Fire – a metaphor of life
The book I have read is called “My sister’s keeper,” and is written by Jodi Picoult. It is about a family of five, with two daughters and a son. Their oldest daughter, Kate, got leukemia when she was two years old, and her parents decided to have another child to save her. The newborn baby, Anna, was used to donate blood to Kate. Eventually, when Anna is older she decides to sue her parents for the rights of her own body, when she is told to donate a kidney to her sister. Through the book we also meet the sister’s older brother, Jesse, as well as their parents, Brian and Sarah, Anna’s lawyer, Campbell, and her guardian ad litem, Julia. Fire is a central theme in the book, and is used as a metaphor in many different ways. First we can read different quotes about fire as we go trough the book. Secondly we hear their father’s description of fire on page 141, and lastly how we interpret fire ourselves.
There are at least ten quotes about fire in the book. The quote on page 71 is my favorite quote in the book, because I feel that it describes the family’s situation, as well as making you read between the lines after a deeper meaning.
“I will read ashes for you, if you ask me.
I will look in the fire and tell you from the gray lashes
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Fire starts out small, like when we are born. When the fire grows we grow as well. At that time the fire is so small that our parents can control us. Suddenly we are teenagers and the fire is no longer under the same control. We try different stuff and we meet different people. We get hurt, and the fire only grows more. As we reach adulthood, some stabilize the fire more or less, but there will be times in life where you no longer can control it. Getting old, the fire burns out, and when the fire dies, so do we. The ashes that remains are our story from our lives we had down at earth, some are remembered more than
At a young age, Jeannette’s experience with fire has showed her that the world is full of danger. She sees that the world “at any moment could erupt into fire.” Jeannette’s thought of “if the fire had been out to get me”, shows that she believes fire is a reoccurrence in her life. The element of fire serves as a symbol of how one misfortune event is connected to another in Jeannette’s childhood, like the way “all fire was related.” It also foreshadows that Peace for Jeannette only lasts momentarily. Throughout the story, Jeannette and her family encountered countless struggles. However, these struggles had trained Jeannette and her siblings to be strong individuals. It also required the children to take care of each other and appreciate what
As the fireman, Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury changes his view on the world, his view on fire changes as well. Throughout the book he encounters many different people who each change him in different ways. Some people convince him that fire is great because of its destruction. It burns away the things that make people unhappy, and changes things. However, as his journey continues, he begins to see fire as an escape. By the end of the book, he realizes that fire does not just take and destroy, but it gives.
In “My Sister’s Keeper”, a movie in which almost every part contains Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. This movie expresses the feelings, for example pain, worry, and other feelings that have to do with all the treatments and the suffering that loved ones face. In the movie which contained logos, pathos, ethos, and is expressed in various scenes in the movie. For example, Anna who is the little sister of the three siblings and was created by “in-vitro fertilization” with all the same genes of her sister. (My Sister’s Keeper, 2009, 0:49-2:41) Obviously ethos is part of the scenes of the movie because their parents think it is correct what they are doing to their little daughter. Anna is the person who takes care of her sister Kate all the time. She knows how Kate feels and that part of the movie is pathos because everyone feels different about the situation. Kate felt tired of begin in the hospital all the time and to the point where she did not have a normal life like the other young teenagers. Anna feels all the responsibility is on her shoulders because all the things she needs to survive is within Kate’s body. Jesse, the older brother, feels lonely because all the attention is in Anna and Kate. Tyler feels angry towards his
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings” is a famous quote said by Heinrich Heine, which relates to the concept of book burning, seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury uses his unique literary style to write the novel Fahrenheit 451; where he brings his readers to a future American Society which consists of censorship, book burning, and completely oblivious families. The novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is one of the many firemen who takes pride in starting fires rather than putting them out, until he encounters a seventeen-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan. As the novel progresses, the reader is able to notice what Clarisse’s values are in the novel, how her innocence and
Imagine a society where books are banned, technology has taken over and is on the verge of a world war. This is what you encounter when reading the totalitarian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury from the perspective of the protagonist Guy Montag, a fireman with the task of burning every still existing book there is. Throughout the course of the novel, he begins questioning his current life-situation and evolves from a workaholic to a rule-breaking rebel in a matter of days. Considering the occupation of the protagonist, fire coincidentally has a significant role in this story, however, the symbolism changes coherently with Montag himself. The meaning of fire and burning provides dimension and depth and thus making it a food for thought type
Bradbury also uses powerful the symbolism of fire, water and the Phoenix to paint distinct images in the reader’s minds. Firemen see fire as a symbol of purification through the burning of books. This is quite ironic because rather than purifying the world they are contributing to the destruction of knowledge. The Chief of the Fire
Fire has turned into a focused, on image for death in this story. When we read about the cottagers bite the dust in the flares after the creature begins the fire, we see that once we encounter fire we see flames filled with death. Fire additionally causes torment for instance when the creature says "In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain." The torment that fire has caused not just to the people but also to the creature who has made death occur through flames of this awful mark.
The imagery of fire in Edwidge Danticat 's short story “A Wall of Fire Rising” possesses a very powerful meaning and also continually changes throughout the entirety of the story. Fire was a very sacred thing to have, especially during the time this story has taken place.
By using sight as a sense, fire has risen in the middle of the story. Specifically, the meaning of fire itself, is something being burned, or is going to be burned. In the same way, fire also spreads drastically everywhere. As it states in the book, “He saw a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of a
Mankind has been utilizing fire for millennia; it has been used to make food safe, to provide warmth, to illuminate the dark and unknown, and to protect from savage beasts. It is also practical for torturing, killing, intimidating, and destroying. It only takes one glance for someone to see how fire -- as it dances, spearing the sky for but a moment before it is gone, only to be replaced by another flame -- is far too chaotic to be controlled. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, it seems, superficially, that man has conquered fire at last; the home, man’s refuge from everything undesirable in the world, is fireproof. Why, then, are things still burning in this gilded utopia? In this futuristic society where there is no such thing as an uncontrolled fire, fire has been reduced to a mere tool to be wielded by mankind. As such, fire, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is a reflection of the true nature of each character in the novel. In the hands of the society and especially the fireman, fire is a tool wielded for fractious and destructive intent. For Clarisse, who is compared to a candle, fire is friendly and inspiring of thought. And for Montag and the other literates hiding outside of the city, fire is a warm gathering place that fosters kinship and the proper ideals to feed a revolution.
Fire is a symbol that cannot be described in one word. Fire represents destruction, death, hostility, unpredictability, and the potential for limitless violence. Fire, however, also has a good side to it. Fire can be health, hospitality, control, food, shelter, light, and strength. With these characteristics in mind, fire has a number of different connotations. Many of these connotations can be found in one book. Fire, in William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, is a complex symbol, representing anarchy and the darkness inside of us, civilization and the light in all of us, and hope, the constant motivator for our survival.
Fire went to Cansrel Archer's father to talk and here his stories of war, she never felt bored when he told his stories. Cansrel always told Fire of her real father and how he was not always kind but he was a monster human too and loved Fire always with all his love. He tried to teach her lessons on how to use her power and who to use it on he always told
In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, fire is a recurring idea. Bradbury used the main character, Guy Montag, to present the fire motif throughout the story. Montag, a fireman, had doubts about his career and society. He sought answers and enlightenment to cure his curiosity about the truth in books. He did not have faith in his society, nor did he understand why intellect was so terrible. In his search Montag realized that fire (and books) were not so evil after all. Montag began to see fire in a different light. Therefore, fire, in Fahrenheit 451, represented rejuvenation through cleansing and renewal.
The “firemen” in Fahrenheit 451 do not extinguish fires. They actually start fires, by burning
My Sister`s Keeper explores the moral, practical and emotional complication of putting one human being in pain or in danger for the well of another. Discuss the different kinds of ethical problems that Anna, as the “designer baby,” presents in this story.