Bernard Malamud Short Stories

“How do you like that? I 'm the victim. I 've always been the victim.” These are the words of Mrs. May, a character in Flannery O 'Connor’s short story, “Greenleaf”. Her remark is interesting because after studying the stories of various millionaires and successful people in the world, I discovered that a key trait that all of them possess is that they made a decision to not live their life as victims to their external circumstances. However, this is not the case with Mrs. May. She spent fifteen years living miserably because of her condescending and negative attitude towards the people in her life, especially the Greenleafs. Finally, to top it all of, a stray bull

The Smolinski family in Bread Givers was a typical immigrant family who faced struggles during the assimilation process. By looking at Sara and her father¡¯s perspectives that there is a gap of cultural differences and generational differences separated between them, where most immigrants¡¯ family faces. As a child of immigrant Sara was bound by her native culture, but she unlike her other sisters took the courage and effort by abandoning her own culture to assimilate the dominant American culture. She also have sacrificed her family separation, her youth and experiencing hardship in order to pursuit her dream.

Initially, the short story sensibly disgraces a representation of women in the 1950s. As the male is gracefully seen as a “calculating keen, acute, and perspicacious” individual, also above women. From that, the assumption of “Love is a Fallacy” may veer towards an anti-women point of view. The approach to short story is not portrayed as a single gender discriminator, because it equally displays antagonistic views.

Women have strived hard to gain the treatment as men. In the workplace, society, and even at home women were treated as second class to men. In Kate Chopin’s, The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard loses her husband, but her reaction is not what is expected from the reader. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction was from the treatment of her husband and now she finally felt free.

While the Smolinsky family is not literally “hanging on Bessie’s neck for her wages”, this displays to the reader how desperation affected them. The metaphor acts as a bridge between the reader and the event, therefore allowing them to feel the same worry that Sara harbors through the shared experience of “hanging” without support. It is important for the audience to relate to the characters, yet this cannot happen if the author’s portrayal gives little humanity to their characters. Hence, when Yezierska writes that financial help according to Sara and her family is a “stab into our burning shame”, it shows that despite any prior notions of poverty being an “ornament”, they still have human wants and needs. Moreover, it shows that her characters are not emotionless apathetic beings that live only on their faith; they too endure deviations from what is expected of them. At any rate, repeated similes have an analogous consequence on the reader's thoughts. Multiple comparisons within a small section of text compound the anxiety, bombarding the same heavy emotions that Sara feels onto the reader in a way that they can sympathize with her, and in turn, Yezierska herself. Altogether, these literary moves go further than simply entertaining the audience, but informing them about what the world was truly

In Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers of 1952, a family of immigrant parents living in poverty in the ghetto of New York City struggles to survive. Yezierska’s use of simile and hyperbole emphasize the fact that women's role in life is deteriorated by men. For so long, women have gotten the stereotype that they are only worthy of cooking and cleaning and are treated poorly by men. Unfortunately, Sarah begins to feel as if she is the only one who wants to be treated equally and stand up for themselves because both her sisters and mothers are coward. Father’s hyperbolic response to mother's opposition to his irrational declarations of being a banker emphasizes his resentment and insolence towards her. Father says, “Woman-- A nag, a noodnik that

The short stories in the novel Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat demonstrate the struggles that individuals face and how they react to them. The characters in the stories come from all different backgrounds and experiences but they all seem to share the same sense of suffering and pain. Danticat uses the women in the collections to display the struggles and unhappiness that the people of Haiti faced in the 1960’s. The women, all from different parts of Haiti and also New York, are faced with issues in the work place, in their social lives but most prominently, within their families. Each woman resolves or works to resolve her problems in a complete egotistical and unique way. In Krik? Krak! Danticat uses characterization to display the

A critical feminist view of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour focuses on female cruelty in the nineteenth century society and more specifically in marriages of the time. During that time period, women were owned by their husbands and had little to no control over their own lives, so in a sense women felt trapped inside of their marriages. The demonstration that is expressed in The Story of an Hour is the sense of freedom Louis Mallard experiences after she is aware of her husband’s death by a train accident. After Mrs. Mallard is told this expectantly tragic news, she goes off to her room alone, where one is predicted to believe she is going to grieve over her husband’s death.

Throughout history, women have been identified as pale reflections of men or as their opposite, characterized through perceived differences from men and subordinated because of them. From the emotional stereotype, housewife status, lower pay in the workforce, to sexual abuse and more, women have suffered it all. However, Kate Chopin used a prevailing theme to symbolize the core of what women have been deprived of most, a personal right of self-assertion. In the short story “The Story of An Hour” the theme of self- assertion is expressed through Mrs. Mallard’s struggle for her selfhood in a patriarchal society, her feeling of confinement in her marriage and the death of her husband.

Mrs. Louise Mallard, the main character from Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” is not the housewife that those around her assume. Although she loves her husband, she is shocked and overwhelmed by the sense of new-found freedom that accompanies her husband’s alleged death. Mrs. Mallard represents the patriarchal control over women of her time, as well as the postulation that a woman could not maintain her independence. Chopin uses Louise Mallard’s reactions to her husband’s supposed death, her subsequent untimely death, and the speculations of those around her to personify the dependent nature that was imposed on women of the turn-of-the-century.

In contemporary short stories, protagonist’s tragic demises are often derived within their own self-destruct. Such occurrence are clearly developed in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado,” in which a wealthy aristocrat falls victim to his fine taste of wine. Poe continues this theme in his work “The Black Cat,” by depicting a protagonist failing to realize the significance of his wrongdoings. By articulating characters with rather narrow mindsets, authors show the vulnerability of ignorance. Perhaps the greatest example is Jack London’s masterpiece, “To Build a Fire,” in which a protagonist a journey leagues above his capabilities. Perpetuating detrimental hubris, protagonist’s tragic flaws are exploited through the boastful conoseighership of wine, through the contempt satisfaction of crime, and through the unwillingness to listen to elders.

In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, the main character, Louise Mallard, is burdened with the news of her husband's death. As the story continues, readers believe that her actions are done out of grief, but when the reading is analyzed closer it is easy to see that Mrs. Mallard was not grief-stricken at all; she was quite the opposite. By clearly basing “The Story of an Hour” in its cultural context, Kate Chopin reveals a society steeped in the oppression of women.

Miriam’s Father has a strong attachment to the family owned store the Bargain Mart, which allows him to feel like he belongs. Miriam’s father views the store as not only a business but as part of his ability to support his family, and his own skills. He is indicated to feel his position as a provider is threatened, when the store struggles financially (Thien 316). This is his second business in Canada, the first of which failed (Thien 310). Therefore he becomes determined to prove that he can succeed. Miriam’s father becomes defensive, when Miriam’s mother questions him. He says, “I’m working as hard as I can,” and he questions why Miriam’s mother is doing well in Canada and he is not (Thien 326). If the store fails it would reflect back against Miriam’s father, indicting he is not a good provider, is not a good businessman, or cannot succeed in Canada. In this way place has become deeply imbedded into Miriam’s father’s own values and ideas. Therefore Miriam’s father keeps the store open until he cannot keep it open any longer, in order to protect his sense of belonging, both in Vancouver and in his family. Miriam’s father is suggested to use the Bargain Mart to mediate his relationship with his family, Canada and his career. His attachment to the store is so great that, his sense of belonging is also facilitated through the store. When the store eventually closes, Miriam’s father begins to feel

A few weeks later, Mama sends Annemarie, Ellen, and Kirsti to visit Mrs. Hirsch, a Jewish who owns a button-and-thread store, for Kiirst's button was lost. When they arrive, they realized that the Germans closed Mrs. Hirsch’s store because she is Jewish. Upon hearing this, Mama becomes very worried. That night, Mama, Mr. Johansen (Annemarie's papa) and Peter (the engaged man who was supposed to marry with Annemarie's dead sister, Lise) discussed about the event. Peter, as a member of the Danish Resistance, explains that life will only get harder for the Jews in Denmark. Annemarie wonders what will happen to Mrs. Hirsch and the Rosens, but the adults tells her that their friends will take care of them.

Throughout the short stories, characters endure circumstances that allow them to realize the unfairness of the world, ultimately causing a change in attitude. In “Souvenir,” the protagonist finds herself in a shop purchasing a pack of condoms for her mentally ill boyfriend while being followed by an old man. With the belief that sacrificing something precious of herself such as her virginity, the teenager initially felt that her love could save him from his mental illness. Those in the store around her, however, forced humiliation upon her, especially the elderly man. Finally becoming aware to those around her, she has an epiphany of those surrounding her in addition to the society she lives in. Witnessing the differences in people’s behaviors and attitudes, she grasps the understanding that people are influenced by others