Literary Analysis : Halloween In The Anthropocene, 15

Halloween: the holiday where as kids we couldn’t wait to go door to door to achieve the golden goal of a full bag of candy. Halloween soon turns into a question mark for teens; in an instant, there is a change of when it is ‘appropriate’ to go trick-or-treating and when you should just move on. Are you the one who thinks Trick-or-treating is lame or the one who still walks around your neighborhood every year -- no matter how many dirty looks you may get. What teenagers decide to do on Halloween varies: going to a party, passing out candy, staying home are a few popular options. Throughout my highschool experience I have been able to witness and experience all different types of halloteens, each with their own traits.

Every year millions of kids get dressed up, knock on doors, and beg for candy. With Halloween just around the corner, you all are probably wondering where this strange tradition came from. Every year I have experienced this holiday and have done research on this topic. According to a 2014 Smithsonian.com article, stated by Natasha Geiling, in just one year Americans spent over six billion dollars on candy, costumes, and ghoulish decor in anticipation for Halloween. Many people think all Halloween is about dressing up and going trick or treating but there's more to it than that. The roots and variations from all around are what makes Halloween what it is today. In order to understand this holiday, we will go into the history of Halloween, how it's celebrated around the world, and superstitions revolving it.

“Halloween in the Anthropocene” is a poem written by Craig Santos Perez, an activist for

Purpose: To inform the audience of how Halloween started and transformed to what it is now.

The scene is first set up through the personification of the sun. The poet uses interesting diction and phrases, such as “dipping” and “geometries” to describe nature. The sun is described with human characteristics, “build[ing]” these “geometries and orchids” and “riding/The last tumultuous avalanche”. It is like an almighty being that is capable of anything, including the controlling of nature. The poet wants to portray nature as a hidden yet powerful force that should not be seen as a simple concept. Contrasts,

The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.

Arguably his most powerful rhetorical strategy is a joint appeal to ethos and pathos. Louv calls readers to consider what “we'll someday tell our grandchildren” if the devaluation of nature continues. Parents respond to the ethical appeal by relating to Louv as he ponders his legacy and “our” grandchildren. They respond to Louv’s appeal to pathos by feeling a deep, personal pain that their childhood pastimes are as antiquated as a “nineteenth-century Conestoga wagon.” By causing readers to feel antiquated, to relate to him, and to question their legacy, Louv stirs them to teach their children the same appreciation for nature they grew up with, if only to preserve their heritage. Louv further rouses hours readers with imagery, describing “the empty farmhouse,” “steamy edges,” and “thunderheads and dancing rain” that his readers grew up watching out their car windows. Reminiscing with readers, painting images of their childhoods, reminds parents of the beautiful, wonderful things they learned and memories they made while observing nature during car rides. Expanding on readers’ pasts, Louv references the rapid technological changes that his readers went through during the globalization movement, changes that separated them from nature “in the blink of an eye.” Readers are invested in their parts and Louv uses their attraction to their childhood memories and dissatisfaction with the rapid

This paper will define imagery, metaphors, rhyme and structure and will also discuss the importance of figurative language in poetry and how it communicates to the reader.

In the very beginning of the essay Marquez starts off with a simile. A simile is comparing two things which are different. The use of a simile makes the comparison more vivid. She

“Halloween in the Anthropocene” is a poem written by Craig Santos Perez. Perez writes about how humans will do whatever they can do to gain more money and wealth even at the expense of many lives because it is more convenient with the lack of regulations .Perez constantly switches between the use of american banter to foreign problems tying the two together. Perez utilizes diminishing repetition, tone, and figurative language in “Halloween in the Anthropocene” to refer to his theme of environmental safety.

Furthermore, this poem heavily uses a mixture of literal and figurative imagery. One of my favourite examples of imagery in this poem was “hands reaching out / fists raising up / banners unfurling / megaphones booming” (Jetñil-Kijiner 62-65). This quote allows the reader to imagine the protests and the movements that people are trying to do in order to save the planet. That was a case of extremely powerful and inspiring literal imagery as it shows people’s fight for change. This is an example of people who are fighting to save the planet for not only the current generation but for future generations as well. There are also several examples of figurative imagery, the most prominent is personification. An example of personification is “they say [the lagoon] will gnaw at the shoreline / chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees / gulp down rows of your seawalls / and crunch your island’s shattered bones” (12-15). In this example, it is talking about the repercussions of climate change and what the future will look like if people do not change. The use of personification helps the reader understand the awful things that can

Halloween, a holiday many of us know and love. A day when we celebrate together with our friends, family, neighbors and community. We go from door to door collecting candy, sweets and much more, racing on who can approach the most houses or who can collect the most candy in the group. It is all fun and games when trick or treating, and it has evolved into so much more than from the past. As years pass by, we celebrate this holiday annually, but of everything we’ve taken in from being children through our teen and adult years, do we truly know the background of Halloween Day?

Regrettably, the reader may feel disoriented by the book’s unusual format. The volume is divided into two unnumbered sections, ‘Monsters of the Anthropocene’ and ‘Ghosts of the Anthropocene’. Both sections are positioned upside-down in relation to one another, and each

As I was walking back from school with my friends, Will and Alex, we were talking about what we were going to do tonight for Halloween. The teachers seem to be really concerned about us, telling us not to go by ourselves but rather go in big groups or with our parents for trick or treating, like were 13, we can handle ourselves. Mr. Robert our history teacher was telling all the kids that he hates Halloween because it symbolizes the devil and demons. He was yelling at another student, I forgot her name but she was saying that she was going to dress up as the devil and try to summon other demons he was not having it, he kicked her out immediately. As she was leaving she said something weird speaking gibberish something like “Ligandum eos

It was a foggy night on Halloween Many think that the barrier between our world and the underworld are at the weakest point well let's find out Me and my friends love Halloween we can be anyone or anything for only one day out of the year.Every year me and my friends lucy,who is a more scientific person believes every thing should be proven she has black hair blue eyes Parker,wants some money he has blond hair and green eyes and Eleanor is a scaredy cat she has white hair and brown eyes.we take a trip to my parents cabin in the louisiana swamp It is great this time of year because we always go looking for unusual things out of this world things paranormal things. We always see something but you never let them see you!