Obsession with Mortality in Written Masterpieces - Term Paper Example

? Compare and Contrast DEATH AND IMPERMANENCE Throughout history, there has always been evidence of people’s obsession with mortality. Everything got a specific time in the world to live and eventually lies in a concept that became written a long time ago. In an attempt to understand death and what comes after death, a number of thinkers, poets, philosophers, came up with a number of ideas that became incorporated in literature. Death and impermanence became spoken and written in many stories and poems of literature and managed to show some of the point of views of the authors of those texts. In relation to the many people who write stories and poems concerning death and impermanence, often depict insecurity and un-acceptance of the unavoidable changes. Rarely, do we have authors talking positively and accepting the fact that death is inevitable, and every human being will have to pass through it. Literature hence got the ability to express how human beings are vulnerable to a certain situation and yet express it in beautiful, elegant and dignified manner. In the essay, a comparison of two written masterpieces will become analyzed: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (1951) and I Used To Live Here Once by Jeans (1985). The essay will hence provide a detailed analysis of the two written masterpieces in relation to content, form and style. In accordance to Webster’s dictionary, theme can be defined as a given unifying idea that appears as a recurrent element in any literacy work. Each of the two literacy works listed above describes an individual’s life cycles plus human behavior in one of the gravest sense. Author’s of the books use a lot of symbolism. Symbolism often becomes described as underlying meanings of different objects or qualities. Therefore, literary devices like imagery, similes, and metaphors help readers in experiencing what the author represents in his work. In addition, each of the masterpieces incorporate the use of rhythm, hence making the readers more intrigued and wanting them to read more of their work. The shared elements among the masterpieces of literature depict that the writer tried to convey certain similar elements to the readers. In the poem written by Dylan Thomas, there are a number of symbolisms used to address the death and impermanence theme. In the poem, got a lot of repeated references made regarding the light and the night. In using the night, the author used it as a synonym to represent death (Alan, 2008). Night often becomes associated with mystery, danger and evil things. In addition, vision of people at night is often weak, and surprises by evil things are common (Thomas, 1951). By depicting death as night represented the symbolism the author had intended to bring out for the audience. Thomas seems to depict the act of dying as a negative connotation immediately in the poem. In contrast, by using words like the light (Thomas, 1951) to represent life or something that is truly living or represent fulfilled life, Thomas thus helped the readers of his poem to visualize the intense contrast of his feelings about living and dying. Thomas in his poem appears angered about death as he speaks positively about life. In addition, depiction of life and death like light and night respectively somehow symbolized the concept of life and death from the religious perspective (Thomas, 1951). In Christianity, the righteous get associated with the light. In addition, the light often gets associated with happy moments and feeling of security. In contrast, the night and darkness often get associated with the evil being and bring feelings of insecurity and death to individuals (Alan, 2008). In the poem, Thomas encourages others to rage at the dying of the given light. In addition, from his masterpiece, he seems also to despise and has little compassion for those individuals who do not hate death. In the final stanza, the readers become aware of the poem directed towards the father of the narrator that was on his death bed. Hence this piece of work was more so written by Thomas, not for others, but for him to get in terms with the fact that his father dying (Thomas, 1951). Death is usually difficult for many individuals to accept. In many societies for instance, every death often becomes associated with something as the causative agent even in the obvious cases. People often turn to different methods of creativity in order to work their way out of the misfortune by always pinning it on something. It is often normal for individuals to try to find meaning in unexplainable events like death. This is apparently what Thomas was doing while writing that given poem (Thomas, 1951). Thomas hence was waging a war against the unseen death that was creeping to have his father. Thomas knew himself that eventually his father had to subdue to death. In as much as he wished he could do something to help his father fight against his impending mortality, but there is nothing he could do. People even though know that death is the ultimate journey for any living human being, but most people fear it when it comes to take some of the beloved ones. Thomas (1951), gets thrown in deep thought about death in this poem, as he could come to terms that his father was going to die and he had not prepared for it. In his poem, he denotes death as something that steals the joy in people. In the short story, written by Jean journey involving a girl crossing a river and then goes through a familiar path that led to a house with many children playing around in the yard where she used to stay. Eventually everything sums up for the girl and the girl as one becomes aware that the girl is dead. The author of the story also uses a lot of symbolism to represent some of the known things in life in a hidden manner. In the story, the girl appears to be standing next to a river looking carefully at the stones, and it seems she remembers all in detail. Suddenly, the girl becomes depicted as standing on the opposite side of the river. In many literary pieces plus regular conversation, dying often becomes referred to a moment of crossing over. The girl that stood on one side of the river mysteriously found herself standing on the opposite side of the river. The author puts the reader in suspense using that introductory part that the girl surprisingly found herself on the other side. Jean continues in his story giving many clues possessing the element of symbolism. In the story, Jean describes the sky having a glassy appearance (Jean, 1985). Glass has always been a popular metaphoric reference related to reflection. In referring to the sky as a glass depicted the fragility of human life. In as much as people fancy living, but one day death will come. In addition, the girl by seeing her past life as familiar may have been a way for the author to bring the concept of reflection of one’s life as one dies. It is a myth that before someone dies, his or her life flashes before his or her own eyes (Wolfe, 1980). The homestead which the girl feels familiar happens to be her home. Therefore, Jean happens to use the imagery to represent the given saying of how life flashes before one’s eyes on the verge of death. The authors take us through an ordeal starting from the familiar to the unknown. By beginning from the river, a symbol for the source of life, crossing over by the girl majorly represented moving from a place that gives life to an unknown place (Jean, 1985). As the story continues, the author explains to the readers that some things were not the way the girl could remember. Here, Jean brings us to the unfamiliarity of death by the use of imagery to represent his piece of work (Savory, 2002). The story describes the girl going down a path, which might be a symbolic representation of a journey through the spiritual world (Wolfe, 1980). As the girl walks through the path, she starts to realize some things being different like the new road construction and even notices some particular pine trees gone. In relation to the poem by Thomas, one could realize that both portray change occurring over time (Thomas, 1951). In as much as people live, one thing they should be aware, is that death is inevitable and will one day catch up with them. In the story by Jean (1985), the girl seems perplexed by the changes and not rather by the familiar things. Jean story ends with the given girl calling to some children playing near her homestead and gets ignored. When the girl reaches out to the children to touch them, she gets surprised that she cannot. In fact, the children just discuss to each other when the girl tries to touch them as the place becoming cold (Jean, 1985). Jean hence ends the story with accepting death exists. It is at the end that all the symbolism becomes brought together to bring meaning to what the author was trying to represent. In contrast to Dylan Thomas’ poem (1951), this poem seems to address ones acceptance when one dies. Jean uses a lot of symbolism to represent death, but eventually accepts death to have befallen to the girl. In Thomas’ poem, the author is in denial of death coming to take his ill father that lay in bed. Thomas does not accept that death will take his father away and come to terms with it. He is bitter on knowing that his father will succumb to death, and there is totally nothing he could do. On comparing the two authors, they each wrote two different pieces. Thomas wrote a poem while Jean wrote a story. In terms of theme, they both wrote literary works revolving around death, impermanence and acceptance (Wolfe, 1980). The two pieces are also similar in that they use a lot of symbolism to represent some commonly known things in life in a way that make readers yearn for more. The authors also use symbolism so as not to express the emotions plus the thoughts of their characters, but in a way, help the readers visualize and experience what it felt like to be dead. In both the story by Jean and story by Thomas, there was the use of majorly naturalistic references to illustrate the change since nature is often changing. In using things in nature as references majorly depicted the value of symbolism in depicting passing if time. The form the authors used remains equally valuable as it assisted them to convey their message appropriately. In as much as they both were trying to convey different points, therefore, each using a different form, still the use of form remained similar between the two pieces as a literacy aid (Gregg, 2000). In as much as the two pieces of work shared the same theme, and even used form and symbolism to represent certain aspects in whatever they were trying to convey, some differences existed between the two pieces. First, the words and the symbols used in each of the piece of work were different. For example, light and night in Thomas’ poem represented life and death in respectively, while children playing in Jean’s story represented life. As much as the two shared the same theme, they also had some underlying differences. In conclusion, the two stories provide appropriate comparisons to make in relation to the similar theme. In Thomas’ poem, the author is not in acceptance of the situation. Thomas is not accepting the idea of death taking his father (Thomas, 1951). In contrast, Jean describes the unfamiliarity of death, but eventually comes to term when she describes at the end that the girl accepted her death. The differences and similarities between each of the pieces became clear plus intense making them formidable. References Gregg, V. M. (2000). Jean historical imagination: reading and writing the Creole. Alabama: UNC Press Books. Jean, R. (1985). Tales of the wide Caribbean. New York: Campbell. Savory, E. (2002). Jean Poetry. New York: Cambridge University Press. Alan, K. (2008). Alan Poetry Guide. Washington: Brooke University Inc. Thomas, D. (1951). Poems. New York: Wilson. Wolfe, P. (1980). Jean. London: Twayne Publishers. Read More

 

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