Poem Analysis: God's Search For Meaning

They might even say that she would lose her faith in God because He let this happen to her. I do not think this is true because for most of the story she did not know if her family was alive. “Yet I was not without sorrow, to think how many were looking and longing, and my own children amongst the rest, to enjoy that deliverance that I had now received, and I did not know whether ever I should see them again (twentieth remove)”. Her hope that her family was alive that she would see them again might have made her will to live stronger, but I do not think that was her main reason for fighting to stay

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

Even with the nightmares happening around her, Rowlandson is able to avoid the horrific fates others undergo by staying focused on her religion and God’s work. She describes an encounter with a fellow captive, saying that one poor woman “came to a sad end, as some of the company told me in my travel: She having much grief upon her Spirit, about her miserable condition, being so near her time, she would be often asking the Indians to let her go home” (77). Ultimately, the Indians, being annoyed by her constant begging and pleas, decide to burn both this woman and her small child alive. However, unlike that unlucky woman, Rowlandson survives because, instead of pleading to her captors, she takes her pleas to God and turns toward her religion, which keeps her mind healthy and positive throughout her tribulations. She is mentally tough due to her focus on positive religious messages, making her able to handle her situation well and ultimately leading to her survival.

As Mary’s story unravels, she continues to suffer long hours of work, starvation, and separation from her family. She reads her holy bible and is constantly reminding herself that God is with her and will see her through these trials. Her spirits are lifted her master agrees to sell Mary to her husband, and her mistress begins the journey with her, but before long the mistress decides not to go any further and they turn back. Not long after, she starts to loose hope that she will ever be reunited with her family. She becomes discouraged, and her spirit

She was beaten, shackled and “was wet with the dew of all the men who had covered her before” him(4). He quickly recognizes her because his mother is also an Ila woman. He takes care of her — washing her disarrayed body, starting a fire for warmth and protection, and hunting for food. He also believed in fasting for ten consecutive days as a way of a spiritual cure those who are suffering, “in this way the spirit of the dead one grows weak, finally it lets go and journeys to the land of the soul” (5). He grew weak, yet still taking care of her. They began to love one another, and did not want to be apart. Taking her first steps, she ventured to short travels, but was not ready for a lonesome journey. With each trial, the journey becomes a little farther. Twelve days later, she was gone. He holds himself back from calling her name aloud to take her back forever. He continues on with his journey to the village, hunting for food as he returns to the village not

At first she calls on G-d to “strengthen me in my distress” (line 9). Then the narrator begins to think that “It was His own, it was not mine” (like 17) which shows that she’s beginning to accept what happened. This was all in G-d’s plan; it was predetermined. The narrator goes on to say “Adieu, adieu, all’s vanity” (line 36). This is a very materialistic phrase. However, in the next stanza, the narrator says that she is the one in the wrong for straying from G-d. The realization of the connection she has developed to material objects brings on a reflecting of how she ever strayed from G-d since there is nothing to count on except G-d. In the last stanza, the narrator says, “My hope and treasure lies above” (line 54). Everything that the narrator needs is in heaven. While she may seem a little resentful, she is able to accept the destruction of her house and turn it into love for G-d. The idea of predestination makes an appearance again as the narrator knows that this is what G-d wanted. G-d is all that she has left now since she lost all of her material wealth along with everything

The speaker is thinking in a childish manner, caught dwelling on how her “wool winter suit scratched.” (Shore 2) and the idiosyncrasies of her mother. Her attention is consistently darting from object to object, unable to relax her thoughts. Further into the text, feelings of doubt and skepticism emerge. When thinking that she is the chosen one, she questions God’s intentions. “Why would God choose me. . .” (Shore 57) she asks herself. The speaker wonders how could someone so seemingly insignificant and feeble lead a congregation to victory? Then, once feeling empowered by the possibility of her being able to defend her people, a tone of acceptance arises. She gains self-pride and confidence knowing that she is capable of interpreting what is occurring around her. As a Jew, she is aware of what her faith requires of her yet is unsure of how to approach them. During her visit at the synagogue, she began pondering about these responsibilities and how she should fulfill them, thus resulting in the chain of events that led to the acceptance of her obligations to her religion.

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

In Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, all of these things are expressed, and she discusses her entire journey through captivity. One of the main things to take away from this narrative is the amount of faith that is portrayed throughout all the difficult times. Anyone who were to read this captivity narrative would recognize how important Rowlandson’s faith was to her and her family; even though the Indians did

These two things that she worked so hard to get only caused her more roadblocks. The book that was found was written in a different language. Now this is not much of a struggle, just find someone to translate it, think again. The language it was written in was nonexistent there was only one person who could read it, but translations take a long time. The ring was the object in the box that caused her to hit a large roadblock. The ring had symbols on it which told her she was betrothed to not one person, but two. The first was the man who killed her birth parents and her adoptive parents to try and capture her to call her his own. The second was the brother of Colt, Callon, but she had fallen deeply in love with Colt and he did the same. The brothers withheld the betrothal information for months and that allowed her to fall harder than she was when she first got the ring. The boys were just allowing her heart to get torn in two when she realized she was bound to another and was unable to choose her destiny by following her heart. With such a mix of emotions, she needed to find a way to make sense of it all. Unable to turn to her parents she had to turn to the past. She had to remember that her “Father always told me to be strong and that strength is measured in character. It doesn’t come from others; it comes from within” (location 5528). The only way she was going to overcome this obstacle is if she believed in herself.

These two statements are very important because they are the backbone of the whole book. These are the strongest parts that support the women she is. She is so hand in hand with God that she doesn’t even once criticize the reasons she’s in captive but as I have stated before, she blames herself for not praying enough. In the sixth remove she explains her circumstance, her being surrounded by her former enemies amidst no Christians at all but herself. She exclaims, “Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!” Without any form of disbelief she praises the kindness of God. The beauty of her relationship with God is that she mentions no matter what kind of situation she is in whether it be near death or with luxuries. And she sees every good thing that happens to her as a sign of God. To sum it up, everything that has happened to her was pre-planned and the grace of God.

violent things she had endured. She always talks to God asking him to give her

Sarah, after hearing the news, told Cate that it was our family’s lack of faith—and specifically, Cate’s lack of faith—that caused the baby to die. We did not “claim” God’s healing for Hannah, and if we had done so she would have been born alive. The suffering from Hannah’s death was magnified by Sarah’s assertions, and our family is still grappling with both. It has broken my mother’s heart, caused my father to believe his lack of faith killed his grandchild, and made Cate suffer more than she

The House of Evil is a heavy narration of persistent torture, hunger, and killing of an innocent fifteen year old girl named Sylvia Linken. It leaves the reader speechless as to know that humans can have an evil nature and mind, knowing destruction as a source of fun, using words like “sex party,” playing abomination acts like forcing a Pepsi bottle into a vagina, blaming her for a pregnancy that did not exist, acting deaf and blind to the excruciating pain of the sufferer and not knowing what the sufferer is going through. Sylvia Linken’s murder is to some extent a mystery as to understand psychology of the persecutors and the persecuted Sylvia. Interestingly, the members of a church, namely Gertrude Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs are a source of pain and destruction to another member, Sylvia and are not

For Joanna, religion was a source of comfort that was pushed on her by her father. Joanna was raised by puritans and she lives her life with a constant subconscious fear of