Ray Bradbury’s timeless classic, Fahrenheit 451, is divided into three sections. The title of each section has a meaning relevant to the story. The first section being, “The Hearth and the Salamander” also has a significance. When fire was first discovered, it was used for good things, like for warmth, cooking food, etc. for those people, fire was essentially a savior, and it represented comfort and survival. Hence, the hearth also represents how fire was formerly used and seen as good. The hearth, also a traditional symbol of the home, represents Montag’s home life, his relationship with Mildred, the parlor, and Clarisse. At the start of Fahrenheit 451 the hearth, or fireplace, is know for giving warmth and goodness. In the beginning of the novel, fire is described as positive and non-destructive.…
His gift of story-telling has the destructive, yet transformative power of fire. His stories are "built" out of "fire". As one of the "four elements", fire is used to cremate Victor's deceased father. Victor's gifts of story-telling and prophecy are ways of building a fire that, ultimately, leads to a spiritual resurrection of what was, at some point, only ashes. Thus, the story connotes that story-telling is closely allied to prophecy -- especially in the case of Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Throughout the story, Thomas "builds" a fire that, symbolically, consumes the body, allowing the spirit to resurrect after death and transformation. Thomas Builds-the-Fire can be recognized as a Native American shaman. Unfortunately, the rest of the tribe does not associate much with Thomas, because of his "strange", story-telling behavior. His gift of prophecy is not only unappreciated, but it goes completely…
This fire is sacred because it summons their Goddess Athenesic. The bright light later in the night awakens her and will bring her to the Sandolios. There is lots of food being cooked and baked by the women of the tribe for the very important day. Later in the afternoon, stories are told in the Spanish language. Stories are told about Athenesic, the history of the tribe, great adventures of past heroes and many…
Victor almost seems to admire Thomas, because Thomas doesn’t care what other people think about him. Although Victor wants to escape from the standards of the white people, he still conforms to their culture because he is afraid of ridicule. However, Thomas doesn’t let other peoples’ opinions affect him, and Victor is jealous of his nonchalant attitude towards other people. “Everyone has dreams about flying. Thomas flew,” (70). Thomas has confidence in himself, which is something that most everyone else in the reservation seems to lack. When Victor sees Thomas’s confidence, he begins avoiding Thomas, perhaps because of jealousy, or possibly because he is afraid of what other people might think about Victor if they see him with Thomas. When Thomas and Victor are returning to Spokane Reservation in “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” Thomas says, “I know you aren’t going to treat me any differently than before. Your friends would give me too much shit about it,” (74). Victor is too caught up in the modern world to possibly understand the importance of Thomas’s stories, and Thomas understands Victor’s limitations. However, at the end of “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” Victor agrees to listen to one of Thomas’s stories just once. This symbolizes Victor’s step backwards towards the traditions and stories of Native Americans in the…
In Dagoberto Gilb’s story “Al in Phoenix” the narrator feels that Al is treating him unfairly. The narrator believes that Al thinks of him as a guy that is living loose and not bothering to get a job (Gilb 75-81). The narrator being the inductive thinker thought that Al was being unfair to him because of the way he was being treated. Al on the other hand, uses deductive thinker because he just based his facts about the truth. Al based that the only reason the narrator is at the garage getting his car fixed was because of it having problems and probably because he had the image of the narrator of being a living loose type of person that worries about every single little thing.…
In the clearing in the woods, there are four trees that are on fire. On page 354, they are described as “four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting.” This structure builds…
The imagery of fire in Edwidge Danticat 's short story “A Wall of Fire Rising” possesses a very powerful meaning and also continually changes throughout the entirety of the story. Fire was a very sacred thing to have, especially during the time this story has taken place.…
In the story ‘’The Road’’ by Cormac Mccarthy, fire is often used as a symbol, and fire is represent survival. From the beginning of human’s civilization, fire has been using by human for live and survive, and the fire in the story was not an exception. In the path of the father and son, there were many obstacles that stand against them, yet they did not give up to live and fire is become their assistance. An example for fire became a symbol of survival was when it states, ’’The night they camped in a ravine and built a fire against a small stone bluff and ate their last food’’(page 80). Fire is what comes to ignite their will, it produces flame to warm their food and keep their life going. Fire also is a symbol of the immortal will when it said, ‘’ They slept through the night in their exhaustion and in the morning the fire was dead and black on the ground’’(page 93), ‘’He got a fire going and walked out to the edge of the woodlot and stood looking over the country. (page 93-94). When the fire of hope slaked, it awoke again; it is mean that the fire of hope will be endlessly protected to father and son.…
This outing has influenced my view of St. Louis in many ways. Before this outing, I did not know that St. Louis was home to a large number of refugees. As mentioned in class, most of my time is spent in the SLU bubble, so I have never been exposed to the different ethnic cultures within the city. I enjoyed learning about the diversity within St. Louis, and I am excited to explore new ethnic restaurants. Also, this fact about St. Louis resonated with me, due to the fact that Des Moines is also home to many Bosnian refugees. I attended grade school with children who had traveled to America to escape the Bosnian Civil war. In fact, there is a community of Bosnian refugees that live a few streets away from me. As a child, I did not understand the classifications of a refugee or why they choose…
Colorado joined the United States of America on August 1, 1876 as the 38th state. In 1806, Colorado was discovered by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike during an expedition to determine the southwestern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. After an awe-inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak in 1893, Katharine Lee Bates wrote the lyrics to “America the Beautiful”.“In 1972, Colorado rejected the International Olympic Committee's invitation to serve as host for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games because its voters opposed the use of state tax revenue to finance the games. It is the only state ever to reject an Olympic invitation to host the event.” History.com…
I really enjoyed this movie. It was interesting to see how the characters interacted with each other, especially Joe and Andrew. Since the beginning of the movie Joe strongly states his hatred towards homosexuals and his fear of contracting AIDs over a simple hand shake with Andrew and with Andrew just being in the same room as him. When I saw this scene Joe’s ignorance angered me and then he went as far as going to see a doctor that same afternoon and although the doctor told him he could only contract AIDS through bodily fluids he still wasn’t convinced. Though, when the doctor went to perform a HIV test he refused and left the office. If he was so concerned about contracting the disease why wouldn’t he want to get tested, its as if he is happier living in ignorance and not knowing. Because, if god forbid he did have something he would have to face reality and deal with it, though by not knowing he is keeping it at bay which is the same thing he likes to do with homosexuals and those who have AIDS. Even though Joe was homophobic he later decides to defend Andrew in court, this was very interesting to me and I still do not completely understand why a character who is supposed to be homophobic decided to defend an openly gay man, Joe stated his reasoning to be because the law had been broken and it doesn’t matter how he feels towards gays but if the law is broken justice must be served for anyone. This to me was an admirable quality for the character that he is willing to set aside his personal feelings in order to provide what he knows is justice. I never once really thought of people who are infected with HIV/AIDS to be discriminated against because of their illness. I think the main reason why people are so quick to discriminate is because people aren’t properly educated on the illness and how exactly it can be contracted, I do believe that in today’s society many more people are knowledgeable about this issue but I’m sure there are still gaps. I found it…
Wally Obermeyer deftly balanced his office keys and a large printout of forecasting data as he wheeled his mountain bike through the front entrance of Sport Obermeyer's headquarters in Aspen, Colorado. It was a crisp November morning in 1992; Wally paused for just a moment to savor the fresh air and beauty of the surrounding mountains before closing the door behind him. Wally had arrived at work early to start one of the most critical tasks Sport Obermeyer, a fashion skiwear manufacturer, faced each year—committing to specific production quantities for each skiwear item the company would offer in the coming year's line. The task required carefully blending analysis, experience, intuition, and sheer speculation: this morning Sport Obermeyer would start to make firm commitments for producing its 1993-1994 line of fashion skiwear with scant information about how the market would react to the line. In fact, no clear indications had yet emerged about how end-consumers were responding to the company's current 1992-1993 line. Despite the attraction of waiting for market information, Wally knew that further procrastination would delay delivery to retailers and that late delivery would reduce the exposure consumers would have to Obermeyer products.…
The story “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona” written by Sherman Alexie includes someone being an other. Otherness is represented in this work by a community of people of the same ethnicity not liking and ignoring someone else because of a behavior they have. By reading this story, I would assume that the author’s perspective on othering is that those you other may be the ones you need one day. The other in this work is Thomas Builds-The-Fire. Thomas is a man that lives on an Indian reservation with other Indians. Thomas is able to see into the future and talk to animals. This is what makes him an other. Thomas tells stories based on his visions and dreams. He tends to repeat the stories over and over. People hate to see him coming because they think he is crazy. Everybody in the community has made him an other and do not talk to him. “Nobody talks to Thomas anymore because he told the same damn stories over and over again” (Alexie, pg3). Victor is a…
The first prop we learn of used as a symbol is the poplar trees that surround the Keller home, this symbolises the enclosed nature of Joe’s mind, his inability to see further than anything but the business and his family. A tree planted in the Keller’s…
Based on real experiences, Jack London’s stories of high adventures have been appealing to millions of readers worldwide. With naturalism mode of fiction and a common topic - vigorous nature - in his works, the great author always took great care to depict his characters and the struggles with nature to expose man’s qualities in formidable situations. “To build a fire” is a good example. By creating a context of severe weather with white frost dominating throughout the story, Jack London was successful in portraying his protagonist Tom Vincent with all positive and negative qualities.…