Question

Theme of the story ""engulfed by the inferno"" by pico iyer

Answer 1

Answer:

The ironies, of course, begin to multiply as soon as a life comes unraveled: in retrospect, everything seems an augury. One night before, the local TV station had announced that the conditions — 106 degrees heat, gale-force winds and drought-stricken hills — were the best for a fire in 100 years. That day, at lunch, I had been talking with a friend whose mother had just died, about the pathos of going through old belongings. And when, at the optician’s office that evening, my doctor stepped out to go and sniff at what he thought might be a fire, I sat back and fumed with impatience.

By 6 o’clock I was in my home, a remote hillside house alone on a ridge, surrounded by acres of wild brush. The fire started along our road, just half a mile away, at 6:02. Two friends, arriving at that moment, pointed to the jagged line of orange tearing down the hillside like a waterfall and splitting the brush open like a knife through fruit. Then the electricity went off. Then the phones went dead. By 6:10, huge curls of flame were hurtling over the ridge a few feet from the house.

Answer 2

The theme of the story "Engulfed by the Inferno" by Pico Iyer is the following.

• The story "Engulfed by the Inferno" is an account of a man trying to escape from a fire he finds himself stuck in.
• It also deals with the thoughts of the author after the blaze had subsided.
• The central theme of the story was how a disaster might help one see more clearly.
• At the end of the story, the author quotes a line from a Japanese poet.  "My house burned down. Now I can better see. The rising moon."
• These lines corresponded well with the author's situation. He had also seen his house burn down but found that as a moment of clarity.
• Another theme explored in the story is how when retrospectively reviewing events everything seems a bit prophylactic. Each moment feels as if it was pointing toward an inevitable conclusion, warning you before disaster strikes.
• This story also shows how one should try to behave after a disaster, however difficult it may be.

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