Luis Vargas
Ms.Peifer
English 10 IB
4/28/2012
            In the poem Suffering from the Heat, the author Wang Wei overall expresses the suffering of life and demonstrates that at the end there is always hope. Wang Wei also gives a message of enlightenment throughout the poem.  Wang Wei demonstrates this effect by using imagery and by comparing many things in life to establish the dominate effect of the poem Suffering from the Heat.
            Wang Wei uses imagery in the first couple of lines to demonstrate the suffering. He describes trees shivering to demonstrate this effect, “Grasses and tress are all parched and shriveled: rivers and swamps, all utterly dry” (4).  If trees shriveled, and if rivers and swamps are being dry it clearly demonstrates that these things in nature are suffering. Another example that Wang Wei uses to demonstrate suffering is when he says “In light white silks I feel that my clothes are heavy” (6-7). If a person is in light clothes and feels like their clothes are heavy it clearly states that they have suffered to an extent that a small thing can cause so much pain.These images are great because it gives the reader a image to compare the suffering of the narrator of the poem.

            Wang Wei expresses how badly he wants the torment to be over when he says “I long to escape beyond space and time” (11). Wang Wei expresses the desire to be done with the torment which is the heat and to reach his final destination. His destination is the Gate of pleasant due which is glory for him.. This clearly compares the thinking of a Buddhist who thinks life is suffering and that enlightenment is reached by suffering in life. The battle against the sun is compared to the battle and suffering of life. The reaching of glory in the poem is compared to reaching enlightenment in a Buddhist life. With these comparisons Wang Wei demonstrates the suffering of life and how at the end there is always hope.

At the end of the poem Wang Wei compares the destination reached as the glory for him. After suffering so much many through the torment at the end there was hope after at all at the end when they reached glory.