There is an infinite number of personalities and the best art works portray them vividly and truthfully. Some people are practical, while others are more abstract. In the comedic novels about family life, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932) and Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mother's Boarders by Rosemary Taylor (1943), the practical characters are in the forefront. While representing different life phases due to their age difference, Gibbons's main character Flora Poste is quite similar in her life views and actions to Taylor's Mother. The central theme is the conflict between notions of practicality and romance, reflected by the actions of the heroines, which happen to be heavily affected by their unconventional upbringings. …show more content…
Both heroines' personalities are heavily affected by their rather unconventional childhoods. Since Mother was born right after the Civil War and had gone through the hard and poverty-stricken times in the South, “[t]here was something Spartan” in her nature and her seizing any possibility for making money (57). Flora's childhood was marked by her hardly knowing her parents and attending various schools, where she could hardly fit in. Overall, the theme of unconventional childhoods is one of the major themes of both novels. Most of the characters of Cold Comfort Farm seem to have psychological issues, which they developed from their childhoods. Ada Doom's seeing “something nasty in the woodshed” made a dominating and miserable being out of her (171). She brought up her daughter, Judit Starkadder, as an emotionally unstable. It resulted in Judith's obsession with her son, Seth Starkadder. The inferred Seth's molestation by his mother had resulted in him developing psychological issues of his own, including hate towards women and sexual promiscuity. On the contrary, Mother's and Flora's stern upbringing molded them into practical and realistic people, as well as allowed them to manipulate their surrounding characters. The novels are insightful to one of the human nature's desires of changing others. Both heroines change the lives of the whole cast of different characters, instead of allowing the environments to change them. They introduce other female characters to
As the narrator, Claire creates an emotional and compassionate tone throughout the story. Her dialogue constantly consists of words such as “honey”, “mommy”, “love”, which constitutes to the overall mood of the text (Carver 363). Additionally, she is constantly catering to her husband and child by cooking, cleaning, and performing tasks of the typical “stay-at-home” mom. Her affectionate personality, want for control, and mother-like performance plays a role in Carver’s explanation of the stereotypical mother and wife.
The authors of both stories wrote their stories, either accidentally or on purpose, with the undertones of feminism, hoping to expose the unequal treatment and expectations of females to males. Both stories challenged the stereotypical roles of females, and in both, the females ended up being the one in power of their own destinies and overcame the rule of their dominant male counterpart.
Flannery O’Connor introduces her reader’s too unique short stories. They are “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, having too similar characters in different setting, but with the same symbolic meaning. The comparison between Hugla from “Good Country People” to the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to find” is interesting, because they both suffer the same fate. In every short story O’Connor has created a intellectual individual who comes to a realization that their beliefs in there ability to control their lives and the lives of other are false. They enviably become the vulnerable, whereas they assumed it would be different. O’Connor has placed two misguide characters, that deem themselves to be manipulative and compulsive. At the end up of each short story they become vulnerable. Hugla from “Good Country People” and the grandmother from “A Good
While James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” depicts the connection between two brothers, Tillie Olsen’s short story “I Stand Here Ironing” represents the bond between a mother and her daughter. Both Baldwin and Olsen focus on family relationships and how emotional support vs neglect have an effect on family members. Also, each author conveys a message of finding self-identity even amidst adversity, while including the symbolism of everyday objects. Furthermore, Baldwin compares light and darkness throughout his story, and Olsen has the mother scrutinize her actions in an interior monologue.
The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother Vivi, as
How Louisa May Alcott emphasizes on certain aspect of each March girl that sets them apart from the other three is quite intriguing. For the most part, this book seemed more directed at a feminine audience. You’d have thought I could figure that out from the title, but I chose the book because of its reputation. Although it was slow and gradual (after all, the story followed the life of these little women), getting through the book was like growing up with the March girls. I like that Jo was a fiery tomboy, that Beth was shy and reserved, that Meg was all-knowing and wise, and that Amy was naive and proud. It was even more enjoyable to see them grow into adults that contradicted some of their former ways. Jo for instance, exhibited great change, especially when she burned her old sensationalist stories in Mr. Bhaer’s fire. This symbolic event included a step away from Jo’s old behavior and towards the life of the woman she was meant to be.
The women of these novels showed feminine empowerment. Although they had obstacles that could have over come them they still stood against them and showed that females can be strong and independent too.
On the other hand, it could be articulated that the female characters in both the novels have proved their mental instabilities, individualisms and rebelliousness have disturbed the lives of others. Moreover, it could be analyzed in the novels that both the author in their social context has explained the dark secrets of the life of individuals.
In my opinion, the author, Ruta Sepetys, moves the novel in an interesting fashion. I liked how there are many characters and how there is a lot of things happening. The author kept the reader interested at all times throughout the novel. The author, Ruta Sepetys, who writes historical non fiction books just as this novel, was born the daughter of a Lithuanian Refugee which may have influenced her to write this very novel. It is geared in a positive way due to Joana, a main character in the novel, helping to portray this with her nursing skills. Seeing the book in the Character of Joana’s eyes affects the overall novel in many different ways. Some may be on Joana’s good side and others may be on her bad side.
they also show the hard times those women authors faced during this period when they were
The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother
In “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Faulkner and Gilman employ point of view to question gender roles and mental health. Faulkner uses a third-person point of view in order to narrate the story from the perspective of the town. The perspective of an outsider looking in on Emily’s life highlights her lack of control as a woman and later, a lack of control she has over herself. The distant narrator creates a barrier to fully understanding Emily’s character and reflects how the town does not truly know her and her secrets. In contrast, Gilman uses a first-person point of view to narrate from the protagonist’s perspective. The utilization of an unreliable narrator allows for more understanding of the protagonist’s character, but less understanding of her situation as a whole. Moreover, the protagonist only writes when her husband John is not around which provides further insight into her deteriorating mental condition and the lack of control she has as a woman. Faulkner and Gilman use different narrative perspectives to achieve similar results. Each point of view hides or highlights the female character in order to reveal the struggles and insufficient help they receiving. These stories provide commentary on common issues for women and mental illness for their time period.
In the stories, there were both positive and negative aspects and characteristics that the two protagonists possessed. Both women were thought insane and although they may not have been originally, being locked up made other characters question their sanity.
It is impossible to discuss the role of women in literature without mentioning the influence of feminism. The later in the timeline one reads, the more prominent it becomes. Each new wave of feminism brings with it its own goals, yet it also continues to strive for some of the same goals as past generations because not everything is accomplished all at once. Although “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall and “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, are two starkly different texts that strongly reflect the feminist eras in which they were written, they have some similarities as well.
What do Betty from "Pleasantville," June from "Leave it to Beaver," and Donna Reed from "The Donna Reed Show" all have in common? They all represent the image of the perfect housewife in the 1950s. They represent women who gladly cooked, cleaned, dressed in pearls and wore high heals while waiting for their all-knowing husbands to come home. They represent women who can only find fulfillment in male domination and nurturing maternal love. Tillie Olsen, as a single mother with four children (204), provides readers with another view of women. Through the representation of the narrator in I Stand Here Ironing, Olsen contradicts the image of the 50s ideal woman, a happy housewife and a perfect mother.