Theme Of The Graveyard Book

The Forgotten Dead takes in an account in US History that the problem of lynching did not only occurred in the US Southern states with African-Americans, but it also occurred in the US southwest with the Mexican-Americans.

The power of the story has been very much a part of the lives of humans throughout time. The story is able to bring the past to the present and the dead to the living. The story can make the blind see. The story is able to make others feel for events in time that they have never experienced. The story has a profound effect on both the teller and the audience. As the audience is thought to be the beneficiary or the storytelling process, the teller is able to relive the times of old, or even teach a valuable lesson to his or her audience. Thus, allowing both parties to gain something intangible throughout this process. In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien conveys the importance of storytelling and imagination by suggesting that the dead can be brought back to life in the minds of the people who hear it.

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

An example of this can be found in the short story, The Grave, written by Katherine Anne Porter. In this short story two young kids, a brother and sister, go out exploring in a graveyard. “...propped their twenty two Winchester rifles carefully against the rail fence, climbed over and explored among the graves.”(Porter 2) The symbolism is the two kids climbing over the fence. The fence acts as the barrier between the two worlds of childhood and adulthood. Them climbing over it represents the transition that young kids go through when becoming adults. Later in the story the brother kills a pregnant bunny. When they discover that the bunny was about to have babies the sister feels guilt. “She was quietly and terribly agitated, standing with her rifle under her arm, looking down at the bloody heap.” (Porter 11) The reader can see that there is symbolism with the young girl holding the gun under her arm and her looking down at the dead

Foreshadowing is another main element. One example appears when the grandmother is talking to Bailey stating that she would not take her kids anywhere that there is such a deranged killer on the loose (O 'Connor 276). Later as the grandmother is talking to John Wesley, she asks what he would do if he ever did run into the Misfit. He replies, ‘I’d smack his face” (O’Connor 277). As the family is riding, they see a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it “like a small island” (O’Connor 278). This simile represents a sense of foretold death.

The author also uses symbolism through the name of the characters. For example, Mr. Summers; the name “Summers” suggests that he is a cheerful man and to support this, he is described as a “round-faced, jovial man” with “time and energy to devote to civic activities” ; however, the true personality lying behind the name is the total opposite. On the other hand, the name Graves is the most obvious of all, the name relates to the place where corpses are buried, a strong indication of the participation of death in the story.

When a mentor gives you lemons, you make the lemonade. In the book The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the person most important in Bod Owens’s life is his mentor, Silas. Bod Owens did not have the average teenage life; he was raised by two dead parents who live in a graveyard, and was not allowed to leave the graveyard unless his parents gave him permission. The lady on the Grey is the symbol of death that mentors Silas, which gives her and Silas a similar “job” in their afterlife.

One of the most important language elements that Porter uses in the story is symbolism, which illustrates innocence and experience. Porter uses symbolism when Miranda and Paul explore their forefathers graves. The graves represent death and experience, while Miranda and Paul represent childhood and innocence.

To begin with, foreshadowing is one of the many literary elements in this short story. For instance, the child was born in a caul with many problems. The narrator explains how the child is a great ordeal to everyone. A casket is built as a result of the non belief in the child's life. James Hurst vividly describes this sinister scenery of death by saying “The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox” (Hurst 462). With his disabilities no character in the short story is expecting the child to live long. By saying all of this, and giving all of this information, Hurst is practically just telling the reader that the

Corpses symbolized many things in this book. It symbolized the death of his religion and many other things. At the end of the book after all this time has gone by he decides to look in the mirror at himself. He states that he sees a corpse staring back at him. He didn’t recognize himself. Also after the angelic child was hung he says, “the soup tasted of corpses that night”. Throughout the story he describes the corpses lying everywhere the corpses piling up everywhere. This really is symbolizing the death of his religion, the death of his hope and the death of many peoples

The Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman is a fictional book published in 2008. The setting in the beginning of the story is in a house in the middle of the night, but it very quickly transitions to a graveyard. Towards the end, the setting is all throughout the town, in which the house and graveyard are located. This book is written in the third person point of view. Having a third person point of view helps the author tell the story the way he wants to by not showing an emotional connection with the protagonist but still making the reader develop positive emotions toward the protagonist.

“His diaper worked itself loose on his journey on his bottom down the stairs, and when he reached the last step, when he reached the little hall and stood up, the diaper fell off.” After such a violent start to a book Neil Gaiman wants to add the humor side of the story. As all of Bod’s family is being brutally murdered Bod goes down the stairs and out of the house (of course without a diaper). The best way to get people to read a book is to have a great grabber such as “There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife”. Neil Gaiman uses humor to lighten the story up, so it’s not just a story about murder. “Mr.Owens should not have taken on so at seeing a ghost, given that Mr. and Mrs.Owens were themselves dead and

It was a dark stormy night and myself and some friends decided to pay a visit at the Logan Park cemetery. A good friend of ours passed away in a brutal car accident earlier in the year. While being at the cemetery we had variety different emotions and thoughts expressed. All of a sudden, the wind picked up, leaves we’re falling of the trees, and the ground started to shake. Next we heard strange noise coming up behind us, and then boom! Lamarion was stroked in the head! No one was around. Lamarion and I decided to quickly get away, until we discovered zombies.

Although there are many subgenres of horror fiction, including bizarro, fantasy, surrealism, and magic realism, there are certain aspects that a story must encompass to be considered, “weird.” Magic realism is a branch of fiction that is often mistaken to be a work of the, “weird.” What differentiates the two genres explicitly include the authors concentration on setting and overall atmosphere, and the embodiment of themes that disrupt the readers perception of time, space, and their natural world. “The Werewolf,” by Angela Carter exhibits strong characteristics of magic realism, while H.F. Arnold’s, “The Night Wire,” is a genuine work of, “weird,” fiction.

Although a scene of a funeral home might come to mind when a reader first hears a short story aptly named “The Dead,” the tale actually takes place in the festive setting of a winter dance at the home of the two aunts of the main character, Gabriel Conroy. James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” has a literal title, because its main concept is death – both physical death and spiritual death.