Destruction through Imagery and Theme in The English Patient
The imagery in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient serves to illustrate the theme of destruction in this novel. The setting of the novel as well as the characters themselves present to the reader a vivid picture of demolition. Critics also find that Ondaatje's imagery is a vital element in the presentation of this theme.
The English Patient is set at the end of World War II in a war-ravaged Italian village. Ondaatje gives vivid descriptions of the damage the village sustained due to the war:
As the hill town began to be torn apart like a battle ship at sea, by fire shells, the troops moved from the barrack tents in the orchard into the now crowded bedrooms of the old nunnery. Sections of the chapel were blown up. Parts of the top storey of the villa crumbled under the explosions. (12)
Ondaatje's detailed and memorable description completes his picture of the county side. "Dead cattle. Horses shot dead, half eaten. People hanging upside down from bridges" (Ondaatje 19). This elaborate a...
Authors use many different types of imagery in order to better portray their point of view to a reader. This imagery can depict many different things and often enhances the reader’s ability to picture what is occurring in a literary work, and therefore is more able to connect to the writing. An example of imagery used to enhance the quality of a story can be found in Leyvik Yehoash’s poem “Lynching.” In this poem, the imagery that repeatably appears is related to the body of the person who was lynched, and the various ways to describe different parts of his person. The repetition of these description serves as a textual echo, and the variation in description over the course of the poem helps to portray the events that occurred and their importance from the author to the reader. The repeated anatomic imagery and vivid description of various body parts is a textual echo used by Leyvik Yehoash and helps make his poem more powerful and effective for the reader and expand on its message about the hardship for African Americans living
Mrs. Rayfield wrote a great article about the devastation left over after this massive fire. I found that her accounts were very detailed and had good pictures to go along with them. I decided to use this source in my essay because she also showed the good effect that the fire had on the city not only the bad. She had a complete different point of view.
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
And on the first day, God created evil. Golding’s intricately crafted Lord of the Flies on the outset may appear to be a novel about a group of boys marooned on an island and their struggle to survive; however, it also serves as a religious allegory drawing references from the bible. The island on which the boys are stranded represents an anti- Eden, a place that is devastated by evils of man. Simon, the blue-eyed sensitive boy exemplifies Jesus; however, unlike Jesus, Simon is unable to convey his message that the true beast is mankind. Jack and Ralph, the protagonist and antagonist are reminiscent of Cain and Able as Jack becomes jealous of Ralph and tries to murder him. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses striking biblical references such as the story of Cain and Able and the Garden of Eden to express the inherit evils of mankind and their will to do evil.
From the beginning of the play, Shakespeare characterizes Macbeth to be a figure of power by things such as the defeat of the unloyal thane, and the gain of his title. Though Macbeth appears to represent an idea of power, Macbeth is proven to be a false aid to this perceived symbol of power through the witches involvement, animal nature controlling human nature, man being susceptible to temptation, all climaxing in Macbeth being a powerless, ineffective king. By examining Shakespeare’s imagery of illness, one can determine that Macbeth is a powerless figure that leads him to be an ineffective king.
The faded voices of choir singers are muffled by a roaring explosion. The sounds from the crumbling building spread down the block. Worn-down bricks, knocked out from underneath each another. Shards of colored glass, shot into the air. Chucks of wood and rubbish litter the sidewalk. Thick smoke and fearful screams saturate the air. A mother’s worse nightmare.
Ten million California residents who lived closely from the major fault lines could have been endangered in many extreme ways. (House, 56). A tragic thing was that after the earthquake a multitudes of fire followed right after. The situation led to the water mains being destroyed and the firefighter being left with no water to settle the growing fire which continued blazing. The bay water was planned on putting all of the dure out but it was to far in distance to be able to transport it (Earthquake of 1906, 2). The firefighters who were putting out the fire were either surrounded or being burned by the fire that was blazing in all directions (San Francisco Earthquake, 2). A resident who was present during the event mention that he/she saw men and women standing in a corner of a building praying, one person who became delirious by the horrific ways that were surrounding him while crying and screaming at the top of his lungs “the Lord sent it, the Lord”. Someone also mentioned that they experience themselves seeing Stones fall from the sky and crushing people to death. Reporters say there were 100 cannons going off (San Francisco Earthquake, 3). People who lived fifty miles away from the fire was able to “read the newspaper at
Central idea : Sleep is vital to our health and well-being throughout our life, therefore, in order to protect our mental and physical health, quality of life, and safety, we must get an enough quality sleep at the right times.
At 3:32 P.M. the armada launched. They flew from the coastal airport into the city of Mogadishu. Above the city the men could see the destructions the city had experienced during civil war. Many buildings were demolished and the streets were crumbling. The Black Hawks were down low over the city, and the Little Birds were closing in on the target. Tires burning on the street near the target set alarm. It was a way Somalis signaled trouble and summoned militia.
William Shakespeare found that imagery was a useful tool to give his works greater impact and hidden meaning. In Hamlet, Shakespeare used imagery to present ideas about the atmosphere, Hamlet's character, and the major theme of the play. He used imagery of decay to give the reader a feel of the changing atmosphere. He used imagery of disease to hint how some of the different characters perceived Hamlet as he put on his "antic disposition". And finally, he used imagery of poison to emphasize the main theme of the play; everybody receives rightful retribution in the end.
Pain can trigger many intense emotions, having a big effect on someone. Some people respond differently to pain, but others experience an emotional transformation. Each text possesses a transformation that allows the reader to well understand the identity of the characters. Throughout “The Interior Castle,” the reader is not aware of the personality of Pansy before the accident, but as a result of the pain she chooses to isolate herself from the rest of the world seeking to stay secluded in her own thoughts. Contrasting from Pansy, Lucy Grealy in Autobiography of a Face has a different spin. Lucy suffers a progressively different change including her reconstructive surgeries and her desire to find her sense of self. It is unclear whether Lucy overcame her deformity and found herself, but the reader can gather that the pain she felt altered her state of mind in a deep way. “Pain Has an Element of Blank” describes the building blocks of pain that causes the transformation in Pansy and Lucy. Emily Dickinson presents pain as being an all-consuming world with infinite ends. The reader sees this element of physical and emotional pain as being the key to the transformation in both women. It is clear that pain possesses a certain power over people and their experiences in
Sleeping is something that is an essential part of human nature and is a must in order for one to be a functional human being. Sleep is an idea that is accompanied by many wives’ tales, including the ideas that one needs seven to eight hours of sleep each night and alcohol helps one fall asleep and sleep more soundly. One myth about sleep is that during sleeping, one is in a state of nothingness. In truth, however, it has been discovered that during sleep the brain is active, variations in heartbeat and breathing occur, and the eyes and ears are active throughout the time of sleep. These activities during a person’s sleep are important because they help that person be more aware, awake, and alert during consciousness. If all of these important activities occur during sleep, why is it that people are so willing to short themselves of this vital activity? Although much about sleep still remains a mystery, research and experiments continue to show how important sleep is to each and every person. Throughout this paper, I will discuss sleep and the effects that it has on performance and health, especially in college students. A college student’s sleeping pattern is a reliable indicator to their level of performance in the classroom and other school-affiliated activities, as a lack of sleep leads to decreased performance. Sleep is directly related the level of performance and health in an individual; the more rested a person is, the better that person will perform and feel (Dryer, 2006).
In the original play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is funneled into a situation where he feels obligated to avenge his murdered father. Disease imagery is evident all throughout the play ranging from the beginning with the King’s ghost, to the end with Hamlet’s confrontation with his mother. Through disease imagery, William Shakespeare illustrates the human nature of corruption that drives an individual to benefit his own greed at the expense of others.
WWII. The story takes place during the Spanish Civil War in an old hospital being
Sleep is a very important factor in the human function. Our body and brain is able to reset itself and rejuvenate while we sleep. When we do not get the required amount of sleep, we start to feel lethargic and foggy minded, because our mind and body wasn’t able to replenish itself. Sleep is imperative that an insignificant rest deficiency or lack of sleep can affect our ability to remember things; decisions and can affect our temperament. Chronic sleep deficiency can get the body to feel agitated and it could lead to serious health problems such as, heart problems, stress, acne, and obesity.