Thursday, October 10, 2019
Rhetorical Analysis Mary Oliver
Period 4B In this very lyrical excerpt, Mary Oliver has a great attraction to nature because of its paradoxical yet balancing form. By being both terrifying and beautiful, nature fills the world with contrasting entities that can be ââ¬Å"death-bringersâ⬠or bring ââ¬Å"immobilizing happiness. â⬠Oliver uses imagery, parallelism, and contrasting to express her swaying emotions of fear, awe, and happiness towards nature. The imagery creates the very distinct contrast between terrifying and beautiful parts of nature. The frightening great horned owl has ââ¬Å"razor-tipped toesâ⬠that ââ¬Å"rasp the limbâ⬠and a ââ¬Å"hooked beakâ⬠that makes a ââ¬Å"heavy, crisp, breathy snapping. â⬠The physical form is rough and rugged, reminiscent of a terrifying being. The owl is presented with characteristics of the ââ¬Å"nightâ⬠and ââ¬Å"blackness,â⬠The flowers, on the other hand, are like ââ¬Å"red and pink and white tents. â⬠The color contrast reinforces the complete oppositeness of the flowers and the owl. Contrasting continues throughout the excerpt to display the conflicting character of nature. Nature is so complex that even very similar animals have very differing aspects. Oliver can ââ¬Å"imagine the screech owl on her wristâ⬠and she can learn from the snowy owl, but the great horned owl will cause her to ââ¬Å"fallâ⬠if it ââ¬Å"should touch her. â⬠Even though this great horned owl is terrifying, Oliver still is in amazement of it. She says it would become the ââ¬Å"center of her life. â⬠While ââ¬Å"the scream of the rabbitâ⬠in ââ¬Å"pain and hopelessnessâ⬠is terrible, it is not comparable with the ââ¬Å"scream of the owlâ⬠which is of ââ¬Å"sheer rollicking glory. â⬠Nature has extremes, and the owl is the extreme of terror. The flowers, however, represent the extreme of happiness. Through parallelism, Oliver exemplifies the happiness given by the fields of flowers. The flowers have ââ¬Å"sweetness, so palpableâ⬠that it overwhelms Oliver. She uses phrases continually beginning with ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢mâ⬠and then a verb, to show how the fields engulf her like a ââ¬Å"river. â⬠She is then ââ¬Å"replete, supine, finished, and filledâ⬠with an ââ¬Å"immobilizing happiness. â⬠The continual use of adjectives reinforces how the field is so vast and ââ¬Å"excessiveâ⬠that it creates an almost surreal feeling of satisfaction. Parallelism is also used to describe the great horned owl. The merciless elentlessness of the owl is so great that it hunts ââ¬Å"even skunks, and even catsâ⬠¦thinking peaceful thoughts. â⬠Its ââ¬Å"insatiable craving for the taste of brainsâ⬠is so excessive that the owl is ââ¬Å"endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt. â⬠The uncontrollable, terrifying nature of the great horned owl fu rther emphasized because ââ¬Å"if it could, it would eat the whole world. â⬠The owl causes so much terror that soon enough the terror becomes ââ¬Å"naturally and abundantly part of life,â⬠any life of any world. The terror even fills the ââ¬Å"most becalmed, intelligent sunny lifeâ⬠that Oliver lives in. Despite the massive contrast between the two extremes of nature, there is still a universal concept of nature. Both the owl and the field of flowers are overwhelming, vast and ââ¬Å"excessive. â⬠The owl is so overpowering that ââ¬Å"if it could, it would eat the whole world. â⬠The fields ââ¬Å"increase in manifoldâ⬠creating an ââ¬Å"immutable force. â⬠Oliver asks two rhetorical questions, ââ¬Å"And is this not also terrible? â⬠and ââ¬Å"Is this not also frightening,â⬠to describe the excessiveness of the fields and also the owl. But, even though Oliver is frightened, she is also amazed. While continuously describing the owl as terrifying, Oliver still acknowledges that the owl is ââ¬Å"perfectâ⬠and ââ¬Å"swift. â⬠Even though the fields of roses seemingly engulf in a terrifying manner, it still creates a feeling ââ¬Å"full of dreaming and idleness. â⬠The combination of opposites, the owl and the field of roses, shows how nature can be seemingly paradoxical by being both cruel and sweet at the same time. By being so complex, nature also requires a complex response. Oliverââ¬â¢s emotional and sensuous response is filled with conflicting feelings of fear, happiness, and amazement to show her attachment to nature.
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