Comparing The Past In Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language Of Flowers

Many times the feeling of guilt comes with regret and shame. Because of this, people often reflect on their past decisions and cry. Therefore, guilt helps people to change. The author James Hurst evokes a feeling of guilt in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by using flashback and climax. The narrator regrets his past wrongdoings and shows guilt for them through flashback. Furthermore, the climax of the story reveals the narrator’s realization of Doodle’s death that causes him to feel guilty.

In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” the theme is something very intense to think about. Sometimes, by the time we realize what we have done wrong, we can no longer fix the mistake; people have dealt with this sort of conflict in their lives before, many times. Personally, I have dealt with situations like this before in my lifetime. It’s difficult, because by the time we realize our fault, it’s too late to repair the damage.

In “A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, the main character Emily Grierson is stuck living in the past within the isolated reality that she’s been forced into and that she herself created. Throughout the story, a major theme, (meaning what the story is about) is Emily’s resistance to change which leads to isolation. This Faulkner classic shows us how Emily became isolated because of her families, community and tradition.

Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” incorporates foreshadowing that infers to the readers about the truth about the dramatic ending. One example, Alice walker uses foreshadowing in her short story, is when myop talks about her jaws in the beginning. “That caused excited little tremors to run up my jaws.” This foreshadowing prepares the readers of what is about to happen to Myop when she finds a deep dark cave at the end of the story. Myop finds a dead body with large cracked teeth inside a cave .

This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.

In FYS we were taught many ways to live in the world through the stories we read, speeches we listen to, and the projects we did. In the book, Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger, The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, and Destiny of The Republic, by Candice Millard, I saw a few prominent themes of how one should live. In these three books I learned about the author 's voice through their writings. I saw how one should live their life. In these books the authors shared common themes through their writings. The authors showed how to live life with forgiveness and live life with faith. Krueger and Potok both showed me through their novels how to forgive someone and they did this by showing that there is a bigger picture in

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker is a short story written in the 1970’s. The story focuses on Myop, a ten year old African American girl who loves to explore the land in which she lives. Carefree and naïve, Myop decides to travel further away from her ‘Sharecropper cabin’ and travels deep inside the woods to unfamiliar land where she discovers the decomposed body of an African American man. It is then Myop quickly grows up and suddenly becomes aware of the world in which she lives. The story relies on setting and symbolism to convey the theme of departing innocence.

Walker continues to use negative imagery and ideas to reveal her hesitation towards the arrangement. The author uses these literary devices because she wants to illustrate Roselily’s reasons for marrying the man. Roselily does this because it is what's best for her and her children. In a way, Roselily is being forced because she does not have a better alternative to her current life. By marrying the man, Roselily will have a renewed lifestyle and reputation. Roselily imagines the flowers in her hand as kids. When she does this, her head fills with murderous thoughts. “A squeeze around the flowers in her hands chokes off three and four and five years of breath” (Walker 4). As guilty as Roselily feels, this shows how Roselily wishes she never had given birth to any of her kids. When she tightens her grip on the bouquet of flowers, she thinks of her children. Roselily dreams she did not give birth to these kids. Roselily’s ideas of murder could possibly be associated with her obsession with the idea of her personal spirit being robbed from her. Weddings usually give off positive connotations, however in Roselily’s mind she disturbs the happy wedding with dark thoughts such as the idea of murder. Deviating from the topic of “personal spirit”, Brent studies the ferocious thoughts swarming Roselily’s mind. “Roselily’s rebellious thoughts during the wedding ceremony go so far as to enter the realms of murder and blasphemy. She expresses a wish that she could be free of her three

The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.

Sometimes, forgiveness is used as an excuse to make the mistakes conducted okay. Eventually, the ones that are forgiven take advantage of the idea of forgiveness. In the memoir, The Glass Castle, the protagonist, Jeannette Walls and her siblings face difficult situations where they're forced to accept and learn from a young age to forgive those who are responsible. Jeannette’s parents struggle with being strong and stable parents for their children, making mistakes that have consequences that affect not only themselves but also the the Walls children. Jeannette chooses to believe that by letting go of the grudges she holds about parent she can avoid a bitter life, even though it is her parents responsible for her pain. Through Jeannette Walls journey she is able to capture the hard reality of forgiveness.

Individuals can be seen responding to the circumstances they endure in a myriad of ways. The individuals may choose to take revenge on the people that caused them to suffer or they may choose to forgive the individuals that caused their hardships. However, when one chooses to forgive the wrongdoer, he or she chooses to release the burden and pain the wrongdoer has caused them. In The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeanette Walls, Walls describes her parent’s shortcomings but does not condemn them in anyway.

The novels Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, authored by Matthew Quick and November 9, authored by Colleen Hoover, share similar themes and ideas despite their very different styles. Forgiveness is one common theme presented in the texts, shown through similar techniques of foregrounding through flashbacks, as well as other contrasting techniques. The theme of betrayal is shown through anecdote and emotive language in the novels. The importance of relationships is illustrated by Quick and Hoover, as each protagonist experiences an empty, isolated life. Quick and Hoover explore these issues in contrasting ways.*

Atonement, by Ian McEwan, explores the theme of love through a variety of techniques such as symbolism, metaphors and repetition delve into various aspects of love, such as misspent, newfound and unavailable love. Uniquely, McEwan intertwines these techniques with foreshadowing and imagery to convey complex emotions such as love, guilt and jealousy. Additionally, the theme of reality and the imagination is established through repetition and Cecilia’s characterisation.

Growing up in the South and living life by working every day outside, and growing crops

In the first story, Victoria was bullied by her sister, Lily. Victoria explains that her sister was always trying to make her feel bad, irritate her, or cause her pain. She claimed Lily liked making her feel bad and would leave the conversation if she showed no affect. Victoria also noted that Lily did it with the whole family, and that Lily was always a little bit off the family rhythm. Through their childhood, Victoria grew to hate Lily and survive their interactions. More recently, Victoria has begun to think how she treated Lily in reaction to the bullying was also a form of bullying. The relationship between the two sisters is beginning to start again, Victoria says, but she is also cautious. The personal story ends with Victoria saying the bitterness between them is leaving and the work on a friendship has begun.