Do you believe that the young should always outlive the old? Do you think that it is typical for such to occur? Also, if death came to “greet” you in your final moments of life, what do you think it would look like? Would it be male or female? Perhaps it would resemble a human, or an animal. Do you think it would speak, or would it be muted by the secrets and final wishes of innumerable collections of souls, trapped in the limbo realm between life and death? Would it be friendly, or harsh and wicked? For hundreds of years humans from all around the world have tried to answer these questions, wondering how Death itself would appear if greeting a dying man, or why it seems so natural for each new generation to outlive the last. One man, named Donald Justice, offered his own spin on the subject with his poem Incident in a Rose Garden, in which he used figurative language devices such as personification, imagery, metaphor, and simile, to enhance the text and communicate a theme that not only gives Death itself a character, but also tries to disprove the common idea that the young outlive the old.
Justice tries to answer these questions using literary devices called figurative language, and the usage of personification, metaphor, imagery, and simile enhance the text so that it is easier to visualize, thus revealing a clearer theme as the piece draws to a close. Now, although we cannot actually see death, nor can we completely change a common belief, we can at least consider the possibilities of such, using the theme of Incident in a Rose Garden—a theme that sets fire to the idea of a young man outliving an elderly man merely because he is young. An example of this theme idea can be found in lines forty-five through fifty, where Death...
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...onnect with the poem on a deep level, he made Death into a man who could talk and interact with other characters. Personification is required to give him these qualities.
To conclude, Donald Justice uses Incident in a Rose Garden to break two common ideas: one, that the young always outlive the old; and two, that Death’s personified form would be frightening and poorly dressed, his voice scratchy and raw. The use of figurative language elements throughout the poem not only assist in the murder of these common ideas, but enhance the text as well, making it easier for the reader(s) to visualize what is being written. As a whole, I enjoyed Incident in a Rose Garden, and I think the overall theme of it is to be careful, because you never know when Death could beckon you.
Works Cited
"Incident in a Rose Garden" by Donald Justice, p. 147-148; The Language of Literature
The presence of death in the novel looms over the characters, making each of them reflect on the
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We are all condemned to death; it is inescapable. Even if a person doesn’t believe in the concept of destiny, it is undeniable that every person is fated to die at some point. Most people, however, are not aware of when exactly the inevitable will approach. Often in works of fiction, the reader, or sometimes even the character, is aware of their fate. There are many different understandings of destiny, which is one of the reasons why it has played such a large role in so many different literary works throughout the world and history. Fate is one of the principal literary devices used in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Shakespeare’s tragic play, Antony and Cleopatra, and Tolstoy’s pedagogical novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych.
“A Rose for Emily” reads like a sad and tragic biography set in the nineteenth century. The narrator, who speaks as one representing the story from the town’s point of view, begins by narrating Emily’s funeral. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken through a grim sequence of events, some of which only make sense in retrospect upon reaching the end of the story. The narrator begins then to narrate her background since her father’s death. Emily’s father is cast as a protective figure who turns away any male suitors and keeps his daughter away from the townsfolk. When he dies, Emily refrains from acknowledging his death and for three days refuses to let his body out of the house. Eventually she breaks
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Imagery is a big component to most works of poetry. Authors strive to achieve a certain image for the reader to paint in their mind. Dickinson tries to paint a picture of ?death? in her own words. Thomas A. Johnson, an interpretive author of Dickinson's work, says that ?In 1863 Death came into full statue as a person. ?Because I could not stop for Death? is a superlative achievement wherein Death becomes one of the greatest characters of literature? (Johnson). Dickinson's picture to the audience is created by making ?Death? an actual character in the poem. By her constantly calling death either ?his? or ?he,? she denotes a specific person and gender. Dickinson also compares ?Death? to having the same human qualities as the other character in the poem. She has ?Death? physically arriving and taking the other character in the carriage with him. In the poem, Dickinson shows the reader her interpretation of what this person is going through as they are dying and being taken away by ?Death?. Dickinson gives images such as ?The Dews drew quivering and chill --? and ?A Swelling of the Ground --? (14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The ?quivering an chill? brings to the reader's mind of death being ...
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.
In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.