Cycle Of Life And Imagery In 'The Grave' By Katherine Anne Porter

Set in the harsh patriarchal society of 1829 Iceland, Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites uses historical fiction to reimagine the life and death of Agnes Magnusdottir; a woman sentenced to death for her involvement in the murder of two men. The role of women in this oppressive society is thoroughly explored, establishing a social commentary which juxtaposes the double standards, sexual abuse and primitive gender roles of 19th century Iceland to the independence, equality and lifestyle choices for women in the 21st century.

The Graveyard Book (2008) by Neil Gaiman breaks down the borderline between the dead and living world in his novel. Gaiman presents an irony in his novel by giving the caring nature to the dead people of the graveyard. He presents the graveyard as a safe place for an innocence, rather than the living world. Silas is a mysterious character throughout the novel and his existence is not stated very clearly amongst the living and dead. However, there are some evidence in the novel, which unravels the existence of Silas as an undead being, whose life is caught in-between the border line of life and death. Silas is a reformed version of a vampire, who is travelling through the darkness of life for the search of light.

The idea of death can be, and is an enormously disturbing, unknown issue in which many people can have many different opinions. To some individuals, the process of life can progress painstakingly slow, while for others life moves too fast. In the excerpt We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, a innocent farm boy named Judd Mulvaney has an eye-opening encounter by a brook near his driveway. During this encounter, Judd faces a chain of feelings and emotions that lead to his change of opinion of the issues of life and death, and change as a character. This emblematic imagery of life and death, as well as jumpy, and retrospective tones benefit the development of Judd as an innocent child as he begins to change into a more conscious and aware adult.

The power of the story has been very much a part of the lives of humans throughout time. The story is able to bring the past to the present and the dead to the living. The story can make the blind see. The story is able to make others feel for events in time that they have never experienced. The story has a profound effect on both the teller and the audience. As the audience is thought to be the beneficiary or the storytelling process, the teller is able to relive the times of old, or even teach a valuable lesson to his or her audience. Thus, allowing both parties to gain something intangible throughout this process. In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien conveys the importance of storytelling and imagination by suggesting that the dead can be brought back to life in the minds of the people who hear it.

The text Burial Rites written by Hannah Kent focuses on the true story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland, her punishment for playing part in the murder of two men. She is sent to wait out her days on the farm of a district officer, Jón Jónsson with his two daughters and wife. Naturally, the family are horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst. Borne from this, the family refuse to talk to her. A young man, Toti is appointed as her spiritual guardian in the last days of her life, throughout the text, he attempts to redeem her soul by asking her to recount her life.

Richie Tankersley Cusick is the author of the book Spirit Walk. She grew up in New Orleans,Louisiana and was born there on April fools day. She became passionate about writing after she made up imaginary people and imaginary worlds. The house Cusick lived in while she was in Louisiana was inhibited by a ghost and so was her house that she lived in at Kansas City. She attended University of Louisiana and graduated in English with a BA and a minor in English history.

In the passage, “The Dead”, James Joyce reveals about the character’s qualities. James Joyce, the author of the excerpt, allows the reader to get to know the character, Gabriel, by using literary devices. For example, the author uses symbolism and imagery, to reveal so much about him, that Gabriel himself does not know about.

Markus Zusak focuses the novel on a distrait young girl, Liesel Meminger, which through her the audience captures the spectrum of existence. Each human, having a stand on a certain place at random, waits for chance to give its say. Liesel experiences tragedies and disasters alike that only engulf the fear of being either alive or dead. The same way the act of no longer breathing is terrifying, so is the incidental continuation of a pulse; having of seen other characters die before her adds to it. The author takes points of views from characters, aside from Liesel, that’ve been chosen to live through traumatizing events. Their dialogue and surroundings further act as a basis for survivor's guilt--- which causes those who survived to continue

Miranda and her family begins the struggle for survival. Throughout Chapters 4-6, Miranda faces problems at the gas station, the rise of new diseases such as the West Nile Virus (Pfeffer 80-81), more food shortages, electrical outages, and heat waves. Miranda, and especially her mother, are challenged mentally as well, which in turn grows their own character as a whole, which will be explained throughout this journal entry. The rise of new motifs and themes comes with the rise of new challenges for survival, also to be explained. “There are no more hot lunches.

For Miranda her biggest worries were her friend’s Megan and Sammi, and if Brandon Erlich was going to win gold at the next Olympics games for ice-skating. Miranda knew trouble at a young age, when her friend Becky died after a lifelong sickness, her death changed Megan into becoming closer with God, and for Sammi to realize how short life is, and to live it up while she can. With an injury that made her drop out of skating, Miranda switch to swimming, hoping that one day she will be able to go back to skating, and be couch by the same person who taught Brandon Erlich. With all this, Miranda at age sixteen was ready to see some change. Standing with her mother and little brother, Jonny, they watch as what was supposed to be a meteor hitting

Medieval China, as seen in the Stories from a Ming Collection, was characterized by distinct separations between men and women’s abilities, typical old fashioned family structure, and a desire to advance their social status. Throughout all the stories in this book, it dives deep into different aspects of how men and women are treated, how families were structured and how that affects their lives, as well as the values these people held. A very common trend in the stories was how different men and women were treated and the limitations they may or may not had.

“These Shallow Graves,” is a novel by Jennifer Donnelly. The book is a mystery set in a time period where women weren’t allowed to anything but housewives. It is set in New York, and the main character’s family is very rich. The interesting part comes in when you find out the main character and protagonist, Jo, or Josephine Monfort is a woman who only wants to learn, but women were discouraged of doing anything of the such during this period. She loves to write, and while in high school she tries to write a controversial article, and gets in trouble by the headmaster. After finding out, her friend Trudy replies, “I merely wish to smoke. Sparky [the headmaster] can forgive that. You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.”

In the story The Grave by Katherine Anne Porter there are two young children by the name of Miranda and Paul, ages nine and twelve. Their family owned a small cemetery where grandfather was buried, after his bones were moved from Louisiana and then to Texas. Later, their grandmother deceased and the family had to sale part of their land. Miranda and Paul went hunting on trespassing land and they both found treasures that symbolizes different meanings for each other such as the silver dove and a gold ring.

The poem home burial, can be viewed as a tragedy because of the two devastating events that it depicts throughout the poem, one being the sudden death of a child, and the other being the ending or death of a couple's marriage. It becomes evident from the very moment the poem begins, in my opinion, that the reason for the trouble in this couple's relationship is because of the tragic death of their child, as well as the couple's failure to convey their feelings to each other. In other words, the death of their child has led to not only their lack of communication, but also the failing and in a sense death of their marriage. One of the big issues that I noticed between the couple is that because the both of them are dealing with the loss of their

In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.