In "Elegy for Jane", a poem by Theodore Roethke, the speaker communicates his intimate attitude towards his former student in an elegy. The speaker shows these emotions and feelings through the use of the figurative language and the use and repetition of “my.”
The beginning of the poem describes Jane's character from the speakers' intimate point of view. It seems that the speaker was close to his student. He speaks of her vitality and exuberance, and recalls her qualities such as her hair, smile, and presence. “I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils,” here, the speaker using a simile to compare Jane’s hair to tendrils, a plant known for its curls and climbing. Jane’s love for singing is mentioned as she is compared to a wren, “A wren, happy,...Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.” The speaker talks of how the “syllables leaped for her,” and how she “balanced in the delight of her thought,” emphasizing her liveliness. He also describes the power that Jane’s voice has, as normally when leaves blow, they make a cold, frigid whisper, but the whispers of the leaves “turned to kissing” when Jane sang. The speaker also implies how Jane can make something unappealing, such as mold, sing with her, “the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.” This, however, unfortunately foreshadows her death.
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"My" is a form of ownership and possessiveness as he clings to her. He calls her, “my sparrow,” “my maimed darling,” “my skittery pigeon,” but most importantly of all, “my love.” After Jane’s death, the speaker says he stands over her grave and “speak[s] the words of … [his] love” to her. He tells her of his love, but he says he has no right to because he isn't her lover or her father. This usage of “my” proves the intimate attitude the speaker has towards Jane, as he has much love and affection for
Summary and Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s “Called Home” In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability.
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the story of an African boy, Kek, who loses his father and a brother and flees, leaving his mother to secure his safety. Kek, now in Minnesota, is faced with difficulties of adapting to a new life and of finding his lost mother. He believes that his mother still lives and would soon join him in the new found family. Kek is taken from the airport by a caregiver who takes him to live with his aunt. It is here that Kek meets all that amazed him compared to his home in Sudan, Africa. Home of the brave shows conflicts that Kek faces. He is caught between two worlds, Africa and America. He feels guilty leaving behind his people to live in a distant land especially his mother, who he left in the midst of an attack.
Reunion, by John Cheever, is a story told through the eyes of a young boy, Charlie, who is recalling a meeting with his father who he hasn’t seen for more than three years. It is set in New York where Charlie’s father lives. He meets up with his father during a stop over between trains.
Theodore Roethke analyzes the complex attitude in an "Elegy for Jane." In the beginning the tone was reminiscent, heartfelt and warm bringing up cherishing moments between the speaker and Jane. However, the tone shifted as the piece developed going from a warm heartfelt poem to a dark sorrowing work. Roethke accomplishes this transition by using dominant literary devices throughout the work such as personification, similes, and imagery. These devices help us understand that the teacher loves and cares for Jane but is fearful of letting her go.
Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton is a novel inspired by the industrial revolution. Paton describes in detail the conditions in which the Africans were living during this time period, 1946. This story tells about a Zulu pastor who goes into the city in search of his son and siblings who left in search of a better life. The pastor sees this immense city where a ruling white group is oppressing the black population. This novel is more than just a story, but it depicts the effects imperialism and the Industrial Revolution had on South Africa. Although the government has intervened to protect the people, some of these effects are still present in our societies.
Love has many definitions and can be interpreted in many different ways. William Maxwell demonstrates this in his story “Love”. Maxwell opens up his story with a positive outlook on “Love” by saying, “Miss Vera Brown, she wrote on the blackboard, letter by letter in flawlessly oval palmer method. Our teacher for fifth grade. The name might as well have been graven in stone” (1). By the end of the story, the students “love” for their teachers no longer has a positive meaning, because of a turn in events that leads to a tragic ending. One could claim that throughout the story, Maxwell uses short descriptive sentences with added details that foreshadow the tragic ending.
Jane's mood. Jane is being kept away from Mrs. Reed - her aunt and her
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
In the early years of Jane’s life, she was a very autonomous girl. She grew up with her aunt – Mrs. Reed, along with her 3 cousins – John, Eliza, and Georgina. Jane never was shown any affection by any of the Reed family members, they all hated her. Eventually Jane expressed her need for love to Mrs. Reed, “You think that I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of kindness, but I cannot live so: and you have no pity” (Bronte 41). Jane was forced to be independent since she was a child. Her strength only grew as she was locked in the Red Room by her aunt. Her aunt’s lack of care led Jane to be happy when she was sent away from their home in Gateshead, and to the school Lowood Academy, where she could begin her quest for love.
This book is told from the diary of the main character, Sam Gribley. Sam is a boy full of determination. He didn’t give up and go home like everyone thought he would. He is strong of mind. After the first night in the freezing rain, with no fire and no food, he still went on. He is a born survivor. He lasted the winter, through storms, hunger, and loneliness, and came out on top even when everyone expected him to fail. “The land is no place for a Gribley” p. 9
The theme of love is quietly introduced in the novel from the very beginning, when the reader is familiarized with Jane's relatives and the environment in which she lives her early childhood. It is not hard to notice that she is a neglected, abused and excluded child. She is never a part of the Reeds' activities and above all this the reader may observe the lack of family love the protagonist experiences. Because of the rejection she constantly feels, Jane cannot truly fit into her relative's society and she always feels abandoned and, of course, alone. Never experiencing love may be one of the reasons for which she can hardly imagine herself being in love. When leaving Gateshead she discovers a whole new world at Lowood, where certain virtues are appreciated, but love is not one of them. Finally arriving at Thornfield, a comple...
In John Donne’s sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud” death is closely examined and Donne writes about his views on death and his belief that people should not live in fear of death, but embrace it. “Death, Be Not Proud” is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of three quatrains and one concluding couplet, of which I individually analyzed each quatrain and the couplet to elucidate Donne’s arguments with death. Donne converses with death, and argues that death is not the universal destroyer of life. He elaborates on the conflict with death in each quatrain through the use of imagery, figurative language, and structure. These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death.
The language of the poem has an ambiguous tone. The poem is despairing but at the same time, it’s benevolent. Bessie sang the poem to Jane for future guidance for happiness and independence. Perhaps foreshadowing what lies ahead for Jane and everything she will encounter. Moreover, when Bessie sang the poem to Jane, the topic of Lowood was not brought up. However, sometime after was Jane sent to school, also known as an institution for other children fitting the description of Bessie’s poem. “It is partly a charity-school. You and I, and the rest of us, are charity-children. I suppose you are an orphan. Are not either your father or your mother dead?” (Bronte, 1847)
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...
Jane's unfortunate death in an equestrian accident prompted one of her professors, the poet Theodore Roethke, to write a moving poem, "Elegy for Jane," recalling his young student and his feelings of grief at her loss. It is very interesting that Jane's death is not the subject of the poem; rather, her death presents an occasion for calling up a certain emotional state in which Roethke's feelings of grief and pity transcend the occasion.