Analysis Of Under The Persimmon Tree

In the poem “Of the Threads That Connect the Stars” by Martin Espada, a father and his son are looking up at the night sky, stargazing. Having a father and son moment both go into a conversation, the father asks his son “Did you ever see stars” (1). The poem goes through three generations, the speaker and his father, then the speaker and his son. The father was a former boxer and that was his own understanding of stars, then he had a son (the speaker) that had a rough upbringing, he never got an opportunity to witness "the stars" or “galaxies”, but once he (the speaker) had a son he seen real stars, the planets etc.

     Paralleling herself with a lonely tree really sets into the mind how she feels about love. “What birds have vanished one by one.” By saying this she speaks about how the birds leave the tree as winter comes and how the tree does not care whether they are there or not. However, the tree does realize that life is a lot quieter. By reading this one can assume that she feels that love plays a very small role in her life over all, but in reading further she writes, “I cannot say what loves have come and gone/ I only know that summer sang in me/ A little while, it sings no more.” She sounds almost remorseful of the lovers and the memories that

The family constellation was the sister as the star, always chased by men and other observers making them the tail. However, this transforms into the narrator being the tail, not

Cold Sassy Tree is a fictional story written by Olive Ann Burns which details the life of a family in Cold Sassy, Georgia. The story is being told from the perspective of a teenager named Will Tweedy. The plot is focused around the love and marriage between Rucker Blakeslee and Love Simpson. There is a huge uproar and disdain from the family as well as the townspeople over the relationship. There is a grave separation between the people of the town and the blue collar workers who live on the outskirts of town and barely make enough money to live. Will is torn between defending his grandfather or agreeing with his family. He is thirteen at the time of the passing of his grandmother, who is the family’s matriarch. Being a typical teenager faced with adult circumstances, Will is torn on the emotional impulses on whether he should be out fishing or mourn the lost of the grandmother. Nevertheless, Will loved his grandmother and is extremely sad for her passing, but the passing of his grandmother places a strain on the relationship he has with his family especially his grandfather. Will looks up to his grandfather and hopes to be a lot like him. While Will thinks of his grandfather as a role model, he disagrees with some of his grandfather’s actions. Will would rather be a shopkeeper instead of a farmer like Rucker. He also does not agree with his grandfather wanting

His tone of annoyance is clearly seen throughout the poem, exemplified especially when the young man compares himself to the old man. He even goes so far as to refer to the way he would speed by the old man, both on the sidewalk and through life, as “the way/ the sun outstrips the stars,” ultimately revealing the arrogance of this youth (6-7). It is evident that he intends for the sun to represent him, while the stars reflect the old man. In this comparison, his arrogance and lack of self-awareness are revealed. Although it is true that the sun shines more brightly than different stars, in the end, it is just that—a star. While the other stars in the sky may not light up the Earth as much as the sun, their light is still shed upon the Earth, even after they die. The luminosity of the stars also reflects how the wisdom of elders remain, long after they pass away. Because of his ignorance, the speaker lets an opportunity to gain knowledge from the old man pass him by. Rushing through life, the youth never stops to ponder the fact that one day, he will end up like that old man. Through his use of symbolism, Rubin divulges his theme: in the end, everyone is the same, and

(AGG) All around the world, there has been situations like PTSD affecting people’s daily lives, as the author uses it in a book. (BS-1) Millions of people have been affected by PTSD from what they have seen and it makes things harder to not forget about the event. (BS-2) PTSD affected Najmah, because her dealing with hard losses. (BS-3) Nusrat and Najmah struggles with themselves, showing an internal conflict of Man vs Self. (TS) Throughout the book, Under The Persimmon Tree, the author uses real life situations, like PTSD, to change and shape a character’s personality.

Persimmons, by Li-Young Lee, is a poem that discusses many aspects of growing up in a split between two cultures. Lee is presumably the narrator of this poem and describes different aspects of him growing up between the lines of Chinese and American culture. This poem touches on the many ways Lee feels as he is growing up in American Culture and how that affects the Chinese Culture he has at home. Each stanza represents a different memory that describes an instance in which he feels as though he falls between the two cultures, not exactly pertaining to one or the other. Throughout the poem, we can see that Lee is struggling with this notion of losing his Chinese Culture. The poem begins where Lee is an outsider to American Culture, then

The phrase "a thousand splendid suns," from the poem by Saib-e-Tabrizi, is quoted twice in the novel - once as Laila's family prepares to leave Kabul, and again when she decides to return there from Pakistan. It is also echoed in one of the final lines: "Miriam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns." Discuss the thematic significance of this phrase.

Hope is essential; it is what drives the soul to persevere through the inevitable struggles in life until it reaches its dream. In the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, hope plays a major role in the lives of the Youngers, a poor African American family living in Southside of Chicago during the 1950’s. Throughout the play, Lorraine Hansberry uses light to symbolize the Younger family’s ever changing hope of achieving their dreams. Symbolism underlines a subtle point, foreshadows, and adds meaning to the text. The use of symbols gives an idea or object, in this case the light, a representation beyond it’s literal meaning. In the drama, A Raisin In The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the light is a symbol that changes throughout

(SIP-A) Najmah, when she travels with another family after the death of her mother and baby brother, often uses the stars to physically and mentally guide her. (STEWE-1) When she devises a plan to escape from the family that has protected her, she lies "awake the rest of the night thinking about [her] plan, staring at the stars, and praying for guidance" (131). After she learns about the possibility that her father and brother could be alive, she spends the night praying, completely contrary to the sleep that quickly overtook four pages before. (STEWE-2) After Najmah reaches the camp, she sleeps for “two more nights under the stars” (146). During this time, she talks about how she “must keep her distance” (151) from the family she is traveling with, as she devises a plan that involves leaving them and finding her lost family. (SIP-B) When these stars come in, the readers are provided with a deeper meaning, given through small clues from the author. (STEWE-1) As Najmah stares up at the sky, scheming on what to do, she doesn't pray to Allah, or at least she doesn't say that she is, she prays to the stars. She also clearly states that she “has no intention of staying in Torkhum” (131). but she also knows that she “cannot travel alone to Peshawar” (131). Since she cannot tell the people she is staying with and trusts, Najmah looks for guidance somewhere else. The stars are provided

God yet that star was nowhere to be found. He noticed that when his uncle had been cursed by

significance of this section in the poem is the underlying relationship between what the narrater

As stated previously, the sun is connected to positive imagery through analogy and simile. The use of analogy and simile in the description of the children’s dreaming further shows how the children have no context or experience with the thing itself and can only dream of vague likenesses of the object of their desire. The children dimly know the sun exists and subconsciously remember it as they dream each night, making it representative of something they hope for and desire greatly.

This is significant because it emphasizes the melancholy and mournfulness that he depicts with imagery in the first stanza. Later on in the second stanza, he author describes the tree the narrator would have planted as a “green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs”. The author uses visual color imagery of the color green to describe the sapling in order to emphasize just how young the newborn was when he died. Later on in the poem, the narrator speaks of himself and his brothers kneeling in front of the newly plated tree. The fact that they are kneeling represents respect for the deceased. When the narrator mentions that the weather is cold it is a reference back to the first stanza when he says “of an old year coming to an end”. Later on in the third stanza the author writes “all that remains above earth of a first born son” which means that the deceased child has been buried. They also compare the child to the size of “a few stray atoms” to emphasize that he was an infant. All of these symbols and comparisons to are significant because they are tied to the central assertion of remembrance and honoring of the dead with the family and rebirth.

“That oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes--.” It has a very heavy feeling derived from the word Heft as well as Cathedral Tunes. The Cathedral is considered sacred yet it is such as somber sound that it could easily affect a person’s mood. The use of paradoxes in the poem creates a sense of confusion about the true feelings about the revelation. “Heavenly Hurt” is both wonderful and horrible and suggests that the pain comes from the heavens. This suggestion is support in various situations throughout the poem. “Cathedral Tunes” and “Sent us of the Air” are the prime examples. It shows that this new realization may have been from a divine being therefore the reader is confused on it’s significance because it perhaps a type of gift. “Landscapes Listen Shadows—hold their breathe” is the personification used in the poem. This personification in the work shows that a divine being has arranged for this revelation to occur therefore, all of nature will halt to the being who has been selected to find this new piece of themselves. She also uses a bit of irony as well as parallel structure to set the scene in the poem. The revelation is brought out in the light of an wintery afternoon, this is the parallel yet it oppressive and dark which is ironic because the light brought with it such darkness.