Structure and symbolism in The Lottery Essay Example for Free

Structure and symbolism in The Lottery Essay In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson relates an unusual story concerning an old ritual within the setting of a small American village. Reading for the first time, most readers will be tremendously shocked by the ending: with an idyllic village atmosphere settled down at the beginning part, the cruel and outrageous ending comes all too suddenly and out of expectation. However, a careful examination can reveal that the shock is not sudden at all; The Lottery actually fuses two stories and themes into one fictional vehicle: the overt, easily discovered story appears in the literal facts, producing an immediate, emotional impact; whereas in the second story which lies beneath the first, the authors careful structure and consistent symbolism work to develop gradually the shock and to present a profound theme: Man is not at the mercy of savagery; he is the victim of unexamined and unchanging traditions which he may easily change if he only realizes their implications. The symbolic overtones which develop in the second story can be sensed as early as the fourth word of the story when the date of June 27th alerts us to the season of summer solstice with all its overtones of ancient ritual (The ancient rituals were traditionally held in summer solstice so as to ask for harvest of autumn. ) Carefully the scene is set-The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of the full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The children newly freed from school play boisterously, rolling in the dust. But, ominously, Bobby Martin has already stuffed his pockets with stones and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix follow his example, eventually making a great pile of stones in the corner which they guard from the raids of other boys. Thus by the end of just two paragraphs, the author has carefully indicated the season, time of ancient ritual of sacrifice; and the stones, most ancient of sacrifice weapons. Then The men began to gather, talking of the planting and rain-the central issues of the ancient propitiatory rites, and tractors and taxes-those modern additions to the concerns of man. The men are quieter, more aware, and the patriarchal order, the oldest social group of man, is quickly evidenced as women join their husband and call their children to them. When Bobby Martin tries to leaves the group runs laughing to the stones, he is sharply rebuffed by his serious father, who knows that this is no game. All these descriptions clearly show that this is more than the surface idyllic small town life, the symbolic undercurrents prepare us to be drawn step by step towards the ultimate, where everything will fuse.

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Change is Memorable When readers read a book that they like, they will remember at least one character in the book for some specific reason. Authors have many different ways to make a character memorable but one of the most common ways that characters become memorable is the way that they change throughout the story. William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, Anton Chekhov’s â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog†, and Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"Good Country People† all have main characters that are memorable because of the changes that take place physically and mentally in their respective stories. In the story, â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, William Faulkner creates a mysterious yet respectable character. The changes that Miss Emily experiences in the story make her a memorable character. Faulkner uses symbolism in order to show the changes that take place with Miss Emily. The changes in Miss Emily’s hair can be taken as a symbol for the changes in Miss Emily herself. Before the death of Homer Barron her hair is â€Å"cut short making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows.† As the story moves on her hair â€Å"grows grayer and grayer until it attains an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray.† Her hair grows a dull color as Miss Emily turns into a dull person. Her hair, in the beginning, is described as one of an angel, and then described as one you would find on a witch. In the beginning of the story Miss Emily has no bad intentions and later, her fears of being alone lead her to turn evil as she poisons Homer Wagoner 2 Barron. As her hair’s appearance goes from innocent to evil Miss Emily goes from being innocent to evil. Her hair loses its life, foreshadowing the future of Miss Emily. Another memorable character is that of the womanizer Dmitri Gurov in â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog.† Gurov is the protagonist in â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog† and the readers get to view the changes of a man who has fallen in love but then is forced to examine the way that he looks at the world. Gurov is memorable because the things that he does and says on the surface are not the way Gurov actually feels about the world. Although he looks down upon women and refers to them as "the inferior race," Gurov furtively admits that he feels more relaxed with them than he does with men.

Poetry Analysis †Coleridge, Tennyson, Hopkins Essay

The Romantic poet Percy Shelley once wrote, â€Å"Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.† Both the Romantic and the Victorian periods of poetry followed Shelley’s vision of poetry as they exposed their respective societal issues. Romantic period lasted from1785 to 1830, a time in which England moved from an agrarian to industrial country and overall nationalistic ideals threatened the individuality of the poets and artists. The Romantic period of poetry was therefore very reactionary. It was a reaction to enlightenment ideas, to the disregard for human life in revolutions, and to the uniform of nationalism. The decay of social values that took place in the latter part of the Victorian period spurred many writers to shift the context of their work from the Romantic natural forms to education, women’s rights, and political ideologies. Though both periods produced a momentous achievements in structure, language, and musicality of the poetic movement, the Romantic period effectuated an extreme feat in poetry in a mere fifty years. Samuel Coleridge’s â€Å"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner† is a Romantic ballad in seven parts, with fairly regular quatrains. Its short sentence structure develops steady movement, allowing to the reader’s engagement to grow as the tale progresses and the speaker’s message is unveiled. The tetrameter structure reveals an explanation of the title; the Ancient Mariner orally recites his tale, teaching a universal lesson on nature’s value and the earth’s deserving of respect. Coleridge uses both dialogue and varying perspective to establish a credibility in his work. An omniscient narrator speaks of an instance where the â€Å"bright-eyed† Mariner tells his story to a wedding-guest and the effect the tale has on him; â€Å"a sadder and a wiser man, / He rise the morrow morn† (Coleridge 624-625). Coleridge often utilizes the effect of exclamation points when the Mariner is speaking to convey his passion, as in â€Å"Farewell, farewell! but this I tell / To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! / He prayeth well, who loveth well / Both man and bird and beast† (610-613). By capitalizing the first letter in various important words, Coleridge successfully enables to the reader to interpret a symbolic meaning behind the select terms. For instance, â€Å"Albatross,† though not a proper noun, is capitalized in each reference he makes to the creature yet when referring to the â€Å"water-snakes† and the â€Å"sky-lark† Coleridge does not capitalize the terms as they hold less symbolic value in the Mariner’s tale. ‘Is this the man? By him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross. The spirit who bideth by himself In the land of mist and snow, He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him with his bow.’ (Coleridge 397-405) The Albatross is capitalized to depict the pure innocence and divinity of nature and God’s creations. Further interpretation also shows Coleridge’s capitalization of the Albatross to allude to Jesus Christ. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s â€Å"Crossing the Bar† is a comforting and uplifting Victorian Era poem about the end of life’s journey. Tennyson’s calm language and peaceful imagery envelop the reader in consoling compassion rather than a miserable mourning at the thought of a loved-one’s passing. He introduces the dwindling of life’s candle as he opens with a metaphor beautifully comparing life ending and death to â€Å"sunset and evening star† (Tennyson 1). Hoping for the end to be as painless as the sunset Tennyson alludes to the sound of the ocean thrusting against the sandbar, â€Å"And may there be no moaning of the bar, / When I put out to sea† (Tennyson 3-4). Tennyson’s word choice throughout the extended metaphor of this poem impels the reader to think carefully about what his meaning is, rather than take the literal sense. For instance, when Tennyson refers to turning â€Å"home again† his home is not meant to be the humble earthly abode in which he’s carried out his years; he instead is alluding to heaven (Tennyson 8). The imagery of the concluding stanza informs the reader of the entire poem’s meaning; â€Å"For though from out our bourne of Time and Place / The flood may bear me far, / I hope to see my Pilot face to face / When I have crossed the bar† (Tennyson 13-16). Here Tennyson’s meaning of the bar manifests as he alludes to meeting his creator in this striking image of crossing the ocean’s sand bar, the boundary of life and death, into the unknown afterlife. Upon reading Gerald Manley Hopkins’ â€Å"Spring and Fall: to a young child† it becomes difficult to stop oneself from creating a tune to match the beat of this musical Victorian Era poem. With an AABBCCDDDEEFFGG rhyme scheme the poem begins with three rhyming couplets, followed by a rhyming triplet, and concluded by another set of three rhyming couplets. The varying line lengths express the drama in the speaker’s voice; ranging from the short iambic triameter to the longer tetrameter exposing the speaker’s message. A strong biblical message is surfaced by the melodic and hymnic movement of this piece. Hopkins uses alliteration to make his point clearly understood. The repetition of the â€Å"W† words, in â€Å"Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie: / And yet you will weep and know why,† is used to tell Margaret about the changes maturity brings and the misery of knowledge (Hopkins 8-9). The alliterations used in the last rhyming couplet impart the speaker’s firm religious beliefs to the reader as Hopkins states â€Å"It is the blight man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for.† Hopkins uses the â€Å"B† and â€Å"M† words to emphasize the connection between her future sins and those made by Adam and Eve. As the speaker both open and closes this short poem repeating Margaret’s name he creates an alpha and omega image for the reader; Margaret is her beginning and her own end. Perfection derived from mayhem would be an apt description of William Wordsworth’s â€Å"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood;† though perfection is not quite a befitting word to depict the pulchritude of this piece. This poem is both a reactionary piece, and a revelation of time, as the prefatory four stanzas were written at least two years prior to the latter seven. Through the chaos of its structure comes the beauty of one of Wordsworth’s most renowned poems. Following the aberrant nature of the Romantic poets, Wordsworth’s Ode is composed of eleven stanzas irregular in form, length, meter, and syntax.Though subtle in nature, this piece veraciously speaks the whispers of juvenescent truths as its title would suggest. â€Å"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,† implies a dedication to the indications of eternal life, which from early childhood memories are stirred. Wordsworth’s way of adorning a beautifully worded poem with familiar images and symbolic undertones helps this poem to outshine others of its like. Swathed in epiphanic universal tenets this Ode is all but trivial. In the first two short stanzas Wordsworth introduces his dilemma; the speaker has lost touch with the celestial light which once had bedecked his corporeal life. He expresses his ability to appreciate the natural beauties of daily life but knows â€Å"there hath past away a glory from the earth† (Wordsworth 18). Wordsworth identifies the poignancy in life’s realization when childhood innocence is lost. Left with lingering questions of his embryonic virtue’s transience he concludes the first portion of his poem asking â€Å"Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory and the dream?† (Wordsworth 56-57). With his questioning, Wordsworth obliges the reader’s musing on the eternal poignancy of this forsakenness. Two years time would pass before Wordsworth could conclude his enlightenment of the soul’s cyclic journey and the effect it has on man. He begins the fifth stanza with an intriguing metaphor: â€Å"our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting† (Wordsworth 58). Extended throughout the poem, the idea, that the soul pulls away from the glories of heaven as man ages, is not easy for the reader to grasp; thus Wordsworth explains â€Å"heaven lies about us in our infancy!† but with age heaven and its splendor â€Å"fade into the light of common day† (Wordsworth 76). The paradox, between the fading light of God and the overpowering light of daily life, is harsh but, comprehendible. As man grows closer to the natural earth he grows apart from the virtues of the ethereal heaven. To explain the shift man weathers, Wordsworth discusses the ways sanguine children become mechanic by making plans and charts; man takes pride in learning organization but in the process slights imagination. He continues on to address a child directly â€Å"thou Eye among the blind,† metaphorically telling the boy he provides a virtuous vision to those who have outgrown a strong bond with glory (Wordsworth 111). Though this bond is fleeting, Wordsworth finds happiness in the idea that man is always questioning; he realizes â€Å"O joy! that in our embers / Is something that doth live, / That nature yet remembers / What was so fugitive!† there is a connection deep within every man that drives him to search for the truths of life (Wordsworth 129-132). His use of ABAB rhyme scheme, alternating iambs, and the metaphor of the soul to a fire that burns low and hot makes this passage stand out to the reader and bring forth Wordsworth’s optimism. As he guides his reader through the climax of this Ode, Wordsworth incorporates heavy imagery and a more constant rhyme scheme. He explains that man cannot go back and relive the virtues of childhood but, will always have memories to bring him back to its glories: Though inland far we be, Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. (Wordsworth 161-167) He tells of how one is unable to experience these past memories but, can instead look back and observe the bliss of childhood as these recollections are immortal. Having recognized the joys that still are attainable he realizes his appreciation for the mortality of the somatic world. Though he no longer rolls as freely as the brook, he loves its beauty more than ever. Wordsworth imparts the value of this brief life on earth. Man must not view life’s course as a race. He reminds the reader of life’s impermanence, alluding to the Corinthians which suggest there is no great prize for first place in life’s race. Instead man should give thanks; â€Å"Thanks to the human heart by which we live, / Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, / To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears† (Wordsworth 200-203). Humanity blesses men with the power to treasure the meek and the ordinary, as long as man steps out of the race and stops to admire his surroundings.

Summary Of Cathedral By Raymond Carver Essay - 1057 Words

First Person Narration Description in Cathedral. Timilehin Odunuga Northeastern University Author Note This paper was prepared for ENG 1105, taught by Professor Burt Raymond Carver the author of â€Å"Cathedral† which narrate about inviting her old friend who is blind to their house. Robert is blind and his wife had died not long ago. The story beginning to show how the author is troubled by approaching visit for things he can t exactly clarify, but he ascribes it to Robert s blindness. The author does not understand how much the blind man used to be to his wife and he doesn t suspect his arrival, yet before the end of the story the author has an epiphany and sees. From this story, the Reader gets the feeling this is no conventional story. The author is amazingly easygoing in recounting his story, and this account style is purposely utilized by the writer to draw in the reader. Consider the different routes in which the narration of Cathedral can be viewed as a casual narration and a well detailed description. First person narrator is utilized by the writer to recount the story to accentuate the baffling parts of the extraordinary moments that he relates in the story. The narrator is egotistical, concerned just with how the visit from Robert will influence him and he is desirous of how might be the connection of Robert and his wife before. The author using the first person narration is a big key of description and showing is personal experience to knowing theShow MoreRelatedCathedral By Raymond Carver Summary1773 Words   |  8 PagesSummary â€Å"Cathedral†, a short story by Raymond Carver, centers around a blind man’s visit to a couple’s home. In the beginning, Carver elaborates a bit on who the blind is and how he stumbled into the lives of the two characters. Early in the women’s life, she was married to an Air Force officer. While he was away at his school or training, she became quite lonely and sought employment. She began working as a blind man named Robert’s companion in which she read books, journals, and articles to himRead MoreCritical Summary Of Cathedral By Raymond Carver1223 Words   |  5 PagesCritical Summaries 1-4 1. â€Å"Cathedral† – Raymond Carver This story is told in the first person, depicting the narrator’s experience meeting his wife’s friend Robert. The characters in the story are Bub, the narrator, his wife, and the blind man, Robert. Bub’s wife is caring, empathetic, and affectionate; Robert is kindhearted, appreciative, and open to new experiences. In contrast, Bub is closed to new experiences, selfish, and judgmental. The story takes place in Bub’s home, primarily in his livingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Story Cathedral 1734 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Cathedral is a famous short story by American writer and poet Raymond Carver. The story was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981 and appeared in The Americas Best Short Stories in 1982. In the short story cathedral, the unnamed narrator’s wife’s blind friend is coming to visit. The narrator isn’t thrilled about his wife’s blind friend coming to visit nor is he happy that the man is blind. Later in the evening the narrator experiences a life changing realization of the trueRead MoreAnalysis Of Raymond Carver s Cathedral1696 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction: Everyone has ghosts in their closets; something they are running from, or trying to bury alive. Cathedral, written by Raymond Carver, takes place in the early 1980’s. Originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981. Carver slightly revised the story and re-released it in 1983. At a time when the blue collar working class lived paycheck to paycheck, working hard for newfound luxuries such as color television, this short story is humorous and eye-opening for the reader. For adultsRead MoreThe Two Sides Essay1379 Words   |  6 PagesOther times we are limited in what we can understand. We are given the choice of seeking out more of said idea or choosing to remain as is. Cathedral by Raymond Carver is a story that gives us a look into what it is like to have our views challenged through experiencing them first hand. We are introduced to the story by narration and we are given a brief summary of how his wife and the blind man had met from the narrrator. We learn that the bl ind man is named Robert, he is the only character thatRead MoreWhat We Are Who We Should Be: Literary Realism1132 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.† This quote by Jean Cocteau provides an accurate summary of realism in American literature. Authors such as Raymond Carver and William Faulkner strived to expose their readers to defects, either internal or external. Their literature puts humanity under the microscope, and allows the reader to examine their daily life from a safe distance. Under examination, many shortcomings can be uncoveredRead MoreAnalysis Of Raymond Carver s Cathedral 1648 Words   |  7 Pages Cathedral is a capitivating story based on the lives of the narrator, his wife and a blind man. Raymond Carver is the author of this story, and he does an excellent job allowing the reader to delve into the lives of these characters. Through using the thoughts of the narrator, the reader is able to grab our attention because the story is made more realistic. The views expressed by the narrator in many senses exemplify the views of many in society and therefore the reader is able to make an emotionalRead MoreLove in Literature2486 Words   |  10 Pagesmentions agape love, defining it, stating that â€Å"This love is compassionate and giving: the love of neighbor shown by the Good Samaritan† (May pg.177). The use of agape love as a catalyst for positive character development is evident in Raymond Carver’s â€Å"Cathedral†. The narrator of the story, who is ignorant and closed–minded, encounters a blind man whose name is Robert. Robert recognizes the na rrators closed-mindedness, but is not repelled by it, in fact he seems drawn to the narrator. Robert helpsRead MoreA Short Story : Cathedral By Raymond Carver1896 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"Cathedral† – Raymond Carver This story is told in the first person, depicting the narrator’s experience meeting his wife’s friend Robert. The characters in the story are Bub, the narrator, his wife, and the blind man, Robert. Bub’s wife is caring, empathetic, and affectionate; Robert is kindhearted, appreciative, and open to new experiences. In contrast, Bub is closed to new experiences, selfish, and judgmental. The story takes place in Bub’s home, primarily in his living room, where the three talkRead MoreEssay on The History Of Arts And Crafts5478 Words   |  22 Pageswithout great detail. Child with a Cat, by William Zorach, is an example of sculpture carved directly in stone. Wood permits more complex carving. Wood can also be shaped and bent, if it is given the right type of treatment first. With planning, the carver can make grain an effective part of the design and add to the surface beauty of the work. Clay is soft and lends itself to more delicate designs. Metal can be melted and cast in molds to reproduce sculptures designed in clay. Metal can also be worked