Motifs In Alice Hoffman's The River King

Motif: an image or idea that occurs many times in a work of literature. The motif in the short story, “What, of this Goldfish, Would You Wish?,” is wishing. In the short story, the motif of wishing applies to the characters, Yoni, Sergei, and the goldfish, based on each of their lives, and they’re similar and different from each other in the sense that the wishes are all for themselves and are wished under different circumstances. To begin with, the motif of wishing applies to Yoni, Sergei, and the goldfish based on their lives.

In this novel, the most significant element is the theme. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. They are considered to be the bigger something, a “truth” being explored

Motifs are reoccurring intentional structures, contrasts, and literary devices that formulate and develop the major themes in a book. It is the thread that knits and weaves the story together. Drinking is a motif that is visible through main characters like Dwight, Toby, Chuck, Huff, and Psycho. The motif becomes more predominant towards the middle and end, when Toby lives with Dwight, his abusive step-father, and attends school at Concrete high in Seattle. Wolff implements the motif of drinking in order to convey the theme of escapism, develop characterization, and foreshadow the future lives that the characters will

One theme exhibited throughout the narrative includes the significance

Symbols and/or Motifs help show larger ideas in the story. Symbols add curiosity, You may hear a word that symbolizes something without you even realizing it until later in the story. In the Story “Kirk? Krak!” Written by Edwidge Danticat, there is a lot of symbolism and motifs in the story.

In literature, theme is a tool writers use to convey a deeper meaning. In Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, several significant themes are conveyed throughout the memoir. These include faith and forgiveness as a source of strength, violence and prejudice as learned behaviors; friends becoming enemies, and the loss of innocence. The most apparent theme is faith and forgiveness as a source of strength because of how Immaculee's faith guides her through the genocide and how forgiveness gives her the power to let go and heal her enemies.

Motif is the repetition of an idea or image that occurs in a work of literature. Because of the motif, shows the main reason for the story. In the story “What, of this Goldfish, would you wish?” the main character, Yoni, has a mission to shoot a documentary for himself, asking neighbors a question, “If you found a talking goldfish that granted you three wishes, what would you wish for?”. Yoni then finds himself with a man named Sergi; Sergi was found out to have PTSD from the knocking, from the KGB in his childhood, that Yoni gave to his door asking for the question.

The first literary term I will be discussing is a motif. A motif is a recurrent design or pattern in a literary work. Two short stories that this literary term is prevalent through is “The Things They Carried”

A motif can be an object, imagery, language, or even structure the author includes in their writing to elevate its depth and reveal things about specific characters. Throughout her novel, The River King, Hoffman uses the motif of the swans to demonstrate that the more people try to escape love, the more it will

List 4 examples of these motifs from the book. 1 Death A) Allan 's death Motivated Anne to commit suicide B) JS death encouraged David to forgive him for all that he has put him through, and put that chapter of his life behind him. C) Wanuk banishes people to the fringes out of fear (mass sterilizations) that their reproduction would lead to the death of the true Human Form.

Motifs are narrative elements with symbolic significance that connect back to a theme. Motifs are often used to help the reader understand a character or to reinforce a theme. Alice Hoffman uses the motif of swans in her novel, The River King to symbolize that when humans try to push love away, it will always come back to them. First of all, when Hoffman is explaining Betsy’s role in the book, she mentions, “...

Motifs are so special in writing because they can play multiple different roles. Some motifs can change over the novel, some can have multiple meanings throughout, and some are up for interpretation. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the motif of sunshine and light symbolizes multiple different things on Janie’s journey for self-discovery. Growing up, Janie had a happy childhood where race, gender, and identity did not phase her. Her grandmother did what she could to protect Janie however she was of old age and her last wish was to have Janie marry an older man that she did not love named Logan.

Analyzing quotes from the book can be done in order to further examine the understanding of the motif

Theme is an idea that is repeated or developed throughout a piece of work. Justin A. Reynolds uses The Opposite of Always to portray the idea of the importance or lack of time. Jack has the archetype of the rebel. Jack and Kate share the star-crossed lovers archetype. In the novel Jack also goes through the hero’s journey as a situational archetype (Volger’s Hero’s Journey).

In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.     At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.