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Essay on symbolism
Symbolism and interpretation
Symbolism and interpretation
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Throughout Stephen Crane's short story “A Mystery of Heroism”, the reader can use text evidence to support the main character could be either static or dynamic. At the beginning of the story, the main character Fred Collins, expresses to his comrades he is thirsty. He then goes on a journey to fetch this water, but when he returns to the regiment, the water is immediately snatched from his hands and Collins remains thirsty. Although he remains static in regards to the plot, realist writing focuses on character development rather than plot sequence. Stephen Crane encourages the reader to analyze Fred Collins from many different literary characterizations, but it is the main characters courageous acts and progressive thoughtfulness which allows the reader to conclude he is a dynamic approvable character.
Fred Collins beings as a character who is constantly debating whether he should or should not travel on a quest through a treacherous meadow where two characters travel into, with the intent to die. Collins ponders on a comment made by her colonel, when he refers to his journey “a pretty big risk for a little water” (page 3; line 107). Despite the fact of other members of his regiment affirms he is “ a desperate cuss” (4, 140) because they “ain’t dyin’ of thirst” (4; 138), Collins
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In this event, Fred Collins also comes to the realization; he was “squared up the face of death” (4; 144) but was “mainly surprised” (4; 146), because he was not apprehensive in the least. Collins begins to address himself as “a hero” (4; 154) because he does “not feel this fear” (4;154) even though he was “no more than a dead man” (5;198). The examples of staying calm within a time of terror, whereas in previous times Collins reacted as a foolish young man, displays Collins as a true representation of an approvable dynamic
In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”, he uses several literary devices to keep the reader interested. During Rainsfords journey to and through the island of General Zaroff he partakes in an adventurous journey filled with mystery, suspense, and dilemma. These devices are used to keep the reader interested throughout the story.
Specifically, Hillenbrand exposes some clutch decisions made by Louis during the plane ride at the war of Nauru. As the Zeros shot down the breaks of the airplane, Louis strapped himself and the injured crewmen with a parachute cord to reduce the impacts of the harsh landing. That event sent a message to me that some actions made at key moments could save the person and the people around him or her. Furthermore, Hillenbrand conveys to the readers that even an average human being could make a drastic change to disastrous events. Consequently, the willingness to make a gusty choice exposes the person’s toughness and desire to survive through any
Robertson Davies is effective in using many different literary devices in driving his plot forward. Foreshadowing is used constantly and effectively, as this is a memoir. Since this is a memoir being narrated in the first person, the reader is able to feel Dunstin’s true emotions during his many man against man and man against nature conflicts.
Another instance of determination and ambition changing a life occurs when Dunstan is serving in the military. Having just wiped out a machine-gunner’s nest, he began the dangerous journey back to his own side. However, he is soon wounded in the leg by a stray piece of shrapnel. Quickly losing blood, and in copious amounts of pain, he continues the crawl towards his own side. A man with lesser motivation...
By incorporating this sense of failure into fictional events, O'Brien is able to communicate the true human emotion behind the story, rather than just the facts. Above and beyond a simple set of war stories, The Things They Carried reduces fiction to the very heart of why stories are told the way they are. Works Cited:.. O'Brien, Tim. A.
After an event of large magnitude, it still began to take its toll on the protagonist as they often “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” during the war (O’Brien 1187). The travesties that occurred with the brutality of war did not subside and began to affect those involved in a deeply emotional way. The multitude of disastrous happenings influenced the narrator to develop a psychological handicap to death by being “afraid of dying” although being “even more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 1187). The burden caused by the war creates fear inside the protagonist’s mind, yet if he were to display his sense of distress it would cause a deeper fear for those around him, thus making the thought of exposing the fear even more frightening. The emotional battle taking place in the psyche of the narrator is directly repressed by the war.
There exist only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child so she would not get into trouble. Sir John Harrington writes about a sad truth in the poem “On Treason”; the poem reflects humanity’s selfish tendencies during tough times. When people face difficult times they often care about only one person, themselves; the need to survive clouds people’s moral and judgment.
Two men, Reuben Bourne and Roger Malvin, have survived the battle and are trying to make their way back home. Both are wounded. As they stop in a forest by “…a young and vigorous sapling stood…,” Malvin entreats Bourne to abandon him and save himself (20). The men are familiar with one another and, at fir...
Gene(Narrator) is the most realistic in the novel, yet in a few ways he is also idealistic, but never the less still the realist of the story. His look on life is that there is a war but not a war on far away battle fields a war on the homefront, with being competitive with Finny, trying to ruin Finny, and knowing that he was in the process of breaking someones hopes and dreams. Gene best shows his realistic view point
Anthony Burgess’s experiences in life are a basis for the novel. Anthony claims the most traumatic scene in the novel, when F. Alexander’s wife was raped and died because of it, was supposedly inspired by the event that happened during the London 1944 wartime blackout. During the blackout his w...
Francis’s self consciousness drives him to join the army and begin his journey. As a child, he has always felt left out and independent from everyone else. “I’m rotten at everything.’ I confessed. ‘I can’t sing. I can’t dance. I’m no good at baseball.” And I can’t even get up the nerve to hold a normal conversation with Nicole Renard, I added silently,”(Cormier 56). Francis has always been a little self conscious of himself, causing him to hide and seem different than everyone else. This drives him to join the army in an attempt to kill himself.
Courage is something that is not integrally human, particularly in times of war where one’s existence is in peril. During the time of war, this is conveyed when one’s integrity is being tested the most: there are few who desire to conserve this integrity and their humanity through selfless acts in the time that generosity is a fantasy. When most individuals are occupied of thoughts of their own self preservation, selflessness preserves and fortify one’s integrity and humanity when one risks their life for others. In the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway emphasized the moral crisis that people faced when they were challenged with their own mortality and the hardship of those worse off. He
Crane, on the other hand, clearly illustrates the reality of life by discussing and presenting examples of situations that plague our society, as well as the usual outcome of the situation. For instance, to further back up Crane's philosophy we can look at Maggie, in the sense of her starting with nothing, gaining something, then ending up lower than she began. To close, it is represented in my essay that Crane is clearly out to give the "realistic" perspective on a society plagued with many problems, whereas Alger gives representation to the "mythic" aspect of life which is commonly phrased as "dreams come true."
Stephen Crane sets the story well because he allows the reader to understand the tw...
Unlike so much literature preceding Crane’s work, his writings insist “that we live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces, not in a world of divine providence or a certain moral order” (Vanouse). His second novella, Red Badge of Courage, did immensely better in the public reception. This story of a young war soldier became “renowned for its perceived authenticity and realistic depictions of violent conflict”, even though Crane had never been in military combat upon its publication (Stephen Crane Biography”). He simply created the vivid images expressed in his novella through extensive research. This work, published abridged in newspapers in 1894, is often likened to an Impressionistic painting due to “his episodic narrative structure and his consistent use of color imagery” while others argue that it is solely symbolic imagery (“Stephen Crane”). With either view, however, the work is a great tribute to the genre of naturalism as it studies “human beings governed by their instincts and passions” while applying the scientific principles of objectivity and detachment (Campbell). Crane, a founding father of naturalism, discovers “the extraordinary and excessiveness in human nature” through the tragedy of war