Short Story The Thing In The Forest

The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter is a story about a young white boy named John Butler, also known as True Son. He is taken by Indians when he is four years old. After being raised by Indians, white soldiers come to return him home. Unfortunately, for John, he doesn’t want to leave. He does not want to live with people he considers his enemy. During the journey, back to civilization, John resists to be controlled by the white soldiers and expresses deep levels of hatred toward them. Along the way, his favorite cousin, Half Arrow, catches up to him and accompanies the rest of the journey. When the group reaches a certain point, Half Arrow is forced to leave. John realizes that might be the last time he ever sees his cousin.

The Light in the Forest, a story by Conrad Richter, portrays a 15-year-old boy born to White people, but captured and raised by Indians. This creates many interesting perspectives from both Whites and Indians, and how they view god, nature, life, and each other. Prior to this I had never read a book with both perspectives. It takes place in Pennsylvania near the area of Fort Pitt during the French and Indian War. When he was just 4 years old, John Butler was captured by the Tuscarawas tribe during an ambush. He was renamed True Son by the leader of the tribe, Cuyloga, and raised like an Indian. When True Son was 15 years old, it was announced that he, along with other captives were going to be returned to their real families. During the trip,

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."

In the story there are many symbols that represent different things. They bring up a garden at Jim’s grandmothers house. This garden made jim feel as he was one with nature. It portrayed a feeling to the Garden of Eden where humans originally were. He wondered about death and thought if the way he was feeling was the same way people felt when they passed on.

The oak tree is used to symbolize Ethan in the novel. The connection can be seen by comparing the characteristics of each. The Oak tree is seen by the characters in the novel as a solid, unchanging, and immovable object. The same can be said about Ethan. He has always has and probably always will live in Starkfield.

With the use of symbols, Byatt can make reference to problems with the girls or make a comment on the larger picture of war at the time. The three largest symbols that appear in the story are the mansion, the forest, and of course, the thing in the forest.

The tree is the symbol for the cultures of Vietnam who were mistreated in the war and that’s what this tree represents in the book. When it says that the tree trunks “resemble those men, the giants of your childhood... (that you) encounter (all those) old years later… smaller, shrunken by age, giants have become pygmies while you were looking away.” This shows that the tree was once a proud symbol of strength and now

The main symbolic imagery in the story happens one day when Penny and Primrose decide to go and wonder in the forest just like any other curious and adventurous little child does. To a place that would seem like a mystery or just fun to go and look at. As they are in the forest wandering around they come into contact with a Thing, a thing they’ve never seen, smelled, or heard before. They see this thing it’s a worm-like monster gliding through the forest leaving tails of smile and it’s such a horrendous sight that they never forget it. All the descriptions lead up to the bigger picture of what the Thing really represents in the story and what back ground it has to tell.

Imagery was also used in the poem.  I found that the yellow in the first line represented that the future the writer was facing was bright and warm regardless of his choice.  The undergrowth was, as undergrowth in any forest, damp and dank smelling, but not necessarily unpleasant, just something that the writer would have to face.  The image of traveling through a forest also brings to mind thoughts of birds in flight, chirping and singing.  Squirrels dashing through trees, rustling leaves and dropping the occasional acorn or nut also create an image of sight and sound.  The sun reflecting through the trees, casting shadows and creating pockets of warm and cool air and the occasional breeze stirring through the trees are also brought to mind by this poem.  The end of the poem brings to me

hint of death within the abeyance of the forest. This is shown by the “half-drowned”

At this point, Clair uses symbolism in her story when she talks about hairy man, a character that her dad made up. Her dad always told her stories about hairy man and “at night the Hairy Man went anywhere he wanted to go but in the day time he stayed inside the yellow house”(Clair). Hairy Man symbolises something mysterious in this passage. Harry Man was supposedly crazy because Hairy Man was taken away by “a nurse kind of woman in a bandana came out and took him back inside the house”(Clair). Her mother also told her that the house that Hairy Man went inside of were painted light blue “which my mother said was peaceful a peaceful color for someone shell-shocked”(Clair). Hairy Man could also represent the boogie man or any childhood monsters that children believe could be in there closet or under there bed. Hairy Man is a figure that shows symbolism, it is symbolising something mysterious, odd and crazy.

The words that stick out the most are ‘dawn’ and ‘doom’. The first sound imagery used in this passage is diction. Looking at the line, “dawn and doom was in the branches” it is clear that the words ‘dawn’ and ‘doom’ catches the reader’s attention, especially since they are an alliteration. If Zora had just said “Beginning and end was in the branches” the reader would not be as drawn to these words. The next sound imagery is denotation. Dawn means beginning or rise of anything or the first appearance of light in the morning, and doom means ruin or death according to dictionary.com. This makes the reader clearly understand that Zora means the beginning and the end, which is fitting because everything in life, which the tree represents, has a beginning and an ending. When comparing these words to their actual meaning they relate to some symbols found throughout the story. Dawn can be referring to light as it is the first appearance of light in the morning. According to Natalie on umwblogs.org, light in many novels is a symbol of purity, intelligence or birth. Purity and intelligence is an excellent way to describe Janie at this time in her life and birth can refer to the beginning of something. The word dawn can also bring attention to another symbol in the story, the horizon. To Janie the horizon symbolizes many possibilities and dreams that she can follow, which is part of her quest for love. Zora clearly utilized these words to make the reader look into the real meaning of the

The pink ribbons worn by Faith symbolized the innocence of Goodman Brown’s faith. Pink is associated with being sweet, playful, and child like. It is when Goodman Brown sees the ribbons floating down from heaven that he knows he has lost his faith and that innocence has been tainted with evil. The staff symbolizes a type of deception of sin. The devil twice offers his staff to man. Once to Goodman Brown and then to Goody Cloyse. The devil deceives by offering his staff as a source of comfort an object to lean upon when Brown and Cloyse are tired and weary. Sometimes in life it is much easier to lean on the evil and take the path of least resistance rather than stand up for what is right and what we believe in. The forest is a classic symbol used in many stories. The forest is seen as dark, deceiving and a way to get lost. In “Young Goodman Brown” the deeper Brown gets into the forest the more lost he becomes. He is separated from his faith and all he knows as good. The “hanging twig and the coldest dew” is one of my favorite symbols used in this story. This whole scene is full of imagery with the cold damp rock and the feeling of hopelessness in the air. The twig with the cold dew on it is what awakens Brown from his dream or vision. This is what makes him face the reality of

     The setting of the dark forest represents the devil's home. It's a place where one would picture the devil living because of the darkness. It is a place where very few would normally travel very deep into. The forest is like sin.

It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.