Esme Oates: A Mother's Life

A particularly effective element of the production was the use of costume. The costumes exposed the time period, transporting the audience back to 1981, immediately involving me in the story. Costume represented the social class the characters belonged to. Mr and Mrs Lyons were rich and had a high social status, their costume established their character; Mr. Lyons was wearing a suit and Mrs. Lyons wore tights and uniform. In contrast, the Johnson family were living in poverty, and this is also shown through the usage of costume. I as audience felt empathy for Mrs Johnson as through costume I could see her financial struggle.

And had she changed? Did she also look better to Edwin, almost slender now and the freckles not noticeable except at the height of summer? And with her new-found ability for light talk? They were passing beneath the eucalyptus trees and the silver drops, falling as the wind shook the leaves, stung her face, feeling at once both cool and burning, Meadow larks in the fields which edged the campus sang in the quiet way they have after the rain has stopped.

10. What does the author notice about his mother’s appearance, and what advice does she give him when he asks her about different looks?

She had a healthy body, she was intelligent. She had an “abundant sexual drive and possessed strong arms and back,” (2, 8-9). She was herself blind to her own positive qualities as she was too busy trying to please others with her looks, “she went to and fro apologizing,” (2, 10). She apologized to everyone for her imperfections. The imagery of, “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (2, 11), portrays the indifference society felt towards her. She wanted to be appreciated, but she was only seen her for her looks and not her inner self. She had learned from the time she was a child her imperfections made her not good enough or socially

“This one was hardly bigger than a garage. The table was cluttered with limp- looking magazines and at one end of it there was a big green glass ashtray full of cigarette butts and cotton wads with little blood spots on them. If she had had anything to do with the running of the place, that would have been emptied every so often. There were no chairs against the wall at the head of the room. It had a rectangular-shaped panel in it that permitted a view of the office where the nurse came and went and the secretary listened to the radio. A plastic fern, in a gold pot sat in the opening and trailed its fronds down almost to the floor. The radio was softly playing gospel music” (O’Connor 3). As the Turpins waited Mrs. Turpin began to describe the other waiting room occupants to pass the time. Mrs. Turpin can be seen as a larger woman who is proud of her means and then there is her husband Claud who can be described as a “florid, bald, sturdy and shorter than Mrs. Turpin (O’Connor 1). Next was an unnamed blonde child whose attire consisted of a dirty blue romper, the boy’s mother was seen “wearing on a yellow sweatshirt and wine- colored slacks, both gritty-looking, and the rims of her lips were stained with snuff. Her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon” (O’Connor 5). The next woman is called the “stylish woman” by

Wearing the dress her mother asked her to made her realize how tiny she had become, when she looked in the mirror. She finally realized that she looked like the photos of the anorexic girls that the psychiatrist Dr. Katz had showed her.

She once wished to disappear, but her peers showed her the idea of the average American teenager. Jeanne fell into their world, changing herself and the way she dressed. Her conservative clothes disappeared, and were replaced by gaudy clothing that became a distraction from her heritage. Papa became outraged when he found out that Jeanne had been voted carnival princess at her new school. She barely won the vote, only after confronting teachers that stuffed the ballot box because they wanted Jeanne to lose. For her coronation night, Jeanne found a dress that was traditional and elegant. When she arrived that evening, her fellow contestants taunted Jeanne, making demeaning comments about her dress. One girl in particular was especially mean, ““The high neck,” she explained, studying my dress. “You look so… sedate. Just perfect for a queen.” As the other girls arrived, she made sure they all agreed with this. “Don’t you wish you’d thought of it,” she would say. And then to me, during a silence she felt obliged to fill, “I just love Chinese food.”” (Manzanar 180). The way that Lois Carson spoke to her reeked with sarcasm and made Jeanne feel like she didn’t belong with the other

The inn keeper's parlor was the best in town, they told her. His wife was wearing a heavy dress, adorned with lace and a massive broach that she raised a plump hand to touch, as if to be certain it was still there. They spoke of the massive rug, bought from Paris, and the finely crafted furniture they all sat upon. The preacher listened quietly, smiling as though their vanity wasn't a sin, while Mrs. Hartford eyed the dress with longing. Della thought that the dress was tasteless. The lace was poorly made, and the line of the bodice wasn't flattering. The fabric was an odd shade between blue and green, and the woman inside it was far less appealing. She didn't bother to mention that her own parlor had been filled with crystal, and priceless art her father had collected around the world. She didn't mention that her toys had cost more than Mrs. Johnson's gowns, or that she was mispronouncing the tea they'd been served. Not to be kind, not to be deceptive, but because did not matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. She'd given up that life to marry Ben, given up her family, given up her home and her gowns and her education.

When Henry gets home and starts dressing for dinner Elisa nervously waits on the porch for a reaction on her appearance from her passionless husband. “She looked toward the river road where the willow-line was still yellow with frosted leaves so that under the high grey fog they seemed a thin band of

She tightened her stomach and threw out her chest. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back. After a while she began to dress, slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings and the dress, which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips.”

The heavy emphasis on physical appearance and the subsequent consumerism it promotes is reflected through the characterisation of the protagonist Cher. The extreme importance that Cher places on physical appearance is highlighted when she complains about how teenage boys “just jump out of bed and put on baggy pants and greasy hair”. Her disgusted tone reflects the shallowness of judging individuals by their appearance rather than by their character. Furthermore, the modern take on social status is confirmed when Cher’s group of friends silently mock Tai after meeting her for the first time. The extreme contrast between the costuming such as the matching black and white outfits that Cher’s group of girls wear with Tai’s baggy pants and flannel shirt only serves to highlight how appearance is crucial for social standing. Remarkably, this is just as shallow and snobbish as Emma’s belief she is above mixing with “the yeomanry.” Hence, an appropriation provides refreshing ideas because it is able to transform the idea of rigid social class into the modern democratic context, showing the paradoxes between our shallow actions and democratic

Sylvia sat backstage of the Black Kitten, down three glasses of cherry-flavored alcohol, visibly shaking. A mood had hit her a few hours prior when she thought she’d seen Vincenzo enter through the front door. She’d gotten up from relaxing between performances and went to greet him affectionately, but it turned out that the curly black hair and tanned, Sicilian skin belonged to another. She’d stood in the middle of the smoky longue for seconds like a fool, leaning too far into this fling the two of them had created.

She met her first love interest at the cabaret and decided to move in with him to his countryside mansion. She eventually grew bored with him and met a new man, Arthur “Boy” Capel. She went to live with Arthur in Deauville, and took note of the clothing that the women were wearing. She was unimpressed, disgusted even, with the frilly, elaborate, and overly conservative designs that the women wore. She did not conform to these ideals.

Mrs. W. M. was attired in an elegant 'pate de foie gras,' made expressly for her, and was greatly admired. Miss S. had her hair done up. She was the center of attraction for the envy of all the ladies. Mrs. G. W. was tastefully dressed in a 'tout ensemble,' and was greeted with deafening applause wherever she went. Mrs. C. N. was superbly arrayed in white kid gloves. Her modest and engaging manner accorded well with the unpretending simplicity of her costume and caused her to be regarded with absorbing

She opened the door and stood staring. Looking down at us was a tall slim figure of a woman. She had such a pinched up face and I wondered how uncomfortable it must be. “Sophia, Ava?” She said sharply. We both nodded our heads in unison. “I’m Mrs Cox the Principal of Greenvale Girls Boarding school. I’ve come to pick you up” I looked at Sophia. She shrugged and went to tell mother who was probably in the kitchen. I was left with this woman staring at me.