“Silent Snow, Secret Snow” is a short story by Conrad Aiken. It tells the story of Paul Hasleman, a twelve year boy who lives a double life as he escapes to his secret world of snow. He struggles to maintain normality in the real world when his parents begin to get worry. Paul is desperate to keep his frozen world a secret from his parents, even though it’s all in his head. By analyzing the different literary elements, a greater understanding of “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” can be reached. The theme in “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” is the diagnosis of mental illness, and how it is treated. Aiken seems to be telling a tale of a boy who is viewing the world in an abnormal way. He is aware that he’s view of the world is abnormal, “This was almost the first thing he had noticed about it- apart from the oddness of the thing itself-and it was this that now again, for the fiftieth time, occurred to him, as he sat in the little schoolroom” (Aiken 18). He knew that if other people found out about his secret world, he would be judged. He loves the world he sees and is unable to give it up, so he begins to live a double life. In Paul’s mind, he’s a completely normal boy with a secret that he doesn’t want to share with anyone. His secret “gave him a fortress, a …show more content…
This is example is when Paul remembers the first morning he heard the muffled footsteps of the post man, “Anyway, it was after he had stretched a lazy hand up toward the headrail, and yawned, and then relaxed again among his warm covers, all the more grateful on a December morning, that the thing had happened” (Aikens 18). Exposition is also present when the narrator describes all the mornings after the first. He recalls the morning where his mother questioned his behavior, “He could not now remember whether it was on the first or the second morning-or was it even the third?-that his mother had drawn attention to some oddness in his manner”(Aiken
Mary Oliver in her poem “First Snow” explores the appearance of nature during winter. Although the poem has no stanza break, it is clearly divided into two parts. First is presented the image of snow falling during the day and second part described the image of night when the snow stopped falling. Snow is compared to “such an oracular fever” which means it has ability to teach the reader to recognize the opposite truth.
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
As the lights flashed and the representatives walked down the red carpet the audience was awed by the sweet smiles and mature beauty that radiated off the couples. They respectfully encapsulated the love and Christian faith of our school as they all clapped for our homecoming king and queen. There surely was a reason they were voted representatives for they showcased sweet attitudes all night long, smiling, hugging, and enduring long periods of picture taking and never complaining. After the red carpet showing of our homecoming court everyone enjoyed delicious fruit punch and a couple slices of the cake all while talking and simply enjoying the beautiful decorations and hollywood themed atmosphere. When the mood shifted and Winter Formal began
He never would’ve thought ducking under a snowball would change his life completely. After getting argument about who sled was faster, Percy, Dunstan’s spoiled childhood friend fires a snowball at Dunstan. After dodging it, the ball struck Mary Dempster, the town’s priest’s wife. This launches a whole chain of events, starting with Mrs. Dempster becoming simple, then the premature birth of her son, Paul Dempster. It causes Dunstan’s whole life to revolve around looking after Mrs. Dempster. It sets him on paths that he otherwise may not have taken, such as traveling to Europe to study saints or going to war. Without this incident Dunstan’s wouldn’t of met the people he did who helped him create and gain knowledge about his mythology. Life would be completely different for people from Deptford, people like Paul, Mary, Surgeoner and in the end Boy all would’ve had different lives. This is the first story that beings to shape Duntan’s life and is the starting point of Dunstan’s personal
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.
In Silent Snow, Secret Snow, Paul’s imagination takes him to his new journey, a pleasant one. “Ah, how heavenly, too, the first beginnings—to hear or feel – for could he actually hear it?—the Silent Snow, the Secret Snow” (Aiken 20). He’s enjoying every moment of his new experience which brings him peace. As the snow mounted, he thought, the world would become peaceful and more silent which to him is a new
“Snow” is a short story in first person narration, told by the main character. Set during a time when people lived in fear of nuclear fallout. Instructions were often reiterated in school and on the radio about how to react when seeing the flash. This nuclear fallout setting lends itself to intrigue and suspense; it is intensified by the use of the narrator. The narrator, a young girl, gives the reader a perspective of child like understanding and, a limited understanding. The main character’s mind is full of nuclear fallout lessons, one after another in class. The main character, which has never seen snow before, sees it begin to snow outside the school window. The girl cries out, “Bomb Bomb”, terrifying the teacher and other students (85). As other girls in the class begin to cry the teacher reassures and explains to the main character what snow is and, that there is no bomb. If the author of Snow had told the story from an adult’s point of view, maybe the teacher’s, the story would lack believabi...
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
“Let It Snow” by David Sedaris is a short story that magnifies the extent in which children might go in order to grab the attention of their parents. It is simply short and it is full imagination that would help the reader what it feels to be a child. Sedaris first gives the reader a sense of imagery when he describes the snow storm that cancels school for him and his sisters. After the reader begins to reread he/she might think that the story will be about a snow day but it takes a sharp turn. The story focuses on the hurt and neglect in which the Sedaris and his siblings went through with their drunken mother with the absence of their father. After being kicked out into the cold by their mother, the children are left to think about their relationship with their parents that has been left in the cold. The writer begins to express his feelings towards his parents, especially his mother by providing various details that keep the reader emotionally interested in the story. To the reader it might seem that story is about the children but it is actually focus on the mother. Also Sedaris did an
Powder, a short story written by Tobias Wolff, is about a boy and his father on a Christmas Eve outing. As the story unfolds, it appears to run deeper than only a story about a boy and his father on a simple adventure in the snow. It is an account of a boy and his father’s relationship, or maybe the lack of one. Powder is narrated by a grown-up version of the boy. In this tale, the roles of the boy and his father emerge completely opposite than what they are supposed to be but may prove to be entirely different from the reader’s first observation.
His home and neighborhood are not the only sources of the boy's animosity. The weather is also unkind to the boy. Not only is it cold, but the short days of winter make play more difficult under the “feeb...
Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples” is far from the modern day fairy tale. It is a dark and twisted version of the classic tale, Snow White. His retelling is intriguing and unexpected, coming from the point of view of the stepmother rather than Snow White. By doing this, Gaiman changes the entire meaning of the story by switching perspectives and motivations of the characters. This sinister tale has more purpose than to frighten its readers, but to convey a deeper, hidden message. His message in “Snow, Glass, Apples” is that villains may not always be villains, but rather victims.
“The Snow Man,” by Wallace Stevens, dramatizes a metaphorical “mind of winter”, and introduces the idea that one must have a certain mindset in order to correctly perceive reality. The poet, or rather the Snow Man, is an interpreter of simple and ordinary things; “A cold wind, without interpretation, has no misery” (Poetry Genius). Through the use of imageries and metaphors relating to both wintery landscapes and the Snow Man itself, Stevens illustrates different ideas of human objectivity and the abstract concept of true nothingness. Looking through the eyes of the Snow Man, the readers are given an opportunity to perceive a reality that is free from objectivity; The Snow Man makes it clear that winter can possess qualities of beauty and also emptiness: both “natural wonder, and human misery”. He implies that winter can also be nothing at all: “just a bunch of solid water, dormant plants, and moving air.” (The Wondering Minstrels). “One must
Frost uses symbolism throughout all his works. In A Patch of Old Snow the narrator notices the patch of snow and assumes that it is something else instead straightaway. The snow was a symbol of the winter season while it was new and white but after a few weeks on the ground it is dirty and not cared about anymore like an old newspaper, which Frost compares it to. The narrator feels at fault about the misidentification and believes that he should have been able to acknowledge the snow right away and he should have recognized the beauty of winter as well. Then the narrator says the dirt on the snow looks like the print of a newspapers so it was not his fault for making the mistake and he should not have to take responsibility for the mistake. The narrator says the beauty of winter is only present in the perfect white and n...