paragraphs on SYMBOLS Flashcards
talking abt snow
By morphing to a paramedic who cares about his community, Mandel illustrates the benefits of reintegrating within the natural sphere and abandoning a superficial outlook on life. Here, in being the first to land ‘footsteps’ in the snow, Jeevan is paving a better future for himself as he is able to integrate within its natural properties – a sign of his own natural morality. Jeevan’s pleasure at being “the first to make footprints in unmarked snow” foreshadows his influential role as the townspeople’s doctor in the post pandemic world. However, had his intentions remained superficial, his footsteps would have been shallow. Therefore, Mandel illustrates that the snow is a manifestation one’s psyche while also illuminating the path to contentment and true leadership for her contemporary readership as being one that involves returning to one’s primordial roots and abandoning technology and the materialistic values that society holds so dear.
king lear vs arthur
Mandel employs the use of Shakespeare to form an analogy to Arthur by placing him in the role of “King Lear,” thus ironically implying that Arthur is striving to act as a greedy and selfish man who is unable to value his genuine relationships as a result of his lust for materialistic fulfillment, when he isalready one. The “three little girls” become symbolic of Arthur’s three ex-wives, as only Miranda is shown to have a genuine relationship, illustrated by the fact that she’d thought Arthur would be “theman with whom…she’d grow old.” The “hallucinations” which appear in his final moments represent King Lear’s, and by extension, Arthur’s, regrets as his “[distraction] by the child version of Cordelia” isa manifestation of his yearning for genuine relationships. Hence, Mandel highlights the property of literature being timeless and eternal as being a result of displaying and engaging with innate human emotions and thus, she encourages her modern readership to abandon technology and pursue literature in order to connect with their primordial roots
