Nabokovs Spring in Fialta
Spring in Fialta’s opening line, “Spring in Fialta is cloudy and dull,” (Nabokov 413) is quite an atypical beginning for Nabokov. This line, coming from a man who is overly concerned with trifles, brings up many questions. Is Nabokov intentionally leaving out the trifles of Fialta here at the beginning? If so, why? Perhaps the answer to this question is that Nabokov intends for the line in question to be a double entendre referring to both the town and the story itself. On the narrative level, Nabokov leaves little to the reader’s imagination. The story is dull and commonplace. Moreover, I found Douglas Fowler’s criticism of the story to be off the mark and reaching. Fowler is looking too deeply into a cut and dry romantic parody, which bears a striking resemblance to Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin.
Nina’s imminent death is mentioned all over this story. These statements are so direct that it cannot be called foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is much more subtle, like seeing a dead bird or something. Foreshadowing is definitely not like what is in Spring in Fialta, which is more like, “Yup, she’s gonna die.” For example, the lunch with Nina where, “for the last time in her life, was busy eating the shellfish of which she was so fond,” (Nabokov 427). There are many more statements, some not quite as direct as these, but direct nonetheless such as when Victor is imagining her:
Had I to submit before judges or our earthly existence a specimen of her average pose, I would have perhaps placed her leaning upon a counter at Cook’s, left calf crossing right shin, left toe tapping floor, sharp elbows and coin-spilling bag on the counter, while the employee, pencil in hand, pondered with her over the plan of an eternal sleeping car. (Nabokov 417)
Also, very early on, Victor says he “cannot imagine any heavenly firm of brokers that might consent to arrange me a meeting with her beyond the grave,” (Nabokov 415).
Statements such as these makes the reader so used to Nina’s death that at the climax of the story when she finally dies, the reader feels no sadness towards this event. There is no tugging at the heartstrings.
Foreshadowing hints at what might happen next in the story. Elie used foreshadowing to show loss of faith when one of the Jews from his town was captured. “Without passion or haste, they shot the prisoners who were forced to approach the trench and offer their necks” (6). After this happened the other Jews in town never believed the captured Jew. After no one had believed the Jew he lost faith because the other Jews had no idea what was going to happen to them later on in the story which is an example of foreshadowing. There is a lady in night in the camp with Elie. She is abandoned by her family and separated in the camp. “The separation had totally shattered her”(24). This foreshadows what might happen to Elie later on in the story when his father dies. That would cause him to lose
The element of foreshadowing is exemplified early in the passage with the visual description of the Indian skyrocket. Was the skyrocket, with its orange and yellow star-burst and streaking gray tail, a warning? Perhaps the skyrocket was a portend of a horrendous attrocity about to occur. Certainly, the resounding echo and brilliance of the skyrocket would alert the villagers to impending danger. In a land already rocked by its internal strife, such a sight in the still darkened sky would send shockwaves of fear and panic throughout the small community. The reader, too, must ponder the implication of this apparant signal of peril.
2. Because this was a mystery novel, foreshadowing was very heavily used in the book. Foreshadowing is very useful in a mystery novel, because a mystery novel is all about suspense, and foreshadowing is a great tool to increase the suspense. One of the biggest foreshadows was the “big black hook” (pg. 148) on the ceiling of Vera’s room, which she will eventually use to kill herself. However, there were other examples of foreshadowing, including Vera’s first sight of Indian Island. She concludes it looks sinister (pg.16), and that hints at the troubles to come. Theres also the old man on the train that tells Blore that “his day of judgement is close at hand” (pg.11), which hints that Blore will soon die. And there's the very obvious “10 little indians poem” (pg. 22) which hints at the very near deaths of each of the guests on indian island.
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. An example of foreshadowing Wiesel exercises is when he uses Moshie the Beadle to introduce the kind of person he was before and after his experience in a labor camp. Moshie’s suffering foreshadows his and his family’s outcome. Moshie had managed to escape and return to Sighet where people took pity on him and assumed he had nothing more than a vivid imagination. Another example is when the Budapest radio had announced that the Fascist party had come to power. The broadcast stated, “The Jews in Budapest are living in an atmosphere of fear and terror” (p9). A third example would be when Wiesel’s mother told the family tha...
...n though they are short and crisp, they extinguish the need of moving the pace of the story forwards. We see the flashbacks of the hurting memories of Stella. They are helpful but fail to move the story forward and put an effort to signify any event of the story. The fact that she is dead does not move the film forward but rather confuses because it is not a relevant dispute in that point in time.
Zusak’s use of foreshadowing is another sign of death’s sympathy, this time to the reader. Death seems to care about the reader. Instead of releasing all of the shock at once, death prepares the reader for what is to come. This can be seen when death says, “Preemptively, you conclude, as I would, that Rudy died that very same day, of hypothermia. He did not. Recollections like those merely remind me that he was not deserving of the fate that met him a little under two years later” (Zusak 242). While telling about Rudy rushing into the river to save Liesel’s book, death brings up the fact that while this occasion did not kill Rudy, he will die just a few years later. This is another piece of irony on Zusak’s part. Normally, people are not able to anticipate death, but in this case death tells the reader that Rudy will die. This is another example of death’s sympathy. It does not want the reader to be crushed by the news of Rudy death all at once, so it provides the information before so the reader can have time to process the news.
Foreshadowing is a beneficial literary device that may be most salutary once the reader has completed the passage. In the short story,“The Most Dangerous Game”, author Richard Connell uses foreshadowing to expose General Zaroff as a bloodthirsty cannibal to his readers.
You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. So says Humbert Humbert at the start of Lolita in his account to the "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury" (9). He refers to himself as a murderer (he is, after all, "guilty of killing Quilty"), not as a rapist, the far more serious offense Lolita levels at him. That I, and everyone else who reads the book, call Dolores Haze by the name "Lolita" demonstrates the efficacy of Humbert's fancy prose style - under the spell of his aesthetic mastery, we, the jury, must bend to his subjective vision through memory, and thus we see the twelve-year-old nymphet as Lolita, as she is in Humbert's arms. It is difficult to castigate Humbert when we see the world through his European eyes.
One example of foreshadowing is: “i'm sure he would have become a famous painter if he had continued with his art into adulthood”. The line was foreshadowing K’s death early into the story, adding a bitter tone to the seemingly nostalgic flashback. Foreshadowing shows that the author still feels regret for K’s death, and that if the wave had not ended K’s life, he could have grown up to become a famous painter. “But something ominous about them-something like the touch of a reptile's skin-had sent a chill down my spine”. This statement foreshadows the tragedy to come, it has an eerie tone. Some may that foreshadowing has no effect to the text, however, without it the tone of the story would change and would be deprived of suspense and fear. The use of foreshadowing adds suspense and strikes fear into the audience as the book leads up to the tragedy of K’s
Igor Stravinsky’s ballet/orchestral work, The Rite of Spring was quite different than what people were used to. The story of it deals with the prehistoric times of Russia when they were pagans. Each year they had to sacrifice a woman who is a virgin to make the gods happy so that the rest of the society could survive and grow. The girl that is chosen is made to dance until she dies. On the first night this was performed, a riot broke out because the audience couldn’t believe what they were hearing or seeing. The dancers could barely even hear the music because the audience was going crazy, but Nijinsky kept them going (http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-rite-of-spring-story-analysis-composer-music.html) The Rite of Spring was definitely an influential musical piece for the 20th
Vladimir Nabokov suffered a neurological disorder called Synthesia. In this disorder, some senses appear the form of other senses. For his specific case, it allowed him to see letters in color. The literary form of this disorder is writing when one sense describes another. Nabokov’s synthesia allowed for him to compose its’ literary form in a superior manner. Additionally, in its literary implication, synthesia generates juxtapositions of the senses. With and in juxtaposition, he uses the comparison of senses to describe one sense through another sense. Nabokov uses his Synthesia to enhance juxtapositions in order to capture essence of life through words. In his short story First Love, he illustrates importance of using the senses in descriptions
Foreshadowing- “She has slipped a ring from her finger and seems to be holding it towards the light. You see? I could do alot more of that but you wouldn’t like it. I slipped a lot of details in there and provided all those hints about strange and dangerous things under the surface. That’s called foreshadowing.” (Arnason, page 228)
Within "The Story of An Hour", Chopin talks about death and illustrates the significance of it. This story implies that death may actually be a blessing under certain circumstances. The narration begins with Louise gets informed that her husband had passed away in an accident. She's no ordinary women, but someone with heart disease. It leads the reader into thinking that she would be in great pain, suffering from the loss of her other half. Surprisingly, Louise's reaction was the exact opposite with her feeling a sense of comfort, but why? In exchange of her husband, she had gained freedom. The feeling of joy was being suppressed holding it down with her own will. Now that Louise is independent,...
In this story by Kate Chopin, the heart trouble is both a symbolic and physical malady that stands for her ambivalence towards her unhappiness and marriage conjoined inability to be free. The first thing we qauire in the book is that Louise is suffering from a heart problem;additionally we learn that her heart problem is also the reason why the announcement of the death of Brently seems so threatening now. It is also clear that an individual with a heart problem would certainly not deal with such terrible news. In any instance where Louise tries to go through the idea of her renewed independence, her heart races as the blood in her veins pumps to the extremes. As the story ends, Louise dies. The diagnosis of her heart disease looks appropriate to her disease but it seems even more appropriate since she experienced shock once she saw Brently. Surely, such shock is enough to drive her to her deathbed. It is however ironic that the doctor concludes that the main reason as to the death of Louiseis overwhelming joy. It is ironic because it is not joy that had led to her death but rather loss of joy, which had killed her. Louise had certainly died because of a broken heart that was caused by the idea of suddenly losing her much loved independence (Chopin, The Story of an Hour)
At the beginning of the story, Josephine, Louise’s sister, attempts to break the news of her husband’s death to her “as gently as possible” so as to not cause heart failure (477). The main concern is that Louise will be so devastated over the loss of her husband, that it will cause a premature death, but a factor that many overlook or don’t expect is Louise’s sudden change of heart and her realization of all the freedom she will gain after Brently’s death.