“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” said Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist. Fear can make things impossible by closing the window of opportunity and making what a person was trying to achieve impossible. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, both authors portray the theme of that by living your life in fear, you close your window of opportunity. The Book Thief is about a girl named Liesel Meminger who lives in Nazi Germany in the midst of WWII. A Light in the Attic is a collection of poems. Some are childish and some have a darker side. Both authors show that where there is fear, there is no opportunity through the climax, with irony, and through the characters’ actions.
In the poem “Fear,” Barnabus Browning lived his whole life in fear of drowning. In the climax of the poem, this fear kills him. “Shaking with fear That a wave might appear, and cried so many tears That they filled up the room And he drowned” (Silverstein 136). The quote from the climax depicts the theme. Barnabus is so scared of drowning that he would not do anything. He would not even go outside because the rain could have drowned him in his mind. His fear closed the opportunity to go and be an average kid. In the climax of The Book Thief, Rudy’s parents’ fear of the military school rumors caused them not to send Rudy to it. Their fear put an end to “***THREE POSSIBILITIES*** 1. Alex Steiner wouldn’t have suffered the same punishment as Hans Hubermann. 2. Rudy would have gone away to school. 3. And just maybe, he would have lived.”(Zusak 411). When Rudy’s parents told the Nazi soldier that Rudy would not go to the school, all of the opportunities in the quote were destroyed, leaving no trace of them behind. Much like Barnabus Browning, they feared too much and they ended up killing their son later in the falling action with a chain
Lucie Brock-Broido’s “The Halo That Would Not Light” is a poem about the loss of childhood and its inevitable end. When one is born “the (raptor’s) beak (lets) loose of you” (ll 1-2), and drops your tiny body into the “scarab-colored hollow” (ll 3-4). The raptor letting the tiny body loose into the scarab colored hollow alludes to the old nursery stories of the stork delivering babies in cribs for their new families. When children are young they often have positive outlooks on the world and believe that everything is possible, like the magic in the “hollow hat” (l 13) or the “cardboard box” (l 5). They believe strongly in all in possible wonders of the world and it isn't until their “endless childhood” is finally “done” that they loose the
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Everyone, at some time in life, will experience fear. But, often fantasies are created in one's mind to escape that fear. Ethan Frome uses his fantasy as an escape to the entrapment of his marriage and the fear of public condemnation.
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
Individuals are prone to fear regardless of whether it relates to something as minute as choosing between clothes, or it can be something life altering, such as making a bold decision to leave home in search of a better life. In the memoir, “The Iron Road”, Al Purdy describes his fear as it relates to his future in his younger days. Al Purdy describes his life when he was just a seventeen year old boy wanting to leave home in search of a Job. He was quick in his decision to leave his parents, rather judicially so in terms of his confidence to climb aboard a train without the consent of his parents. The reader can feel sympathetic for a teen who is unaware of the potential hardships of life, when
He understands Liesel’s experience more than any other human and later they become soul mates. Rudy Steiner is Liesel’s best friend. Rudy has a sensitive and compassionate side. He loves Liesel very much and will always be there for her. Liesel slowly adjusts to her new life, she is still plagued by the nightmares of her dead brother Werner. This book has many themes such as love, the books focus is on the characters who are learning to love in war times. The Book Thief is set in war times between the years 1939 and 1943 in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust and World War II are going on at the same time. The war shapes the characters’ lives and makes a huge impact on their life choices. Death lets us know early in the book that this is a very tragic and emotional book. We witness many deaths of innocent people. Death informs to us that many people we grow to love in this book will die. As the characters grow and change, their courage becomes a bigger factor in their lives. It becomes a life-sustaining attribute and a testament to their humanity. She later meets and becomes friends with a neighbor named Rudy, who is quite fond of the American athlete Jesse Owens and constantly bugs Liesel to kiss him. Hans had discovered that
...ything to have been on Himmel Street that night so that Rudy survived rather than himself.” (547)
The novel explores the predatory nature of human existence. It explores loneliness, isolation and friendship. A major theme is that of the illusionary nature of 'Dreams'. In particular, 'The American Dream'.
Apparently, critics can use these two books to argue their point on American dreams and nightmares. Within the American society, there are several cases of invisibility which drive some people to exercise power over others, or to demoralize them while evading the arm of the law. However, such cases have led people to seek refuge, although this act does not help the victims to produce a significant impact. When an individual faces such nightmares, one might try to evade the enemies by retreating to a position of invisibility, but such a person cannot formulate considerable changes to the society. In addition, if an individual shuns from nightmares, such a person loses critical time that is necessary for realizing one's dreams. People should not allow the community’s expectations and prejudices to hinder them from exploiting their uniqueness.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story filled with many emotions that help to bring the characters to life with many of them going through hardships and feelings of great loss. Death states, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). The characters in The Book Thief such as Liesel, Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and Max find themselves in situations where they have to act a certain way so as to not put their own lives in danger. Even if they don’t believe in the same things or have the same values as the Nazi Party, they must pretend in order to keep themselves from danger. Sometimes in order to protect themselves and each other, they must do things that would be considered either ugly or beautiful actions.
Fear brings forth a certain atmosphere which compels us to act upon it. The era in which the book was published allows us to see how common these fears were. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an excellent portrayal of how fear controls the human mind by using the characters as examples. In the book Eleanor, Theodora, Luke, and Dr. Montague have all been influenced by fear in the story, whether it be the fear of love, the unknown, family, rejection, expression, or loneliness. These different types of fear plagued their minds causing their actions to reflect upon them. Jackson explores the theme of fear in The Haunting of Hill House by creating a cast of characters that in turn are manipulated by the inner workings of their minds and the
Throughout the book the author implies that through persevering through adversity, following omens, and overcoming one's fears, everyone has a chance to achieve their dreams.
woman she once knew. Both women only see the figure they imagine to be as the setting shows us this, in the end making them believe there is freedom through perseverance but ends in only despair.
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” This quote from Walt Disney addressing the concept of achieving dreams is very accurate, and can be seen throughout literature today and in the past. Dreams can give people power or take away hope, and influence how people live their lives based upon whether they have the determination to attack their dreams or not; as seen through characters like the speaker in Harlem by Langston Hughes and Lena and Walter Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun.
While fear plays an essential role in the poem, Olds never mentions the emotion itself, except in the title. Instead, she elicits the sense of fear with the words she uses, such as “suddenly,” and vivid imagery of death, darkness and water: “…like ...