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Essays on symbolism in literature
The importance of symbolism
The importance of symbolism
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The Hidden Meaning Behind “The Gift of Sweat” The Gift of Sweat” by Rebecca Brown, tells the story of a man with a mysterious disease. The story is told from what we presume is one of the man’s friends. We read about her routine with Rick, the man that is ill, and his happenings. This story is intriguing because it is very poignant and mysterious. This makes us wonder about this character's lives and why the outcome of the story is what it ended up to be.. What makes this story so pleasurable is the writing style. The way the author made us predict what Rick’s illness was, made the story that much more interesting. The way Brown played with context clues made the readers interested, it made the readers want more and figure out more about the characters, and the story itself. …show more content…
Brown never approached any of the problems in the story directly. She gives you indications and actions within the story that make you ponder about what it’s happening in the story,besides the main plot that we are reading. One example is, the author doesn’t directly say that Rick is a homosexual.This quote from the story lets us infer this,“Every Saturday night he and Barry would watch a movie on the VCR in the living room. They’ll pull the futon out like a bed and watch it from there and pretend they were at a bed-and-breakfast on vacation.” This passage from the story tells us that Rick could be a homosexual, but it is not clearly expressed. When you read about what Rick and Barry are doing, t pictures them as a normal couple hanging out on a weekend. We can assume that Rick was in a relationship with Barry. The reader can come to a deduction and therefore they want to keep reading to solve more of the mysteries intertwine in this
...lia Jones endured fifteen years of violence, disrespect, and infidelity, and only in those last few months was she able to muster some form of resistance. Until Sykes threatened all that she had, her home and her job, she was content enough just sweating it out. However, Sykes made that grave mistake on his own accord, and when leaving Delia with nothing to lose, he found that he had set himself up for a losing battle. Delia had surrendered to him in all those years, but Sykes had finally found a way to bring out the worst in his wife, and her aggression was finally realized by defending all that she had. After such pain and endurance, one can easily recognize how Delia Jones played the lead role in a short story called "Sweat."
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
... try to secure the downtown area, they were quickly overrun by the zombie horde. After hiding in a burned-out tank, Rick is eventually recused by a group of survivors who have been making risky supply runs into the city. When he returns to the group’s camp outside the city limits, he discovers that his wife, son, and best friend are also part of this rag-tag band. After the tearful reunion, the question of what to do next drives the subsequent episodes.
In Black and Blue, Fran Benedetto tells a spellbinding story: how at nineteen she fell in love with Bobby Benedetto, how their passionate marriage became a nightmare, why she stayed, and what happened on the night she finally decided to run away with her ten-year-old son and start a new life under a new name. Living in fear in Florida--yet with increasing confidence, freedom, and hope--Fran unravels the complex threads of family, identity, and desire that shape a woman's life, even as she begins to create a new one. As Fran starts to heal from the pain of the past, she almost believes she has escaped it--that Bobby Benedetto will not find her and again provoke the complex combustion between them of attraction and destruction, lust and love. Black and Blue is a beautifully written, heart-stopping story in which Anna Quindlen writes with power, wisdom, and humor about the real lives of men and women, the varieties of people and love, the bonds between mother and child, the solace of family and friendship, the inexplicable feelings between people who are passionately connected in ways they don't understand. It is a remarkable work of fiction by the writer whom Alice Hoffman has called "a national treasure." With this stunning novel about a woman and a marriage that begins in passion and becomes violent, Anna Quindlen moves to a new dimension as a writer of superb fiction. Black and Blue is a beautifully written, heart-stopping story in which Anna Quindlen writes with power, wisdom, and humor about the real lives of men and women, the varieties of people and love, the bonds between mother and child, the solace of family and friendship, the inexplicable feelings between people who are passionately connected in ways they don't understa...
Scott, Cynthia C. "Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat: Character and Metaphor in the Short Story." Yahoo! Voices (2007).
demonstrates how the characters of the book are reckless and view love as something that can
It tells the story of a woman who lives secluded in mind, body, and soul for about three months in what is a “hereditary estate” (Gilman 462) , but how she portrays to the reader as “a haunted mansion” (Gilman 463). Extremely unhappy in her current situation (a suffering woman who nobody believes is truly ill), she escapes through her writing. Having to keep her passion of writing a secret and hiding it from her husband, housekeeper, family and friends, the story has untold endings to her thoughts due to the abrupt arrival of unexpected guests. The diary helps us to see the quick, spiraling downfall and eventual breakdown of an unstable woman whose isolation from society may have encouraged her imminent disease. Through quickly written journal entries, the audience can see the unfolding of the unstable woman. This enlarges the view of the narrative because it helps show a plot line of the progression of an illness (which is the theme as a whole of the
I found the book to be easy, exciting reading because the story line was very realistic and easily relatable. This book flowed for me to a point when, at times, it was difficult to put down. Several scenes pleasantly caught me off guard and some were extremely hilarious, namely, the visit to Martha Oldcrow. I found myself really fond of the char...
...reader to gain inside thought into how bad the mental condition is affecting him as his behavior allows for further indication of craziness as a result from the schizophrenia. The evidence presented in this play for the scientific explanation of this literary classic is quite prominent as it gives an insight into what a schizophrenic acts, thinks, and behaves like.
In literature, the significant themes of a story can sometimes be developed within dramatic death scenes. With that being said, Zora Neale Hurston 's presents an unappreciated housewife and her high-class husband 's sinful ways which ultimately lead to the husband 's unplanned death, in her short story “Sweat”. The concluding death scene can best be described as illustrating the theme as “what goes around comes around”. Sykes was abusive and tried plotting his wife, Delia 's, death by using a rattlesnake, but his plan backfired and it was Sykes that was killed in the end.
...es the two characters time to find their identities. For example, it took the woman in “Birthmark” 15 years to come to term with her identity. This is relatable because for most people it takes days, weeks or even years. Further more, the writing styles and plot of each story gives the reader an effective understanding of the characters. Both writing styles give the reader good insight because they can understand what the characters feel.
...d depth of Magda’s saliva; and Rosa drank Magda’s shawl until it dried” (699). Only a good story can have you at the tip of your seat wondering what is going to happen next. Literature is a great way to feel empathy and both of these stories play it very well.
Suspense; Suspense is the intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events. It basically leaves the reader holding their breath and wanting more information. The amount of intensity in a suspenseful moment is why it is hard to put a book down. Without suspense, a reader would lose interest quickly in any story because there is nothing that is making the reader ask, “What’s going to happen next?” In writing, there has to be a series of events that leads to a climax that captivates the audience and makes them tense and anxious to know what is going to happen. And Suspense, is what “August heat” primarily uses to keep its story so invigorating.
The book is laced with emotionally and erotically boosted encounters. A person who would enjoy reading about vampires, the urge to keep reading comes within the first few chapters; in this story early as chapter three. The novel is a new vampire paradigm that casts a steady eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance. Relationships in this story, as loving and loyal as they are yet, are very different. There is no moral questioning at all, but this total acceptance of paedophilia is not only seen in those having sex with children, also by every single other character. Even though being black brought Shori some str...