The Cherry Orchard: the Past in the Present

It is not a complete story, however. The past is full of holes. The memories seem to have been wipes off the mind and throwing into an abyss, forgotten forever. These uncertain points in a person's life causes him to panic and forget who he is and where he comes from. In the poem Itinerary, the narrator describes his past and how he cannot return to it. It describes how individual try and cling to what they can remember. Looking backwards, they forget the future. In my personal example, I describe a memory of mine that is no longe complete, but is more of a fragment. I describe how this image of my father shapes my actions and personality today. IN my experience the past should be a guide for the future. Positive example should be followed. Looking back at the past should be as simple as looking through a window. It should be admired, but not be allowed to control the

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."

It creates a mood that readers can understand. Williams does a wonderful job contrasting death and life; his use of “attiring” and “disattiring” basically narrates how trees lose their leaves, leaving them “clothless”, but then the branches are preparing for what’s to come--their rebirth in the coming season. The liquid moon makes me think that he’s trying to create irony; the moon is liquid, as if melted, even though it’s winter time and everything is supposed to be frozen. The irony is subtle, yet very impactful when you notice it. Perhaps the long branches represent the strength of the trees despite the harsh environment around them. The buds can be seen as children being prepared by their parents for what’s to come, possible teaching them what to do and what not to do so that they can survive the winter and bloom in the spring. Like letting a child go off to college after years of care so that they can become their own person. The “wise trees” have experience, an experience that they have to share with their “buds”. The wise stand sleeping in the cold to take their last breath and let their children take their places. This poem is very meaningful because Williams creates a very important similarity between the trees and humans. Readers can relate because most parents go through the stage of letting their children go and letting them continue what they

Memory is used as a powerful conduit into the past; childhood experiences held in the subconscious illuminate an adult’s perception. Harwood uses tense shifts throughout her poetry to emphasise and indicate the interweaving and connection the past and the present hold. By allowing this examination of the childhood memories, Harwood identifies that their significance is that of an everlasting memory that will dominate over time’s continuity and the inevitability of death.

For this essay I aim to show the importance of memory and of remembering the past in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale is a ‘speculative fiction’ first published in 1985 but set in the early 2000s. The novel was in response to changes in US politics with the emergence of Christian fundamentalism, the New Right. Atwood believed that society was going wrong and wrote this savage satire, similar to Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’, depicting a dystopia which she uses as a mirror to hold up to society. I will be focusing on the main character and narrator, Offred, “a handmaid who mingles memories of her life before the revolution with her rebellious activities under the new regime” (book group corner), as she

The narrator's vision of her ancestors expanding a plentiful life is emphasized with the picturesque “blue fields…with leaves and vines and orchards.” This then strikes the narrator with the realization that cutting down the tree would be a betrayal to their ancestors, their dreams and the demise of the heritage of the

A main theme of this book, is the importance of living in the present, instead of dwelling on the past. Many of the characters in this novel carried a nostalgic perspective on life, and it influenced their attitude towards the present. It was very common for the characters to tell stories from their past. Jim often relates incidents in the present, to things that happened to him in the past. Jim is not the only one focusing on the past, however. For example, Peter, one of the Russian immigrants, has a very romanticized idea of the past, which causes him to have a depressed attitude towards the present. Jim observed this on one particular meeting, “Once, while [Peter] was looking at Ántonia, he sighed and told us that if he had stayed at home in Russia perhaps by this time he would have had a pretty daughter of his own to cook and keep house for him.” Peter allowed the idea of ‘what if I had...’ to interfere with his future. Because of the adults "what if" attitude, the teens of this novel have a sense of urgency in their lives. They witness how nostalgic the adults, and they themselves, are becoming, and come to a realization. The good days are the first to pass, and the most fleeting. Jim takes this as an excuse to be nostalgic on the past, a past he was not even there to witness. He looked at the wilderness of his new home, and fantasized about how wonderful it’s past was, “Beyond the pond, on the slope that climbed to the cornfield, there was, faintly marked in the grass, a great circle where the Indians used to ride. Jake and Otto were sure that when they galloped round that ring the Indians tortured prisoners, bound to a stake in the centre; but grandfather thought they merely ran races or trained horses there. […] The old figure stirred me as it had never done before.” Jim looks at the past with wonderment - it is a place that was much more ideal than his present. Unlike him,

On December 16, 2017, at approximately 1311 hours, I responded to 2660 N Orange Blossom Trail; Lot 48 in reference to a disturbance. Upon my arrival I made my contact with Pablo Joshua Soto (victim/complainant) who advised the following via verbal and a sworn written statement:

The Alcott Family tried to make a utopia where they could live off the land and return as closely to the Garden of Eden as possible. But the Fruitlands utopia had many noticeable flaws in the plan. Established in 1843 in Harvard,Massachusetts it was poorly planned and based around economy. The founding family were transcendentalists and wanted to make a community around it. Transcendentalists are people who believe that what you sense or feel is right without correct reasoning or facts. The Alcotts felt that their “utopia” would supply everything for them despite the bad weather conditions for farming and no use of animal products. They tried to be separate from the world but their attempt at a perfect society failed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald understands that memory is a double-edged sword, and he illustrates this thought in two of his short stories, Babylon Revisited and Winter Dreams. In his story Babylon Revisited, the protagonist, Charles Wales, is tormented by memories of his past. His wife is dead, and his old friends won’t stop interfering in his life. His sister-in-law is basing her current ideas of him on the fact that he was an irresponsible person in the past, and it hurts his life greatly. Winter Dreams takes a slightly different approach. In this tale, the memories of the protagonist, Dexter Green, start off as pleasant but are later warped by new information. With these two works, Fitzgerald describes the problems that memories can cause in

One main character of this film is Sergey Kotov, is a Russian civil war hero and an idol of the many. He worked side by side with Stalin during the revolution and formed a close relationship with him. He now lives with his wife Marussya and daughter Nadya in a country house. When tanks are about to crush the wheat field, he stops them immediately all by himself. He has great leadership and speaking skills, as well as great respect from others. Another main character of this film, Mitya, previously fought on the White Army against the new soviet regime. He was Marussya’s lover over a decade ago, but then left Russia for unknown reasons. Now he is recruited by the secret police and work as a secret agent. He came to Kotov’s house primarily for his personal reasons, one being revenge. He detests Kotov for taking his lover Marussya, conscripting him into the NKVD, and causing him to lose his love and faith to Mother Russia. The other main character, Marussya, bounces back and forth between Mitya and Kotov. She initially loves Mitya dearly, but Kotov conscripted Mitya into the NKVD, forcing him to leave Marussya, so that Kotov can get closer to her. When she found out that Kotov had done this, she wants to commit suicide by jumping from the top floor of the house. But she gradually accepts that fact after Kotov’s brilliant speaking skills.

In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, Robert Frost has cleverly disguised many symbols and allusions to enhance the meaning of the poem. One must understand the parallel to understand the central theme of the poem. The apple mentioned in the poem could be connected to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. It essentially is the beginning of everything earthly and heavenly, therefore repelling death. To understand the complete meaning of Frost’s poem one needs to be aware that for something to be dead, it must have once had life. Life and death are common themes in poetry, but this poem focuses on what is in between, life’s missed experiences and the regret that the speaker is left with.

The symbolism of the string snapping is even more clear at the end of Act IV, when old Firs is left alone to die. The stage directions state that, after the sound of a "snapped string dying mournfully away" is heard, "[a] stillness falls, and nothing is heard but the thud of an ax on a tree far away in the orchard" (815). With the orchard (the status of aristocracy) in the hands of Lopakhin (the new commercial class), the old days are forever gone. All that is left to hear is the destruction of the orchard as the new class builds its world from the remains of the old. However, in 1917, the Bolsheviks would succeed in altering Russia in a more lasting way, and this small revolution would be subsumed by Communism.

accept what Nora had done, and wouldn't have been able to deal with the extreme

Anton Chekhov conceived The Cherry Orchard as a comedy but had trouble persuading people it was not a drama. The play fulfills all the conventional requirements of a classical and of a realist drama. It aligns the action with time, from hopeful spring to despairing autumn. It has a crux to the plot that remains unresolved until the end of the third act - Will the estate be sold or saved? It has couples who seem destined to be married, servants who fail to serve a heroine with both grave flaws and charisma. The Cherry Orchard can be read in many ways, as a conflict between hope and despair, between conflicting illusions, or nature and mankind. Above all, it can be read as an evocation of honest pessimism about the outcome of all these conflicts, with only a glimmer of hope and no false consolations. This idea is seen throughout the views of the major characters.