Analysis Of Ann Marie Macdonald 's ' Fall On Your Knees '

The birth of a child is a truly magical occurrence. Once a baby’s gender is determined, either through ultrasound, or from the brief examination of a doctor, this small branch of a family’s inheritance, has already been designated with countless burdensome requirements to follow within their limited world. In regards to historical stereotypes, timid, little girls wear pink skirts and hair bows. These girls grow up to become housewives, who cook, clean and babysit the children. Meanwhile, boisterous young boys have the whole world to conquer and rule. The multiple responsibilities of a man are deemed as very important since he is the person who earns the family income. In contrast, Teddy, the main character of “The Fall of a City” by Canadian author Alden Nowlan, is a very inventive and quiet child, who uses his imagination to build himself a utopian escape in his dark, gloomy attic. He uses scrap paper to create the citizens of Upalia and cardboard to fabricate the radiant city of Theodoresburg. Eventually, Teddy’s aunt worries about what Teddy is constantly doing, hidden away from his family. His uncle heads to the attic only to discover the shocking revelation that Teddy has been playing with paper dolls and a doll house. Teddy’s uncle laughs and teases Teddy mercilessly, culminating in Teddy to go against his accomplishments and lose an important part of his individuality. Furthermore, the conflict between Teddy and his uncle is a manifestation of how many adults, such as

McMurtry creates a story about his family, based on their accounts left to him in memoirs and letters throughout the years. McMurtry’s ultimate purpose is to narrate an expressive literary essay that uses humor and drama to attract the attention of the reader. While discussing cowboys and their straightforward wisdom, he concludes that cowboys’ observations turn into aphorisms. One such aphorism he finds particularly appealing is as follows: “A woman’s love is like the morning dew, it’s just as likely to fall on a horseturd as on a rose” (149). McMurtry also includes a great deal of drama and suspense as well. At one point, he recalls his grandfather’s troublesome drinking; one day his grandmother issued an ultimatum, sober up or she would leave him. “The threat was undoubtedly made in earnest, and he took it so immediately to heart that he stopped drinking then and there, with a jug half full of whiskey hanging in the saddle room of the barn” (143).

Johnson provides a brief account of the novella 's plot, together with his own perspective on the fact that so much of literature and literary analysis concentrates on the relationships that the characters have. In this case, the author examines the family as composed of children of ineffectual parents. While this writer does not know this with certainty, it is possible that many cases requiring family therapy are due to this very cause. The author then goes on to discuss the family in the context of the greater social system.

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

Fall On Your Knees is a novel that covers many themes and concepts, such as forbidden love, racial tension and isolation. MacDonald writes in a way that leaves certain moments in the story up for interpretation and unresolved till the end. Most of the time she is not direct with what she is trying to portray and leaves both the readers and the characters with just the facts. While some stories capture strict gender roles and policies, Fall On Your Knees uses several characters to reinforce and defy gender. Through representations of gender, it helps to uncover the truth behind the facts of the story. James character reinforces the binary between men and women by emphasizing the idea of patriarchy and male superiority and Mercedes accepts her role as a woman, while Frances denies hers, which help to explain and understand both of their behaviours.

Flannery O’Connor introduces her reader’s too unique short stories. They are “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, having too similar characters in different setting, but with the same symbolic meaning. The comparison between Hugla from “Good Country People” to the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to find” is interesting, because they both suffer the same fate. In every short story O’Connor has created a intellectual individual who comes to a realization that their beliefs in there ability to control their lives and the lives of other are false. They enviably become the vulnerable, whereas they assumed it would be different. O’Connor has placed two misguide characters, that deem themselves to be manipulative and compulsive. At the end up of each short story they become vulnerable. Hugla from “Good Country People” and the grandmother from “A Good

Walls, “...lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was...knowledge that kept you on your toes.” Often times, Jeannette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen were maltreated by Rex and Rose Mary Walls, their parents, through neglectful abuse. However, as the reader stands alongside Jeannette as she matures chapter by chapter the real conflict becomes clearer. In the beginning, as most children do, she tries to understand and accept the blatant lies or finds content in the absence of what she later begins to see as her deserved respect and need of care, but of course her father was her idol, hero, star. How could she bother to complain when he was obviously “onto something” bigger than them all? To be told “...I was his favorite child, but he made me promise not to tell Lori or Brian or Maureen. It was our secret…” then lose the same passion and faith in her father that she’d worked so hard to preserve? Unspeakable horror. This conflict with herself, distinct from Yousafzai’s person vs person conflict with the Taliban, is what she struggles with and avoids any real confrontation with through most of the memoir by distracting herself with the responsibility of improving the family’s

The character grandmother in O’Connor’s story has grounds the reality of the events and drives the family into tragedy. She is a central character in O’Connor’s story and is depicted to be a dynamic character stuck in the old ways. Through her actions and the idea of being stuck in the old ways of thinking, she leads her family into tragedy. Being the main character in the story, Grandmother significantly adds to the development of the plot. The author manages to win the attention of the reader from this character owing to the manner in which she shapes the storyline. Grandmother’s reminiscing of the old ways claims a distinctive curiosity from the reader and helps in

Many live under the assumption that those who come to the United States want to become Americanized and assimilate to the melting pot our culture has formed into. This is the populations ethnocentric belief, which is the belief that the ways of one’s culture are superior to the ways of a different culture, that wants others to melt into the western ways. In Ann Faidman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Faidman fails to completely remain objective when demonstrating how cross-cultural misunderstandings create issues in the healthcare field, specifically between the Hmong and western cultures that created dire consequences between the Lee’s and their American doctors. Faidman uses her connections with the Hmong and the doctors who cared for them in order to disclose the different views, beliefs and practices the Hmong and Western cultures practiced. With her attempt to be culturally relative to the situation, Faidman discusses the series of events and reasons as to why the Lee’s faced the fate that they did and how it parallels to the ethnocentrism in the health care system.

Thorough examination of the character's perspective, themes of insecurity, and the authors implicated message from text to reality reveals that "They're not my husband" by Raymond Carver is bleak and weak in comparison to Dino Buzzati's “The Falling Girl” when discussing the adversity of women to uphold appearances in society.

The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.

After the death of her husband, Mother struggles to keep her family together by providing the support and guidance they need, and encouraging them to use good judgment and think of the family as a whole before making their decisions. As the family faces various obstacles, each seemingly more severe than the last, Mother begins

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

The bond between a mother and child is often spoken of as being unlike any other. Yet there are always exceptions to the rule where this connection isn 't as impenetrable as one might assume. This book is an example of this bond gradually becoming weaker over time. It shows how it affects the child, Bone, and leaves her vulnerable to the abuse of her step-father. Bone’s mother, Anney, had fallen in love with a man who abused her which at first, she’s unaware but eventually comes to realize but still chooses to stay with him. Throughout the book there are instances of Anney’s negligence in recognizing her daughter’s abuse and being of aid to her but wasn 't. In having to deal with her

These constant beatings in Maggie Johnson’s home, furniture thrown from parent to parent, and every aspect of her family life as being negative, her family situation is not an extremly healthy one. But, despite her hardships, Maggie grows up to become a beautiful young lady whose romantic hopes for a more desirable life remain untarnished.