Figurative Language and Imagery in Poetry

.....people the opportunity to see life from a new perspective, to be entertained, enlightened, and to experience some level of catharsis through engagement with a dramatic experience in reading. It can also provide a comedic experience or poke satirical fun at society.

The importance of reading has changed from in earlier eras in the sense that books are now old media (new media consists of digital technology) and we have a hundred other ways to entertain ourselves today aside from books. For this reason, I believe genres like flash fiction have emerged -- because the world is so fast-paced today as a result of technology that few have the time or inclination to sit down with a book and read it. Twitter-speak is now the preferred method of communication, and flash fiction fits that impulse better than the long narrative epic.

Thus, I think Clugston's quote is valid because perceptions regarding the value of literature have changed. It is a different world from that of the 19th century. We are connected to the Internet, to the latest news (which is old ten minutes after it hits the wire).

A writer might feel compelled to write about literature because it is his medium, and he wants both to explain it to himself as well as to his audience who may appreciate the insight he has about the medium. It benefits readers and writers alike in the same way that any fresh perspective does -- it allows us a new pair of eyes to see an old problem and can provide deeper insights into some of the mysteries of the craft.

In this course I hope to develop critical thinking skills as well as descriptive writing skills and, in general, how to write out a plot and generate tension and interest in a story.

The core conflict represented in the story is that which serves as the main tension between the protagonist and the antagonist -- often the hero and the villain or foil. The theme of the story is the recurrent message or idea that keeps returning to the narrative over the course of events. Three literary elements in the story are figurative language, which helps the writer convey ideas through language that is metaphorical or imaginative rather than literal; exposition, which allows the story teller to provide literal, background information to set the scene; and climax, which is the turning point of the tension in the story -- the moment when the tension breaks and the resolution is introduced. These elements help to illustrate the theme and conflict of a story by expanding upon both and moving the reader through just as waves currents move a drifter down a stream.

The character of Frankenstein in Shelley's novel interests me because he wants to be an artist-scientist -- a maker of life -- a re-animator. He bites off more than he can chew, however; his ambition is too great for what he himself can logically be responsible for. His own humanity is insufficient to really care for the thing he creates and thus he brings about his own downfall. His actions are really the impetus for the novel's conflict and the monster is a kind of literal projection of Frankenstein's inhumanity coming back to destroy him. The monster is a real problem and embarks on revenge and eventually the creator and the creation voyage into the arctic, where they both disappear from the world. The final setting of the arctic is what really drives home the theme of the novel, which is that the protagonist and the antagonist are one and the same -- both frozen out from real, true humanity, mirrors of one another.

The theme of Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is the chaos and disruption that a drunken father brings to a home that is otherwise orderly when he begins to dance a waltz with his child. This is the theme because in every stanza some form of chaos is being described, from the child hanging on to the father as they twirl to the romping in the kitchen that makes the pans shake to the frown of the mother to the waltzing off to bed, the child still clinging tightly for dear life to the father's shirt. Rhythm is one poetic device used in the poem, which marks time and keeps the beat flowing. Another is rhyme and the poem has an ABAB rhyme structure. These poetic devices contribute to the poem's message by making it playful (the rhyming gives it an innocent feel) and the rhythm makes the reader feel like he is keeping time with the father and child as they waltz.

My listening experience of the same poem was quite nice and I enjoyed hearing the poem read. It made it feel more like a performance, though I also enjoyed reading it silently because it was easier for me to picture the scene in my head and I could pause on lines and stop and smile at them before moving on. The pace was not much different from my own and the reader did not pause too greatly on any specific words. I did not notice any different connotations in word meanings and I am not convinced that reading poetry aloud makes it any easier to analyze -- but I may require more practice to know for sure.

In Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Gregor's family is more inhuman and insect-like than he is if one is to judge from actions rather than appearances.

Gregor's family may look like ordinary humans, but the way they act is very cruel and inhumane: they are not appreciative of Gregor before he turns into a bug and in fact already treat him as though he were one prior to his transformation. This is evident in the way they take him for granted, ignore him, and speak ill of him as though he were not a person with feelings. As Sokel (1983) notes, Gregor's family burdens him with their "chains" (p. 486).

The connection between the topic sentence and the working thesis is that the former proceeds directly from the latter to support the point. This connection is clear because it follows the same line of thought and does not veer off into something else. The choice of reference material was based on the scholarly journal that the article comes from and the fact that the material supports the point made in the topic sentence. This connection is clear because of the transition language I use in the beginning of the sentence, "As so-and-so states," indicating that I am continuing on with the same train of thought. The paragraph does not contain any unnecessary material and everything in it works to support the topic sentence. I find it to be very cohesive.

References

Sokel, W. (1983). From Marx to myth: The structure and function of self-alienation in Kafka's "Metamorphosis". The Literary Review, 26(4): 485-490.