Clarice Addington Analysis

The poem, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” written by Margaret Atwood was awfully sad and tragic as it described the death of her son and its lasting effect on her. The speaker begins the poem by describing how her son was brave, adventurous and led with success. However, the mood of the poem quickly changes as the young boy slipped off the bank and into the water. From there, the boy struggles in the water before eventually drowning. As he is pulled out of the water the mother realizes that all the plans that she had for the future are over and that a part of her has died alongside her son. Atwood uses multiple types of figurative language that gives this poem a sense of realism and really shows the reader the devastation and heartache that occurs after the loss of a child.

Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have

As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.

“Knowing Ms. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break it to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.” Her sister and husband’s friend Richard had to be careful when telling Ms. Mallard about her husband’s because it may give her problems with her heart. Ms. Mallard had to lock herself in her room and look out the window to calm down after hearing the news. She even knew that death is inevitable.

I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day 's work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary--a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master. I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master 's farms, near Lee 's Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of

While visiting his mom in the hospital, Russell is overcome by the tragic reality of the present, of the ability that life possesses to inflict much cruelty. During his early infrequent visits, he attempts to divert his mother 's senility and return her to the present. Hence, when he sits with her in a hospital, surrounded by the stench of illness, he relates much better to her situation and wonders where his fierce and confident mom vanished. So forth, it is in this whitewashed facility that it dawns on him that in essence, his mom had lost her happiness way before her mind had wandered and it irks him that he had not perceived that. Ironically, his mother, who is sitting in the same environment of doom, is oblivious to her bleak surroundings and is able to return to a place of serenity; her glorious past with wonderful memories. In contrast, Tillie Olsen sets a scene of a mother ironing in a warm and cozy environment with the happy banter of children in the backdrop. Thus, She portrays an image of a loving and prosperous rearing, of offspring. Yet, the opposite holds true and the same kid that is raised in this wonderful environment was not protected in her early years. In fact, Emily did not always have a stable home with parents who were available to her. In addition, the time frame of post depression and war era entwine the two stories. Both occurrences illustrate the harsh times that both

As her husband came home, it is no wonder that she had a heart attack. It was stated that she already had heart problems. It is ironic that she begins these plans in her head for a life without her husband, when she in reality is the one who dies and whose life is cut short.

Her stomach quivered as if it contained a thousand butterflies. The night of the ball, when Landon had taken her into his arms in the moonlit garden and asked her to sail away with him, he had given her hope that she’d spend her life with someone she desired, rather than her uncle’s choice, Pratt, an aging plantation owner or Doctor Garrison, a colorless, bland physician. Hart had offered her an opportunity to flee from her father’s and Uncle Jared’s scheme to see her “properly” wed and cared for before the start of the harvest season.

       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

Mr. and Mrs. White “hardly exchanged a word, for now they had nothing to talk about, and their days grew to weariness”(39). The house is now replete with shadows, darkness, and silence all because of Mr. White’s carelessness, the same carelessness he possesses in the game of chess, but instead of the death of his king, it causes the death of his son. The White family’s once mocking and joking relationship has grown apart for now mourning has taken the place of laughter and they barely exchange words because they have lost the one thing near and dear to them, their son. The hell that Mr.

As this piece is told in third person the reader has an insight to Granny Weatherall’s thoughts as she lay near death. In this time the reader gains an understanding of Granny Weatherall’s opinions collected for her children, Hapsy being the only one she truly wanted. Though Hapsy has died Granny Weatherall, “had to go a long way back through many rooms” and hallucinates her existence “to find Hapsy standing with

James miller Charlotte’s father did take a hard hit after his wife died, he didn’t know how he could raise a two daughters on his own. But he wasn’t the whole town knew the Millers, most of them worked and the miller’s wool mill, they owned. The whole town pitched in to help James take care of his two lovely daughters. Each one of the town’s people had an important role in the girls lives, even though they no longer had a mother, they still felt they did, she could never be replaced, but it was going to be easier to move on since they had a new big family made up of the towns people. Everyone loved Charlotte’s mother, everyone knew her and James well, so they couldn’t let him raise two beautiful girls by himself. As the girls grew the more the town’s people fell in love with them, they watched these two little girl grow into beautiful young ladies, who both became very responsible. One day out in the mill James miller went to work, it started out as an ordinary day but sadly ended it tragedy. While the girls were working at home on their chores, their father James was working in the mill, not knowing how old the equipment was he just treated it like any other day at

Racing home, Margaret watched the black clouds. Then, she hurried into the Anderson’s log house. There, she found her mother cradling her crying, baby sister Cary. She furthered into the living room, but she was not able to find her father and older brother William. Margaret quickly scurried over to her mother and asked,

Through Sethe’s telling of what she knew of her mother, the reader learns that while her mother was out in the field working, she had to be taken care of by “another women whose job it was” (Morrison 72). The reader also learns how Baby Sugg’s, another woman who lived prior to the American civil war, had all eight but one of her children taken away from her. Then there is Sethe, living after the civil war with her only child left. These stories help connect the idea of what it meant to be a mother during this gruesome time period. There is an evident theme of lost in Beloved by Toni Morrison, and throughout the story of these characters and the cruelty they endure, the reader witnesses how slavery resulted in the loss of

The news brings many guests to the widows’ house to give their condolences. Mary and Margaret appreciate the concern but want to be left alone to grieve because they know only they understand the pain that they’re feeling. After all the guests leave they console each other and it is clear that Margaret is having difficulty accepting their circumstances while Mary is doing a good job dealing with it.