The Life You Save May Be Your Own Character Analysis

For this assignment, the concept of redemption as a literary device and/or possible theme of the book, Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland shall be explored and

Everyone has a desire, something that they want to achieve or obtain for them. Whether it is ethical or immoral, having desires is almost inevitable. Sometimes these desires make people go through tough times. Tragic occurrences such as death and broken relationships shape the lives of people positively or negatively. In the following essay, “Many Rivers to Cross” and the short stories, “Two Kinds” and “Everyday Use”, the protagonists of these texts struggle to achieve their desire, but because of those struggles the main characters do eventually come to a revelation.

The religious imagery in Flannery O'Connor's 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own' gives the story a cynical undertone along with a healthy dose of irony. O'Connor uses allusions to Jesus and Christianity to examine the hypocrisies of the religion and its adherents. Her character Tom T. Shiftlet is portrayed paradoxically as both the embodiment of Christ and an immoral, utterly selfish miscreant. By presenting these polarities side by side within one persona, O'Connor shows the dichotomies between so-called Christian morality and the reality of the Church.

In The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, the aspect of biblical allusion is clearly present throughout the majority of the novel. For example, one of the most conspicuous allusions to the Bible is the way that Kingsolver has purposely named some of the main characters in her book after different people and images in the Bible. Kingsolver uses this biblical allusion to develop important themes, events, and characters in her novel. Kingsolver makes references to the Bible by tying in and creating similarities between important events and themes in the Bible and important events and themes in her novel.

Authors use various types of literary devices when writing. One of those devices that can be used is allusions. In this particular short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, author Joyce Carol Oates uses biblical allusions. These allusions allow the reader to better understand the short story. Throughout Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” the author uses biblical allusions to help show who the characters really are.

Many authors choose to use biblical allusions in their stories, but no one does it like Flannery O’Connor. Her complex but yet important allusions are very key to understanding a lot of her short stories. Especially in one of her most famous stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Connor uses biblical allusions to allow readers to receive a deeper understanding of her short story. The Misfit’s characterization, the grandmother’s characterization, and the Timothy allusion are all major examples of these biblical allusions.

Furthermore, Hughes uses the rhetorical device of allusion when he writes about his aunt’s bringing him to the church for a special meeting. When he writes, “Then just before the revival ended, they held a special meeting for children, ‘to bring the young lambs to the fold’’’ (1), he attempts to correlate his invitation to salvation to a Biblical parable. Along with his reference to the Bible, he conveys the church member’s excitement with vivid imagery. He illustrates the church’s setting as being infuse with “all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell”, and he also describes the preacher’s sermon as a “wonderful rhythmical sermon” (3). Conjointly, Hughes presents imagery of the churchgoers and alludes to a Biblical story in order to demonstrate the magnitude of the religious enthusiasm of the members of the church.

Authors, such as Upton Sinclair, incorporate allusions in their books to refer to other great works, people, and events. However, in the book The Jungle, biblical allusions are mixed in throughout the story. These allusions are used to fuse the story with references from the Bible; however, it’s extremely important to understand the literature of the fairy tails and short stories attached. With that in mind, we use these biblical excerpts and allusions in How to Read Like a Professor, such as the story of the Garden of Eden, and the story of Noah to enrich our perception on the sole idea of how biblical allusions can deepen our understanding of The Jungle.

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

Allusions are very prevalent in this narrative, ranging from biblical to even shakespearean in nature. These allusion such as in chapter 10 while talking of slaves fleeing their masters that most would

The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."

Metaphors create links from the known to the unknown; Anne Bradstreet utilizes metaphors to explain God’s place and everything he encompasses. Anne Bradstreet

Abandoning a poor deaf, mute girl in a highway diner with no money hundreds of miles from home. This is the life of a man we know by Mr.Shiftlet in the book “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.” He has some serious character issues that are shown in the story including some attachment issues and a very cold heart. Though the main characters in “The Life You Save May Be Your Own’ and “A Rose For Emily” have the same problems but, they find very different solutions.

Allusions can be found in nearly every work of literature and art due to the influence they have in creating a universal understanding. Biblical and mythological references are the most common allusions because they are regarded as primary sources for the basis of human reason. William Shakespeare alludes to both religion and mythology in Hamlet in order to emphasize the importance and failure of religion and to reveal the nature and psychological complexes of characters.

Allusions can influence the text in a variety of ways. Biblical and historical allusions are often the most recognizable in literature and can have a variety of impact. Biblical and historical allusions create an embellishment of imagery, characterization, and the manifestation of government.