Voice, Imagery, Symbols and Theme in Snows of Killamanjaro
The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a brilliant study of a man's final hours precluding death. The story centers around Harry and his wife, waiting for a plane to come and take him to a doctor or hospital. Thus begins a stream of passages that takes the reader along with Harry while he drifts in and out of consciousness, moving from one life to the next. The obvious theme is death and dying, but the home theme is Harry's return to his past, and his journey to the present.
Hemingway uses animal imagery in the story to reflect the dying theme, and to show two distinct sides of Harry, and his passing from life to death . The story opens with
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"They've been there since the day the truck broke down. Today's the first time any have lit on the ground." He then changes direction, as he accepts the dying phases, when he describes the zebra, "white against the green of bush. The was a pleasant camp under big trees against a hill, with good water, and close by, a nearly dry water hole where sand grouse flighted in the mornings." In this passage he has become the other side of Harry, the side that is reflecting his passing life. When his wife goes off to kill a piece of meat for dinner, it causes him to think about their life together, a looking back at this present/past that he is just now living. His life with her was a contradiction between lying and love, as are his dying thoughts, and you can see his struggle. "Now if this was how it ended, and he knew it was, he must not turn like some snake biting itself because its back was broken. It wasn't this woman's fault. If it had not been she it would have been another. If he lived by a lie he should try to die by it." Again to describe the creeping of death the hyena enters: "While it grew dark they drank and just before it was dark and there was no longer enough light to shoot, a hyena crossed the open on his way around the hill."
Hemingway has a lyrical and musical voice. His shifting from
In the story "In Another Country", Hemingway uses the symbolic of dead animals as an accusation of what the war caused as if a comparison between the soldiers' lives with the animal. They are soldiers. Their place must be in the battlefield and the pride of the soldiers is to sacrifice for the people, the country but they cannot do it any more, they seem useless and their lives also seem to be closed from now on.
The idea of death can be, and is an enormously disturbing, unknown issue in which many people can have many different opinions. To some individuals, the process of life can progress painstakingly slow, while for others life moves too fast. In the excerpt We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, a innocent farm boy named Judd Mulvaney has an eye-opening encounter by a brook near his driveway. During this encounter, Judd faces a chain of feelings and emotions that lead to his change of opinion of the issues of life and death, and change as a character. This emblematic imagery of life and death, as well as jumpy, and retrospective tones benefit the development of Judd as an innocent child as he begins to change into a more conscious and aware adult.
Oliver explains how she found herself thinking of summer fields and felt like lounging on the sand before the owl’s dark wings opened over her. This symbolizes that before death, one is in temporary bliss until their time has come to an end. Oliver pictures herself free and content, staring into the cities of roses before death comes knocking on her door. This shows that death is an “immobilizing happiness” before it rips you from the world for good.
Hurst develops the idea of death, and it is symbolic towards Doodle and his family. The idea of death has come over Doodle’s family. Doodle is the smell drifting across the cotton field into the room. “The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead”
n the book In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway, rather than him describing the setting and characters, Hemingway uses vivid stories to give a series of impressions and memories that may at first confuse the reader, but eventually adds a deeper understanding of what Hemingway is trying to convey through the repetition of birth and death . The author uses repetition of the cycle of life [beginning and end] to convey masculinity as it relates to empathy and hope through Nick’s character development throughout the book. Nick’s father often demonstrates masculinity and empathy which is unlike the other male characters. As Nick matures throughout the book, he witnesses traditional male roles being challenged by his father which ultimately provides a deeper understanding of human nature.
“It was one of those bull’s-eyes in history, one of those points where everything comes together, where, if you were at that place at that time, you were part of something big. It meant that we weren’t going to get picked up, not on that day and maybe not ever” (Northrop 1). The mood created by Northrop in Trapped is displayed to the readers as negative vibe. Being trapped at a school in a blizzard is obviously not a good thing. So, as a visual representation to the teenagers situation, the snow is described negatively too. In the book Trapped, Michael Northrop uses the snow to symbolize dreadful times and loneliness.
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
For example, O'Connor uses things like "five or six graves fenced in the middle" and "a big black battered hearse-like automobile" to symbolize the death that awaits the family. She also includes characters to symbolize higher beings, such as the devil and Jesus. The symbolism that Flannery adds in displays the meaning to the story. This is parallel to the symbolism that occurs in "Hills like White Elephants." In this instance, Hemingway relies on the use of symbolism to carry his theme. When Ernest shows the hills as "brown and dry" or as "lovely green," he portrays the outcome of each choice. The audience, in turn, realizes this, and then sees how greed can cause terrible consequences. These two stories can be seen as closely resembling the other, but they possess countless distinctions as well.
Comparing both of the poem, it carries across a similar message that the horror of mortality can allow a young individual to understand and realise the truth of the harsh reality. In 'Barn Owl,' due to the shot which she delivers, she has to 'end what [she had] begun' as she must be responsible for her actions and begin to act like an adult.Harwood uses enjambment, “obscene bundle of stuff” to create a sense of sympathy as attention is drawn to the detailed description of the owl's death. The use of the word, 'stuff' is quite child-like but at the same time, the phrase provides a vivid and evocative imagery of the ugliness of the owl's death. It also emphasises her inhuman actions that cause the owl to '[hobble] in its own blood' which are represented in the light imagery and like the owl she can 'not bear the light nor hide' as 'what [she has] begun' is the unavoidable journey from innocence to experience. As Harwood raises her 'innocent hand' it has caused her to regret it for 'sixty years'. Although Harwood did not have the real intension of winning, she made the choice of spelling it correctly. This shows the importance of her decision and that despite 60 years has gone by, guilt and regret still remain
The tone of the story, objects, and the sentence structures help us relate to the dark theme. "Speaking softly the names of our dead" and "now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way." these quotes are examples of how the writer's word choice affected how we feel about the story. The two quotes listed in the previous sentence give a dark, like death, feeling. The first quote gives a sense of hearing reminders of those how have passed in the wind. The second quote gives an understanding of "how time has had its way" an abundance amount of things significant to the narrator happened during the summer like him helping his younger brother walk as well as helping him accomplish other things that everyone thought he would never be able to do. Now all of those memories seemed to have been ages ago when in reality it might have been only a couple of months ago. Thereupon the unfortunate event of Doodle's death in the middle of August making it seem as if time were flying by. "summer was dead, but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree" this quote is foreshadowing awful events that are to come. We later find out that it had been in the summer when the two young boys bonded. It might have started with pride, but it ended with the forming of an improbable
John Updike's "A Dog's Death" is a heart-wrenching poem in which a narrator remembers a puppy that he and his family rescued. In the poem, the puppy tragically dies due to unseen injuries that it had. In the poem, Updike illustrates how the puppy fought to live and did not give up despite the many obstacles that she faced. Through the use of imagery, Updike is able to describe the brief moments that the family had with the puppy and demonstrate how quickly circumstances changed for his family and the puppy.
The author uses a number of different literary devices to describe the hardship she feels such as metaphor, simile, and imagery. The author revels that her life and the chickens are not very different. “I felt her body break deep inside my own chest” (6). The way the chicken has to be killed after being loved for so long is the same way Hall feels about being with her husband for so long and then having him cheat on her and leave her. “Guilt and fear tugged me like an undertow” (7). The chickens are being killed by the one that loved them and in the same way; Hall is killed by the one she loved: her husband. The author uses a numerous number of vivid imagery to describe the struggle she is going through with her husband leaving and her having to kill the chickens. “Her shiny black beak opened and closed, opened and closed” (5). The rumors and suspicions that the author’s husband was cheating on her would come and go, until it reached a breaking point
The use of symbolism in Hemingway’s, Hills like white elephants, provides the reader with situations a couple may face at least once in their life. There are many symbols within this short story, some more complex than others. Knowing the different symbols, can ultimately lead up to the discovery of the real meaning in the story. Hemingway never gives us an easy explanation in this story, forcing the reader to make wild assumptions. Since this story requires readers to read between the lines and think more complex, Hemingway gives us symbols so readers can understand the overall meaning of the story. Hemingway points out many of the symbols used by mainly repetition, which make them very important. Some symbolism shown in this story is: the white elephants, the train station, and scenery.
In the novel, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Mark Haddon uses a range of techniques such as short sentences, dialogue and repetition, that contribute to the making of a characters readers can relate and sympathise with. All these characters are struggling with the loss of loved ones, which most readers will have experienced in their life. This therefore leads to a strong connection between the reader and the characters, making it easy to sympathise with the struggles that the characters are
When the Brush is revisited in section six, the quotation ‘a pleasant shade had fallen’, tells us that the atmosphere has changed. Also the animals tell us of a change as in section 6 the ‘beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head’ telling us of the water snakes death. This setting has altered than that of section one, where the animals were peaceful. ‘The rabbits sat as quietly as little grey, sculptured stones’ implies that they were minding their own business and safe as they were not scared of their surrounding until George and Lennie disturbed them. This is a large contrast between settings and tells us that in section 6, something must happen to explain the animals behaviour, implying a death.