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The significance of journeys in literature
The significance of journeys in literature
The significance of journeys in literature
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Life is not about where it will cease, but how you made your way through, and what you experienced along your journey. Willa Cather’s quote “The end is nothing; the road is all” is every bit sincere. We go through life, focusing on the future and where it leads, yet when we look back the end isn’t what matters, it’s the journey of our lives that do. The day to day reminiscing of all the treasured moments we ponder over. We look back on our lives remembering friends and family, and the mischievous chatter that we had in school. The moments that seemed minuscule, the ones we thought we’d forget. As we mature the more we recognize the overall symbolization isn’t about the end of our expedition, but how we spent the days leading to the end. The
Life can always change direction. We can have certain obstacles that challenge us. Sometimes this makes us stronger and we can always learn through these times. We always have
After looking into the journey and obstacles he faced to scale this dangerous and intimidating mountain, I noticed with each stop at each rest area he had learned something different about himself or established a new outlook about the journey. But it was not until they were in the final leg of the journey in which he learned his greatest lesson about himself. It was during the last leg that he realized he had spent most of the day looking at “how far he had to go,” instead of relishing in “how far he had come.” After stating he normally views things as “the glass half empty” I realized, I too, have a similar outlook on life. It was in this moment that I realized perception has a large impact on how I maneuver throughout life, bringing the popular phrase “mind over matter” to my
Imagine your life coming to an end, but as you take your final breath you are, for the first time, waking up. In Patrick Ness’s More Than This the truth is fragmented, only coming back in sharp pieces at a time. In a desolate world, the end, as it is known as, is escapable. In this futuristic, post-apocalyptic setting, reality is hidden by a vivid dream mandatory for everyone. Due to the destruction of mankind and the cost of keeping everyone alive, the virtual world becomes a much better option to deal with people. With the use of flashback, symbolism, and title significance the author is able to express that life does have meaning even when you want more than anything for it to have none.
In Cormac McCarthy’s Sci-Fi novel, “The Road”, two mysterious people, a father and his curious son, contact survival of the fittest during tragic apocalyptic times. With a shopping cart of food and supplies, they excavate into the remains of tattered houses, torn buildings and other sheltering places, while averting from troublesome communes. In the duration of the novel, they’re plagued with sickness that temporarily unable them to proceed onward. Due to the inopportune events occurring before the apocalypse, the wife of the son and father committed suicide due to these anonymous survivors lurking the remains of earth. The last people on earth could be the ‘bad guys’ as the young boy describes them. In page 47, the wife reacted to this, stating, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won't face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I can't.”
Passing by Nella Larsen was written in 1929 during the height of the Harlem Renaissance movement. The novel focuses on shifting racial boundaries and the pressures of white-dominated society. The term "passing" carries the connotation of being accepted for something one is not. The title of the novel serves as a metaphor for a wide range of deceptive appearances and practices that incorporate sexual, gender, and racial passing. Passing could refer to sexual passing where one disguises their true sexual identity practiced by lesbians and gays in a society. This term can also be related to racial passing which is where a person classified as a member of one racial group (African American) also can be accepted due to appearance as a member of
Life is a series of experiences in which each one of us grows into the individual we are now. Every move, each word and thought shapes our person.
In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, we are brought to a strange land that was once known as the southeastern part of the United States of America. Although the land is now barren and shows no more evidence of towns, landmarks, or street names, the main character talks frequently of moving to the south to warmer weather. He even thinks about the slaves that once lived and worked at a plantation house he and his son come across, which gives us a few hints as to where the story is located. This man and his son are travelling toward the ocean so they have a better chance of surviving the upcoming winter. Their post-apocalyptic world is full of darkness, despair, ruin, and hopelessness. The only joy the man has left is his young son, who was born
Pure Love in Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood, through a series of different situations, depicts the lives of typical people facing various obstacles in her short story “Happy Endings”. Despite their individual differences, the stories of each of the characters ultimately end in the same way. In her writing she clearly makes a point of commenting on how everybody dies in the same manner, regardless of their life experiences. Behind the obvious meaning of these seemingly pointless stories lies a deeper and more profound meaning. Love plays a central role in each story, and thus it seems that love is the ultimate goal in life.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
At the end of the play I finally realised the brutality of war, it was
The imagery, parallel metaphors and character development enhances the readers understanding of the meaning of this short story; realizing Life is short. One’s life can be beautiful, fruitful and young, taking one step at a time, but in the blink of an eye or overnight one can realize that life has quickly, slipped passed and the days, hours, minutes that one has left on this earth are numbered and can have stagnating effects on one’s mental state. For realizing that Life is short, presents the inevitable end of Death, and one begins to question if their life has been meaningful or purposeful, and if it has not, leaves one in great
Death is inevitable; if you want happiness in life, try A. Margaret Atwood, the author of “Happy Endings,” uses six separate short stories to depict outcomes with different scenarios. The author practices the use of flash fiction which adds to the entirety of each version. Though this short story has portions of unusual context, the content can teach a reflection on life. As the reader analyzes all six versions, the gender roles are evident as the story progresses. Atwood starts the short story by introducing the two main characters, John and Mary, and then proceeds to tell a variety of options as to who they are and what happens to them. In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different
A Sense of Pathos in Journey's End How Does Sherriff Create a Sense of Pathos in Act Three Scene Three of the Play? Act Three Scene Three in the play is ultimately the point in which all of the dramatic tension comes to a tragic climax. This sense of pathos is achieved by a number of different factors.
As words are my limits… so is word my only limits through which I cannot describe and do justice to the communion that one has to go there and experience for oneself. ‘’Nothing is as constant as change’’ and the journey through life does not end until death.
Tonight we stand at a crossroad where each one of use will take a new direction in our life's journey. Walt Whitman said "Not I - not anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself." Where we end up isn't the most important decision, but instead it is the road we choose to take to get there. The road we take is what we will look back on and call our life. Life is a journey of everyday experiences, teaching us moment in, moment out, who we really are. It's important to remember these words "Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late."