PHRASEOLOGY IN LITERATURE
Phraseology, as is well-known, is a branch of linguistics that studies stable word-combinations with fully or partially metaphorical meaning. The definition of a phraseological. Figurative language is a sign of at least a well-read person.
I’ll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day. Gone with the wind, Margaret Mitchell.
Tomorrow figurative, used more generally to mean the future.
Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
I want the children of Israel to believe that there can be a better tomorrow. Benny Gantz
These words, Scarlett’s personal motto, conclude Gone with the Wind. Scarlett repeats some variation of this line several times over the course of the novel when hardships plague her. She knows that she often acts immorally and that she faces absurdly difficult circumstances, and to avoid feelings of guilt and helplessness she simply avoids reflecting on her life. Scarlett knows that eventually she should mull over her plight, but she always puts it off until another, different day, which never truly comes. But this refusal to reflect is crucial to Scarlett’s survival. Her attitude contrasts directly with Ashley’s obsession with the past and his inability to let go of nostalgia and adapt to new times. Scarlett’s determination to believe that “tomorrow is another day” indicates her fundamental optimism about the future. Because Scarlett represents the South, her optimism indicates Mitchell’s general optimism about the South’s ability to survive in the face of change.
THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
These words conclude the novel and find Nick returning to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the future, here represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. Yet humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past: in the metaphoric language used here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green light. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the future (epitomized by Gatsby’s desire to re-create 1917 in his affair with Daisy) and they cannot escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into reality. While they never lose their optimism (“tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . .”), they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away. This apt metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself. Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical disillusionment but rather the respectful melancholy that he ultimately brings to his study of Gatsby’s life.
"So we beat on" could imply a lot of things, but when you add in the next phrase, "boats against the current", it implies they are rowing, their paddles beating against the waves, trying to row upstream or against the tide. More completely, "So we beat on" means that they have been doing this thing, they do not want to do this thing, but despite of or because of whatever was explained before this sentence, they continue to do so anyway. But when it concludes "borne back ceaselessly into the past" we can tell this is going somewhere metaphorical. "The past" is not a real place, and one can not be physically brought there, so this phrase has to be metaphor. The most obvious reading is that "we", as in all people, row hard against the current of life, trying to get ahead, but inevitably we are brought back to face our past. Or it could mean that they are literally rowing boats against the tide, but they are constantly brought back to where they have already been, "the past".
We will continue our struggle (So we beat on) face all the hardships of reality, against everything life puts us through (boats against the current), only to end up close to where we started (borne back ceaselessly into the past). My interpretation is that no matter what you do to convince yourself that you can change for a better life, in the end your past is going to dictate what you do in life and there is no other way about it.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. O. Wilde, (Lady Windermere)
Meaning [of a person] in a low state; poor and homeless. (*Typically: be ~; fall [into] ~; put some-one [into] ~.); ex: You had better straighten out your life, or you'll end in the gutter; His bad habits put him into the gutter; see the gutter press.
We are all in the gutter means we all have our struggles, hard times and life problems. Some of us are looking at the stars” means that some rare humans, despite the challenges we face decide to remain positive, remain focused on our dreams and goals. These are ultimately the people who find success in life.
IDIOMS IN APHORISMS
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