Have you ever wondered what it means to be a part of life? In the fiction book Jeremy FInk and The Meaning Of Life, a boy named Jeremy and his friend Lizzy go through a journey to find keys to open Jeremy’s dead dad’s box, which ends up containing a letter. In the fiction poem The Place Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, the “sidewalk” is the journey of life, and people have to go through bad parts of the sidewalk to get to good parts of the sidewalk. Therefore, Mass and Silverstein use literary devices to suggest that life is about the journey, and the challenges people overcome. Jeremy Fink And The Meaning Of Life expresses the theme of life being about the journey and challenges people overcome. Mass illustrates this in the letter …show more content…
Silverstein states how “there is a place where the sidewalk ends/and before the street begins/and there the grass grows soft and white/and there the sun burns crimson bright”(Silverstein 1-4), and also states how “Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black/and the dark street winds and bends past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow/we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,”(Silverstein 7-10). The first quote represents a “perfect area” right between the place where the sidewalk (which is a metaphor for life) and the street by stating how “the grass grows soft and white”(Silverstein 3), describing luscious grass, and by stating how “the sun burns crimson bright”, sunlight being a metaphor for good. The 2nd quote, in the 2nd stanza, represents a bad area, as it says how “the smoke blows black”, and there are flowers in the color of asphalt (rotting flowers). This part of the “sidewalk journey” is tough, because it says how “the dark street winds and bends”, and a winding and bending path is hard to travel on. This tough part of life is where the people are right now, and the poem says “let us leave this place,”(Silverstein 7) when starting to describe the bad place, and says “we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,”(Silverstein 10), to show that the people described in the poem are steadily walking towards the good
Is it really about the destination or the journey? The poem, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein, talk about a place where the sidewalk ends. In the novel, “Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life” by Wendy Mass. There is a letter that Jeremy’s dad leaves in a box but the box is locked and needs 3 keys so Jeremy is on a mission to find the 3 keys.
Science fiction authors have been hinting about modern day problems in all their stories. Many times this is because of Societal Commentary. Typically in science fiction stories, writers incorporate social commentary, which critiques issues in society. Social commentary affects everyone. Some examples of this idea are in Anthem by Ayn Rand, where equality 7-2521 goes though the journey of individualism.
As this book ends, it questions about if there is life worth living. Mankind today has destroyed the idea of truth their ancestors had created. Without this truth, it becomes harder for people to experience what people went through to find meaning. For example, Dr. King’s legacy would not have influence people today if he had no purpose. His legacy cause today’s people to look at racism as a scar against all races.
Stephanie Herrick Ordinary Men Analysis HST 369 February 22, 2017 Many men avoided WWII by joining the Order Police. These ‘policemen’ were sent to Poland, or the Soviet side of Poland to maintain order. There were thousands of men who were not wanting to enlist into the military to be on the front lines, thus deciding to join the police. The policemen had two ‘decrees’ to keep up with, it was described in the book Ordinary Men written by Christopher Browning, the commissar order; which involved for on-the-spot execution of any communist suspect of being an anti-German.
They all express loneliness, life decisions, and the future. In the poem, the road the person takes will later on effect their future. In the article, the person is lonely and will later on discover what caused this. The photo, shows what may be at the end of the empty, lonely road if someone takes it. The three literature pieces work well together.
After examining the short story "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury from a Socioeconomic/ Marxist theory the story portrays a dystopian society where the capitalist class and their superstructure suppress individuality and enforce conformity, demonstrating the effects of classism and the conflict of interests between the working class and the ruling class. The society mead lives in is highly stratified, with the ruling class controlling the means of production and the working class being forced to conform to societal norms. Mead can be seen as a representative of the working class; they are viewed as a threat to the bourgeoisie. The conformist citizens who stay home and watch TV could be seen as the proletariat because they are obedient to the norms imposed by the ruling class. By consuming mass media
INTRO Authors convey various issues and ideas to encourage readers to reflect on their values, beliefs and experiences. ’ The Pedestrian’, written by Ray Bradbury, is a dystopian short story set in a society where everyone stays at home and watches television. Leonard Mead, a curious old man, is the only person who takes outdoor walks but ends up being arrested by the police because of his unconventional behaviour. On the other hand, ‘People in Need’ is an advert for a non-profit organisation that provides humanitarian aid.
There is always a journey taken in life to navigate you to your purpose, and there will always be a path taken to the end. In the novel, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass, and the poem, “Where the SIdewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein both demonstrate the journeys taken in life and the path taken to the end. In Jeremey Fink and the Meaning of Life, Jeremy is given the task to open a mysterious box from his dad, but it includes keys that Jeremy doesn’t have. Once Jeremy's birthday rolls around, he and his friend, Lizzy, have found all the missing keys to open the box, which contains rocks from the journey that Jeremey’s dad took at Jeremy’s age. The poem, “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” also demonstrates the journeys taken in life, and the path taken to the end.
In the 2006 novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a man and his son struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Told through a lens of constant hardship, the book follows their arduous journey towards a coast in order to survive the winter. Throughout the novel, McCarthy shows that having hope enables people to persevere in dire circumstances because it counteracts the possibility of negative outcomes. First, the woman’s monologue about her death displays the despair necessary to abandon all hope.
‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’, written in 1999 by author Stephen Chbosky, is a coming-of-age novel about a 15-year-old high school freshman named Charlie. Charlie, like most high schoolers at his age, is shy, introverted and tends to keep to himself most of the time. Like any other teenager at his age who possess these kinds of personal qualities, he struggles severely with talking to other people and opening up, along with a gloomy depression. Throughout this text, he writes letters to an unnamed pen pal the reader knows as a ‘friend’, and Charlie talks to this person about his high school experience, friends, love life and personal loss. After reading this novel, I found it relatable and a very accurate representation of the struggles
Throughout this poem, Robert Frost uses extended metaphors to convey that every human has a path that causes them to constantly make choices that will continue to shape their lives. In the first lines of the poem, Frost states, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both” (Lines 1-2). Immediately, the idea is established that the speaker has to make a decision.
The road is considered to be a symbol of his multiple life decisions. When you first read the poem your first instinct is to think that the “traveler” just needs to pick a path to take; but it has a greater meaning. The fact that Frost chose to use this symbol to portray the message makes us have a clear idea of what he is going through. Towards the end of the poem, Frost shows signs of regret because of the road he chose, it shows us how in life a decision can really impact your life and can shape who you are as a person and what type of person you become. The use of symbolism in this poem is basically what leads you into understanding what it’s really trying to say.
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses beautifully crafted metaphors, imagery, and tone to convey a theme that all people are presented with choices in life, some of which are life-altering, so one should heavily way the options in order to make the best choices possible. Frost uses metaphors to develop the theme that life 's journey sometimes presents difficult choices, and the future is many times determined by these choices. Throughout the poem, Frost uses these metaphors to illustrate life 's path and the fork in the road to represent an opportunity to make a choice. One of the most salient metaphors in the poem is the fork in the road. Frost describes the split as, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both (“The Road Not Taken,” lines 1-2).
Frost utilizes analogous imagery throughout his poems; specifically in this poem, he uses natural imagery like the woods and roads to signify these themes. The woods represent indecision and instinct. Everywhere in literature, the plots of novels and poems alike contain characters lost in the woods. Similarly, in “The Road Not Taken”, the woods represent indecision while an adrift traveler wanders lost in the woods (Rukhaya). Frost repeatedly uses this symbol, and “the image...has represented indecision in Frost’s other poems…
The two paths symbolize the life of the traveler and all his life decisions. This poem expresses life, because in life, there are important decisions that in some instances can make a really big change, sometimes it’s hard to find your way out of something, and there are many possible ways you can do it. “Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim” are verses where we can clearly see that this is a decision in to which he is putting a lot of thought. Throughout the poem, we learn that there are two paths to take, but the traveler, who we suppose is Robert Frost, is uncertain of which one to take. We learn that this is really a life decision, and not just a choice between two paths.