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Symbolism in the Road
There is a story for everyman in The Road, which is doubtless a primary reason that the book captured a Pulitzer Prize for Cormac McCarthy in 2007. The story is particularly poignant for readers who are parents as it manifests many of the latent fears parents have regarding their capacity to protect their children in a world that can seem hostile at every turn. The book can be read from a literal point-of-view as a post-apocalyptic story and, indeed, it is that in its classic telling of a journey that takes two protagonists directly through the inescapable threats and horrors.
But McCarthy's poetic language will also be familiar to the reader of William Faulkner, Jack London, or T.S. Eliot, who understands that desolation can stem from the wrestling of the soul as much as the overt battles with the environment or the nihilistic events. For readers with a religious bent, the acute...
Many reviewers consider The Road McCarthy's best work as it departs from the western settings and themes, yet conveys an enduring faith in the capacity of humanity to overcome incredible odds.
Despite the moribund subject of global catastrophe, the overall tone of the story is not overwhelmingly discouraging -- it does not drag the reader down into the depths in the way of Dante, even though the story causes the reader to traverse landscapes they would voluntarily avoid.
The main theme of the Road is one of perseverance over devastating circumstances beyond anything previously experienced. A through sub-theme of the tale is conflict between altruism and destructive selfishness. The protagonist symbolizes altruism through his desire to help others because it is the right thing to…
In a metaphorical way, this image is transposed on the image of the woman "showing her teeth." She responds with the symbolic implications that she too is living in a sate of fear and resentment. The reality that Elisa aspires to is again conveyed through the imagery and symbolic of a longing for a better existence. This can be seen when she whispers, "That's a bright direction. There's a glowing
Ginsberg in fact spent some time in a psychiatric ward and his poem Howel makes the implication that his and his contemporaries madness is caused by the madness of society which, due to its infatuation with technology, has become a demon far worse than any found in humanity's collective mythology. Jung argues that in modern society, mythology has not actually disappeared, it has just taken a less noticeable form in
For the poet, Christianity must be devoid of the cultures of corruption and hypocrisy that prevailed during his time. Ideally, a religion, in order to be respected and followed by the people, must maintain a clean image -- that is, an image that reflects the truth of its teachings, wherein its religious principles are embodied by the people who make up the Church. It is also through "Canterbury" that Chaucer
Death in "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night" "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is one of Dylan Thomas's most recognizable poems. Written for Thomas's dying father, this poem is 19 lines and is structured like a villanelle where only two sounds are rhymed. Through the use of imagery, Thomas is able to vividly explore the theme of death and resistance to it. "Do Not Go Gentle Into
Hi arrival at Uruk tames Gilgamesh who now leaves the new brides to their husbands (Hooker). Gilgamesh and Enkidu journey to the cedar forest to acquire timber for Uruk's walls (this need for protection indicates both increased prosperity and further urbanization), but before doing so they must defeat Khumbaba, the forest's guardian, a primitive, nature deity. They know fear for the first time, triumphing only with help from the god
And the historic facts of those tribes (the amphictyon, twelve clans that rotate the functions of the priest so that each clan has those duties for one month of the year) may have been used by Spenser to build his knight's story around in a sense. Because meanwhile, the knights in Spenser's tale seem to "...rotate the service of virtue from legend to legend, which the stationless and free-lance Arthur