The Other Side of the Hedge
After reading "The Other Side of the Hedge," by Edward Morgan Forster, one would get an impression from the main character that life is a long and hard journey. The main character in this story goes through an ordeal that is interpreted to be the passage of life to that of after death. When a person dies it is often wondered what it is that happens to their soul. Forster interprets this by having his main character give up on life and transfer into another world or a heavenly state. The narrator says, "I slid off the milestone into the road, and lay there prostrate, with my face to the great parched hedge, praying that I might give up" (Forster 39). This is showing how he is leaving his current state of being. In this story, Forster uses setting and symbolism to show the transition of the main character from life on earth to heaven. Forster picks a unique setting for this short story in a way such that a similar object can be used to represent different things. The narrator of this story starts out on a road in this dark dead environment. The road is covered in dust and is heading in the same direction. After the man passes through the hedge, the setting has changed; however, there is s
Forster uses symbolism to show the kind of person that the main character is and also in the transfer from life to that of the after life. There are many different symbolic events that take place in this story involving the main character. For example, one symbol that Forster uses is the long and dusty road. He mentions this several different times in the work. This symbolizes the long journey the man is making through life. I think the dust may represent the things that others have left behind when crossing to "the other side of the hedge." After the man has passed through the hedge, he falls into a moat of cool water. This symbolizes some kind of cleansing before entering the after life. This is where all the dust from the long journey on the road is washed away. The characters previous impurities are cleansed from him representing his entrance into heaven. Forster's main character in "The Other Side of the Hedge," has seen first hand these hardships of getting into heaven and has made the transition from life on earth, to some kind of after life in heaven. This transition is a change that has been reflected and reinforced by symbolism and setting. There are actually three different settings in this story. You have both sides of the hedge that are each a separate setting, but there is also the area inside the hedge itself. In this work, the main character encounters all three of these settings. The time that the man is inside, or passing through the hedge, resembles the period between life and the afterlife. The thorns from the hedge took all his possessions from him and m
Some common words found in the essay are:
Morgan Forster, main character, main character life, , story forster, character life, main character story, life dust, passed hedge, story overall, heaven transition, transition change, hedge narrator, 4143 gate,
Approximate Word count = 1085
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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