Critical analysis of Easter lilies, The Oxen and The Darkling Thrush Assignment

Critical analysis of Easter lilies, The Oxen and The Darkling Thrush - Assignment Example Jane Gardam’s Short story Easter lilies is one of her best short stories in her collection, The Pangs of Love. In this short story, a strange old lady known as Mrs. White decides to have flowers sent over to their church by buying them from Malta. Mrs. White had stayed in Malta for a certain period of time. The old lady decides to abandon custom regulations and using her common sense, she has some of the flowers sent over from Malta. A rich courier drops pearls in a flower bouquet and the old lady is fortunate to pick them. She tries the pearls. Mrs. White shows the human nature by trying to save the little money belonging to the church. She orders flowers from Malta which is cheaper. When the flowers get to their church, she starts to arrange them but falls at the alter and dies. Fortunately, Mrs. White had left all her estate to the church. Her death saves the cash strapped church. Easter lilies is a story of love and sacrifice. The story makes the reader to have a sense of deep sacrifice. The story is full of religious symbols. In its effective nature of communication the message, Gardam employs the use of narrative and recurrent religious symbolism. The language used is narrative in nature making the story to be easily told. Another important style employed by the author is the use of religious symbolism. The death of Mrs. White at the alter during the Easter period is greatly symbolic to Jesus death during the Easter period.... Mrs. White sacrifices her everything for the church just the same way like Jesus Christ did for humanity. Thomas Hardy’s poem, The Oxen is set in a childhood scenario during the Christmas holidays. The notion that cows knelt during every Christmas as postulated in the myth of the birth of Christ forms the basis by which Hardy sets his poem. Reading the poem captures the hope that children have during the Christmas period. The faith of the children is clearly portrayed by the poet when he states, â€Å"occur to one of us there / To doubt they were kneeling then† (The Oxen 7-8). This means that at that early age, the children’s faith in the miraculous kneeling of the oxen was undoubted. However, perhaps, with age, the voice in the poem has lost his faith in waiting and envisioning that Oxen kneel during the Christmas period. There is a sense of loss and exclusion in the poem. Hardy employs various literary styles in the poem, â€Å"The Oxen†. The most import ant style employed by hardy in â€Å"The Oxen† is symbolic imagery and use of direct speech. Symbolic imagery is found in the poem when hardy talks about the myth of the kneeling oxen. The belief in Kneeling oxen’s during Christmas and the deep belief in the myth is symbolic to the innocence that can be found in children. Direct speech is clear in the oxen where the poet quotes directly from other characters in the poem. For example, "Now they are all on their knees," is quoted to show the speech by the elderly. This helps to break the monotony in the poem. Direct speech also shows the authority of other characters in the poem by quoting directly. The darkling thrush is another of Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece. In the Darkling Thrush, the voice in the poem captures a person who wanders