In Patricia Grace’s Potiki, traditional Maori values characterize the Tamihana family’s connection to the natural world that they live on. Toko’s cultural value of deep respect for the cycle of life and death appears through his idealistic perceptions of natural growth and unity, demonstrating that he understands this value to be a truth that defines his spirituality as a physical connection to the world. Toko’s take on the natural processes around him reveals his admiration for the cyclical nature of life, appearing in vivid images describing fertilization and the spiritual interconnection of different life forms. When telling a story about how the organs of a fish he had caught fertilized a lifeless passion fruit plant, Toko observes that …show more content…
The simile that compares plant growth to the reproduction of sea creatures illustrates Toko’s spiritual belief in the continuation of life. As conveyed in the visual image of branches swimming, in Toko’s reality, the dead creatures fuel the prosperity of the living on a spiritual level, manifesting themselves in their behavioral attributes. Toko proceeds to characterize the passion fruit plant as a reflection of his fish, perceiving that “the eel-vines had a thousand hidden eyes, a thousand tails and a thousand hidden hearts” (57). By referring to the seeds as eyes, and the fruits as hearts, Toko qualifies the growth of the plant in terms of the properties of the fish from which it spurted, illustrating that he sees the life form as a reflection of origin. By using “hidden” for select items in the catalogue, Toko spiritually connects the fish to the plant with respect to his own values, so the connection is not …show more content…
After Toko’s grandmother tells him a story about his great-granduncle and namesake, whose birth seemed to cause the deaths of others and who had died young upon falling off of a horse, Toko remembers the “dull, hard sound of when [his] father Hemi whacked [Toko’s] big fish with the heavy stick” (57). The combination of auditory and tactile images concretely grounds Toko’s own memories, and thus his experience of repurposing the life of the fish to make other life. The bluntness of the sounds also reflects the story of uncle Toko hitting his head on a rock and dying, presenting a spiritual and palpable connection between the two accounts, despite that uncle Toko’s birth resulted in the loss of the lives of other people. The contrasting stories, which “seemed somehow to come together,” unite to form Toko’s conception of reality—the understanding that life and death are historically connected (57). Toko’s values even expand to the belief that his current life story is defined by the past. When finally describing the passion fruit plant as the expansion of time, Toko concludes that “the endless vine going everywhere is like a remembrance of the time, which is really a now-time, of when [he] was five” (58). Toko’s seemingly self-contradictory statement establishes the past and present as a whole entity, demonstrating
Literary devices are used by Sandra Cisneros throughout the vignette “The Monkey Garden”, to highlight the mood of the piece. For instance, Cisneros uses symbolism to encompass feelings of mysticality when she describes the Monkey Garden as a place the kids can go too “far from where our mothers could find us.”(95). The garden is symbolized as a haven, that can seemingly alleviate the characters problems. Cisneros also uses juxtaposition to further develop mystical emotions the in the audience. When the author compares two objects like “a dollar and a dead mouse.” (95), she is juxtaposing two inherently disconnected objects to emphasise the range of feelings in the garden. By using literary devices to establish the mood, Sandra Cisneros can
...derer himself, he compares the guilt of his son’s death to that of fishes incident and how terrible he treated himself because of it.
Through all of this heartbreak that Komunyakaa has seen within his community, the thought that he can come up with a lesson through this turmoil on what should not be done and to convey it to the world gives an idea of how Komunyakaa wants other parts of nature not to end up the way that his did. In his essay, Komunyakaa states that he has “never been sentimental about nature (Komunyakaa 110). Throughout being in Bogalusa, Komunyakaa grew accustomed to the deterioration in which his environment was partaking, and decided to take it in as an unfortunate reality, unlike Wordsworth, who found the beautiful parts of nature and isolated them into appearing as that small part of nature was reality. Komunyakaa, however, in his loss of sentiment for nature, introduces a viewpoint associated with realism, finally at inner peace with the deterioration and pollution, as he figures that there will be justice in the end. Komunyakaa ends his essay with describing how “nature teaches us how to see ourselves within its greater domain”, and how “we cannot wound Mother Nature without wounding ourselves”, describing Mother Nature not being “a pushover” (Komunyakaa
In Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman, he illustrates the full desire of direction and the constant flow of life. A boy experiences a chain of life changing series of events that cause him to mature faster than a boy should. Death is an obstacle that can break down any man, a crucial role in the circle of life. It’s something that builds up your past and no direction for your future. No matter how hard life got, Culver fought through the pain and came out as a different person. Physical pain gives experience, emotional pain makes men.
William Faulkner overwhelms his audience with the visual perceptions that the characters experience, making the reader feel utterly attached to nature and using imagery how a human out of despair can make accusations. "If I jump off the porch I will be where the fish was, and it all cut up into a not-fish now. I can hear the bed and her face and them and I can...
... to understand one another. Furthermore, while both poets encase aspects of the fish into their poems, Bishop’s interpretation of the fish places it at a distance because her block of text loaded with descriptions is how she sees the fish, which gives the image that she just feels pity for the fish but doesn’t really feel the need to delve deeper in understanding the essence of the fish. By contrast, Oliver’s interpretation of the fish embodies its’ essence because she does not rely on its appearance to understand it but rather when she consumes the fish, its’ spiritual aura merges within herself. Oliver captures the soul of the fish within her poetic writing as evidenced by the constant alliteration with “f” letter words including, “first fish”, “flailed” , “flesh”, “fall”, “feed”, and “feverish”, which give the image that the poem is alive and is the fish.
Benzon, William. Talking with Nature in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts, article 042011. Available http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/articles/psyart/2004_benzon03.shtml. March 12, 2010
Ida Fink’s work, “The Table”, is an example of how old or disturbing memories may not contain the factual details required for legal documentation. The purpose of her writing is to show us that people remember traumatic events not through images, sounds, and details, but through feelings and emotions. To break that down into two parts, Fink uses vague characters to speak aloud about their experiences to prove their inconsistencies, while using their actions and manners to show their emotions as they dig through their memories in search of answers in order to show that though their spoken stories may differ, they each feel the same pain and fear.
The gods and their fighting are responsible for much of the weather. Tawhiri, who is the god of wind, creates the winds and hurricanes. Tane is a god specifically for forests, typical of a tropical island. Tangaroa is the god of the sea, given that the Polynesians are an island culture. He accounts for the waves and whirlpools. Rangi and Papa’s tears due to separation are responsible for rain and dew in the mornings. (“Creation Myth – Maori”) The Polynesian diet consists of many organic roots and crops. Rongo is the god of sweet potato and other cultivated foods, illustrating the importance of sweet potato itself, being that it has its own god. Rongo also means “peace,” further strengthening the importance of their agricultural lifestyle. (“Maori Gods and Goddesses”) There is also a god for fern root and wild edible plants, named Haumia. Earthquakes are explained in the creation myth as well. The Polynesian are located in the Ring of Fire, an area in the Pacific of active volcanoes and earthquakes, which explains it scientifically. However, in their creation myth, Hine Timata’s son, Ruaumoko, causes earthquakes when he walks around in the Underworld. The creation of New Zealand segments provides a detailed explanation of the mountainous formation of the island, due to Maui’s mischievousness and the inability of his brother’s to follow orders. The Polynesians have carefully supplied explanations and corresponding gods and goddesses for each part of their culture and environment. Much of the Maori creation myths intertwine emotion and divinity together to form realistic situations on a larger scale in order to explain the formation of the world the Maoris know
Are we gradually becoming the dead man? To be kind of people who are especially sensitive, the only way to encourage them to remain in the world is to kill some of their nerves and pretend to be as happy as others. Nevertheless, when the secret sorrows are so many to hide, the sea of sorrow will drown them, but they always pretend to be happy. The last poem “The Fish” illustrates the sorrow of life. The skin, the blood, the entrails, everything of the fish is depicted vividly and dramatically.
For the purposes of this discussion paper, I have chosen the film The Kiwai: Dugong Hunters of Daru to analyse. The film takes a look at the traditional rituals associated with dugong hunting among the Kiwai. Viewers also learn about the impact which new technologies have upon hunting methods and the scientist who are working to protect the dugong from extinction. Primarily I will be focusing on Claude Levi-Strauss’ chapter “The Science of the Concrete” in The Savage Mind. Levi-Strauss’ argues that there are two ways in which cultures order their world.
The reading of “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod is an interesting and sad story that displays many elements figuratively and literally. The first figurative element is the boat. At a literal perspective, the boat is used for fishing and boat rides, although these are not the only things that the boat represents. We learn that the father in some way, as been sacrificing his working life for his family, for something that he doesn’t absolutely love. This shows that he is in some way trapped, or imprisoned. The boat displays
According to Westervelt, “Maui may mean “to live,” to subsists,” and may refer to beauty and strength, or it may have the idea of “the left hand” or “turning aside. (1)” In Potiki, Grace ties in the meaning of Maui to the character Toko. In what way is the birth of Toko and Maui similar and it’s relationship with Westervelt’s definition of Maui? How is Toko’s fishing story similar with the legend of Maui pulling the island of New Zealand and its relationship with Westervelt’s definition of Maui? How is the death of Toko similar to the way Maui dies and how it relates to the definition of Maui?
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)
...e roots of the old tree, the star’s light was intercepted by green shoots and small, crinkled leaves— last season’s seeds. Tiny children of the mother tree, they were doomed to live out their lives under her suffocating blanket of branches. Now as they gazed upward, innumerable points of light gazed back. A light wind rustled the miniature stalks of the saplings, blowing the new debris around in short-lived eddies that danced softly through the night.