Innocence And Experience In Mansfield's Work

The combinations of all the emotions she had started to channel into “one great impulse toward destruction” (4, Collier). This foreshadowed the destruction of the objects that confused Lizabeth the most- Mrs. Lottie’s marigolds. In the story it says, “I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying the perfect yellow blooms” (5, Collier). This is the point in the story where channeling these emotions into one violent action changes Lizabeth’s understanding in life. She sees more in life than just horseplay. Lizabeth’s personality has changed from a child, into a woman as it says, “that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood” (5, Collier). In remembrance of Mrs. Lottie, Lizabeth even ends up planting marigolds. Maturity changes a person, and gives them an understanding from the inside of their

This gender role construct is what often makes women feel powerless/paralyzed to change their role in the domestic sphere due to overriding authority of the “masculine world.” In a literary point of view, the role of the mediocre woman in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility can describe how women, such as Lady Middleton and Lucy Steel conform to these submissive gender roles in the 19th century patriarchal institution of marriage.

Themes in literary works are central, recurring ideas or messages that allow us to understand more deeply about the characters. It is a perception about life or human nature that is often shared with the reader. In The Catcher in the Rye, there are several themes that can be found in the words and actions of the narrator, Holden Caulfield. The dominating theme in this novel is the preservation of innocence, especially of children. We can see this throughout the novel, as Holden strives to preserve innocence in himself and others.

The friends of the narrator, however, do not hide in the imaginary world of childhood and are maturing into adolescents. Sally, “ screamed if she got her stockings muddy,” felt they were too old to “ the games” (paragraph 9). Sally stayed by the curb and talked to the boys (paragraph 10).

As a little girl, I saw the world in the best light simply because innocence clouded my judgement. As a child, I was innocent of mortality, as a teen hope, and as a young adult love. However, later on that innocence took on the role of ignorance. Not in the sense of not being knowledgeable or educated on the matter, but rather knowing it all too well that I choose not to acknowledge it. Innocence can be served as an instrument to block out surroundings when problems arise. It is an illusion of reality to protect what the individual desires to be true to what is actual. In Wendy Cope’s poem “Reading Scheme,” Cope writes about an affair more from the perspective of children by using the villanelle form to illustrate the inability of the

In addition to this in “The Story of an Hour”, Mallard is confined to the home due to her illness as her husband, Brently, is also away on a trip. This is an indication of what Kent attempts to explain in his article. The undisputed authority that Victorian men hold against women proves to connect to gender oppression and leads to the domestication of women.

Holden’s view of life is that it can be very cruel and unfair. The origin of this thinking is from his younger brother Allie. He feels guilty that he is essentially wasting his life away, while Allie died so very young of Leukemia. This is a huge part of his entire journey. Holden always describes Allie as a very smart and kind person that he looked up to, which is why he feels life is so cruel.

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the

any better, he went for it.  He was then met by a mob of angry villagers,

As people gain new experiences different losses of innocence come along with that, this is shown in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Throughout the book innocence plays a big role in the characterization of Frankenstein, the monster and most of the other characters in the book. But, as tragedies in the book occur they also symbolize losses of innocence in both the monster and Frankenstein. As these losses of innocence occur the reader begins to realize that each of them also seems to symbolize another loss of innocence but one that is just under the surface of literal meanings. One of the common double losses of innocence is all of the deaths that occur in the book. While examining the characterization and the deaths of Elizabeth and Justine, the reader comes to realize that all of those deaths symbolize the loss of innocence. Through these deaths, it is shown that Frankenstein and the monster continued to lose their innocence until it is nonexistent.

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, is based primarily around the “Old” New York in the 1870s. She wrote the book around 1920s, in which she includes a love triangle which displays the character’s inability to make a decision. At first, the central character, Newland Archer, is in the midst of announcing his engagement to May when he gets introduced to her cousin Countess Olenska. When he is introduced to the Countess' problems, he views them as an annoyance. However, they prompt him to start looking at his own views and thinking in regards to May’s social set. He starts to view the cosmopolitan Ellen as an alternative to May due to her views and the way she doesn’t fear to say what she feels. His desire and view of Ellen raised many complications that shows innocence as more of an appearance than reality. In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton uses metaphors of sight to explore the relationship between innocence and how it appears to the average New Yorker during the Gilded Age.

The way princes “ran off with parlormaids” suggests a juvenile love that forms when parents and society disapproves of it which generates a little drama to the reader before Larson begins to give more examples of different affairs. The manner in which “bank presidents seduced typewriters” offers more mature prospect and “seduced” denotes a more surreptitious, more serious relationship to add more tension. By adding “when necessary” and projecting a final example of an affair, Larson displays how enticing and potentially risky these involvements are, even to people considered rational and professional like attorneys and doctors, to amplify the building drama. The parallelism of the list of scandalous affairs emphasizes Larson’s word choice of how Holmes “reveled” in his “possession” of a secluded woman in a faux innocuous affair demonstrates how Julia was just a mere toy to him that belongs to him “as if she were an antebellum slave” for his amusement and use which elevates the tensions the reader feels

make fun of or judge a guest of the house. In her innocence, she had

In this story, the characters cope with good and evil differently. Mrs. Hopewell’s perennial optimism is balanced by her daughter’s self-chosen misery. Mrs. Hopewell doesn’t understand her daughter and is insensitive to Hulga’s bitterness at her maiming. Hulga sees herself a liberating people from their illusions, believing she has none of her own. Hulga has a wooden leg, which is her most valuable possession because it is her mark of her difference. She prizes this because she considers herself more intellectual than all of the “good country people” around her, especially her mother, their neighbors and finally Manley Pointer, a Bible salesman. Mrs. Freeman sees through the illusions of the Hopewell household. She knows her place in the economy of the household and hers if the final comment in the story.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a book that gave the word “love” many other meanings, such as impossible, meaningless and incomplete. There were many unbearable obstacles that Countess Ellen Olenska, one of the main characters, had to face because of love. She was treated badly by many people and always longed for love but never obtained it. With everyone cursing her, betraying her and hurting her, there was one person who was always there for her. Newland Archer wasn’t only sympathetic towards her; he also began to fall in love with her. The love she always wanted. He was the man who truly cared for her and always helped her make decisions. Out of all the selfish people in New York who