True Meaning

Author’s Note: This is a text analysis piece on Fablehaven written by Brandon Mull.

Symbolism is shown throughout many things; life, movies and books. One book that symbolism flows through is the book Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull. He uses many symbols to represent different aspects throughout the novel.

Like many books, Fablehaven has the use of light and darkness to represent good and evil. Good is represented by light because they are trying to save the world, unlike the evil who is trying to plunge the world into darkness, hatred and chaos. These are common symbols used not only throughout books, but in movies and even in real life.

Light and Darkness are not the only things representing good and evil throughout the book. The evil are wicked things like demons which is common, because demons are usually taken as evil beings and they are definitely not different here. The good is represented by gentler things such as, humans, fairies, and unicorns. This is also common because fairies and unicorns are generally taken as the calm and helpful creatures.

The sides were not the only things that had symbolism. In the story there were artifacts and some of them even had their own symbols. One of the artifacts was a cat-shaped teapot which would heal any wound unless they are dead. It is shaped like a cat because in Egypt the goddess of Cat, Bast, had once been known as a deity representing protection. Another artifact was a horn of a unicorn but this horn you could drink out of and if you did you would stop aging. The artifact was a unicorn’s horn because a unicorn is considered magical and in some fables a unicorn is immortal, so it was chosen to represent the artifact that gave eternal life.

Symbols are shown throughout everything, whether it’s in life, a movie, or in a book. Fablehaven is just one of the many books that show the use of symbolism.  After you see the symbolism in Fablehaven you will see more aspects of symbolism throughout life.

Wrinkle in Time: Fighters

In the book there were many people that were fighters and Gandhi was one of them. He was probably chosen to be one of the fighters because he had many accomplishments beforehand. He led India  into independence but he did it without fighting so that that there was not much bloodshed. He fought for the civil rights in India. Another thing he believed in was ahimsa. That means to do no harm. He would not want the thing to do any harm so he would try and stop it. He would have probably done so by reasoning with it because of his virtue. If he succeeded, which he could because that was why he was chosen in the first place, he would save the universe without having to sacrifice fighters or stars in order to do so.

Another great person would be Abraham Lincoln. He had led America to being a slave-free country and he was a great president. He had accomplished many great things in life. He had made the emancipation proclamation and also the thirteenth amendment. He had also led the Union to victory against the Confederate. Also there are some stories where Abraham Lincoln had defeated vampires who were helping the Confederates. Also he had preserved the spirit of the Union after they had defeated the Confederate since they were sad because of all the bloodshed. All of these reasons are why he would be a great fighter against the dark thing.

Not Everything is as it Seems

Author’s Note: This is a analysis of the symbolism shown throughout the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

In The Lottery things are not as they might seem. The lottery is a prize given every year to someone, but the prize is a not one you want to win. When you win everyone else has to throw rocks until you die. In this twisted story they use a lot of symbolism to show the meaning of things.

There are many items used in the lottery. In the lottery, the thing used to pick who wins is a large black box which has been worn out and splintered. The box has been used for a long time so it represents the dark history of the lottery and why the tradition of the lottery should wear out of use just like the box has.

The dark box is not the only thing has symbolism. The prize of winning is death and I think the author made it like that to show that not all things are as they might seem. Also I think it represents that sometimes you have to let go of something because the town is not letting go of their tradition of the lottery which keeps getting people killed every year.

Not everything is at it seems. Darkness can be hidden underneath anything. Just like it was in the lottery where winning seems like losing. Throughout it there were many things representing the darkness and symbolism was used to show it. 

A Clean, Well-lighted Place-Hemingway Story vs. Film

The story and movie were similar but had many differences. In the movie much of the symbolism was lost in the story the old man sat in the only shaded area which showed despair and loneliness while in the movie that had the old man in the light probably so that we could see him better. Also the people who acted in it made it different since they were Irish or Scottish. Their accent made it difficult to understand what they were saying. All that had made a difference.

While the movie did not portray the story very well it had its advantages. The music in the movie had let us imagine the sadness much better than the story. But that was all that was good about the movie. If the adaptation hadn't lost much of the symbolism and also had different actors it would have been better.

Analysis of A Clean and Well-lighted Place-Hemingway

Author's Note: This is a Analysis of A Clean and Well-lighted Place-Hemingway. I am talking about 2 waiters in the story.

The two waters represent life. The younger waiter shows how the inexperienced(young people) show more rage and would lose their cool faster while the older waiter shows that the experience(old people) are more calm and have more wisdom. In this case the younger waiter lost his cool with the old man and got enraged about how he wouldn't leave so the young waiter made him leave and was talking about how the old man should have died. The older waiter knew why the old man was like that and he felt for him and wanted to let him stay to drink in the quiet place they call the cafe.

What Will Happen?

Author’s note: This is a prediction piece on the short novel Ransom of the Red Chief by O. Henry. It is on what will happen after that book has ended.

Mice allergic to cheese, policemen getting arrested are both examples of irony. Another example is this short novel. In Ransom of the Red Chief two people kidnap a kid, but soon find out the kid has them trapped. They ask for a ransom of money to the parents but the parents soon decline and offer them to take the kid off their hands for a price. Afterwards they run getting as far away from the kid as possible. That was where the short novel ended but the story does not have to end there as well.

After the two men run they will split up. One of the men will star earning a honest living while the other keep on kidnapping. Without the help from his partner the kidnapper keeps on failing. He loses all of his money soon and finally gets arrested for kidnapping. The partner hears of this and bails him and they start earning a honest living together continue the friendship they had.

Why I predict this is because the man who want to start earning a honest living was the one who suffered more from the kid. He did not want to go through that ever again so he quit and wanted to live honestly. The other man did not learn his lesson so he kept on trying to kidnap. He could not do it with just himself and fails and loses all of his money. He got arrested because after he became broke, the sheer desperation for money and made him less careful. The partner however still thought of his friend and he was lonely. He wanted his friend back and when he heard he got arrested he bailed him so that they could start living honestly together.

Background knowledge on what pain, desperation, and friendship can do to a person also helped predict this. When someone goes through lots of suffering because of something they would want to quit doing that. That is what happened to the person who suffered from the kid. He had enough of it and quit. Also when someone gets desperate they don’t think straight and they make mistakes. That is what happened to the person who lost all of his money. He got desperate and finally got caught kidnapping. Friendship can make people go out of their way to help their friends. That is the person who was making a honest living bailed his friend so that they could be with each other again.

That is what I predict happens to the kidnappers. The background knowledge helped predict what would happen because without it we would not know what their actions could have been. Pain, desperation, and friendship are all things that happened in the prediction and knowing how those have been a part of other books and movies helps. 

The Power of the Lion(Figurative Analysis)

Author’s note: This is an analysis on my lion poem. It is about the figurative language used in it.

Figurative language helps us imagine the words on the writing just like it did in this piece. All the uses of figurative language let us imagine the words clearly. It also helped make it fun in the process. Instead of having the lion be explained boringly, the lion was explained colorfully. The tone is praising because I am praising the lion for all the power he has. However the mood showed the readers that lion was a little bit cocky to have himself being explained like this.

Many types of Figurative language was used in this piece. Similes and metaphors helped us compare the lion to other things to know what the lion is like more precisely. Personification was to show how he was in a more fun way. Hyperboles helped us imagine his strength compared to the other animals. Onomatopoeia helped show us how he sounded. The allusion used reminded us of memories of a movie if we had seen it. Lastly the  alliteration helped the beat of the poem instead of having it be in a monotone voice. All these figurative languages hook us into reading the poem because we will like it more because of it.