You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
Jean RhysRead
The rumble of the life outside was like the sound of the sea which was rising gradually around her.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that life can be overwhelming and chaotic, similar to the rising sea.
In this quote, Jean Rhys uses the metaphor of the sea to illustrate the way external life experiences encroach upon a person's inner world. The 'rumble of life' signifies the hustle and bustle of the outside world, which can become increasingly overwhelming, much like the rising sea that gradually envelops someone. This imagery evokes feelings of being both at one with the natural world and simultaneously threatened by it, reflecting the complexities of existence.
Themes
LifeChaosMetaphorNatureSea
In practice
Example use cases
To illustrate the overwhelming nature of modern life in a speech about mental health.
More from Jean Rhys
All quotes →If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heaven. No more damned magic.
Jean RhysRead
The musty smell, the bugs, the lonliness, this room, which is part of the street outside-this is all I want from life.
Jean RhysRead
Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad.
Jean RhysRead
My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.
Jean RhysRead
I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.
Jean RhysRead
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Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.
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Say what you have to say now! Don't wait until you're sending blips from the other side.
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Anyone who's looked into a newborn's innocent eyes should realize how incredible it is to be blessed with a new life.
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won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.
Lucille CliftonRead