Crossing

In the novel, The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, there is a great divide between that of nature and that of man. In the beginning, Billy, the protagonist, has a relationship with a wolf that he captured and by the end of the novel Billy seems to relate more to the wolf than any other human in the book. The end of the book leaves Billy alone weeping, as his entire family has been murdered in different events. Although the entire book focuses on the separation between humanity and nature, common…

Poussin described his initial work on his new painting Hannibal Crossing the Alps as ‘thinking’. He told Cassiano del Pozzo he continued to give his commission ‘daily thought’: For the drawings for the honourable gentleman/your honourable self I am thinking [about them] every day, and I should quickly finish them/some.’ The words ‘I am thinking’ (j’y pense) is Poussin’s way of highlighting what he saw as his own exceptional intellectual efforts. And he assures Cassiano that tangible proof…

“Crossing the Swamp” is a second person point-of-view narration on the vast details of a swamp. Mary Oliver purposefully personalizes the text speaking in a direct manner to the reader as to explain an experience she dealt with or feels strongly about. The swamp acts as a deep characterization of some larger event, yet Oliver keeps in generalized to appeal to a larger audience. Through the use of elementary diction, grammatical pauses, and imagery, the poet creates a dramatic response to the…

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language. With the usage of petrifying imagery, simile, and personification in the passage from Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing (1994), he conveys a depiction of a young man and his treatment of a wolf, which offers readers an insight of the lasting power of death and the dramatic impact that the experience has on the main character. McCarthy's description of the chilling environment of wild life, gives the readers goosebumps, displayed…

There are countless ways to view the past, and it’s very possible that there is no correct way to interpret history. “Landscape and Narrative,” a chapter from Barry Lopez’s Crossing Open Ground, looks at a distinct dichotomy that exists between the authentic and the inauthentic, explaining that there is not just one way to see history. Lopez discusses different narratives, and how the true history affects which ones get passed on. There are two common narratives that have endured regarding the…

The Railroad Crossing in Corinth, MS has been immensely significant historically, and helped Corinth grow as a whole over a long period of time. The Crossroads were the intersection in Corinth of a main North/South line and a vital East/West line (the spine of the confederacy). There were many ways the Crossroads reflected this significance through history but were most obviously significant while the Civil War was going on. It was very helpful during the Civil War. The Confederacy used the…

In “Border Crossing in the USA,” Donna Gaines claims that “[t]he concept of adolescence, our assumptions about young people’s preparedness to handle life, and the laws we created to protect them, infantilize youth at a time when they are increasingly called upon to care for themselves” . Nancy Lesko moves Gaines’s quote one step further when she concludes that “Gaines’s emphasis on how the lived realities of youth are in conflict with adult conceptions of them must be demonstrated through…

The Last Crossing, by Guy Vanderhaeghe, is a fascinating novel that does well to showcase the moral ambiguity of real life. This ambiguity gives Vanderhaeghe the opportunity to craft all kinds of complex characters along the moral spectrum. One such complex character is Custis Straw. Straw stands out among his fellow cast as the most likeable and most integrous of the bunch. However, Custis is not the classic white knight character, but he is instead a very flawed man seeking redemption. There…

The phrase “crossing the Rubicon” was first used in 49-45BC by Julius Caesar. The phase was used by Caesar when he seized power in the Roman Empire. It was at the moment that Caesars army crossed Rubicon, which was forbidden since it meant immediate act of war against the Republic of Italy. Once crossed, Caesar had started a war with Italy. But today it generally means “the point of no return” meaning a choice or action that can never be reversed or fixed, it’s a choice that will stick with you…

Crossing Lines I watch him as I walk down the lawn, his chocolate hair falling softly across his forehead. My eyes move down to his tie, then his pocket square, and his elbows. He’s keeping his hands clasped in front of him, wrists turned towards himself blocking my view of them. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not, but even though I can’t see them I know there are thin lines as white as my dress etched into his arm from years ago. I turn my eyes away and glance at his mother as I pass…