Light In August Symbolism

In Gregory Orr’s essay, “Return to Hayneville”, published by The Virginia Quarterly Review, Orr revisited the place of his abduction by armed vigilantes in Alabama as a Civil Rights worker in 1965. Even though the events of this essay take place in 1965, for Orr it started with the death of his younger brother in a hunting accident when Orr was twelve. Holding the gun that killed his younger brother, Orr believed that if his life began at twelve with his brother’s death, then his end, “determined by the trajectory of that harsh beginning, could easily have taken place six years later” (125, 1). Orr

A man and his son travelling alone amidst the ruins of a previously prosperous nation; a young man venturing into a treacherous land to tie up the loose ends in his life; a broken ranch hand that suspects he had a conversation with death: in the most desolate and uncertain environments, the surrounding world can lend a bleak and lifeless perspective to one’s struggle to survive. In lands without accompaniment from other humans, the will to live can be as difficult to muster as shelter for the night or the first meal in days. Cormac McCarthy explores the difficulties of survival under the tension of barren landscapes and youthful inexperience and their effects on the loss of innocence. Gained maturity enables humans to persist and stay hopeful, even in the least hopeful situations. These environments and mindsets play an important role in the messages of three novels by Cormac McCarthy: The Road, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain.

In the Novel “All The Pretty Horses” by author Cormac McCarthy, the book develops the ideas about how imagination affects an individual’s willingness to embrace or reject an uncertain future. The people in John Grady's life affect his future in certain ways, the decisions he makes based on the opinions of his peers, to the death of loved ones.

Through the theme of rebellion against society, Huck demonstrates the importance of thinking for oneself and embodies the idea that adults are not always right. This is highlighted in his noncompliance when it comes to learning the Bible and in the decisions he makes when it comes to Jim, decisions that prove to be both illegal and dangerous. By refusing to conform to standards he does not agree with, Huck relies on his own experiences and inner conscience when it comes to making decisions. As a result, Huck is a powerful vehicle for Mark Twain’s commentary on southern society and

Critics argue that the ‘cheat’ ending of the novel destroys all of its value as Jim becomes constraint by the will of society and Huckleberry cruelly allows him to get mistreated. However, despite the ending’s appearance with a cursory analysis, a more meticulous analysis reveals that the ending does not destroy the value of the novel. In fact, the ending actually adds satirical value as it is too a satire – a satire of the forces in society that stubbornly refused to yield to the demands for freedom of African Americans even once they were theoretically freed. While the majority of the novel humanizes African Americans in an argument for equality, the ending of the novel reveals the unfortunate reality of Southern society during the time period – the unfortunate reality that legal freedom did not necessarily to an end of suffering. “The Old South’s ex-confederates did everything possible to keep the blacks enslaved” (Nichols 15). In the ending, like the Southerners at the end of the civil war, even though Tom knew that Ms. Watson has freed Jim, he did everything within his power to keep him

The Grangerfords, who allow Huck to stay with them for as long as he would like, have been involved in a murderous feud with the Shepherdson family for decades, only halting their incessant fighting to attend church with one another on Sundays. Page 109 describes this, stating, “Next Sunday we all went to church...The men took their guns along and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching-all about brotherly love...everybody said it was a good sermon.” Once more, Twain uses irony to highlight the hypocrisy of human beings, specifically of Christians, by describing how the rival families put their differences aside long enough to listen to a sermon on brotherly love, only to attempt to kill each other the very next day, undermining the message of the sermon. Through the implementation of irony, Twain succeeds at criticizing the hypocritical nature of many Christians and of the societies in which they live.

Past experiences shape nature and disposition.When someone goes through a dramatic event, they change for the better or worse. The novel Mississippi Trial, 1955, concerns Hiram’s experience with witnessing the murder of an African American and figuring out how to respond to it. It soon becomes clear that Hiram’s past experiences with his father have affected his viewpoint on life. For example, Hiram states, “It made me sick, and all I wanted to do was get out of there, out of Mississippi, and back home where things and people weren’t so crazy.” (Crowe 192) This shows significant character development for him, which contributes to identity. Hiram’s experience in witnessing a failed justice system for African Americans also caused a change in his personality. In the beginning of the book, he loved Greenwood, his grandfather’s home, and thought it was incredible. In the beginning, he states, “It was the best place on Earth” and that he, “loved [his] grandparents.” (Crowe 3) This demonstrates that there is a change in Hiram’s thought process and that this will change his personality and self-identification. Clearly, the murder of Emmett Till affected how Hiram viewed himself and others. Before, Hiram could be described as a young boy who had a blind, immense love for his grandfather and the South. However, his experience with Emmett Till and observing a murder that his grandfather was part of reformed Hiram, who came to

"Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism. The way you play your hand is free will." Norman Cousins. This quote was the basic underlying moral of the book The Other Wes Moore and the short story The Third and Final Continent. The poem if acts as a guideline for a person’s willpower. The poem If shows the reader the steps to follow to come out of a situation of doubt with sheer-will power. The Other Wes Moore conveys this same theme when the main character breaks out of poverty in a first desperate, but then determined childhood. The Third and Final Continent follows the story of a talented young student and the hardships faced in his unfamiliar new life in The United States of America. These texts, If, The Other Wes Moore, and The Third and Final Continent represent how effort becomes the driving force of success even in improbable circumstances through use of setting, characterization, and conflict.

How can a single word chose a person’s actions and dramatically change their life? In Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road the Lester family goes through a lot in a one week span. Through the struggles with poverty and barely surviving life. This family shows that the wants are much more profitable in the long hall. As the story continues, a tragic reality check come upon this Lester family. In Tobacco Road, Caldwell illustrates how both poverty and lust causes conflict based on the choices one makes in an attempt to make life better.

Every author creates some type of conflict to have the reader sitting on the edge of their seats whether the conflict be man versus man, man versus self, or man versus nature. The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy wrote a story about both a man and a boy who have particularly conflicting characteristics when it comes to decision making. The boy in the story is very optimistic about everything and the man can be pessimistic when either deciding on what to do or when thinking about life or the future. In addition, both characters have different outlooks and personalities that can sometimes collide.

A major theme of the novel is the hypocrisy and double standards that are evident in the society surrounding Huck. This trait is found especially within Christian and religious types in the novel. Twain shows almost every good Christian in the novel as having a generous and kind side, which completely contradicts much of their actions. Twain believes that this hypocrisy is the underlining element that makes religion skeptical. As it is seen in the book, almost every good Christian contradicts himself or herself in some way. Perhaps Huck's first example of this was when the Widow Douglas did not allow him to smoke, as it was a mean practice. However, “she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself” (Twain 2). Another example was the Grangerfords. Huck described this family as very nice and kind and even considered Buck a good friend. But once again, the hypocrisy of religious types was bound to come into play. These same people are slave owners and have a feud with a similar family, the Shepherdsons for reasons they don't remember. Perhaps the biggest example of this hypocrisy was when Huck went to church with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. As Huck explains, “the men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees.... it was pretty ornery preaching all about brotherly love” (Twain 83). It is obvious that the two families had their guns in their laps while the preacher talked about

Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle between free-will and destiny, and illustrates the idea of time in order to demonstrate that there is no free-will in war; it is just destiny. Vonnegut conveys this through irony, symbolism and satire.

In a desolate world ravaged by fire, a boy and his father trudge across the countryside. They encounter people in their most desperate times where their motives are unpredictable and noone can be trusted. The boy and his father try to maintain their morality while facing starvation and having to deal with unpredictable people they encounter on the road. Cormac McCarthy in his novel The Road, uses the theme of hope to demonstrate the human trait that purpose is essential to survival.

I could tell from his anxious and distant eyes and his trudging footsteps that something had gone wrong. It reminded me of him coming home after the Robinson trial. His frustration and defeat were foreign to me. He had been suffering since the case made its way close to his heart - although he would never admit to it. The house now lacked the warmth it once radiated. Atticus has been spending all his hours in that little office of his and the poor children had so little time with their father. They were always eager to see him, but since Atticus’s assignment to Tom Robinson’s case, they have met only their father’s sheer fatigue and his desire to be isolated. Jean Louise especially had been missing her night readings with Atticus. The girl waited for him each night, only to be left

To begin with, religious hypocrisy is brought up with the Widow, The Grangerfords, and The Shepherdsons. In the first chapter, the reader gets a glimpse at how two-faced the widow is since she forces Huck to go to church, teaches him the Bible verses, and forbids him from smoking, saying “it [is] a mean practice and it [isn’t] clean,” (15) although she smokes, herself. She does not realize that the things she’s advising Huck to do, she doesn’t abide by them herself in the first place. Miss Watson, taking the same approach as the widow, teaches Huck religious matter and how one should act if they hope to reach heaven. However, talking so much about heaven and hell and the bible, she owns slaves which condemned her in the bible.