Imagery in Johnny Got His Gun and Cry, the Beloved Country Essay

We all have wished to depart something in our lives. Everything would be perfect if we could control what happens in the world. However, we k at present that life despatchers us no choice but to accept transmutes that occur in life. Therefore, we grieve at piteous follow throughfalls but rejoice great transformations. Trumbo and Paton effectually depict turns that their main(prenominal) characters encounter in life. Trumbo and Paton use imagery to manoeuver positive and forbid changes throughout the lives of their main characters.Trumbo uses imagery to portray Joes pleasant previous(prenominal) life. For example, Joe feels loved when he pictures the sled that was his Christmas present and his m otherwise who is laughing equal a girl and his dad who is grinning in his slow wrinkled way (11). The sled symbolizes familial love not only because it is precondition to Joe from his parents but also because the sled allows the family to spend loving beat as a whole, making mem ories. Joe further remembers the time he spent with his family when he thinks about his mothers rolls that were steaming hot and melted when you perplex butter inside them (16). Trumbo highlights not only Joes ability to feel and taste but also Joes emotional pleasure associated with communion his favorite foods with the people he loves.Furthermore, we see that Joe is sociable and lively as a boy when he got into his heavy clothes and his mackinaw and his boots and his diploma gloves and went out with the rest of the kids into the snow (18). In his childhood, Joe is like whatsoever other ambitious boy who enjoys nature and social time blush through the harsh and numbing cold. In addition, Joe feels accepted by society during his time in Shale City, the prettiest township in the world to him with a pale sad sky and with about a million stars shining (51). Joe is able to key out Shale City home because he is comfortable with the people and the activities in this town. His fr iends and the towns beautiful physical aspects disembowel Joe feel like a part of the town, like he belongs there. Through imagery, Trumbo allows the reader to gain a positive view of Joes past.In contrast, Trumbo uses imagery to give an uncomfortable and negative view of Joes present life. For instance, Joe paradoxically describes his unconsciousness to be a kind of fear yet not like any ordinary fear. It was more of a panic it was the panicky dread of losing yourself regular(a) from yourself (127). Unlike his past, Joe is constantly in fear because he has no boundaries to encourage him differentiate his dreams from real thoughts Joe feels that he can no longish combining his own mentality. Furthermore, Joe wishes Kareen to be the unknown visitor beside him until just as he could feel the touch of her hand his delight turned suddenly to disconcert because unlike old times, Joe no longer feels confident about his be (157).His physical aspects weaken his self-confidence with the thought of Kareen looking down upon his debilitate body, Joe feels humiliation and embarrassment. Unlike his past, Joe would not spend time with his loved ones flat if he were given a chance because his pride would sustain him. Furthermore, afterward the nurse taps Merry Christmas to him, Joe heard the sound of sleigh bells and the puppy love of snow and there were leis of holly with red berries nestling like hot coals against them in his mind, contrasting his past days of Christmas where he is physically able to hold back (200).Trumbo uses a fiction to portray the fresh memories of Christmas in Joes mind that are now Joes only keepsakes for internally celebrating the holiday. Finally, Joe falls into hopelessness when he could almost hear the wail of pain that went up from his punk after his hopes are rejected by the doctors (235). Trumbo uses personification of a nerve center that wails to contrast the feeling of acceptance Joe felt in Shale City to the sense of bet rayal Joe now feels from the doctors and society. Although Joe has put forth his whole heart and childbed into his tapping, society has rejected him. Through imagery, Trumbo allows us to see the changes in Joes present lifestyle from that of the past.Similarly, Paton uses imagery to portray transformations in the characters that Stephen Kumalo loves. For example, when Stephen meets Gertrude in Johannesburg, he notices that the function that was once so sweet has a new prize in it, the quality of the laughter that he heard in the kinsperson because Gertrude has transformed into a new being (60). The laughter Stephen refers to is shameful, so he relates the laugh to Gertrude because she is no longer an innocent and respectful being. Like Gertrude, can Kumalo transforms but into a man that is ravenous for power thus, Stephen notices that he sit down with his hands on his knees like a chief (65).Paton uses a simile to compare John to a chief because John is no longer a quiet man w ho follows tradition or someone elses command John is like a chief because he now takes his own leadership to speak his ideas. Stephen also sees that there was a change in Johns voice, that it became louder like the voice of a talk through ones hat or a lion because John has an air of authority and admit in his voice (67).Paton uses simile to portray Johns voice as powerful as that of a bull or a lion. Furthermore, when Stephen finally sees Absalom in Johannesburg, he observes the boys sinful change as he twists his doubt from side to side, as though the slatternly clothing is too tight for him (130). What greatly disturbs Stephen is the fact that Absalom does not even have a justifiable reason for his murder, merely shaking his head when Stephen questions him. Like Gertrude and John, Absalom has diverted from traditional values and thus grieves Stephen. Paton uses imagery to surface negative changes in major characters of Stephen Kumalos life.Paton also uses imagery to show ch anges in both Johannesburg and Nodtsheni. For example, Kumalo notices how the grass had disappeared and how the maize grew barely to the height of a man and grieves over his gradually debilitating town (52). Kumalo feels despair because he merely observes Ndotsheni growing ill without being able to help it. Furthermore, Kumalo feels emotionally stronger when he observes the natives boycotting the buses, starting to walk early in the morning with a bite of food, and their eyes are hardly closed on the pillow before they must stand up again, sometimes to start off with nothing but hot water in their stomachs (74).The sight of the natives working(a) laboriously for justice gives Kumalo hope in Johannesburg, a city modify with novel ideas that contrast his traditional beliefs in Ndotsheni. Furthermore, after Jarvis comes to Ndotsheni, the town starts to make progress the men no longer plough up and down but throw up walls of earth, and plough round the hills, so that the field look n o longer as they used to look in the old days of ploughing (299).Jarvis young demonstrator teaches the men of Ndotsheni ways to preserve the earth and rebuild the town Jarvis brings a positive change to Ndotsheni. In addition, Stephen shows his emotional change towards Jarvis, taking a cypress ramify and making it into a ring, and tied it so it could not spring aside and put the flowers of the weld, such as grew in the bareness of the valley (298). This wreath symbolizes Stephens gratitude towards Jarvis Stephens guilt and pride no longer prevent him from accepting Jarvis warm offerings of help. Through imagery, Paton portrays changing aspects in Ndotsheni and Johannesburg.Through imagery, Trumbo and Paton successfully express the physical and emotional changes throughout Joe and Stephen Kumalos life. However, Trumbo is more efficient than Paton because his imagery contains more vibrant descriptions to help the reader feel the staidness of Joes changes. Trumbo gives the reader a more vibrant picture of Joes life through the use of powerful similes and personification. Trumbos imagery of the changes in Joes life reminds us of our weakness to control our own lives.