Poetry Ch. 5 Figurative Language (5)

"Winter. Time to eat fat and watch hockey."

I think the poem "February" by Margaret Atwood is a very strange poem from line twelve on. I think that the basic idea is that sex is the way to stay alive and well during the winter months. The hockey, cat, and eating analogies are present throughout. Sex is compared to hockey when the speaker says "He shoots, he scores!" The poem also mentions the conquest of a cat marking his territory. The eating analogy is also related to sex when their is famine in the bedsheets. All of these analogies work together to make sex seem like a conquest to score, quench hunger, and mark territory. I think that this poem is kind of bizarre and has a weird theme. One of the questions from the book asks if this is what I associate with winter. I can assure you that I have never even considered these things with winter or any time of the year. This poem has an interesting theme to say the least, but it is very well portrayed through analogies and imagery.

Never Let Me Go: 10

"It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and ther's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to" (124).

Kathy uses many analogies throughout her flashbacks to her time and Hailsham and beyond. This analogy is particularly significant in the message of the novel. This analogy effectively reveals something about Kathy's character. It effectively shows that she is analytical and strategical. It also shows that she really knows her best friend and realizes she has just made a huge mistake. She has left herself vulnerable to Ruth's next "move." The purpose of the analogy is not only to reveal something about Kathy's character, but also to show how well Ruth and Kathy relate to each other and can basically understand each other's thoughts because they have been so close for a long time. The analogy is effective because 99% of readers know exactly the feeling that Kathy is referring to, whether this feeling was experienced in chess, football, a conversation, or another circumstance. The analogy gives readers the opportunity to identify with Kathy and what she is feeling at that particular instance. The analogy can also foreshadow more feelings similar to this to come because the Hailsham students are all beginning a new chapter in their lives and are bound to make mistakes that they hope are not as disastrous as they have the potential to be; however, all of them will probably experience the anxious feeling that Kathy has just described.