As we begin our epic journey in the science-fiction novel Slaughter-House Five, we are struck with an unfamiliar phrase. "Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time." But what does author Kurt Vonnegut mean by that? We soon discover that this idea of becoming "un-stuck in time" is major theme in this novel. Our protagonist, Billy, jumps to different points in his life at unexpected points in time. At time we find ourselves with him going through Germany in World War II. At other times, he is celebrating his wife's birthday or even telling the world publicly of his travels through time,. The theme of time used in this novel, is not necessarily in the chronological sense, but in the sense that we may need to think about that there is more than one possible way to view our lives by seeing them in different segments in random orders.…
Weather remembering/regretting what has happened, or planning/worrying about what might happen, the past and future steal away our attention from the present. We become mentally absent forgetting to experience what is happening right here and right now. I believe that this is related to the theme in this novel which is that people should live in the present. Life unfolds in the present. The present is where decisions are made and emotions are felt. People should give it the attention it deserves. The great philosopher Buddha once stated, “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn the past, worry about the future, but live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” (131…
In the book, “Nine Horses,”Billy Collins uses similes to convey the passing of time. When a person is missing from the world, such as Eric Dolphy, does, “Anyone sense something when another Eric Dolphy lifetime was added to the span of his life, when we all took another full Dolphy step forward in time, flipped over the Eric Dolphy yardstick again? It would have been so subtle like the moment at the exact center of your life of as you crossed the equator at night in a boat.”(Collins 51) The motif of the passing of time is represented as a simile by comparing the center of your life to an equator. Passing one day of your life or one year may be nothing but all those days and years combined together can create a lifetime. Half of your life can pass by right before your eyes just like passing across the equator can occur at a fraction of a second.…
Vivid life surrounded by a frozen cemetery creates a contradiction of life and death. Capote introduces death as the “wreaths, brown roses, and rain faded ribbons still lay upon the raw earth.” Capote incorporates lifeless objects, and the ribbons which have been fading away with the rain, as the turmoil of the Clutter’s death on the town diminishes as time continues. Using dark and fading colors displays the disappearance of the Clutter’s death in the townspeople’s lives. Time continues to remove the effects of the Clutters’ death, and “close by, fresher petals spilled across a new mound.” The fresh petals pertain to a new era which the living continues as time disperses the clouds of chaos. Capote incorporates a transition of location, close by, which also signifies the changes which will occur benefitting the town. Truman Capote conveys the effects of time through characters, “a willowy girl with white-gloved hands, a smooth cap of dark-honey hair, and long, elegant leg.” The description of Susan Kidwell, Nancy Clutter’s friend, who stands at the Clutters’ grave, provides the ever haunting spirits of the murder. Capote’s precise description of the girl conjures an image within the mind. Willow trees mean graceful and a symbol of joy, which conveys Susan’s beauty. People gather around during the times…
Grover’s Corners, a small town in New Hampshire, is the setting for Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town.Throughout the three acts, we follow the conventional lives of two families: the Gibbses and the Webbs. As the play progresses, we see everything from morning routines, to first loves, to heartbreaking losses; overall, pretty commonplace, small town lives. Here, hidden in the ordinary, Wilder begins to weave one of his themes and uses Mrs. Gibbs to advance it. She is raising two children, married to the town doctor, and just a regular housewife. Hers is a perfect life for Wilder to expand upon the theme of finding extraordinary in the ordinary. Mrs. Gibbs as a character strengthens the idea that even the most ordinary, run-of-the-mill lives can be special and meaningful to the people living them.…
1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. WH…
Thorton Wilder’s Our Town is the story of the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Set in the early twentieth century, it depicts the ordinary lives of its inhabitants. There is a particular focus on the lives of Emily Webb, the daughter of a newspaper editor and George Gibbs, a doctor’s son. Act one, taking place in 1901, reveals a typical day in the town, with the milkman going about his job and kids rushing off for school. Act two takes place in 1904 and depicts the budding romance and consequent wedding of Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Act three, set in 1913, shows the audience the dead townsfolk of Grover’s Corners (in ghost form) and how they interact with and respond to the living.…
“Our Time” is an interesting story that displays many different styles of writing that not everyone is accustomed to. The author twists and turns the story many different directions throughout, which provides for an alluring read. The story “Our Time” by John Edgar Wideman attempts to tell the sad tale of Wideman’s brother, Robby. Robby is in jail at the time and Wideman is trying to piece together the parts of his younger brother’s life that landed him in prison. Throughout the story Wideman encounters many problems with his writing that some of the time he brings up, and tries to find solutions to, while going over the events that led to Robby’s downfall. “Our Time” uses quite a different writing style compared to what is taught in your typical English classroom, and it has changed the way I think as a writer.…
Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, tells the story of the lives of everyday citizens of Grover’s Corners. The story is broken up into three acts pertaining to the human condition. These conditions are Daily Life, Marriage, and Death. This essay will describe the character, Emily, and her personality.…
Whatever an individual chooses to do with their time whether they use it productively or waste it, the time they used to do said activities they cannot regain that time. The novel acknowledges this symbol in a many instances. One of these is “there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company”. This quote explains that whenever the party goers heard the sound of the clock they were reminded that they were trapped in the abbey, not helping anyone or doing anything productive. Often in real life people will use their times in ways that they wished they did was more productive and time often holds a shadow on a person’s life.…
Every author and play writer has some kind of reason for writing their piece. As readers and viewers, we use our knowledge to decipher the underlying message that comes across throughout works of art. Our Town by Thornton Wilder has many people with several diverse opinions sharing their ideas about the play. Thornton Wilder’s purpose for writing Our Town was to show the amount of control human beings have over their life, but fail to recognize until death. You can see this through daily events in Grover’s Corners, Compton, and Ridgewood High School.…
2. There are multiple symbols used by the author throughout the play Our Town. For example, the time capsule mentioned by the Stage Manager in Act One symbolizes the belief that specific things from the past should be remembered. The Stage Manager says, "So I'm going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a thousand years from now'll know a few simple facts about us..." This symbolizes not only the want for people to appreciate the lives of the townspeople, but also the fact that the play is mentioned dissolves the barrier between the fictional world of the story and the real world outside of the play, from the audience's perspective. The author and the Stage Manager are well aware that the play and the lives…
Thornton Wilder epitomizes pessimism in "Our Town" through the everyday actions of the characters, the trivialness of life, and the attitudes of the dead toward their once loved world. People are spent through their meaningless everyday tasks, characters are shown to be worthless in comparison to the universe, and the attitudes of the dead about life are dull. These effects add up to illustrate Wilder's idea of pessimism.…
Through December 5th through the 7th, I performed in Thornton Wilder's play of Our Town. The only sets or props that the actors or actresses used where folding chairs for us to sit in, umbrellas to hide Emily (Julie Dumbler), and flats on both sides of the stage to hide the people behind them. The reason for the lack of set is so the audience can use there imagination of what the town of Grover's Corner, New Hampshire looks like. All the rest of the props that the actors had to use were pan mimed and acted out to the fullest to make it look real. The only other experience with no set was with Miss Henery in Neodesha and it was a disaster so I didn't know how well this was going to work out. But with the help of our director Peter Ellenstein and the rest of the cast, the pan miming was very successful. Our performance space was a modified thrust stage. The shape of the stage served us well for this play, but the back stage was horrible. All of the chairs that we had to use were folding chairs that made a lot of noise even if you hardly touched one. One neat thing about the play is that all of the sound affects were made by our backstage manager (Lisa Mitchell) or other members of the cast. In exception for the clock chiming at the end of the play. People who have seen the play tell me that it is a very heart moving play. I did not get that feeling because I was always backstage or onstage. Ether way I didn't get to watch the play so I couldn't see what was so moving about it. The only humor I got was from lines and the funniest person I heard was Professor Willard (Gary Mitchell). The audience is led through the entire play by the Stage Manager (Cory Venable). He literally talks to the audience between every scene explaining what is going on in the story. I thought Mr. Wilder did a good job in having a Stage Manager do this. The Stage Manager tells and shows us a story a young girl growing up and facing death, even after death. He show us how Emily…
1) Chopin heavily utilizes symbolism in her story. Describe three symbols in detail, making sure you discuss their relevance to the story's themes.…