“Chicxulub,” a short story by T.C. Boyle, is story is about a couple, Ted and Maureen Biehn, getting a phone call late at night from the hospital saying their daughter, Madeline Biehn, had been hit by a car and is in surgery. They rush to the hospital and wait for hours, stressing about their daughter. Later, come to find out that the girl in the hospital was Madeline’s friend, Kristi Cherwin, who had Madeline’s I.D. so she could get into an NC-17 rated movie. Yet, come to find out later, their daughter was at home all along. Throughout the narration of the story, sections of the story are interrupted with facts and statistics about meteors; most specifically Chicxulub, the meteor that ended the lives of the dinosaurs. The story uses the elements of figurative language, symbolism and exposition in conjunction with the meteor and the story itself to convey a sense of how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Boyle uses the meteor, Chicxulub, as a metaphor for the events that are happening and the fate of the Biehn’s as stated, “the rock is coming, the new Chicxulub, hurtling through the dark and the cold to remake our fate. But not tonight.” The meteor came crashing down and struck the dinosaurs’ lives, much like how the Biehn’s lives got struck with the phone call that something tragic has happened to their daughter. It is linked to every scene of the story; it leads to the next part of the story and cuts the story off to give the reader that feeling of the
The first act of destruction on the island follows the idea of the diseases and fallen human nature, is the pushing of the boulder. After three of the boys have noticed the boulder, they decide to ‘accept the challenge’, which they succeed in doing so. The fact that they didn’t need to remove the boulder from the mountain portrays the fact that the smallest things that the boys notice in their way have to be somehow destroyed. This displays the temptation in which the island is leading them to, as if they are obsessed by the thought of destruction in these early stages. The pushing of the rock symbolises the naturally destructive instincts that loses the innocence inside the children who are immediate to disturb the harmony of the island, following Golding’s theories. The islands reaction to the rock is through the forest shaking ‘with the passage of an enraged monster’. Golding uses the word ‘monster’ to describe this, to imply that the boys have let out a metaphorical beast onto the island which portrays the evil inside of the boys beginning to become exposed and their evil nature beginning. Furthermore, this portrays the battle between the diseased mankind and the natural world starting to corrupt the island.
The metaphorical connections between Doodle and the scarlet ibis, and plentiful uses of other literary devices, such as oxymorons and personifications, help to enhance thematic and character development in James Hurst’s The Scarlet Ibis. For it is the title of the book, Hurst employs a scarlet ibis into the story in an eloquent manner. He creates a direct parallel between the tropical bird and Doodle, hence enriching Doodle’s character depth before his ultimate downfall. Originally living in “the tropics— South America to Florida” (Hurst 163), the scarlet ibis is disparate from the average North Carolinian bird. As the ibis collides with a tree, “the bird [begins] to flutter, but the wings [are] uncoordinated” (Hurst 163). Daddy suggests “a storm must have brought it here"(Hurst 163), implying it was an external factor that pushed the ibis out of its boundaries and into to its death.
The paramedics found their daughter’s I.D. according to the paramedics. “She was hit by a car. She’s-- they don’t know. In surgery. What hospital? Did they say what hospital?” This shows, the parents are scared that their daughter got in an car accident and are trying to rush to the hospital. “And then there’s Chicxulub. 65 million years ago, an asteroid collided with Earth. Judging from the impact crater, which is a hundred and twenty miles wide… was some six miles across… 75% of all known species were extinguished.” The show, the man is comparing the meteor to the news. The news being Chicxulub and it hit him so hard he couldn’t do
She interacts with many other scientists, using their facts and her own experiences to create almost forty pages of notes and sources in the back of her book which is exquisite proof of the epistemological aspects of the book for fellow scientists. Her information is greatly supported by her and fellow scientists experiences, for example, “A few days after I read Wake and Vredenburg’s article, I booked a ticket to Panama.”(8) adding on to her Of course, though it is highly obvious to even the youngest of children that dinosaurs are extinct, Kolbert grazes their history in the early chapter of her book to prepare readers for what is to come, blowing the minds of every person to pick up her book. She then masterfully displays the toxic behavior of humans causing and adding to the extinction of several species
Alan Watts once said, “Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way”. This means that it is better to have a short, enjoyable life rather than a long, dreary one. Similarly, if one knew they were going to pass away, they would want to spend the rest of their life happily. In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Agustus is told his fatal situation of a relapse of cancer. He then makes the most of the last months of life so that during his final moments, he could look back with content. This moral is clearly shown in James Hurst’s The Scarlet Ibis. This short story is about a young boy, Doodle, and his brother. Doodle has hydrocephalus; he is extremely delicate and constantly in danger
In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst uses the power of love to demonstrate how hard one can push themselves to be happy. In addition, how pride within a person can cause destruction around them if used in selfish or negative ways. Psychologically, a child’s need to be proud is mostly to avoid feeling shame, much like this story. This means our actions, though they may be wrong, are helpful to alleviate our own embarrassment. May it be of a family member, the way they look, the clothes they wear, and many other reasons, one can be shameful of many things. Usually, the author shows this by using symbolism. In this tale, James Hurst portrays the color red and dying as key symbols of pride and pushing past one’s limits.
The theme is the important issue of the intolerance towards Deviations it is shown through the extreme reaction of Joseph to David’s comment. In the Chrysalids, the main theme is Deviation. if they had been accepted by society, the telepaths would not have had to run away from society. This attitude consists of hatred and even had an intention of killing them.This can be seen from Joseph’s furious when he heard what David said. When David said “If only I had another hand” it was enough to make Joseph paranoid and made him had an intolerance for Deviations. He yelled at David, made everyone pray for forgiveness, and even punish David, physically. It shows how Deviations are
In the book series, Flawed and Perfect by Cecelia Ahern, the setting is set in the future where everyone stays between the lines. There are two groups in this society: there are those who are perfect which make up most of the population, and there are those who are flawed. Flawed people are treated poorly and are forced to follow much stricter guidelines because they had done something that society no longer accepted. Celestine is one of the few who decide to do what is right even if it is against what others think. One theme that is presented in this book series is sometimes people have to go against society’s views to do what’s right.
Dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 65 million years and thankfully for the human race, they became extinct. Ultimately, only a major catastrophe could completely wipe out an entire species, let alone an entity of dinosaurs and the debacle on the causes of dinosaur extinction have flooded the minds of paleontologists for centuries. Geologist and zoologist Stephen Jay Gould published “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” to compare scientific and speculative causes of dinosaur decimation. Personally, I found this passage very informational and enjoyed reading it. Gould provides three theories that capture the reader’s curiosity, allowing room for pondering in one’s mind.
Large amounts of iridium – a chemical element that is not a part of the Earth’s crust composition – were originally found in rocks of Europe and United States, and have been found everywhere ever since. Iridium, common in meteorites, is a testable evidence of the disaster hypothesis. Gould continues that the Cretaceous debacle, which is one of five episodes of mass dying, occurred at the same time as the large comet might have smashed into the Earth. The author believes this is not merely a coincidence, rather, it is a proof of the cause-effect relationship. The demise of a wide range of habitats along with the extinction of dinosaurs gives an inestimable advantage to the disaster theory over other claims, the author adds. The comet struck the Earth, and habitats, from terrestrial to marine, died with geological suddenness. Finally, this hypothesis has had an impact on the study of an atomic war and its consequences. A nuclear war, Gould says, may cause a huge drop in temperatures and result in the extinction of humanity. Testable evidence, study, development, contribution – all this makes good science.
A symbol, is a representation of a thought or an idea. In the Story of an Hour Kate Chopin does a great job of using many examples as symbolism. She uses these symbols to represent the main theme she wants to get across to the readers. And the idea she wants to get across is the renewal of Mrs. Mallards life. The three major examples of symbolism are, when she says blood coursed through her body, the use of nature, and when she welcomes her new life with open arms.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys face troubles when their plane gets shot down and leaves them stranded with no adults on a deserted island. The boys must learn to govern themselves and attempt to get rescued as quickly as possible. With the blow of a conch, all of the boys unify; with the destruction of the conch, the boys separate and turn evil. The conch serves as a symbol of civilization and order; without it, it becomes human nature to turn into a savage.
Courage is something that heroes have and the weak don’t. Courage can be defined many ways, but the honest and truly best definition is someone faces his fear and goes beyond the line of fear and protects what loves and cares for. Sword art online connects to courage in many ways. The main character kirito is the hero of the story. He faces his fears even in the darkest times to protect what he loves and cares about.
The article explains the consequences of their efforts to drill into the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, the site where the asteroid supposedly struck. There was a lot of arguments as to which scientist would take the core section to analyze. In the end
Gerta Keller, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, has recently conducted research on the Chicxulub asteroid in which she analyzed new core samples taken from the asteroid site (Botzer 2004). These samples indicate that the impact that occurred at Chicxulub actually predated the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary about sixty-five million years ago. Keller claims that the Chicxulub impact occurred approximately 300,000 years before the extinction (Keller 2004). Although previous researchers estimated that the Chicxulub asteroid was the cause of the extinctions, there had always been doubts about the exact age and size of the crater, and about the origin of the “mega tsunami deposits” that were located within the crater (Keller 2004). The focus of Keller’s recent research was on finding some answers to these questions. To do so she analyzed Cretaceous limestone, dolomite, and anhydrite deposits as the site of the Chicxulub crater (Keller 2004).