God Said, Let There Be Light, And There Was Light

| “This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are…shrunken by age.” Ch. 1, Pg. 14

earth was without form and void. God said, "let there be light," and there was

“We talk slowly, two women trying/ in a difficult time to be wise./ Roots in the cellar drains,/ I say, and she replies/ that the leaves are getting heavier/ every year, and the fruit/ harder to gather away.” (7-14)

The diction in the excerpt is an essential component to the dramatization of the plot’s central incident. Jewett uses rich language to intensify the simple nature of the main character Sylvia’s journey up a “great pine-tree.” For example, in describing the tree, the narrator uses personification as he mentions the “huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight.” The use of personification harkens back to those universal moments in childhood in which everything alive had human feelings, and creates an emotional attachment between the reader and the tree. Jewett also uses other figurative language, like similes, to relate the grandeur of the tree to the audience. She writes, “It [the tree] was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth…” In comparing the tree to the great mast of a ship, the author invokes feelings of awe at its size.

As the story progresses the woman’s cravings reach a point at which she desired some bark from the Great Tree. However as stated before in the passage, “the tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky World”. “The women decided that she wanted some bark” proving that she made a conscious choice to violate the rules. This is a representation of how the Iroquois view women. How dare she, as a woman, decide to do anything without the authorization of a man. When she asked her husband to retrieve the bark he denied her request,

The pear tree is her inspiration and her first true desire. She longs to bud and blossom, like the tree, and cannot wait to discover herself and all the wonders of the world.

The significance of the pear tree for Janie reflects the view of love, nature, sexuality, been seen as a change within

talking about His creation (Genesis 1). It also says: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there

In the beginning, the pear tree symbolizes Janie’s yearning to find within herself the sort of harmony and simplicity that nature embodies. However, that

This quote demonstrates that the pear tree marks end of Janie’s childhood and the beginning of her journey to womanhood; as it is under the pear tree in which Janie has her first sexual experience as she longs to have the “love and affection from a man that the tree receives from the pollen-bearing bee” (Dilbeck, 102). When Nanny (Janie’s grandmother) sees her act on this sexual awakening by kissing Johnny Taylor, the narrator states that it was “the end of her childhood” (12), as Nanny then insists that she get married to Logan Killicks, and so Janie must quickly move into adult world of marriage. The quote also seems to assert that the only way for Janie to embark on her journey is to leave home (one of the major characteristics of the quest narrative) as “nothing on the place nor her grandma’s house answered her” (11).

Jesus then goes from speaking to His disciples specifically, to calling out to the whole crowd, in which He goes from speaking plainly to once again speaking in metaphors and riddles. Within this passage Mark uses the words of Jesus to reveal the true cost of discipleship. He tells the crowd that if anyone chooses to come after Him then the condition of that decision is that they must take up their cross and follow Him. So one must ask: What does it mean to deny yourself? What does it mean to take up your cross? And when you follow Him where are you going? So then one must put this into context by looking at what has not yet happened in Mark. When Jesus denies Himself, He is essentially denying the human instinct to self preserve through a fight or flight response. When Jesus picked up His cross, He was deciding to be rejected, tortured, mocked and falsely accused on His way to Calvary where He died for the sins of all. Therefore, if you want to go after Jesus, you must be willing to commit to sharing the gospel with others at all costs, you must be willing to tortured, mocked, and falsely accused and you must also be willing to die, not necessarily for anything that you have done, but so that others can reach salvation. Historically, during this time period, the cross was a well known style of execution in Rome, and so although one reading this might see this as simply a metaphor, it is actually a foreshadowing of reality, which can be seen in the fact that all the

The passage that I choose to write about was Genesis chapter 1 verses 1-5. I choose this passage because I was interested in studying how God supposedly created the earth and turned darkness into a world full of life and spirit. Genesis 1 begins by saying “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”(NKJV) I think that the purpose of this verse is to summarize the things that God would do in the future. This text tells us that God existed before the heavens and the earth. We also learn that before God started to create, the earth was empty, dark, and lifeless. The text also represents the beginning of everything earthly by saying God will create life on earth and in

The word of God brought everything into being: heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and every living thing. In the beginning, God called into existence the heaven and earth. Within six days and he shaped a world of order and beauty.

What did that tree, leaning out from the bank, all white and lacy, make you think of? She asked. Well now, I dunno, said Matthew. Why a bride, of course- a bride all in white with a lovely misty veil.” (Montgomery, 65-66) It is identified here how nature pleases Anne’s eye. The way in which she is able to take a tree branch and bring it to life by imagining that is connected with something beautiful like a bride. It doesn’t only suggest her inquisitive imagination, but also her intellect. With using the enjoyments of nature to foster a desire, and with her perceptive vision she is capable of imagining the branch as something else. Through its beauty and emphasis on colour she can make a connection that the tree branch can be compared to a bride. It is crucial how Anne doesn’t take the natural sights of Avonlea for granted, because she values the power of self-expression in nature. Through her imagination with nature she is able to seek comfort. This is seen on her first night in Avonlea, when she’s afraid no one will come for her, so she turns to a tree as her home, where she can sleep. She states, “I had made up my mind that if you didn’t come for me and to-night I’d go down the track to that big wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night.” (Montgomery, 64) This scene represents how Anne is reliant on nature. Instead of being afraid that no one has yet to pick her up she uses nature to occupy her time. She is inspired by nature to

The chapter begins with the existence of Supreme Being, God, who created heaven and earth from rather a formless and void full of darkness; “let there be light; let there be an expanse between the waters……” Genesis 1:3, 6. This reveals the power of a supernatural being that controls the universe; and that absolute power lies with God, the creator of the universe. The creation work is systematically done in six