Placing two sharply contrasting paragraphs next to each other exemplifies the personification; after reading the first paragraph, simply didactic in style, the second paragraph bursts with imagery and gives the life to the swamp that the first paragraph failed in displaying. The didactic style of the first paragraph almost lulls the reader into the informative disposition; then, reading the second paragraph is almost disturbing—why the author would choose to display the swamp in such a different light two years later evokes many questions from the reader. Because the readers are left considering if it is because the author has written the second after experiencing the jungle, if the author is trying to convince the reader of the importance of adjectives in writing, or if there is some other dark and deep meaning behind the differentiating nature of the second passage, the passage leaves an impression upon them. One parallel between the two passages is the way in which it describes the wildlife. The didactic paragraph states simply that there are “175 species of birds and at least 40 species of mammals,” with no further characterization, while the…
In the essay “Living like Weasels”, the author Annie Dillard wrote about her first encounter after she saw a real wild weasel for the first time in her life. The story began when she went to Hollins Pond which is a remarkable place of shallowness where she likes to go at sunset and sit on a tree trunk. Dillard traced the motorcycle path in all gratitude through the wild rose up in to high grassy fields and while she was looking down, a weasel caught her eyes attention; he was looking up at her too. The weasel was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, and alert. His face was fierce, small, pointed as Lizard’s, and with two black eyes. They exchanged the glances as two lovers or deadly enemies. Dillard described the moment of seeing the weasel as “a sudden beating of brains, with all the charge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons”. But while all these ideas and thoughts were in Dillard’s mind, the weasel disappeared and Dillard felt like she was having a dream. But after one week she realized that she was not dreaming and she tried to memorize what she saw. She felt like she was in that weasel’s brain for sixty seconds and he was in her mind too. Dillard thought about the weasel’s behavior and the fact that weasels live in necessity and we live by choice, she felt that it would be interesting if she could live as weasels do and she missed her chance. She blamed herself “I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for the streak of white under the weasels chin and held on.” Finally, Dillard believed it would be well, proper, and obedient to grasp with your one necessity wherever it takes you as the weasels do.…
The structure of a novel enables it to embody, integrate and communicate its content by revealing its role in the creation and perception of it. A complex structure such as that of Robert Drewe’s work The Drowner, published in 1996, refers to the interrelation or arrangement of parts in a complex entity1. Drewe’s novel is a multi-faceted epic love story presenting a fable of European ambitions in an alien landscape, and a magnificently sustained metaphor of water as the life and death force2. The main concerns of the novel include concerns about love, life, death and human frailty. These concerns are explored through the complex structure of the novel. That is, through its symbolic title, prologues, and division into sections. The complexity of the novel is here, in its inter-twining of the different aspects of structure and they way in which they all ‘communicate’ to further the underlying concerns. These concerns are in turn explored by the attainment of an in-depth analysis and understanding of them.…
The Lost Thing revolves around a creature whom is met with indifference by the rest of society. The bright red colour of ‘the thing’ immediately catches the reader’s eyes, drawing their attention to it thus effectively enabling reader’s to instantly explore as to why the creature is ‘lost’ within an industrialised town unlike it's natural surroundings. This creates a sense of isolation and seclusion which follows the picturesque…
Discovery can be presented in many forms, whether it is physical, imaginative or inner. Often what differentiates discovery as a distinct process, catalyzed by an emotional or mental reevaluation, is that it can lead individuals towards a renewed understanding of oneself and the others around them. Robert Gray explores these concepts through the use of various language forms and features throughout his poems “Meatworks” and “Journey, The North Coast” which explore the notion of an inner realization from the persona’s self reflection, as well as depicting the importance of a physical journey as a catalyst towards a discovery of both natural beauty and mental reflection. The film by Sean Penn “Into the Wild” (2007) conveys similar paralleled understandings and notions presented by the poems of Robert Gray.…
People in society today have influences throughout their life that help structure and dictate their thoughts. Choices are made based on these influences, and when these influences begin to take shape as different labels, no real choices are made. People begin to compromise their right to think on their own and instead turn to the most convenient choice. This is how a great deal of society has acts today, choosing the easiest path just so that person can get a given task out of the way and continue on with their life. These influences are frequently seen in politics today. People become so wrapped up in political parties that they become more interested in who is running in which party, instead of which candidate, at any level of government, has the stances that the voter agrees with the most. According to “The Loss of the Creature” and “Ways of Seeing”, multiple aspects of having the labels the political parties have inhibit voters from making sovereign decisions. When a candidate is running for an office, they should not have a political party label attached to them because that label can inhibit voters from choosing a candidate who they think will best serve the position to better the region they are running for.…
Virginia Woolf is a British writer born in 1882 and she died a horrific death in 1941. She jumped unto River Ouse wearing an overcoat filled with rocks. She committed suicide as she was depressed and has a pessimistic feeling towards life due to a mental illness she has been cursed with. She wrote ‘The Death of the Moth’ in 1942. This essay contains a wide variety of rhetorical devices that makes it intriguing. Although the essay is short, she wrote a detailed story with an underlying metaphor.…
Dog’s Death by John Updike really touched me when I read it for the first time. His use of imagery in this poem is very touching. He makes the reader relate to the death of the dog by showing through his words the emotions of what the dog is going through as well as what his owners are feeling. This paper will show how I think the author was trying to use imagery to show the love between the dog and his owners.…
What is the Lost Creature Walker Percy’s The Loss of the Creature helped explain the mindset of tourist and how they see things. Percy argued that a tourist does not actually looking at what they are touring but hunting for the approval of others. Walker Percy goes into a indepth purpose with his work in The Loss of the Creature; Percy explained things about tourist and the purpose and how do not look at things clearly.…
Taking any dissection in the life is full of challenging. However, I am so glad that I have parents who have taught me how to make my dissections and how I should be responsible for that dissection.…
Although people use corrective lens or have perfect vision, people do not always truly see. Percy and Cole express their differing beliefs regarding loss of perception and how it is attained in their respective essays, “The Loss of the Creature” and “Seeing Things”. Both authors agree that even though people may have perfect vision, they do not “truly see” things in front of them because their perception is lost and limited by their experiences. However, Percy believes perception is lost because of modern education while Cole believes perception is lost because of human limitations. Regardless of any similarities between the two authors, their disagreements are more dynamic.…
I can serve as counterexample to this claim: every time I come to a lab with the most typical equipment, a specimen of, say, human DNA, and a strong theoretical background knowledge of Genetics, I receive full excitement of discovery and learning about the way information about our bodies is stored and transferred. Thus, this piece of evidence is not entirely valid. However, should a dogfish argument be in full harmony with reality, the point that he takes out of it is a very debatable one. First of all, Percy, assuming that only a full educational experience can be “good”, proposes to alter the way students learn the subjects by trying to create in all students a sense of discovery. Application of this interpretation would not prove useful in the real world, as, for some students, getting only a superficial coverage of the topic would be the best.…
Read the article and write an essay by giving your opinion on the issue of ‘extinction’. Provide a title for your essay.…
Objectification of the living animals also allows readers to sense the boredom and lifelessness of the animals. Lizards are “perched pagodas”, cobras are spaghetti” and walruses are a “chaise lounge”. The comparison of living breathing animals to inanimate objects suggest that the animals are the equivalent of an object in the current state they are in as they are so lifeless and dead, they can be mistaken for the respective things listed thus reinforcing the point that the animals are…