Dignity In The Remains Of The Day

The men and women of The Hours view death as an escape from an ordinary lifestyle which lacks anything truly extraordinary or exhilarating. Laura Brown considers death as an alternative to the constraints of her role as a mother and a wife. Both Richard Brown and Virginia Woolf ultimately commit suicide in order to escape their illnesses and their failures to live up to society's expectations. Though Laura does not end her life, she does die symbolically to her family.

In the poem “XIV”, Derek Walcott recalls a memory in which he visits an elderly storyteller. The reader can understand the significance behind the journey as Walcott uses poetic devices such as imagery, metaphors, and personification to establish tone and highlight symbolic aspects in the poem. The overall intriguing tone of the poem adds

“Groom Service” and “The Return” are two short stories taken place in a terrible setting with the main character who deals with relationship problems. Both stories have common themes related to acceptance, acknowledgement, and recognition. The protagonist in “Groom Service”, Bernard, had the ability to survive with his hunting skill, but did not dare to seek his own love. He seeks acceptance from Marie and her family. On the contrary, Kamau in the story “The Return” seeks acceptance from a village, but finds acceptances in the change that had taken place. Due to the influence of the internal and external forces created by their family and personalities, protagonists, Bernard and

The narrator’s diction on the page can be described as vain due to the fact he doesn’t need an introduction when the narrator says it is “not really necessary” (4). The narrator’s diction reveals that he has a methodical, stone cold personality that puts the narrator in a more superior position then the human race. Achieving

Throughout life, we all encounter delicate things that must be treated in a special way, whether it be treating them gently or just treating them with a great deal of respect. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” the author, James Hurst, demonstrates this by telling a story about a brother trying to make his disabled brother do more than he is capable of, because he is ashamed that his brother is not “normal.” Through the author’s storytelling, readers can clearly see that the theme of “The Scarlet Ibis” is that delicate things must be treated with respect. Hurst clearly emphasizes this theme by using several literary devices. The literary devices that are most evident in building the theme are indirect characterization, symbolism, and flashback.

O’Brien culminates The Things They Carried with “The Lives of the Dead,” which includes a story about a girl named Linda that is at first seemingly unrelated to the overall plot. O’Brien discusses the story of Linda, a girl who he fell in love with in elementary school who succumbed to cancer. He had a deep connection with her, and found himself relishing sleep so he could dream endlessly about Linda. O’Brien then connects this story to those revolving the occurrences of Vietnam. He reveals yet another purpose of telling war stories: not to simply show readers what war in Vietnam was like, but to “revive…that which is absolute and unchanging” (O’Brien 224). Telling war stories serves as a way of “making the dead seem not quite so dead” (O’Brien

Lasting over six years, the Holocaust is frequently considered to be the largest annihilation of humans in history; yet, even during its climax, the western powers were practically unaware of the scope of genocide Hitler’s army was committing until after Germany lost the war. Although Robert Brown aptly described the Holocaust as “such depressing subject matter” (v), he furthers, “Those who hope for hope--after an eternity--are entitled to do so only if they have measured that which has the power to obscure hope, only if they have lived in the shadow of utter denial. The rest of us, who have not inhabited the innermost circle of hell, can never know what it was like to be there” (vi). Yet, there are

In the passage from The Spectator, English satirist, Joseph Addison depicts through a diarist the superficiality and insignificance of life in a bystander society created by wealth. His satiric purposes is unveiled as through reading the diary of a bland man who is a product of a privileged society he conveys the pettiness of the issues they are concerned with. Throughout the passage it’s shown that the diarist’s society is no better than him as it’s an essential part of his insignificant life. This piece satirizes the superficiality and lackluster carried in the bystander’s life while looking at his daily routine and the minute details within his diary.

David Eagleman’s Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives delivers an assortment of theories about what the human being might experience after passing away. The book ranges from terrifying, pessimistic likelihoods to uplifting and humorous perspectives presented in less than 4 pages each. The variety of possibilities about life after death presented prompts fear or optimism. Considering that the book is not tied or centered to a religion, some of the tales suggest that a God exists while others do not necessarily include a creator of life, instead they are situations that humans might face after passing away. Therefore, everyone’s spiritual connection or logical connection is unique and how each person depicts their destined fates differs.

In the first half of “Death of the Duel,” Appiah begins by providing the details of a duel between two prominent British government officials, using the specific example as a jumping point to discuss the general idea of dueling. The form of honor being represented in this case is that of reputation and the maintenance of regard from the general public. This concept of honor as a form of social standing is interesting because it subverts Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—and many other psychological theories that try to map out human instinct—which places safety and security in higher regard than it does “esteem” or ego. In the case of the duel, honor is considered the highest human need, even above life itself if one considers the death toll, although that mainly applies to the aristocratic class, who had most of their basic needs taken care of already.

One can unknowingly suffer for the sake of society’s convenience. Both authors, Ray Bradbury and Ursula Le Guin, demonstrate the suffering that the protagonist endures in order to serve their society. A variety of rhetorical strategies and modes contribute to the overall role of the protagonists. Ray Bradbury uses personification and the rhetorical mode of pathos to convey the oblivious suffering that the protagonist, the “smart house”, undergoes. Ursula Le Guin utilizes diction and the rhetorical mode of pathos to demonstrate the society’s dependency on the life of a young, hopeless boy. Through the authors’ use of diction, personification, and the rhetorical mode of pathos, readers can view both short stories in a new criticism lense and juxtapose two societies that feature a suffering aspect in each story.

Medieval China, as seen in the Stories from a Ming Collection, was characterized by distinct separations between men and women’s abilities, typical old fashioned family structure, and a desire to advance their social status. Throughout all the stories in this book, it dives deep into different aspects of how men and women are treated, how families were structured and how that affects their lives, as well as the values these people held. A very common trend in the stories was how different men and women were treated and the limitations they may or may not had.

Initially, Ishiguro’s novel illustrates that individuals make their own ideology through Stevens’ creation of his own definition of a ‘great’ butler. Stevens disagrees with the Hayes Societies guidelines for membership in which he claims they are vague and irrelevant to current butler’s ideologies. Stevens goes on to explain the difference between butlers from previous generations and butlers in his generation; claiming that past generations only focused on whether or not the house was distinguished while the newer generation is more concerned with humanity and “the moral status of an employer” (Ishiguro 114). Bennett and Royle claim, “Ideology goes to the

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day is about the struggles one man, Mr. Stevens, has with relationships with his father, Miss Kenton and his employer, but the struggle he focuses on the most is to be a “great butler.” He pushes himself physically to work as hard as he can, as well as mentally to determine what makes a butler great. Stevens sacrifices all normal human encounters with those around him in order to be an emotionless person. “When one encounters them, one simply knows one is in the presence of greatness” (44). Stevens, through many trials, proves himself to be a “great butler.”

In this analytic essay, I will be exploring the use of literary language in the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan and how with the use of narration and imagery can under shadow a simple piece of literature.