Authors Note: This piece, in case you didn't read the title is my figurative language response, I notice that the book plays kind of like a movie, so I refer to parts a scenes. I thought it may be a stretch to call this figurative language but I decided to write anyways. A final possibly unneeded note is that this is on page thirty-seven. (Possible Spoilers )
"She made the empty rooms roar with accusation and shake down a fine dust of guilt that was sucked in their nostrils as they plunged about." This quote, taken from the scene where Montag and his fellow firemen answer the call to the old woman's house, is one of the many uses of figurative language in this novel.
The sentence seems to add a chaotic edge to the entire seemingly orderly operation, setting an undertone of confusion and foreboding that seems to follow books throughout the story. As the woman simply sits there in accusing silence, she shows the heroic side of the seemingly cowardly sort of passive resistance used by the persecuted minority. Bradbury's most likely intent was probably just that, to cast positive light on the escapees.
This quote is pivotal in Montag's stealing of the book, blending in the background of other uses of personification, such as the bird metaphor, is one of the more overlooked moments in the book with importance. With much evidence to support this it's clear that this sentence was used by Bradbury to start certain themes of the book.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Lit. Club Response
Authors Note: I am doing a response to prompt two, Describe the metaphor for some of the horrors that Pi witnesses. I am trying to "translate" some of the animals into my opinion of their meaning.
You, a complex
sentient being, surviving in your small lifeboat of your creation on the ocean that is life,
are constantly assailed by a variety of problems always chipping at your
thoughts, threatening your fragile
lifeboat to transform into a floating tomb. As your life continues to float
along on its due coarse you find that many of these problems will establish
dominance in your life, even controlling your actions to focus solely upon them
and deny you small times of merriment.
These problems
manifest themselves in many ways in Yann Martel's Life of Pi. Pi, thrust from the comfort of the womb that is
the Tsimtsum finds himself thrown into
the beginnings of his lifeboat. He already finds himself facing several
problems. First of which being the one that manifests itself in human nature
more times then we can admit, ignorance. It seeks safety from the supposed battle against it; it finds a host on which it
proceeds to manifest itself into the worst parasite. One that posses a
something to pity, well it slowly destroys you from the inside. Just as the zebra seeks safety on Pi's boat,
breaking it's leg, and therefore in Pi's eyes becomes something to pity, well
in reality its scent is driving the hyena to a frenzy. Which brings us to our
next symbolism, the hyena.
"I am not one
to hold prejudice against any animal,
but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not served well by it's
appearance, it is ugly beyond redemption." The hyena is the most
noticeable and fearsome of Pi's assailants. The hyena represents the underlying
problem that is the stem of all your troubles. With the Zebra representing
ignorance, it's very presence is a danger to Pi as it is the usual prey of the
hyena, and even worse wounded, as ignorance allows problem to grow to
uncontrolled. When the hyena finally kills the zebra, it represents the
shattering of ignorance, as the problem is allowed to grow out of control,
until finally the problem can be ignored no longer, and runs rampant in your
mind. Once the problem has shattered your ignorance the "tiger in
you" you will jump to the task and destroy the problem.
These problems will
assail you throughout life, so the lesson to be learned from this is to never
let ignorance become your parasite, or your hyena will become out of control.
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