Beauty And Similes In Annie Dillard's Journey In Tinker Creek

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard is about the beauty in life and when work becomes art. She talks about Dave Rahm, a fearless pilot and how he maneuvers his plane and the beauty in the moves he executes. Dillard first saw the pilot in an air show and she was enchanted by how the plane moved in the air, almost like music, and how that impacted her and the audience. She later flew with the same pilot, Dave Rahm, and experiences being inside the cockpit of the plane. Dillard uses a lot of details and metaphors that help the readers feel like they are experiencing what is happening themselves. The story she tells of Dave Rahm and his stunts makes the readers think about the beauty and passion in life and the when work becomes art to be seen and

The mood of the speaker changes to guilt as the speaker and her mother realize they would "crawl" with "shame" and leave an "emptiness" in their father's heart and yard. The author negatively connotes "crawl," "shame," and "emptiness" to invoke a more serious and shameful tone. The beginning of the conveyed a more matter-of-fact and pragmatic tone, but changes into a more sentimental one by the end to convey family is more important than the money. The symbol of the tree represents the family, and connects it to their father's hard work and dedication to the family. If they were to cut it down, it would be symbolic of their betrayal. Imagery of the tree is used to describe the freedom and beauty of the tree as it "swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit." The tree represents their family bond and how strong it is even through the "whip-crack of the mortgage."

In “Living Like Weasels,” author Annie Dillard’s idea is that humans can benefit from living wild as a weasel. I strongly agree because to live wild like a weasel is to live mindless, free and focused. With these living abilities we as humans will be able get closer to our aspirations in life and do whatever means necessary to get there.

Although these roses may seem all blissful and perfect, there lies a dreadful truth. Through these roses, Oliver uses it to express the “immutable force” of death. It is used to look like a lovely thing, but really, is all an illusion of happiness before your life ends. It is as if it is a glimpse of one’s true happy place and a stretch of one’s imagination until death. Oliver uses herself as she lies in her happy place; one full of roses before the owl comes to take her away.

Dillard effectively uses concrete imagery as a way of conveying her inner struggle to the reader in a handful of ways. In the first paragraph, she paints a vivid picture in the reader’s mind by writing “while barred owls called in the forest and pale moths seeking mates

As I read more and more the more I get confused. It is just the way the author writes, that throws me off track. I did realize that there was little stories throughout the passages that I found interesting, but it just skips around so much. There are many different ways people can write. It all depends on what you like to read. I think that if I started to read these kinds of things on a daily basis I would start to learn how to read them better.

Carver presents symbolism throughout his story to represent a darker side of the human heart when it is wounded. “Don’t, she said. You’re hurting the baby, she said. I’m not hurting the baby, he said.” The baby represents the relationship of the man and woman. There is not an actual baby that is being hurt, but their relationship together. Once the “issue was decided” towards the end, it represents how the man and woman’s relationship was no more. In addition, snow is brought up in the beginning to start the mood of the relationship. “...The snow was melting into dirty water.” The snow represents the pure white relationship they had in the beginning. Once the snow melted into dirty water, that shows that their relationship is tainted, fading away, and can never be the same. This also leads into the light that is set towards the house. “The kitchen window gave no light.” The window showing both the darkness of the outside and the inside of the house, represents how darkness is taking over the relationship, and how there is no more light to shine on their love for each other. All three of these symbols connect back to how the man and woman have a codependent relationship.

The setting of Alice Walkers short story” The Flowers” is important for us, the readers to obtain a perspective of how life was like growing up for a 10 year old African American girl by the name of Myop. The title of the story is “The Flowers.” When you think about flowers, you instantly compare them to being beautiful, pure, and innocent. The title of the “The Flowers” is a symbolism that correlates to Myop who is the protagonist of the story. Myop is just like a flower in the beginning of the story. She’s a pure and innocent child but that pure innocence changes when she discovers something that’ll change her life forever.

Annie Dillard’s “Seeing” discusses the two possible ways to properly see things and relates them to light versus darkness in nature, and upstream versus downstream of a river. The essay explains that there are two ways to see things in the world; to look for something specific, or to let go of that desire to see something. Both types of seeing are also combined with either brightness or darkness and with either upstream or downstream. Dillard has trouble seeing anything in the upstream of the river because that part of the river is always dark or cloudy. On the other hand, she can see the animals in the downstream of the river, where everything is bright and lively. The river is split in two different symbols which help show the best way that one should view nature. The downstream and the upstream of the river have unique characteristics, and Dillard also compares them to darkness and light. By using powerful imagery and diction, Dillard is able to compare the two types of seeing and explain why letting go of the desire to see is the best way to look at things.

A subtle use of symbolism occurs when the mother uses the iron. The iron is described to have never made direct contact with the ironing board this is because a piece of clothing in the way acting as a barrier. This is the same in relation to the narrator and Emily, the mother can never show Emily the love she wants and needs because over time so man barriers has come between them. In addition to the iron, another use of symbolism occurs at the convalescent home that Emily is brought to after she gets ill. This in turn represents the mother’s inability to properly take care of her daughter. The balcony that the girls stand on is an emotional representation of the distance that has now surfaced from the lack

The short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor tells of Mrs. May, an old, bitter, and selfish woman. She thinks badly of everyone around her, including her own two sons. It also compares her family to that of the Greenleaf family, who Mrs. May sees as inferior to her. O’Connor unveils the story of Mrs. May and her demise through the use of point of view, character, and symbolism. She uses the third person omniscient view to give the reader a sense of Mrs. May’s character, and the symbols of the bull, and the conflict between the bull and Mrs. May to show Mrs. May’s destruction as well as give the story a deeper meaning of God’s grace.

Stockett incorporates nature imagery in the book to symbolize the bitterness which grows internally day by day. Aibileen, one of the most important characters in the novel, refers to a bitter seed that was nourished inside of her after the horrific death of her son, Treelore. “I feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the one planted after Treelore died,” (Stockett 14). Since the tragic death, the seed planted inside of her began flourishing after every time she was degraded for the color of her skin. As sweet and genuine Aibileen’s character is, the racism she experienced from her own boss and the cruel remarks about her appearance has made Aibileen use this bitterness in an essential way. As bitter as she was, the seed implanted within Aibileen, giving her the motivation to prove the white people wrong.

As she is developing, she is tantalized by the societal norms he represents. She is ready to give up the backwoods (a symbol of herself) for all he (a symbol of society) has to offer. Convinced of that, she sets off to find the secret of the elusive white heron and in order to find the heron, she had to climb to what was literally the top of the world for her, the top of the pine tree. The world from the top was different than the city and it was different from the woods at ground level. From the top her perspective about the world changed, it was vast and awesome, and she understood her place in it more than before. She understood it to mean more than to sacrifice her own self for the gifts this man had to offer that were tantalizing but incapitable with her personality and true self.

Doesn’t it kill to see something pure and sweet crumble to the wicked world around it? In the short story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, a young African American girl named Myop is strolling down a path without her mother and picking flowers. She steps on something. She looks down and sees the remains of a lynched man. Her eyes are forced opened to the racial violence and the cruelty of others. In this story, Walker uses the motif of a quest to highlight the overall theme that your naivety and innocence is lost once you realize the corruption of the immoral world. “Today she made her own path...vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes.” This symbolizes that Myop is going it alone and discovering the world for herself. Also, she wasn’t watching

Undoubtedly, the image showing a moving cart dropping off boxes in front of a door leading to a magical land, represents the theme of losing one’s innocence. During the introduction of the story, the protagonist is innocent in the sense that she believes that the world is a perfect place. As the story proceeds, the protagonist begins to lose her innocence when she concludes that travelling is a rather uncomfortable task. By the last scene in the story, the protagonist relieves herself of all innocence when she arrives at the prairie and witnesses the decrepit state of the homes and residents living in the prairie. As represented by the image of a moving cart transporting boxes to an open door containing a magical land, the