Des Esseintes' Infatuation with Artifice in Huysmans' Against Nature

The creature voiced his opinion of spring by saying, “My senses were gratified and refreshed by a thousand scents of delight and a thousand sights of beauty.”(Shelley, 115) Along with the blessings of spring, the creature found love within the fabricated “company” of several cottagers; living within their presence for some time, hidden from sight in their hovel. He describes them as beautiful, god-like, and refers to them as his protectors, and even goes on to say “their story excited in me such various feelings of indignation, delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love and reverence for my protectors.” He is telling his story of the love he acquired from these “friends” as well as many other sense-awakening emotions. The creature studies the cottagers’ language, in the hopes that if he is able to talk like they do that will be able to look past his terrifying appearance and see what lies beneath. Soon, after mastering their common tongue, he finds the confidence to introduce himself to the blind man, De Lacey, in the hopes that they may become friends. The creature hopes that rather than judge him by his appearance, he will see what’s on the inside. What first sounded like a splendid idea objectively soon crumbled under the creature’s own feet. He reacted rashly and said the wrong things that portrayed him as if he had been devilishly stalking them. In the heat of the moment, the remaining cottagers returned home to find what looked like a monster trying to hurt De Lacey. In a swift movement, one of them was on the creature, “in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick.” The creature refrained to his hovel, not from physical pain, but from the sinking of his heart and the bitter sickness that followed. The creature escapes to the woods torn between two

“The only sounds I could hear above the trotting of the pony’s hooves and the rumble of the wheels and the creek of the cart were sudden harsh weird cries from birds near and far.”

Finalizing her poem with the last two stanzas, Espaillat describes her opinion about her father in a hopeful tone. “I like to think he knew that, even when, / proud (orgulloso) of his daughter’s pen, // her stood outside mis versos, half in fear / of words he loved but wants not to hear” (lis 15-18). She wishes for her father to accept

Esperanza is faced with several major events that forces her to mature at a young age. In these events readers can see how she grows as her emotions change. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza’s father passes away (p. 22) and their family home on the ranch, El Rancho de las Rosas, catches on fire (p.40). This is the beginning of Esperanza's quickly changed young life. As a young girl she realizes life will never be the same. She once was wealthy and lived life with the help of housekeepers. Papa also had field workers to help with his needs on the farm. Raised with a positive perspective on life, her hopes and dreams are soon challenged. Esperanza is forced to leave everything she has ever known to move to the United States. The fire is symbolic because the family is forced start all over, in life, along with her social

The vignette “Beautiful and Cruel,” conveys the impact it has on Esperanza. In this vignette, Esperanza feels that she is “an ugly daughter” and “the one nobody cares about” (Cisneros 88). She does not need, or want, a man to lead her life, unlike the women she knows. She does not need, or want, a man to make decisions for her. Unfortunately, she still feels the pressure to look gorgeous and stunning: “Nenny has pretty eyes and it’s easier to talk that way

This relates to the theme of the struggle for self definition, because at first Esperanza was under the impression she could change a man, but as she’s exposed to these horrible encounters she comes to the conclusion that boys and girls live in different worlds.

She also considers her differences as a source of isolation, as she floats in the sky for all to see. She longs to escape, much like a helium balloon. The anchor hinders her flight, similar to the confines that her granted by her society. Cisneros supplies Esperanza with a small voice, but also with a tone of wishful thinking, which gives her the ability to be powerful.

He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover, bordering the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there con over old Mather’s direful tales, until the gathering dusk of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farm-house where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination: the moan of the whip-poor-will* from the hill-side; the boding

A poignant figure in Esperanza’s life is her own grandmother. In fact, Esperanza was given her birth name after her grandmother. A touching gesture that came from good faith. A name may have some value, but for Esperanza there was a high intrinsic quality to such a simple component. Despite, never encountering her own grandmother in person, Esperanza was grateful to have fond memories by carrying her legacy through her name. Life’s motto concerns dealing with adversity and carrying the legacy of one’s family eternally. Being confident and smart was the only way to live by. No man was needed to help raise and nurture herself. Her grandmother instilled in Esperanza a sense of fortitude and independence. It is sad that a regret of Esperanza is linked to her grandmother, further illustrating the physical and mental hardships one can endure in

There are many ways that a person could use something to help them escape from a certain situation, or scenario, but the way that Esperanza escapes from Mango Street is through her writing. As she says on page 110, “I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much” (Cisneros 110). Through this quote, we see Esperanza conveying that, now that she has left, she is able to forget about Mango Street through her writing and that, by writing about it, she is able to forget her past and move on. Writing about the pain that a location or object may hold for someone is a common coping mechanism used by many to let go of the past. But another reason that Esperanza may write about Mango Street is to help her relieve her fear of potentially having to go back to the place she once called home. “You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are” (Cisneros 105). In this passage, the three sisters are reminding Esperanza that she will “always be Mango Street” and that she must one day come back for those who can’t leave. Esperanza reacts with opposition to this

As Cole stared at the tiny bodies, sadness flooded through him. The sparrows were so frail, helpless, and innocent. They hadn’t deserved to die. Then again, what right did they have to live? This haunted Cole. Did the birds’ insignificant little existences have any meaning at all? Or did his (82)?

When a character is exposed to an incident in which his or her perspective is forever changed, he or she will gain knowledge and maturity. An event such as being raped is an example of how one can lose his or her innocence. The House on Mango Street leads the reader into analyzing his or her own life. It shows how Esperanza’s pure view of life has changed to become a more sophisticated and realistic one. Growing up is something that everyone, at one point or another, goes through. This loss of innocence is something that is unavoidable and irreversible. When people lose their innocence, they gain maturity and gain knowledge. When a person losing the pureness in them, they open their eyes and they are able to see the world for what it really

She is just to use that identity to prove to others who her right self is, rather than the self that does not convey who she is. Near the end of the novel, Esperanza has come to the conclusion that she will not be someone who society had plan out for her, “... but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain… in the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel… I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.” (Cisneros 88,89) Esperanza will not grow up to be ordered around like the other women in her neighborhood. She will be a woman that is beautiful, yet cruel and in the eyes of men, she will be the man. She decides that she will not follow the rules of society like the fact that all a woman can do to escape, is to wait for a man to sweep them off the street. Instead, she will be a “man” of her own self where she will be “beautiful and cruel.” Esperanza will be cruel as she will not “grow up tame” like the women who does so by being scared, afraid, and controlled by their husbands. She is to be beautiful as she will be the one who holds power, and independence where she will depend on her own self. Esperanza changes the use of her identity, from having an identity to only represent her true inner self, to an identity that will change both the rules and paths that society. With the

Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she

In The Stranger, Albert Camus allows the main character to tell the story in order to give the reader an experience of his own. Obviously, with a novel also comes language, which Camus incorporates cleverly as a way to indirectly illustrate Meursault’s thoughts about certain situations. Although the novel represents a postmodern setting, the author shifts the overall meaning. In The Stranger, Camus applies a unique literary style as a power that deflects blame from Meursault, the antiheroic character. In order to disclaim the fault of Meursault, Camus incorporates several instances in which he leaves a greater sense of authority to nonliving objects, while further drawing attention away from the main character. Based on the implication of