Free Essays - A Difference in Values in The Good Earth :: Earth

A Difference in Values   The House of Wang Lung rose in one generation from a family of poor farmers to a wealthy respected house in the novel The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. The dramatic change in social status causes the sons of Wang Lung to have different views and values from their father. His different treatment of each son also shapes each character. Although part of the same family the charachters demonstrate a difference in values. The father values the land, the youngest son values regognition, the middle son values wealth, and the eldest son values respect.   As a result of his impoverished upbringing, Wang Lung values the land more than anything else. His obsession with the land causes him to neglect his family. The youngest son receives no attention and Wang Lung's plan to have him work the land disturbs him and makes him feel like a peasant. He feels that he has to prove that he is as great as his brothers and leaves the family to join the army. The middle son watches as his inheritance passes from his father's hand into the hand of his eldest son, and complains that his share is always too small. He wants to save the families money. The eldest son receives more attention and is given more than the other two sons and wants to be respected as a great family.      The eldest son receives more attention and is given more than the other two sons and wants to be respected as a great family. Wang Lung is proud of his first born son, Nung En, and gives him more than his other two sons. One example is when Wang Lung becomes distressed because he cannot read the contracts he is signing and does not want to sign a bad deal. He hopes that sending the elder son to school to learn how to read will solve this problem. The elder son is no longer needed in the fields, because Wang Lung can now afford men to work the land. However, he ignores sending his other children to school until later.   The eldest son's greatest desire is to have his family viewed as a great house. His wife, the daughter of the grain merchant Lui, Boggs 2 grew up in a rich house, she is accustomed to wealth and respect from others, and contributes to her husband's desire. He takes Wang Lung's silver bit by bit to mend up the old House of Hwang.

Point of View Essay

The speaker of the story, who speaks as a first-person narrator, is not named. We may conclude that he has had a good deal of experience with small boats, and with the language of sailors. His concentration shifts in the course of the story. At first, he seems to be aware of all four men on the boat, collectively, and he makes observations that permit us to understand the ideas and responses of the men, who are linked in a virtual â€Å"brotherhood† because of their having been stranded on a tiny boat amid the high waves that are menacing their existence (paragraph 9). At about paragraph 49, however, the speaker shifts his concentration primarily to the correspondent, while he describes the other men more dramatically. Might we assume that at this point, Crane is merging the speaker of the story with his own voice, as nearly as we can determine it? Throughout, the speaker introduces some of his own ideas, and also, at times, speaks ironically. This accounts for some of the more humorous expressions in the story. Thus, the speaker comments wryly that the men, while rushing from the sinking ship to save themselves, â€Å"had forgotten to eat heartily† and therefore were now being weakened with hunger (paragraph 49). The speaker is in control of the tone of his descriptions, as when he points out that the human back, to a rower, is subject to innumerable and painful kinks and knots (paragraph 82). The speaker is also observant and philosophical, as when he comments that the four men at sea need to turn their heads to contemplate the â€Å"lonely and indifferent shore† (paragraph 206). The story’s final sentence, about the fact that the three surviving men can be â€Å"interpreters,† is suggestive of a good deal of thought and observation that could lead beyond the content of the story. Though the point of view is third-person limited-omniscient, Crane’s merging of his thoughts with the narrator’s would not be as effective, not as dramatic, or objective, for it is this third-person distance that Crane feels would be most suitable for his idea that men are insignificant compared to the forces of nature, or nature itself. The point is driven home well with his particular point of view: another or different point of view would cloud his message and obscure his central theme: a different point of view would be too emotional, too fraught with survivability. The white heron is told from a third-person omniscient point-of-view, one that is aware of both Sylvia’s hopes and aspirations, and the hardships that she will encounter as she strives to achieve them. The constancy of the tree is noted from the very beginning with Sylvia’s recognition that â€Å"[in the] dark boughs [of the tree]†¦ he wind always, stirred, no matter how hot and still the air might be below†¦ † It is from this stillness that Sylvia begins her journey â€Å"with tingling eager blood† and apprehension of the point at which she must make â€Å"the dangerous pass from one tree to the other, [when] the great enterprise would really begin. † This image of making the transition from a smaller tree to a larger more dangerous one is a symbol of Sylvia leaving the realm of her early childhood to begin facing the challenges of becoming an adult. At first, â€Å"Sylvia felt her way uneasily,† but as she crosses trees and feels the support of the old pine, she becomes â€Å"his new dependent. † The pine is likened to â€Å"a great main mast to voyaging earth,† a simile which is followed by the author’s personification of the way in which it â€Å"h [olds] away the winds† to protect the â€Å"solitary gray-eyed child† just as a father would do. The narrative pace of the passage varies from being restrained and held back as Sylvia prepares for her adventure, to increasing in speed slightly once she changes trees, to finally reaching a climax once she reaches the top. It is this fast progression from her climbing and feelings of support from the tree to this climactic awakening that aids in communicating the true extent of Sylvia’s growth. The â€Å"spark of human spirit† that the tree’s â€Å"ponderous frame† helps to lift to the top quickly easily becomes â€Å"a pale star,† trembling and tired, but wholly triumphant. † Bierce tells â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† in three parts. Part I is in objective third-person point of view except for the last three paragraphs. In objective third-person narration, the storyteller observes events but cannot enter the mind of any character and disclose his or her thoughts. In the last three paragraphs of the Part I, the narration shifts to omniscient (all-knowing) third-person point of view in relation to Peyton Farquhar. This shift enables Bierce to take the reader inside Farquhar’s mind to demonstrate how emotional upheaval alters not only the way the mind interprets reality but also the way it perceives the passage of time. First, Farquhar mistakes the ticking of his watch for the tolling of a bell or the ring of an anvil struck by a hammer. Then, after Farquhar drops from the bridge at the moment of execution, he perceives a single second as lasting hours.

Ode to Autumn

ODE TO AUTUMN John Keats This poem, an ode, is the last of Keats’ odes. In it, the poet exhibits a rich mood of serenity by describing autumn as a season of mellow fruitfulness – a season of ripeness and fulfillment. This ode is known for its remarkable sensuous beauty that is crafted by employment of several visual, tactile and auditory imageries together with the personification of autumn as a woman engaged in various autumnal activities. In the first stanza, the poet has described the bounty of autumn. It is the season of mists and the ripening of fruit. Autumn and the sun work together for the ripening of all kinds of fruits.The vines running round the edges of the thatch and apple trees growing in the cottage garden are weighed down with fruits. Their fruits are ripening during autumn. Besides the gourds are becoming larger and the hazel nuts are being filled with sweet kernels. For the bees, it appears as if there is no end to their happy days – summer â₠¬â€œ as there are some later flowers still blooming in autumn, providing honey to them, even if their sticky combs are over-brimmed. The beautiful word pictures and various visual and tactile imageries make the stanza a well-crafted one.In the second stanza, the poet moves from the country cottage to the outside field and describes various activities associated with autumn. He does it by employing personification that one almost visualizes these activities. It is the season of harvest and since most of the harvest works are performed by women, autumn is described as a woman. First, it is seen as a woman doing the work of winnowing. Secondly, one may see it as a reaper, asleep in the half-finished furrow of crops. Thirdly, it may be seen as a gleaner, keeping her corn-burdened head steady as she crosses a brook.Finally, autumn may be seen as a woman standing patiently beside a cider-press for the last drops of apple juice. Unlike the first stanza where autumn was bustling with activi ties, Autumn is found static in suspended activity or arrested motion in the second stanza and the readers are invited to move from one scene to another in search of Autumn. In the final stanza, the poet appears to be overwhelmed by a pessimistic idea and asks about the sweet music of spring which is absent in autumn. However, he immediately rectifies himself and says there is nothing to worry about the songs of spring as autumn too has its own music.He then lists the various sounds of autumn which are generally heard in the evening time. The mourning of the gnats, the loud bleating of the full-grown lambs, the singing of the hedge-crickets, the whistling of the red-breast and the twittering of the swallows are the prominent sounds that the poem deals with. Thus, the third stanza is about the music of autumn and the imagery is auditory. If in the first stanza, the positive side of autumn as the handmaid of summer is stressed, here the season is hailed as the prelude to winter.The th eme of the poem is a delighted, sensuous enjoyment of the rich and mature beauty of autumn season. The poet’s imaginative response to the beauty of autumn appears in a series of pictorial personifications of the season. The course of autumn traced in the poem is not restricted to autumn. The movement of the poem from fruition to harvest, from satisfaction to ending epitomizes the very process of life. Even sadness is seen in its true perspective as inseparable from and part and parcel of the complete process. The poem is an acceptance of the beauty and the pain in life, and an affirmation of its dignity. Thou hast thy music too’, is a relevant reminder that each one has his own talent and should attain contentment in life. Extracts: a) Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun Conspiring with him how to load and bless. i) Why does the poet address ‘autumn’ as the ‘season of mists and mellow fruit-fullness? Ans. T he poet addresses ‘autumn’ as the season of mists as during this season, we can see mists on the open fields and on the other wet places in the mornings and evenings. He calls it a season of mellow fruitfulness because it’s during autumn that the fruits are in the process of ripening. i) How is ‘autumn’ a close bosom-friend of the maturing sun? Ans. Autumn is a close friend of the maturing sun as both of them together help the fruits to ripen to the core. iii) What do the close friends conspire? Ans. The two close friends, autumn and the sun conspire to load and bless the vines and apple trees with fruits, to swell the gourds, to plump the hazel shells with sweet kernels and to help bloom some more flowers. b) And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease. i) What does the poet mean by the ‘later flowers’? Ans.By the ‘later flowers’, the poet means to convey that flowering does not s top immediately after summer; in fact it continues though the number gets reduced. These are known as later flowers. ii) What makes the bees feel that warm days will never cease? Ans. The presence of later flowers and availability of honey for the bees makes them feel that the warm days shall never cease. iii) Describe the bee hives. Ans. The bees have collected a lot of honey during summer, yet the presence of the later flowers makes them collect more and add it to their collection which is now over-filled in their sticky cells. ) Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; i) Who or what is being talked of here? Ans. ‘Autumn’ is being talked of here. ii) What is the poetic device employed here and what is its effect? Ans. The poetic device employed here is personification as ‘autumn’ is being described as a woman engaged in various harvest related activities. iii) Why is she seen sitting carelessly on the granary floor? What activity was she involved in? Ans. She can be seen sitting carelessly on the granary floor as she was engaged in winnowing work, i. e. eparating the chaff from the corn and she is sitting carelessly because she is not worried as the harvest has been very good. It is picture of fulfillment or contentment. iv) Mention at least two more places she can be seen. Also mention in what condition she can be seen at these places. Ans. She can be seen in a sleeping posture, as she had been induced to sleep by the intoxicating smell of the poppies growing in the field along with the corn, in a half-reaped furrow while her sickle spares the next swath. She can also be seen as a gleaner, crossing a brook and keeping her head steady.She can be seen sitting patiently at a cider-press and watching for the last drops of apple juice trickling down from the press. d) Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, — i) Who is being addressed here? Ans. Autumn is being addressed here. ii) This line is the answer to a question asked by the poet. What is the question? Ans. The question is: ‘Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? iii) What is being referred to as ‘them’ here and why should the addressee not think of them? Ans. ‘The songs of spring’ is being referred to as ‘them’ here and the addressee, i. . autumn should not think of them as it is useless to think of the past. It’s rather wise to live in the present. Besides, autumn has its own music too. iv) Name a few sources of music associated with the addressee. Ans. The mourning of the gnats, the loud bleats of the full-grown lambs, the songs of the hedge-crickets, the whistles of the red-breast and the twittering of the swallows are the prominent sounds associated with the addressee, autumn. e) ‘Where are the songs of the Spring! Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue†¦ ’ i) Name the poet and the poem. Ans. The poet is ‘John Keats’ and the poem is ‘Ode to Autumn’. ii) Who is being referred to as ‘thou’? Ans. Autumn is being referred to as ‘thou’. iii) What does the poet mean when he says ‘songs of spring’? Ans. By the songs of spring the poet refers to the joy and exuberance of spring season. iv) What image is conjured up with ‘stubble plains’? Ans. The grain has been harvested and only the short, dry stalks remain like the stubble of hair on the face.