Theme and Elements of a Short Story
Joe Smith
ENG 125
Matthew Minicucci
Oct 6, 2011
Theme and Elements of a Short Story Many stories are written to serve the purpose of entertaining the readers. They also contain themes. These themes can sometimes be a lesson or be something for the reader to take away and remember. Authors often times use symbols within the story to help tell the story and reinforce what the theme of the story is intended to suggest. A short story that was provided within the book, “Journey into Literature” really did a wonderful job providing a theme and using symbols to drive home a certain theme. The story was called,
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A person who is alive would likely not see the sky as a glassy type view. If the day sky was blue and clear, a person would see it as a nice day and would not notice anything else. By describing the sky as glassy, the reader begins to sense a difference and the reader can begin to understand what is being conveyed. Another symbol that is used in the story which is used as final symbol to give the reader a final answer on what is happening is the description the children use in the air. The children say that the air has become cold all of a sudden. It is a well known belief that when ghosts or spirits are in the presence of human, he or she gets a feeling of chill or a sense of cold. This indicates in the story that the woman is a ghost and makes it easier on the reader to follow along with the theme of the story. Themes of stories are essential and not only do authors wish to convey a theme so do others involved in story telling. Stories are often translated to film. Along with the story, a theme will follow onto film. Film makers often want to achieve exactly what the authors want to achieve in expressing a theme. Steven Spielberg once made a speech urging filmmakers to use cinema as a means for exploring ideas and important themes
(American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations, 2007, page 10). This shows that themes are a very important part of story telling
What do symbols illustrate in novels? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbols are illustrated through people, objects, and colors. In this novel, a group of children are faced with the difficulty of living isolated from society after their plane crashes on a deserted island. With no formal civilization, parents, or rules, the kids have the freedom to do as they choose. Throughout the novel, the boys find and use objects on the island that symbolize something of different importance. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different objects to symbolize the difference between civilization and savagery.
The river represents the period between life and death. Another part of this symbol is the air representing life and under the rocks and waterfall representing death. Just as the transition from life to death is in motion, so is the rushing of the water. Both have a beginning and an ending point, but the part in the middle is constantly moving, swirling and churning. As the girl loses hope for survival and the waterfall is approaching, the narrator states, “[S]he becomes part of the river” (45). The girl now crosses over the borderline of life and death, and she is about to be swallowed up by the falls of death and can never return to life. However, when the diver goes into the river to save her, he comes out saying that “he’d never enter that river again” (47). He encounters the spiritual eccentricity of the edge of death when he looks into lifeless girl’s animated eyes, and he can not fathom that experience. Another symbol that is introduced twice is the gurgle of the aquarium, which symbolizes the attempt to understand nature’s cycle of life. As she floats downstream, the girl remembers “her sixth-grade science class, the gurgle of the aquarium at the back of the room”(45). During this moment, all of her thoughts are puzzled, and she cannot understand the death awaiting her. Later on, after sleepless nights, the diver is in the empty school where “the only sound the gurgle of the aquarium” (48). This moment is the point at which he decides
To begin with, the use of symbolism creates obscurity, and causes the reader to examine the story. To further explain, the symbols also causes the reader to look deeper into the story's meaning, as it creates an interaction between the story and the reader. As a result, it enhances the effectiveness of the story. For example, a quote in the story states, “We all dancer an Owl dance, a Friendship dance, and a couple of Circle dances”(Sears 21).
Symbolism is used in many ways and writers use symbolism to “enhance their writing.” It can give their work “more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work deeper.” In literary work the actions of the characters, words, action, place, or event has a deeper meaning in the context of the whole story. The reader needs to look see the little things like a dove symbolizes peace, or like the red rose stands for romance. Mostly everything can have a symbolism meaning to it. For instance the flag symbolizes freedom and the stars represent the states. Even some signs are symbols like when a beaker has a skull with a bones placed like an ‘x’ behind it symbolizes that it’s toxic or bad. When people see the red light when driving that’s
So I am going to introduce about some interesting symbols that I found in the book to write about. First of all, George and Lennie's dream farm. This imaginary farm is basically what pushes the whole story line since the whole story is about George and Lennie working while achieving their dream which is
Symbols. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a symbol is something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance. Throughout history, authors have used symbols in literature. From The Old Testament to today’s top selling novels, one will find evidence of symbolism. Ray Bradbury is highly guilty of this in Fahrenheit 451. This well-known and critically acclaimed book was published in October 1953 and continues to sell copies to this day. Why? Bradbury explored symbolism and a variety of themes such as life and censorship, common topics to a wide audience of people. Bradbury uses symbols to make the many themes clear and relatable to the readers. A Phoenix, mirrors,
Identify a theme in the story. How does the author use symbolism and imagery to establish his message?
Hollywood cinema is primarily subjected to telling stories. The inclination of Hollywood narratives comes not just from good chronicles but from good story telling. The following essay will discuss Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic as applied to storytelling, expand on the characteristics of the “principles of classical film narration” and evaluate alternative modes of narration and other deviations from the classical mode.
Using symbolism can take your story to a whole new level by showing us how each character feels in additional it can make a person or even an objects stand out a whole lot more. In Eudora Welty they used symbolism in many different ways that you can even notice them right away.
In stories there will be objects that will constantly be mentioned within the story. This is what is known as Symbolism. Symbolism is the use of object, name, or person to represent an idea. If a name is being use, a name such as autumn can represent the adulthood of a human. Creatures such as an Eagle, represents ‘Freedom’ and ‘America’. Even inanimate objects can represent ideas; the light bulb represents ideas that just sparked into a character’s head.
Symbols are important in each story to define the theme. Close observation of the symbols within each story proves to one their
Have you ever wondered what something meant, like the symbols of a story? Do you ever pay attention to it? You probably haven’t, but symbols are a good thing to look for in a book. The symbol helps you grasp the story more, helps make an understanding, and it can also help you predict the next action and more. Like in the stories: “Once Upon a Time” by Nacline Gordimer, “Night Calls” by Lisa Fugard, and “Quilt of a Country” by Anna Quindlen.
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the
Theme is a central idea or message in a work of literature. Theme connects with all events of a story, however, it is not the moral of the story like many may think. Theme is interpreted by the reader. In other words, the theme is just almost every aspect of a story. For example, theme needs characters, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, and speaker to analyze what theme is in a story. The equation for theme is character + conflict and resolution = theme. The story of Antigone for example has many themes. Antigone is the story of a young girl, who's purpose is to honor her brother Polyneices in a burial. Both of her brothers killed each other, however Eteocles, her other brother, fought for the city and got an honorable burial, while Polynieces,
Establishing the difference between the story and the plot allows one to determine the effect each element has on the understanding and interpretation of the piece. It also provides a way of tracking the continuation of events and the relationship between seemingly isolated moments in time. Film Art clearly defines both story and plot but acknowledges that there is a significant overlap between the two functions and allows a flow within the film. The plot is the presentation of the events, in chronological order and includes the events that are seen, inferred and assumed by the viewer as opposed to the story. The story refers to the way in which the plot is presented, the ‘personality’ imposed