The literature is best focused on conveying the change in tone through the imagery of the setting. Their is an initial representation of Myop enjoying a summer day, enjoying play in the outdoors. "She had explored the woods behind the house many times" (14). Even more compelling is the description of the smells of the air, the beauty of the ferns and leaves, etc. However, a 'break' can be identified as Myop was returning from home, "the air was damp, the silence close and deep" (22). This reveals a darkened tone in correlation with a dreadful mood for the audience. In essence, the literature is now resembling dark overtones, it is no longer the giddy-aspiring story of a summer play time.
The revelation of the skeleton to living, breathing Myop is also significant. This cheery, energetic girl has stumbled on the lifeless remains of an apparent human suicide as suggested by the fraying noose. In this case, it is evident that the tone of the passage has shifted to complete darkness, revealing, revealing the sadness of this unfortunate tragedy. The transition of tone and mood is now complete, it is up to readers to determine meaning.
Finally, the symbolism of the flower reveals an important thematic approach. It is true that Myop walked and skipped with a multitude of flowers that she had been picking before. Now upon the death-like scene of this skeleton, she finds another wild pink rose. However, this rose is in no ordinary place, because it has happened to grow through the rotted remains of the noose. Myop picked this Rose up to discover the noose. The noose in combination with the removal of the last rose reveals a bleak and darkened void. The demise of any remaining positive emotions from Myop now fills with emptiness from the lack of flowers, to reveal not devastation, but sadness. The emptiness of the area, the lack of flowers, all promotes the true nature of this passage as one of tragedy rather than comedy.
Reflection
My first written prose essay has revealed many areas for improvement. It is important to understand that literature contains much ambiguity, which is both a great thing for readers, but a toilsome problem for AP students taking the AP test. The unfortunate nature of these tests is to provide one person's interpretation (the testmaker's) as the correct answer to a problem. However, it is also important to note that the essay can contain slightly more ambiguity in regards to AP students interpretation of passages and short stories. With this in mind, I would personally like to address three main problems that I possess with writing essays. These include one, being able to understand the underlying meaning of a story, two, examining the complexity of the passage, and three, being able to successfully interpret the author's choice in certain analytical and technical aspects of writing like diction or imagery. The first major problem that I have is clearly and concisely identifying the underlying meaning. I find that in many literary works, there is more than one meaning that can be written about. In this particular essay, the loss of innocence was the first and most common theme identified in the essay. Prejudice was also the second most common identified theme or main idea in student's analysis. However, I wrote about the tragedy of the individual. I believe that I selected this thematic approach when I realized that the death of the man, and Myop's finding of the noose with the subsequent ending of the summer had ultimately highlighted the tragic ending of both the man's death a physical tragedy, and the girl's discovery of the man's body, an emotional tragedy. I remember asking another student how they had determined loss of innocence as a main idea. They had stated that it only seemed obvious. This led me to think, if every one else had determined this to be the main idea of the essay, what could I have done to interpret the essay so differently? With literature, meaning can be ambiguous and tragedy of the individual is not necessarily incorrect, but I believe that I don't possess the same analytical skills as that of my classmates. My goal in this matter would be to find new ways of analyzing meaning, and or identify different types of meaning that exist in literature. I could do this by researching new thematic approaches and meanings, and while reading prose passages, practice identifying similarly related themes.
The second problem that I had was in identifying complexity. To some degree, I was able to contrast the symbolism of the noose and the pink rose. I identified the opposing natures of both, one for life and one for death. I also was able to describe the transitioning of imagery into darker tones. However, I was not able to place specific names on these to support my claims. I had been able to describe the complexity, but unable to name it. A great example was the transitioning of the author's use of pastoral imagery to that of gothic imagery. I also missed the symbolic interpretation of the flower as innocence, representing the frailty of beauty. A great goal to have is to continuously involve myself in studying different forms of complexity such as the paradox, parallel structure, and irony for a few examples. With the help of a new analytical approach to the meaning, it should make grasping situations of complexity like irony in this case, much easier to identify and describe.
The third problem I had was being able to concisely describe the effects of certain rhetorical devices and or technical aspects of the passage. The only way to combat this dilemma is to continuously study new forms of rhetoric and devices that may be used to communicate meaning and complexity. My goal will be to learn about three new rhetorical devices or technical skills each week. I should be able to have a variety of tools to identify these devices for future essays.
Nice post it will helpful for readers motivational essay
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