The speaker in “Dismantling the House” by Stephen Dunn reflects on the demolition of this house with respect to the memories he has of it along with the loss he feels. By speaking directly to the reader he is actually talking himself through how his house will be demolished and what it means to himself. By discussing his house and the demolition of the symbol of a prized memory, the speaker reveals the impossibility of distancing oneself from something whose symbolism is so important; this is important because it reveals the complexities that arise from the loss acquired through the demolition of the house and the ways one tries to drive this loss towards something positive. The speaker utilizes the second person narrative to speak to himself …show more content…
The passage of time indicated by the short sentence “It’s over.” (16) gives and abrupt shift in topic. The loss that has occurred has not left him, but he want to turn it into something positive. “It’s time for loss to build its tower in the yard where you are merely a spectator now” (16-17). On one level the loss is the physically demolished house whose remains are piled in the yard. One a different level, the personification of the loss demonstrates it has a mind of its own that the speaker cannot control as he is forced to idle watch by. The complexity of the loss leads to the desire for the narrator to bring life back into something damaged beyond repair. The loss of the house and the loss the narrator feels switches creates a desire within the narrator to make use out of something terrible that has happened to him. The juxtaposition of harsh d sounds in “discarded or damaged” (20) paired with the positive and airy “lift” (21) reveals the large shift the narrator would have to make to achieve his dream. The specification of “even gone” (20) by the speaker indicates he recognizes the absurdity of his
This novel by “Ben Mezrich,” “Bringing Down the House” are currently in the situation where Mickey and Kevin both in interrogation from the head security of Nevada state… Kevin has no choice but to tell the truth on what exactly is happening to the people around him. Because of the fact that the people around him are on the same side as kevin he has no option but to just come up front. If not, he has a good chance of being put onto the Death Penalty. The team moves onto Louisiana where they enter Jack Binion’s Horseshoe casino for the first time. They were encouraged by the fact that they were able to make over $50,000 without being detected by security. However when they switch to a nearby casino, it becomes obvious very quickly that they
After being crushed with deep sorrow over the death of his beloved Ligeia, the narrator moves into a decaying abbey to leave behind his lonesome house. Although he leaves the exterior of the house untouched, the narrator decorates the interior with strange but lavish furniture. “The furnishings take on the shapes and colors of his fantastic dreams” as he attempts to cope with his loss (Kincheloe). This supports the idea that the narrator would rather live in his own colorful fantasy (like the inside of his house), than engage in the dark reality (as represented by the outside of the house). Losing Ligeia meant the narrator lost his fulfillment in life; which is why his reality is now gloomy and undesirable. Not only does is the furniture an example of dream imagery, the walls of the desolate house also have a dream effect. The moving images on the walls cause the house itself to seem restless and alive. The narrator imagines this because it represents himself; always on the edge of monstrosity with each changing mood. As he hallucinates on opium, his sense of reality and fantasy is put together as one. With each furnishing, a looming memory of Ligeia haunts him as he reminances her during his opium dreams.
How ironic it is that some people truly do not appreciate what they have or realize a good thing until it is gone? However, many may say that some people have to travel the path of lost and despair to realize the things that are important. Others simple may just live a life of delusion so as to ignore the present and so they miss out on the important things. To be your authentic self one need to be honest with self and for some to arrive to authenticity it may require despair or lost. In this review, the narrator seemed to have an obsession with a self consuming image that is created by using a glass cleaner that creates a promising and vital false outlook that make him very happy in his home. His home has become his refuge in a sense and
As she passes the ruins she recreates the pleasant things that had been there. Despite the reasonable arguments that her goods belonged to God and whatever God does is just, there is in the poem an undercurrent of regret that the loss is not fully compensated for by the hope of the treasure that lies above. (84)
* ‘This late, the architecture is desolate and reached of colour’’ symbolic, suggests of life having been washed out in the town-devoid of colour.
After merely seeing the memorial the speaker begins to fight back tears because of the memories he was having involving the Vietnam War. Describing himself as both “stone” and “flesh” relates him to being a veteran of a war who is alive and a dead man like the fallen soldiers he knew who are honored in granite in the memorial. While staring at the memorial the speaker’s vision is blurry and is described as a “clouded reflection” when viewing the memorial through tear filled eyes. This reflection eyeing him “like a bird of prey” conveys a sense of weakness and judgment felt by the speaker regarding those around him who are standing strong. The speaker is so captivated by the memorial the light transports him “inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial” and the stone has the ability to “let him go.” Light is an important aspect because it represents the good that the Vietnam Memorial has created and the way or honoring the veterans of that war. Etched
As sentimental tone becomes evident frequently through the story, the author uses determination to display the struggles and growth that the author experiences. One of the major quotes that shows determination through a sentimental tone can be displayed as the hotel burning down where the Walls currently lived. Walls stated, “I wonder if the fire had been out to get me. I wonder if all fire was related . . . I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived that at any moment could erupt . . . It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes” (Walls 34). This excerpt explains that the author and her family struggle through life to find a decent home--that they can afford. Jeannette spills her emotions through this quote; her struggles become strengths, as she narrates her childhood. The author displays the theme of struggle and the sentimental tone when “. . . the whole family stretched out on the benches and the floor of the depot and read, with the dictionary in the middle of the room so [the] kids could look up words [they] didn't know. . .” (Walls 56). This quote really tears at the reader’s heart strings, as the family copes with their living situations. Jeannette exceeds with describing the story; adding imagery to the situation creates the sentimental tone. The idea of struggle and growth portrays the main point of the overall
A certain image, scent or sound can bring back moments that may have been forgotten. The speaker is astonished by the dreams she has of her mother. Her mother died very ill, the person who she was when she died was merely a shell of who she truly was. She describes her as “so much better than I remembered.” (Monro, 151). At the end of her mother’s life she could not hear her voice. She remembers her “mother’s liveliness of face and voice before her throat muscles stiffened [as] a woeful, impersonal mask fastened itself over her features.” (Monro, 151) In her dreams she was able to hear her mother’s voice again, opposed to the reality before her death. A mother’s voice is beautiful, and there is no other sound that compare to something as unique. Elliot writes “The unconscious sifts through memory, and then offers up details either strangely distorted or implausibly combined. As in art, as in story, dreams too, render experience metonymically.” (Elliot, 79). With time memories inevitably fade, but the dreams bring a sense of comfort and replenish the image of her mother. “How could I have forgotten this?” (Monro, 151). Heller writes that this scene “serves as a springboard from which the narrator launches into a story being told by her mother.” (Heller, 1). This scene leads us to the central conflict in the story of her mother’s life, and assists in understanding the conflict
As the poem progresses, the misplaced or forgotten items become concepts such as names and ideas, and therefore carry more of an impact. For example, forgetting someone’s name, however not uncommon, can be associated with feelings of embarrassment from the forgettor, and annoyance from the forgotten when they discover that they were not important enough to be remembered. The speaker simply shrugs off these losses because “None of [them] will bring disaster,” as mentioned in line 9. Emotion, often associated with memories is introduced in line 10 when the speaker announces, “I lost my mother’s watch.” An item such as a mother’s watch holds sentimental value, unlike the previously mentioned keys; however, the speaker repeats, “I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster,” (line 15) indicating that the watch was merely a material possession crowded with memories. At this point, the reader recognizes the feeling of missing something associated with greater losses of objects and ideas the speaker regards with more emotional attachment.
In everyone’s life there is a moment that is so dreadful and horrific that it is best to try to push it further and further back into your mind. When traumatized by death for example it is very natural to shut off the memory in order to self-defense suppresses the awful emotional experience. Very often it is thoughtful that this neglecting and abandoning is the best way to forget. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, memory is depicted as a dangerous and deliberating faculty of human consciousness. In this novel Sethe endures the oppression of self imposed prison of memory by revising the past and death of her daughter Beloved, her mother and Baby Suggs. In Louise Erdrich’s
I think the speaker shares his remorse even though he doesn't want to return the old house. “They are all gone away”(1) The speaker talks about his friends who are passed away and he is feeling alone because nobody was there. He conveys his tone and he doesn’t want to regret what happened in the past “There is nothing more to say” (9) The speaker described here there is nothing he can do because he is dying as well. He was trying to forget his past bad experiences because he was not able to do something in the
The narrator comes to the House to aid his dying friend, Roderick Usher. As he arrives at the House he comes upon an “aura of vacancy and decay… creating a pathologically depressive mood” (Cook). The state of the House is daunting to the narrator – he describes it with such features as “bleak walls”, “eye-like windows”, “rank sedges”, “decayed trees”, and “an utter depression of the soul”. These images foreshadow a less than pleasant future for the narrator and his dear friend Roderick. Poe continues to foreshadow the narrators turn of events with a description of the House’s “dark” and “comfortless” furniture. The House becomes a living hell for the narrator as he watches Roderick’s condition evolve and struggles to understand the mystery tying unfortunate events together. However, as the narrator gradually becomes more enveloped in Roderick and the House’s malady, he seems to develop a malady of his own. While the narrator’s illness is less prominent than that of Roderick and his sister Lady Madeline, the sicknesses are one in the same.
While the plot and the theme are always very significant, a reader should never forget the importance of the setting in a story. This short story is a perfect example of the importance of the setting, since it is through it that the reader is able to truly understand the author’s message and intensions. It is through the description of a post-apocalyptic world, a city in ruins and the last house standing, that the reader is able to truly understand the
After this point, it seems that the destruction has taken its course and there is nothing left but emptiness and everyone “battered bleak of brain all drained of Brilliance in the drear light of Zoo.” The last “fantastic Book,” “open door,” and “piece of mental furniture” represent any remaining originality, opportunities, and ideas that were left being “thrown out the tenement window” and “slammed shut” by society and the capitalist system.
This arising tone of regret and distance is also formed by the speaker’s depiction of his father having “cracked hands that ached,” (1. 3) which further signifies the father’s struggle with the severe coldness. The concept of self-sacrifice is apparent in this portrayal of his father’s disregard to his own pain in order to provide warmth and light for his family’s home. The stirring of “banked fires blaze” (1. 5) within the house,