In my short essay “Perseverance Island,” I use rhetorical questions and personification to develop the theme that success is developed through struggle. Throughout my writing, I develop the scenery of a stormy day to correlate with the stormy days in people’s lives; along with the sunshine later on to connect to the prosperity that soon follows. I keep an optimistic tone through the essay to keep the reader in a positive mindset and for them to hopefully buy into the theme portrayed.
Throughout my creative nonfiction essay, I use rhetorical questions to have the reader truly ask themselves the questions that connect to my overall theme. During the start of my story, I ask “How is success created with constant conflict” (Ostler 1)? By asking this question, the reader is asked how people become successful
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At the beginning of my essay, I introduce the weather by using personification. I wrote that “The thick fog and slight drizzle depressed the morning sky,” paired with “The winds that whistled past our red faces” (Ostler 1). The personification of the natural elements connects the true animosity we faced during the beginning of the ride; the examples give the reader a sense of empathy from the conflicts they face in their lives. This connection takes the theme to a personal level. Furthermore, I develop the theme using personification later in the story during the sunshine (or success) phase. I described that “The sun opened the skies and left little reminiscence of the storm that lurked in its wakes,” followed by “The day that was growing warmer” (Ostler 2). Though these parts of nature aren’t literally opening or growing, the picture that it paints in the mind of the reader develops the true setting. The personification aids the reader in illustrating both the negative and positive sides of the story to understand the overall
Chapter ten of How to Read Literature Like a Professor explains the important role weather plays on literature. For instance, snow is not just snow in a novel. It symbolizes so much more in both positive and negative ways; it is stark, filthy, playful, and clean, and you can do just about anything with it. In “The Dead,” Joyce breaks his main character down until he can look out at the snow, which is “general all over Ireland,” and then the reader realizes snow is like death. It paints the image that “upon all the living are the dead.”
Within stories weather can often be personified in order to reflect and enhance the mood or tone of the story. Certain weather indicates certain moods, this can help visually enhance the story for the reader and provide extra context for analysis. In the short story The Painted Door by Sinclair Ross, the author demonstrates the idea that if both of those in a marriage are not fully committed it could lead to discontent for all, and how environmental issues could play a part in this. The storm within the story is used to represent Ann’s anxiety about whether her husband will come home or not; and as the story continues and the storm gets worse, so does her anxiety. It can also be seen as a representative of her inner conflict in deciding between
“There is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success” (Gladwell 18). In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell is trying to convince his audience that they misunderstand how people become successful. Many believe one only needs hard work and determination in order to achieve success. However, Gladwell complicates this idea by explaining that hard work and determination is not how people become successful and instead, it is all about the opportunities one is given that decides if he or she is successful or not. Gladwell uses the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos in order to persuade his audience to accept his idea of the process of becoming successful.
Foster’s insights about seasons and weather in literature change the story’s interpretation by clarifying their purposes. Foster’s main idea in the chapter It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow is weather always has a purpose; for example, rain, which has an “association with Spring,” can allow a “character to be cleansed symbolically” and “can bring the world back to life.” This insight is clear in the short story as outside Mrs.Mallard’s room the “trees were all aquiver with the new spring life” and “the delicious breath of rain was in the air.” The rain and spring weather may be dismissed as merely setting, but Foster’s insights allow the deeper meaning behind the inclusion of rain and spring to be clarified. The rain and spring show how Mrs.Mallard was cleansed
Challenges and obstacles are everywhere, and everyday people find ways to overcome them all. They are what keep someone motivated to continue trying until they reached their goal. As in “The Circuit,” “from the Grapes of Wrath,” and “Against the Odds.”, they show an example of how they did it. Individuals surpass hardships by persevering to make progress piece by piece.
When it comes to literature, weather can be used in many different ways. It can symbolize theme, set the mood of the story, and even affect the plot. In Tangerine by Edward Bloor, the weather acts as a plot device and as a symbol.
In chronological order, Petry introduces the wind. Her selection of detail opens up the thought of the wind being brutal by stating “a cold November wind”. She goes on to use imagery to explain how disruptive this wind was. By Petry using her imagery, selection of detail and figurative language, she opens up a deeper analysis of what the wind actually represents.
Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.
One of the first items the author states is that all symbolism is intentional, there are no accidents when it comes to analyzing famous literature. He describes certain authors like James Joyce and T.S. Elliot as “intentionalists” or writers who purposely try to control every part of the story through symbolism. The author Thomas Foster teaches us never to overlook anything in a novel even if it be little things like the color shirt they are wearing or what the weather is like outside. Building more off the last statement, precipitation, whilst being a little detail added into a story, holds a lot of important roles in moving the story along and even providing hardships for characters to overcome. Even more than that though, he says “It’s never just rain”, rain provides as a symbol in the story so that if someone is in the rain it’s almost as if they are being cleansed.
Guilt is a strong emotion that haunts us all, others hide it deep within themselves, some try to fix the wrong, and few people do good from it. The Kite Runner is the story of a boy named Amir, he struggles to find his place in the world, reason being of the all of the traumatic childhood events. He sends most of his time and life just sulking in guilt about the decisions he has made. Khaled Hosseini has given the idea that guilt can make you do good things, but all relies on what you're guilty about. The way this is portrayed is through the novel is through rhetorical strategies and imagery.
The rhetorical situation helps the audience understand all aspects of which the rhetor writes. When an audience understands the rhetorical situation, they are able to make a judgment on whether they believe the author to be credible or not, or their writing to be effective or not. Mary Crow Dog and Maya Angelou are both effective rhetors because their rhetorical situations work together to make their essays compelling. “Civilize Them with a Stick” by Mary Crow Dog and “Graduation” by Maya Angelou each introduce effective rhetorical situations as they establish their individual identity through their educational experiences.
When meeting characters in the beginning of novels, the author can add how they perceive weather to let the readers get a feel for how observing they are. If the character pays no mind to the weather the reader may see that had acted as ignorant.
The weather does more than fit the scene’s energy; often, the weather mirrors the protagonist’s attitudes and feelings, helping readers sympathize and connect with the characters. The first several chapters, set at Gateshead, are rainy, cold, and dreary, paralleling Eyre’s hopeless outlook. According to Thomas Foster, one of rain’s several potential purposes in a novel is to add an air of mystery, isolation, and misery. For example, when Jane is locked in the red-room, “the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight...the rain
In literature, weather is a mechanism used to enhance and create mood. In the novel Life of Pi, it is used successfully in this way. However, Yann Martel’s use of weather in the story also portrays the overwhelming commotion in Pi’s subconscious as he undergoes 227 days at sea. The parallels between the weather and Pi’s journey of transcending his safety net, his normalcy, and his childhood are evident throughout the novel. Weather is a representation of the wholehearted connection Pi has with nature, as it often accurately represents his thoughts and emotions. Yann Martel uses weather as a medium to encapsulate the reader and put them in the novel, but also to convey the dire circumstances of Pi’s mind.
“Storm Warnings,” true to its literal subject matter, possesses flowy sweeping syntax created by the strategic use of commas and phrasing to draw parallels between the physical oncoming winds and the gales of life. The author crafts a long run-on sentence that spans the first stanza and carries on into the latter portion of the second to mirror the continuous flowing of windy weather and the forward motion of life. Once the speaker notices the brewing storm, they “walk from window to closed window, watching boughs strain against the sky.” In this portion of the affromented run-on sentence, alliteration, rhythm, and the repetition of words all contribute to the impression of movement. The various “w” sounds at the beginnings of words and the repetition of the word “window” create a sensation of continuously flowing forward, especially when read aloud; the comma adds a small swirling pause to the rhythm, which is then soon after resumed with the word “watching.” Just as the poem rhythmically moves forward with its long phrases connected with frequent commas, so must life carry on with each additional experience, whether it be misfortunes or joys. The elongated syntax allows all these elements to work together within sentences to highlight the similarities between physical storms and emotional struggle and to stress the inevitability of predicaments in life.