In “Strength In What Remains”, Tracy Kidder intricately captures the life story and perseverance of Deo, short for Deogratias. The book begins with a narrow escape from Deo’s burning home country, seemingly signifying the end of his hardships and a flight into a start of something new altogether. Many a time when life seemed to take a turn for the worst, Deo has always lived to tell the tale; as if something was “looking out for Deo” and the author reluctantly questions this supposed luck (177). Nevertheless, it is important to denote that his survival primarily revolved around his aptness to think critically and thus, enabled him to read between the lines, detect patterns, prioritize his life principles and to motivate himself. Firstly, it is pertinent to consider that Deo’s ability to look past the manipulative nature of humans actually determined his survival. This poor boy, who had been kept in the dark about the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, found himself being hunted down as he fled on foot. In one encounter with the militiamen, he didn’t fall for their tricks when they attempted to lure anyone out of hiding by proclaiming “ ‘We see you. Come on out.’ ” (124). Instead of surrendering, Deo was willing to bet that they were “yelling into the forest . . . in effect to people who might be hiding there” and that the only one “stupid enough to obey” was someone who had given in to the exhaustion (124). Therefore, we see that Deo is clever enough to take his chances by not revealing
It is difficult to portray a young boy as fortunate when his life quickly took a turn on him one day working. Being a prisoner of someone else is a hard experience to suppress especially when one is stripped from their family and homeland. The trials he faced challenged his will to live physically and mentally. He was once reunited with his sister, just to be torn out of her sight forever again. This time he felt the days passing were unbearable, “...I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me”(Equiano 54). When Equiano was in negative environments he felt the tragedy of wanting to end his life. He would wake up knowing that his life could end at any moment if he were to make
Among the various structural and thematic elements, Debora Greger’s “West of Myself” provides a sense of nostalgia and reminiscence of the past. The poem illustrates how life and memory are not so easily remembered or taken. The speaker of the poem is dramatizing her inner conflict and chastising herself for the direction her life has taken and where she believes it will befall. The compelling force for the creation of the work might have been to express memories of living a life and reflection, looking at life from hindsight. The poem reveals where she once thought the right way in life was to go and where she now thinks the right way would have been.
In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the theme of growing up is prevalent throughout the book. Throughout the novel, a young mexican girl named Esperanza goes through experiences as she matures that involve her friends, society, dangers that expose her to the outside world and help her to realize what the real world is like.
The writing life is the short story book which has seven chapters. It talks about how to become a good writer and how to create a good writing by passing through the perspective and personal experience of Annie Dillard. In the part of how to become a good writer, she tells her personal experience about what is the things that help she to become a good writer. Also, what is the things a writer should have and what is a person a writer should be. In the part of how to create the good writing, she compares the writing with other handicrafts such as painting, photographing, singing, and wood working (Dillard 3-6). In addition, she gives us about the idea of “Line of Words” that is the major part of creating a good writing.
The act of crossing a metaphorical threshold is one that is oftentimes difficult and daunting. Although it may require courage, the reward of gaining knowledge is worth the process of crossing whatever threshold life chooses to place in front of you. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel the protagonist, Sarah Grimké, knows all about crossing thresholds. She lives by her own personal slogan to “err… on the side of audacity.” I have come to learn so much about myself and the world around me by doing just that.
“A Dog’s Life” The autobiography of a stray by: Ann M. Martin, a book i’ve had since the 4th grade, I can never stop coming back to it at least once every year though. A dog named Squirrel goes through many changes in her life with losing her mother, then her brother, being abused, surviving on her own, making new friends losing those friends and finding a good home for good where she can live her elder years. To me the book basically covers the life of a human, as I got older and repeatedly read the book I realized that it has substantial similarities with the way humans generally go through life. People lose their family, get in abusive relationships, have to go to college and survive on their own, we make friends, lose friends and hopefully
Nowadays, a large number of people migrate to the United States to work and achieve the American Dream. According to the Article “What is the American Dream?” by Kimberly Amadeo, “The American Dream was first publicly defined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in Epic of America. Adam’s often-repeated quote is, ‘The American Dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’” There are many people that can have different perspectives when it comes to the topic of the American dream. Even though many people assume the American Dream is dead, it is a very controversial topic. The American Dream may have many different points of views, but it really does exist, after all, it takes an ambitious person to strive for success through hard work, dedication and determination.
Many times, we have memories that we would like to forget, such as an unpleasant or traumatic experience. My memory of my first internship was something that I always tried to forget, along with a lot of other negative experiences in my life. However, now that almost two years have passed, and after reflecting on it time and time again, I began to reclassify that memory as a learning experience rather than a negative experience. In life, we are faced with many obstacles, sometimes on a daily basis. Our society values stories of overcoming life’s obstacles because they are inspiring, interesting and may lead to personal growth.
Whilst talking to a journalist when he first arrived, Deo described that, “to answer felt dangerous” (Kidder 9). He then went on to lie about his past. Although I did personally interview him, another ping of doubt arises when Do leaves out details about his family when talking to Sharon (Kidder 52). One might say it was because she was a stranger, but I was also a stranger when I interviewed him; I can only wonder what he left out. The most prominent example of Deo’s dodging of the truth is when he refused to write an account of his life, something that surely would have helped his situation; Sharon suggested it could lead to benefactors (Kidder 56). So why would he refuse? I must digress that I do question the accuracy of his statement, chiefly due to this encounter
Love makes people become selfish, but it is also makes the world greater. In this poem, the world that the speaker lives and loves is not limited in “my North, my South, my East and West / my working week and my Sunday rest” (9-10), it spreads to “My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song (11). The poem’s imagery dominates most of the third stanza giving readers an image of a peaceful world in which everything is in order. However, the last sentence of the stanza is the decisive element. This element not only destroys the inner world of the speaker, but it also sends out the message that love or life is mortal.
A journey begins with a single step, or rather, for the protagonists of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a single truth. While these works of literature are separated by years, each similarly exhibits the archetype of journeys. However, to voyage as these characters have is not simply by knowing the contours of the road they travel, but to trace a profound transformation on an internal level. For unfortunate King Oedipus and a likewise infamous Prince Hamlet, their journeys are not just physical, but of the mind, manifesting itself in the form of mental deterioration.
In the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Dream of the Rood,” anonymous authors give way to the idea that an Almighty God will solve every problem a person has by doing two things: 1) drawing upon the memories of a warrior who has lost everything near and dear to him due to war, and 2) entering the dream of a man who has been exiled and isolated. Each piece takes its reader through the trials and tribulations that one may not relate to in this era, yet the reader is still there alongside the character wanting them to find peace with their world and themselves. Initially, it is believed that the characters will overcome their hardships and achieve the happiness they seek. However, as the reader delves deeper into the character’s story, there is an overwhelming sense of incompleteness. What actually happens at the end of each piece is not written in stone - telling us the story is not whole - nor has a conclusion been reached. The intrapersonal thoughts being shared with the reader reveal the obstacles that keep an overall wholeness from occurring.
In Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, the play of light and shadow are reoccurring motifs that identify and relate to the general themes of remembering and forgetting. H. Porter Abbott has defined motif as “a discrete thing, image, or phrase that is repeated in a narrative”, where in contrast, a theme “is a more generalized…concept that is suggested by… motifs” (237). Abbott emphasizes that “Themes are implicit in motifs, but not the other way around” (95). In In the Skin of a Lion, Ondaatje emphasizes the class struggles endured by the immigrant workers and the internal struggles faced by the central characters. The motif of chiaroscuro, the play of light and shadow, reflects how the characters try to forget their past and personal burdens, and strive to recall joyful memories, which aides them in embracing new beginnings and creating new memories. I will argue that the motif of light relates to the theme of remembering and the motif of shadow identifies with the theme of forgetting. I will show these relationships by analyzing the imagery and context of four central scenes in which light and shadow play a significant role. Firstly, I will discuss the event of the nun falling off the unfinished bridge. Secondly, I will consider the candle-light vigil held for the deceased bridge works. Thirdly, I will discuss the working conditions of the tunnel workers in the section “Palace of Purification”, and lastly, I will analyze the concluding scene in which Patrick and Hana
It is human nature to interpret and reinterpret life and find meaning of one’s place in the world. Without such knowledge, or belief for that matter, any possibility of humanity is lost. Hence, humans are plagued with the necessity to interpret themselves and their connections to their surroundings—both human and physical. Because one’s connections and contexts for interpretation are endless in some sense, humans are inherently a divided self—the culmination of all given interpretations they make for themselves and interpretations from others. In addition, this totality of interpretations through the lens selves as being what is around you, it follows that poetic-rhetorical language is necessary in discussion of the divided self.
In his parable Before the Law, Franz Kafka suggests that obstacles that one faces in life can either be used to mold one’s success or bring about one’s failure. If one can overcome challenges that they face they grow in a unique type of way, for every individual perceives each situation in a distinct fashion. That unique type of growth is what establishes a person’s character and perception of the world. However if one cannot overcome their obstacles, then they cut of their means for growth and are left uninspired, forgetting any dreams or aspirations. It is through the man’s interaction with the doorkeeper, and his inability to overcome this obstacle, that eventually leads him down the path of complacency and failure.