Nate Marshall’s “palindrome” absolutely neglects the use of chronological and linear time to convey the story of a romance that seemingly continues to haunt the speaker in the present. Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, a Pulitzer Prize Award winning drama, demonstrates the struggle of two low-income African American siblings who rely on a card game, as much as each other to survive. Both works of literature, the poem and the play, assume that the protagonists in each are destined to entrap themselves in a cycle that inevitably repeats or recalls the mistakes of their pasts. In this paper I will explain how the role of nostalgia, amidst other outside factors, develops a conscious naturalism within the characters that influences their desire …show more content…
Still, the authentic motivation that drives this persona to want to recreate and improve all of the events that seemingly fade away from his memory over the course of the poem is nostalgia and the power that it imposes, in this case by means of regret. The relationship between the speaker and his lover appeared to be afflicted with struggles, as observed from the lines “the weight of her” which he had to deal with, and the previous incident of him “forgetting her phone number” (“palindrome” 8, 9-10). Nevertheless, the affection that the speaker claims to feel for the girl is profound, as she remains in his memory in a foreign fashion, where her name “flips on a page, or in [his] mouth” and the speaker realizes that “[he] never knew words could do that” (“palindrome” 26-27). It seems as though here is an artificial sense of love or attraction that the speaker conjures up as he looks back into the past, which links him to this memory of his first romance. Subsequently, there also appears to be an absence that exists and a void that has been left unfilled, which influences his thoughts and emotions. All in all, the fact that the speaker remains absorbed by the presence of this female in his life perpetuates the notion that nostalgia triggers his emotions’ chronic and cyclical …show more content…
Parks takes these mythologies to recount the story of a retired scam artist who eventually finds his way back to the game that ends his life. Throughout the development of the plot it is clear that there are challenges that both characters face, and as a consequence of those challenges it seems as though their struggles only continue to worsen. For example, actions and incidents, such as being thrown out of his home by his wife and being replaced by a mannequin for his occupation, prove to test Lincoln’s willpower as well as reinforce his dependency on his brother. By focusing exclusively on Lincoln, the argument that his fate is a product of nostalgia towards his less complicated past is evident in the play. Lincoln chooses to return to the game because of factors that proved to be too problematic for him to remain afloat as things were, and in doing so he consciously availed himself to the destiny that the historical events already had in
The title of this piece, “Remembered Morning,” establishes what the speaker describes in the stanzas that follow as memory; this fact implies many themes that accompany works concerning the past: nostalgia, regret, and romanticism, for instance. The title, therefore, provides a lens through which to view the speaker’s observations.
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, “What lips my lips have kissed and where and why,” is about being, physically or mentally jaded, and thinking back to the torrid love of one’s youth. The “ghosts” that haunt her are the many lovers of her past; she’s specifically trying to remember them all. She recalls the passion she experienced and how there was a certain feeling within herself. Millay shows this through her vivid imagery, use of the rain as a literary device and by paralleling herself with a lonely tree.
For some, like The Man in The Road, some memories continue to give one hope, even if it is in the slightest amount. For others, for example Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale, vivid memories of past events and people still have the ability to affect one’s emotions in a negative way. These two works of literature very well illustrate the significance of memories in one’s life and the lasting impact that they can have. While some memories fade throughout time and some remain vivid despite the amount of time that passes, the fact that they can continue to have an effect today and for a lifetime is indeed
Through this short story we are taken through one of Vic Lang’s memories narrated by his wife struggling to figure out why a memory of Strawberry Alison is effecting their marriage and why she won’t give up on their relationship. Winton’s perspective of the theme memory is that even as you get older your past will follow you good, bad or ugly, you can’t always forget. E.g. “He didn’t just rattle these memories off.” (page 55) and ( I always assumed Vic’s infatuation with Strawberry Alison was all in the past, a mortifying memory.” (page 57). Memories are relevant to today’s society because it is our past, things or previous events that have happened to you in which we remembered them as good, bad, sad, angry etc. memories that you can’t forget. Winton has communicated this to his audience by sharing with us how a memory from your past if it is good or bad can still have an effect on you even as you get older. From the description of Vic’s memory being the major theme is that it just goes to show that that your past can haunt or follow you but it’s spur choice whether you chose to let it affect you in the
...ccounts of memory are overflowing into one another and forming a panoramic picture of memory, in which the distinction between legend and history and between the personal and the cultural cannot operate any more. The plain he is watching over is not the land itself. Somewhere in it, a woman in a beautiful dress is buried without a tombstone. Even the "glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk" has its memory to be recollected. It is a landscape heavily loaded with the memory - both legend and history, both the personal and the cultural, which should be recollected and remembered. It is a "remembered earth," which "a man ought to concentrate his mind upon," "to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about, to dwell upon it."
Offred and the narrator of Walker’s poem both reflect upon memories that could be deemed insignificant by anybody who cannot truly empathize with their situation. An instance of this occurs as Offred reflects on nights shared with during her time alone under Gileadean rule (Atwood 103). Similarly, a...
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and thoughts about a particular theme. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz, and Ruth Whitman’s poem, Listening to grownups quarreling, the theme of childhood is conveyed through their details, although we can neither see a face nor hear a voice. These poems are very much alike in their ideas of how their memories pertain to the attitudes of their childhood; however, the wording and tones of the two poems are distinct in how they present their memories. The two poems can be compared and contrasted through the author’s use of tone, imagery, and recollection of events; which illustrate each author’s memories of childhood.
Willa Cather’s use of sentimentality-inspiring diction creates a nostalgic memory of Jim’s childhood. Her words are very descriptive and immerse the reader in the scene and tone she
The poem is about a man who takes the pain to describe his lover’s imperfections but despite them, proclaims how he loves her. The poem depicts a man trying to explore the inside of a woman to know her and everything around him change as the fall in love with her. The poet suggests that there is more to a person than their awkward faults. The central theme of the poem is that no one is perfect, but love accepts and overcomes this fact. The poem takes the style of traditional love poem where each stanza has four lines. Nims employs stylistic devices such as irony, imagery and sound and rhyme to make the poem interesting and reinforce the poem’s themes. The essay will address the techniques used by poet and the underlying meaning of the poem.
The poem becomes personal on line 10 when she uses the first person and says “I lost my mother’s watch”. She is letting the reader know what she has lost in reality. Then she gets sidetracked to mention other things she has lost; she then mentions other things she has lost of much more importance such as houses, continents, realms, and cities, but then again mentions it was not so hard to lose those things. But in the end, mention the loss that really matters. She remembers the qualities of the lover she lost.
The poem is arranged in four stanzas. Based on my interpretation, the stanzas are each represented by memories from
'Recitatif', by Toni Morrison, is a profound narrative that I believe is meant to invite readers to search for a buried connotation of the experiences that the main characters, Twyla and Roberta, face as children and as they are reunited as adults. Some of the story?s values and meanings involving race, friendship and abandonment begin to emerge as the plot thickens; however, more messages become hidden and remain unrecognized, even until the very last sentence.
Sexton compares Plath’s suicide to an old belonging in the couplet, “what is your death but an old belonging” (54-55). The couplet serves to convey that the speaker is moving past the initial shock of her friend’s death. The comparison of Plath’s death to an old belonging implies that the speaker used to have a strong emotional attachment and understanding of Plath’s suicide, but now, it is more of a memory that lingers than something that consumes her mind every day. Even so, the death of Plath still impacted the speaker on a deep level because Plath’s death involuntarily forced her to contemplate and to reflect on her own emotions and thoughts on suicide. She experiences an emotional journey that places her on the other end of the death in which she once fantasized. The term “old belonging” illustrates how the speaker previously dreamed and longed for death. However, after experiencing the emotional toll of being on the other side of the death that she once coveted, she reconsiders her desires. The tone has shifted from one of mourning and envy to something that she used to desire, an “old belonging” (55). The sharp left turn that is transmitted in the speaker’s tone articulates the emotional journey she has endured. Therefore, the relation of Plath’s death to an old belonging displays how the speaker no longer wants that death, but she still remembers what it feels like to be the person with thoughts of
The simple yet extraordinary emotion of nostalgia has been ingrained in mankind since inception. Every single individual has experienced this intense emotion at one point their life, sometimes even regularly. A feeling of sentimental longing for the past, sometimes referred to as 'looking back on the good old days' are typical of being in a state of nostalgia. Robert Frost demonstrates the natural emotion of nostalgia in his poems “Birches” and “The Road Not Taken”. Although both poems convey the feelings of wistful yearning for the days gone by, each poem addresses different kinds of nostalgia: the longing for a carefree, adventurous childhood of the past and the nostalgic reflection of life choices. Both poems make use of differing poetic structures—in addition to various poetic tools—to create the manifestation of nostalgia within their poems.