The passage immediately begins with a metaphor that uses the images of darkness and then the rising sun. It says:…
Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the settings in chapter 2 also help to tell the story. Two main settings feature in this chapter; the valley of ashes and Myrtle’s apartment. Fitzgerald describes the valley of ashes as ‘a certain desolate area of land’ and ‘a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens’. The valley of ashes is significant in this chapter, and in the whole novel, as it symbolises the huge contrast between the rich and the poor in…
This familiarity with the city is developed further in ‘Preludes’. In the third stanza Eliot writes that the sordid images of the night that are revealed constituted the soul. These images that the night reveal would be shadows caused by the world outside, and the use of the word “sordid” makes the reader recall Eliot’s earlier descriptions in the first stanza of “smoky days” and “grimy scraps” and the second stanza’s “faint stale smells of beer” and “sawdust-trampled streets” as these would all constitute a sordid setting of a modern city.” And yet despite this distasteful description of the city Eliot still writes that the soul of the person addresses as “you” in the third stanza is formed by these images of a squalid, degenerate city. The city is a part of this person and this shows that there is a very intense bond between the two. It is as if the failure to make meaningful connections with other people mean that the people in Eliot’s poetry have to turn to the only other presence that they are familiar with in their lives and that is the city that they…
Although an idea to hurt others may seem like a logical and good idea at first, it may turn out to do harm to the attacker alongside the victim. For example, Macbeth cannot think straight, “full of scorpions is [his] mind” (Shakespeare, 3.2.38). He uses the metaphor of scorpions of King Duncan’s murder, constantly stinging his thoughts and poisoning his mind with thoughts of more killing. After the king’s death, Macbeth feels guilt for what he has done, first being unable to keep his crime out of mind in case someone were to discover he is the culprit. Not only him, but his accomplice and wife starts to realize what she has done and it entered her subconscious sleepwalking and talking. Trying to wash the metaphorical and hallucinated blood…
Explain the Themes addressed in Plato’s allegory of the Cave, Making particular reference to the Theory of Forms…
References: Srivatava, S Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Meaning and Interpretation Retrievedon May 6, 2011 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/platos-allegory-of-the-cave-meaning-and-interpretation.html…
Eliot, T. S.. “The Hollow Men.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 13 Jul 2003. 21 Oct. 2013 .…
"This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." Chapter 2…
The valley of Ashes represents poverty and hopelessness. This location shows how the American dream has been perverted into something very dark and sinister. This is the desire of wealth at any cost and the ideal that money will make you happy. “This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke…” (Pg.26). this quote shows the affects of the modern materialistic society of New York. Everyone wants to be the rich but the poor suffer a lot due to the by-product of the capitalistic society. The by-product in this novel is the ashes. This shows how people throw out regard for other humans for the pursuit to be rich (This is very immoral). This is believed to be the American dream. On the other hand you have…
There is Myrtle Wilson's gaudy, flashy hotel paradise in which she can pretend that she is glamorous, elite, wanted and loved. She clings fiercely enough to this ragged dream to brave the righteous anger of Tom Buchanan by voicing her jealous terror that he will return to his wife. There is a desperation to her full, spirited style of living, she wants so much to escape the grey, dead land of the Valley of Ashes that she colours her life with any brightness she can find, be it broken glass or diamonds. Nick describes land she finds herself in as a wasteland, a desert, saying "this is the Valley of Ashes -- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" (page 29).…
“The purpose of communication is that it is the closest you can get to a person without actually being them”-Anonymous…
it, a great Dead Place and in it the gods walking. His father calls this a “strong dream”…
The location of the Valley of Ashes shows the waste that comes from the American lifestyle and the death of the American Dream. When traveling from East and West Egg to New York City, the characters journey through the gloomy place of the Valley of Ashes, “an area swampland that is being filled with refuse”(Baker). The Valley of Ashes is a dark, dirty place between the sparkling East and West Eggs. The valley symbolizes darkness and death: the horror that comes after the expensiveness of the American Dream. The valley is full of the waste from the Eggs, showing how the glitz and glamour of the American Dream will lead to dark times, and for some, even death. A main character that lives in the Valley of Ashes is George Wilson, “a defeated man” who has “seen his version of the American Dream become like heaps that encroach on…
In The Hollow Men, the tone is very dark and gloomy tone to show the hopelessness of hollow men as they fully realize the truth about pursuit an empty ambition. Elliot mentions, “Sightless, useless/The eyes reappear/ As the perpetual star/The hope only of empty men” to emphasizes his attitude toward hollow men as men that are helpless and confused, trying to find a way out of their misery and fear of cowardly death by finding lofty dreams that will never be achieve. According to Elliot, hollow men don’t have the morals that allow them to see “Between the desire and the spasm/ Between the potency and the existence/ Between the essence and the descent” and avoid to create their own destruction. Their own ambitions have blinded them in thinking that they are superior to everything in the world, that they can set their own rule on others to achieve the higher ambition of their own. The dark tone of the poem also represents the corruption of a man’s ambition, not only men’s hollow nature only. The depressing tone in passage three emphasizes the death of a society that is buried under false ambitions of men. The loneliness tone in the line “Is it like this/ In death’s other kingdom/ Walking alone/Form prayers to broken stone.” The tone shows Elliot regret of mankind’s tragic faith. He considers mankind, by choosing its lofty ambitions, is leading to its own…
The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic tenets that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. The purpose of this allegory defines clearly the process of enlightenment. For a man to be enlightened, he must above all desire the freedom to explore and express himself. Plato's main concept of the cave is: people see reality as the visible world when reality really is more than the visible world.…