The Once and Future King Book #1 Paper: People may think it’s funny to be compared to an animal, but in reality animals and humans are much more alike than we may ever know. In the well-known story of The Once and Future King, written by T.H White, the story of King Arthur, and how he became king is told. The novel is about a boy called the Wart (King Arthur) as a child. With help from others throughout the story such as: Archimedes and Merlyn, the Wart learns many lessons that will help him in the future. Merlyn believes that Arthur should learn by experience, as well as a good education. During one of Merlyn’s lessons, Merlyn, the Wart, and Archimedes begin talking about birds. Even though Archimedes is an owl himself he says he prefers …show more content…
Earlier in the book he explains that “‘The pigeon,” said Archimedes, “is a kind of Quaker…. No pigeon has ever committed an act of aggression”’ (157). In The Sword in the Stone Archimedes describes his favorite bird as a Quaker, who was a group of historical people who were part of the “Friends Church.” These people are non-violent, like Archimedes who shares this similar trait. By relating a pigeon to a Quaker (peaceful person), and saying that they have never acted aggressive shows that they are not violent, and only do what they need to survive, nothing more. During one of the Wart’s lessons, Merlyn becomes very frustrated, and starts to cuss, which lands him in Bermuda. When he reappears seconds later he is very angry. All this time “Archimedes had been sitting all the while on the window-sill and looking at the view, for, of course, he never left his master” (91). A pigeon, as described by Archimedes is “a dutiful child, a constant lover” (156). Like a pigeon the owl is dutiful, and always a constant, or loyal. A young enough child will stick to what they know, and be dutiful. They will stick with their family through thick and thin, because
One species of bird in the story which acts a symbol is the oriole. “The oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle… and now
The parents respond to her fear by telling her that the owl is only asking “an odd question…” (4). They say that if she “rightly listened” to the owl, she would be able to hear it merely asking “who cooks for you?” (6). The stanza expresses a humorous tone with phrases such as “[It] was an odd question from a forest bird…” (4), and “Who cooks for you?” (6). On one level, the parents comfort the child by telling a lie in order to get her back to sleep, on another level, this changes the perception the daughter has of the owl. The parents do this by using the term “forest bird”, instead of “owl” to make her feel less intimidated. Through this lie she perceives the owl as a friendly forest creature, rather than a horrid monster from the night. The poem’s “AABBCC” rhyme scheme also helped further establish the tone, giving a child-like feeling to it, because it’s often used in fairy tales which is meant for children. Wilbur believes that the lie is a good way to help the child go to sleep. He justifies it in the
Almost all governments during the 16th and 17th centuries were absolute monarchies. These monarchs caused a lot of controversy because the people they were residing over believed that it was unfair for them to not have a say in the government. This caused many people to look at at absolute monarchs as tyrannical because they did not like the way that they chose to rule. This period of absolutism caused people to look at monarchs as tyrannical because the people believed that they saw themselves as equal to God, did not listen to their people, and because they thought only they knew how to lead.
As Cole stared at the tiny bodies, sadness flooded through him. The sparrows were so frail, helpless, and innocent. They hadn’t deserved to die. Then again, what right did they have to live? This haunted Cole. Did the birds’ insignificant little existences have any meaning at all? Or did his (82)?
Probably the most notable use of birds occurs when after ten years, Sula returns to the Bottom accompanied by a “plague of robins”(89). The word plague indicates that the birds represent a wave of sickness that Sula brings alongside her. The citizens of the Bottom recognize the birds as a sign of evil, but choose to accept its wickedness rather than try to rid of the robins. “But they let it run it’s course, fulfill itself, and never invented ways to either alter it, to annihilate it or to prevent its happening again. So also were they with people” (90). Here, Morrison is comparing the townspeople’s feelings both towards the evilness of the robins and towards the evilness of Sula. They welcome Sula’s return to the Bottom the same way they they welcome the birds. Sula’s personal experiences with wickedness are also acknowledged through the robins as Sula
Because of the supposed similarities between humans and birds, birds are a useful tool for authors wishing to symbolize human emotions or thoughts. Mynott offers that birds are often “distinguished partly by the different human emotions they seem to be revealing” (Mynott 282). He references several examples of the use of human-specific traits in the description of birds, such as “kind,” “stern,” and “astonished” (282). It is not such a huge leap from the attribution of such human characteristics, to “anthropomorphic misdescription” (282). The birds in The Ant of the Self are said to be looking “as though they [had] placed bets” on who would lose Spurgeon’s and his father’s confrontation. While Spurgeon is taking a stand against his father by ordering him out of the car and onto the shoulder of the road, the birds’ curious glances are exposing Spurgeon’s own thoughts. The birds, a symbol for Spurgeon, wonder whether he or his father will “go down in flames” (Packer 95). The caged birds, which are so capable of human expressions, are expressing Spurgeon’s thoughts. ZZ Packer endows the birds with a look of human quizzicality, having them glance from the nervous Spurgeon to his angered father. Spurgeon wonders whether he or his father will win, and the birds, as his symbol, express this.
The essay also explores the quality in humans to want to connect to nature; pigeons are a transition from nature to urban areas. Ballenger comes to a conclusion as to why we don't completely exterminate the species when he states, "'pigeon control' is a war that we will never win because we also battle our own conflicting desires: the
Birds are an exotic species. The ability to fly and dart across the beautiful, open sky is something no other creature can do. Both authors of these passages seem to have found their magnificence and were taken by storm when writing their excerpts. John James Audubon and Annie Dillard both worked graciously to achieve success in their writing. These authors have written wonderful paragraphs filled with rhetorical devices that are both the same and vastly different.
In the poem, “The Pigeon, Icarus” by Ann Goldring had positive and negative attitudes toward the pigeons. The positive attitude that the speaker gives the conflict of attitudes toward the pigeons such as the speaker admires the pigeons, the speaker speaks the beauty of the pigeon, and the speaker sees he wants to be pigeons. The first example, in lines 4-5, “Their perch, strives their into beating, collect in clouds sweeping together.” This shows that the speaker admires the pigeons, while they are flying. The speaker expressed like an artist who paints a picture. Another example, in lines 8-9, “White to silver, grey to silver.” The speakers speak the beauty of the pigeon, the speaker stating that their feathers as white to silver, then grey
T.H. White’s novel, The Once and Future King, takes the reader on the journey of a growing boy named Wart, who later takes the throne as King Arthur. This young man grows into a powerful, ambitious monarch who is trying to start a revolution in England, but is faced with a plethora of challenges. Throughout the novel, White uses many different passages to foreshadow King Arthur’s magnificent reign to its tragic downfall. By using many different techniques, White leaves prevalent hints for the reader to connect together as the tale continues.
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will " (ch. 23 pg. 280) This quote intensifies Jane’s transitional character from her former ruled life to her now independent life. The metaphor of the bird tells an allusion as unlike a bird she has no entrapment and she can move around whereas as a bird has a cage trapping its freedom.
Paine’s ideas about the origins of government was that America should form its own government and become independent from that of England because of their different thoughts and notions. England’s government was more corrupt because of the king as Paine mentions, a king ruins the peace of a country as a whole and disrupts mankind. Paine also declares how before the rise of kings, there was no war, but with a king’s ego, causes chaos and confusion among one another. Paine believed that in America, “the law was the king” and that “a government of their own was [their] natural right” because America is supposed to be a free country (82). He said that the real king was actually God. England’s law enforcement of taxes with the American colonies caused many colonists to unify and start petitioning against Great Britain. The taxation laws left the colonists barely enough to survive off of. Paine didn’t think it was right for the colonies to be taxed when nobody in Britain knew how bad the situation actually was, therefore the British shouldn’t have any rights to tax them. Paine talks about how the community as a whole suffered because of England’s ongoing conflict with other countries. Every time, a conflict occurred, the colonies were the ones
The Risen One, The Sovereign King, the reason I'm alive today. Without God I would not be here to write this essay today. It started about two and a half years ago, my dad changed to a lower paying job and my mom had been out of work for about two years. We couldn’t pay rent and had to move. No one knew where we would go, but God had it all in control. Two and a half years of going from friends house to friends house, not being able to pay for the basic things and always being behind in an area where I used to be strong, lead to a lot of hurt, pain and depression. However, it also drew me closer and closer to God. Picture this, you're a fifteen year old girl who's used to everything going as planned and “BAM” out of nowhere the the diesel
At the bird’s appearance and apparent vocal articulation, he is at first impressed, then saddened. He compares this evening visitor as only another friend which will soon depart, just as “other friends have flown before” (58). But the raven again echoes quite aptly his one-word vocabulary, thus leading the man on to think more deeply about the possibilities that exist at this juncture. Somewhere deep inside him, he has realized that it doesn’t matter what question he poses, the bird will respond the same.
He wonders why the birds are just waiting in the sky as if they are waiting for a command, why they are restless, and he thinks it is strange that they are little birds and they are the type of the birds that normally keep to their own territory and don’t have a history of attacking people . When he looks out toward the coast, he sees the birds flocking in his direction and he believes that for some odd reason, they are going to come down to the