Drowning Versus The Trap Perspectives on Similar Events in Poetry and Prose - Literature Essay Samples

The poem, by Sid Marty, titled Drowning, and the third chapter, titled The Trap, in his novel Men for the Mountains, both deal with the same event of a man drowning; however, they each come at it in different ways borne of necessity from the differing structures and restrictions of the respective genres. A poem is limited by the amount of detail and information that it can convey. Instead of using volumes of words, poetry layers carefully selected scenes and specific diction, uses the repetition of words and sounds, and employs subtle shifts in perspective, to create a narrative that has emotional depth and speaks on many levels. The poem Drowning stays in the present moment, with all the action taking place over about a thirty-minute time span, and keeps its spotlight primarily on the event of the drowning. Fast-paced and impressionistic, it moves from moment to moment in bursts of images and in chronological time. Whereas the poem places its emphasis on the present and narrows its focus to one singular event, the novel is able to expand an event placing it in a wider context. The sheer volume of materials which can be worked with means that the author is able to freely draw from many timelines as well as points of view. He is able to combine many seemingly unrelated stories to build comprehensive concepts of life, death, and mercy. He can use foreshadowing to slowly build tension, let the tone range from the humorous to the horrific, and while playing with the roles, and role reversals, of the hunter and the hunted, he can explore the idea of what is Mans place in Nature. One of the many tools available in poetry is the layering of specific words, contrasts, and images, to create mood as well as tell a narrative. The title of the poem, Drowning, not only tells the reader in one word what is happening in terms of action and focus but it also creates an image of helplessness in the face of a force stronger than ourselves. The opening scene of the summers day when everything is waiting/ lazily for the moment and Gordons child [is] loose/ between the old mares hoofs, apparently invulnerable, are layered together to create a mood of subtle vulnerability (162). The first line of the third stanza, this mood is broken, disrupts the innocent moment between humans and nature by contrasting it against the news that someone fell in/ the Kicking Horse River (162). Now the action comes fast and furious with the use of the words suddenly, waving, and yelled, to show the change in the mood and situation (162). The fourth stanza completes the break in tone with the di stressing transformation of each of the characters.The old mare who had been considering now jumped away mad and the child, loose and apparently invulnerable in one moment, has her laughter broken into crying in the next (162).The words in this stanza convey action and anxiety, sadness, anger, and fear. Besides contrast and juxtaposition, the poem also uses consonance and repetition to reinforce imagery and mood. As the men approach the scene of the accident they are moved into a new setting of unnatural destruction and death.The blasted walls, block the traffic, with rockfalls(162).Using consonance these words with their heavy and repeating b and r sounds, emphasize the heaviness of the rocks and create a feeling of struggle and frustration. The final lines rockfalls / delays the smearing of lesser mammals not only introduces the imagery of violent and unnatural death, as well as the word fall, but it also uses the repeating s sound which brings to mind the slippery sliding slope and a feeling of falling (162).There is a noticeable repetition of the word down that echoes through three consecutive stanzas. The third line of the fifth stanza, down that highway, the first line of the sixth stanza, down the big hill, and the first line in the seventh stanza, down to the whirlpool (162 ). The repeating of the word down three times in succession emphasizes the word and gives a sensation of going lower into the depths, or, of dropping.We feel the change from higher to lower as it traces the flight of the someone who fell (162). Whereas the novel easily moves back and forth in time and space, as well as shifts in perception and point of view, this poem takes place in the present, moves generally in chronological order, and is mostly told from the authors point of view.There are however subtle shifts from this structure.In the last stanza of part one the author becomes deeply aware of the victims brothers internal state.The phrase Knowing he/ must tell it to himself/ for many years brings the present acknowledgement of his brothers death and pushes it into the future (163).The following, and final line, Must get it right, encapsulates the heavy responsibility, as well as the burden of grief, that the brother is feeling in this moment (163).Another shift comes in the eighth stanza of part two when the dead man has been dragged out of the water and laid down on the shore.The narrator now becomes aware of the victims internal emotional state and describes him as grief struck, surprised/ to find the end of his li fe (165).This shift not only connects the characters on an emotional level but it creates humanizing bond between them as victim, witness, and rescuer, all acknowledge the moment of death.The last stanza is used to contrast this connection with the dis-connection of the curious: the previously described bovine tourists, who gawk, and fool with zoom lenses, hoping to catch a glimpse of death (162-4). This final image creates a sense of bitter irony, hinting that most people stand on the brink of life watching, without participating, without understanding, thinking this distance makes them safe from the reality of their own mortality (164). Whereas the poem is concentrated and specific, the novel is far-reaching and rambling.There is a slow and meditated weaving together of events which is used to change the tone, and the meaning, of the message.The first set of stories introduce the concept of, and accompanying feelings towards, things which are out of their natural place.Marty uses gentle humor to broach this subject, such as using stories about tourists who interrupt his bath-time, coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress, and, having his home invaded by mice.The unbearable [and] unbelievable tourist, the Touri Ignoramus, is used to represent Man, who is disconnected from, and has no understanding of, the power of Nature, and the forces of Life and Death (68-9).Marty is able to create a metaphoric link between the tourist who drowns and the invading mouse who falls into his water trap, set up back at his cabin.Slowly building his connection of concepts he uses the technique of foreshadowingwhen he writes all that is needed to spring it is a little curiosity: something that both mice and men possess in abundancethe drowning pool waited below, merciless and serene thus linking the microcosm to the macrocosm and touching on the theme of the connectedness of all of Life (74).Unlike the poem which keeps the drowning as the main event, the novel uses the idea of the trap to not only address this concept of something, yet out of place, but it also uses it to talk about the reversals of role between the hunter and the hunted (74).Man, who normally places himself into the role of the powerful hunter is suddenly, by turn of Fortune, the hunted, trapped under a falling log, and ironically caught in the same trap in which he had killed a bear the day before.This story touches not only on the power of life and death but also on the idea of mercy towards all living things.All of these stories of traps, death, and mercy, are leading up to the tourist who falls into the trap set by the anthropomorphized Na ture. Unlike the poem, Marty spends very little time describing the dynamic, and violent, power of the river, simply stating that [anyone] who fell into that pool would be battered in the chaotic swirl of rocks and debris (79).Although the story and the poem mention the ghoulishness of the people who are eager to see the dead mans body, Marty spends much more time detailing the rescue effort itself and humanizing the experience by concentrating on the details of the rescuers. This changes the overall tone of the narrative from bitter to bittersweet.Instead of targeting the violent force of the river Marty strives to spiritualize and anthropomorphize it.He describes the way the water roars, murmurs, and chuckles to itself like a green living spirit (79).He continues to focus on the hypnotic forces of water and gravity and writes that the roar of water washed over [his] senses like a charmthe vanishing point of half-sensed desire—Thanatos, the God of last wishes. (80).Marty has the sp ace to ponder What draws people to the very lip of a precipice to gaze down under the spell of gravityreaching out a tentative hand to feel the cold force of the water(80).Rather than focus, as the poem does, on the momentary action of the man who falls, Marty asks the big question of Why, and, he makes connections between the macro and the micro, between the spiritual and the physical.He writes, Then I knew that the ledge was the pan of a trap, but what motive lay behind its creation?I thought, then, that there is a power in the universe that plays with men, the way that men play with mice (80).It is not so much the mans [sudden] death that happened as casually as the death of a fly swiped by a horses tail but the fact that even after this tragic event occurred birds sang, people waved hello as they drove to their summer places, children, their faces bright flowers, waved at the wardens who waved back, hello, hello.' (85).Rather than play up the indifference and ignorance of man, M arty instead emphasizes the idea that, by being connected to our own mortality, and the fragility of life, we are able to show mercy and compassion for all life.When he gets home, there is a victim in his water trap, a small figure slowly [circling] the metal canyon of the drowning pool and even though [it is] beyond the mouses comprehension, as well as its experience, to expect mercy from a predator it [swims] on, in defiance of the giant shape that [looms] over it [refusing] to acknowledge the rule of the trap (86).As he spares the life of the mouse, and scoops the small survivor out to dry in front of the stove, the narrative ends on hopeful note rather than one of bitter irony (86). The genre of novel writing allows the author the freedom to expand settings and characters, to draw from many moods and timelines, to ask, and answer, big questions and concepts, as well as to use foreshadowing and bring together many seemingly unrelated stories with which to make his point. He may use as many words as he wants and create poetic images but the author must adhere to the rules of English and punctuation. In contrast, the genre of poetry is very limited in size but more open in structure.The author of a poem can ignore the rules of English, leaving out all punctuation, capitalizing for emphasis, and using rhythm and sounds to create mood and meaning.T he poem is shorter than the novel but demands interpretation and awareness to detail; by accepting the separate genres of these works, a reader can appreciate the slow build and connectivity of the novel as well as the clever and exacting combination of words, sounds, and spaces, that are created by the poet. Works Cited Marty, Sid. Drowning, from Headwaters (Toronto: The Canadian Publishers, McClelland and Stewart, C. 1973), pp.82-84. Reprinted in English 306 The Literature of Work Study Guide Jolene Armstrong (2009) pp.162-64 Marty, Sid. Men for the Mountains Copyright 1978 by Sid Marty, Published in Canada by McCleeland Stewart Inc. 1978. Emblem edition published 2008 pp.68-86

Compare and Contrast Essay on Race and Ethnicity

Along with population on our planet Earth is growing increasingly as well as becoming more diverse, the terms such as ethnicity and race are thrown around all the time. Many people tend to think of race and ethnicity as one and the same. How is race distinct from ethnicity? What are the differences and similarities of those two? How can we make sure the terms are used in a proper way? This article can help you to define those two. Often, the words are used interchangeably as they have some similarities,- thus members of the public remain unclear about the meaning of these two terms. Therefore, very few of us accurately describe the difference between ethnicity and race, simply because we tend to lump them into the same definition. While the dictionary can represent each of these words to be highly similar, there are differences. Like the difference between gender and sex, or culture and society, the difference between race and ethnicity is a tricky one. Let’s start with definition of those two terms and proceed further to the differences and similarities between them. What Is Race? In biology, races are genetically distinct populations within the same species. It can include skin color, skin tone, eye and hair color, as well as a tendency toward developing certain diseases. It is not something that can be changed or disguised. Race does not have customs or globally learned behavior. Race can be used to describe other elements of biological and regional differences. Race generally refers to broad groupings of humanity, especially the ones associated with an origin in one particular hemisphere, continent, or subcontinent. Racial categories result from a shared genealogy due to geographical isolation. In the modern world this isolation has been broken down and racial groups have mixed. There are somewhere between three and seven races—its impossible to say for sure, because the process of lumping people together like this is arbitrary and not at all objective. Racial prejudice remains a continuing problem throughout the world. However, there are fewer race-based conflicts in the 21st century than in the past. For example, the conflict between white and African-American people in the U.S., especially during the civil rights movement. What Is Ethnicity? Ethnicity, on the other hand, is the word used to describe the cultural identity of a person. These identities can include language, religion, nationality, ancestry, dress, and customs. Some ethnic groups also share linguistic traits, while others share a common group history but not a common language or religion. The members of a particular ethnicity tend to identify with each other based on these shared cultural traits. However, the ethnic groups distinguish themselves differently from one time period to another. They typically seek to define themselves but also are defined by the stereotypes of dominant groups. At one time it was easy to tell one’s ethnicity, but as the global conglomeration offered more choice and change (as well as borrowing styles and ideas from other cultures), it has become impossible to identify ethnicity based solely on distinctive features. Ethnicity is a narrower category and more monolithic. Many ethnic groups share the same language, traditional religion, a homeland, and other common aspects of culture. Ethnicity gives us room to change because we can reject our own and embrace another. You can move from one region to another and assimilate your beliefs, actions and customs to identify with that ethnic orientation. Such changes in some cases provoke people to the conflicts (sometimes such conflicts have even an ethnic nationalism background). Thus, we can see the examples of brutal conflicts took place often between ethnic groups (which have existed throughout history) across the world. For example, the conflict between Tamil and Sinhalese populations in Sri Lanka, or the Hutu and Tutsi people in Rwanda. Difference Between Race And Ethnicity One example of the difference between these two terms is by examining people who share the same ethnicity. Two people can identify their ethnicity as American, yet their races may be black and white. Additionally, a person born of Asian descent who grew up in Germany may identify racially as Asian and ethnically as German. People who share the same race may also have distinct ethnicities. For example, people identifying as white may have German, Irish, or British ethnicity. Examples of Race And Ethnicity Such variations of self-identification of ethnicity can be quite confusing. If we look to the definition of 3 terms- race, ethnicity and culture form the biological perspective, we can come up with the following: Race is the inheritance of your DNA Culture is the social/religious milieu you grow up in. Ethnicity is the branch of the race that your DNA occupies. To provide with the example for the above, the differences between those terms can be explained as next: Race = Mongolian Culture = Semi nomadic and pastoral Ethnicity = Scotch-Irish Ethnic and racial designations often do overlap so these designations can become quite complex. We can define those two terms as following: race is the macro-category for people with different skin color, and ethnicity refer to their micro-category, the real cultural, national, or tribal identity of the person. To sum up, race refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics (which usually result from genetic ancestry). Ethnicity can be defined as a matter of identity and ancestry of people presumably sharing a common experience and culture. Understanding their distinct significance is increasingly important, particularly because the diversity in the world is continuing to grow.