The Times, They Are a-Changin': Seasons and Characterization in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by

For centuries, seasons have been understood to stand for the same set of meanings. Seasons are easily understood by the reader, and are easy for the writer to use; as Foster states, “Seasons can work magic on us, and writers can work magic with seasons” (Foster 192). The different seasons are a huge part of our lives; we live through each one every year, and we know how each of them impacts our lives. This closeness between people and nature allows us to be greatly impacted by the use of seasons in literature. In addition, Foster lays out the basic meanings of each season for us: autumn is harvest, decline, tiredness; winter is anger, hatred, cold, old age; summer is passion, love, happiness, beauty; and spring is childhood and youth. On the

Yukio Mishima uses visual imagery of the ocean and the crashing waves around the island to help describe the peaceful or violent nature of the sea. The author then uses similes and metaphors to relate Shinji to the ocean. This helps express Shinji as being a strong character who embraces nature. Nature is described to be calm and serene. The use of personification was used to demonstrate how Shinji had become close to nature as one would a human being. Nature is what comforts Shinji since it provides him with his job, money, and food. Once Hatsue’s father Terukichi offers Shinji a chance to marry Hatsue, Shinji learns that the sea is also a place for exploration and trials. Shinji displays his fearless character by jumping into the typhoon raged sea to attach a rope to a buoy. Yukio Mishima uses the motif of the crashing waves to show how Shinji’s feelings sync with the raging fury of the storm and his love for Hatsue rages as well. The storm symbolizes Shinji’s longing to be with Hatsue. Like a violent storm Shinji is angry and depressed because he could not see his lover. The rain could symbolize his tears and lament while the power and vigor of the storm could show his growing love for Hatsue. The perilous sea was a fitting arena for Shinji to demonstrate his qualities of strength, endurance, courage, and self-sacrifice. Mishima’s detailed descriptions of

In Noh there are many things that are significant, and that have deeper meanings. For instance the simple way that they walk, sing, and move all mean something more. While doing the presentations on a Noh play I noticed something beautiful about the play that I had chosen. Spring was mentioned a lot, it had many cameos in the play. In Yuya the entire back story of the play is the discussions of going to see the cherry blossoms. Spring in Japan means a whole lot more than just another season. It means new life, and new beginnings, a way for family to come together and start anew. So while taking this course I really picked up on the seasonal aspect of Noh whether it be spring, autumn, summer, or winter. Each setting gave a new feeling of how people reacted, and it’s true in real life also. So in this essay I will be discussing all of the seasons and what they mean in Japanese culture, with some symbolic things and Noh examples also.

The poem starts with a description of the setting of a summer day, Levertov writes: “The fire in leaf and grass/ so green it seems/ each summer the last summer”. The green leaf and grass refers to a fresh new day, which emphasizes a good day to start in the summer. The author goes on with her describing the beautiful sunshine of the summer by giving the images of the wind, the leaf and the sun. She writes: “The wind blowing, the leaves/ shivering in the sun, / each day the last day”. The poet uses the words “fire, blowing, and shivering” to gives us how urgent and immediate we feel in our lives. It is also a reminder the poet wants to send us that these beautiful natural things won’t last forever, as well as we

In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through

In face of the season of death and preparing for an end, “Eriko died late in the Autumn.” (44) Much grief and despair fell upon Mikage and Yuichi as the dark Autumn imagery clearly reflects these negative emotions. There was a discrete transition from Autumn to Winter as death and preparing for an end goes hand in hand with voidness and despair. The four seasons of the year which range in different exposures to lightness are perfectly used by Yoshimoto to express the continuity of the cycle of grief and joy as time advances.

Galway Kinnell described in his poem “Two Seasons” the simple story of a relationship. What makes this poem special is that it is split into two parts. The first part of the poem seems to describe the beginning of the relationship. The two people are completely in love. From the perspective of the narrator we can see how in love he is. The summer back drop adds to the beauty of the relationship; the imagery that Kinnell uses creates a feeling of happiness and love. When we picture summer, for the most part, we think of happiness, freedom, and beauty. It’s a time devoted to lazy days and in this case, love. Then the second part of the poem starts out with a more somber mood. The mention of winter and a bitter winds creates a much different

The poem at first comes off as a simple poem about spring and winter, but there are many hidden meanings as well. As well as the fear of the end of the world.

The fall symbolically expresses evil and adulthood being unleashed. The start of the winter session can be described as dark, disciplined, and filled with grueling work. It symbolizes the upcoming burdens of war and adolescence. Finny, unable to face adulthood, dies and is never enters his second phase of his life. The two sessions represent the shift from unmindful youth to murky maturity.

The Seafarer, by an unknown author, relates to certain passages from the Bible. Throughout the poem are several phrases where references to Christianity can be found. This includes religious teachings and moral advice that are similar to the words of Jesus. It would make sense to say that The Seafarer may have been inspired by the Christian religion. A passage from The Seafarer gives a religious teaching about how someone can not help another reach heaven.

In “Excerpt from Shipwrecked Sailor,” the attitude of the crew members change through the story. First, they started frightened and discouraged about not finding land. They were also scared about the convicts that might be on the island that could impair them. Paragraph 1 states, “Having pulled about twelve miles along the shore from Goat Island, where we first got under the lee, and seeing no sign of a cove or harbor, we began to despair of getting ashore before daylight.” This quote portrays that the crew is desperate for seeing land and they are also scared that they wouldn’t find the land.

A major source of Anglo-Saxon anxiety was the threat of exile. Exile is to be banished or kicked out of a place or group. Exile can be a punishment enforced by others, or self-imposed. Exile was considered one of the worst punishments given, the fear of loneliness keeps people in line and this is why exile was used as a punishment. The fear of exile is included in the lyrics of “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”.

     In the timeless novel The Old Man and the Sea, the hero is undoubtedly the old man, Santiago, whom us as readers become very acquainted with. Santiago is a hard-worker and perseveres through every problem nature brings to him. He is in the midst of a horrendous fishing drought, during which the townspeople laugh and ridicule him. Santiago just lets the criticism pass him by because he is confident that the fish of his lifetime is coming soon. In a sense, Santiago represents the ideas of honor and pride. He is also a hero to a young boy named Manolin who conveys the image that the old man is whom he would rather live

Furthermore, the seasons are an integral part of the novel, many of the students at Lowood become ill and died in the winter. Winter symbolises death. Spring represents the resurrection, and as Helen is a pure Christ-like character, who teaches Jane to be virtuous, forgiving and calm Helen dies in the spring.