The story “Clearing Paths To The Past” and the poem “To Be Of Us” both have a common theme. They both talk about people getting done what needs to be done. The man in the short story had an obligation. That obligation was to clear the sidewalk even if other people didn’t. He wanted to help the kids get to and from school without having to walk through snow to do so. He wanted to be like his grandfather and make other people happy.Just like the story the poem also talks about how Marge Piercy , the author, loved people who got the job done. She likes people who put work before themselves. She says “I love people best who jump to work head first.” She saying that she likes people who don’t complain about having to do it and just do it. That is
To read a story that deals with this theme makes us realize that it is not everyone that can accomplish what they really want in their
In the chapter “Peasant of the Pavements” from the autobiography The Long Loneliness, the narrator, Dorothy Day discusses the first time she met Peter Maurin. As a result of the chapters focus on Peter, the thesis of this chapter is about him. Day argues that Peter taught her that no matter how different one may seem to be from another, all people are each others “brother’s keeper and the unit of society is the family; that we must have a sense of personal responsibility to take care of our own, and our neighbor, at a personal sacrifice” (179).
“It was not easy to live in Shanghai” (Anyi 137). This line, echoed throughout Wang Anyi 's short piece “The Destination” is the glowing heartbeat of the story. A refrain filled with both longing and sadness, it hints at the many struggles faced by thousands upon thousands trying to get by in the city of Shanghai. One of these lost souls, the protagonist, Chen Xin, was one of the many youths taken from his family and sent to live the in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Ten years after the fact, Chen Xin views the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution internally and externally as he processes the changes that both he, and his hometown have over-gone in the past ten years. Devastatingly, he comes to the conclusion that there is no going back to the time of his childhood, and his fond memories of Shanghai exist solely in memory. This is in large part is due to the changes brought on by the Cultural Revolution. These effects of the Cultural Revolution are a central theme to the story; with repercussions seen on a cultural level, as well as a personal one.
The Holocaust was a genocide that happened in Germany throughout the years of 1933-1945. The Germans and their supporters massively murdered many Jews to protect and reach their goal of having an Aryan race. The novel We Are Witnesses by Jacob Boas is a collection of four diaries written by the four children that were victims of the Holocaust. In this novel the themes found are fear, humanity, appreciation, and survival. A running story throughout the novel is the idea of people being good or evil. Humans are capable of being good but choose to follow evil and make the good suffer.
Everyone wants to fill the void within themselves, and most humans try to accomplish this by finding jobs they enjoy, but it seems that most of them ultimately fail. When you are younger you look to your parents to show you the way, but as you approach adulthood you start to feel more of a sense of rebellion toward them instead of the admiration you once had. The writer makes the poem universal by saying he didn’t want to end up like his father, something most children in north america could relate to. It’s also easily linked to our society in north america because of the way our schooling system is set up, in a way that you must commit to what you’re going to do for the rest of your life when you’re still too young to vote, and our system being this way makes it easy to end up regretting what you choose. Humans in modern society are expected to make many commitments for a range of things- relationships or sports teams, even major life decisions, and it’s obvious that our natural need for commitment is prevalent in our everyday life. Consequently, this need for making commitments can end up leaving people making poor decisions or at least taking a route you’ll end up wanting to renounce in the
In the play Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the theme is that every person has the right to think. One example of the theme of this play is Rachel's progression towards independent thinking. In the beginning Rachel fears her father greatly. She says, "I remember feeling this way when I was a little girl. . . .But I was always more frightened of him that I was of falling. It's the same way now" (48-49). However, by the end of the book she has grown away from her father, and now has her own opinions and thoughts. Her new growth and acceptance is shown in her statement: "This is your book, Bert. I've read it. All the way through. I don't want to think that men come from apes and monkeys. But I think that's besides the point" (111). A second example of the theme of Inherit the Wind is shown by the way Drummond acts and how frustrated he becomes when he talks to Brady. In the courtroom, Brady says, "A man is on trial!" (64). Drummond is extremely agitated and replies by saying, "A thinking man! And he is threatened with fine and imprisonment because he chooses to speak what he thinks" (64). After their disagreement Drummond states his opinion, by saying, "I am trying to establish, Your Honor, that Howard-or Colonel Brady-or Charles Darwin-or anyone in this courtroom-or you sir-has the right to think!" (64). The theme becomes more apparent throughout the play by the way Cates stands up for and defends himself. At first, Bert Cates is very unsure of himself and is not sure if what he did was correct. Cates questions Drummond as to whether he should stay with the case or give in.
“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is a short fictional story first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1941. Welty was an American short-story writer and novelist. Welty was a photographer before she started writing so her stories were as detailed as her photographs. Some reccurring themes she used in her literary pieces were social prejudice, isolation, and southern living. This short story includes these common themes she favored throughout her works. There are multiple themes in this fictional story. Some themes presented in this story include racism, family, and responsibility. The most prominent theme is the age and perseverance, because the protagonist is predisposed to failure given her age but her tenacity keeps her going.
In the article “We Will Go Forward From This Moment” by Leonard Pitts Jr. he talks about nine eleven and how America will move forward from this tragedy and come back strong, gunning for the person responsible. Mr. Pitts begins by talking about his job to have something to say. He talks about he felt the same as anyone else and did not have words to say. An attack on the person who caused nine eleven is then carried out, asking them what they were hoping to do the attack. He continues listing things they could have wanted to have caused, but shows how they failed. Next is a description of the American people as a big family, and the bickering has been put on hold. He starts talking about the steel in Americans as well as the grieving process.
Robert Frost’s controversial poem “The Road Not Taken” leaves us with a lot to think about, and in a state of mixed feelings. But what he has made undisputable is that in life there will be many crossroads and the choice to “take the road less traveled by” isn’t always the easiest one, and maybe it isn’t the best one either, but the most important thing is that you always, always do what you think is best and persevere through it, because after all, the choices made by others won’t matter. What counts is the decision you made and that at the end of the road when you think back you don’t regret it or wish you would’ve done it differently.
Time travel stories depict controversial topics like the de-evolution of humanity in a light where anyone can have a clear perspective. Part of the human condition includes denial of beliefs, contrary to one's set of preconceived notions. The point of time travel literature is to break down these preconceived notions by creating a great distance between the reader and the story. The Time Traveler from H.G Wells short story, The Time Machine experiences this distance because he went so far into the future that there was a split in the evolutionary tract of humans. The species derived from humans are primal and thoughtless, the distance on the evolutionary tree allows them to be considered de-evolved.
As time moves on the world has plenty of opportunities to improve and make changes. The world has an abundance of dilemmas, but equality should no longer be one of those dilemmas. Equality is seen as a part of humanity and if there are limits to equality, then there are limits on humanity. In the story, The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, the topic of equality and socioeconomic status are often discussed. According to the American Psychological Association the definition of socioeconomic status is, “the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation” (socioeconomic status). The story is about an educated African American teacher who takes her barely
Ernest Hemingway uses the various events in Nick Adams life to expose the reader to the themes of youth, loss, and death throughout his novel In Our Time. Youth very often plays its part in war, and since In Our Time relates itself very frequently to war throughout; it is not a surprise that the theme of youthful innocence arises in many of the stories. In “Indian Camp” the youthful innocence is shown in the last sentence of the story: “In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” (19) When this sentence and the conversation Nick and his father have before they get on the boat are combined in thought it shows that because of Nicks age at the time that he does not yet understand the concept of death.
In “A Worn Path” colors are used to emphasize the depth and breadth of the story, and to reinforce the parallel images of the mythical phoenix and the protagonist Phoenix Jackson. Eudora Welty’s story is rich with references to colors that are both illustrative and perceptive, drawing us in to investigate an additional historical facet of the story.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” provide us contrasting and sometimes similar glimpses of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control and living life. “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” entails the desire for rest, perhaps due to the speaker’s feelings of weariness from facing life’s struggles. The poet also explains the tough choices people stand before when traveling the road of life. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road they have chosen.
There are many choices that one needs to make on a daily basis to simply get through the day. Life choices however are more important and have an everlasting effect on the individual. They are less frequent but have more of an impact on one’s life. The writer Robert Frost chose to use the poem “The Road not Taken” to show how one’s decisions can change the outcome of your life. Frost used the details of picking the road, the inability to reverse his choice, the consequences of his judgment, along with the external factors that influenced his judgments to express to the readers how life’s decisions make a difference all by writing a poem.