The novel A Shift in the Light by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas the author shows the importance of family throughout the novel in many different ways such as the symbol of light, culture, values and ethics. The author uses light to symbolize the importance of staying close to your family. She also uses culture to show that the house is mainly male dominated and finally she shows the values and ethics that the children follow by all throughout the novel.
Patricia Glinton-Meicholas shows the sun symbolizing the theme of family because the sun never changes but the light can shift for example, your family is always there for you even when you don?t need them. Another example is when Cally stops talking to her family but in the end when she needed them the family was there to support her. The author writes that the family never goes away just like the sun, it is always there. But even though the light is there you can always turn/shift away from it, but in the end you have the choice to continue to ignore the light or turned back and face the light. The light in this novel represents the importance of family and support.
Culture in this novel is one of the biggest themes because it brings the whole family together. Throughout the novel there is times when they have big get-togethers where they cook for everyone and they talk and eat for hours. This brings out their culture through the gathering of the family and sharing a meal which is a big part of many people?s culture. Another culture in the book is that the men to be in charge of the household. In this novel Papa is the head of the household, he makes all the decisions and whatever he says goes. Finally it is culture for the women of the Bahamas to stay strong, proud of their heritage, and stay very traditional to their families and country.
The values and ethics in this novel are an importance to the family because it gives the children and adults a guideline and reminder on how to act and what they strive for. From an early childhood the children are taught to be well mannered and if you?re a female, you are taught to act like a lady. Papa also taught them about their religion from when the girls were babies .
This movie is one that I have always enjoyed and watching it in class gave me a new appreciation for it. The storybook, introduced into the movie by the grandfather, was the first motif that caught my eye. At first you don’t think much about it but it’s a great representation of so many different things. First off, the boy’s reaction to unwrapping the book is one shared by so many kids in today’s society. A book is seen as somewhat of a chore rather than an indulgence or hobby. The grandfather sets the scene to transition into the actual story with the book. Starting the first scene in the boy’s bedroom gives the movie a sense of realism and one that is relatable. The book gave the movie a whole new dimension that I appreciate and commend the directors and authors for creating. The book also represents tradition in their family. It was read to several generations and symbolizes the love that the fathers and grandfathers have for their children. It shows great patience and the desire to spend time with a loved one to read them a book. That is a gift that is slowly being lost as time g...
Values are one of the most important traits handed down from parent to child. Parents often pass lessons on regardless of whether they intend to do so, subconsciously acting as the conductor of a current that flows through their children and into generations beyond. This is the case with Ruth, James McBride’s mother and the subject of his memoir The Color of Water: Despite her disgust with Tateh’s treatment of his children, Ruth carries his values into parenthood, whether or not she aims to do so.
This is an interpretation I simply cannot accept, for I have always regarded the sun as symbolic of the superego - the force of society within Meursault.
In the movie, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Callie Khouri directs something of a powerful story between a mother and her daughter. The movie Life as a House (Wrinkler, 2002) tells something of the same; of a father and the fight for the love of his son. The two movies both portray the fight between parents and their children. The commonality between father and son and mother and daughter is portrayed through the troublesome children and the problems that they face together. The “abuse “ that these children have received has formed them into the people they are today. What these characters had become is something that they do not want to be. As we age, we begin to discover the importance of family as depicted through Life as a House and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
The book also showcases the importance of family and the love shared between one another. We see Billy sharing candy with his sisters, Billy trying to help out his family that struggles with financial problems, and even promises his youngest sister the Gold Cup from the tournament. Billy isn’t the only one, as we see the whole family worries about each other and do actions that are correlated by their family. “While Mama was bundling me up, Papa lit my Lantern. He handed it to me saying ‘I’d like to see a big coonskin on the smokehouse wall this morning.’ the whole family followed me out to the
This poem dramatizes the conflict between love and lust, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say about last night. In the poem “Last Night” by Sharon Olds, the narrator uses symbolism and sexual innuendo to reflect on her lust for her partner from the night before. The narrator refers to her night by stating, “Love? It was more like dragonflies in the sun, 100 degrees at noon.” (2, 3) She describes it as being not as great as she imagined it to be and not being love, but lust. Olds uses lust, sex and symbolism as the themes in the story about “Last night”.
The sun is considered to be the symbol of power and life because of its magnitude and ability to create the life of the land, but Otsuka uses the sun as a symbol of the government and its tyrannical ruling over the Japanese Americans’ identity. The United States government is responsible for forcing the Japanese Americans to change their identity when it relocated them to the internment camps. This can be compared to the sun when the mother tells explains how the sun ages you and makes you grow old. In her revelation about the sun, “she pointed to a wrinkle by her mouth. ‘See this?’ […] ‘A recent development. Your father won’t know who I am’” (63). In this passage of her novel, Otsuka reveals the irony of the symbolism of the sun. Instead of the sun being a symbol of life, the sun represents the government, which forcefully changes the identity of the Japanese Americans. When the sun causes the mother to get wrinkles, she alludes to the fact that her husband will not be able to recognize her. The sun makes her unrecognizable to her husband just like the government forcefully changes her identity when it takes her away from her home. The ironic symbolism of the sun is exemplified further when the rising of the sun does not signify an opportunity for growth after the boy wrote his name in the dust but instead it symbolizes the government taking away his identity. In the part where the boy writes his name in the dust and “by morning his name was gone” (64), the coming of the morning represents the sun coming out and his name no longer written in the dust. Otsuka uses this imagery to reveal how the government takes the boy’s identity from him. The purpose of the ironic symbol of the sun is to expose the absurd way that the government takes away the Japanese Americans’ identity and forces a new one on them. By using the sun as symbol of the
Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight is a coming-to-age film that depicts on a young man’s battle with his sexuality ad masculinity. The film takes a journey through various chapters of his life, ranging from his child hood to who he becomes as an adult. Moonlight is a very lucrative film in terms of symbolism and foreshadowing. The film is dripping in ironies and obvious tones related to symbols. There is depth in each character, and within each of their grasp is their identity and how their relationship with the main character shaped him in ways positive and negative.
In her story “Currents” Hannah Vosckuil uses symbolism, and a reverse narrative structure to show the story of how unnamed sympathetic and antagonistic characters react differently to a traumatic event. Symbolism can be found in this story in the way that Gary does not mind sitting in the dark alone at the end of the day as well as how both of his girls are affected by the symbolism of hands. One holding a boy’s hand for the first time and the other becoming sick after seeing the dead boy’s hand fall off the stretcher. The sympathetic and antagonistic manner of these characters is shown when both girls are told by their grandmother that they must return to the water to swim the next day. The grandmother sees this simply as a way of encouraging them and keeping them from becoming afraid of the water. However, the girls see this as a scary proposition because of what had happened, showing the grandmother as an antagonist character to the little girls.
All novels contain symbolism in one shape or form and the words written on the page often mask a deeper meaning beneath them. Usually, there is an assortment of symbols disguised by a literal meaning that blend in with the scene. Symbols frequently come in the form of nature. Nature, generally being in the background of a scene, becomes more prominent when it is meant to be identified as a symbol. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the symbolism in nature is recurrent throughout the novel. It indicates turning points and track the growth of the main character, Janie’s, coming-of-age. This is portrayed through the changing of the seasons and various correspondents. In this way, it can be seen that not all events affect Janie
This is shown in the text when the children finally got to experience the sun for the first time in seven years. Found on page three, it states, “The sun came out. It was the color of flaming bronze and it was very large. And the sky around it was a blazing blue tile color. And the jungle burned with sunlight as the children, released from their spell, rushed out, yelling into the springtime. … They looked at everything and savored everything.” This proves the sun symbolizes optimism and hope. When the sun finally came out after seven years of rain, the children were ecstatic! They believed miracles could happen. They were convinced that for once in their life, something could go right for them, and they were enjoying every moment, just like on page three where it states, “But they were running and turning their faces up to the sky and feeling the sun on their cheeks like a warm iron; they were taking off their jackets and letting the sun burn their arms.” This proves that the children were overjoyed that the sun came out, and could finally go outside and run around for the first time in a long
The book Night by Elie Wiesel, tells the story of a boy and his father’s experiences in concentration camps during the Holocaust in its final year from 1944 to 1945. The author recounts his story while sharing his thoughts, regrets, and some events from before and after being put into the concentration camps. Through Elie Wiesel’s story, he shares his belief that everyone should be an upstander through his use of symbolism.
Marcus Garvey said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Vinod, 2013, p. 358). According to (Cole, 1986) Culture is “a people’s patterns of behavior; the totality of values, ideas and means by which a people deals with its geographical, social, political and economic environment” It is considered as way of life adopted and exercised over a given period of time some bordering to centuries. Different communities have different cultures which are essential in assigning each of these communities an identity. With globalization and modern trends, cultures have been shared among countries leading to determination of newer cultural practices corresponding to the society in question. Cultures give rise to behaviorism and inform the social relations among people and countries. Cultural pundits have argued that the Bahamian culture and the American culture are highly similar and related in terms of dialects, beliefs and values. However, major differences in language, religion and traditions show that the Bahamian and American cultures are more different than many people believe.
Nonetheless, this really is a tale of compelling love between the boy and his father. The actions of the boy throughout the story indicate that he really does love his father and seems very torn between his mother expectations and his father’s light heartedness. Many adults and children know this family circumstance so well that one can easily see the characters’ identities without the author even giving the boy and his father a name. Even without other surrounding verification of their lives, the plot, characters, and narrative have meshed together quite well.
Having inherited the myth of ugliness and unworthiness, the characters throughout the story, with the exception of the MacTeer family, will not only allow this to happen, but will instill this in their children to be passed on to the next generation. Beauty precedes love, the grownups seem to say, and only a few possess beauty, so they remain unloved and unworthy. Throughout the novel, the convictions of sons and daughters are the same as their fathers and mothers. Their failures and accomplishments are transferred to their children and to future generations.