The poem, The Quiet Place, by Evelyn Lau expresses the feelings of paranoia, fear, and confinement one may face while being trapped within four parallel walls. The setting takes place at a Psychiatric Assessment Unit in Vancouver General Hospital. This is significant for the poem because it showcases the emotions many patients face while being constantly watched through a monitor that is scrutinizing their every movement. Likewise, in the poem, Evelyn Lau takes upon the persona of a girl who is admitted at the hospital and has been assigned to Quiet Room #4 and feels confined. She is constantly paranoid, hence the small noises that appear louder then they really are and the observation camera that seems to follow her every movement. Likewise, …show more content…
These noises set a disturbing mood and showcase the constant paranoia the persona is facing. Additionally, the observation camera further increases the feeling of insanity because the persona feels trapped within a room and the feeling of someone constantly watching engulfs her. Similarly, the simile, “The observation camera blinks at the flower of blood wilting on the ground puckered as an old woman’s lips the signature of a nurse stealing life through a hole in the patient’s arm,” creates an image of a nurse taking blood from the persona while droplets of blood drip from her arm. This is a significant simile because it represents what the persona feels regarding doctors and nurses and how they are supposed to save her; however, each time a droplet of blood hits the ground, they drain her from her life. Likewise, a flower is supposed to represent peace and beauty, but in the poem it is shown as a decaying plant whose petals are drowning in blood. Moreover, the line “Naked feet,” creates an image of vulnerability and weakness because underneath the hard exterior of shoes lay fragile
She is upset by the loss of the day even though her mother attempts to distract her with a garden of flowering violets, her father also attempts to comfort her. Finally, she returns to sleep after dinner. Her memory is a positive memory and the motif if the violets are used to link the past and present as it will help her get through her dark times. In the visual her memory is included, and he mother confronting her is one of the main images that she remembers from this. The image of her mother comforting her is a very important one, as it establishes the role and persona of a mother at the time and how women in that era were seen as to stay home look after children and the men went out and worked to support the
He is confronted by life, which is “at once terrible and of a great beauty, like flowers that feed on flesh.” The personification and alliteration in describing flowers that eat flesh creates a terrible and striking visual image. The narrator shifts to a first-person plural point of view, interpreting the events and their meaning. Life is described, a power is described and compared to wind and rain in its shaping of the earth.
The speaker is talking about someone as if they met in an "old ancient inn" (2). He speaks of how they "should have sat" (3) as if he regrets what he might have done in the past; he would have approached the situation differently by drinking "nipperkin" (4). The guilt that shrouds the narrator is apparent as he imagines a life for the man.
In stanza six, we see the end of visiting hour, and the persona’s loss of control as he is overran with emotion. The phrase, “black figure in her white cave” creates an image of an intruder in her sanctuary. The black and white contrast suggests he is a shadow of his former self and also that he is trying to detach himself. The phrase, “clumsily rises” gives connotations of his state as he is physically affected by his feeling of loss. Furthermore, “swimming waves of a bell” is a metaphor which has connotations of water. This is used to illustrate that he is drowning in the realisation that she is dying. Finally, “fruitless fruits” is an oxymoron used to reinforce that there is no hope or going back, for her.
Seemingly, the flowers represent Elisa. She believes she is strong and tough and able to accomplish anything thrown her way; however, taken for granted as she is only a woman allowed to look and act accordingly. Surrounding the flowers is a wire fence set up to keep out predators and to separate the flowers from the rest of the farm. The wire fence is symbolic in the fact that it is identical to the world Elisa lives in. Elisa is contained within the farm, unable to explore or leave without the help of someone else. Elisa is stuck on the farm, isolated from the rest of the world so that she can be kept safe. Naive and unaware of how the world works, her husband keeps her on the farm to protect her from harm. When Elisa gives the chrysanthemum to the travelling merchant, she gives him a small piece of herself. Later, as her and her husband are driving to town, she sees the flower tossed aside as though it was nothing; as a result, she realizes she could never go off on and live the way the merchant had. The flowers embody her character still, and how out of her home without protection, the world can be harsh and cruel. In short, Elisa’s isolation leaves her ignorant, unable to understand how callous the world is, and comes to the bleak realization that she can’t live a life anywhere outside of her fence. Because of how women were treated, constantly pushed down and unable to pursue their interests, Elisa is left unable to learn what life has to offer. Learning
Casper Ten Boom faith and wisdom helped countless people archive inner peace. He frequently spoke wisely with his daughters, employees, people hiding in his house, his captors and others. Casper had some hard time but with all the skills he has acquired it was a matter of him teaching them. The hiding place was told by Corrie Ten Boom but was written and published by John and Elizabeth Sherril.
The use of confinement in the story can lead the reader to assume a number of different things about the setting of the book. The couple moves into a really nice mansion that no one has lived in for years. While the husband could have put his wife in any of the rooms of the house, he chose to confine her to a room that looked like a nursery. The woman being confined to a nursery can lead the reader to assume that they are treating her as if she is a kid. The nursery that she is put in is not an ordinary nursery; the nursery has bars over the windows. The bars over the windows are very significant to the setting. This particular aspect of the room can be related to a mental hospital. Mental hospital rooms would somewhat be described in the same way that the woman’s nursery is described in the book. Her bed is also nailed to the floor. All of these features of the room that she is placed in give the reader a hint that this woman is insane
She describes features of the house that parallel a mental institution. First, the narrator describes asylum-like features that are in her room. She writes about how she cannot move the bed, and she thinks that it is permanently bolted to the wall. This type of bed is used in insane asylums to keep the patients from hurting themselves with the furniture. The narrator also describes “metal rings and things” that are chained to the walls, and metal bars placed on the windows. These are described a lot like restraining devices that would be put into an out-of-control mental patient’s room to keep them from hurting themselves or others. Also, the narrator describes that the wallpaper on the walls is torn and scratched up. Metal patients suffering from illnesses that drive them insane are very likely to take their feelings out on the only thing in the room that is available, which would be the walls and the wallpaper on the,. The narrator seems to think that the room she is in used to be a nursery, and she thinks that the rings on the walls were toys. None of the characteristics of her room described by her would be suitable for children. Not only are there asylum-like features in the narrator’s room, but she describes them throughout the rest of the house and even outside. She mentions that there were gates that lock and people wandering around the yard. If
I don’t think I could.” (11,12). He is actually saying that he cannot love her without her breasts and a whole body, a crude way of looking at women and the attractiveness of the older painter as being “just a body” rather than her entire self. This is perfectly symbolized in her response to his rejection of her and ties back to the title, “A Story About the Body.” The painter gives her response with much symbolism. The blue bowl at first “looked to be full of rose petals” but in truth the rose petals only coated the surface and hid the rest of the bowl that was filled with the bodies of insects, possibly painting a gory and repulsive image of the old painter’s opinion of the younger composer (14). By doing this, she hoped to reveal to him his true nature in a poetic and artistic way without having to see or speak to him again. She uses the rose petals as a symbol for his shallow love which looks pleasing and beautiful, but only coats the top of the bowl. The dead bees at the bottom of the bowl symbolize the death, grief, and disgust she may have felt at his rejection. It can also symbolize the uselessness of his first sentiments as the bees which are known to be hard working and productive especially in the spring and summer months are dead. At the abrupt ending of this prose poem the young man is left
The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.
In fact, “the beginning begins with the shoes” (4). Florens states that she would “never be able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes,” which can be attested to her weak physicality and tolerance as a child (4). Florens’ feet are also referred to as “too tender for life and will never have the strong soles,” which further perpetuates this
The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and
The speaker then moves to a restaurant where he picks up a chicken noodle soup and gets his want across to the staff by simply pointing at it. The stanza ends with the line “I am adjusting well to the new way”(10), showing that according to the speaker the new law is working fine for him and he is able to live a normal life. However, with the entrance into the third stanza we begin to question whether the speaker naturally only acted this way towards the phone call and the staff in the restaurant, without using any words or he was actually saving them for his lover. The second reason is more likely to be true, due to his statement in the next verse “I call my long distance lover, proudly say I only used fifty-nine today. I saved the rest for you”(11/13). Here, the second character is introduced in the poem – the long distance lover. It becomes obvious that the speaker, who is most probably a man, is in a long distance relationship with a woman and the way communicate is via phone call. The speaker tells his lover proudly he has only used fifty-nine words today and has saved the rest for her. This shows the speaker’s devotion towards his lover because he has chosen to use most of his words on her.
The speaker describes, “They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown/ on a night that was black as tar”(Cullen 7,8), which then causes the reader to imagine the scene in their mind. Cullen describes a baby being “swathed in a sackcloth gown” and this happening when the night was “as black as tar”. This imagery causes an image of what they interpret this scene to appear in their mind, which further immerses the reader into the poem. Cullen has a vivid image of what this scene looks like to himself, and the reader creating their own image of the same scene brings a better understanding to what the author was attempting to show. While Lily is asleep in the honey house, she has a vivid dream of her mother following Lily’s trail of honey and when she comes into view she is part roach. Lily explains, “She is smiling, so pretty, but then I see she is not a normal person. She has roach legs protruding through her clothes, sticking through the cage of her ribs, down her torso, six of them, three on each side,”(Kidd 174). Kidd creates a vivid and detailed image of a woman with a beautiful smile but with the lower half of her body as a roach using imagery. Kidd describes Lily’s mother as “following Lily’s trail of honey,””smiling, so pretty,” and “She has roach legs protruding through her clothes.” The imagery generates an image of the woman as
Many forms of imagery are shown to help the reader form an overall connection with the main character. As seen within the second half of the poem, DeFord relates his feelings to a wilted rose. DeFord’s use of a wilted rose demonstrates the hurt and despair that the protagonist is feeling. Also akin to a wilted rose, is the idea of rejection that the character is feeling by his mistress just as a lifeless rose is not wanted. Following DeFord’s use of a rose is the personification of kissing breath.