In the celebrated poem by American author Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar,” we are driven to examine and understand the many symbolic connotations of “the jar” in its particular placement upon a hill; those of which may potentially coincide with the many interpretations of this world. While “the jar” represents many ideas corresponding to our paradigms of how we perceive our world, the most profound idea to me is the notion of emptiness which parallels the reality of emptiness in the prose “Clay” by James Joyce. The jar is an empty object, unable to give, only enabled to be acknowledged its presence. This is similar to the many depths in which the character Maria in “Clay” feels endlessly vacant to the core of her soul. They are comparable to each other in the lonely concept of emptiness.
The jar is a man-made object which was constructed from centuries of accumulated knowledge and modern technological advances. While that understanding has evolved over time (similar to nature) it was made from countless men with hands that form a society and ultimately form our civilization. When the perfectly round, tall jar is placed upon the hill it instantly becomes a distinct boundary line separating the idea of civilization from the paths of nature. This creates a powerful contrast that allows the other to be perceived within a context and therefore exist. However, it is very important to understand that inside this barrier is nothing to physically be found. It is barren, gray and contains nothing useful to carry on and aide either civilization or nature. Its core existence is of no purpose and it will leave nothing behind. Had this jar contained something of a natural use, then the idea would be that it blended in with ...
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...existence is to eternally be unfulfilled which is why she repeats the first verse of “I Dreamt that I Dwelt” skipping over the second which in turn boasts about many suitors and a bridegroom of one’s choice which would truly be Maria’s dream.
The jar and Maria would look on the surface as though they were two very different things unable to connect on any level – but they actually bond in the deepest, heartbreaking experience of emptiness and loneliness. The jar, however inanimate, reaches past its personal boundaries to reflect the possibility of the same meaningless life a human being can hold; similarly Maria echoes the insignificance of a bare jar. They are parallel in the way that they came to this earth hopeful for happiness and will leave having contributed next to nothing of everlasting purpose. In cruel return, it is their fate to receive nothing back.
In the poem, “The Was of Things,” (P 14) by Willie Perdomo, the poem is a free verse, no rhyme scheme, has 10 lines, and one stanza. The poem includes different techniques such as symbolism, personification, imagery, alliteration and so forth to illustrate different themes in the poem. The speaker uses enjambment in the poem to make readers think of what comes next. The beginning word of the poem is capitalized, the speaker trying to emphasize the first word in the poem or just followed a pattern. The purpose of the poem is to identify one theme in the poem, hence, what can be a theme captured in the poem “The Was of Things?” In this essay, I discuss the theme speculation and use structure, word usage, imagery, alliteration and symbolism to demonstrate the speculation throughout.
...g female companion, who will comply with her wishes and desires. Thus, Maria, judging from the qualities attributed to her in the poem, seems a perfect target for Bieiris’ speaker’s affections. Bieiris also appears to have created a speaker who is more concerned with being given the ability to express her desires than with the woman about whom those desires are expressed. Maria seems to be utilized as somewhat of a passive vessel about whom Bieiris can write and express herself in a literary fashion. The desire that Bieiris succeeds in expressing, then, is less one for Maria in particular and more one for composing lyric poetry in general. As a troubadour, Bieiris most likely avidly seeks patronage. Thus Maria is less of a goal to achieve and more a means to a different end: composing poetry for the sake of procuring a reputation, and obtaining financial gain.
The influence of Plato’s “Allegory of the cave” is very evident in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The allegory illustrates are inability to look beyond our immediate reality; to look beyond ou...
comparing the realm to a large loss in her life. Finally, the statement in the
The mood of the story, The Bell Jar is very gloomy and depressing. Throughout the book, the main character Esther struggles with her mental stability. She can't quite get a grip on what her role is as a woman in society during the late 40’s and early 50’s. She struggles with the fact that she is most likely going to end up as a stay at home mom or house wife. She doesn’t like this idea. During the beginning of the book Esther is doing an internship over the summer for a magazine in New York. She stays at a hotel while she is there. The book takes the reader through the slow process of spiralling depression as Esther gets more and more unstable. The book shadows Plath’s own descent into depression but gives an inside look into her thought process. A month after the book was published, Plath committed suicide. She said the book was semi-autobiographical and that the people and events in the story happened but she changed the names. Its obvious while reading the book that Esther is already very unstable to begin with.
The natural landscape and the winter storm in “The Painted Door” serve as a metaphor for Ann`s sense of isolation. The prescription of isolation upon an individual can prove to cloud one's view of the realistic world. Ann is not pleased with her life. She and her husband John live in a remote surrounding distant from populated settlements in which creates a sense of complete isolation. This separation mirror reflects the emotional and physical distance presented between Ann and John. “ In the clear, bitter light the long white miles of prairie landscape seemed a region strangely alien to life”...” The indicated proves to have only intensify Ann`s state of mind. “He was a slow unambitious man, content with his farm and cattle…”. John is
In the poem The Glass Jar we witness the heart-wrenching episode in a little boy’s life, where he is made to discover a distressing reality. Putting his faith first in a monstrance and then in his own mother, he finds himself being betrayed by both. With the many allusions to nature (for example the personification of the sun and references to animals and woods and so on) Gwen Harwood constructs a dynamic backdrop which allow the responder to dwell on the subtle shifts in the child’s personality. The setting is the terrain of nightmares and dreams, where conscious will is suppressed and the reigns are handed to the subconscious mind.
In the story, “I Only Came to Use the Phone,” Maria is left alone in a sanatorium and reveals her weak and fragile mental state. This uncovers Maria's fatal flaw that will lead to her downfall. She becomes “crazy” because she never had much self-esteem. She has a problem settling down because she was married three times. This commitment issue greatly weakens her because of her many breakups. Finally, she marries a magician named Saturno who loves her more than anything. She changes when she is with Saturno. Maria quotes Vinicius de Moraes when asked by Saturno how long she will love him: “Love is eternal for as long as it lasts”(Marquez 80). When Maria becomes trapped in the mental asylum, she loses the steady presence of the man she loves. This breaks through her newly built self-esteem and leads to the demise of her mental health. When she is first in the sanatorium, Maria constantly asks, “Is there a telephone?”(Marquez 72). She is desperate to hold on to the life she had with him. Since the matrons of the sanatorium will not let her contact her husband, the bond that she has found with him is disconnected. She has only herself on whom to rely. The other inmates are completely insane and are useless to aid her in her escape. Maria is not strong enough to leave herself. When the doctor tells her that she is not able to call or leave because she is insane, sh...
The 'Hollow Men', by T.S Eliot, is a reflection on the emptiness, futility and misery of modern life. It is also a reflection on the problems involved in human communication, and on the meaning (or lack of it) to life. Eliot uses religious and desert symbolism, biblical and literary allusions, repetition, parody and deliberately sparse, controlled language to convey the themes of the poem.
Though Stephen initially felt isolated both physically and psychologically due to his illness, through Sachi’s comfort and the calm beauty of Matsu’s garden, Stephen finds his stay at Tarumi to be much less secluded. This proves that though one may feel alone at times, other people or things may help vanquish that feeling. In today’s world, isolation is everywhere – there is isolation due disease, intelligence, race, etc. Yet, people find that little things like human comfort or object reminiscent of a happy past are enough help them realize they are not alone. This sense of aid shows that like the flower in the midst of the desolate landscape, something small is all it takes to erase all negative feelings.
The bell jar is a bell-shaped glass used to cover chemical equipment, especially to prevent gas from escaping . From the story, Esther suffers from a diminishing state of mind and disintegrated identity, which she describes herself as trapped in a bell jar, suffocating and muffling , and being disconnected and locked– “Whenever I sat, I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” The bell jar symbolizes social convention and expectation, which traps and confines woman into domesticity and patriarchal control. They suffocate, being isolated in the jar and there is no way out of the beautiful yet deadening glass jar. They have no alternatives but to conform to the social convention with pressure from the
Through Mariam's checkered background and the diverse people which formed her character, the reader is able to see how much the actions of others around us can contribute to the makings of one's own self-worth. Mariam experienced many conflicting ideas coming from others about what she is accredited to do and her worth in the world. However, Mariam only truly discovered her purpose when she meets Laila and her children, where she is finally able to see her own worth through the salvation of their love and
In the final stanza, Wallace takes the struggle between creativity and its absence one step further, stating that the absence is “required, as necessity requires.” By doing this, Wallace brings the poem to an inescapable dualism and, in some ways, brings elements of hope into an otherwise dreary reality. The absence of creativity is required in the same way that winter must come before spring, and its requirement serves as a testament to it power and beauty.
It is this moment of recollection that he wonders about the contrast between the world of shadows and the world of the Ideal. It is in this moment of wonder that man struggles to reach the world of Forms through the use of reason. Anything that does not serve reason is the enemy of man. Given this, it is only logical that poetry should be eradicated from society. Poetry shifts man’s focus away from reason by presenting man with imitations of objects from the concrete world.
Woolf, therefore, takes advantage of the lyrical short stories’ structure to create a liminal space that both breaks through barriers to form a unified, impressionistic world and to emphasize the imposing negative aspects of such a transitory structure. As a result, Woolf prompts the reader to question whether the liminal space created within the short story is positive in its ability to unite nature and human or negative in its apparent unsustainability. Regardless, the form and structure of the short story are pivotal in Kew Gardens. Without the liminal space of the short story, it is questionable if Woolf could have succeeded in creating the unstable, yet peaceful, world in Kew Gardens.