Coyote and Basmati Rice

In my opinion, most forms of literature both have a "surface" meaning and a "deeper" meaning, especially interpretive literature. Interpretive literature contains many figures of speech like metaphors, puns, and allusions; imagery is also present. Basically, it helps the writer get his message across his readers with more impact; having said that, "Coyote Goes to Toronto" by Thomas King is a good example that contains both a literal and figurative meaning. There are many examples of symbols and words with different meanings in this particular poem, but the whole poem itself could be considered as an extended metaphor for the native communities. Its literal meaning would be how a coyote attempts to be famous in Toronto, but the deeper meaning would be how her community welcomed her back despite her actions.

To be a writer, one must be very good with language and their wordplay. "Basmati Rice" by Audrey Thomas and "Coyote Goes to Toronto" by Thomas King are not an exception. For starters, in King's poem, he uses everyday words like "paint" and "green" to symbolize or connote certain meanings: Coyote painted herself green; however, one could interpret it as a way for Coyote to hide her true self and reveal her envy and her desire to fit in with Torontonians and be, not necessarily rich, but famous. Then the paint began to peel. King creatively plays on those words as paint does peel which simply represents how Coyote's true self began to show and all the pride and jealousy began to wash of her coat.

In "Basmati Rice" by Audrey Thomas, she uses her wit and knowledge of words to her advantage; her plays on words and their meanings: "the harm in pharmacy, the dent in accident, the over in lover" exemplifies her wit. Signs like "Beef live with onions" and "ELF SERVE" reflects how she sees the world: differently. She has this certain attribute that makes her different from other writers. In the essay, she engages the reader with her creativity and wordplay. She talks about random things in her life, but there is this fluidity in her words that keeps the whole story in place.

Audrey Thomas' "Basmati Rice" is a unique piece of writing. One word in the essay that I consider to be important is the word "obsessed". Throughout the essay, Thomas is actively looking for inspiration (or absurdities) in her everyday life: she talks about the people walking in the street, her bread wrapper from the local bakery in Montreal, and the note in her hotel bathroom, among other things. Thomas is not only obsessed with her search of inspiration, but also with her words. She even mentions definitions straight from the dictionary and relates them with Latin and French words: pain, apparently, meant bread in French. The writer is so attached with her words that she even took Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Old