The Moths - 827 Words

Learning Lessons Through Death In the short story, â€Å"The Moths†, the narrator, a fourteen year old girl, assumes the responsibility of taking care of her cancerous and dying Abuelita. Her Abuelita is the only person who understands the narrator and the only person she feels she can turn to. After having followed man’s rules for so many years, Abuelita passes away. All the moths that lived inside her are freed and the narrator learns some life lessons. Helena Maria Viramontes uses symbolism and setting to illustrate the oppression of women in â€Å"The Moths.† Viramontes uses symbols as a way of illustrating the oppression women feel to the narrator. The sun, the moths, and the bird of paradise are symbols to represent aspects of life to the†¦show more content†¦The narrator saw it as a boring and dusty place. She observes, â€Å" The tomatoes were always soft and the cans of Campbell soup had rusted spots. There was dust on top of the cereal boxes ( Viramontes 1329).† The church was also a place the narrator didn’t feel welcome. Her family was fairly religious though the narrator herself saw no point in going to the chapel: â€Å" I had forgotten the vastness of these places, the coolness of the marble pillars and the frozen statues with blank eyes. I was alone. I knew why I had never returned (Viramontes 1329).† The narrator felt no warmth or comfort in going to church. It was a cold empty place for her. The author used women’s oppression to write stories like, â€Å"The Moths.† The narrator learns that a person can follow the rules and still not be smothered by traditions and rules. Her Abuelita was an example to her. Through symbolism and setting, the author was able to depict women’s oppression by their societalShow MoreRelatedMoth Smoke, by Mohsin Hamid912 Words   |  4 Pagesindication about the main character, or perhaps the leading metaphor. 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Even though the title, The Moths, seems to have no relevance at the beginning, these creatures help to portray a sense of spirituality, rebirth, andRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of The Death Of The Moth And On Keeping A Notebook 1427 Words   |  6 PagesAnil Prasad 19, September, 2014 9th Ni Device Use Analysis Rhetoric devices are often used by writers to clarify ideas, emphasize key points, or relate insights to the reader. In both â€Å"The Death of the Moth† and â€Å"On Keeping A Notebook, † the authors heavily rely on such devices to get their points across to the audience, and these devices help strengthen overall theme the authors want to communicate. 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There are four stages in the butterfly life cycle from egg (ovum), to caterpillarRead MoreThe Death Of The Moth859 Words   |  4 Pages In her essay â€Å"The Death of the Moth†, Virginia Woolf depicts the struggle of life confronting death through the death of a moth. Woolf sees a moth flying in â€Å"a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant† (385). She uses this soft autumnal description of her morning to emphasize the beauty of life and the happiness one feels while being alive; however, she uses the moth to represent life itself and show its own struggles: â€Å" [the moth] tried to fly across...the window-pane†, but â€Å"he failed†Read MoreWhat Adaptations Do the Pine Trees Have?2635 Words   |  11 Pagesreproduce. Large Single Moth : How they help them reproduce? The antennae of these moths are sensitive that male moths can smell the pheromones of female moths several miles away that help them find their mate to reproduce. Can you see any other useful adaptations on these insects? What are they? Their antennae not only used for sense of smell but also have touch sensors used for navigation. How do they help the organism survive or reproduce? Both of these traits help these moths to avoid predatorsRead MoreThe Moths Essay1525 Words   |  7 PagesCharacterization In the short story â€Å"The Moths† by Helena Maria Viramontes, the author uses symbolism and characterization to paint the scene of a girl in a literary fiction that has lost her way and ends up finding herself within her Grandmother through the cycles of life. Through the eyes of an unnamed girl we relive a past that has both a traumatic ending and a new leash on life; however, we do not get there without first being shown the way, enter â€Å"The Moths†. The author utilizes opposite endsRead MoreDeath Of A Moth Essay1128 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"The Land Ethic† vs â€Å"The Death of the Moth† Marlee Matlin once said,â€Å"The Earth does not belong to us: We belong to the Earth.† In Aldo Leopold’s essay, â€Å"The Land Ethic†, there are several overwhelming examples that illustrate why we as humans would believe we own the Earth when we really don’t. Paradoxically, looking at Virginia Woolf’s work, â€Å"The Death of a Moth†, one would come to believe that none of that matters because all living beings will suffer the fate of death. However