James Hurst effectively uses symbolism in the
first paragraphs of his short stories to create a mood filled with despair,
gloominess, life, and death.
To create a gloomy feeling, James Hurst used the
changing of seasons. In "The
Scarlet Ibis," he wrote that summer was now dead, but autumn had not yet
been born. Also, in "The Summer of
Two Figs," James Hurst created the statement: a summer born of fulsome
promise faded into falling leaves unfulfilled.
A feeling of desolation was presented here when Hurst implied that
summer was born with great promise that eventually evanesced without being
fulfilled. Another emotion stirred up by
the two phrases was a slow passage of time that seemed to go on forever. This was revealed by seasons that had ended
without the next one coming.
When James Hurst wrote the starting paragraphs
of his short stories, he added in death.
"Graveyard flowers who spoke softly of the names of the dead,"
written in "The Scarlet Ibis," hinted that there was a nearby
graveyard filled with deadly air. In
"The Summer of Two Figs," the fabric originally meant for a party
dress that ended up turning into a shroud, allowed one to sense that a dead
organism was lurking nearby. The statement
"evil lurking around the perimeters of the homesteads," not only
represented a horrid feeling of death, but also created a sense of dread and
dismay for the place being described.
When James Hurst mentioned in both paragraphs
that summer had started and was going to soon end, he indicated that there was
a life about. In the life presented,
there would be a beginning, and an end.
Similar to the people and animals in his stories that would also come,
and pass away. The feeling of life in
the air was also shown when James Hurst, in "The Scarlet Ibis,"
described a graveyard flower blooming.
The graveyard flower blooming was a sign of life flowing through it, and
there would also be a death for the flower in addition to the feeling of death
brought on by the flower itself.
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