The Juggler
“I want to believe in faith and risk and a world where you can stand beneath the grey October sky and flash your own colours through the air like a magician” (218 -221, p. 6). These beautiful lines constitute the final conclusion of the short story, “The Juggler”, written by Ursula Hegi and published in 2001. The story deals with themes such as beauty, letting go and being stuck in the past.
The short story takes place in Coeur d’ Alene in the first weekend of October. An unnamed first person narrator tells the story of her daughter, Zoe and her boyfriend, Michael who have come to visit her. It is the first time she meets Michael, who is a counsellor at the school where her daughter teaches. They go to the cinema and on
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Other times I felt like I were eleven and she thirty”(ll. 91 – 92, p. 3). The mother almost bursts into self-oscillation when she tells Michael about her memories with Zoe. This could lead to the conclusion that Zoe is used to taking responsibility for other people and, seen from a homespun psychological point of view, perhaps likes the fact that Michael reminds her of her mother in the way that he needs her. Another result of the mother’s loneliness and dependency on her daughter is the fact that she cannot let her go. She lives in the past and loves the memories of a time she refuses to leave, nor can she ever leave it unless she accepts the fact that Zoe is now a grown up. She has her own life now. The bird has flown.
So maybe she should just handle her over to Michael. After all he is not a maniac killer or anything. He seems rather nice and Zoe really loves him, but the narrator simply is too jealous to be happy for her daughter, “Zoe turns, smiling at him with so much light in her eyes that I have to look away” (ll. 74 – 75, p. 3).
The writer leaves, in a very discrete but intelligent and awfully interesting way, many symbols and details for further interpretation. For instance, a visual description of the narrator has been left out. Therefore, she appears as a set of thoughts, which on one side means that the events that take place in the story often are
Have you ever seen a juggler? Jugglers can be found at carnivals and circuses and it is their job to entertain and impress people with their balancing skills. Many people enjoy watching going to these events and witnessing the phenomenal gift, including the juggler. In Richard Wilbur’s poem “Juggler” literary devices such as figurative language, vivid imagery and diction are used to depict the speaker’s amazement and admiration towards the juggler and the juggler and his remarkable expertise as someone who brings joy to people.
Certain things some people do can seem beyond human powers, even defying gravity. In “The Juggler,” the poet Richard Wilbur describes the awe and wonder felt by the speaker watching the juggler; the speaker is amazed by the gracefulness of the balls flying in the air and even portrays the juggler as reeling in heaven itself. Through the use of imagery portraying the juggler’s magical performance, specific structure and syntax of the poem, and diction that elicits the godly powers of the juggler, the speaker describes the juggler as a superhuman who defies gravity while expressing the speaker’s own inability to overcome the challenges in his daily life and thus his negative view of the world.
When first introduced to the narrator, readers quickly pick up on how observant she is to the world around her. However as the novel draws to a close, many quick events take place with little to no explanation or commentary from the
2. The narrator, Ray Bradbury, says these words using beautiful imagery. This creates wonderful imagery because it explicitly shows us how Montag is trying to understand what the women are thinking by studying their facial expression, since he cannot find any other way of trying to understand them. He feels whatever the women say to him is meaningless.
In Richard Wilbur’s Juggler, the speaker depicts a juggler who is entertaining both men and women with his elegant prowess and practice of juggling balls and other various objects. The speaker describes the juggler as nothing more than a simpleton, entertaining those who watch his display and retreating when he is tired or done. This simple but deft actions of the juggler reveals the simplicity of the speaker, who like the others, is amazed. The juggler’s delicate and precise gestures and movements highlight the smooth and soft aspects of a calm life. The speaker uses elements such as imagery and figurative language to reveal the complex but simple display of the juggler’s practice and the ease that it releases as it gives us a respite from our stressful, daily lives.
The chosen interpretation rests on how the narrator’s character is analyzed through her hidden thoughts and concerns. In the following paragraphs, we’ll look at how the author, Gilman, uses indirect characterization to reveal the narrator’s character through emphasis on the narrator’s thoughts.
authors stories can have a different meaning than what the author had intended for it to have. In
Richard Wilbur, a legendary figure and the poet of "The Juggler", withholds great historical background unknown to many individuals. Despite of young age, Wilbur composed numerous short-stories, poems and editorials for college newspaper. In consideration with a majority of the masterpieces, a prominent theme exhibited throughout each is based upon the observations of surroundings and the natural world. Historically, Wilbur's involvement within World War II contributed significant influence in various poems. Similarly, "The Juggler" primarily emphasizes the notion of fluctuations involved within juggling, comparing such to harsh realities of daily routines.
Everyday life can be monotonous and lackluster, but every once in a while someone will come along and share their talents with others for their amusement. Richard Wilbur’s “Juggler” conveys the speaker's amazement and appreciation toward people and their actions through vivid descriptions of the juggler.
The use of imagery, figurative language, and tone are used to describe the juggler and reveal the speaker’s own views about the world.
When the readers meet the young, subordinated wife of a physician, who remains nameless throughout the entire story, perhaps hinting at the commonness of such situations where all those women are the same: faceless and nameless, this woman’s dilemma becomes obvious. She has been stripped off the only function a woman in those times had, the domestic one, due to the fact that she suffers from a mysterious illness which requires the infamous bed cure. Gradually, she is treated more and more as a child, unable and even forbidden to express herself in a creative way, namely to write, being persuaded that it cannot do any good to someone in her condition. This is why the protagonist (who is simultaneously the narrator), takes it upon herself to write a journal about her experiences and the mysterious woman that haunts her from the
This shows the reader that she is not very stable because she imagines seeing people when there is no one there. With this in mind we are able to go deeper into the story and see what or whom the people really represent.
Me and my brother both believe we’re juggalos. That happened when our cousin got us listening to Psychopathic Record songs. He used to work for them. Everyone labels Juggalos as a gang, because of the music they listen to.
While this text is set from a third person viewpoint, it also uses an interesting narrative technique, which is known as 'free indirect discourse' or 'free indirect style'. This is when a third person story uses certain features of first person speech. This style is different in the fact that introductory expressions such as, ‘she thought’, and ‘they said’, are not used. Using this technique allows a third person text to utilise a first person perspective, portraying the characters thoughts and words more directly.
Meeting Zoe is one of the positive things that happen to Finn as a result of his father’s murder investigation. Their paths intersect when Finn is gathering information about Noel from his friends. Zoe and Finn are the first person in each other’s lives that reciprocate the love and affection they have to offer. Unlike Zoe, Noel fails to deliver the In Noel’s case, his drinking addiction and naive optimism of reviving his acting job leave Finn as the caregiving figure and the one responsible for paying most of the bills, struggling to make financial ends meet.