Beginning of Essay
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 summ ....

Middle of Essay
.... 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 ....