Poetry Review of Canal 1977
Canal 1977 is written roughly fifteen years after 1977. The poem is
set in a lady's perspective as she talks about certain places in her
life. We can tell that she is clearly jealous. It is because of this
that I am going to be talking about how the writer tries to put us,
the readers, in her position.
In the first stanza, she starts of by saying 'I remember this place'
which tells us that she is going to talk about one or two places. She
goes on to describe this place, she says
'…the pocky stonework' which is telling us that she is talking about a
structure or piece of art of some sort. The writer shows to us that
she is be talking about a tunnel that she has gone into as she says
'…the dropping sounds, Inside this tunnel'.
In the second stanza, she suddenly goes back to before the happenings
in the first stanza. She starts off saying,
'And before….' which is obviously telling us that she is going to talk
about something that happened earlier. She goes onto to talk about the
'coal smell' and we learn from this that the place was somewhere
involving coal, like underground, perhaps a coal mine. As she says
'the bankrupt contractors grizzling into their beer', the word
'grizzling' suggests that they have somewhat of a hatred towards the
destruction of that the place they drink their beer; it becomes a
waste of space. We learn this as she says,
'..the trees and grass waiting to take over'
She finishes off that stanza by saying 'I remember before' which
brings us back to the first line 'And before'.
The next stanza, starts off by saying 'And I remember the not yet
after' now she starts talking about something that has happened but
not straight away from the second stanza.
'When the money's raised and the spare time Sunday', here she is
telling us that families are taking part in a fund raiser and going to
This book had first started out by introducing the readers to what this book is going to sound like, which was the Introduction.
what is for her and how she wants to live. So in the end, she is where she
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
Various narratives have been put after each other so that the reader can compare two characters to see the different impacts that society had on them. This Juxtaposition is used to confront the reader with the inhumanity of the views of some characters such as Sanders Senior, the placement of Cook straight after shows that contrary to Sanders seniors disgusting beliefs she is quite human and is dramatically effected by his beliefs, the societies beliefs.
up the main plot of the novel. I will also be looking at how the
The semantic chain of “shriek”, “shudder”,” chilly”,” froze”,” supress” of how they were catalysed by Madame’s reaction positions confrontation that they should be feared, and destroys the girls’ childhood innocence. Moreover, the simile “it’s like walking past a mirror” when Kathy is realising what Madame thinks of her changes and re-evaluates her self-perception. However, even with the darkened awareness of the world Ishiguro deliberately aggravates the reader by the passivity characterisations he creates that conform to the society and realisation of the greater truth. The high modality language “After all it’s what we’re supposed to be doing isn’t it” where Ruth is conforming to the task that society has set for her and has not questioned it. Likewise, the very last line of the novel “drive off to wherever I was supposed to be.” Further reflects Kathy submitting to her fate and display no sign of
It should be mentioned that the story uses a myriad of figurative and metaphoric imagery. Throughout the novel the narrator injects his own views, often leading the reader to a deeper questioning of the story as it unfolds. He frequently speaks about what would happen if the main character were to do things in a different way. Also, through the interjection of varying levels of foreshadowing the reader gets a sense of where the story is headed. At one point the narrator says “…were I to t...
Once she has conquered the washing line and is swinging on it, she feels as sense of flying. “The earth spins below me. I am flying.” As the author is describing her backyard there are many lines that help get the character’s perspective across to the responder. These lines include; “Other foliage; a bush with red berries, a struggling sapling, surround the patchy lawn like spectators.”.
sees as a good world. Due to this the novel is a case of the clichéd
It is easier to grasp a meaning of this line further along in the book.
to go such an extreme and this is the only part of the book that I
She likes traveling to other places, but was ordered to visit Earth. She refers to her maker as “parent teacher” and that she is “here embodied in a decaying lump of meat hanging on a frame of calcium”.(Gaiman 232). This is the physical form of our humanness. All we are is flesh and bones and our bodies are in a continual process of decay. She sees the body not the mind as the meaning of human race. "But knowledge is there, in the meat," She is wearing worry beads, which are meant to relieve stress or protect from negative energy. This is an innuendo to
...would be fair to assume that she was placed in an area where she will be able to spend the rest of her days in the imaginary world she has created.
Furthermore, he uses language to push the reader to create their own opinions on the realistic issues portrayed in his book. For instance, the writing style forces the reader make assumptions regarding what is happening in the book. At the end of the book, when John, the savage, presumably commits suicide, the reader only knows that his feet are dangling in the air. Based on the given evidence, one would be lead to hypothesize that John had hung himself and died, yet it is not certain. By crafting language in a way that withholds important information, he intends for the reader to search for the truth, not just in his novel, but when consuming any form of information that could be a victim of censorship or contain a
...r the reader to notice the parallels between them and the differences from everyone else. He also does this so that we can see the contribution it has on the characters. The madness of each individual is not itself realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature.