Elena Ferrante develops the theme that education paves the future for growing adolescents in the novel, My Brilliant Friend, through the motif of Greek and Latin, the foil characterization of Elena and Carmela, and the motif of water. Elena, the protagonist, lives in a neighborhood filled with low-level occupations and constant violence. She hopes to use her newfound education as a way to depart from her violent neighborhood. To begin, Ferrante uses the motif of Greek and Latin to showcase how Elena’s education progresses throughout the novel. At the beginning, Elena’s parents were hesitant to send her to school. Her mother wore a “sullen mood” after coming home from a parent-teacher conference with Maestra Oliviero (Ferrante 63). They were …show more content…
The motif of water first plays out in the childhood section of the novel. Elena and Lila skip school for one day to go to the ocean. The first time Elena escapes the enclosed neighborhood for a little bit, she feels “the pleasure of being free” (75). The sea that they were trying to escape to makes Elena feel her first encounter with freedom. Continuing, the motif of water changes in size depending on how free each character it’s associated is. For example, Nino Sarratore has a chance to escape the neighborhood with his family and go to high school, building a better future for himself. Nino is associated with the vast sea surrounding the island of Ischia, where he is able to move freely and to his own pleasure. Contrasting Nino is Antonio Cappuccio’s situation. Antonio is an auto mechanic who makes little money and lacks a proper education. When Elena is messing around with Antonio, they always met by “ponds by the back streets” (280). The pond symbolizes how Antonio is stuck in this small area that is the neighborhood for the rest of his life because he lacks the education needed to leave. Finally, Lila is the one that is closed in the most. Following, when Elena washes Lila in the “copper tub full of boiling water”, Elena and Lila converse about Lila’s future as a married woman to Stefano (312). Lila is making a mistake because her marriage will cause her to forever trap her in the neighborhood and in the copper tub instead of swimming amidst the broad ocean like Elena. If Lila had a proper education like Elena, then she would not have to have confined herself into the copper tub. The motif of water shows up throughout the entire novel and is always associated with freedom. This freedom was granted to those with the proper education, while those not able to go to school were forced to live out their lives strapped in such a
Melina Marchetta, the author of the novel ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ signifies the idea that the way people create meaning influences their perspectives and the perspective of others. The novel has an in depth look at the issues and the problems faced by the teenagers today which the main purpose is to increase the knowledge on “changing perspective”. Marchetta uses various narrative techniques such as dialogue, tone, and first person narrative to verify the deep understanding on how and why perspective changes over time.
...approval by their family and the people around are considered as the most common trend between teenagers around the world and are used throughout the novel. Josephine was first introduced to the reading knowing that she was unsure of her identity and how she was searching for acceptance from her grandmother due to her illegitimacy. Marchetta created Josephine’s characteristic as one that the readers can truly understand and allow them to be able to feel a connection and a relation between the characters in the novel and themselves; it can make them realize that this is a social issues that each generation of teenagers face on a daily basis. The characters in the novel accompanied by the themes such as stereotypes and social statuses supported the author’s idea of creating a novel in which comment on the social issues and reflect reality within the novel.
Write-up: Mama Elena is a stern and bitter woman who oppresses Tita to be her caretaker through the family tradition. She keeps Tita from her true love, Pedro, and it is later revealed that Mama Elena herself once suffered from a lost love, embittering her for the rest of her life. Any child of her is deemed unworthy when he/she does something that is against her "rules." She takes this to the extreme where the rules are imposed on her more "public family," John Brown and Pedro included. Her stern stature is noted when her daunting gaze makes the Revolutionary general Juan Trevino uneasy. Eventually, her pride and distrust is revealed to be her major flaw which causes her death.
Water Imagery in the Works of Eudora Welty, Teresa de la Parra, Kate Chopin, and María Luisa Bombal
...voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” The sea mimics not only Edna’s agitation, but also the sensual touch of Edna’s illicit lover, Robert. However, Chopin’s sea also has a power all its own, mysterious and dangerous. “…the stretch of water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome.” (Chopin 28) The lure of water, of nature, is also echoed by Mark Twain in his classic novel, “Huckleberry Finn.” For the child, the woman in strict society, the runway slave, both Chopin and Twain suggest that water provides a passageway to another way of life, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Water is the force of nature powerful enough to break the chains from Edna’s imprisonment, from which, once awakened, Edna can never return.
Joy/Hulga, as the story?s main character, is the singly most significant character to the themes of this story. She is characterized as brilliant and academically sophisticated, yet naïve to the feelings and motivations of others. Ironically, Hulga has a Ph.D. in philosophy, yet she has a very narrow view of her world and no insight into other people?s true character. This contrast in Hulga?s character is the topic of one of the story?s themes: academic knowledge is not to be confused with common sense.
The two rivers that are part of the Devon School property symbolize how Gene and Finny grew up through the course of the novel. The Devon River is preferred by the students because it is above the dam and contains clean water. It is a symbol of childhood and innocence, because it is safe and simple. It is preferred to show how the boys choose to hold onto their youth instead of growing up. The Naguamsett is the disgustingly dirty river which symbolizes adulthood because of its complexity.
The imagery of water is utilized to express Prospero’s sadness and misery. ‘’ When I have deck’d the sea with drops full salt,/ Under my burthen groan’d;’’ (Shakespeare, I, ii, 155-156), describes Prospero conveying his despair when Antonio, his brother, took his throne away from him by saying he had so many tears that they could have filled the sea. This shows to the audience how valuable his throne and kingdom were to Prospero. Water is an archetype that means life and growth. When his throne was taken away from him, Prospero ‘’grew’’ and became a different person. He had new goals and determination in life. In addition, the imagery of the sea and wind are also used to provoke emotion from the audience. The images used in the collage are of the sea and the wind blowing together. The quote used with the collage expresses the sadness Prospero went through. This helps the audience have a deeper understanding from Prospero’s perspective and the right he has to be angry and vengeful for all of the
In “Eleven”, written by Sandra Cisneros, Cisneros uses literary techniques such as diction and imagery to characterize Rachel’s character during her transition from age ten to age 11. These literary techniques help to describe how Rachel feels in certain situations while also explaining her qualities and traits. Through the use of these literary techniques Cisneros also collaborated on Rachel’s feelings when she was other ages and how she felt at that time during her life.
Through her usage of water as a motif, Morrison expresses her feelings and helps us to better understand the novel. Water comes to represent birth, re-birth, and freedom and escape from slavery. There is also a deeper meaning to all of this. Water also comes to represent a sort of life force for Beloved. When she just appears for the first time, she comes out of the water. But she also needs to drink a vast amount of water. It seems as though she needs the water to survive. For Sethe, water comes to mean both a sort of re-awakening and a symbol of freedom. This is apparent through her actions and emotions when she was bathed by Baby Suggs. Water also represents freedom for Paul D. This is because he escaped due to the mud created by the water. The motif of water is well used throughout the book to come to signify many things to the characters.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are". This statement by C.S. Lewis can be applied to the relationship between Phillip Larkin's "Water" and Pablo Neruda's "Water" when analysis is performed upon the perspectives of the mentioned poems. To explain, a candid surface view of the two poems would provide the correct conclusion of the subject matter being similar. However, further observation gives evidence that the opinions, and applications regarding the subject matter of water is alternate in the two works. This comparative analysis seeks to expose the conflict between the free-flowing opportunity based theories of Philip Larkin's "Water" and the balance-driven
The Powerful Symbol of Water in Beloved Water. It expresses its’ power in the form of hurricanes and flash floods. It displays its gentleness, washing dirt off a child's scabbed knee. Water has been used to quench the thirst of many longing throats; and it has been the cause of death to those who unfavorably crossed its path. It possesses the power of total destruction, yet it holds the bases of all life. Generally, is a natural purifier, washing the dirt from our bodies. Water is a symbol of transition from dirty to clean. In Beloved, Morrison uses water to introduce a transition between stages in a character's life. Water separates one stage of a character's life from another. Paul D.'s escape from Alfred, Georgia was directly helped and represented by the rain that had fallen in the past weeks. Paul D. was sent to Alfred, George because he tried to kill Brandywine, his master after the schoolteacher. In Alfred, he worked on a chain gang with forty-five other captured slaves. They worked all day long with "the best hand-forged chain in Georgia" threading them together. They A man's breaking point was challenged everyday. It was hell for Paul D. Then it rained. Water gave Paul D. his freedom. The rain raised the water level in the in-ground cell so they could dive, "down through the mud under the bars, blind groping," in search of the other side (p. 110). One by one each of the forty-six men dug through for the ground. They dug for breath, they dug for each other, and they three separate times to make the reader aware that water is the main cause of the transition in Paul D.'s life (p.109-10). Paul D.'s is now a free black man. A free black man traveling to 124. Water represents Sethe's transition from slavery to freedom.
...ion. Symbols of water and fire play a huge symbol in the novel. They are the border between real and fake for Andrew, or “Teddy”. Whenever there is fire, such as in the cave with Dr. Rachel Solando, the matches he lights in Ward C, the fire in the cave with “Dr. Solando” and when he blows up Dr. Cawley’s car near the end, Andrew is in his fantasy world. Whenever he is around fire, Andrew is hallucinating events. Water, however, symbolizes his reality. Water makes him fall back into reality. His wife, Rachel, drowned their children in water which makes him feel uneasy, sick and tense. Like he was in the beginning, seasick while on the ferry. Whenever Andrew floats into his memories of his wife, a droplet of water would fall upon him and he would wake up. Everyone Andrew talks to on the island constantly refers to him as “marshal” to keep Teddy remembering who he is.
The significant elements in Of Water and the Spirit were the elements that contrasted starkly with the modern world. There were many aspects of the Dagara culture that were alien to my culture. The use of and belief in magic and the supernatural ama zed me. I found an absence of secularism in the African society. The Dagara's inability to distinguish between thought and reality stunned me. The element that I chose to talk about is the strong bond displayed between the very old and the very young. This element plays a significant role in Malidoma's story, and it really made me consider the values in my society.
Ernest Hemingway uses water as a metaphor that foreshadows events in A Farewell to Arms. He distributes water through the entire story. Escape, or a cleansing effect, of Frederic Henry takes place in a river. Rain predicts unfortunate events, such as the death of Catherine, which causes Frederic to sadly begin a new life. However, this time he does not have a companion - he must learn to survive alone. Hemingway uses a lot of water to show many symbols and affect the story.