...------------------------------------------------- Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Threat of Codependency to Identity The central relationship in the novel—that between Finny and Gene—involves a complex dynamic of seeking to establish, yet being uncomfortable with, identity. Early in the book, the boys’ relationship seems fueled, in part, by Gene’s envy and resentment of his friend’s dominating spirit. As Finny demonstrates his physical prowess, Gene feels the need to accentuate his academic prowess. Finny’s fall from the tree, however, apparently purges Gene of his darker feelings and steers their relationship in a different direction so that codependency rather than envy characterizes it. The scene immediately following the fall symbolizes this evolution, as Gene dresses in Finny’s clothes and sees himself as looking exactly like him. From this point on, he and Finny come to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene plays sports because Finny cannot, allowing Finny to train him to be the athlete that Finny himself cannot be. This training seems an avenue for Finny simply to live vicariously through Gene. But Gene actively welcomes this attempt by Finny, for just as Finny derives inner strength from fulfilling his dreams through Gene, so, too, does Gene find happiness in losing his own self (which he seems to dislike) in Finny’s self (which he likes very much). Thus, the...
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...In A Separate Peace, John Knowles portrays the thought that choices have consequences. This book is about two friends who go to a tree to jump off this limb and one of them, Gene, jounces the limb and Finny falls of and shatters his leg. A while after Finny is going down these marble stairs and he falls and breaks it again. When trying to set it in place the marrow of his bone goes to his heart and kills him. Gene had to live with the consequence of his action. The way he presents the theme is through two characters and two settings/symbols. Leper Lepellier decides to be in the war and his consequence was the he goes psycho. Gene goes to check up on Leper at his house and see how he is doing. Leper is looking out the window so Gene comes in and talks about rooms of Leper’s house. Leper says what his favorite room is and why and Gene says something back that Leper gets mad about: “Force sprang into his expression for the first time. ‘What’s she got to be pleased about!’” (142). Leper changes into a meaner and fiercer person than before he signs up for the war and “escapes” it. This shows...
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...Jealousy Controls Your Thoughts and Actions A Separate Peace by John Knowles explores the life of a teenage boy finding it hard to cope with the reality of adulthood right around the corner. The summer session is the only time the boys can be themselves and fool around while teachers are lenient, but all comes to an end when Finny breaks his leg, creating the winter session. The winter session is dark and doesn't have any excitement as Finny is not at school because of his injury. Finny was the only one ready to face the reality of the war and the adulthood inching closer to him as time flies by. Knowles uses symbolism in A Separate Peace to illustrate the similar meaning between symbols and the overall theme that jealousy can drive people...
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...or the talents they possess. However, in John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace, rivalry is amongst best friends, Gene Forrester and Phineas. In his novel, Knowles uses the protagonist, Gene, to show how betrayal can ruin friendships, using many techniques including: foreshadowing, figurative language, and symbolism. Foreshadowing is a technique that is used throughout the book. Gene is always in his own competition with his friend Phineas. For example, Gene states, “There was no harm in envying your best friend a little,” (Knowles 25). In most cases, envying what your friend has or can do is very damaging and can completely ruin a friendship. This shows that their relationship is not very solid, and his envy is part of the reason it is breaking apart. On the other hand, Phineas does not know that Gene is jealous, so he assumes Gene’s competitiveness is just friendly. He then says, “We were the best of friends at that moment,” (Knowles 18). When Gene says this, it foreshadows that something will go awry in their friendship, even though it seems as if they are fine right now. Since this is so early in the novel, this quote helps readers to be more aware of what they are reading and helps draw...
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...steps of the Pentagon was interrupted by clashes with soldiers and police. In all, 647 arrests were made. A plot to airdrop 10,000 flowers on the Pentagon was foiled by undercover agents. After the airdrop was halted the flowers intended for the airdrop were placed in the barrels of officer’s rifles resulting in the iconic images from the “flower power” movement. The slogan “flower power”, coined by poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965, was used by the American counter-culture resistance as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War. A surge of peaceful demonstration protesters were handed masses of flowers to offer policemen, press, and politicians as retaliation and defiance against the war. The flowers served two purposes: one as symbols of passive resistance of non-violence and secondly as emblems to reduce negative energy and connotations associated with feelings of fear, anger, threats, prosecution - all which were frequent results of these anti-war demonstrations. Photographs of flower-wielding protesters at the Pentagon March became seminal images of the 1960s anti-war protests. The image I chose to analyze is a photo by French photojournalist Marc Riboud of a seventeen-year-old high school student, Jan Rose Kasmir, clasping a daisy and gazing at bayonet-wielding soldiers on the steps of the Pentagon. This photo embodies the flower power movement by illustrating a strategic juxtaposition of armed forces against flower power innocence. The lighting of the picture...
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...Siddharth, a handsome and loved son of a Brahmin, lives in Ancient India with his father. Siddhartha is expected from his friends and others to be as successful men as his Brahmin father. Govinda, his childhood friend, loves everything about Siddhartha especially his spirit, his transcendent, and his fiery thoughts. Govinda knew that Siddhartha would not become a common Brahmin and Govinda himself did not wanted to become a common Brahmin so he follows Siddharth in his journey. However, Siddhartha is not satisfied with being a Brahmin because he believes that his religion has not brought him happiness and inner peace furthermore, he is looking to reach enlightenment and his aged Brahmin dad has not reach that stage. Siddhartha leaves his dad...
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...Friends or Foes: You Decide In A separate Peace, By John Knowels, the theme shown is that close friends make the worst enemies. Over the course of the novel this theme is shown through the symbolic representations of Gene and Finny’s Freindship. In a story Gene tells finny, Gene talks about a fire which is a metaphor for the state of their friendship. In the story it says “There was a fire. It was just a grass fire out behind our house. We… took some brooms and beat it, I guess what we really did was fan it because it kept getting bigger…” Fires are consuming, known to spread quickly and are generally a symbol of rage therefore the fire in the story is a symbol for the consuming feelings that is starting to put a strain on Gene and Finny’s relationship. The simple feelings of jealousy and competition felt between Gene and finny (as referenced to in other chapters) is turning into an even bigger feeling of rage inside Gene and no matter how much he tries to beat this fire within him or get rid of his feelings, they turn into an even bigger rage. During a conversation between Gene and Finny, Finny’s mention of the bond between him and winter is a representation between the bond between him and Gene. During the conversation Finny says “What I mean is, I love winter and when you really love something, then it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.” Gene replies “I didn’t think this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be more false than...
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...Conrad have recognised this basic nature of humanity and portrayed it in their novels Lord of the Flies (Golding) and Heart of Darkness (Conrad). These novels exemplify the methods by which humans have placed checks upon their savage nature, checks which prove to be diaphanous when challenged by true hardships. In both of these stories, the authors attempt to demonstrate the savage nature of the human spirit by utilising symbolism and irony. Both Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness are intensely allegorical novels and emphasise the use of symbols. However, these symbols are not merely the characters, but also include their actions and the settings of the stories. For example, the characters of Kurtz and Jack are symbols for the ancestral instincts of humankind. Though they are two separate characters, they are both symbols for the same idea. They are contrasted with Marlow and Ralph, who are also separate apparitions of the same philosophy. Kurtz, the quintessential ivory hunter from Heart of Darkness, is consumed by the desire for ivory and allows his primal nature to dictate his actions. He even goes so far as to proclaim himself a god and order the natives to attack his fellow Europeans. “He informed me, lowering his voice, that it was Kurtz who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer” (Conrad.145). This shows how far Kurtz had fallen, that he, like Lucifer, would prefer to reign in hell (the Congo) than serve in heaven (Europe). Likewise, Jack, the...
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...In everyday life we are surrounded by consumption. We buy items every day, we pass millions of shops on our way home and see every other person carrying a branded shopping bag. So what exactly do we mean by consumption? The everyday use of the term nowdays states that 'consumption' is about 'use'. In postomodern accounts, cultural consumption is seen as being the very meterial out of which our identites are being construct – we become what we consume. Mackay (1997, p.4) In the 20 th century mass production has led to the commodification of culture, with the rise of cultural industries. Consumption serves the interests of manufactures seeking greater profit, and citisens have become the passive victims of advertisers. Mackay (1997, p.5) Boudreillard has a theory about consumer commodities. In late capitalism they developed the capacity to take up a wide range of symbolic associations which overlay their initial use-value and hence become comodity signs which leads to the loss of a sense of reality.Featherstone (1991,p. 56). Commodities came to lack authenticity and met ' false needs' . Consumers began to have a passive role , be manipulated, rather than creative and active beings. Karl Marx in his theory of capitalism says that production is for the market and for profit. Veblen's in his reaserch explains how goods are used as symbolic markers of social status, and how consumption is for the purpose of imprassing others.Mackay (1997, p.4) In 1984, Bourdieu provides a seeing...
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...In A Separate Peace, a symbol that is key to the novel is the two rivers, Devon and Naguamsett. Gene views himself not as high and mighty like Finny. This connects to the two rivers because Gene thinks of himself as the Nagumsett river and Finny as the Devon. In the novel Gene always feels as if Finny was always fun and everyone wanted to have hang out with him. The same applies with the Devon river when Gene says, “…the fresh water Devon…where we had so much fun, all the summer” (Knowles, 76). This is similar to how Gene views Finny. Possibly how everyone else views him too. In novel the Devon was often compared to the Naguamsett river much like Gene compared himself to Finny. The Naguamsett river was “never used…during the summer [and] was...
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...The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism For symbolism we used this illustration as a way to show the connection between all the symbols and their relation to sin. The path of sin starts at the prison door. The break in the door shows that a person cannot run from their past and sins, they will come out eventually. Notice how the river expands to include more and more symbols. We chose that to show how the longer these confessions are repressed the larger and more difficult to deal with they become. The symbol closest to the prison door is the rose. The rose is a direct parallel to Pearl as they both serve as a stark contrast to the surrounding environment. The rose bush’s main function was to symbolize a moral blossom in the story as it shows that justice will eventually prevail. The rose bush also reflects the moral values in proportion to the nature. Because within the bonds of the nature everything acts in a way than what it is really like and what it should do by its nature without resisting to its essential needs. But civilized man especially puritans rejected the mostly part of human needs like enjoys and spices of the life especially sexuality. But to deny means nothing because you can change nothing by denying it or covering the truth. So the roses symbolized normally passions and desires thus we can deduce that here it symbolizes how the freedom of the human nature is imprisoned by the conventional wisdom. Under this circumstance the nature will resist to the later doctrines...
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...that they have a greater right than the other. Both parties share a variety of customs, practices and beliefs that makes them clash. Even the similarities between these two have been the source of battle for several of years. The crucial points that make the study of Jerusalem interesting are because of its ancient and modern history, sociopolitical situation and background, and negotiating for a position. Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world, have so many secrets and important stories because of its ancient history. Located in ancient Judah that is now the capital city of Israel, Jerusalem had “Experienced at least 118 conflicts” (Oehring and Domingo). It is called the city of peace, but has been through everything but peace. In Adelman points of view, Jerusalem is a symbol of “something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible” (116). The conflict started because of religious and political reasons. Both Arabs and Jews have historic claims to the land. One could define this conflict as being two national groups struggle over historical Palestine. This city is secret to three major religious and millions of people around the...
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...What is apartheid? The word apartheid means ”to keep apart” in Afrikaan, which is the language, that most of the white people in South Africa speaks. Apartheid is a racist ideology, and the goal is to separate the different races, and to give the white people all the power in the society. The apartheid ideology was developed in South Africa for hundreds of years ago, but it wasn’t a part of politics before 1948. In apartheid, you split the population into four groups. The black The colored The white The Asian. And it is your appearance that decides which group you belong to. Where did it exist? Apartheid existed in South Africa from 1948-1994. And in that period, the white people had better conditions than the black, the colored and the Asian. It was especially the black people that were dealing with oppression. Apartheid didn’t only exist in South Africa. It was also introduced in Namibia and Rhodesia, in the same period as in South Africa. But even though South Africa is a democratic state today, there are still a lot of conflicts between the black and white people. Besides that, the black people still got way worse conditions than the white people, even though the two groups have the same rights. Opinions: One person, who was strongly against apartheid, is Nelson Mandela. He wanted a democratic and open society, where everyone lives together in harmony and with equal rights. Nelson Mandela was willing to do whatever he could to carry out his dreams, even...
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...beamingnotes.com Optimized 16 minutes ago View original Refresh Menu Search Submit Our Casuarina Tree Analysis by Toru Dutt By Ishaan on July 29, 2013 5 SHARES 4 COMMENTS Analysis of Our Casuarina Tree by Toru Dutt Our Casuarina Tree is a poem by Toru Dutt which is about the Casuarina tree that grew in the poetess’ courtyard and her memories associated with it. Summary The poetess writes this in reminiscence of the Casuarina tree that grew in the courtyard of her childhood home. The poem opens with a description of the tree, tall enough to make it seem like it touches the stars, strong enough to continue growing despite scars on its trunk and despite all this it provides support to a creeper. And yet she gives it the air of a Gentleman when she describes how the tree is forever adorned with flowers and birds and bees. Thus we see the tree in her childhood was not only as a paragon of strength, but gentle and loved by the birds and bees. अब मीठे मना मत क जये सु एक गलास पानी म ल यह... को !हर बह म रोज २ पाउं घटाती ँय क म रात को सफ़ एक लास पीती ँ ड् स She goes on to tell us about the mornings in her childhood when she would wake up to the sight of the Casuarina Tree. Come summer or winter, her morning would remain incomplete without the sight of the Casuarina tree, often with a baboon sitting on its crest. She then paints a serene picture of the morning with the kokilas singing, the cows on the pasture and the water lilies in the spring. However, the figure of the Casuarina...
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...story, Goodman Brown is a symbol of the everyday man or even mankind as a whole. He portrays the struggle that humans have in seeking faith and belief in a God or higher power that we as people sometimes try to strive to serve or obey. He is just a simple human being with both the capability for either good and evil depending on his choices throughout the book. Faith, on the other hand, is a representation of serenity or peace we have when we are holding true to those beliefs and not allowing the evil or doubt in our life to sway our belief in God. Faith is not based on what our eyes see or that we can confirm it is simply a belief that we have chosen to believe as true regardless of any evidence to the contrary. There are other examples of symbols used in this story. One of the other symbols is the pink ribbons used through the entire story. They can be seen as the human struggles that we have with faith. Sometimes we have faith, sometimes we struggle to believe, and sometimes we can no longer believe in it anymore and these pink ribbons are used to show that struggle within the story. The last symbolic example I will use is that of the Old man who travels with Goodman Brown to the forest. He can be seen as a representation of the devil. The devil is known to be able to appear as anyone or anything. It is believed that the devil is always trying to come to try to rob people of their faith in an effort to separate them from God. It is shown...
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