For example, if the events that took place in The Things They Carried were described in a newspaper, we might understand what happened, who died, and what was statistically important, but we probably wouldn't be told why certain things happened, how people felt about these things, and what emotional toll the the soldiers endured. In this particular story, tone acts as spot light which illuminates the informational aspects of the literature. In other words, due to the casual and personal tone of this particular story, certain things must be said; we the reader must be privy to certain thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story; this information is neither granted to us, or expected from us when we pick up a newspaper and read about war.
The tone of the lines “...right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing” (612) and “The guy's dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound--the guy's dead. I mean really” (612) gives the reader the ability to view Ted Lavender's death as one of the members of his platoon. We feel in some way what it may have been like to stand there with those men and see a friend die right in front of our eyes, yet we also learn that while some of the men were waiting for Lavender's body to be taken away, they sat there “..smoking the dead man's dope” (615). This sense of callousness, or maybe more of desensitization, is not evident in the simple facts of Lavender's death, but the tone of the story allows us to see things and understand aspects of the characters that would not be possible if basic factual information were the only source to be drawn on. Learning that Lavender's comrades took the dope from his body comes as a surprise to the reader and may go against ...
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... wars and deaths of loved ones, or like those in a Greek tragedy, but the writer of this poem is so sincerely affected by sorrow and tragedy that it permeates his daily life, to the point where the death of a toad during the mowing of a lawn is seen as something moving and serious.
While The Death of a Salesman, The Things They Carried, and The Death of a Toad are different in format and style, the use of tone in each accomplishes the same goal – to reveal motivation, emotion, and feeling, or in other words, to reveal the human side of literature. All three of these works have very simple plots, but they still convey very complex messages about humanity. Regardless of the length or plot of a piece of writing, tone can be used to color and illuminate words and facts, to make them more than static pieces of text; it can make them into dynamic works of literature.
My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.
Owens and Sawhill use pathos to evoke the feelings of their readers. This method establishes
Within Death of a Salesman, there are many themes, motifs and symbolism shown to help readers and audiences alike understand the writing. Arthur Miller implemented these developmental characteristics through showing the theme of success and failure, features of a tragic hero and the germination within characters. Through Millers writing, it is shown that the American Dream does not always end in a happy
The text reveals that the soldiers have a hard time with the death of ted lavender. For example, they describe ted’s death as if he just ‘’flat fuck fell’’— [The things they carried] The lieutenant cross felt the pain of losing one of his men and he blamed himself for it. One of the characters Kiowa explained how fast it had been. The guy had dropped like so much concrete.’’ Boom – down like cement’’. The lieutenant cross felt the pain of losing one of his men and he blamed himself for it.
One of the most striking events of the story is the death of Ted Lavender. O’Brien mentions Lavenders death multiple times throughout the story. He uses the repetition of Lavenders death as a symbol of how the soldiers constantly carried the weight of the event within themselves. It particularly haunts Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who feels personally responsible for what happened. When describing how Cross felt O’Brien writes,” ...this was something he would have to carry like a stone
In the first chapter during a tunnel search, Ted Lavender went off to use the restroom. When he was walking back and was close to the other soldiers, he was shot in the head and killed instantly. The book describes how his mouth was open, his teeth were broken, and his eyes swollen black. The book states that Jimmy Cross, “... felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence Lavender was now dead.” This would be something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of his life.” When Ted Lavender was shot in the back of the head, all the soldiers were in shock, but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross blamed himself because he was in charge of his men and was side-tracked by his love for, Martha, an old school friend. Later in the book, Jimmy Cross visits one of the soldiers from the war. They look through the photos and see one of Ted
For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.
The narrator recounts the story of how Curt Lemon dies to support his statement that “it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.”(O’Brien pg. 68) When Curt Lemon dies, the narrator uses vivid imagery to describe the scene as “almost beautiful”: “…the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.”(O’Brien pg. 67) The imagery and personification present in the story makes it seem surreal. However, the narrator explains that when someone dies, people only see bits and pieces of the whole picture as evidenced by when the narrator reports, “you look away and then look back for a moment and then look away again”(O’Brien pg. 67). Because of this, what actually happens becomes “jumbled” and influences the stories that soldiers tell, making the stories seem fake. This...
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
The most desirable way to describe Ted Lavender was scared. They were all scared. Scared of dying. The most suitable way for Lavender to deal with this scared feeling was to carry tranquilizers and about 6 ounces of marijuana. He also carried more than the required amount of ammunition.
As a prelude to an inquiry into thematic elements of the poem, it is first necessary to draw out the importance of Fearing’s use of experimental form. Fearing “adheres” to the conventional use of strophic poetic construction, making use of epigrammatic style, where the seven stanzas separate the lament into isolated combinations and experiments on language and the content suggests each might stand alone as organic entities. Putting these highly-varied units into a single poem reflects on the incoherence of broader theme of death and the response to death, the dirge, as well as the notion that such a broad topic as death contains many sma...
In my opinion, the poem provokes sympathy because it has been written autobiographically. This sets a more outlined image in our heads, since the poet is writing from his point of view, and his childhood and his encounter of this problem. Also the fact that the strong emotional words that have been used to desc...
One example of tone that is displayed in White’s essay is nostalgia: “It seemed to me, as I kept remembering all this, that those ties and those summers have been infinitely precious and worth saving.” This passage describes as if White is longing to relive the sacred summer still close to his heart, but something still remains missing. Another example of tone that is exemplified is peace: “This seemed an utterly enchanted sea, this lake you could leave to its own devices for a few hours and come back to, and find that it had not stirred, this constant and trustworthy body of water.” This passage sets the tone thoroughly. As White describes how the lake is trustworthy and persistent, he is portraying the idea of the memories he once experienced remain unchanged. The change of tone helps connect both positive and negative emotions
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.