Introduction
“Summer” is David Updike’s short story that describes Homer’s development, the main character. Updike utilizes setting, events and symbolism to illustrate Homer’s development journey. To further illustrate the transition from childhood to adulthood, the author makes use of seasons in a symbolic manner to portray Homer’s transition. Below is a close reading of a five-line text from Updike’s short story geared towards examining and analyzing the connotations of its language. There follows an explanation of what the specific language reveal about the character, their situation and the author’s purpose.
“It was the first week in August, the time when summer briefly pauses, shifting between its beginning and its end: the light had not yet begun to change, the leaves were still full and green on the trees, the nights still warm.” “….Her toe twitched, but her foot remained. It was only then… that he realized she was his accomplice, and that, although this was as far as it would ever go, his love had been reciprocated.”
The first quote provided above depicts how well Updike applies his descriptive skills to make sure that the reader gets a glimpse of what the situation was like at that instance. His choice of words is well selected to exacerbate the urge of the reader into understanding the author point of view of events. He thus analyzes this event in a simple exhaustive language which misses no important details. Similarly, the author uses this exhaustively descriptive language in the second quote to give an account of what the situation was like between Homer and Sandra.
The first quote reveals that the setting was during the summer season, but it has some signs of fading away at some point and coming back. This situation is symbolic in relation to Homer’s life. The instance at which the summer season shifts between its beginning and end is symbolic. Often, summer symbolizes the summit of youth cravings and desires. On the other hand, summer transition symbolizes getting old or death. Therefore, the use of summer transition symbolizes the transition of Homer from childhood to adulthood. This assertion is very true because Homer is a young boy who is attracted to Sandra but is characterized by fear of approaching her. He finally is depicted to be a grown up man who does not fear but hesitates to approach Sandra because he is not sure of whether she feels the same towards him.
The second text in parenthesis notifies us that the two, Homer and Sandra, have a connection. The twitching of Sandra’s toes is a depiction that she feels the same way towards him. It is at this point that Homer realizes that Sandra have feelings towards him although not clear of whether it is love. This is a clear depiction of how skilled the author is in developing the story as the two characters develop age and love.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the close reading of a five-line text from Updike’s short story can be used to examine and analyze the connotation of the author’s language. The language is further used to discern differently literary styles used by the author. Among these styles are symbolism and the development of events. All these have been discussed in details in the essay above.
