Beulah Image Patterns

Words: 1534
Pages: 7

Image patterns/leitmotifs: The speaker establishes both the mixture and the contrast of light and dark imagery. The extreme light image patterns in the beginning “no shade,” and “rage of light” accompanied with the dark imagery “grainstorm,” “gray,” and “dark” creates a disordered jumble. Light symbolizes happiness and dark symbolizes sadness, so the mixture suggests ambivalence which indicates Beulah lives life as a monotonous routine. Also, light illuminates, which represents Beulah’s memories being revealed with “gleam,” “clear,” and “bright.” In Beulah’s memories of returning home after the fair, freedom image pattern concentrates with “bloom,” “blown open,” “dissolved,” and “free.” The past is associated with freedom, while the present …show more content…
Because of how fast the speaker describes the environment around Beulah, the asyndeton demonstrates the lack of importance in Beulah’s life in the present. Without a conjunction, the description of the surrounding leaves an empty feeling, which indicates that Beulah deserves more than what she has around her and in her life. The emptiness also suggests a dissatisfaction with life on Beulah’s part, which introduces her yearning for the past through memories. The speaker describes a day at a fair with a boy and his kiss, and Beulah asks a rhetorical question “What was his name again…?” Although Beulah remembers the vivid details of her time with the boy, her cannot identifies the boy by his actions. The rhetorical question brings a comical moment as Beulah dusts because the silliness of forgetting the boy’s name although remembering the event clearly. Having no expectation for an answer establishes that this moment is a time of ponder and reflection for Beulah as her mind wanders into the past to recall the crush’s name. After the speaker’s reflection on Beulah’s life and marriage, speaker concludes with a single-word stanza “Maurice.” The isolation of the name emphasizes the name’s importance, which suggests that the Beulah finally remembers the boy’s name. Before, Beulah eliminates Michael as the boy’s name, and suggests that the name was “something finer.” Concluding with a single-word demonstrates the satisfaction and relief of remembering the past after struggles to recall happy