Mary Oliver's Family Tree

The mood of the speaker changes to guilt as the speaker and her mother realize they would "crawl" with "shame" and leave an "emptiness" in their father's heart and yard. The author negatively connotes "crawl," "shame," and "emptiness" to invoke a more serious and shameful tone. The beginning of the conveyed a more matter-of-fact and pragmatic tone, but changes into a more sentimental one by the end to convey family is more important than the money. The symbol of the tree represents the family, and connects it to their father's hard work and dedication to the family. If they were to cut it down, it would be symbolic of their betrayal. Imagery of the tree is used to describe the freedom and beauty of the tree as it "swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit." The tree represents their family bond and how strong it is even through the "whip-crack of the mortgage."

Jane Hirshfield connects to nature at her home in Marin County, California this is where she gets her inspiration for her poems. Hirshfield published “Tree” in 2000 as a free verse poem, divided into 4 stanzas and 4 sentences to convey the nature world. The poem represents a “young redwood” (line 2) growing near a house, near a kitchen window. The redwood is already scraping against the window frame of the house, reminding the reader of the “foolish” (line 1) idea of letting it grow there. Humans were created to be one with nature, but as they evolved as a species, they were obligated to choose between the materialistic world or the world of nature.

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.

It creates a mood that readers can understand. Williams does a wonderful job contrasting death and life; his use of “attiring” and “disattiring” basically narrates how trees lose their leaves, leaving them “clothless”, but then the branches are preparing for what’s to come--their rebirth in the coming season. The liquid moon makes me think that he’s trying to create irony; the moon is liquid, as if melted, even though it’s winter time and everything is supposed to be frozen. The irony is subtle, yet very impactful when you notice it. Perhaps the long branches represent the strength of the trees despite the harsh environment around them. The buds can be seen as children being prepared by their parents for what’s to come, possible teaching them what to do and what not to do so that they can survive the winter and bloom in the spring. Like letting a child go off to college after years of care so that they can become their own person. The “wise trees” have experience, an experience that they have to share with their “buds”. The wise stand sleeping in the cold to take their last breath and let their children take their places. This poem is very meaningful because Williams creates a very important similarity between the trees and humans. Readers can relate because most parents go through the stage of letting their children go and letting them continue what they

Trees and plants represent life in the novel which ties into the overarching theme of the dehumanization that comes from slavery. Many of the characters in Beloved have been subjected to awful events causing them to feel as if they were worse than animals. Because of this, many characters look to the beauty of nature and trees in particular, to help them heal from their time in slavery. For example, Baby Suggs decided to preach in a place called The Clearing, which is surrounded by tall trees. "In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rock and remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun, thunderous feet and the shouts that ripped pods off the limbs of chestnuts. With Baby Suggs' heart in charge, the people let go." (Morrison 94) Another example of trees bringing healing to the characters in the novel is the arrival of Beloved. “A fully dressed woman walked out of the water. She barely gained the dry bank of the stream before she sat down and leaned against a mulberry tree.”(Morrison 60) This tree represents a chance at a new life for Beloved and also offers Sethe a chance to heal. Ever since killing her child, Sethe has been haunted over her decision and she is finally able to confront her past with the appearance of

For most of us, this would be our family. To the tree this was its family. Can you imagine having family that doesn’t love you. I can’t. Even though the boy doesn’t show love to the tree, the tree is still willing to make the boy happy.

There are many interpretations of what the actual relationship of the boy and tree is based on. A mother and son’s bond is one that always

But their friendship they has taken a turn. The boy was always focused on his life and forgot about the tree , it becomes

Oliver uses imagery to make the relationship appear to be threatened and possibly coming to an end. The family worries a storm will knock the tree down, “smashing the house” in the process. The tree being there every day is a constant reminder to the family that an unfavorable event could happen to ruin the relationship. In this case, they are worried a storm could bring it down on their house creating an ominous feeling towards

In her poem, “The Black Walnut Tree,” author Mary Oliver uses imagery, symbolism, and personification to contrast the practicality and sentimentality of a physical object, as well as to emphasize the family’s literal and allegorical relationship with the walnut tree. In the first half of the poem, the mother and daughter view the tree as a disposable belonging in attempt to rationalize its removal. The imagery of the “dark boughs” and the personified branches “smashing the house” elicit a feeling of eminent danger. The tree is depicted as a frightening and burdensome inhabitant.

In the poem, The Black Walnut Tree, Mary Oliver writes about a speaker and her mother debating whether they should sell the tree to pay off mortgage. If they keep the tree, they risk a possibility of the tree destroying the house and staying in debt. With the use of a shift from a literal to figurative perspective and the passage of time, the author conveys the relationship of the tree to be symbolic to family and reveals the theme of how family is worth more than money. The poem starts out with a problem.

At this point, the story seemed to come full circle as the “boy” had returned to rest where he had begun. He had lived his life and even after he had taken all the tree had, she was still happy he was there. This showed the unconditional love she had for him, even when he gave little in return. The Giving Tree also shows a bit of selfishness. The boy seemed to be more interested in material possessions instead of the tree’s feelings.

Would you give up everything you have for a person who once loved you to make them and yourself happy? You most likely would not, so how come this “tree” in the Giving Tree did? Was it because she was naturally selfless? Or because she was so in love with the boy she would give anything she had to him simply because he wanted it? In The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein explains what selfless and being in love means in the form of a tree and a boy.

The symbolism that the forest gave us is that when we now that we are doing something wrong, we like to continue doing it. Even if someone who loves us and want the best for us tell us that it is wrong, something we do not listen. We just listen went it is too late for regret. In the story The Young Goodman Brown had someone to try to stop him, but he did not listen. He regret when it was too late for doing something, and maybe the life gave to him another chance for do the things rights and for this he believed that it was a

In chapter 25, the tree was described , “The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsundered below, though community of vitality was destroyed - the sap could flow no more . . .” (Brontë 322). As illustrated by Jane’s quote, a split had severed the tree, however a firm base kept the halves together. The base is meant to symbolize the still existing love between Jane and Rochester. It was for her own feeling of self respect that Jane left Thornfield, however upon her return to Rochester, Jane readily accepted his proposal to marry him.