Literary Analysis (FINAL)

     Life can be described as a game you try to win, accomplishing goals and earning your prizes before the game is over. You work in life by setting your goals, then working up to them until you accomplish it all before the end. Well interpreted by James L. Weil in "A Coney Island Life," he creates an analogy to compare the adventure in life to the excitement of a fair game with high hopes of winning, earning prizes through hard work, and the chances you have to accomplish something. In the poem, he uses metaphors to describe what life is in a nutshell through the experience of a fair, with "winning prizes" and "having high hopes."Weil's "A Coney Island Life" tells to enjoy life and accomplish what one hopes to win while they still have the chance.

     Comparing living life to how long a person stays at a carnival, there are challenges one faces with hopes to achieve.  Due to "having lived a Coney Island life on rollercoaster ups and downs,"Weil describes passing a challenge in its joys and disappointments. Exceeding all steps in confronting the challenge help to pass it. Experiencing the joys and disappointments, or "ups and downs," are both a part of life and living it. He mentions how he has "seen my helium hopes break skyward without me." The hopes being helium-filled balloons, they rise to the sky without him. This implies how hopes often leave you when you're trying to win a game. Having hope gone leaves one with disappointment unless they choose to try again. When a child's balloon leaves, the child is disappointed unless they want another one, which is the same as a loss of hope.

     Sometimes it takes multiple tries to achieve something, which is the same when winning a fair game. The poet tells how "now arms filled with dolls I threw so much for," meaning he had a number of chances to win something he wanted. He earned his prizes for working so hard to get them. This is the same thing in real life. People try and try again with the number of chances possible to accomplish their goals and "win their prizes."He wonders, "how many more times round I have to catch that brass-ring-sun before the game is up." It is implied of the number of chances possible to win something. In other words, how many chances one has to accomplish a certain thing in life before "the game is up."

     The poet gives a clear definition of life with the common experience of playing games at a fair. A person lives life with "rollercoaster ups and downs," of joys and disappointments, having hopes that can sometimes "break skyward without me," until they work hard enough to finally "win their prizes," with their number of chances before "the game is up." The poem entails the adventure of life and how many people live them, perfectly explained with the metaphors of the experience in a fair. Weil's "A Coney Island Life" tells to enjoy life and accomplish what one hopes to win while they still have the chance.