cease to / exist than to exist forever / and never be a part of beauty,” (Marquis 34-37). This is the question that can be asked while reading the novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and the two poems: The Lesson of the Moth by Don Marquis and Identity by Julio Noboa. The Lesson of the Moth is about a moth who is attracted to the beauty of an electric light bulb even though it could kill him. Identity is about a plant who is willing to be flawed and different from the rest of the beautiful, yet ordinary
ENGL 1302 April 8, 2011 “The lesson of the moth” Analysis by Don Marquis The title of this poem by Don Marquis is "The Lesson of the Moth" because it is a poem about the thoughts of a moth and his outlook on life. The overall poem would be considered argumentative being the moth is trying to inform the man that he should live his life and let his hair down a little more instead of relishing the everyday routines of life. This is shown in paragraph 3 when the moth says “But we get bored with the
The Lesson of the Moth Jack Thurman Prof Cole Bellamy Week 2 In the poem “The Lesson of The Moth”, Don Marquis tells a story of a moth, an insect that have a strange habit of being attracted to the bright light or fire. The story is being told by a fictional character named Archy who is reincarnated author. The character finds the moth trying to break into a light bulb to get the light inside; when he asks why he is doing this, the moth gives an incredibly profound statement: “It is better
The suicide of the moth, the immolation on a cigar lighter, is a literal presentation of his ideas for life. In the poem “Lesson of the Moth” by Don Marquis, two conflicting opinions about life face each other. There is a cockroach named “archy” that thinks you should live your life as long as you can, and an unnamed moth that wants to live life to the fullest, even if it means dying early. The “lesson” in this poem is that there are several conflicting ideas to everything. Throughout the story
In Don Marquis’ poem, “The Lesson of the Moth”, a moth is used to teach a cockroach, named Archie that having a moment of happiness is worth risking everything that you have. This is shown first, when Archie first sees the moth in line 3. The poem states “he was trying to break into an electric light bulb and fry himself on the wires”. The author starts to build the theme of the poem by using the main character’s actions of getting to see beauty for a moment. In this context, the strong negative
Poets and Authors use main characters and genres to build a central message of their literary work. Sometimes different genres can be used to build the same theme. In “the lesson of the moth” by the poet Don Marquis, there is a common theme throughout the whole poem, what is it like to have something worth dying for. He uses a moth, the protagonist, to express the theme. In a similar way, Daniel Keyes, author of “Flowers for Algernon”, a short story, uses Charlie Gordon, an intellectually challenged
The Lesson of Life Every living thing on this earth has at least one thing in common, life. Every person/creature chooses to live their lives in their own way. If one should reach the short poem “the lesson of the moth” they would see two very different views on how one should live their life. Some people choose to live like the safe Roach, some people choose to live like the rash moth, and some people choose to live with a beautiful blend of the two. The roach in this story is the writer of this
wasting our time on unnecessary things and start concentrating on the valuable things. In today’s society everybody will try to give you advice but it’s your decision at the end if you want to follow their advice. “from Crito” by Plato and “The lesson of the moth” by Don Marquis, these authors also believe to live for short period of time with full enjoyment instead of living long term with boring life. Both of these authors have same ideas and can be compared to each other by following reasons. First
The poem “the lesson of the moth” written by Don Marquis, reflects many ideas found in Transcendentalism and in the story of Chris McCandless. The poem focuses in on the beauty of life. It suggests that “we get bored with the routine” (Marquis 18). This relates to many Transcendentalist beliefs which are represented throughout multiple of Emerson and Thoreau's pieces. Transcendentalism has many core beliefs such as: individualism, going into nature, trusting one’s self, and living a minimalistic
Happiness is a word often confused with a momentary state of pleasure or passing feeling of joy. This idea is clearly shown in The Giver and “the lesson of the moth” through their themes. Both texts clearly display an idea revolving around the fact that true happiness is very important, but in a slightly different way. Using the passage from the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry one of the most evident themes is a combination of choice and happiness. The theme for the passage is “the ability to choose