Salt Water Symbolism

All of the characters in Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys showed exceptional courage, but Joana was perhaps the bravest of them all. Joana was fleeing from her home country of Lithuania when she joined a group of other refugees from many different countries. She took the role of a nurse in the group, and would care for all wounds or illnesses. Joana put her life on the line multiple times to save others, but perhaps the biggest risk she took was in letting Emilia join her group. Emilia was Polish, and would have gotten every single one of them killed if caught by a German soldier. Joana wanted to help everyone she could, and was willing to put her life on the line to do so.

Black son, white mother. Living in Brooklyn, which is a predominantly black neighborhood, during the 1950’s. Just by analyzing the two main characters and the setting we can conclude that a recurring theme in James McBride’s The Color of Water is racial prejudice and injustice. Racial prejudice and injustice are still present in today’s society. All you have to do to see it is turn on the news.

Although Salt to the Sea is a story about things that have been lost and people enduring extreme hardships, it is also a story about hope, family and love. In the book Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, almost all of the main characters go through extremely tragic and terrible events. However, these characters also experience family moments and happy times. Despite the fact that in times of war there is hardship, violence and death, love and family shines through the tragedy. It is the two youngest members of the group, Klaus and Emilia, who eventually find a family to love.

In the work of African descended writers’, water is used as a common symbol. In Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!, Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew, and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, tears, rivers, the sea and other forms of water are used to symbolize change. More specifically, it symbolizes the change between life and death; freedom and confinement. The three writers use water as an ironic symbol, representing life, liberty, and their contradictions.

In the Latin American story, The Third Bank of the River, written by João Guimarães Rosa, a man leaves his family to live his life sailing back and forth on a river for years to come. His son, the main character, never accepts his father leaving the family. Years later when the other siblings have grown old and have children of their own, the son is still living in the house near the river and when his dad finally acknowledges him after years of ignoring anyone who tried to get his attention, he flees, leaving the story with an open ended conclusion. The use of magical realism is present in this story through symbolism and takes interpretation to understand the meaning behind the text. Magical realism is an author's way of using real world issues by incorporating an element of unearthly events such as magic. In The Third Bank of the River, the author uses symbolism, a warped time frame, and human reaction as metaphors for real life events.

Water.  It expresses its’ power in the form of hurricanes and flash floods.  It displays its gentleness, washing dirt off a child's scabbed knee.  Water has been used to quench the thirst of many longing throats; and it has been the cause of death to those who unfavorably crossed its path.  It possesses the power of total destruction, yet it holds the bases of all life.  Generally, water has symbolized cleanliness and renewal.  In the Bible, water was used in Baptism, cleansing the soul of original sin and offering a new life in the light of God.  Water in itself is a natural purifier, washing the dirt from our bodies. Water is a symbol of

In reading Jasmina Derivsevic-Cesic’s novel, The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweet, I find the purpose of her telling her painful story fascinating. Her purpose in writing her story evolves over time from when she was asked to write about her family members’ deaths, to when she began the writing process. Jasmina begins by stating that she originally was “writing the story for Bosnia’s sake.” (Dervisevic-Cesic, 2) Although, when she begins writing her story, the purpose shifts from the story telling of her lost loved ones to helping the people of her new home to understand what Bosnia went through and how they can help. (D-C, 1)

In the book “The Color of Water” by James McBride, Chapter 5 mainly focuses on Ruth’s father (Tateh) and his connection towards his family. In this chapter the author creates how her father only cared about money, his business, and being an American, it also develops the ways he treated his family by treating his wife badly, sexually abusing Ruth, and demanding the kids to work at his shop. The whole chapter comes together to realize Ruth’s fathers true characteristics of being greedy, unloving, and demanding. In chapter 5 “The Old Testament” James McBride uses Imagery and diction to prove love and affection are sometimes sacrificed when it comes to greed, creating a powerful effect.

Rivers provide life in the most desolate of places. They bring the frigid, sky-fallen rain from the frozen mountain lakes to the sunbathed ocean, and give life and sustenance to every ecosystem and civilization on their path. However, in Bless Me, Ultima, the river is a symbol for the experience of life, more than just breathing and moving. Antonio’s river is his life, and it flows through his story just as his life does.

In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbols are the weather and seasons. Cheever uses the changing of seasons to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. While Cheever uses the weather to describe how Merrill feels. When it is warm Merrill feels happy and youthful. However, when it becomes colder Merrill begins to feel weak and sad. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever employs the motif of alcohol in “The Swimmer;” the reader notices that when Merrill is presented with a reality that he deems unpleasant, he uses alcohol to enhance his state of denial. Through the critical lens of New Historicism, the reader can infer the author’s purpose for writing “The Swimmer” is to criticize the lifestyles of affluent people in the 1950s and early 1960s. Cheever focuses on the party lifestyle of affluent communities and how the use of alcohol allows them to deny the reality around their current misfortunes.

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about love and war. Frederic Henry, a young American, works as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I. He falls tragically in love with a beautiful English nurse, Miss Catherine Barkley. This tragedy is reflected by water. Throughout the novel Ernest Hemingway uses water as metaphors. Rivers are used as symbols of rebirth and escape and rain as tragedy and disaster, which show how water plays an important role in the story.

Many authors through time and through this day and age have used symbolism in their works. Critics may say there is too much symbolism in some works. There is never too much symbolism in a work. Symbolism enhances the characters, words, places, and objects to levels that a average work could not reach without the use of symbolism. The more symbolism an author uses, the more attached a reader becomes to the story. Look at August Wilson 's Gem Of the Ocean play. It is loaded with symbolism and has a deep meaning to the story. Every main character has something that symbolizes them. It shows the character 's back rounds and what they have been through.

In my opinion, the author, Ruta Sepetys, moves the novel in an interesting fashion. I liked how there are many characters and how there is a lot of things happening. The author kept the reader interested at all times throughout the novel. The author, Ruta Sepetys, who writes historical non fiction books just as this novel, was born the daughter of a Lithuanian Refugee which may have influenced her to write this very novel. It is geared in a positive way due to Joana, a main character in the novel, helping to portray this with her nursing skills. Seeing the book in the Character of Joana’s eyes affects the overall novel in many different ways. Some may be on Joana’s good side and others may be on her bad side.

One of our first writing assignments in class was the One Word assignment. My word was optimistic, but since then, I have been faced with the toughest challenge in my life so far. Once in a while, when I am feeling extremely down, I remember that assignment and it gives me the strength to continue going with my head up high. Thus, I thank you for the assigning it even when we had a hard time connecting it to the AP test and felt it unnecessary because of it. Also in the meantime, reading Salt to the Sea has helped me calm down and be distracted when I felt overwhelmed. I first complained about having to read a book for the class because I have not enjoyed a majority of the books I have read in my English classes in high school. However, Salt to the Sea turned out to be one of my best reads and I am happy you assigned it. I feel much

The 1954 film Salt of the Earth explores a wide variety of social issues that would come to the forefront of social conscience in the coming decades. The film examines the economic and social inequalities perpetrated by the economic system in the United States, racial prejudice, and gender equity. The script is based on a real-life labor strike and uses the actual miners involved in the labor dispute as actors. The movie was made outside the studio system by blacklisted writer Michael Wilson, director Paul Jarrico, and director Herbert Biberman.