Struggle for Free

Struggle for Freedom Essay In the short story Flight by Doris Lessing and Dubliners: An Encounter by James Joyce, have many of the same literary techniques employed through the themes and imagery. Thematically, these two short stories are very similar because they both are about youth growing up which leads to escape or freedom during the childhood and adolescence years. Lessings story is about a grandfather who is possessive of his granddaughter and does not want her grow-up. Because of this, he tries to control her because he does not want to be alone, and most importantly because this was his last granddaughter out of four to mature. As for Joyces story, it is mainly about the relationship between Father Butler and the boys, where the boys are faced with boredom at school and are spurred by excitement found in magazine stories about the American Wild West, two young boys skip school to take a trip to The Pigeon-house. Their school boy lark and youthful egocentricism are destroyed by an encounter with an aging pervert who tells them that boys were too young to have sweethearts. In addition, both of the authors use descriptive words to create imagery, which also shows how the two stories are similar. Some examples of descriptive imagery from Flight are: and Dubliners: An Encounter is It will become apparent that this is what these stories are about when evidence is provided by referring to the each story to support these statements in the text. Similarly, the themes in both short stories illustrate flight in one case and freedom in another, during their adolescence years of the characters. This shows how the characters move on to live their life in Flight or the transition from boys to men (bigger boys) in Dubliners: An Encouter. An example of this is in Flight, when the grandfather disapproves of the granddaughter (Alice) going out with the postmasters son (Steven). With this, he runs to his daughter (Lucy) and argues that Alice is just a young girl and that she needs to stop Alice from making a mistake. On the other hand, the grandfather is the one who has made the mistake with all the watching over her, he has overlooked that she is a young woman who has fallen in love. The dialog that shows his unease at her growing up and making new life changes is below: Lucy, he said urgently. Lucy . . . Well, what is it now? Shes in the garden with Steven. Now you just sit down and have your tea. He stumped his feet alternatively, thump, thump, on the hollow wooden floor and shouted: Shell marry him. Im telling you, shell be marrying him next! pg. 386 In addition, the age of Alice is brought up, which shows that Alice is in her adolescent years and is ready to take flight. This is found when the grandfather says: Shes eighteen. Eighteen!. A similar situation occurred in Dubliners: An Encounter is when the narrator (one of the boys) says the following: The adventures related in the literature of the Wild West were remote from my nature but, at least, they opened doors of escape. The summer holidays were near at hand when I made up my mind to break out of the weariness of school life for one day at least. It is known that the story took place in their childhood years going on to their adolescent years, because the quote shows that the boys are growing up since they did not charge the younger boys. This shows that they were also growing up. As quoted in the story: Mahony began to play the Indian as soon as we were out of public sight. He chased a crowd of ragged girls, brandishing his unloaded catapult and, when two ragged boys began, out of chivalry, to fling stones at us, he proposed that we should charge them. I objected that the boys were too small, and so we walked on, the ragged troop screaming after us Swaddlers! Swaddlers! thinking that we were Protestants because Mahony, who was dark-complexioned, wore the silver badge of a cricket club in his cap. Part of this that made this so effective was the imagery. Another similarity is the imagery, and through the literary techniques, the authors utilized. From beginning to end, there are many examples of imagery; nonetheless, not all will be mentioned. With Lessings story, one can read a description that she has used and easily visualize what she is talking about. In the introduction, she describes the dovecote and it is birds with the words: tall wire-netted shelf on stilts, young plump-bodied bird, cold coral claws. Later on, there is a description of Steven thought of by the grandfather, which quotes: red-handed, red-throated, violent-bodied youth. At the end of the story, she describes the sky and the land in the eyes of the grandfather with the words: cloud of shining birds, shrill cleaving of wings, dark ploughed land, darker belts of trees, bright folds of grass, and cloud of motes of dust. As for Joyces story, he gives detailed descriptions of imagery of the day of the adventure. One scene that has several descriptions of imagery used the words: long grass, mild sunny morning, frail canvas shoes, tramload of business people, tall trees, little light green leaves. Joyce also describes Dublins commerce area as: curls of woolly smoke, brown fishing fleet, big white sailing vessel. Effective Transition Sentence Linking Ideas: Main Points connected to thesis: Back up the text referencing to story What causes these similarities and/or differences? What effect (or cost) do they have on the subjects? On society? What do the similarities and/or differences show about your subjects? About society? Concluding, This should make it a very suitable story for young people preparing for exams: Alices situation will be one that you face now or will face soon. How do you feel about this prospect? Is it scary, or exciting or both? Leaving home and becoming independent are things which most people face sooner or later.