Guin's Symbolism Of The Martyr Child example essay topic

came to her house for her taxes, Faulkner describes how the house and Ms. Emily looks. 'only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores', this statement explains how the house gives off such a depressing mood. 'Her skeleton was small and spare;', this line shows us how her appearance showcases death also. When Ms. Emily was younger, her deceased father used to force away all the young men that was in love with her. The summer after her father death, she fell in love with a Yankee by the name of Homer Barron. Everyone in the town was whispering about their relationship and wondering if they were married.

After a while they stop seeing Homer and decided that they got married. The townspeople then proceeds by saying that Ms. Emily then died a while after. They didn't know she was sick. After they buried her, they knew that there was one room that wasn't opened. So after they decently buried her they went to see upon the room. When they opened the room they was greeted by great amounts of dust.

They also explain that the 'room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. ' They also saw a man's collar, tie, suit, shoes, and discarded socks. 'Then shockingly, laying right there in the bed was the man. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.

Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.'s onny's Blues by James Baldwin Frequently anthologized, James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues' tells the story of two brothers who come to understand each other. More specifically, it highlights, through its two main characters, the two sides of the African-American experience. The narrator has assimilated into white society as much as possible but still feels the pain of institutional racism and the limits placed upon his opportunity. Conversely, Sonny has never tried assimilate and must find an outlet for the deep pain and suffering that his status as permanent outsider confers upon him. Sonny channels his suffering into music, especially bebop jazz and the blues, forms developed by African-American musicians.

'Sonny's Blues' was first published in 1957 and was collected in Baldwin's 1965 book, Going to Meet the Man. The story also has biblical implications. Baldwin became a street preacher early in his life, and religious themes appear throughout his writings. In 'Sonny's Blues,' Baldwin uses the image from the book of Isaiah of the 'cup of trembling' to symbolize the suffering and trouble that Sonny has experienced in his life. At the end of the story, while Sonny is playing the piano, Sonny's brother watches a barmaid bring a glass of Scotch and milk to the piano, which 'glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling. ' As Sonny plays, the cup reminds his brother of all of the suffering that both he and Sonny have endured.

His brother finally understands that it is through music that Sonny is able to turn his suffering into something worthwhile. The Greatest Man in the World by Thurber the time is 1937, Jack Smurch accepts the challenge to be the first person to fly solo around the world without stopping. Reporters track down the story of his life, and find that those who know him, including his mother, view him as a rotten apple. Smurch succeeds in his flight, but the powers-that-be realize the pilot is too balky and unpresentable to be made into a national hero, so they dispose of him. Once safely dead, the young lout can be made into a hero fit for public consumption. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Le Guin She leads off taking us through a beautifully constructed utopian society, called Omelas, asking periodically, if we agree or disagree with her construction of that society.

The citizens are happy and joyous, rejoicing in the pristine eloquence of the city they created. They have no enemies, no military, no crime, and no guilt. A child appears half way into the story. The child is a martyr and the child is necessary for Omelas's economy, happiness, and existence.

We can almost place a religious type figure like Jesus Christ in place of the child in this story. This single child suffers for the benefit of the whole. This is similar to Christ's suffering on the cross for all of our sins. In order for us to understand the story, we must delve deeply into Le Guin's symbolism of the martyr child and discover what exactly she is suggesting to us. 'It is because of the child that they are so gentle with children,' and the child's room contains two mops and a bucket, which possibly indicates two mops which could make up a cross and the bucket which could be the holy grail (406). The child is "afraid of the mops".

The narrator says that the child finds the mops " [... ] horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still there" (406). Many depictions of Jesus on the cross in films have that famous scene where he doubts his destiny, and closes his eyes and questions his higher purpose. The child knows the mops represent his higher purpose and the mops will not go away even when the child closes his eyes. Similarly, Jesus while on the cross had guards watching over him so he could not escape.

The child is kept locked in his tool room and is not aloud to leave by the ones watching over him. In addition, the room in which the child must remain is " [... ] about three paces long and two paces wide" (406). The word "paces", an old measurement term, used in the Bible, describe the room. This martyr child produces the gifts of greatness for this city. The details, which are hazy, as to why the child is kept locked up forever are given to the reader when the remarkable statement which follows: " [... ] in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed" (407). This remarkable acknowledgment clearly shows the child is directly connected economically to the society.

Le Guin gives us some further clues in the opening two paragraphs that this society is wealthy. This city is rich. She tells us that the people of Olemas live in " [... ] comfort, luxury, exuberance, etc [... ]" (404). Le Guin confuses the reader saying "Or they could have none of that: it doesn't matter" (404). Yet it does matter that we get a sense that the citizens of Olemas are financially well off.

Here, Le Guin gives the reader some hints. The horse's manes that are braided for the "Festival of Summer" have streamers the colors of silver, gold and green. These all are the colors one thinks about when one visualizes colors of money. The Eighteen mountain peaks that surround the city of Olemas burn under the sunlight and sky with "white-gold", a reference to expensive semi-precious metal sold at jewelry stores (403). These little hints and many others take us on a journey to find out how this analogy of the child makes this society wealthy. There are no character developments.

The child's true purpose is never disclosed. And the antithesis of the 'greatest good' of Utilitarianism is one group or a single person must be a 'martyr' for the benefit of others. Contradictions are scattered all over like a jigsaw puzzle out of the box. Le Guin hides her message well.

Her point was that we are supposed to get angry that no one in this society tries to make the child's circumstances better - or fights to free this child. We really do not need a martyr. This is her hidden suggestion to us. She sums this up beautifully, at the end of the story, by first, telling us that "I cannot describe it at all" which is her feelings about no one helping the child. Second, by pointing out that the ones who walk away from Omelas are just as guilty as the ones who stay. "They leave Omelas, they walk away into the darkness, and they do not come back" (407).

Two Kinds Amy Tanning-me's story also deals with a clash between a mother's faith and belief in persistence versus a daughter's inner sense of futility. When she tells her reflection in the mirror one night that she will not allow her mother to change her, that she will not try to be what she is not, she asserts her will in a strong but negative manner. At that moment, she recalls, she saw the "prodigy side" of herself in the anger and determination that were in her face. This comment suggests that "prodigy" is really one's will, one's desire to succeed. Suyuan's inflated expectations and excessive pressure backfire, contributing to Jing-me's failure to achieve what she might have achieved if left to herself.

Yet, at the same time, the disastrous piano recital also testifies to the power of Suyuan's love for Jing-me, and to her faith in her daughter's ability. The immense energy that Suyuan devotes to the search for Jing-me's "inner prodigy"-cleaning for her piano teacher, saving up for a used piano-demonstrates that her motivations lie deeper than the promise of bragging rights at church each Sunday. At the end of her narrative, Jing-me adds that Suyuan offered her the piano for her thirtieth birthday, a gesture that shows that Suyuan understands the reasons behind Jing-me's refusal to play: Jing-me did not regard the piano lessons as something she did for herself. By offering the piano to her daughter as a gift, Suyuan gives Jing-me the opportunity to try again without feeling as though she is doing so for someone else's benefit. Although Jing-me says she did not take the piano right away, she is comforted by Suyuan's expression of faith in her ability to do what she wanted. Sadly, Jing-me did not understand until after Suyuan's death that her conflicts with her mother did not arise from any cruel expectations on Suyuan's part but from Suyuan's love and faith in her-even when Jing-me failed, or even purposefully failed, to live up to that faith.

Jing-me comes to this understanding when she sits at the recently tuned piano, Suyuan's peace offering, and tries to play Schumann's "Pleading Child" once again. When she plays the piece on the facing page, "Perfectly Contented", and realizes that the two are "two halves of the same song", Jing-me is articulating the fact that she has journeyed psychologically from a place of pained longing for her mother's acceptance to a place of understanding why her mother pushed her so hard: the pleading child has come to a place of contentment, though the path she has taken may be littered with regrets..