Together Forever
There is complexity in any relationship, that’s just human nature. Within the poem “Marching Through a Novel” by John Updike, the speaker uses a bond between the novelist and his characters to create a relationship. The novelist focuses on the willingness and submission his character does, but in hope the characters' want to be made a certain way with compassion which can be misleading because they are completely controlled with no say at all. The way Updike conveyed this message through diction, metaphors, and repetition is powerful to understand the relationship of the novelist and his characters. The diction the speaker uses is able to show ideas that are related to other things. In the third line Updike uses the word “muster” which is a strong word. It means to assemble the troops for inspection or in preparation for battle. The reader takes away that this bond the novelist and characters have is something of dictatorship. This is showing how it is like a war to write a novel the him. Moving more into the poem on line 16-18 “look toward me hopefully… For a cleaner face, a bigger heart” the characters want to be closer to their final image. The use of language …show more content…
“They extend skeletal arms, for the handcuffs of contrivance” on lines 12 and 13. The characters have a frame of what the novelist expects them to be and the characters ultimate goal is to be finished. This metaphor is saying how they want to be made up and locked away. These handcuffs are meant to be seen as permanent. On line 30 the speaker expresses “though I march them to finish them off”. In this case, the speakers does not mean to kill the characters, but to officially give them life. The effect left is closure for the characters who have been pushed by the novelist, general to be completed. The poem is able then to give more insight on the relationship between the novelist and the