Analysis of Bernard MacLaverty's My Dear Palestrina
My Dear Palestrina’ is a cleverly written short story by Bernard MacLaverty. It is about this young boy called Danny who discovers his musical talent and goes to this piano teacher called Miss Swartz. Their friendship develops and seem to be a formidable partnership until Danny is torn away from his beloved music lessons because of Miss Schwartz private life. Fitted into the story are some important themes that still continue to exist in today’s society. In this essay I will try to explain most of them to you.
The most notable theme is how the prejudice of people can never be overcome. This is weaved into the story by the relationship of Danny and Miss Schwartz working well together
…show more content…
The Blacksmith is also hated by Danny’s father for not being religious because Danny‘s father says, “He‘d have you into guns and god knows what. Denying religion at the top of his voice.” This shows us that religion is another theme hidden in the story. Right from their very first meeting the Blacksmith tries to lure Danny away from Miss Schwartz and his family, he wants Danny to live his own life and make his own decisions soon become evident. When he doesn’t make bangs with his hammer for Danny to walk in time to, it symbolises his want for Danny to live his life the way he wants to. It is also clear to see the Blacksmiths want for Danny to live his life the way he wants to when he says, “You’re coming to an age now when you’ve got to think. Don’t accept what people tell you - even your father. Especially your father. And that includes me!”
Bernard MacLaverty has included plenty of imagery and symbolism into a carefully constructed short story. For example, when Miss Schwartz pointed out to him when the flowers had fallen off the tree and each week they inspected the swelling fruit, that symbolises the growing repitwa of music Danny is learning and also his growing relationship with Miss Schwartz. When Miss Schwartz says, “Lavish love and attention on growing things and they will not let you down”, shows how Miss Schwartz feels about Danny and how she’s trying to do what she thinks will keep Danny coming back to
The three themes that stood out the most to me were: prejudice, leadership, and bravery. My first theme is prejudice, in my opinion it is not right to own someone as “property”
One of the themes that exists throughout the book is the power of love, how decisions driven by love, can change a person’s life for betterment. Numerous times in the book, characters are forced to make life-changing decisions. A significant example in The Night Circus is when Bailey faced an extremely
People read countless stories that have a variety of themes in them. When people read “Angela's Ashes” by Frank McCourt, and “The Street” by Ann Petry, they can probably sense that there is something similar among the two stories', and that's because they share a common theme. The theme is how people can persevere through problems that they encounter. The reader will discover this similar theme of persevering through problems with the way the authors utilize the character of characters feelings and personality, the way setting creates a backdrop that establishes the tone of the story, and events that cause conflict to the character.
The theme of the story is under some circumstances people can be blind to the truth. Character Edie determines the style of the story by talking about the circumstances of her life as a fifteen year old girl and as an older woman. She retells the stories of those that she has known, and the man that she believed she loved deeply. Sometimes the things we want to happen may not be the things that life has for us. We need to be open to all the opportunities in life that are different from what we believe.
So I am going to introduce about some interesting symbols that I found in the book to write about. First of all, George and Lennie's dream farm. This imaginary farm is basically what pushes the whole story line since the whole story is about George and Lennie working while achieving their dream which is
The theme of the novel is that your culture and background does defy you. In other words, being in a gang or group doesn’t mean you're not unique. For example, Ponyboy is in a gang/hood group “The Greasers” and does things like mug and snatch like the other members of the group, but this doesn't mean he doesn't have a different personality than the others. Another theme in the novel is the power of brotherhood. This is a sub-theme because it not confronted to the readers until the end of the novel. On page 176, Sodapop Curtis said, “ We ought to be able to stick together against everything if we don't have each other we don't have anything.” This quote struck out to me because throughout the
I think the second theme is the importance of the journey. The importance of the journey can be symbolized by the yellow brick road. Throughout the novel Dorothy travels along the yellow brick road on her journey to get home to Kansas. Similar to real life she meets new people, makes new friends and has new experiences. Life is full of issues just as the yellow brick road was full of unexpected obstacles. there were holes, dark forests and dangerous rivers. Encountaring experiences both difficult and enriching are the substance of learning about yourself and you relation to others. Dorothy’s escape from the Wicked Witch Dorothy motivates her to keep on with her attempt to get home. Dorothy had to overcome these obstacles just as we have to overcome obstacles that happened to us as we journey through life.
theme of how the important characters as vehicles to convey the theme familial love and
My first theme is prejudice. It is never right for one individual to own another, or for one group of people to be denied equal rights because they are different in some way. In NightJohn, they were prejudice and made African American people be enslaved and work for them and treat them differently just because they were a different color than them. I’ve seen prejudice a lot all my life. Whether it’s for for colored people or gay people or whatever, in the end we’re all the same and should all be treated equally.
In conclusion, the three most important themes to me in the story, abuse, fear, and karma are what made the story so good. He abuses her, she has fear, that he pokes fun at, and he is punished for his actions. Her greatest fear saved her from enduring anymore abuse from
The book Honky is a memoir of a privileged white boy, Dalton Conley, who grows up in the projects on the lower east side of New York, where the majority residents are African American and Latinos. It’s a detailed memoir of the child’s point of view in his eyes of the environment that surrounds him: school, parks, buses, etc. Conley’s has two working parents, mother is a writer and father is a struggling artist who at one point was living on food stamps while raising the family in the projects. However, even while growing up in the projects, the mother stereotype and tries to “protect” her son from the “bad” things that happen within the projects.
One way the author conveys the theme is through the main character’s actions. She strives to be like an American girl and is stubbornly blind
To begin, important theme that runs through the novel is the idea strong female characters like Taylor and Lou Ann. Furthermore, Taylor does not care about a man in her life and tries her best to do everything in her
To begin with, one major theme that continuously played a part throughout the entire book is desire. To many of the characters, it was the one urge that they could never overcome. One
The central character’s personality is important to the story’s central idea as it is the dominant element that exemplifies the type of people that the central idea encompasses. It is people like the woman with the pink velvet poppies that keeps ideas including racism alive.