.... down the road. By the end of the novel, Dedalus is mature and worldly; a man who stands tall and who feels confident with "Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead." (238). Through the use of the symbols of woman and earth, and white and purification, Joyce gives his novel depth and wonder. These symbols follow an array of transformations, changing throughout the novel much like Stephen himself. The figure woman goes from the mother figure, to that of the whore, and finally to the representation of freedom itself. As a child, the image of the mother figure is strong. It is nurturing and supportive, that of "a woman standing at the .....

.... components. The first technique that aids in the creation of hope in "The Shining Houses" is symbolism in the title. The word "shining" alone has many optimistic elucidations, including magnificent, elegant, radiant, glowing, clean and polished. These words are all heartening, and create an optimistic mood from the beginning of the story. The optimistic mood created by the title carries throughout the story, encouraging the reader to identify other conditions of hope further on. In addition to symbolism in the title, Alice Munro creates hope through characterization. The character who contains the prevailing amount of hope in "The Shining Houses" is Mary. Mar .....

.... community to live in seclusion. "No visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier" (253-254). Faulkner characterizes Miss Emily's attempt to remove herself from society through her actions. "After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all" (254). The death of her father and the shattered relationship with her sweetheart contributed to her seclusion. Though her father was responsible for her becoming a recluse, her pride also contributed to her seclusion. "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such" (225). Faulkner uses the fee .....

.... flower and youth is short. Herrrick states in lines 3-4 “And this same flower that smiles today,/ Tommorrow will be dying,”(728) which is a symbol of the shortness of youth. Frost in lines 3-4 “Her early leaf’s a flower;/ But only so an hour,”(989) also symbolizes the fleeting time of youth. In the beginning, a flower and youth are filled with vitality, but in a short amount of time the flower will wilt and die, and the youth will be an adult on a passage to death. The second symbol used by Herrick and Frost is the day: youth is dawn, adulthood is midday, and death is the setting of the sun. From the day man is born, he is dyin .....

.... finds out that he is room mates with Phineas. "I had seen him at a distance around the school the previous winter, and gotten the impression he was bigger than I."(J. Knowles, 100) This quotation shows our first introduction with Gene's insecure character. One can see this because he immediately assumed Phineas to be "bigger than I,"(100) instead of waiting to meet him and then forming an opinion that maybe Phineas would be pleasant. His first impression of him was as a bully, therefore, we think that Gene is afraid of him, which would make him insecure. Another example of Gene's insecurity occurs just after Gene and Phineas meet. "That first day, standing i .....

.... hellcat the Sphinx was performing here,...Her magic was not for the first man who came along: It demanded a real exorcist. ...But I came by,...And this is the man you think you can destroy, " (Sophocles p1265). Oedipus creates an image of himself to himself and the audience that is infallible and untouchable. This makes him vulnerable and his situation more tragic when he falls. As a small child Oedipus was given away because of the prophecy that one day he would kill his father and marry his mother. He found a home in Corinth where grew up thinking the king and queen of Corinth were his parents. When he caught wind of the prophecy as young man he fled Corint .....

.... by religion. Almost every piece of work up until the 18th century contains some kind of religious reference. Evidence of the role and impact of religion in society is shown in the epic poem Beowulf of the eighth century and Geoffrey 's Canterbury Tales of the fourteenth century. The time in which lived was "one of the most disagreeable periods of our national history" (Legouis 80). The Black Death destroyed a third of the population and many people turned to the church for help. Goeffery , being "the great poetical observer of men, who in every age is born to record and eternize" (Blake 51), wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late fourteenth century in En .....

.... the Cyclops, tries to detain the hero from returning to his home of Ithaca. Poseidon’s son failed and ended up being blinded (Milch p. 29). Odysseus was also tempted by Calypso. The nymph-goddess offered to make him immortal if he would just stay with her on the island for ever. Odysseus refused and started his epic journey to Ithaca once again. Odysseus is told to visit Teiresias in Hades to find a way to make it back to Penelope and Telemacus. He must venture to the land of the dead (Rieu p 160). The only important thing in Odysseus’ life is returning to his family in Ithaca. Having the same feelings his father possesses, Telemacus’ only desires a .....