Danticat's Night Women

In "A Sorrowful Woman" the wife is depressed with her life, so much so, "The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again"(p.1). This wife and mother has come to detest her life, the sight of her family,

“Story of an Hour” uses Louise Mallard’s repressed life as a wife to elucidate how repression can lead to bottled up depression. Louise Mallard understands the “right” way for women to behave, but her internal thoughts and feelings are anything but correct. This is first illustrated by the initial reaction to her husband’s death, where she cries instead of feeling numb, as she suspects other women would do. The death of her husband acts as a catalyst to alleviate her depression that rooted in her marriage. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Louise’s heart problem, which shows the extent to which she believes her marriage has trapped her. The author of the story gives a vague description of Mallard’s heart condition just simply calling it a “heart problem” (Choplin 452). This vague description shows how her “heart problem” is both physical and

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

A life as a wife and/or a mother, is usually appreciated and is a happy life as well. A relationship between two people should consist of joy, commitment, responsibility, and most importantly love. For the two main characters in both stories ( “The Story of An Hour”, and “A Sorrowful Woman” ) this was not the case. The stories go against societies view with marriage roles and happiness.

The father’s way of dealing with his inner issues is reflected by the way he distracts himself with hobbies of the women he loves. This illustrates how a sudden tragedy can influence someone’s lifestyle. In fact, before his first wife passed away he showed a lot of interest in art and when she died he was lost and devastated ,” (…) after mom died, my sister and I used to worry about his living alone. And he was lonely.We knew that after putting in his usual twelve-hours workday, he would return to the empty house (...) then read medical journals until it was time to go to sleep.”(16). This implies that

“A Sorrowful Woman” features a superficially simple narration style. “Now the days were too short. She was always busy,” Stylistically clipped, with a clear passive, detached, voice the narration style seems to be a banal, unimportant feature of the text. Yet the exact mendacity that prompts this description actually serves as a prerequisite to developing an understanding for the principal character’s mindset, and consequently the theme of the text. The last passage contains numerous examples of detached narration but the clearest occurs when “She was always busy. She woke with the first bird. Worked till the sun set. No time for hair brushing. Her fingers raced the hours.” The concise, third person narration in this segment allows the reader to experience the slightly off viewpoint of ‘the mother.’ Specifically, given the lack of motivation present through the text coupled with the concluding suicide it becomes evident in the text that ‘the mother’ is suffering from depression. Given the societal stigma surrounding mental illness authors generally face an uphill

In the early 19th century, women were oppressed, and marriage was a social status, not a choice. Mrs. Mallard was a wife during 19th Century and her home was where she would spend most of her days. She also suffers from a heart condition. She learns of the tragic news on the first floor of her two story home. Her sister Josephine was the one to tell her “ in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing.”(287) The news was revealed as delicate as possible, due to Mrs. Mallard's heart condition. Mrs. Mallard heard the news, she wept, a sense of grief comes upon her. Once she removed herself from her sister Josephine's arms, she went off to her room. It reads, “ When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. No one to follow her”(287). During this time, women were looked down upon if they were not married. Most women were given away by their

I also felt sorry for “the man”, one, because he has to tell his child where his mother is “For the love of God woman. What am I to tell him?” (McCarthy 58), and two, because his love and best friend was in such despair and there was nothing he could do to impel her to stay. As a mother, in some ways, I also felt sorry for the mother in this book, because most women dream of the day she will have a child of her own to love, care for, and teach, but this mother had to give birth to her son after the great catastrophe, and instead of bringing her tears of happiness, it brought tears of sorrow. She now knows that she has to raise her son in this dark and barley habitable world and that it will be a constant struggle to survive. “My heart was ripped out of me the night he was born…” (McCarthy 57). On the other hand though, I am also disgusted with the mother for the one reason that she gave up, and now her family, especially her child, has to suffer the consequences due to her actions, but again, given that I put myself in her situation, would I do the same thing? While reading I also felt deep sadness in many parts, for one instance, when “the man” dies, at this point in the book I had tears streaming down my face. “He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stiff.” “He sat there a long time weeping...”(McCarthy 281). “He knelt beside his father held his cold hand and said his name over and over

In The Book of Night Women by Marlon James, James shows readers the Jamaican sugar plantation that occurred during the 19th century. James shapes his plot as close to the ruthless actualities of slavery it imposes on people, and there are two perspectives that touch on this idea too: “A revenge tragedy for our times” by Donna Bailey Nurse and “RACISM IN THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN” by VS Agami. In James’ novel, the protagonist, Lilith, is a dark-skinned slave who struggles to surpass the violence into which she is born. Through the motif of circles and Lilith’s slave experiences, James portrays a structure of human oppression in slavery, achieved through his writing style, which leads to violence being the only outcome.

       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

To start with, I would like to express my thoughts about “Night Women”, which has become one of my favorite stories due to its unique language, exquisite metaphors, and powerful message. It is about the life and hard times of any single mother who has to do whatever possible to provide a means for their family because her son’s father decided to “disappear with the nights shadows a long time ago.” It shows different feelings, which are mixed, and some of these feelings are the innocence of a child as well as the care and love of a mother through hard work, sacrifice, and dedication. She was a prostitute, a job that is very hard for any woman, but most of them depend on it in order to succeed and make money to cover their costs of living.

The poem, "The Night House" by Billy Collins, is very symbolic and meaningful, and most people can relate to because everyone has something they are not content with in life. Collins is a great, straightforward writer that people can depict with in his poems because he is practical and uses simple things or everyday experiences in an easy way. This poem in particular is very symbolic and effortless to analyze because it is the everyday life--- going to work, coming home, and then going to sleep--- the cycle then repeats over and over. He talks about "the body works" at the beginning (which sets the tone for the rest of the poem), which symbolizes that our hearts and minds are not always into what we are doing. He talks and illustrates figurative parts of the body: the heart, mind, conscience, and soul. When he talks about the woman sleeping, all these figurative body parts are restless and come out at night to do what they really want to do.

The common theme is that women are weak and cannot continue to live their life without families in 19th century. From “The Story of an Hour” we can see that the main character, Louise Mallard was happy after knowing her husband was dead. She was celebrating the freedom she obtained because of the death of her husband. In fact, she could divorce with her husband if she did not love him anymore. Somehow, she did not dare to ask for divorcing. Besides, in “Desiree’s Baby”, the main character, Desiree was weak as she cannot stand for her husband’s mental abuse towards her that he changed his attitude towards her, he talked to her with averted eyes, losing all his love towards her because she was potentially a black. Thus, she went away from L’ Abri with her baby, risking her life and her baby’s

At the beginning of the story I thought that she would allow the death of her husband take a huge toll on her emotions and her life. On page 1 paragraph 3 line 2, it states "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms." She instantly felt grief, as if a dark cloud blocked her sunshine. This is not what struck me about her opinion on the women population during the 19th century it was the line before that where it is written that she did not hear the story the way other women would. This suggested that the woman in the 19th century didn’t have enough strength in them to accept the absence of their husband, and continue living their lives. Women surrounded their lives around these men that they married.

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.