Trope In Beloved

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The most evident trope at play in Hillman’s excerpts was the frequent mention of seeds. Seeds represent birth, they represent the building of something new. Although Hillman talks about “terminator seeds” in a negative aspect, she makes a mention to word-seeds which really exemplifies the trope of seeds creating new growth. When you plant a seed, you have the ability to create something new, something that the world has not yet seen. In “Coda: Suggested Activism for Endangered Seeds”, Hillman gives us the bold statement of “The word-seeds will outlast you, you / know that___”, to show that the seeds we plant today have the ability to affect the world after we are long gone. To me, these “word-seeds” Hillman speaks about seem like her explain …show more content…

In her essay “A Brutal Encounter Recollected in Tranquility”, she uses the bonding word four times in the first paragraph alone. “We” is synonymous with inclusion, which is dire when trying to create community action in which power in numbers is needed. Just the use of the simple, two-letter word was enough to bring me into the moment of that protest. “We” includes me. Hillman also uses the word “we” as a stepping stone to make an allusion to an ant colony working together. As she writes, “Looking into their eyes, we think it’s possible to reach them [the police]. We reach out with my feelers”. My feelers. Feelers=Ants. Ants=Coordinated Action. Brenda Hillman=Coordinated Action. Ants are small, they are the presumed little guy. Easily squashed. But ants are resilient. They have a way of communication that leads to quick mobilization. Drop a piece of bread on the ground and in twenty minutes the whole colony will have it surrounded. Ants have power in numbers to tackle a task, that is what is needed when dealing with these oppressive issues. We, like the ants must be the underdogs, the ones who combine our power as we unite to address the problems that seem too big to handle alone. By using this trope, Hillman presents a way of coming together that mimics a species in which there is much success. Protestors want this

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