Examples Of Reoccurring Motifs In Literature

People read countless stories that have a variety of themes in them. When people read “Angela's Ashes” by Frank McCourt, and “The Street” by Ann Petry, they can probably sense that there is something similar among the two stories', and that's because they share a common theme. The theme is how people can persevere through problems that they encounter. The reader will discover this similar theme of persevering through problems with the way the authors utilize the character of characters feelings and personality, the way setting creates a backdrop that establishes the tone of the story, and events that cause conflict to the character.

This theme shows how the author purposefully wanted the audience to see how easily people are influenced by society, those governing them, and those around them.

Poe establishes fear when the narrator says,“[...]the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token” (Poe 27). Words such as ‘silence’, ‘unbroken’, and ‘token’ emphasize fear. ‘Silence’ instills fear as

A motif is a topic that constantly recurs in literature. The meaning of the first quote and its relation to motif is that flashbacks often occur in the book. This relates to truth because it reveals clues on what Erik did to his eyesight and later reveals the truth of how cruel Erik is. Another motif is Paul’s insightfulness.

Tangerine, a realistic-fiction novel, by Edward Bloor, tells about a boy that slowly uncovers dark truths about his new home in Tangerine County. The motif used throughout this novel is sight, motif is a symbolic detail that the writer adds in to set the theme or mood. Paul is challenged daily with his sight and what he can see what other people may not want to see. Through the motif of sight, Paul, the main character of the novel, has a growing understanding of his friends, family, and himself. To begin with, Paul experiences a growing understanding of his friends.

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous american author who wrote many poems and short stories. His stories almost always have a deeper meaning behind them. In the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe uses a mixture of stylistic elements such as symbolism, diction, figurative language, and imagery to scare the audience, show how being selfish is problematic, and point out the inevitability of death.

The most powerful insight provided by this text is into the nature of fear. Edgar Allen Poe uses this text to illustrate the paralyzing control that fear has over all humans. An important item in the text is the shear dread that overtakes Roderick Usher. This fear was best described when Usher stated, “I dread the events of the future... I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident... I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, fear,” (Poe 299). Usher fears such a large number of small incidents that could potentially happen, he is living his life in fear. Roderick believes that this terrible dread will ultimately kill him. This sense of fear is rather extreme, since Usher believes it will kill him. The dramatization created by Poe helps to show the power that fear has over everyone. He furthers this by making the reader afraid, largely with his descriptive language, such as, “I looked upon the scenes before me-upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eyelike windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a trunks of decayed trees-with… the hideous dropping off of the veil,” (Poe 294). The language is ridden with despair and an anxious fear, painting a horrendous scene in the reader’s mind. Poe uses the fear created from images similar to

The third and final term I will be examining is motif. The motif I chose was death. Death is certainly the most obvious and common motifs I believe is represented in this story. Death is literally everywhere in this book. Starting from chapter one when the civilian is incinerated by the Martian’s blaster, to the giant alien machines that crawl across planet Earth destroying any person or structure in its path. The main character visits many towns in his attempted escape from the seemingly inevitable doom that is followed by the invasion. Death has stricken almost every town he comes across. Whether it be a random body he sees, or a person from the group that travels with him, the narrator is almost always around death. The only time death can be represented as a good thing is when the narrator reaches London and sees the Martians lying dead in their defeat from disease.

Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson is about how yellow fever spread through Philadelphia and caused many people to die and suffer. These are the themes for Fever 1793. The themes are overcoming hardship, family, and suffering. I say that these are the themes because I have the evidence. I have evidence for family on how Mattie tried to help her sick family. I have evidence for how the second theme is overcoming hardship on how they overcame being sick. Finally I have evidence on how the third theme is suffering because how the sick people suffered.

Overall, themes were found throughout all the characters’ journeys in “The Fever

One recurring theme in

One of the reasons the narrator says he holds a fear of death is because he would no longer be able to see the face of a beautiful woman and have the chance to be loved by her. The image of this woman is created when Keats says, “ And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, that I shall never look upon thee more, never relish in the fairy power of unreflecting love,” (Lines 9-12). These lines show a sense of wishing to belong through the longing for love from this woman, and this wish creates a fear of dying before there is a chance of it coming to be. Another reason for the narrator’s fears is missing the chance of gaining fame before dying and, instead, his remaining time being wasted alone. The image is created when Keats says, “Then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink,” (Lines 12-14).

The definition for a motif is essentially an important idea or subject that is repeated throughout a book (Merriam-Webster). A motif of fire and ice was present in this novel through a binary of love and hate. In Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, binaries were created using different elements within the novel, symbolism, imagery, etc. While profoundly reading Jane Eyre, I tracked the image/motif of fire and ice. The fire and ice are used throughout the story to thoroughly develop a binary between love and hate.

Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses

There was more of an interest in finding the culprit, and not fear of it. The murder in The Murders in the Rue Morgue was more gruesome and scary, which did add a more sinister note to the tone, but in comparison to other texts by Poe, it is