The Stone Carvers

and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires” (BrainyQuote). Moreover, freedom is a basic desire which everyone seeks to attain. Essentially, it is a part of our human nature to strive for, go after, and achieve, a life of freedom. In the novel The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart, a handful of characters experience an unfortunate life without the freedom which they endlessly seek for. They experience a life with no freedom, which leads to the burning craving to sense what being free is like. Consequently, in the poem “Sympathy”…

In an idealistic world, mourning is regularly the first reaction to the loss of a loved one. Every griever has to go through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, it is possible that one may get stuck at a stage, thus being unable to move on to the next stage. Consequently, some people may develop “the tendency to cling obsessively to the memories of the past, while ignoring the complexities of the present” (Branach-Kallas, 60), meaning to cling…

Loss is a state of being without, usually accompanied by grief, which is a reaction to the disruption of attachment. The loss of loved one is considered to be a major disruption in a person’s life, having an impact on the relationships, health, and morale of the person concerned. The novel Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart shows the different experiences the characters go through in their distinct losses. In her novel, the protagonists are undergoing an emotional state of sadness in the past that…

Very quickly after beginning “Neighbors” by Raymond Carver, the main characters of the story, the Millers, seem boring. This trait is one that the Miller’s both feel as well and drives the majority of their actions throughout the story. When Bill and Arlene Miller agree to watch their neighbor’s apartment, they get a glimpse into someone else’s lives and get an idea of their own life. The Miller’s neighbors, the Stones, shine a light on the Miller’s life that they did not want to see. Throughout…

Robert Carver uses the character Bub, in his short story “Cathedral”, to demonstrate the difference between being physically blind and emotionally blind. Bub proves that he is capable of seeing the physical things around him, such as his wife, his home, his marijuana, and even the blind man Robert, who eventually changes his outlook on life. However, these sights are all on the surface and have no deep meaning to Bub and his one track minded life style. In fact others authors including Mark…

The Double Meaning on Blindness in “Cathedral” Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” presents some of the poet’s minimalist approaches in storytelling and language that focuses on middle class people facing consequences and small revelations in their ordinary lives. Carver makes sure that his concept on blindness plays a crucial role in his short story’s characters and give a sense of optimism and awareness to the reader. People who are blind don’t seem to see the environment around them, but they’re…

being more dominant. Onyx Properties Onyx comes in a variety of colors like red, yellow or blue. It falls under the category of quartz stones, and has a hardness of between 6 and 7 on the Mohs scale. Most of the black onyx seen in jewelry doesn't have the white stripe, so some people are not even aware that black onyx has another color to it unless it's been used for a cameo. Jewelry Choices and History of Black Onyx Throughout…

The Ruthwell cross is a stone, Anglo-Saxon monument which breaks down and disrupts several different societal and culturally defined binaries and is an example of how one object can exist as multiple things/ideas at once. This essay will focus on the disruption of the narrative of past and present, human and non-human, male and female, and wood and stone. Many different aspects and elements of the cross come into play when doing a diffractive reading of the Ruthwell cross. The cross was created…

The Control of Tradition Embedded in Culture It is an obvious fact that modern America is the superior culture. But in this short story by Shirley Jackson, written in 1948, will provoke a common patriot of this nation to think twice. At first glance the short story “The Lottery” can be read as a brute tale of a barbaric tradition, one that sacrifices a member of the community once a year by stoning them to a slow death. The sacrifice is chosen through two rounds of picking a slip of paper…

Chapter One They'd always maintained the Balance. The proof was there, in black and white, in tomes long forgotten and archived and further back, etched onto steel discs and chiseled into stone. The Balance and the Blood went hand in hand. A multitude of worlds whirled in their own cosmos, each different from the last like sparks from a fire. There were constants, though - Nod, for one. That ancient land, that other place, was the lynchpin. All souls came to Nod, in one way or another. Mr. Black…