Juan Bolivar Soto Essays (783 words) - Speculative Fiction

Juan Bolivar Soto Teacher Budhram Pre-AP World Literature February 2017 New Beginnings Lian Hearn is an Australian author that was captivated by the Japanese culture since she was very young. She was mesmerized by the diverse traditions she had the opportunity to learn when she visited Japan in 1993. In her book, "Across the Nightingale Floor", she utilizes many literal devices through the course of the story to describe the events and illustrate a detailed imaginary picture of the situations taking place for the reader. The story begins with the protagonist named Tomasu, later known as Takeo, whom develops heightened senses of hearing and alternative powers after losing his family along the village where he grew up in a mass murder caused by the lord Ida Sadamu, he is the most powerful from the 3 clans: Ida, Otori and Noguchi gaining his power through merciless conquest, battles and persecutions. Takeo emotionally unstable, shocked and full of sorrow is saved by Lord Otori whom finds him disoriented in the woods running away from Ida's men whom are pursuing him from c ausing their lord to fall off his horse, refusing to let go of the fugitive Otori takes Tomasu in giving him the chance to start a new life as a member of the Otori Clan, change his name and beliefs with the opportunity to avenge his family. Lian Hearn, the author of the book, uses imagery to represent the scenery and acute hearing Takeo experiences during the making of his new unraveled self. During the travel to the Hagi Village where the Otori live, they pass through other towns and mountains where Lian describes the scenery through the imagery literary device to appeal to our senses as well as to in detail describe the heightened hearing ability he is able to discover and prove in his stay at each one of the villages. In the story, Takeo is able to hear sounds such as water falling from far away, birds chirping up in the sky, the clapping of wish swimming on the surface of lakes miles away and most accurately the voice of servants and maid's rooms away yet with the same quality as if they were whispering their conversations right onto his ear. The author not only uses imagery but also personification to describe the newly found powers Takeo obtains after his encounter with Lord Ida "The murmur of a stream sounded to me like the voice of the water spirit, and every time a fox barked or an owl hooted I came awake, my pulse racing." This describes Takeo's perception of sounds at night while he tries to sleep but mercilessly failed due to the many sounds he's getting at once. They don't allow him to focus, the smallest of whispers jolts him up, un-allowing him to sleep or take a break. This makes Takeo nervous, for he had never heard of such thing before and didn't want to speak on it so the other would think he's crazy or to disappoint Lord Otori. He already owed him enough and couldn't risk the chance of embarrassing his savior over crazy assumptions, so he kept this to himself and maintained himself alongside Lord Otori, behaving his best making sure he gave his all to achieving everything the Lord wanted or asked from him . Lian Hearn also uses Metaphors to describe the relationship between Takeo and Lord Otori, the character compares the events to that of a Heron searching for his fish "Otori Shigeru was the heron, and I was the little wriggling thing he had scooped up, plunging down the mountain into my world and swooping away again", through this metaphor the character explain how Otori saved him, took him under his wing without asking for anything but appreciation, swooping him away from everything he has ever known into a strange world he has yet to get accustomed to. It all happens very quickly like the heron preys for his fish, and just when it least expects it, it grabs it and takes the fish to keep it in his hollow peak, with patience, ambition, and expecting absolutely nothing in return. This was a pretty good book, it was interesting to read the different points of