Sonya Hartnett 's The Ghost 's Child, is a compelling and elaborate story that follows the path of the protagonist Matilda. The most prominent theme in the book is love and how its consequences shape 'Maddy 's life. Maddy 's experiences with love in her early childhood influence how she shows her love to Feather and the fay. As a result of this, Maddy 's greed for Feather to change for her, had cursed their relationship from the very beginning. After cracks had appeared in their relationship, Maddy turns her focus to her love for the fay, thinking that it will fix everything between them. Throughout the story, love teaches Maddy many valuable lessons from her experiences of loving feather, and eventually loosing him.
Maddy 's childhood experiences of how one should love, and what love looks like influences how she loves Feather and the fay. When Maddy threw away her toy giraffe she vowed "...that for the rest of her life, she would hold tightly to what she loved" it influenced her into holding tightly onto Feather. Scared of loosing her "...adventurous, appreciative and patient papa" she has also tried to hold onto him "...inside the prison of her heart, from where he could not escape.". As Maddy goes on her endeavour around the world she "...decided that she loved him..." for the adventurous person he was and not the 'iron man '. Once she realised she loved her papa "...she could not bear the thought of going home and seeing him stiffen into the stern and preoccupied
“Dad said something about Jesus H. Christ on a goddamn crutch not taking that much time to gestate. Mom got upset at Dad’s blasphemy, reached her foot over to the
In any genuine friendship there are the differences between the people that spark curiosity, yet, it is similarities that draw two together to form a tight bond. This is evident in the friendship that starts between Vivian and Molly. Vivian, from outward show, does not display the slightest similarity with Molly. It is not until one examines the often tragic back stories of both that striking parallels begin to be made clear. By the time all is uncovered, the likenesses shared between Vivian and Molly far outweigh any disparities. In examining the relationship between Vivian and Molly, a perfect balance is struck in Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.
A CRITIQUE OF THE SNOW CHILD, TAKEN FROM ANGELA CARTER’S THE BLOODY CHAMBER. Throughout ’The Bloody Chamber’, Angela Carter takes the highly successful conventions that belong to once innocent fairy tales, and rips them unremorsefully from their seemingly sound foundations to create a variety of dark, seductive, sensual stories, altering the landscapes beyond all recognition and rewarding the heroines with the freedom of speech thus giving them license to grab hold of the reigns of the story.
In “Only Daughter,” published in Glamour magazine in 1990, Sandra Cisneros talks about how it’s like for her to be the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of six sons. She talks about some of the struggles she faces. Sandra is a writer. A writer who wants her dad to be curious about her writing. He never bothers to ask what she’s writing. When they’d ask her father how many children's he has, he’d respond with “I have seven sons.” The mention of only sons, not a daugher. This proved to her he was only proud of his sons but not her. According to him she’d also have to go to college but only to find a husband. A man who will take her out of poorness. Since, according to Sandra that's why her dad thought college was important for her. He didn't care about her major. Sandra Cisneros is a writer who didn’t have the attention she was meant to receive. Towards the end she finally gets the attention she desired. She translated one of her pieces into Spanish, the only language her dad could read. That's how it gained the attention of her father. When her dad finally reads her story, it fills her with joy. At first she didn't get any attention from her dad at all, because she’s a girl. Sandra Cisneros makes a great argument on her life being full of loneliness. Although, she only talks about her perspective on things. In this article she only talks about her side of the story, and her side only. Sandra talks about how her life was as being the only girl out of seven children.
Poetry is like a song without music, it has the ability to awaken your emotions and the ability to tell stories that can paint beautiful, relatable, imagery in the viewer’s mind. Upon reading the poem, “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds, she presents a unique view on her bittersweet experience of watching her son gravitate towards manhood, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider” (line1), while realizing he is astute enough to escape his mother’s strong hold, “to learn the way out” (line 16). As a mother myself, I began to recognize how I can relate to the speaker’s challenges of understanding a child’s need to test limits and break free from dependency. I realized through the speaker’s obvious allusions to Houdini expressing the need to break free, the contrast used to convey the indirect references to Houdini, and the similes used to express emotion toward reflecting back on a time of innocence, accepting the need of a maturing child’s independence proves the strength of a mother’s love.
Alex Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here is a documentary exploring life in inner-city Chicago during the late 1980’s. The book follows the lives of two African American youth, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, who live in Chicago’s Horner Homes over the course of two years. It tells of a lifestyle that is a reality for many Americans and forces the reader to acknowledge a broken system that so many turn a blind eye toward. Kotlowitz does not sugarcoat the struggles and hardships that the citizens of the inner-city face every single day. The Rivers’ boys, like all the children of inner-cities, experience situations and know of unimaginable horrors that rob them of their innocence and childhoods. Lafeyette and Pharoah have to face and overcome many forces that can change their lives for the worst, such as: gangs and drugs, the social system, the Chicago Housing Authority, and the battle within them to give into the worst of society. Sociological concepts, including: racism, strain theory, and social stratification can explain some of the exploitation of Lafeyette and Pharoah.
Love is a dirty four-letter word to truly endure. It is an affection that one can truly suffer, undergo and witness. In her impactful memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls depicts the naked truth of the strange love in her family's abnormal take on life. The Walls's live life the rough way, by personal choice, scattering town to town, with a father who drinks like a fish and wanna be Georgia O’keeffe, mother. Raised by Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Brian, Jeannette, Lori, and Maureen live a unusual life with a limited love. Jeannette fights to keep Lori, Brian, and Maureen Walls alive and nourished. Parents are supposed to be loving and nourishing to truly love their children, not be neglectful. Rex and Rose Mary's love for their children is far from unconditional, especially since they choose to neglect their children by being an alcoholic father, and s self-interested mother with restricted love by letting their young children starve in an unsafe environment, with an unstable income.
During the Communist regime in the former Soviet Union, life was very difficult. The people who lived within the countries controlled by the Soviet government experienced levels of oppression akin to slavery. They could not express themselves through any means and had to conform both body and soul to the views of the Communist Party. People could be arrested, imprisoned, shipped off to exile or executed often without trial. Some twenty million people died while Joseph Stalin led the USSR and for many years after his death it was still dangerous to dare criticize his regime, although some scholars put that number closer to forty million people who died. Now that the Soviet Union has broken up and Russia is its own country there is more freedom, but the people still live under the yoke of an oppressive leader who does not tolerate political or social challenges. The people do nothing to stand up to this government because they have all been scarred by the decades they lived under Stalin.
James Romm wrote Ghost on the Throne with the purpose to inform the reader of Alexander the Great and the empire he established, with the ensuing chaos the came after when Alexander tragically died at a young age. The book was organized somewhat chronologically, starting from opening the tombs in which Alexander was buried and how he fell ill, to the closing of the tombs and a reflection of the fall of his empire. Romm tried to answer the question of how Alexander died, providing multiple theories of how and why he died. Romm seemed to advocate the theory of poison from Alexander’s enemies, including the fact that many people wanted to see Alexander dead. Romm also explained in great detail how the empire fell; the countries wanted to
The ghost of Lucinda Matlock presents one of the overall themes. The woman tells the story of her hard but full life. Then she expresses her anger toward the living generations’ petty woes. She states that “Life is too strong for you— it takes life to love life.” Lucinda’s character is based on Edgar Lee Master’s grandmother of the same name, who is buried in the cemetery that inspired the author.
The poem “My Son the Man” is a short poem written by Sharon Olds. Using allusion and simile Sharon tells about a mom watching her son mature, growing and escaping her grasp. The mother expresses sadness as she reflects on her maturing son watching him grow into a man; comparing it the magician Houdini performing his mesmerizing challenging escapes.
"Ghost." What images does this word conjure up in the average American mind? Perhaps you think of little kids draped in white sheets begging for candy on Halloween. Perhaps you imagine transparent versions of dead people wandering the earth for eternity. Perhaps you are reminded of a person who just saw something especially scary; they are "pale as a ghost".
An unconventional relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter linked with murder, deep strung emotions and change, only briefly describes the different happenings of the book The Third Life of Grange Copeland, by Alice Walker. The novel reads like a soap opera moving from one violent dysfunctional generation of a family to the next. The book comes to show the development of a relationship between Grange Copeland and his granddaughter, Ruth. Through the growth of their relationship it can be seen that people have the ability to change and that they can break free from social constraints. The relationship that Grange and Ruth has is multi-faceted and both of them learn and benefit from
Our lives are build out of experiences. Depending on where we live, what we are going through, or our state of mind, we build our personal lives by making some concessions and adjustments in order to cope with others. In the play GHOST by Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders are two characters whose stories differ because of secrets, misunderstandings, and masquerade.
There 's that look people get told they have, where they look like they 've seen a ghost. I want to know what it means to have that feeling but knowing you 're the ghost. It had been too long since I stepped foot anywhere near these parts of the city. After I turned and changed into who I am now, I never wanted to risk getting seen by any members of the family that runs this part. That is actually a good reason they have never been able to extend their territory any further. It 's kind of easy to hear when a gang war is about to break out for someone to gain new ground. And for me, it 's all too easy to join the defending family and help kill men you were once friends with to make sure you had the room to run fucking wild. I 'm made a few good friends, nah I made a few bad acquaintances by doing that. The men that run other parts of this city know me by who I am now, only one knows me by who I was. Maybe it 's for the best he knows Big Mac is against him, less likely that it 's me behind the mask then. God, in those days, before I grew up and found out doing everything I was getting told to do, without being told to do them was so much better, Claire not counting, she just above another voice in my head. But the freedom I have, may not seem like a good thing for the city and its people, but I love being me and only this me.