) The author’s cynical tone is shown through Cullen’s way of thinking as he is a pessimist and has this same output on life throughout the book. Another such literary device is the point of view. The story begins with, “I was seventeen years old when I saw my first dead body.” (Waley page 1) Therefore, we know that the story is told from Cullen’s viewpoint. Throughout the story, the author also uses imagery. One example of this is when Cullen says, “Humans are obliged to kill zombies, just as zombies have the obligation to seek out humans and feast on their flesh.” (Waley page 14) These zombies represent the difference between good and evil for Cullen. Finally, the Lazarus Woodpecker is an example of symbolism. The author states through the thoughts of Cullen, …show more content…
“There will always be false hopes. Lazarus Woodpeckers” (Waley page 227) Hence, the Lazarus Woodpecker stands for the town's lost hopes. The main theme of Where Things Come Back is family.
The author shows Cullen’s love for his brother when he writes, “I punched my brother lightly on the right arm the way brothers do to show affection, and we walked over toward the car as Lucas pulled up.” (Waley page 29) Although he may not always show it Cullen loves his family, especially his brother. This is why he is so upset when Gabriel disappears. An example of their closeness is when Cullen said, “In the two weeks following my brother's vanishing off the face of the Earth, my parents seemed to be closer than ever.” (Waley page 57) After Gabriel’s disappearance, instead of their family drifting apart like most, they joined together to help find Gabriel. Showing that they will always be there for each other. Benton Sage does not quite have the same family as Cullen in Where Things Come Back for the author wrote, “Benton Sage had since he was a young boy, one ultimate goal in mind at all times: to make his father proud of him.”(Waley page 65) Benton spent his whole life trying to please him, but it was never enough. Since Benton was never able to satisfy his Dad, he became unacknowledged by his whole family. This leads him to believe God had misled him and committed suicide, showing the importance of having a family loves you throughout all paths of life. An example of a strong family bond is Cullen’s mom and her sister as explained by Cullen as, “Now, with Oslo gone, my mother had taken to visiting her sister on a
daily basis, usually right after she left the salon, and would most often take Julia a sandwich or burger from somewhere, knowing she probably hadn't eaten that day.” (Waley page 146-147) Because Aunt Julia was unable to support herself due to her depression after her son’s death, her sister helped her on a daily basis, showing how much they loved each other. It is because of their family’s love for each other, that they did not fall apart. Alma and her grandmother also had a deep love for one another considering the author wrote, “She whispered into her only granddaughter's ear, ‘You are so loved.’”( Waley page 190) When no one else was there for her, her grandma was helping her throughout her journey and helped her stay strong even during hard times. Therefore, this book shows the meaning of family is someone who is always there for you and is the main theme of Where Things Come Back. Where Things Come Back is a great coming of age story that can be very relatable to many teenagers and even adults. Throughout the book, I experienced a sad emotional response due to the fact that there is so much death going on. However, as the story progresses, you realize that it is simply stating the reality of life. My emotional response was also happy at the end due to the fact that Gabriel returned home. This book makes you think about the world and throughout the story my intellectual response was trying to figure out what happened to Gabriel, making you want to continue reading to figure out the mystery. This book can help all of us realize that the world can sometimes lose sight of what's important. For example, instead of focusing on a missing child, it seemed the town spent their time and money in an extinct bird that turned out had never actually returned. Another thing to take from this story is how people can help each other simply by being there to comfort one another when something troubling happens. Where Things Come Back is relatable on the subject of love and loss, and also how it feels to be a teenager in a place where you don't know where you are heading in life, making it an essential book that anyone can learn from.
“ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to
The first literary device is a simile and it paints a picture in the readers head.
Examples include how George and Lennie are always talking about the dream which is owning their own farm. This dream symbolizes independence and freedom. It also symbolizes George and Lennie's relationship and the retelling of the dream becomes a ritual. Also in the book metaphors take place. George playing solitaire shows that it represnts the loneliness that is felt by living on the ranch. This shows George is always trying to be alone and
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” Clover, the main character in the story The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Clover grows up, disobeys her mom, and makes a new friend. I think the theme of the story The Other Side is courageous because Annie and Clover are both kind to each other, they accept each other, and they are both brave.
Where Thing’s Come Back by John Corey Whaley, shares important insights on journey, hope, loss. The novel talks about how life is not a destination but a road to one, through John Barling, Cabot Searcy, and Cullen Witter. The novel also talks about a variety of insights on hope through Cabot Searcy, Lucas Cader, and Gabriel Witter’s family. The novel talks about how loss is a part of life and always crosses anyone who travels life through Oslo Foukes, Gabriel Witter, and Cullen Witter and Ada Taylor. What makes a novel good, depends on a variety of things. However, it helps if the novel has important insights.
Interpretating and understanding these characters and objects as symbols, bring a whole new light to the novel. As you read this, or any other story, let it get inside your head a little and try to find out if there's a Devil, one devoted to decay, destruction and demoralization.
Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone should stay in Sterling High School’s English 4 curriculum because it teaches the reader that recovering from a horrible situation is possible, also Beah’s complex literal devices he uses to express his situation opens it up to the mind of a more experienced reader.
The most prominent example of this is the imagery of the wallpaper and the way the narrator’s opinion on the wallpaper slowly changes throughout the story; this directly reflects what is happening within the narrator’s mind. At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes the wallpaper as “Repellent.revolting. a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 377). As the story continues, the narrator starts to become obsessed with the wallpaper and her opinion of it has completely changed from the beginning. Symbolism plays a big part in “The Yellow Wallpaper” too.
Family and Friendship are the two things that define who we are. These two things are what we belong to and they help create our identity. In Beloved and A Prayer for Owen Meany this is evident because our main characters are who they are because of the loved ones surrounding them. We see it with Sethe and the amount of love she has for her family that is so strong that she is willing to kill her own kids. We also see it with John Wheelwright and how the death of his mother at the hands of his best friend Owen has affected him but also changed him for the better because he has Owen by his side who will never let anything bad happen to him.
Civilization vs. savagery, reason vs. impulse, order vs. chaos, law vs. anarchy, or the broader heading of good vs. evil. This is a dilemma every single human being goes through on a daily basis. Weather we do what we know is right, live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands and proceed with the values we were grown up to respect or give in to our savage/ animal side, the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, enforce one’s will, and act violently to obtain supremacy over others. Throughout the book there are three main symbols: the conch, the signal fire, and the Lord of the Flies. These symbols help the reader to understand and capture the boys struggles to maintain civility and how they slowly graduate into what they finally become by the end of the novel: savages.
Now that it can be read by all, the symbols within it can be found, which makes the story easier to understand. Three examples of symbolism are the mead hall, Grendel's head and claw, and the Dragon's treasure trove.
In the beginning of the poem Cullen uses the literary device of imagery to help his readers understand the vast difference between the classes in society. Cullen describes the children
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a variety of symbols to represent ideas, or abstract notions or conceptions about people, places, and things. A symbol, according to the Webster's Dictionary, is an object that stands for something in addition to its literal meaning. In the book, there is a continual breakdown of society and civilization on the island. During this breakdown, Golding uses symbolism to further explain the process. Some of the things he symbolizes in the novel are the island itself, the conch, the boys clothing, and the violence.
Where Things Come Back is a story by John Corey Whaley which is compiled of three different points of views from different characters that are all connected. It takes place in different locations, but the main setting of the story is Lily, Arkansas which connects all the characters because for some reason they all come back and end up there. The story starts off with Cullen Witter, the main character of the story, identifying Olso’s, his dead cousin, body. From there we meet his Aunt Julia who is suffering through the stages of grief terribly. Then we meet his family and closest friends. We meet his father who is a driver, his mother who gives haircuts, his brother, Gabriel, who also doubles as one of his closest friends, Lucas who is also
There might be similarities and differences in our relationship, but we are bound together love and experiences. In my personal situation, the similarities and differences are profoundly evident, which is the primary reason for me to analyze it. I often take having a brother for a best friend for granted, and do not appreciate how lucky I am to have a brother like Gabe. By digging into the depths of how conflict is present between us and how we deal with conflict, understanding how perception is so important in a virtual world, and the positives and negatives of how we verbally and nonverbally communicate, I realized just how much my relationship with my brother has shaped me into the person I am today. This analysis has also shown me how to strengthen my relationship with my brother in areas that need maintenance. All of these concepts I have gone over are extremely beneficially in understanding of some of the vague aspects of my brother-brother