Joyce Carol Oates Metaphor On Life

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I agree with Oates metaphor about life and how she says that we’re in a rush to grow up but once we’re all grown we don’t find any satisfaction in our lives anymore. Everything is already known to us and we don’t spend time enjoying the things around us. The metaphor that Joyce Carol Oates uses is Life is a journey to a given destination. We become so focused on our end goal we don’t take time to reflect and appreciate what’s around us. Our life can be taken away at any moment and we should live it to the fullest. When we’re young and just starting on our journey we’re excited and astonished by everything we see because everything is new to us. She describes how life starts slow like a baby exploring and placing things in its mouth. “You learn …show more content…
“High overhead, almost invisible in the foliage are curious flying shapes;_birds? Monkeys? __creatures for which you have (yet) no name.” We are overwhelmed with all of the new things we see larking around. We aren’t smart enough to know their names but we see their shapes all around us. Everything is new and fresh to us. Oates uses symbolism to represent us maturing by stating “By degrees the swampy soil subsides, a firmer soil rises.” We begin this change slowly and begin to learn the names of these foreign objects around us. We begin to travel through this path faster now and we don’t see the beauty or serenity around us. As we grow up now we remember being happy in our childhood but now the birds and flowers and nature that fascinated us as a child is taken for granted. “At the speed at which you move it is virtually impossible to discern the shapes of objects” We are so focused at reaching our end goal we don’t see what’s behind us and in a rush to grow up. We never find satisfaction in our lives anymore because were just focused on one thing reaching our final destination. The importance of our future overshadows our present and
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