Analysis: The Time Capsule Found On The Dead Plant

Atwood displays her feelings about not only the art of creative writing, but also the equally artistic act of living one's life to the

In ‘I kneel to pick frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam’ a tone of loneliness and sadness is established as the persona enters. Harwood describes the violets as ‘frail’ and ‘melancholy’, terms that arn’t usually associated with flowers. This is also explored in the juxtaposition of ‘ashes’ and ‘loam’. Ash is symbolic of death and decay which contradicts the ‘loam’, symbolic of life and birth. The persona’s dark and unpleasant perceptions reveal their uncertainty and state of mind. The present tense indicates the persona’s adulthood and their sense of longing and unsatisfaction conveyed through the nostalgic delivery of

It was once said, “The art of the storyteller is to hold the attention of the readers.” If a novelist is able to grab the attention of the readers, they can easily convey ideas and themes represented in the story successfully to its’ readers. For instance, Zora Neale Hurston is considered to be a brilliant writer, who has the ability to form a storytelling chain within her novels and to “render a world complete with its codes and disciplines within a few sentences” (Danticat). This is shown in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston uses various literary elements such as foreshadowing, point of view, imagery, and metaphor in order to capture the attention of the readers.

Perhaps the creation of a relatively structureless poem intentionally suggests by Atwood that no adequate structure exists to make the images of pain and death meaningful.

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian author of short and long fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A motif among most of her pieces is voice and the power of possessing one, or the ability to speak up or stand up for what one believes in, and Atwood uses this motif to teach her readers about the importance of having a voice with her stories’ characters; strong and/or gifted with a variety of traits are her stories’ characters with voices while powerless and unstable are those otherwise.

Short stories can convey their themes in many ways from the characters making a monumental quote, to the author conveying the lesson in the final sentence of the writing. Another way which the theme can be revealed is by use of various literary devices. Themes in modern day society have very deep meanings that sometimes have to do with the author's life or experiences. Margaret Atwood uses many literary devices to express her theme and her motivation behind writing her stories. Throughout her stories, there are many clues and ideas that spark when reading due to Atwood and her writing. In “Stone Mattress”, Margaret Atwood establishes the idea that revenge may seem right in the beginning of a conflict, but later it causes damage and a sense

In Atonement, narrative writing is a powerful force, which is both creative and destructive. It fulfils the desire to bring order on a chaotic world. Ian McEwan suggests through story telling can be a way to escape the harsh reality by controlling situations. Atonement shows the danger of story-telling, the danger of the artist’s ego, as it is a form of deception and destruction. However, it can reveal the transcendent truths; the power of the imagination, the importance of human love and the need of atonement.

Short Stories often contain literary elements that pull the story together. Examples of this is in the short stories “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” both by the author Shirley Jackson. These two short stories use literary elements that can be compared and contrasted throughout their plots. In these short stories, Shirley Jackson uses irony, characters, and mood.

From a surface level, Atwood parodies the unrealistic simplicity that fairytale-like stories present. As children, readers are accustomed to stories with happy endings; two people fall in love, any problems are solved, and all of the loose ends are tied up in the end. As these readers become adults, however, they realize that life is not

As an author establishes the characters he simultaneously attempts to develop the theme of the story. An author uses various elements such as point of view, the setting, and symbols to work toward the expression of one central idea. In looking at "A Rose for Emily." a short story by William Faulkner, it is evident that Faulkner successfully carries one main idea throughout the piece, the idea of being isolated from society.

. The exposition in any story or poem is the beginning, probably the first paragraph that lays

Atwood’s “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” perfectly grasps the life-altering heartbreak that occurs after the loss of a child by utilizing literary devices such as imagery, personification, simile, and metaphor. In the poem, an image of a voyage is used to characterize a child’s journey from life to death. “The dangerous river”, is used as a metaphor to describe the birth canal which the child victoriously navigates, but after embarking upon the outside world, the child goes into a “voyage of discovery” (4) that results in his death in the river. “On a landscape stranger than Uranus” (14) emphasizes the estrangement felt by the mother without having any knowledge of the environment. Comparing it to Uranus she describes it to be just as strange as a another planet. In the ninth stanza, the mother reminisces the death of her child as she says, “My foot hit rock” (26) which is a representation that she has hit rock bottom and her life will now never be the same. The final simile of the poem, “I planted him in his country / like a flag” (28-29) identifies the relationship between the dead child and the land. It ties the mother to the land in a way that had not been thought of, a way that is fraught with grief. An extended metaphor is developed throughout the poem, comparing the experience of giving birth that the character had, to a river and its contents. It helps to understand the different stages of birth by expressing the hurricane of emotions, and incidents that occurred with the use of waves expressing times of difficulty and pain.

What is the point of any piece of great literature? Or rather, what is great literature? Some would say that accomplished literature is a way of exceptionally telling a story. However, what is the point of storytelling? In many cases, stories are told for entertainment. However, most stories have a moral or theme conveying an important message about life or how to live it. This is the point of great literature, to convey this message beautifully. Some pieces of great literature are The Story-Teller, by Saki, Geraldine Moore the Poet, by Toni Cade Bambara, and Enemy Territory, by William Melvin Kelley. To understand the themes of great literature, you must also understand how to analyze it. The content

Short stories can share themes, motifs, symbols, consequences, and plot lines, even if there is never any intention to share a common element between the stories. The stories can be written close together or in different decades and still be linked to the one another. They can also be worlds apart with different meanings in the end, but that does not stop them from having similar ideas expressed within them. The following three stories, “Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad, “The Rocking Horse Winner” by DH Lawrence, and “The Lady in the Looking Glass” by Virginia Woolf, are three totally different stories that share common threads that make them the stories that they are.

Margaret Atwood creates a haunting and beautiful piece describing the experience a sad child goes through. She structures her poem by using five stanzas; two stanzas consisting of five lines, then one stanza with ten lines, and ending with two stanzas consisting of five lines. She uses simple yet powerful diction, tone, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery to show the unknown speaker giving advice to a sad child. Her message/theme is sadness is a part of life and there are different ways to deal with it, but when death comes the thing that one is being sad about doesn’t matter.