Descriptive language in the stories “Boys & Girls”, “Cat in the Rain”, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and the poem “A Far Cry from Africa”. Descriptive language is a literary tool used by many great writers. We clearly see this in the stories “Boys & Girls”, “Cat in the Rain”, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and the poem “A Far Cry from Africa”. Through the use of metaphors, imagery, similes and symbolism, the authors present their issues more effectively. We see that in all these stories, descriptive language is used to demonstrate how a characters identity predicament can …show more content…
However, the reader soon realizes that this uncomplicated story illuminates much deeper meanings. This seemingly mundane plot becomes symbolic and purposeful under the reader’s eyes. We see that it is about a woman trying to find her identity in terms of a problematic relationship. Clarence Lindsay, a critic, says, “Cat in the Rain is Ernest Hemingway's subtle exploration of this American romantic quest for identity.” This is true, as we see many times throughout the story. Hemingway with his use of descriptive language shows the way the American women long for her identity. When Hemingway writes, “The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make itself so compact that it would not be dripped on. "I'm going down and get that kitty," the American wife said.” Here we see that the cat represents the women and her relationship with her husband. As we all know cats detest water. Here the water represents everything that was destroying her and her relationship. Her trying to save the cat was her trying to save herself and her relationship.
“A Far Cry from Africa” was written by Derek Wolcott. Walcott discusses the conflict between his loyalties to Africa and to Britain in his poem. The title of the poem emphasizes Walcott's cultural instability as it implies a type of alienation from Africa,
Hemingway’s Americans’ continual desire for more alienates them from the rest of society, proving their lack of understanding for the world. In “Cat in the Rain,” an American couple is vacationing in Italy. Instead of admiring the beauty of their surroundings, the Americans instead focus on irrelevant trivial pursuits, illustrating their greed. After going down to retrieve the cat, the wife is immediately attracted to the hotel owner, proving Americans ever-evolving want for new things: “She liked the way he wanted to serve her. [...] She liked his old, heavy face and big hands” (Hemingway 130). Instead of staying loyal to her husband, the American wife forgets he exists and moves on to the next best person she finds, showing the apathy Americans possess for what they already have. Additionally, the hotel owner is simply doing his job, and the American wife’s failure to realize this results from her greed, which severely clouds her judgement. The greed Americans possess is further proven with the American wife’s childish behavior throughout the story. When the wife cannot find the cat, she complains, “I wanted it so much [...] I don’t know why I wanted it so much” (130). Back in the hotel room, the wife demands to her husband that she “want[s] to pull [her] hair back,” and to “have a kitty to sit on [her] lap and purr when [she] stroke[s] her” (131). The
Furthermore, the effectiveness of the language techniques utilised throughout the story and the relevance the novel has on contemporary audiences will be highlighted.
Imagery is used flawlessly in this short story. O’Connor uses descriptive adjectives fairly often to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and to add spice to her
Using figurative language helps create imagery and enhances the imagination of the readers. The use of personification allows the author to give human like characteristics to non-living things. An example within the story that displayed intense emotion was included this quote,“This set formula, spoken in a kind of lilt, would awaken loud echoes in Tzili’s soul, and their reverberations spread throughout her body” (Appelfeld, p. 275). By adding in this literary device the readers can foreshadow Tzili’s growth throughout the story and how she realizes who she is as an individual and matures into a strong and independent
Symbolism is a prominent part of many short stories. Within the stories “The Smile”, “The Chrysanthemums”, and “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas”, symbolism is heavily relied on to fully understand and comprehend each story. Although there are many literary devices used within the short stories, symbolism is predominantly used to develop and bring forth the message of each story.
This essay will analyse the ways writers represents relationships between characters. The keys of texts that communicates values and messages such as language, form and structure. Language, the choice of words and their characteristic is very important to show the audience how the characters change throughout the story and lastly, the form shows the audience what kind of text it is and if it is written to be read or performed on stage.
A great American mathematician, John W. Tukey, once said “The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.” This quote relates to stories because the author can use figurative language and descriptive language to paint a picture in the reader’s head. By using these, the author can almost assure the reader that they have the same vision as the author has. In the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel, many examples of figurative language and descriptive adjectives are present to help the reader envision the story in their minds and to develop characters.
As a symbol of tragedy rain is frequently used by Hemingway in this novel. Rain is a symbol of disaster already beginning in the first chapter when the reader learns that the war is not going well and that the " the permanent rain brought the cholera". Here rain is related to illness. Rain also falls when Frederic and Catherine are looking for a hotel room so they can be together before Frederic must leave for the front. Catherine buys a nightgown for the evening. And when they find a room, she looks in the mirrors and feels cheap, while Frederic looks outside at the storm. The rain degrades the farewell of Frederic, and Catherine tells him that „[she] never felt like a whore before". Rain also falls during the troop's retreat which is symbolizing a failure. One night when Catherine and Frederic are in the hotel in Italy, Frederic awakens to the sound of rain and learns that he will be arrested. And during their time of escape from Italy to Switzerland it is very windy and rainy. That symbolizes how their escape would definitely be difficult. It takes them many hours to row to Switzerland’s shore.
Figurative language is a main component in showcasing the emotions the characters reveal. An example being when the author writes “ The children huddled up to her and breathed like little calves waiting at the bars in the twilight.” This portrays the children's emotions with more emphasis and really shows how they watched everything Granny Weatherall did with precision. This type of writing really helps the reader understand what is going on within the characters and their actions. The author also displays figurative language in the way she describes how John would be in the situation of them still being together. She describes him as being more of a child, rather than taking a parent role.
“A Rose for Emily,” “A Worn Path,” and “The Lottery” by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Shirley Jackson all have similar writing styles in their literature. In these three short stories the authors all use contrasting nature within their literature to predict the outcome and to learn for the upcoming events in the readings. The authors take subliminal phrases and subliminal symbolic text to have the reader become more attached and understand more of what the characters, setting and theme of the story has to offer. Using these three stories the reader of this essay will understand and grasp the symbolic meanings in text of each these short stories.
In the short story “the Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and the short story “blue + yellow” by Chris Killen compare in many ways. These two stories use the same literary device strongly such as imagery. Imagery is a literary device in which the author uses words and phrases to paint a picture in the readers head throughout the story. These two short stories are written with very descriptive language to help paint a picture of the occurrences in the story and describe a scene. These two stories also contrast in many ways such as the way they use symbolism as well as the relationships between the characters in both stories.
The themes in “Cat in the Rain” are gender roles, loneliness and identity as the things where the wife is struggling. Gender roles is a theme because she is trying to fit in society’s idea of who she should be. Loneliness, because her marriage is falling apart and she has no one to talk to. She is confused about her identity, on the background of her trying to fit in a specific “mould” of how she should behave.
Although "A Far Cry from Africa" is to some extent centered around the Mau Mau Uprising, Walcott doesn't go into detail about how truly terrible the carnage was. The speaker does use some vivid and horrific language in the poem: "Beaten upon bloodstreams of the veldt / Corpses are scattered through a paradise" (Walcott 3-4). However, the language is very subdued compared to the shocking incidents that took place:
In contrast, the characters in the plot of “Cat in the Rain” are limited to the American couple, a cat, the padrone, and a maid. The American wife sees a cat from her window. Hemingway states, “A cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables” (62). She desires to retrieve the cat against the indifference of her husband. The American wife states, “I’m going down and get that kitty” (62). George, her husband, half-heartedly offers to retrieve it for her. He was indifferent to the episode. Hemingway advises us that he went on reading and
Basically, this short story by Ernest Hemingway is about an American couple vacationing in Italy, the second romantic country of the world after France (well in my opinion). It is raining and the wife sees a cat in the rain and wants to protect it from the rain, which is odd because usually children are the one sensitive and naïve enough to want to protect animals from such a thing as the rain since it is not harmful to animals. Only human beings get a cold when standing out in the rain not animals! Her husband, laying on the bed reading, makes a poor less attempt to offer his help which can be interpreted as neglect. He tells her (line 9):" I 'll do it" still lying on the bed. She finally goes by herself and returns unsuccessful. But