The Poem Essay: A Crossing, By Mark Slouka

The son had loved his father dearly but does not favor his way of life. His interest in school greatly outweighed his interest or desire to work on ‘The Boat’. He still had a love for the sea and in some way felt like he should carry out his family’s tradition. After his uncle had accepted a new job he took his position on the boat and promised his father that we would continue to sail with him for as long as he lived, and when his father passed despite the desires of his mother he followed his dreams and pursued education and all of its wonders. After living his life he finds himself longing for the sea again and isn’t so satisfied with his life.

This metaphor is comparing the actual birth of her son to a dangerous journey, which is saying that he was fearless and that the speaker was expecting a very successful life journey for he son. This makes the boy’s death feel even more tragic because the reader gets to see how the speaker felt towards her son and what she expected his future to be like. The second metaphor presented in the poem comes about when the speaker is describing the moments after the boy slipped off the bank into the water and got taken by currents:

The author uses hyperboles to create a picture of his experience of coneing in the river. An example is when the storm is first approaching, the author is saying that the river is talking to him and telling him to be prepared. On lines 25 it says “ get ready, get ready”. This shows that the storm is “talking” to him and telling him to get ready for the storm. The author also uses personification

The river represents the period between life and death. Another part of this symbol is the air representing life and under the rocks and waterfall representing death. Just as the transition from life to death is in motion, so is the rushing of the water. Both have a beginning and an ending point, but the part in the middle is constantly moving, swirling and churning. As the girl loses hope for survival and the waterfall is approaching, the narrator states, “[S]he becomes part of the river” (45). The girl now crosses over the borderline of life and death, and she is about to be swallowed up by the falls of death and can never return to life. However, when the diver goes into the river to save her, he comes out saying that “he’d never enter that river again” (47). He encounters the spiritual eccentricity of the edge of death when he looks into lifeless girl’s animated eyes, and he can not fathom that experience. Another symbol that is introduced twice is the gurgle of the aquarium, which symbolizes the attempt to understand nature’s cycle of life. As she floats downstream, the girl remembers “her sixth-grade science class, the gurgle of the aquarium at the back of the room”(45). During this moment, all of her thoughts are puzzled, and she cannot understand the death awaiting her. Later on, after sleepless nights, the diver is in the empty school where “the only sound the gurgle of the aquarium” (48). This moment is the point at which he decides

Flannery O’Conner’s “The River” is a very interesting story about a little boy whose parents would prefer if he just went away. At the end of the story, the little boy did get away from them for good. In my opinion this story has a weird but interesting meaning to it. The little boy’s death at the end made me question the spiritual meaning of it; however, after thinking about I understood the intentional meaning O’Conner could have for readers.

How does the river function in the story? Is it a metaphor, a catalyst, or both? Is it a character?

In this story the love the father demonstrates trying to win back his family by taking his son on a ski trip shows how the father loved his son very much. His dad fought for the right to spend some time with his son. He would not give up until the son’s mom let him take his

It was again as if the river has established an opportunity to lead a new life, away from the war in Italy to a more comfortable life. Henry’s and Catherine’s escape through the river not only leads them to a better life but the unborn child, too.

The tone of the story, objects, and the sentence structures help us relate to the dark theme. "Speaking softly the names of our dead" and "now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way." these quotes are examples of how the writer's word choice affected how we feel about the story. The two quotes listed in the previous sentence give a dark, like death, feeling. The first quote gives a sense of hearing reminders of those how have passed in the wind. The second quote gives an understanding of "how time has had its way" an abundance amount of things significant to the narrator happened during the summer like him helping his younger brother walk as well as helping him accomplish other things that everyone thought he would never be able to do. Now all of those memories seemed to have been ages ago when in reality it might have been only a couple of months ago. Thereupon the unfortunate event of Doodle's death in the middle of August making it seem as if time were flying by. "summer was dead, but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree" this quote is foreshadowing awful events that are to come. We later find out that it had been in the summer when the two young boys bonded. It might have started with pride, but it ended with the forming of an improbable

Passing” by Nella Larsen is a great piece of art, that is mostly concentrated on the act of passing as a member of other race in order to assimilate with them and cover their own race. I have to be honest through reading the book I developed love hate relationship because how this book was structured. It is filled with really charismatic personalities such as Claire Kendry or Irene Redfield but at the same time I was really frustrated how they behave themselves regarding their race. For someone who never had any conflicts regarding race it was really hard for to rationalize Clare’s or Irene’s actions that involved covering their own identity to benefit from it either socially or financially. Book still lacks clarity in most of the cases that happen in story, for example ending where Clare dies but it might be also seen as way for reader to think and guess who might be the murderer. Even though this story takes place in the early 20th century when the African American society was still harshly treated by white society, I think we can still see a lot of racial conflicts that happen nowadays among all races that live in big cities such as New York or Paris and etc. Also, depiction of how race might be sign of belonging to specific class was interesting topic. Most importantly what frustrates me most in the story is how racial difference is troubling or forcing characters act in specific ways. By that I mean how Clare went extra mile and even married a white bigot John Bellew

Survival, both its temporary means and its ultimate permanence, is certainly a theme throughout this story, and the river is the most obvious metaphorical representation. Among the undulant hillsides, the river remains steady

I am reading the book, River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke. I am going to rewrite the first chapter of this book. This chapter includes the main events of the main character Clara, who died on a family trip because she fell in a river and drowned. This book is written from her cousin Johnnie Mae’s point of view and I am rewriting it from Clara’s point of view.

We allowed many references to our previous readings slip in. They range from the mouse Lennie squished to Dr. Rank’s refusal of revealing his first name right up until the end of the play. These started somewhat as a grounding point for To Be in a Rushing River and how they relate to the previous pieces. They act as a segway between the story and as a method of unification between the three stories. The setting of our story is the river bend near the Salinas Valley; this is the exact same river bend found in ‘Of Mice and Men.’ Though nobody is at the river bend when our protagonists arrive, it is clear it has been inhabited once: “There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the

Being lost there is horrifying as one may experience the true darkness of the river. As Marlow and his crew travel upstream towards Kurtz, they struggle, which makes it seem that the river does not want them to go there. This reveals that the river is trying to expel all the light remaining and trying to embrace the darkness. Additionally, Marlow’s steamboat gets caught in a white fog. The colour white represents purity, however, in this case it illustrates darkness. The white fog distorts Marlow and his crew’s vision as a result, they have no idea what lies ahead in the open dark river. Marlow and his team become afraid as they wonder what is going to happen next. Due to this, the darkness which lurks in their thoughts grabs a hold of them. Later on in the novel, Marlow decides that he will go into the yellow colour which is dead in the centre, furthermore, he says “the river was there—fascinating—deadly—like a snake” (14). Conrad depicts the Congo River as a snake, which reveals that the river holds a sense of danger and adds onto the illustration of darkness. In summary, Conrad uses the nature of the river as a symbol to successfully express the true inner darkness.