Analysis of Long Distance by Tony Harrison, I Shall Return and The Barrier by Claude McKay
These poems will be compared by the theme, Poetic devices and
structure of the poems.
Harrison's Long Distance explores the theme of death of loved ones
within a family triangle. Most of Harrison's poetry focuses on his
life, such as his working class childhood and family life.
Similarly, in Claude McKay's The Barrier, the theme of the poem is
love for another person, but here it is for someone of the opposite
race. The similarity between this poem and Harrison's Long Distance is
that both people in the poem cannot be with the person they want.
However, in I Shall Return the theme is, again of love but not for a
person, but for McKay's homeland. Claude McKay left Jamaica in 1912.
He moved to America to study farming but instead of studying farming,
he started to support Black working class movements. As a poet, he
became a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
The vast majority of Claude McKay's poetry is written in West Indian
dialect, he also wrote poems in English like 'I Shall Return'.
The themes for all three poems are about love. Long Distance, by Tony
Harrison portrays the love for lost ones within a family triangle.
This is expressed by Harrison when he describes his fathers actions
and how his father still carries out the daily routine even though his
wife is two years dead.
'Though my mother was already two years dead'.
This line shows the reader that this poem is based around the death of
a loved one. Harrison may have tried to portray that something
unordinary may be explained throughout the poem. The love is always...
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...ghts, which indicates that he,
ironically, has gained the same fault as his father.
In Claude McKays, the Barrier the poetic device expressed throughout
the poem is the passion for the opposite person. Throughout the poem
similes are used to achieve this, such as,
'Your eyes are dawning day...
fluting like a river reed...'
These poetic devices are used to highlight his passion for the other
person.
In I Shall Return, there is a lot of alliteration used throughout the
poem.
'To laugh and love and watch with wonder eyes...
blue-black smoke to sapphire skies...
That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses...
fiddle and fife...
dances dear delicious...
long, long...'
The use of alliteration emphasises life in the country and creates a
stronger image in the readers mind.
The most significant journeys are always the ones that transform us, from which we emerge changed in some way. In Paulo Coelho’s modern classic novel The Alchemist, and Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, the journey that is undertaken by the central exponents leaves both with enlightening knowledge that alters their lives irrevocably. In stark contradiction to this, Ivan Lalic’s poem Of Eurydice , delves into the disruptive and negative force of knowledge, in contrast to The Alchemist which details an antithesis of this point relative to knowledge. In all journeys, the eventuality of knowledge is a transformative one.
Beginning in the early 1960's American journalists began taking a hard look at America's involvement in South Vietnam. This inevitably led to a conflict with the American and South Vietnamese governments, some fellow journalists, and their parent news organizations. This was the last hurrah of print journalism, as television began to grow in stature. William Prochnau's, Once Upon A Distant War, carefully details the struggles of these hardy journalists, led by David Halberstram, Malcolm Browne, and Neil Sheehan. The book contains stories, told in layers, chronicling America's growing involvement in South Vietnam from 1961 through 1963.
Dr. Daniel K. Richter is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History at University of Pennsylvania. His focus on early Native American history has led to his writing several lauded books including Before the Revolution: America’s Ancient Past, and The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization. Richter’s Facing East is perhaps, a culmination of his latter work. It is centered from a Native American perspective, an angle less thought about in general. Through the book, Richter takes this perspective into several different fields of study which includes literary analysis, environmental history, and anthropology. Combining different methodologies, Richter argues Americans can have a fruitful future, by understanding the importance of the American Indian perspective in America’s short history.
Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CHRONOLIGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF EVENTS THAT LEAD TO CONFLICTS 3 CONCLUSION 5 INTRODUCTION An attention-grabbing story of a youngster’s voyage from beginning to end. In “A LONG WAY GONE,” Ishmael Beah, at present twenty six years old, tells a fascinating story he has always kept from everyone. When he was twelve years of age, he escaped attacking the revolutionaries and roamed a land rendered distorted by violence. By thirteen, he’d been chosen by the government, military and Ishmael Beah.
In Cormac McCarthy’s Sci-Fi novel, “The Road”, two mysterious people, a father and his curious son, contact survival of the fittest during tragic apocalyptic times. With a shopping cart of food and supplies, they excavate into the remains of tattered houses, torn buildings and other sheltering places, while averting from troublesome communes. In the duration of the novel, they’re plagued with sickness that temporarily unable them to proceed onward. Due to the inopportune events occurring before the apocalypse, the wife of the son and father committed suicide due to these anonymous survivors lurking the remains of earth. The last people on earth could be the ‘bad guys’ as the young boy describes them. In page 47, the wife reacted to this, stating, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won't face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I can't.”
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, dives into the life of a boy living in Afghanistan before and after its downfall. Amir lives with his father, Baba, and they have two servants that live in a shack at their house. Baba is known throughout the land as a high ranking citizen who has accomplished much good in his life. Ali and Hassan, the servants are also like family to Baba and Amir. Hassan and Amir fed from the same breasts and have grown up entirely together. Rahim Khan and Baba usually converse about life together daily. Many struggles and conflicts continually bring the four characters together and recurringly push them apart. Amir has to make many crucial decisions as the protagonist in the story. Amir endures many hardships throughout
To begin with, Roald Dahl meets a man named David Coke during his adventurous travels. David C. according to Roald Dahl can be best described as truthful. The author wrote, " You're going to be unlucky." he said (First encounter with a bandit, Paragraph 47). David C. was as honest as anyone can get. Another trait of David Coke is that he can also be described as concerned According to the text, “It's absolutely hopeless!!”, (First encounter with a bandit, paragraph 43). David was concerned about the fact of the odds with the Germans were not so well and the lives of his fellow pilots.
I have conflicting thought regarding Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. My initial thoughts of the novel were that it was solely built on the complete devastation of two characters lives and the surrounding landscape and their constant search for survival. However after giving it further insight I discovered the underlying messages of the importance of good and bad people in my life, the beauty of the little things in life and constant greed showed by desperate individuals. I believe the novels successes comes from the messages of the significant value of human life and the importance of memories in our lives.
This passage solidifies the theory of the Hero’s Journey that much further. Thomas Foster explains that every story is a quest, and every quest structurally consists of the same five things. There’s the quester, the destination, the reason to go, challenges on the trip there, and the real reason for the journey. He also explains there are other components to the quest that every story seems to have. There is the knight, the dangerous road, the “holy grail”, a dragon, an evil knight, and a princess. When one thinks about it, it’s a little hard to agree that every story is the same, but if each story is at it’s bare bones, they can be fairly similar. In Foster’s example story there is the knight, Kip, the dark knight, Tony, the princess, the
A physical journey occurs as a direct result of travelling from one place to another over land, sea or even space. The physical journey can occur individually or collectively, but always involves more than mere movement. Instead physical journeys are accompanied by inner growth and development, catalysed by the experiences and the decisions that impact the outcome of the journey. These journey concepts and the interrelationship between physical and emotional journeys is exemplified in the text; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the children’s book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and the film Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner.
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. p. 2256
One event that shows this theme is “Spirit hear me. I am not the man I was. I will not be the man that I was for so many years. Why show me this if I am past all hope? Let the boy live!”.
Van Nortwick, Thomas. Somewhere I have travelled: the hero's journey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Camus and Mulisch present that the past and present are interrelated. The authors do this through the two characters, Meursault and Anton. Through Meursault, we see that his past actions affect the outcome of his trial. Through Anton, we see that his present situation constantly brings him back to his past despite him trying to escape it. Thus the authors stylistically link the past and present to demonstrate that they are inevitably related, where certain events are unavoidable or the past is undeniable.
... executed in order to set off into the world alone. The influence that independent travel has on an individual is a splendor upon riches because it does so much for a person, and provides humans with a sense of the world. How a person can makes new friends and learn about new cultures and accept other people’s way of living. With its educational purposes traveling alone can bring, offers an endless amount of living data that tops any history book or internet page. Traveling is concrete history that is continuing around everyone. It can provide people to look through different lenses and experience aspects of life that they know they will never experience again in their lifetimes. Traveling alone provides an endless journey and an empty page in the minds scrapbook that is waiting to be filled with new memories and the endless amount of true belonging and bliss.