The use of nature is one of the more common themes discussed within multiple stories this term. The use of nature can be instrumental in conveying the symbolic meaning, but it also helps to establish the setting in several stories. Commonly, the author’s use of nature serves a dual purpose within the story, which aids in potentially forming a wide array of interpretations for readers. In the short story Chicxulub, the narrator compares the impact he felt when he received news of his daughter being involved in a potentially fatal accident, to asteroid and meteor strikes Chicxulub and Tunguska. Chicxulub is the asteroid that struck during the age of the dinosaurs and theorized to have severely changed the climate of the earth, which lead to the
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“In spite of the cold, she stood for a moment looking down uneasily at [the quilt’s] pattern of large branching hexagons, blanched, almost colorless, in the moonlight…Her mother had made it…out from forms of a lost childish game, the image fell upon her brain: a snowflake”(291). The statement of the quilt being “almost colorless, in the moonlight”, emphasizes her lack of effort with the boys, while the memory of her own mother briefly makes her empathic towards the boys. In addition to that, the “snowflake” exemplifies her regret for sending the boys in such horrid weather conditions.
Whenever the maternal representation is missing for the boys, the moon is always present, which highlights the loss of their mother, who is watching over them from the skies. Additionally, the author uses the moon to also foreshadow the reunion of the boys with their mother. On page 287, as the boys played, “the moon freed herself from the last field and looked evenly across as the imaginary ocean tragedy taking place so far inland”, which indicates the maternal presence from above is more likely a depiction of their
“In spite of the cold, she stood for a moment looking down uneasily at [the quilt’s] pattern of large branching hexagons, blanched, almost colorless, in the moonlight…Her mother had made it…out from forms of a lost childish game, the image fell upon her brain: a snowflake”(291). The statement of the quilt being “almost colorless, in the moonlight”, emphasizes her lack of effort with the boys, while the memory of her own mother briefly makes her empathic towards the boys. In addition to that, the “snowflake” exemplifies her regret for sending the boys in such horrid weather conditions.
Whenever the maternal representation is missing for the boys, the moon is always present, which highlights the loss of their mother, who is watching over them from the skies. Additionally, the author uses the moon to also foreshadow the reunion of the boys with their mother. On page 287, as the boys played, “the moon freed herself from the last field and looked evenly across as the imaginary ocean tragedy taking place so far inland”, which indicates the maternal presence from above is more likely a depiction of their