In Hemingway’s short story, “The Snow of Kilimanjaro”, we are left with an ending that is very somber in nature which can be best described with the analysis of the hyena and Mount Kilimanjaro. The hyena had, since it first appears in the story, been stalking Harry, waiting for him to succumb from his gangrenous leg. The hyena is a scavenger and it most directly connected to death, the fact that the hyena had been stalking him was a clear sign that death was imminent and creeping up on him. Here it is a sulking creature never far from death, replacing the traditional views of death in Western themes, “Never believe any of that about a scythe and a skull”. Near the end when death comes for him, he describes the figure that pressed on his chest
This essay will focus on the theme of death in this story. There are lot
In “On Natural Death,” Thomas appeals to the readers by contemplating the subject of death with an academic approach that includes facts, data, and information. Thomas successfully transforms death from an awkward, emotional subject to a more comfortable intellectual one. This engages the readers by placing contemplation of death and dying within the confines of a more manageable and rational context. His gradual exhumation of death eases the audience into pondering the subject in the absence of emotional stress. The essay transitions from the death of an elm tree to that of a mouse. This is followed by Thomas giving a significant amount of attention to a scientific explanation of death, and then finally the description of the near death experience of a human. This use of an academic appeal moves the audience to a comfort zone with the subject of death and circumvents the common response of avoidance. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.
Edgar Allen Poe’s chilling short story Mask of the Red Death begins with people dropping like flies, as the king of the land decides to take his close friends with him to live in one of his palaces. leaving his subjects to survive on their own. A puzzling creature known as the Red Death has been terrorizing and killing off people one by one, and no one has a way to stop it. Through characterization of both Prospero and the Red Death, Poe foreshadows Prospero’s eventual death in the end of the story.
Through this great horned owl, Oliver is able to convey a double-meaning. Not only is it a creature, but the meaning of death. It can be deceiving and appear like a “big soft moth”, but also turn around and “eat the whole world”. She uses this owl to represent the concept of death because anyone or anything can be enjoying
When the time came to build a fire to survive the first accident in the water, his irresponsibility essentially cost him his life. He forgot to build a fire promptly after he got wet, which made it extremely difficult build one after it. His fingers got numb and rigid, making it hard to even light a match. Eventually, the man gave up hope when the last of his matches were snuffed out. Even when it was too late to start a fire, the man’s condition of his hands prevented him by his last resort to kill the dog he was with for warmth. Ultimately he knew his only option was to lay down and go to sleep. The cold had gotten to him so bad that he didn’t mind laying down at the very end of his life. The satisfaction he got when he fell to sleep was much needed by him after his cold journey that day.
The speaker shows his initial perception of death as gruesome and extremely unpleasant. As “the shrike pinned smaller birds on the tree’s black thorns…while some burned holes in the sky overhead.” Perillo deliberately uses imagery to reflect his frightful view on death, but clearly describing the “desiccated” state of the bird. The imagery invokes a sense of discomfort and disgust to the to the audience.
This realization demonstrates the lack of power that people have over time, and by association, death. The reader assumes that since Salamano and his dog grow old together, they may likely also die together. Nearer to Meursault’s execution, the chaplain asks, “But if you don’t die today, you’ll die tomorrow, or the next day. And then the same question will arise. How will you face that terrifying ordeal” (Camus 117)? Death, unpredictable and uncontrollable, will occur when it wishes, and through his indifference to time, Meursault asserts that getting upset over something known to be inevitable provides as useless.
Death is inescapable. In the same way, life is inescapable. The Appalachian short story, “Jake Pond”, portrays this inevitable cycle through the depiction of a young boy enjoying nature. Lou Crabtree writes of the many inner workings of life through symbolism. While some would say this story is a literal telling of a boy and his surroundings, it does, in fact, include a plethora of metaphors to display the complexities of life through figurative language (Crabtree). In Lou Crabtree’s “Jake Pond” symbols such as the young boy, black snakes, pond, hollytree, and other natural entities portray themes of life and death, while detailing multiple aspects of change.
In Alistair McLeod’s collection of short stories the Lost Salt Gift of Blood; death seems to be a constant companion. Death is important and perhaps even symbolic in this collection of short stories. It is important because it has the power to affect people and relationships, invokes freedom and even predetermines ones future, through the death of animal’s people and the impending death of others.
In “Monkey Beach” by Eden Robinson, the author uses a wide variety of supernatural and predictable symbols and images to display death throughout the course of the novel surrounding Lisa and her coming of age. Examples of symbols Robinson uses in the novel to relate back to death includes, water of some sort, animals (crows and ravens) and imaginary supernatural creatures. The importance of animals and supernatural creatures is shown throughout the story with Lisa and death.
“Strawberry Spring” offers the reader an opportunity to “show that we are not afraid” of facing our fears (King, “Why We Crave” 1). After all, anyone who has heard of Stephen King will automatically know that reading one of his stories may result in a thrill. For example, near the beginning of the narrator’s encounter, “a junior named John Dancey” happened upon a “dead girl lying in a shadowy corner of the Animal Sciences parking lot” (King, “Strawberry Spring” 2). Accordingly, the explicitly specific imagery used to reveal the brutality of Gale Cerman’s death is quite unsettling! Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding our “hysterical fear” of death, and allowing us to read such a description is “daring [our] nightmares” (King, “Why We Crave” 1). “Strawberry Spring” fulfills Stephen King’s claim that one reason we watch and read horror is to show “that we are not afraid” (1).
By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.
In Mary Oliver’s poem “The Black Snake,” the narrator contemplates the cycle of life with the unpredictability of death. Mary Oliver’s work is “known for its natural themes and a continual affirmation of nature as a place of mystery and spirituality that holds the power to teach humans how to value one’s life and one’s place” (Riley). In the poem, The Black Snake, the narrator witnesses a black snake hit by a truck and killed on a road one morning. Feeling sympathy for the snake, the narrator stops, and removes the dead snake from the road. Noting the snake’s beauty, the narrator carries it from the road to some nearby bushes. Continuing to drive, the narrator reflects on how the abruptness of death ultimately revealed how the
Rooks flying above the trees, soaring up and falling back down, a net cast into the air only to sink back to earth, and settle amongst the branches once more. Picking decomposing bats off of the ground while amidst giant icicles, some with dead flittermice trapped half-within. Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth” and Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction?” both present the common theme of the death of animals. Specifically, they share the use of the presentation of the death of animals, and vivid imagery to accompany it. There are many differences between the two essays, especially regarding matters such as voice, tone, and the intended audience, there is a larger similarity in how both essays approach their common subject with imagery. I suggest, that because of the overwhelming presence of imagery, despite differences in other rhetorical strategies, both Woolf and Kolbert’s essays show a deeper understanding of how to emotionally draw in readers, and that quality of excellence in writing and impact is what makes them more similar than different. In comparing them, this analysis will first establish that the differences previously mentioned do exist between each essay, and then continue on with an explanation of how imagery is used in each essay, and conclude with an further explanation of how a single common rhetorical strategy can outweigh many different ones, and how this similar feature works with each essay to achieve the goal of causing reflection within the
Men and animals alike began to lose loyalty and the ability to feel emotions and “earth was only one thought”- the thought of death. Faced with the thought of death, no creature on earth fared better than the other. As life was taken from all creatures, the realization of a terrifying end became apparent and “no love was left.”