Introduction
The stories My Mother’s Gifts by Judith Claire and Fifteen by William Stafford have very much in common. The authors raised the problem of human sufferings experienced by young people. The basic them of both stories are very close to life though a bit depressive. The stories show the inner world of two different young people facing human hurts and even death.
The functioning of Metaphors
The story My Mother’s Gifts by Judith Claire abounds in different expressive means and stylistic devices. The author managed to use a great variety of metaphors to make the story more expressive and emotional; such as cognitive metaphor, “the tears come”, “cigarette smoke haloes my head” etc.
The author managed to show the deep sense of the poem with the help of metaphors usage, “…meet the sky on out Seventeenth”, “The handle got back a confident opinion”;
The functioning of metaphors in both stories is aimed at the same purpose – to make these life texts more living and emotionally expressive; to transfer the feelings of the characters to the readers and explain their hurts and sufferings.
Images and Emotions Showed in the Text “My Mother’s Gifts”
To express the emotions of the protagonist and her feeling to the mother Judith Claire used a number of images such as
- hyperbole, “my mother never questions anything”.
- simile – “with eyes as blue as Johnny-jump-ups…”, “her earrings ring like a New Year’s toast”;
- epithets – “overflowing laundry basket”, “swallowing pills”, “hot pink smear”;
- metonymy – “the Times obituary compares our deaths”.
The functions of these stylistic phenomena are to make the story more alive and involving; to show the tragic state of the protagonist.
Fifteen by William Stafford
The poem Fifteen by William Stafford being the longer story could be changed in case it was prolonged. The author could contribute more thoughts and ideas to it; provide a background of the protagonist for the readers to understand his future actions. The author should have described what the experience of the main character resulted in and how this case with motorbike influenced his life and morality.
A Story, Not a Poem
Taking into account Fifteen by William Stafford it should be noted that the poem is rather limited in the content description and seems to be shortened. The author wanted to present the story of a boy’s experience through the emotionality of the poem though it could be much more detailed and thought-provoking; the author could make it longer and more descriptive. The rhyme gives not so many opportunities in the thoughts expression and character’s live presentation.
Poem Limitations
Generally speaking, the description of the life story in the poem is limited to some rate. Literary freedom of some life cases is difficult to express with the help of rhyme. Poems require certain rules to follow, they are to be strictly written and the author cannot transfer all the difficulties of life events through rhyme and poetic means.
References
Bernays, Anne & Painter, Pamela. What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers College Edition, Second Edition. 2003.