Old Friend David Quammen in “The Same River Twice” talks about how Heraclitus’s quote relates to an important event in his life.. Heraclitus’s says “You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on.” Quammen in the article talks about how he had a really close friendship over the years where he lived with this married couple. The husband who liked fishing just as much as Quammen did, For several years Quammen and the husband fished in his private creek for many years. Until the married couple decided to go their separate ways and leave their home in their private property. Leaving Quammen alone with none of the people he was close to. When they separated, Quammen moved somewhere else but went back to his normal routine to go fishing but of course without the husband. When he got to the creek …show more content…
We still talked here and there on Facebook but it just didn’t feel the same. He found other friends and I found some new friends as well. Although , One day we were both free and it happened during the fall season that we decided to do the same thing we did last time to explore downtown. Everything started off well , we laugh here and there and we had a pretty good time. But by the end when we were about to finish the day , we usually finished by the planetarium. He started lighting a cigarette and offered me one.
At that moment, I saw him as a different person. At that moment I knew what kind of friends he must’ve had back in Evanston. At that moment, The experience of having my best friend around me and talking to about anything was gone. I no longer felt the same around him. When Heraclitus’s said “You can not step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing.” I can relate to it because he found a different path with different friends and just wasn’t the same anymore and as for me I just didn’t see him the same
Closure at the River In his novel, Saints at the River, Ron Rash develops the struggle to maintain the environment as well as spiritual peace. A young girl has drowned, and is now trapped, in the Tamassee River, bringing grief and sorrow to Oconee County. The father, Herb Kowalsky, is very troubled and tries to find help from anyone. This incident brings numerous diverse individuals together to support the Kowalsky family. One of the main supporters is a writer, Allen Hemphill, who felt great empathy toward the family.
The hymn, “Shall We Gather at the River” and “The Scarlet Ibis” have similar themes. One of the themes is, one day everything will end, so instead of wanting and wishing for more, appreciate what you have now. The song and short stories have similar themes and morals of stories.
In the chapter the “Rainy River” of the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys a deep moral conflict between fleeing the war to go to Canada versus staying and fighting in a war that he does not support. O’Brien is an educated man, a full time law student at Harvard and a liberal person who sees war as a pointless activity for dimwitted, war hungry men. His status makes him naive to the fact that he will be drafted into the war and thus when he receives his draft notice, he is shocked. Furthermore, his anti-war sentiments are thoroughly projected, and he unravels into a moral dilemma between finding freedom in Canada or standing his ground and fighting. An image of a rainy river marking the border between Minnesota and Canada is representative of this chapter because it reflects O’Brien’s moral division between finding freedom in Canada or standing his ground and fighting in the Vietnam war.
To some this story might seem like a tragedy, but to Christians this is a beautiful story. Although young Harry dies at the end, he is accepted into the kingdom of God, which is far superior to anything on Earth. A non-religious family raises him and the first taste of Christianity he gets makes him want to pursue God. In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, The River, the allure of Gods grace and the repelling of sinful ways are shown heavily through Harry.
The late author and philosopher Dame Iris Murdoch once said “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” The general argument made by Tim O’Brien in his short story “On the Rainy River” is that an individual’s self-perception may skew the line between illusion and reality. More specifically O’Brien argues that the line may be discovered if an individual is able to come to terms with their perception. Illusion and reality are found to be confused throughout the novella “On the Rainy River” as a journey through one’s own mind is taken in order to reach a life-altering decision.
Religion and tradition are two ways that families come together. However in Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It, the Maclean family’s devotion to their Presbyterian religion and their tradition of fly-fishing is what undeniably brought the family together. Under the father’s strict Presbyterian values, his sons, Norman and Paul used fly-fishing as the link that brought them closer together and helped them bond with their father on a different level. The family’s hobby of fly-fishing was started just for fun. It was a sport that was taken up every Sunday after church to take their minds off of the worries in life. After a while, going fly-fishing every Sunday turned into a tradition and soon a learning experience for the father and his two sons. The sport brought the men of the family together and it was an activity that gave them structure in their lives. It was used as a guideline as to how to handle different situations and how to let go of the worries of life for a day and just relax. It is clear to say that fishing has a big meaning to the member of the Maclean family, but fishing held a meaning to each person in that family.
When given a chance to become a hero would you take it? Cowardice and courage are main themes in numerous of Tim O’Brien’s stories. “On the Rainy River”, a short story by O’Brien, the author uses a variety of figurative language, follows the conventional mythological structure with a twist, and the theme of cowardice.
Joseph Porter’s, “A River of Promise” provides a detailed report of the first explorers of the North American West. The piece engages in a well written secondary source to argue that the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the two famously known for exploring the American Western frontier, were credited for significant findings that were not completely their own. Joseph C. Porter utilizes text from diaries and journals to highlight the help and guidance from the natives and prior European explorers which ultimately allowed the Lewis and Clark expedition to occur. The document by Porter also reveals that Lewis and Clark at the time were establishing crucial government documents which were the structure for scientific, technological and social understanding
wants to learn from the river, he wants to listen to it; he wants to
Often times the loss of a friendship can be a great loss of support and confidence within our lives because we can lose them forever. This is demonstrated when Buddy Willard Esther's boyfriend break up. "He told me that his annual fall chest x-ray showed he had caught tuberculosis...in the Adirondacks" (Sylvia Plath pg. 58.) Buddy and
Life can sometime bring unwanted events that individuals might not be willing to face it. This was the conflict of O’Brien in the story, “On The Rainy River”. As the author and the character O’Brien describes his experiences about the draft to the Vietnam War. He face the conflict of whether he must or must not go to the war, in this moment O’Brien thinking that he is so good for war, and that he should not be lost in that way. He also show that he disagree with the consbet of the war, how killing people will benefit the country. In addition O’Brien was terrifying of the idea of leaving his family, friends, and everything that he has done in the past years.
Belonging is a fluid concept that adapts and shifts within a person’s lifetime. It is subjective and can encourage feelings of security, happiness and acceptance or conversely alienation and dislocation. One's perception of belonging, and therefore identity, is significantly influenced by place and relationships established within one's environment. This is evident in Steven Herrick's free verse novel “The Simple Gift” and the short story “The River that wasn’t ours” by Ashley Reynolds.
People move in and out of our lives for a specific reason. Everyone serves a purpose in the journey of life. We are constantly evolving, choosing new paths, and forming new bonds. As we evolve there is the possibility that our friend, spouse, or acquaintance will not evolve with us. Therefore, the next time we encounter them in our life they will never seem the same again. The fear and changes the speaker in “Feared Drowned” felt when she finally found her husband, after presuming him dead, evoke everyday experiences.
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.
Around the world, people have different outlooks on life, interact differently, have unfamiliar slang terms, may have been raised differently and much more. These things all contribute to how a person acts and reacts to different things. If a friend were to move to a different city, state or even continent, the social norms may change completely and that person will eventually adapt and take up different behaviors. If that friend were to come back to see his/her old friends, they may not like his changed self and will disassociate from him. His personality is the same inside, but the way he acts on the outside will lead his old friends to not like him because he has changed into somebody completely new. In the picture, the word “friendship” has clearly been discontinued. This picture symbolizes how setting changes people because as you walk through your own “forest” you will have to leave pieces of your past in order to get where you want to go. In addition,changes in character may be made as you move through your forest, so those past “trees”/friends will not want to associate with you and will naturally be cut off from the friendship. The poem “Memento” by Lily Cao also expresses how friendship is changed by setting. in the poem, Lily states Soon I must go, and she will stay, dwelling under the apple tree...She flails. I walk. We are matching memory.” This quote is important because it signifies that both sides of the friendship are often not in agreement when one leaves. The friend may be angry while you just realize it is part of life, or the other way around. Either way, however, as soon as the friend leaves, they will change into a different person that may seem unapproachable and completely different. In the Poetry Pairing called ‘Memento’ by Shannon Doyle, Alex Williams writes about ways that people handle friendships ending in the article “It 's not me it 's you”. He talks about