Analyzing Willa Cather's 'My Poor Boy'

She was staring at his chest, blindly, not knowing what to think, not thinking at all. He lifter her chin, gently. “Look at me Faye.” She did, but his face was a blur. “Faye, we’re in this together—you and I. Don’t you see that? It’s not just your problem, it’s ours.” In “A Sorrowful Woman”, I found the husband’s nurturing ways most appealing. He completely rearranged his life to make sure that his wife was as comfortable as possible. The passage that most signifies this is found on page 41. With great care he rearranged his life. He got up hours early, did the shopping, cooked the breakfast, took the boy to nursery school. “We will manage,” he said, “until you’re better, however long that is.” He did his work, collected the boy from the school, came home and made the supper, washed the dishes, got the child to bed. He managed everything. One evening, just as she was on the verge of swallowing her draught, there was a timid knock on her door. The little boy came in wearing his pajamas. “Daddy has fallen asleep on my bed and I can’t get in. There’s not room.” In “A Sorrowful Woman” what I found most unappealing was that even though the husband clearly loved her, instead of getting her the help she clearly needed, he let her sickness overcome her.

In addition, the author helps the reader understand the selfishness of the mother when the reader finds out she have stole the Persian Carpet “several months before” (230) the divorce and puts the blame on Ilya, the poor blind man. Furthermore, the visit of the children is supposed to signal a fresh start for the family. The mother even emphasizes she wants the girls to come “live with [them]” (229). Yet again, even if they meet in order to reunite, characterized by a situational irony, they see themselves separated because of her mother selfish decisions.

Another characteristic the author exhibits is forgiveness. The struggles her parents cause her display this trait. For instance, Ma constantly neglects Murray as a child. Drugs and alcohol consume the parent’s lives, so Murray and her older sister do not receive the proper care they need. Also, Ma frequently spent her daughter’s money or sold their items without their consent. The readers are astonished when the author says many times that she forgives Ma and just moves on. An important scene in the story occurs when Murray looks back on her childhood and forgives her mom for all of her wrongs, and concludes her mom did the best that she could do. Many people would resent their parents after all the hardships they caused, and so does the author at first. But she finds it in her heart to forgive which shows her kindness and really displays how mature of a person she is.

The short story presents women as aware but misunderstood by men through use of narrative point of view. In society women are usually seen as inferior to men, and therefore often don’t get the acknowledgement they deserve. “The women held their secrets because when they mentioned it to their husbands or brothers they were laughed at….Instead of sympathy, the husbands and brothers now had a secret weapon”. This shows that women did not share their fears as it gave others ideas to torment them further. Women in the short story are also shown to be fully aware of the boy’s behaviour early on in the story. “The men of his home town said, but how

The author shows a great example of the power these men had against these women in the village. In the time period this story took place, it was amazing to the author to witness that gender inequality was still a very big issue in some places. The author described how shocked she was when she found out that these women were not allowed to

In the past, mischievous boy, now the man, could not find his place in life and continues to roll along from one scam to another. Now, he is being chased by mobsters from whom he stole the money, and he is in mortal danger from which he had taken refuge in his mother's house. Louie knows his mother the "iron women," but realizes that her foreign callousness is a heightened sense of duty and the result of the hard struggle for survival. At the same time, Uncle Louie is a kind and good-natured with his nephews and gives them that direct communication that they are lacking and all the inhabitants of the "cold house." The boys are supporting him too, even Jay at the risk of life helps him to get away from his pursuers. But Bella is more impressive. 36-year-old women with the immediacy of a little girl and with desires of an adult woman. The conflict between her and mother reveals generational conflict in this play. In this case, a harsh mother ruthless control of a daughter’s personality suppressed and deprived Bella’s opportunity to grow up. The scene of their explanations is written at a very high emotional level. This fragment produced a deep impression that gives a very high grade of the play. But the final look “natural,” in which Bella is belated, but “becomes free.”

The book, Lament For a Son, written by Nicholas Wolterstorff talks about his pain and grief after losing his 25-year-old son (Joy, 2009). His son died while on a mountain-climbing expedition. Dr. Wolterstorff has several books published during his career as a philosophical theology professor in Yale Divinity. However, he wrote Lament for a Son with a different journal style since it is a personal thing for him. The book is similar to a journal as he narrates the events that happened before and after his son’s death. The emotions expressed in the book are common among people who lose close relatives. What matters is how a person handles the issue. Kubler-Ross invented the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptancethat explain the escalation of grief when stricken by bad news (Axelrod, 2004). The paper looks into the book and its relation to the five stages of grief.

The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother

She uses simple words and phrases that are most commonly used in everyday language. The structure is more-or-less the recovery of memories in the order that they happened. Willa Cather separates them into parts of Jim’s life. I love the way it is organized for it seems more realistic and in that way easier to connect with Jim’s life, experiences, feelings, to live with him. One of the greatest moments, where I felt entirely among the characters, was 186-188. At that moment when Jim said goodbye to Lena and she to him, every moment of his childhood, whether that be Antonia’s or Lena’s, I experienced what they did. I grew to love them, probably too much. The next part, Cuzak’s Boys, made me tearfully sad. During this part, the reader gets to

Once again, we see a female character dependent on her male counterpart for her well being. Lulu is very much a catalyst for the action in the story. Her suffering forces Mann to act, pushes him to use the stolen boat and ultimately seals his fate. The final archetype of women offered in the collection is the role of women as mothers. In “Long Black Song” Sarah is the primary caregiver and is responsible for looking after the house. Her primary concern is her child when Silas throws her from the house. This idea of women as the caregiver is evident in all of the stories. The mother figure in “Big Boy Leaves Home” frets about her son’s well being as the father makes arrangement to get his son to safety. Aunt Sue in “Bright and Morning Star” takes action to protect her son and his comrades. Throughout the stories we see time and time again that the place of the woman is in the private sphere, the home, while the men are far more assertive in the public setting.

As mentioned earlier, the mother's version is tinged with conservative disapproval, possibly a result of her direct involvement with the events and their unpleasant consequences. Despite her traditional viewpoint (which might be seen as narrow and bigoted in a modern context), her version is interestingly the most objective one of the three: her own opinions only make themselves felt at the end of her otherwise purely narrative tale. In the next change of filter, the narrator then puts forth her own speculative version of events, portraying her aunt as the proverbial victim of circumstances. Adopting this filter of the passive aunt gives us an insightful look into her surroundings, proposing a degree of identification with her, and inducing a temporary familiarity with the period's oppressive attitudes for modern readers. In effect, this passage makes accessible two potentially alienating elements: the social and temporal context of the setting, as well as the psyche of the character in question. This level of personal identification is taken a step further when, later in the story, the narrator indulges in wild speculation of her aunt playing a potentially active role in the events. The conveying of a modern mindset upon her aunt may seem jarring in the context

However, young David is not the only one infatuated with her astonishing beauty, his stoic mother is drawn to her as well. She, who is usually full of fury, becomes an altered person when in the presence of Mrs. Dillon. On page 114, the reader’s viewpoint is from behind Mrs. Dillon’s backside and peering at his mother, who has a delighted smirk drawn onto her face, as she peers across the table to Mrs. Dillon. Even though they are at a table full of others playing cards and a house full of people, Small’s mother is captivated by Mrs. Dillon and Small makes it almost impossible for the readers to redirect their eyes anywhere else. His mother is portrayed brighter, either because she is beside the lamp or the presence of a dear friend. Thus far, in the book, the mother has not smiled nor shown a vast amount of interest to either of her children or her husband as she has for Mrs.

Loyalty and Freedom, the two most important and diverse themes this novel offers. Jun Do, a non-orphan child living in a camp designated for North Korea orphans ran by his father, the Orphan Master. Jun Do does not get any special treatment because his father runs the camp, however, he does choose which orphan eats first and which one has to go clean the paint vat. Jun Do develops extreme loyalty over the fact that he is living in an orphan camp when he is not an orphan, orphans live in the worst possible conditions in North Korea. He is named after the martyr Pak Jun Do, who showed the ultimate test of loyalty and hanged himself for his country in front of his comrades, In the novel, “The Orphan Master’s Son,” by Adam Johnson, shows a young

Both men reveal the attitude toward women in society as one of tradition. Traditionally women had no place to speak or lead in any aspects of society and government. They believed that women that spoke out were not submitting to their husbands which would lead to them being superior over the male majority. The men believed that women in the republic should be controlled and not be slaves but they needed to have guidance in life even after they were married. So the guidance went from father to husband.

She confronts taboos and questions figures of authority through the process of domestic scenes and of abuse, in both word and line drawings. Acting as a witness herself she questions the relationships she has been in including that of her parents. Even in the sections "the loving" and "the breaking," she is not yet secure in herself. She continues to struggle to find her own worth and looks to others to give her power. In "the loving," she is consumed by love, or what she thinks is love.