Kitchen, By Banana Yoshimoto

The effect that the landscape has on the characters is very significant. Through the use of figurative language, Kent is able to covey the landscape and how it emphasizes many of the emotions felt by the characters. In the text characters live in Icelandic society where long distance communication is hard and fast communication is even harder. With the weather being the way it is; bitterly cold and oppressive, it reflects on each character and their emotions felt through the book. Particularly the oppressive snowfall throughout the text leaves the characters feeling claustrophobic and confined. In turn this allows each character to express these feelings in their own individual way. Margaret, the mother is trapped in her own house in a repetitive cycle of her own making. Agnes is caught in her own inner turmoil, and Margaret’s daughters are also trapped in a cycle, fated to live a

She also speaks about why sometimes it is worth being stuck or cramped in a tiny place, due to some of the horrors she has witnessed or seen from the outside world. In paragraph three, Jacobs uses personification many times to describe how the winter and autumn felt, and how they affected her. For example, she says that autumn “whirls” through

On page 110 the setting is depicting Holling’s walk home from school. The weather produced dark clouds prepared to rain, “Gray clouds whose undersides had been shredded” (Schmidt 110). Also, with ominous clouds leaving behind an awfully cold mist that hung for what

I understand that the character said that but with all of the dangerous and life threatening situations the Mikaelson's have been put in I don't believe that. I don't believe that nothing that has ever happened to him or his siblings have never frightened him to the same extent or more.

Throughout the years the concept of home style, which was coined by the political scientist Richard Fenno in his book titled “Home Style”, has been investigated by several other political scientist’s. I believe home style should be consistent and continually reinforced. As an inconsistent home style would not produce a good image of a member of Congress to constituents. I believe home style may contain many different components, some of which are: A member of Congress’ image, trust with constituents and Washington, as well as communication with both parts. How many times a member of Congress goes back to their home district to discuss matter’s in Washington is part of this idea of home style. When members make trips back home they usually

The day was chill and somber.  Overhead was a gray expanse of cloud, slightly stirred, however, by a breeze; so that a gleam of flickering sunshine might now and then be seen a its solitary play along the path (159).

On the other hand, Eriko’s death is the determining element in Mikage’s character development. As a result of this shock, Mikage’s character truly understands the lack of control she has on life and death. Mikage’s desperation is depicted the night she hears of the death. Unwilling to grasp reality, she stays up all night hoping Eriko would return. “Still no matter how late I waited up, she would not come back” (53) Yoshimoto does not foreshadow Eriko’s death, foreshadowing would corrupt the underlying theme.

Working as a Juvenile Supervision Officer for the Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department, I come in contact with a lot of juvenile offenders. What I have notice during my tenure is that the majority of the juveniles I see are minorities, African- American, Hispanic and Asian young men and women. According to The Sentencing Project, “In 2010, African Americans comprised 17 percent of all juveniles, but 31 percent of all arrests.” Do juveniles of color commit crimes and come in contact with authorities more often than white juveniles?

In conjunction with the symbolic representation of Elisa’s life, the dramatic description of the environment can also be seen as a unique representation of the relationship conflict between husband and wife. Steinbeck’s foggy description demonstrates conflict through the following statement, "a time of quiet and waiting." This description is interesting because the fields are personified as waiting for rain, however, “rain and fog do not go together” therein lies the conflict just as Elisa waits for a positive change in how her husband treats her (Palmerino, Gregory J). Gregory P. further points out that, “The natural elements of the foothills ranch seem as unwilling to confront each other as the characters that inhabit its environs. Hence, fog and rain can be seen as the female and male equivalents to Elisa and Henry.” This only further solidifies the deep rooted troubles within Elisa and her relationship with her husband. The setting of the story is personified to act as a symbolic representation of the couple’s relationship (Steinbeck, John 337-338).

In the first stanza, the speaker begins to examine the incoming storm. Easily “knowing better than the instrument / What winds are walking overhead, what zone / Of gray unrest is moving,” he is already familiarized with storms. In the literal sense, the speakers anticipates that a storm is

In this case, the clouds are connected to the notion that humans will eventually disappear and that none of their actions will last. Percy Shelley in the next stanza compares humans to lyres; each time the lyre is struck, it plays a dissonant and unmelodious note. Just like the notes played, humans will always give differing responses at different times because they will have changed emotionally. The melodious tunes have been forgotten and unmelodious ones have taken their place; in comparison, the previous unity and harmony have been replaced by disunity and tension in human minds and mankind. Shelley compares man to clouds and lyres in order to express his powerful reasoning that humans are undergoing change at all times.

In face of the season of death and preparing for an end, “Eriko died late in the Autumn.” (44) Much grief and despair fell upon Mikage and Yuichi as the dark Autumn imagery clearly reflects these negative emotions. There was a discrete transition from Autumn to Winter as death and preparing for an end goes hand in hand with voidness and despair. The four seasons of the year which range in different exposures to lightness are perfectly used by Yoshimoto to express the continuity of the cycle of grief and joy as time advances.

Although the lovers remain silent, "The wind's incomplete unrest / Builds and disperses clouds about the sky", which symbolizes first an eternal yearning for something deeper than is there, and secondly a "clouded," obscure vision of what this something may be. The previously mentioned yearning is shown also by a definition of clouds as "a type of the fleeting or unsubstantial" (Oxford English Dictionary). Whatever it may be that is being searched for cannot be found by lying inert letting time pass by. While this second stanza contemplates the apparently unattainable, the final two seem to convey a feeling of hopelessness in knowing that the clouds may never subside.

The Japanese culture has been greatly influenced by its religions, and one of the most influential religions has been Shintoism. Shintoism has been dated back to 500BC, when the descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu-OmiKami, worshiped the gods and goddesses of Japan. Shinto means "way of the gods" and that represents what people who practice Shintoism believe in. Shintoism is a religion based on Japanese mythology, which is centered on a male god, Izanagi, and a female goddess, Izanami. These two gods were believed to have created Japan, which was thought to be the only land in the whole word. The two gods had two children, the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the storm god, Susanowo. These two gods fought over control of the people of

We obtain the feeling of spring when King describes the weather in this section: “The air soft and beautiful, the sky was darkening by slow degrees from blue to the calm and lovely violet of dusk” . The spring symbolises hope and joy and make the atmosphere calm contrary to the dark streets in the night that obtain a more scary atmosphere when there suddenly are less people than on the big avenues.