Finding Deeper Meaning in Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat
First impressions are important when meeting new people, applying for jobs, and even when reading literature. It provides us with an idea of what is going on, where things are taking place, and who the important characters are. This first impression can be described is the Pre-Critical Response; the average reader performs this type of analysis every time he or she reads. For some people, this simplistic perspective is satisfactory; others find the quest for deeper understanding intriguing and part of the ultimate experience gained through literature.
The Formalistic Approach is one way to analyze literature in order to gain fuller understanding. This
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The voices of a novel or work create a dimension all their own. Dialogical's creator, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, uses the key term of carnivalization to describe the "...diversities of speech and voice reflected in its structure" (HCAL 351). Mood and tone are derived from this and can be further amplified through the Formalistic Approach of …show more content…
Gray uses an array of words commonly found in someone who is highly educated and knowledgeable. He uses descriptive words with hidden meanings and connotations. For example, he uses the names of Tom and Susan for people who will not come to his aid. Tom and Susan are generally the names of household servants who should be around to come to his aid, and yet in fact are not. This implies the relationship and feelings the servants have toward their Master and toward his possessions. The word choice for the title, ode in particular, suggests this is a tribute to a loved one or someone of meaningful significance. This in fact is true; the cat's owner as a tribute writes this poem to his beloved friend the cat. The sentences are long as well as the complexities of the thoughts. The descriptions are vivid; they come to life; they leave much to the
By definition, a textual analysis shows the reader how and why an author has used certain techniques and strategies to present and develop an idea. In John Edgar Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers (1984) Wideman uses figurative language consistently in an attempt to convey tone, attitude, persona and imagery to the reader. Although this language isn’t always apparent at first glance, looking deeper into the reading will help the reader fully understand what the author really means. Figurative language is specific language that uses expressions differently from the literal interpretation; consequently, a thorough analysis of the text itself will allow one to form an interpretation between the composition and the true meaning of the excerpt. In the excerpt from his story, John Wideman uses this figurative language to explain his past and present, telling of his relationship with his brother Robert Wideman, who was sentenced to life in prison for murder. John’s tone and attitude give the reader a better understanding of his
By combining the formal and dialogical approaches, patterns and voices within the text seemingly interplay and overlap to reveal a deeper sense of the author's intentions. While the formalistic analysis focuses on the text and the unfolding themes within, the dialogical analysis recognizes "...the essential indeterminacy of meaning outside of the dialogic - and hence open - relationship between voices" (HCAL 349). When applied to "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," these two approaches collaborate to emphasize recurring concepts and establish a twisted sense of authority.
The paper discusses the sound of the poem and how those certain words, said aloud, help to emphasize the meaning. Looking at the form of a poem in this way gave me a new way of looking at the text and finding the meaning. Personally, I have not had much familiarity looking at the sound of a text, but now see how the sound can be valuable when looking for the meaning of a text. I like to look at the imagery that is utilized in a text because I believe it works well in giving the reader a look into the text and bringing the text to life. What I have discovered reading about the formalist approach is to look at the overall form and how the text itself affects the meaning. Looking at the imagery and symbols helps me personally find the meaning in a text, so learning that the form of the text also can contribute to the meaning was
One of the most engaging arguments about Toni Morrison’s book Beloved is centered around the nature of the girl Beloved. The argument is whether Beloved is simply a young woman who herself had suffered the horrors of slavery, or the ghost of Sethe’s crawling already? baby girl. The evidence shows that Morrison intended Beloved to be the ghost of the crawling already? girl.
Wyatt, Jean. “Body to the Word: The Maternal Symbolic in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” PMLA, Vol. 108, No.3 (May, 1993): 474-488. JSTOR. Web. 27. Oct. 2015.
As much as society does not want to admit, violence serves as a form of entertainment. In media today, violence typically has no meaning. Literature, movies, and music, saturated with violence, enter the homes of millions everyday. On the other hand, in Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison, violence contributes greatly to the overall work. The story takes place during the age of the enslavement of African-Americans for rural labor in plantations. Sethe, the proud and noble protagonist, has suffered a great deal at the hand of schoolteacher. The unfortunate and seemingly inevitable events that occur in her life, fraught with violence and heartache, tug at the reader’s heart-strings. The wrongdoings Sethe endures are significant to the meaning of the novel.
“Not all that glisters gold,” Gray surmised in his poem, Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat. While the term is widely understood now as meaning that not everything is precious, there is evidence to suggest that there is a more cautionary tone which surrounds this saying. As Gray uses it to lament the death of Horace Walpole’s favorite cat, when the text is analyzed further, aspects of the mock epic are revealed. However this usage of the mock epic is less humorous in tone and more as a vehicle to warn readers of the tragedy that befalls them when they mindlessly pursuit certain desires. Therefore, in Thomas Gray's Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Gray uses the style of mock epic along with a non-human character in order to depict how people dangerously pursuit the material in their life, at the risk of their own demise.
It may be time to consider a literary work not as a predetermined product cast in a deterministic mold, but as a dynamic system that transcends the prevailing assumptions that are supposed to define its identity. The formal definitions can be just external to the composition of the text since we cannot expect the reader to know exactly what the author intended to write without falling into the trap of intentional fallacy.
History is a story told over time. It is a way of recreating the past so it can be studied in the present and re-interpreted for future generations. Since humans are the sole beneficiaries of history, it is important for us to know what the purpose of history is and how historians include their own perspective concerning historical events. The purpose and perspective of history is vital in order for individuals to realise how it would be almost impossible for us to live out our lives effectively if we had no knowledge of the past. Also, in order to gain a sound knowledge of the past, we have to understand the political, social and cultural aspects of the times we are studying.
The formalistic approach to reading is one of the most common approaches to reading literature. The formalistic approach has three main points to it: symbolism, allegory, and allusion. However these are not the only criteria that belong to the formalistic approach. Ambiguity, form, and organic form are also a part of it. Symbolism can refer to an image. "When an image takes on meaning beyond its objective self, it moves into the realm of symbolism (86)". Allegory is "a one to one equivalence between the surface meaning and a higher meaning(101)". An example of this is a man named Christian that is christian. Allusion is a reference to something else, maybe another piece of literature or another movie. Allusion can lead to the reader's knowledge of the rest of the story. Ambiguity is the use of a particular word, but yet the word itself has many different meanings. Form is the way the reader identifies a story whether it is a story or a poem. The organic form has two parts: the local texture and logical structure. The local texture is the specific metaphors while the logical structure is the basic idea or argument of the story.
Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Beloved, is a historical novel that serves as a memorial for those who died during the perils of slavery. The novel serves as a voice that speaks for the silenced reality of slavery for both men and women. Morrison in this novel gives a voice to those who were denied one, in particular African American women. It is a novel that rediscovers the African American experience. The novel undermines the conventional idea of a story’s time scheme. Instead, Morrison combines the past and the present together. The book is set up as a circling of memories of the past, which continuously reoccur in the book. The past is embedded in the present, and the present has no foundation without the past. Morrison breaks up the time sequence using the visions of the past that arouse forgotten experiences and emotions.
History is a series of important past events that connect with something. History is what makes people make better decisions. There are many definitions of history and everyone has their own.
Arp, Thomas R., Greg Johnson, and Laurence Perrine. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 11th ed. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 807. Print.
Elegy in a Country Courtyard, by Thomas Gray, can be looked at through two different methods. First the Dialogical Approach, which covers the ability of the language of the text to address someone without the consciousness that the exchange of language between the speaker and addressee occurs. (HCAL, 349) The second method is the Formalistic Approach, which allows the reader to look at a literary piece, and critique it according to its form, point of view, style, imagery, atmosphere, theme, and word choice. The formalistic views on form, allow us to look at the essential structure of the poem.
The formalistic approach is only one way of dissecting an open text such as the poem "To His Coy Mistress", but it is one of the best ways to search for the overall meaning of a text. With tools such as structure, style, and imagery, the reader becomes personally involved with the characters and savors the story instead of just reading the written words.