The Significance Of The Weeds In 'Before Dying'

To begin, Will’s Grandpa made a blanket of roses for their Grandma to be buried with. The blanket of roses symbolized the town peoples’ grief for this beloved character that passed away. “The heavy smell of roses drifted up,

For example, the first time death is symbolized in this story is when the family passes a graveyard. “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island. ‘Look at the graveyard!’ the grandmother said, pointing it out. ‘That was the old FAMILY burying grounds.’” (99). O’Connor purposely mentions the specific number of graves, one grave for each person in the car. She also mentions that it was a “family” burying ground. This symbolism foreshadows that the family will soon face death. When the family is driving through the town, the grandmother remembers the old plantation is called “Toombsboro”. This plantation’s name is brought up to remind the reader of death. Toombsboro sounds like the tomb, symbolizing the family will soon face their tombs. Another description that is given to symbolize the deaths is that of the Misfits car. “It was a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (103). A hearse is a vehicle designed to carry coffins for funerals. This description also foreshadows the death of the family before the Misfit arrives. Lastly, the “woods, tall and dark and deep” (105) represent the family’s death. The woods symbolize the unknown and fear we have for death, which is considered dark and deep. The Grandmother stood in front of the woods reminding us that death is always near and behind us. Just like the woods, death can be a scary thing

Stockett incorporates nature imagery in the book to symbolize the bitterness which grows internally day by day. Aibileen, one of the most important characters in the novel, refers to a bitter seed that was nourished inside of her after the horrific death of her son, Treelore. “I feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the one planted after Treelore died,” (Stockett 14). Since the tragic death, the seed planted inside of her began flourishing after every time she was degraded for the color of her skin. As sweet and genuine Aibileen’s character is, the racism she experienced from her own boss and the cruel remarks about her appearance has made Aibileen use this bitterness in an essential way. As bitter as she was, the seed implanted within Aibileen, giving her the motivation to prove the white people wrong.

For example, Hurst starts the exposition off with the utilization of dreary colors describing dead flowers in order to illustrate the dour mood before the conflict hits, by writing, “The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia…” (384). In this case, live flowers could be thought of as representing life and the dead flowers could represent death. Then later on in the story, the narrator once again uses flowers to represent one of the things that he did to fight against his conflict, as shown in the quote, “I would gather wildflowers, wild violets, honeysuckle, yellow jasmine, snakeflowers, and waterlilies, and with wire grass we’d weave them into necklaces and crowns” (Hurst 387). In this example, the flowers that the narrator describes represent the fun that the brother has with Doodle. One way that the theme of this story is related to this symbol is the narrators use of flowers as being symbols of life or death, and when the ibis dies and Doodle buries it next to the petunia bed, the narrator relates to the death of the ibis by thinking of the flowers.

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst exhibits the narrator's sorrow throughout Doodle's life and death by utilizing the literary elements of mood and foreshadowing. Hurst creates a dark, negative, and ominous mood that evokes the narrator's feeling of sorrow through specific diction . The author utilizes specific phrases to foreshadow certain events which reflect the narrator's feelings of sorrow. Hurst creates the mood through specific diction and phrases to exhibit the narrator's feeling of sorrow. In the beginning of the story, Hurst uses phrases to describe the time period as summer being “dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit the bleeding tree” (554)

The dried-up seed that, once buried, becomes a living thing, symbolizes her own life experience. For instance, the night-blooming cereus that Edna Poppy brings, which appears up on page 240, to Taylor and Lou Ann before Taylor makes her trip to Oklahoma serves as an indicator, representing the transient quality to the characters’ chances. The wisteria vines speak to the cooperative connections that predominant the novel, and most importantly, the development of bean trees speaks to the development of Turtle Greer and her development all through the novel. “Bean,” (128) Turtle’s first word, symbolizes the guarantee that, similar to a dried-up seed that grows, an emotionally or physically wounded woman may flourish if sufficiently given consideration. The bean trees, another name for the wisteria vine that Turtle spots in Dog Doo Park, symbolize change, a spot of life amidst infertility.

First, Roethke uses a variety of natural imagery to illustrate the poor conditions of the root cellar. The imagery is extremely concrete, which is illustrated through the use of sensory language. By being “inside” the cellar, multiple senses are engaged, which ranges from smells, sights, and surfaces to touch. Roethke writes that there were a “congress of stinks” (6) and then proceeds to explain them as “roots ripe as old bait” (7) and “leaf-mold, manure, lime” (9); the sensory imagery here reveals that the root cellar is not only unpleasant to the eye, but the nose as well. Additionally, sensory imagery, such as the phrase “slippery planks” (9) reveals that one might not want to get too close to the scene. However poor the sensory experience may be for a human, life is persisting for the plants regardless. The plants are able to strive and continue to grow

Coupled with the reference to the cineraria leaves, a silvery foliage meant for keeping the ashes of a cremated body, the narrator crafts a gravesite which mimics the ceremonial weight of the death of a human being. By elevating this death to such a level, revealing the desire for the toad to rest in paradise after the “chewed and clipped leg” which ended his life, the narrator illustrates his regret over this accidental and unnecessary death. The use of the leaves which hold ashes add the ceremonial and serious presence of a ritual one would do for a loved one, reserving a space for their remains to rest, displaying the speaker’s somber and serious response to the toad’s death.Furthermore, the narrator takes special note of the appearance of the frog, particularly the “gutters of the banked and staring eyes” and his body “as still as if he would return to stone.” The eyes, often a representation of the soul, remain “banked” and “staring”, void of the emotions characteristic to an animal’s eyes. Often, when a person or animal dies, the eyes are placed closed to represent rest. However, the toad’s

I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds, that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.' 'Perchance,' said Mr. Dimmesdale, 'he earnestly desired it, but could not.'" Chapter 10, pg. 120

hint of death within the abeyance of the forest. This is shown by the “half-drowned”

The �redness� symbolized life because red is associated with life. The next usage of symbolism was in the seventh line. �The spikes of the crocus� referred to a flower called the crocus. The crocus was often the first of the spring flowers to bloom so it is a symbol of the return or rebirth of life in spring. �The spikes� (of the crocus) represent the pains of rebirth. This would be especially fitting since the line before said �The sun is hot on my neck as I observe�. With both lines combined, this could be interpreted as the poet observing the pains of life. Later in the poem, in line eleven, �under ground are the brains of men� symbolizes the downfall of human knowledge since the brain is associated with intelligence and underground can be taken literally as �lower that dirt�. Hence, this can be translated into the statement: �Not only is man�s intelligence lower than dirt�. The poet, in my opinion, is stating that today, men are no longer knowledgeable. And then the line after that, the twelfth line, �Eaten by maggots.� further emphasizes this. Finally, at the end of the poem in lines thirteen to

The weeds must be puled so there is more room for the flowers, which is symbolic to the system that every time someone is born, someone must die. Another example of symbolism is the messy drop cloth. The drop cloth is not clean. It has flaws and the old painter decided to show the readers that the drop cloth is a better representation of life than the picture because life is messy and people could not see

Since the boy is the narrator, the inclusion of these symbolic images in the description of the setting shows that the boy is sensitive to the lack of spiritual beauty in his surroundings. Outside the main setting are images symbolic of those who don’t belong to the Church. The boy and his companions go there at times, behind their houses, along the "dark muddy lanes," to where the "rough tribes" (the infidel) dwell. Here odors arise from "the ash pits"--those images symbolic to James Joyce of the moral decay of his nation.

Upon first glance the false teeth and sweater seemed unwearyingly disgusting both in appearance and description. I looked at each product both on Ebay and AllMyLife where the two had very differentiating descriptions. Both seemed to have a very distinct way of displaying how they wanted to sell each product, varying from each site. One site was very subjective in manner while the other was more objective but there still was slight traces of a mix of both on each site. Additionally, that could be because they are trying to cater to many different audiences Seniors, Teenagers, Adults, and kids. By the same token, their pictures shaped the way I perceived them as well. Nevertheless, both have good ways of trying to sell them but I am more

In this quote the “coffins of black'; symbolize the chimneys (554). Ultimately this all symbolizes the boys’ death because of their terrible life cleaning chimneys at such a young age. In the next stanza an Angel comes “And he opened the coffins and set them all free,'; which symbolizes the boys’ death and escape to heaven. All of these symbols cause feelings of sympathy in the reader, hopefully causing them to want to help these children escape their fate.