Preview

An Imaginary Life

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
494 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Imaginary Life
50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

1

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

2

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

3

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

4

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

5

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

6

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

7

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

8

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2008

9

50 Excellent Extended Essays
What is the literary function of the dialogue between language and nature in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life?

10

© International Baccalaureate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    What do you think the world would be like without imagination? There would be no Iphone,no car ,no light bulb. The world would be useless to anything. The first humans would be eaten within a day. That is why I think imagination is important.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    McCarthy tells the story using narrative voice in this section of the text. He contrasts the third person extradiegetic narrator with the man’s interior monologue in order to convey multiple perspectives to the reader. “He’d left the cart in the bracken beyond the dunes and they’d taken blankets with them and sat wrapped in them in the wind-shade of a great driftwood log.” Here, McCarthy constructs the lexis of the third person narrator using what some critics have called a limited linguistic palette. The polysyndeton creates a steady rhythm, which parallels the rhythm of the journey the man and boy are on, which is, like the sentence, seemingly never-ending. Here the narrator presents the reader with a practical account of the man and boy’s response to the disappointment of the beach, detailing their movements with unelaborated, unemotional language. The pared back language poignantly conveys the sense that the bleakness of the beach was inevitable. In contrast, the tricolon: “Cold. Desolate. Birdless”, is clearly the man’s interior monologue. The three adjectives highlight the extent to which the reality of the beach does not live up to the characters’ expectations of it. Where they had hoped for warmth when heading south, instead they found “cold”. Where they had hoped for a more habitable climate, they found a “desolate” environment. Where they had hoped for life, they had found a “birdless” environment. Thus, the tricolon convey’s the man’s disappointment to the reader. McCarthy utilizes stream of consciousness in order to enable the reader to understand the man’s emotional response. The narrator is typically unemotive, presenting a pared back account of events and it is thus these…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the beginning of the book, Malouf portrays the image of Jim in his sanctuary with beautiful blue mountains and farmlands. As he is watching over the swamp in the sanctuary, a shadow is cast over his surroundings while he tries to observe the birds. “…the big shadow was that of a bi-plane…” This is evidence of Malouf’s use of contrast to separate machinery and nature. Malouf uses this shadow to convince the reader that this is an unnatural presence. It demonstrates the destruction of nature, as it is now difficult for Jim to view upon these divine creatures and their surroundings. “It was a new presence here and it made Jim Sadler uneasy.” The introduction of this modern technology is uncomfortable and begins his loss of innocence.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How does the author use figurative language to establish a tone of wonder in the first two paragraphs of the essay? Provide specific examples and explain how they provide the reader with a unique sense of the desert? Read line 26-49. How does this passage help develop a central idea of Kingsolver’s essay?…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    DEFICITS word 2

    • 1416 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Deficits: analyzing the way Michael ignatieff uses figurative speech to outline the relationship of son/mother in his story ‘Deficits’.…

    • 1416 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sand County Almanac

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Leopold gives the animals and nature certain human-like characteristics in this book because he wants us to connect with them in a way we likely have never done before.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, had many interesting paragraphs that catches the readers eye. However, the above paragraph between Vardaman and Darl debating the matters of death and existence stops the reader and demands attention. The above paragraph is a narrative paragraph. Vardaman’s association of his mother’s death with the fish’s death at first seems to be a childish, illogical connection. This association, along with Darl’s linking of the question of existence to a matter of “was” versus “is,” allows these two uneducated characters to tackle the highly complex matters of death and existence. The bizarre nature of this exchange illustrates the Bundrens’ inability to deal with Addie’s death in a more rational way. For Darl, language has a peculiar control over Addie’s existence: he believes that she cannot be an “is,” or a thing that continues to exist, because she is a “was,” or a thing that no longer exists. For Vardaman, objects that are similar to each other become interchangeable: he assigns the role of his mother to the fish, for example, because the fish is dead, like Addie. These somewhat logical responses to Addie’s death demonstrate…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem also portrays the agony and grief of the giraffe confined in captivity suffers, the poet dramatises the loneliness the giraffe experiences by using metaphors such as "She languorously swings her tongue," this metaphor implies the giraffe is tired and weary and has become lazy, complacent and bored due to her forced isolation within captivity. She is powerless, stuck in a situation she has no control and no power; stuck in a place where she truly doesn’t belong. It also allows the responder to feel for the sick giraffe and empathise it in its yearning for life.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    a beach

    • 1129 Words
    • 4 Pages

    4. Hughes uses ideas to show the conflict impact on nature when he describes hare as nature in this quote "threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame". In this quote Hughes is talking about nature and effect of nature. Also he is talking about hare is killed ,plus by that whole of the surrounding is destroyed.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Owls and Great Horned Owl

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this excerpt from “Owls” Mary Oliver writes with grave, and pensive to consider her towards nature by indicating the complexities of one’s response towards nature. Her usage of figurative language to visualizing the surrounds of the flowers, her metaphors to control the interpretation of the owls and her imagery of the yin and yang point of view in her essay to fully describe the owls and the flowers.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lynch, Richard. “Symbolic Narratives: The Dangers of Being an Intertextually Inclined Character.” Studies in the Novel 41.2 (2009): 224-240. Project MUSE. Web. 7 November 2013.…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The passage in the novel starts by giving vivid descriptions of the setting, which are used to establish the desolate atmosphere displayed throughout of the scene. The author’s particular diction plays a key role to emphasize this feeling. Phrases such as “there was open marshland as far as we could see”, “the pale sky looked vast”, and “it reflected every so often in the patches of water breaking up the land” are the main indicators that help us picture the setting. The syntax is primarily lengthy and detailed sentences. These sentences help establish the mood as rather isolated and passive. The expression “ghostly dead trunks poking out of the soil” even goes further than this passive mood by providing a sense of gloominess. Little details, such as “you could hear the squelch in our shoes” add a touch of realism and provide a better picture of the scene.…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Norman Mcaaig Essay

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The poet seems afraid to let his mind wander, not wanting to be tormented by the unanswerable. He just wants to focus on the farm, but seems less able to control his train of thought. He says “ I lie not thinking... afraid of where a thought might take me.” He is trying not to think but merely observe. Then suddenly he looses control and his mind begins to drift into metaphysics. He illustrates this inability to control his thoughts as a metaphor comparing himself to a grass-hopper. He says “the grasshopper... unfolds his legs and finds himself in space.” This describes his mind, as it suddenly jumps from thought into some kind of imaginary space, from which he can observe life from a third person point of view, so that he can answer his…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    David Mamet's Duck Variations is a 1972 play based around the mundane park bench conversation of two characters, George and Emil. Through the topic of ducks and other various wildlife, the theory of life and the world begins to emerge to reveal feelings about death and their own existence. They search for the importance of a duck's activities as if attempting to find meaning within themselves. Ironically, many of their discussions and ramblings are untrue or irrelevant and leaves the reader or viewer placing them in some position of knowledge or authority which they quite clearly do not have, or deserve for that matter. Whether through the characters Mamet is trying to instill an animalistic instinct within people or their surroundings or not, he does express a simplistic and mechanical similarity between people within society and ducks within nature. It seems fruitless since their theories and opinions are vague and meaningless, and one gets the feeling that the play is pointless and unnecessary, and compared to Mamet's other plays and works it is.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the “Sea Urchin,” a teen wants to try a live sea urchin, believing it will taste good. When the narrator says, “I point to a bin and say that’s what I want," he shows that he is curious and wants to experience something new. After he gets sick from eating the sea urchin, he decides to go back and says: "But a week later I’m better, and I go back by myself. My mouth slick with anticipation and revulsion, not yet knowing why” (Lee 215-216). ” The reason he eats it again is to learn “why” he wants it. The teen wants to learn about the outside world and grows up. Just like the teen tries to learn about the outside world, a young toddler in “The Nothingness Forest,” expects to find greatness in a forest when she finally realizes that there is nothing and learns about people in the world. The baby girl desires to explore the world and thinks, “…one thing that is important and fun: walking” (Ekstrom 105). The toddler expects to have “fun” and believes waling is “important.” The author shows her thoughts in the present moment and she is unaware of her false assumption. After she punches her dog and continues walking, she thinks, “far away, no mommy, no daddy, no lady, no dog. Hungry and lonely” (Ekstrom 105-106). She realizes what actually happened and has “no mommy, no daddy,” and is…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics