¶ … Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather [...] how Cather uses symbolism in the novel. Imagery forms the backbone of this story, and opens up the characters to the reader.
MY MORTAL ENEMY
Cather uses imagery throughout this novel to indicate and realize the characters, as well as their reactions to each other. Early in the novel, we learn quite a bit about Myra and her personality from this compelling small piece of imagery: "Her sarcasm was so quick, so fine at the point -- it was like being touched by a metal so cold that one doesn't know whether one is burned or chilled" (Cather 14). The imagery conveys Myra's sarcasm perfectly, making it real and tangible to the reader who immediately pictures a cold and sharp piece of metal. It also clearly indicates how young Nellie felt at experiencing her sarcasm, she did not know whether she was burned or chilled, but she knew the sarcasm caused pain.
Later, Cather uses equally evocative imagery when the couple of Myra and her husband stand at the window at dusk. Myra is compared to a "dove" when she is...
Symbolism in the Hairy Ape The Hairy Ape is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill and was produced and published in 1922. It is a symbolic work that deals with the themes of social alienation and search for identity in the presence of technological progress (Cardullo 258). The play speaks to the industrialization that was taking place during that era. In an expressionistic play, the number of characters is kept minimal
The broken unicorn is the concrete image of their broken relationship - everything that Laura pins her hopes on but nothing in reality. Laura cannot recognize that she is special; she has the ability to make other people feel better. She tells Jim after he breaks the little figure, "It doesn't matter. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise" (Williams 1014). Her scene with Jim ends in a hopeful kiss
It is only with this understanding that the needless sacrifice can end. Shirley Jackson presents a myriad of symbols in "The Lottery." The title of the story, the procedure of the lottery, the names of the characters, and the people that participate in the lottery and those that do not are all symbols or can be interpreted as such. These symbols also indicate different views of sacrifice. Sacrifice is present in
Symbolism plays a major role in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "Clothes," Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal," and in Colette's "The Hand." In "Clothes," the narrator is a woman in India from a traditional Bengali family. Her parents go through a lot of trouble to arrange a good marriage for her, to an Indian man who now lives in the United States. The husband-to-be flies all the way to India to meet the
Other characters serve as more direct and specific symbols in the story. Mrs. Mercer, the guest of the narrator's aunt on the evening that the narrator finally manages to get to the bazaar, is one such character. She, like the narrator, has been waiting for the narrator's uncle to return, and both expected him much earlier than he eventually appears. Mrs. Mercer, in fact -- a "garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's
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
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