Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory Essay

Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory The universal "growing pains" that all children experience in one form or another are easily recognized in Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical excerpt from Hunger of Memory. Rodriguez’s childhood was particularly unique given the fact that while he was born and raised in the United States, he was strongly influenced in the ethnic environment of a Spanish family. Although the reader is introduced to only a short excerpt from the autobiography, he learns a great deal about Rodriguez’s family and his relationship to it, his conflict of speaking English versus Spanish, and the paradox that became evident as he used English as his primary language.

The painting lays a scene of a landscape of an Island territory and several different people and animals. In the eye catching foreground “we see a farmer herding a large amount of animals” their focus is darted to the left of the painting. we will come to learn that all mentioned figures and objects in the painting have a visual focus to facing to the left, as our eyes draw towards the right and farther out we notice off in the “distance you see an image of the fisherman off to the coast (a pair of legs submersed in water as well not too far off). In the north you see a ship that seems to dwarf them both in size and space.” With this we can draw the connection that this relates to the idea that time

Edvard wrote of the inspiration of the painting in his diary. The paintings showed emotion that had never been expressed so openly through art before. This painting is laced with hidden meanings, the faceless clock represents the uncertainty of the artists time left, the bed represents death, the placement of the figure between these two pieces symbolises the decisions and issues he is experiencing. The painting depicts a horse pulling a cart, which appears to be dangerously out of control. The body is distorted, twisted and disfigured with terror.

Salvador Dali’s 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory is a hallmark of the surrealist movement. Dali famously described his paintings as “hand-painted dream photographs” and The Persistence of Memory is a prime example of that description. The Persistence of Memory depicts striking and confusing images of melting pocket watches and a mysterious fetus-like structure all sprawled over the dreamscape representation of Dali’s home of Port Lligat, Spain. Dali uses strange images, color, and shadows in The Persistence of Memory to convey an abstract view on dreams, time, and reality.

- P: In the painting there are four clocks, a dead tree, a body of water in the distance, sand, mountains, a white blanket, ants, and a snake. It is definitely day time and parts of the desert are cut. One clock is melted over a dead tree's branch. Another one is melted along the split of the land. Another one is rusted and has a ton of black ants scattering on top of it. Finally,

The painting was done by a friend of mine and is supposed to represent the

The lower left side of the sky also has some orange colorage. This is because the sun is setting behind it, therefore, the time of day this painting is set in a sunset. In front of these clouds is a dark ship decorated with gold design. The ship’s size makes it a main focal point of the painting.

The background has areas of dark and light that may be representing a dark part of this woman's life and the light area showing awakening in this woman's soul. To me the woman in the painting is staring out into the world and realizing that there is so much out there for her. That she can walk out of there and not be lost any more. Mrs. Mallard felt the same way. In the room she realized that she can now live her life on her own the way she wants to. She walked out of the room with a sense of

The Persistence of Memory, often called just “clocks,” is widely regarded as a Surrealist masterpiece and is a very famous painting by the Spaniard, Salvador Dali, one of the most enigmatic artists of the twentieth century. The clocks melting represent the irrelevance of time, and the oddities found within the painting, like the creature with human eyelashes, exemplifies his outlandish subject matter “Surrealism the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations” (Merriam-Webster). Observing Dali’s The Persistence of Memory you see melting clocks on a beach with a white creature like

The name of the painting translates to past, present and future, and the name could link to the three figures that are painted. The left one could symbolise the past as she is looking behind her. The right figure would represent the future as she is looking ahead of herself looking for what is coming next, and the woman in the middle is facing the viewer represent the present showing what is happening in the

In this painting you can see what looks to be like melting pocket watches, and in the background there is a beach scene. There is also only one watch that’s covered in ants, and looks like its not deteriorating. With all of these contributing factors this painting to me, symbolizes things dying over time. It also symbolizes how time means nothing.

The painting’s pull is so great that no one can be brought to notice anything else. Even the people working at the museum are aware of nothing other than the painting when in its presence. It makes for the perfect cover for the owners who, never watched, can stand in the far corner, facing the wall: a boy and an old man standing side by side. They stare into the wall, as if they could see the world there, except their eyes are completely blank; and yet, somewhere, in the depth of their darkness, hides a terrible consciousness. Looking into such eyes, you would learn one thing: that you would not be of this World for

During the World Wars, Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory is an iconic piece rendering his sub-conscience of mortality by having melting clocks while using the concept of surrealism (Falconer). Just like Dalí, Jackson Pollock used methods of surrealism to display his deepest thoughts. Pollock was able to express his battle with alcoholism taking over in an abstract way in the painting The Deep (Falconer). Similarly, but without the use of surrealism, Jacob Lawerence was able to try to explain that blacks are people too with his painting They Were Very Poor (“Jacob Lawerence”,

The “proliferated minute detail across the whole work” is punctuated across the entire canvas. At the bottom left of the painting, there is a wooden object that looks as though a master carpenter chiseled it for the Goddess of the painting. The wooden object’s focal point is a fleur-de-lis and stemming from this symbol are intricately woven strands that fill in the rest of the object. Additionally, the patterns that stem from the fleur-de-lis do not seem to have a preordained order to them, which suggests that the carpenter was working

This painting contains a lot of key objects within it that helped express the moral of the painting. One key element of the painting was the moon, the moon was used to represent a cycle, in my opinion. The moon represents the passing of time and embodies its cycle. The moon has different phrases throughout the years and its surface interchanges between light and dark. The light side I believe represents immortality and source of light and hope during night time. The alternative side of the moon represents the gorier side of the night. I believe that the moon in this picture, with connection to the girl, that she experiencing source of hope or promise because the moon is completely light.