Comparing Guy de Maupassant's 'The Necklace' and Patricia Smith's 'What It's Like to Be a Black Girl'

In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing “herself born for every delicacy and luxury”(82). Mathilde’s vain materialistic goals, make her bitter and unhappy. The main point of irony in the story is the fact that Mathilde borrows the necklace and looses it. The necklace was very expensive, or so she thought, so she ended up in poverty

The quality of one’s emotional life changes over the years. But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In short story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman by the name of Mathilde. She’s described to be average in the physical sense and was married to a clerk by the name of Loisel. The couple get invited to a ball and shortly after, Mathlide complains that her wardrobe was too embarrassing to wear to the ball. Loisel buys his wife a gown and suggests she borrows a necklace from her friend to complete the outfit. Mathlide falls in love with a necklace from the collection. “She threw her arms round her friend's neck, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure” (Maupassant 44). The night of the ball Mathlide realized she had lost the necklace. The couple decide to replace the necklace ad work ten years to pay off the debt, finally finds out the original necklace was a fake. This short story created a perspective for who to blame for the outcome of the situation, which in this case is Mathlide.

In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" is the story of Mathilde Loisel, who resents her "station" in life. Mathilde Loisel is shown to be a vain and ungrateful person who believes that she was born to have a better life. She feels that she has married beneath her, in spite of the fact that her husband is a hard working and dependable man. Mathilde is unable to recognize and appreciate the

Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and

The family physician, big box supercenter, local pharmacy, large chain pharmacies, the dentists' office are all places we are bombarded with various health promotion materials. Some encourage vaccination, others warn of serious diseases while some provide information on how to manage common ailments and conditions. Needless to say, there were many pamphlets to choose from for this assignment. I have chosen to analyze an Allergy Relief pamphlet published by the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. I wasn't shocked to find this among the healthcare promotional pamphlets at a local pharmacy as we are currently in allergy season. As directed, this paper will analyze several components of the pamphlet including content, quality, usefulness and cultural sensitivity and competence, just to name a few.

‘The Necklace’ is a morality tale written by Guy de Maupassant where he portrays the life of a beautiful but dissatisfied girl named Mathilde who desires to live a luxurious life despite being born into a clerk’s family and marrying a clerk too. Mathilde’s discontentment in life instigates her to pretend someone rich that she is not. Moreover, it leads her to severe trouble that caused ten years of hardship to Mathilde and her husband. So, this suffering is a punishment for Mathilde which taught her a lesson and changed her dramatically over the course of the story by making her a person of completely different personality for whom appearances

In the second story, The Necklace, writers reveals the how the reality of a woman situation is that she is neither wealthy nor part of the social class of which she feels she is a deserving member, but Mathilde does everything in her power to make her life appear different from how it is. She lives in an illusory world where her actual life does not match the ideal life she has in her head—she believes that her beauty and charm make her worthy of greater things. The party is a triumph because for the first time, her appearance matches the reality of her life. She is prettier than the other women, sought

Just her braveness and godliness sets an important atmosphere for the story. In “What it is like to be a black girl” author Patricia Smith uses modern day as her setting for her poem. In her poem she speaks of black girls putting on wigs and coloring their eyes with color (Contacts). Here Mrs. Smith enhances a setting of an on- going struggle for acceptance even in this day and age when we all are supposed to feel equal.

Similarly, in “The Necklace” the author uses imagery and setting to show why Mathilde feels ashamed of her background, which essentially leads to the downfall of her youth. As Maupassant described her as a “pretty and charming [girl]” (Maupassant 1). This creates the notion that pretty girls are suppose to be born in a wealthy family. Also, the creation of a line is established with saying that the poor do not match up to the wealth or looks of the upper class. As the story continued, Mathilde wanted a new gown to

The short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is about a pretty girl named Mathilde Loisel who is born into a family of clerks. She is married to a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education. Mathilde Loisel’s husband brings her an invitation to attend an evening reception because she is always gloomy and sad. For the party, she buys a new dress and borrows a beautiful necklace from her friend Madame Forestier. When she comes home from the party, Mathilde realizes that the necklace is not on her.

During this time period, women’s role in society was that of a submissive, powerless position. They often relied solely on their husband for direction, allowing the husband to make decisions and take lead no matter what. In the story of The Necklace, Maupassant illustrates these

Unlike Gordimer, Maupassant has more focus on characters rather than the setting, which is used mainly to progress the plot and character development. Being that the center of focus in "The Necklace" is it's characters, it starts off by giving detail on Mathilde, "She was one of those pretty, charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if a slip of fate, into a petty official's family," (Maupassant 1). The story is started in this fashion to develop Mathilde's importance as a character from the beginning, while paying no attention to setting in the first

Exposition- In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant the reader learns that the story takes place in 19th century Paris, France. It’s important for the reader to know this so they can get a feel for the time’s culture. We also learn about Mathilde’s wants and haves and we see how she feels towards them. This is also when Mr. Loisel shows Mathilde the invitation and she says she will not attend if she does not have a new fancy gown. Conflicts- One of the main conflicts is that Mathilde wants everything she cannot have without this there would be no story because if she was fine with what she had she would have never wanted the

The nineteenth century French writer, Guy De Maupassant, tells an intriguing story in "The Necklace." He depicts the painful life of a beautiful woman, unhappily born into an average family of clerks. She felt that she was destined to marry into wealth but sadly found herself settling as she married an average copyist. Unlike the women of today, women in the nineteenth century were not fortunate enough to have a career of their own; they were either born into a wealthy family or married a man with money. In "The Necklace", Guy De Maupassant creatively reveals Mathilde Loisel's dreams of a decadent lifestyle. As her struggles start to unravel, it becomes obvious that her heartache is solely

“She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born, as if by an accident into a family of clerks” this is what Guy de Maupassant started “The Necklace” off by saying (Maupassant 221). Also, this helps describe the main character and to give the readers a visual of Mathilde Loisel. “The Necklace” is a short story that Mathilde Loisel, the main female character, wants to be a higher class than she really is. Mathilde’s life drastically changes one night after she loses the necklace. Guy de Maupassant incorporates his use of the social class into the short story.