A Joyous Afterlife

In Crossing the Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the speaker welcomes death. In both the first and third stanzas, the first two lines indicate a time near the end of the life of the speaker. He knows he will go eventually but he hopes that his death will not cause too much grief and sadness,"And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark;" (Tennyson, 886). He does not want the end to be rough when he leaves: "And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea." (Tennyson, 886). He is excited to go out into the boundless deep or the great unknown of the afterlife. He does not know what is out there, but  he knows that his home lies out there somewhere. There is a certain time and place that he will arrive at once he dies. He acknowledges that the afterlife may actually be a far away place. He also hopes to see the Pilot. The Pilot is most likely Jesus because Pilot is capitalized. Furthermore, Christian literature emphasizes the "crossing over" into the after life and crossed is mentioned in the title and the last line of the poem. Specifically, crossed refers to the transition from life to death which is the bar that separates the two. The speaker is eagerly waiting to be taken into heaven with Jesus.

Death's Hidden Character

In Death, be not proud by John Donne, the speaker criticizes death. The speaker believes that death is not mighty and dreadful as some people believe. He mentions several reasons as to why death should not be proud. Death dwells with poison, war, and sickness. Those things are vile, barbaric, and uncivilized and come nowhere to close to being mighty. "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men" (Donne, 971). Death is not even in control. Death only happens when destiny and fate determine someone to die. It happens by random chance. Kings order death. Desperate men kill others because they are willing to. Death is not glorious or magnificent because it lies with the lowest of the low and it is not master of itself. Death deserves no place of honor.

Going Down Fighting

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas focuses on the two phrases: "Do not go gentle into that good night" (Thomas, 968) and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"(Thomas, 968). Each phrase is said four times, so it has major significance. Each phrase is a metaphor stating: never let death take you without a fight. The speaker mentions four images each stating why certain groups of men always fight till their last breath. Wise men fight because they have not discovered incredible truths. Good men fight because they want to make sure that their good deeds are not wasted. Wild men fight because they don't want to stop being wild. Grave men fight because they are happy and don't want to die. These four images were said to inspire the speaker's father to not give up the fight against death. The speaker wants his father to fight fierce so that if he does die, he died while trying to live.

You Feeling Lucky?

In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, point of view plays an important role on how the story seems to play out. The third person objective view point leads the reader to believe that this is a happy story. It has a tone of peace and boredom. The act of piling the stones and pebbles seems harmless since children usually like to mess with rocks. It is not until Warner says, " 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon' " (Jackson, 268), that the reader begins to see that this is not a normal lottery. This view continues to be supported once Mrs. Hutchinson says that it was not fair. In a normal lottery, the winner and the family would be jubilant. In this case, the tone seems to become dark. By the end of the play, it is apparent that the lottery is a drawing for a sacrifice so that the corn grows well. The point of view allows for a surprising twist in this seemingly harmless story.

Hoarder Level: 9001

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a rather creepy short story. Early on in the passage, we learn that she has nothing left. Her father died and her sweetheart had left her: "That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart--the one we believed would marry her--had deserted her" (Faulkner, 283). With the disappearance of her loved ones, she decides to cling onto anything that will prevent her from becoming hurt again. She meets Homer Baron and turns him into a heterosexual male and marries him. She then murders him with arsenic and lays the body on the bed as if he had just came home from work. She even sets up the room to look like he just came home. There is a suit hungover a chair with the shoes underneath it. There are socks and a tie on the ground. There is also evidence that she sleeps in the same bed next to the decayed body. Furthermore, since the narrator is the town, there is a bit of uncertainty and there may be even more creepy things associated with Emily.

Blowing Out the Past

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the play ends with another symbol: Laura blowing out the candles. Literally, Tom wants to forget about Laura so he can move on with his life and have no regrets. More specifically, he is trying to forgot the old memory of her. He is trying to forget the terrible situation that he left his mother and sister in. Symbolically, Laura blowing out the candles represents a call for moving forward: "For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura--and so goodbye. . ." (Williams, 1289). That quote shows that the memory of Laura is in the past and now the current time is in the present. The act of blowing the candles out represents letting go of our past and moving on into the future. It also represents letting go of our former selves and forming  a new and better person. Tom is wanting Laura to change herself for the better when he states this. He is not wishing to never see or remember her again, but rather, he wants to see her as a shining human being that she is supposed to be.

Break the Ice (Or Glass in This Case)

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, one of the blatant symbols is the glass menagerie. Williams states the symbolic meaning of the glass menagerie in the character description of Laura: "Laura's separation increases till she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf." (Williams, 1234). Its meaning continues on further though. The glass collection represents the small comfort zone that every person has. Laura's comfort zone was threatened by the introduction of Jim O'Connor. While they were having fun, the horn of Laura's unicorn breaks off. This incident symbolizes Laura's slow and temporary transgression out of her comfort zone and it represents how her crippled leg has no effect on other people. For a moment, Laura was feeling happy even though she was spending time with a stranger. When she acted in a way that was outside her comfort zone, no one noticed she was a cripple. To Jim, she appeared vibrant and lively. In addition, Tom broke his glass at the end of the play and left his family. He left his comfort zone and safe habitat. He decided to brave the unknown and it seems to have been successful for him. What Williams wants to convey is that we need to break out of the glass menagerie that holds every person, so that we may have a good and successful life.

Common Family Bickering. Or is it more?

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, dissension fills the cracks of the family. The external conflicts are abundant and mainly occur between Amanda and Tom. Amanda and Tom fight over Tom's habit of late-night movie-going. They fight and the argument escalates. The argument transforms into an argument about Tom's selfishness. That argument is ironic because Tom works at a job he hates to provide for his family. The argument continues to push Tom away until he decides to leave the family. A point of instance where the conflict between Amanda and Tom becomes out of hand is when Tom breaks a part of Laura's glass menagerie, "It strikes against the shelf of Laura's glass collection, there is a tinkle of shattering glass."  (Williams, 1248). Amanda and Laura have a few conflicts, but they are focused on Laura's personality. Laura's personality coerced her to drop from business school and her personality prevents her from marrying or occupying a job to support the family. Amanda wants Laura to be successful, but Amanda struggles with Laura's personality every time. The dissension in the family causes the family to be split up and creates a sense of hopelessness for Laura's future.

Disillusioned Amanda

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Amanda becomes very ironic from Tom's point of view. Throughout the play, she accuses Tom of being selfish. It happens that Tom forces himself to work at the mill everyday because he cares about his family, "I'll rise--but I won't shine" (Williams, 1249). He goes to the movies so that he may enjoy a little part of his day. Amanda fails to recognize this and further infuriates Tom. She bombards him with accusations that he only cares about his selfish pleasure and that he is a selfish dreamer. Amanda coerced Tom out of her life for good.  Furthermore, Amanda accuses Tom of living in dreams and manufacturing illusions. Amanda is the one who happens to living in her dreams, illusions, and fantasies. She constantly compares the amount of gentlemen callers she had to the ones that Laura had. She relives her past life as if it were today by wearing old dresses and recalls all the wonderful times she had with her husband. Amanda was the main reason that Tom left the family.

A Father Long Gone

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams the long gone father plays an important role in Tom's memory and the family's life. The father left early in the marriage so he could chase his dreams and make money. Tom decided to follow his father's footsteps and set his own path, " from then on, in my father's footsteps" (Williams, 1288). Tom chose to live a better life and fight the grasp that Amanda had over him. Amanda was affected by her husband greatly. Once he left, she was forced to sell magazines and force Tom into working at the mill. She lives in a world of disillusion. She no longer notices that Laura is crippled. She no longer sees that Laura has social problems. She accuses Tom of being selfish, which is entirely false.She lives in her own fantasy. The splitting of the family was caused by the father leaving the family.