A vision, a dream, is an imaginary thought that just keeps usurping the mind. Ha Sǒngnan’s “Waxen Wings“ tells the story of a Korean girl named Birdie who dreams of flying. She turns to gymnastics, hang gliding and even swinging on swings to quench her urge to fly. Yet, her pursuits are all failures. Sǒngnan uses flying as a metaphor for success.This Korean tale uses imagery, second person point of view as well as a cause and effect structure to show Birdie’s attitude to never give up. Ha Sǒngnan uses Imagery all throughout this story to show a strict Korean culture that Birdie faces while still trying to fulfill her dream. Being that Birdie’s culture is intolerable to many things; such as Birdie’s unrealistic urge of wanting to be …show more content…
You toss your backpack and shoe bag onto the sand and kick your feet in the air. Once you fall into the rhythm of the swing, you become one with the motion and are carried out and back, like seaweed rolling in the waves. The arc of the swings gets wider and the seat goes up as high as the metal crossbeam from where the chains hang, and your body becomes parallel to the ground. You’re covered with sweat and your mouth is pasty. (Sǒngnan165) The purpose of this quote is to show how evocative the author uses imagery in the story. Ha Sŏngnan literally places the reader in the story. Using details down to the touch. “You’re covered with sweat and your mouth is pasty.” This scene shows Birdies first failure at flying; with specific features of exactly what happens during Birdies first attempt at flying. The technique of imagery uses by the author works very well honestly because I can say that I can really imagine myself doing everything Birdie is doing. The technique of second person point of view Ha Sǒngnan uses in the story places the reader somewhat “behind” Birdie , showing the world and experiences she faces in her shoes. Using Second person point of view connects the reader and the character on a personal
Right from the first stanza, we can clearly see that the girl emphasizes her passionate feelings towards the boy by explaining how she desires to be close to her love. Moreover, she expresses the theme of love through using a narrative of how she is prepared to trap a bird. Apparently, this symbolizes how she is prepared to trap her lover’s feelings with the desire to live together all through her life. Additionally, the young lady emphasizes on her overall beauty, her beautiful hair, and clothing which is of the finest linen which she uses to attracts her lover’s attention (Hennessy & Patricia, p.
The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip.
Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to
She uses vivid descriptions, images, moods, symbols and word choices. For example, Hyeonseo Lee is not the name she was born with, or a name she was forced on, the name she carries is a name she choose for herself so that she may live the life she wants. The symbolism behind her many names adds to the identity she gained through her personal journey. Everytime she was forced on to take a new identity she felt further away from who she was, “I was already hiding beneath so many lies that I hardly knew who I was any more. I was becoming a non-person,” she portrays the internal struggles she felt because of her inability to keep anything as simple as her name so that she may overcome all the obstacles and attain her goal to be free. The author uses her style as a way to incorporate her ideas smoothly. She describes anything from her clothes to her goverment in great detail so that she may add the images the readers may need to understand the ideas as a whole. “It was an aspiring neighbourhood that retained a faint edge of slum, typical of Shanghai. Pensioners in Mao-era padded jackets would sit on doorsteps playing mah-jong, oblivious to the Prada-clad girls sweeping past on their way to work”as she describe a city in China her style gives the readers a clear image of what she witnessed. Hyeonseo Lee’s vivid style contributes to the success of her
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
When an author uses imagery, it can have a positive effect not only on the story, but also the reader. Such effects make the reader feel more involved and keeps them interested, wondering what will happen next. In “The Alchemist”, the author uses imagery to guide the reader through Santiago’s journey. Santiago meets many people while exploring the sites ahead of him and searching for his treasure. Imagery allows a story to be shown instead of told. In the story, the author uses an abundance of imagery to create a more personal experience by extensively describing what characters look like, and allow the reader to become a character in the text.
She compares herself to two different women on Grand Isle who are under the same conditions. By these comparisons, Edna becomes aware of her own individual identity separate from society. The first line foreshadows her relationship with society as the narrator describes, “A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!” He could speak a little Spanish, and a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence” (1). The image of a caged bird represents Edna as she cannot break free from her domesticated role in society. The bird cannot be understood by anyone which ultimately describes Edna later in the novel as she is alone in her awakening because people around her don’t realize how oppressing their society is. The mockingbird is the only one who understands the parrot, as Mademoiselle Reisz, who happens to be unmarried, understands Edna’s struggle. Mademoiselle Reiz is distant and reserved from society because she does not fulfil the domesticated role of a women. She lives alone without a husband or children while devoting her life to music. Edna struggles with being an artist as she sees how Mademoiselle Reisz’s independence from marriage and motherhood makes her a lonely outsider. However, it is her isolation from society that allows her to understand Edna. Edna recalls a strange conversation with Mademoiselle Reisz, “She put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering
Margaret Laurence 's novel A Bird in the House is a collection of independent and intertwined short stories written from Vanessa MacLeod 's point of view. As an adult looking back on her childhood, the protagonist examines how she, and essentially everyone in her life, experiences a sense of entrapment and a need to escape. Because the author begins and concludes the novel with the Brick House, the major theme of escape is shown to have developed in Vanessa as she matures through childhood and adolescence and becomes an adult.
Imagery is everywhere in this short story from the description of the couple, "...self-satisfied face, with glasses on it; the woman was fadingly pretty, in a big hat.", to the description of the entire scene, "It arrived, in the form of a small but glossy birthday cake, with one candle burning in the center." Having these images give the reader a sense of what is going on vividly, as if they were really there witnessing everything first-hand.
One of the literary techniques most prominently featured throughout the passage would be that of imagery. The author takes great care to interweave sentences comparing the traits
Furthermore, Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘Caged Bird,’ there is a heavy usage of imagery to contrast the lives of the free and caged bird. For example, the first stanza includes vivid details about how free and easygoing the free bird’s life is. The text includes, “A free bird leaps/ on the back of the wind/ and floats downstream…” “...and dips his wing/ in the orange sun rays/ and dares to claim the sky.” Evidently, this bird can openly travel through the wonders of the world, such as streams and beautiful skies; there seems to not be a care in the world. However, the reader gets a peek into the life of the caged bird, who has a multitude of challenges and sorrow. These circumstances are first shown in the second stanza, but there is a more intense picture in stanza five, “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/ his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing.” There is an obvious switch in mood that is projected from the author, as the caged bird has lost its dreams and had many obstacles preventing it from breaking
The recurrent bird is also used to reflect upon how the storyline transforms from the past and gradually develops into the future. Groensteen reveals that for an autobiographical piece to be reconstructed and retold the fragments need to be connected in meaningful ways (Groensteen 10). The bird assists present day Hayden in organizing her linked experience into a coherent, autobiographical story about her past self. Michael Chaney, author of Animal Subjects of the Graphic Novel, notes that becoming an animal or visualizing oneself as an animal, is a way one deals with “the experience of life and death, the fear of stagnancy and loss, and the hope of vitally expressive becoming - all from the vantage point of the human that cognizes its proximity to the animal.”(Chaney 141) The birds are symbols of the future Jennifer Hayden, giving advice to her younger self, helping her cope through her adult
...ictures for the reader. The similar use of personification in “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker and the use of diction and imagery in “Nighttime Fires” by Regina Barreca support how the use of different poetic devices aid in imagery. The contrasting tones of “Song” by John Donne and “Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims show how even though the poems have opposite tones of each other, that doesn’t mean the amount of imagery changes.
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.