Any genre of literature can talk about pain. Pain is something that everyone can relate to; therefore, many writers use the theme of pain in their works in order to make a connection with any person who reads it. Some authors may be able to perceive pain better than others and they may be due to their history, or perhaps each genre of literature may be able to equally show pain through its works regardless of what the authors background is. The fact of the matter is, the only way to tell if different authors can show the same amount of pain in their different types of literautre, is to take a look at multiple genres of literature that talk about pain. This paper analyzes John Cheever’s short-story “The Swimmer” (1964), Edwidge Danticat’s non-fiction Brother, I’m Dying (2007), and Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, “Facing It” (1988), in order to show that different genres of literature can perceive pain better than others.
Literature Review
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Ned lives a high social class in the suburbs and spends much of his time partaking in activities that wealthy people are expected to. Suddenly, while at his neighbors, Ned comes up with the idea to head home on the eight-mile journey, but instead of taking a normal route, he decides that he will swim home through his neighbor’s pools. Throughout his adventure Ned learns a lot about himself and ultimately realizes that the neighborhood he lives in is nothing more than a group of people who are using alcohol in order to either hide or cope. On top of all of this, Ned has undoubtedly begun to experience signs of memory loss and by the end of the story he realizes that his life is empty as he has no family, friends, or wealth. In this short-story, Cheever uses the pain of emptiness in order to connect with his
The theme of suffering can come in numerous varieties; under categories both physical and emotional. Suffering is presented as a key concept in ‘Othello’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. All three texts explore many aspects of suffering in parts, however the most obvious and concentrated facet leans towards the psychological aspect rather then the physical side. In the three chosen texts many of the characters suffer from some sort of emotional trauma. Psychological suffering and distress is a major topic in all three chosen texts as the authors use this ailment in order to drive the storyline forward,
One who suffers from a lot of pain usually loses themselves in the process of trying to reclaim their life. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian horse, the proganist Saul Indian horse goes through a lot of agonies which gives him the motive to kill the Indian in himself, destroying his oneness. Though alcoholism, violent acts, and his new identity makes Saul feel like he belongs it just is not who he is as a person. These harrowing changes are inspired by the tremendous amount of abuse Saul endures throughout his childhood. The endless amount of physical and mental abuse Saul experiences forces him to become a different person which in turn makes him lose his true identity.
The author’s narrative, ripe with horrifying descriptions, is nonetheless told with compassion appealing to the emotions of the audience
When telling a story, other elements like plot, setting, characterization, symbol, similes and metaphor also play a significant role. In this excerpt, the writer showed the plot and setting of painful condition of a dying soldier, who was injured in the civil war. She uses various similes and lyrical metaphors. For example, “Every breath he draws is like a stab.” Here by using metaphor “like a stab’, she succeeded to showed the real picture of a dying soldier to her readers. Once again, she uses another simile saying, “gathering the bent head in my arms as freely as if he had been a little child”. This example conveys the picture of John as a young child rests in his mother’s lap. Regarding characterization, by implementing analogies, she displays the altruistic mindset of the brave soldier, who joined the army for her mother and for his country. For instance, when she asked him. “Do you regret coming here”, he was positive at all and replied “I didn't want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done, and people kept saying the men who were in earnest ought to fight. I was in earnest, the Lord knows! but I held off as long as I could, not knowing which was my duty; mother saw the case, gave me her ring to keep me steady”. Even when he is on
The author begins Getting Life with the section titled pain. The author’s purpose for this section is to describe the events that caused him so much pain and completely changed his life. The author supports the theme of pain throughout this section by providing the reader with a personal account of learning about his wife’s murder, being arrested for the murder, and then being sentenced to life in prison. The author’s account of the murder begins in chapter two, and Morton describes in detail how painful it was to learn that his wife had been murdered. After the sheriff told Michael that Christine was dead, Michael recounts that “it felt like I was falling-falling down, falling apart- breaking into pieces under the weight of the sheriff’s words” (Morton, 2014, p. 19). To make things worse, Michael was not able to peacefully mourn the death of his wife due to the immediate interrogation by the Sheriff’s Office. Six weeks after Christine’s death, Michael was arrested for her murder. Furthermore, the author discusses how difficult the murder trial was. After the chief medical examiner recounted
“The Book Thief” presented a story filled with various themes that comprised a powerful plot line. Although there were many themes in the story, there was one that stood out to me more than others. In the process of reading the book, the theme of suffering affected me the most. The definition of the word suffer is to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. Different characters within the story are subjected to dreadful feelings and are therefore suffering. Through my analyzation, I observed the three different types of suffering that the characters experienced: guilt, feelings of emptiness, and anxiety. The characters of “The Book Thief” experience these three types of suffering in different ways.
Imagine, he says, the urgency, the panic that causes a dying man to be ‘flung’ into a wagon, the ‘writing’ that denotes an especially virulent kind of pain. Hell seems close at hand with the curious smile ‘like a devils sick of sin’. Sick in what sense? Satiated? Physically? Then that ‘jolt’. No gentle stretcher-bearing here but agony intensified. Owens imaginary is enough to sear the heart and mind.
With swayed feelings, and an ambivalent heart, I write on “Brother, I’m Dying”: a grim depiction of past and modern Haitian family life and another evident instance of blatant racism. Edwidge Danticat presents a number of opportunities for analysis and deductions to be drawn, however through the piece, the most evident and most inspiring facet is how communicating affection, whether through speech, writing, acts of service, etc, enables the family experience to be possible through hardship, distance, solidarity, and even death.
Cheever uses metaphors throughout “The Swimmer” to cleverly explain to the audience without actually saying how Neddy’s life really turned out. The most profound metaphor throughout this short story is the swimming pool. The pools that Neddy swims through represent the periods of time that occurred in his life and how each was different than the other. During the first
In the world of Harlem, New York the cruelties of the world become incandescently prominent. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” addresses the foreboding power of pain in a world where someone’s coping skills dictate the course of their life. The story depicts a person’s options to ignore pain, create a reason for pain, or accept pain and live within it. Baldwin explains the theme of pervasive pain and parent’s attempt to shield children from it through the characters. Their reaction to pain constructs a motif of pain management.
“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.
In literature, however, scars, marks, and deformities speak even louder than they do in reality because writers often use them as symbols. Unlike real-world wounds, writers can manipulate a character’s injury to express a desired concept, theme, or representation
Each person experiences loss and the pain and grief that coincides with it at some point in their life. Often times, these people gain a new outlook on life, and begin to see the world differently. People change as a result of pain; they think and act differently. Margaret Atwood utilizes characterization through Verna’s presentation, thoughts, and actions in “Stone Mattress” to show that pain changes people.
ADHD is one of the most common mental health problems in America. As many as 11% may have the condition, and there 's a lot of misinformation floating around. Many aspects of ADHD are relatively unknown to the public. With that in mind, here are 20 things you might not have known about this condition.
In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbols are the weather and seasons. Cheever uses the changing of seasons to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. While Cheever uses the weather to describe how Merrill feels. When it is warm Merrill feels happy and youthful. However, when it becomes colder Merrill begins to feel weak and sad. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever employs the motif of alcohol in “The Swimmer;” the reader notices that when Merrill is presented with a reality that he deems unpleasant, he uses alcohol to enhance his state of denial. Through the critical lens of New Historicism, the reader can infer the author’s purpose for writing “The Swimmer” is to criticize the lifestyles of affluent people in the 1950s and early 1960s. Cheever focuses on the party lifestyle of affluent communities and how the use of alcohol allows them to deny the reality around their current misfortunes.