Anita Brookner Analysis

Paul Newman once said, “People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked” (74). There is no such thing as the perfect relationship, however, being involved in a healthy relationship is essential for a person to feel valued, safe, and happy. Unfortunately, in the situation of Kelly Sundberg’s personal essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour,” include extreme examples of unhealthy relationships. The essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” shares painful experiences of Sundberg’s physical and emotional abusive relationship with her husband Caleb, while “The Story of an Hour,” shares a rare reaction of a married woman, Louise Mallard, who explores her emotions cautiously when hearing about the death of her husband. Each woman faces their own prison created by their husbands. The two marriages represent the figurative meaning of doors being locked in a marriage. Both pieces of literature convey the theme of confinement by using the literary devices of foreshadowing, imagery, and conflict.

Losing a parent is presumably an unthinkable concept for those lucky to have them alive, but sometimes the title of “parent” dies long before a body is placed in the ground. Toi Derricotte author of “Beginning Dialogues” unfortunately had to experience both the death of her mother’s title of “parent”, as well as her literal death. Derricotte’s parents had divorced when she was eighteen, and her father did not seem to play much of a role in her life; she was left to be raised by her mentally abusive mother. Her mother also had a tough road to walk growing up, having to face and deal with brutal issues like racism and bulling. Persevering through those tough times may be the underlining reason behind Derricotte’s mother’s negativity and abuse towards her daughter. Perhaps she just grew a thick skin at a very young age and had never learned how to feel, accept, or administer love. Derricotte’s had said: “She told me all my life she loved me, as if she completely forgot the hundred slights, humiliations, threats, and insinuations. Of course she loved me;

In the passage Nancy Mairs presents herself in a way which demonstrates that she has many characteristics of a strong woman. She includes tone and a high quality choice in words to describe herself and why she used the word “cripple” as a name for herself.

reason when “young love” grows cold and she can no longer please her husband, she addresses

eye on the institution of marriage is very characteristic of her stories (11). In "The Story of an Hour", we do not so much see as intuit Mrs. Mallard's skeptical eye.

State how marriage is presented in the stories, “Desiree’s Baby” and “The Story of an Hour.”

Dr. Murray Bowen’s research shows that conflict in a family can not only cause emotional damage but physical damage. The three different parenting styles display the Shae family as disjointed which causes Sophie to suffer. An authoritative method should be used, coupled with a unified voice of all parental influences in the life of Sophie. Dr. Bowens states that the “differentiated person is always aware of others and the relationship system around him”. In the case of Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish”, Sophie absorbs the relations around her and is deeply

Marriage, the central part of the lives of the main characters, is viewed in opposing ways through their actions. Susan's, Edgar's wife, description of what Edgar's love did for her involves the contrasting natural elements of snow and heat, also the elements of

Edwina Winfield, the protagonist, is described early by her mother as having, “strong, quiet self-assurance. She had always been so thoughtful and so kind, thinking of everyone before herself” (Steel 11). As the eldest, Edwina often felt a sense of duty to help her mother manage her younger siblings, but she did not let them rule her entire life. Her impending marriage was a testament to that; typical of romance novel heroines. However, Steel used the tragic loss of her parents divert her from that path when she became the sole caretaker of her younger siblings.

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

Romantic language in literature has been used for ages to express authors' feelings for another human being. This language has been developed through out the years to create ways in which different types of romantic emotions can be expressed in writing. From the breath taking romantic novels of today all the way back to the first writers of the Bible and the romantic books of Song of Solomon and Psalms, romantic language has not only been used to express human emotions but also the role of these emotions in the culture of the times. There have been numerous authors who dared to go beyond what their society would have viewed as politically or morally correct. Anne Bradstreet is one of these authors;

that their marriage was never happy and that eventually they choose to leave separate because

Anita Brookner was born in 1928 to Jewish parents in London (Literature Essays). Brookner has remarked that being Jewish had an impact in her life, in that she always felt like an outsider to Londoners, even though she was herself a Londoner, that being Jewish created some invisible, but visible line between herself and her peers (Book Rags). It is because of this reclusiveness and separateness that Brookner has stated that "I write out of a sense of powerlessness and injustice, because I felt invisible and passive (Literature Essays). During Brookner's childhood her family was involved in a network of families harboring Jewish refugees during the Nazi invasion, which had a great influence on her adolescence (Literature Essays). Brookner went on to go to college and eventually earn a PhD in art history, and for the beginning half of her life was a well known and respected art historian on 18th and 19th century French art (Literature Essays). Brookner did not actually begin her fiction writing career until 1981, when she was 53 years old with her debut novel A Start in Life, and thereafter published approximately one novel a year, ending in the most recent novel Strangers in 2009, which would make Brookner 81 at the time of its release (Wikipedia).

As I analysed these to situations I realized if I put both theories together I could understand the situation more in depth. She bases her relationships on what she didn't have in her childhood, the symbolism of the life she wanted which was filled with nice things and a stable life. Which she now had however she began to say “But I could never enjoy the room without worrying about mom and dad” (page 4). Even tho the cost of being ashamed of her parents caused her to drift from the relationship she had, she had felt as if she could not enjoy the greats she has in her life without being worried about the people she use to have a relationship with. This shows that even if her symbolic interaction was fulfilled she was unable to enjoy it because of the worrying she had because her parents did not have the same fulfillment in their lives.

However, we as readers, can conclude that she does not seem like the coquettish person, as the Duke says, but rather that she simply enjoyed life’s little pleasures. The problem in the marriage, from a reader's point of view,