Dead End In Norvelt Literary Devices

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

As he begins to understand the people in his life and their actions, Jack learns that one can rarely make sense of an event until that event has become a part of the past, to be

This can be seen in the poem “Brothers and Sisters” in which the literal and figurative levels of reality are joined. Wright does this through the use of pathetic fallacy, ensuring that she moves beyond simple description, to show that every aspect of the siblings’ lives is reflective of the environment that they live in. This is represented in the metaphor ‘the road turned out to be a cul-de sac, stopped like a lost intention”. Wright implies that the dead end of the street is reflective of the lack of fertility both in and outside the house, there is no movement forwards as the lives of those within it have ceased, the siblings are unmarried with no children, thus there is no new life being created. Wright has done this to ensure that that audience is aware of this process, rather than providing simple descriptions which can often be misleading. Neither the surrounding environment or the siblings are taking part in the evolutionary process of creating life, this sense of fruitless passing of time is furthered through the employment of the simile “years grew like grass and leaves” suggesting, although hindered there is an emotional connection present. By representing their lives as slow- growing and little- moving it continues to showcase the similarities between the landscape and its inhabitants, demonstrating that the environment grows old just as they do. Yet another representation of the landscape within the characters is seen in the inevitability of death, for the landscape and its inhabitants. This can be seen through the use of direct speech “There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all”. This repetitive reassurance demonstrates their fear of death and the destructive nature of it, as witnessed in the landscape. The irony here is that with each

For example, the first time death is symbolized in this story is when the family passes a graveyard. “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island. ‘Look at the graveyard!’ the grandmother said, pointing it out. ‘That was the old FAMILY burying grounds.’” (99). O’Connor purposely mentions the specific number of graves, one grave for each person in the car. She also mentions that it was a “family” burying ground. This symbolism foreshadows that the family will soon face death. When the family is driving through the town, the grandmother remembers the old plantation is called “Toombsboro”. This plantation’s name is brought up to remind the reader of death. Toombsboro sounds like the tomb, symbolizing the family will soon face their tombs. Another description that is given to symbolize the deaths is that of the Misfits car. “It was a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (103). A hearse is a vehicle designed to carry coffins for funerals. This description also foreshadows the death of the family before the Misfit arrives. Lastly, the “woods, tall and dark and deep” (105) represent the family’s death. The woods symbolize the unknown and fear we have for death, which is considered dark and deep. The Grandmother stood in front of the woods reminding us that death is always near and behind us. Just like the woods, death can be a scary thing

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

A main theme of this book, is the importance of living in the present, instead of dwelling on the past. Many of the characters in this novel carried a nostalgic perspective on life, and it influenced their attitude towards the present. It was very common for the characters to tell stories from their past. Jim often relates incidents in the present, to things that happened to him in the past. Jim is not the only one focusing on the past, however. For example, Peter, one of the Russian immigrants, has a very romanticized idea of the past, which causes him to have a depressed attitude towards the present. Jim observed this on one particular meeting, “Once, while [Peter] was looking at Ántonia, he sighed and told us that if he had stayed at home in Russia perhaps by this time he would have had a pretty daughter of his own to cook and keep house for him.” Peter allowed the idea of ‘what if I had...’ to interfere with his future. Because of the adults "what if" attitude, the teens of this novel have a sense of urgency in their lives. They witness how nostalgic the adults, and they themselves, are becoming, and come to a realization. The good days are the first to pass, and the most fleeting. Jim takes this as an excuse to be nostalgic on the past, a past he was not even there to witness. He looked at the wilderness of his new home, and fantasized about how wonderful it’s past was, “Beyond the pond, on the slope that climbed to the cornfield, there was, faintly marked in the grass, a great circle where the Indians used to ride. Jake and Otto were sure that when they galloped round that ring the Indians tortured prisoners, bound to a stake in the centre; but grandfather thought they merely ran races or trained horses there. […] The old figure stirred me as it had never done before.” Jim looks at the past with wonderment - it is a place that was much more ideal than his present. Unlike him,

Yet the past is always brought forth with the present. The “ghosts of his past” (Mizner 309) are symbolic of mistakes made and forever embedded in life. One could say time heals wounds however time does not erase wounds. One can see this reference to time in the way Helen’s sister the legal guardian of Honoria nearly has a breakdown when she thinks Charlie is still the same as he once was (Mizner 314-315). The details of her sister’s death are

Not everything is back to normal though. Many people moved away from the desolate town to more populated areas. Alvin Dewey never built his dream farm house. Instead, “[he] built a new house in town” (341). He did this because his wife was scared. This proves that no matter how much closure one can receive there will always be some fear left.

past. The three main characters of the novel, all of whom to some extent try to

A person’s past life is really important because it shapes the individual to be the kind of person he/she will be in the future. No matter how much we try, we can’t rid ourselves of our past nor can we run away from it. It’s embedded in our memories and will always remain to do so. In the short story “Xmas”, by Russell Banks, we meet the protagonist, Gregory Dodd who tries to run away from his past and avoid it. Eventually, the reader will learn what the consequences of such an action can lead to. Through the epiphany that the protagonist, Gregory Dodd, undergoes, Banks illustrates the consequences of avoiding one’s past; the nature of the epiphany is defined by the car collision, and ultimately leads Gregory to a wakeup call and a deeper self-realization, leaving him with some heavy thinking to do about his life. The forces that contribute to intensifying the moment of epiphany are seen in the plot and symbolism.

The book Silencing The Past is about how people “silence” the past through selective memories to benefit us in the present. We pick out certain events and either dramatize them or play them down to the point of no importance. This paper is about both our played up dramas and our forgotten realities.

Among their past having a great effect on their present self, Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Willie Bodega in Bodega Dreams and Eric Carmen the composer of Boats Against the Current remain hopeful in trying to achieve their goal. The authors and writers of these pieces of literature all talk about a character's past with one another and then moves to the present and has them with a different character. This takes a toll on Gatsby and Bodega as they both try to show the love they once had, but both fail trying to do so. Although some may say your past is in the past, i believe that your past can greatly influence your present and future self as shown by Fitzgerald, Quinonez and Eric Carmen by the use of symbolism and characterization.

The gloom that covers Bridgend is believed to be one of the reasons why individuals are committing suicide at such an alarming rate. The idea that Bridgend being called “Death Town” is symbolic because it causes the town to be seen as bad and individuals automatically become depressed. Not only is the town's nickname symbolic, but the locations of where the teenagers committed suicide and how they committed suicide are symbolic. The

“The orgastic future [...] year by year recedes before us” and the past consumes us with its “moments of hope and promise and wonder” (Fitzgerald 180; Parr 76). To be human is to be unfulfilled and to long for the unreachable, but such aspirations often prevent one from fully living in the present. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, an obsession with the inaccessible past characterizes the lives of many of those inhabiting a “universe of ineffable gaudiness” (Fitzgerald 99). Using a motif of water, Fitzgerald traces character Jay Gatsby’s relationship with the past, to reveal that those who reside in an acquisitive world and try to escape the past will remain there if they mistake it for a viable future. In the short term, they often recognize and attempt to overcome the shortcomings of their past lives. Should they confuse the past with the future, however, they will cease to make progress on their temporal voyage into the future. Ultimately, these individuals will come to believe in their capability of living in the past, becoming so delusional that they actually end up lingering there forever.

things we might do can affect our past,and destroy our thoughts religion also the things we need to understand the past world.Also in the text (Freedom Walkers) we judged people by their skin tone and we have to look back to have that never happen again.We just think of ourselves and what we do now and do not appreciate people who fought for what we don’t pay no attention to like when the said there were protest in the text(Freedom Walkers).just like (Jo Ann