Ethan Frome: Who Is to Blame?

Matt strongly does not put up with Jamie’s family’s thoughts of selling the lake house. He becomes irritated with Linda and tells her “Me and Jamie do not owe you anything.” Linda’s reply of “you owe us everything, if Charlton had not taken you on you would never have been able to make a down payment on that lake house”. This only strengthens Matt’s decision to follow his dreams with Jamie. It is astounding that Matt and Jamie are looked down upon because their life together is

The two were ultimately different in the beginning of the story but eventually Mattie has to endure what Zeena did and it makes Mattie more alike to Zeena. Irony is seen since in the beginning it may have seemed that Zeena had a terrible life but in the end Mattie was the one stripped of all that she

Later on the story Mattie experiences her grandfather?s death, which taught her to stand up for herself. After all of the hardships that Mattie and Grandfather faced out on their own, they came back to a Philadelphia very unalike the one they had left, and their coffeehouse home was no different. It was completely robbed of almost everything and shards of glass were everywhere. Although this did not stop two thieves from coming in and killing grandfather when he tried to fight back. Mattie did not take this well however. After Grandfather fainted, she gashed the robber?s shoulder with her granddad?s sword which sent him running down the street with Mattie chasing him close behind. This event clearly shows that Mattie learned to stand up for herself against higher authority, which is a big part of adulthood.

In the beginning Mattie experiences grief for the first time since her dad died. Her friend and co worker Polly, had suddenly died one night when she was sewing. Even though Mattie wasn’t able to pay her respects to Polly’s mother she knew there was other things to worry about. Only a few chapters later Mattie’s mom became sick with the same disease that was now raging across the city. Mattie took care of her mother while she was experiencing the symptoms of the fever. It is clear throughout the beginning of the book Mattie perseveres through hard times even if her family and friends are sick and dying.

She explains her disposition in the subject of a loving husband; she insinuates that she would have liked to have a mate but that she was not as fortunate as other women. Mattie loses her arm because of her stubbornness and “grit”, if she had restrained her need for settling the scores and not departed on the endeavor to end her vendetta against Chaney, she would still have two arms. Ultimately, her future suffers for her all-consuming need of

Mattie Michael grew up in Tennessee with her family and the father of her child, Butch Fuller. Everyone tells her to avoid him, including Butch himself who warns her saying, “eating cane is like living life. You gotta know when to stop chewing– when to stop trying to wrench every last bit of sweetness out of a wedge…. trick is to spit it out when the wedge is still firm… It’s hard, but you gotta spit it out right then, or you gonna find yourself chewing on nothin’ but straw in that last round” (18). Butch clearly tells her about how he he lives his life, and his issue with staying, yet, Mattie makes the mistake of getting herself involved which leads to her being impregnated by him. This results in her father savagely beating her to the point where she has to flee to Chicago and start her life alone raising her son. Though, Mattie gets through all of this and finds herself in the grace of Ms. Eva who shelters her. Then, after getting the house after Ms. Eva’s death,

The most reasonable idea that allows Mattie to be the protagonist is that she cared for a little girl named Nell even though she was struggling to care for herself. I predict that having Nell in the hands of Mattie, Grandfather dying, and Mother being gone made sense come to Mattie assuring her that caring for others as well as yourself alone is a huge responsibility. This quote shows Mattie’s thought after Grandfather’s death, “No, I could care for myself. I was not a child.” The two character traits that explains how Mattie matured is independent and a hero. She is independent because she was on her own for awhile and had to find food for herself and care for herself. This piece of evidence shows how she was alone with no one to feed or care for her, “I was alone; Grandfather was dead and Mother missing.” She had no one to count on but herself. Mattie being a hero shows a lot of her maturing. This is because she didn’t care for lots of things such as doing chores, but when things changed she realized that other people were in the need of her help like

Mattie is a fourteen year old girl, who has the responsibilities of an adult, which was expected of people that age in this time period. “[Mattie] kept his books for him”(keeping the books means keeping track of the money) said Mattie when she was explaining why she knew how much money her father had (Portis 15). This quote is interesting because it exhibits the amount of responsibility that was put upon her even at a young age. Also, Mattie seems to have the best math skills in her family despite having a mother and father much older than her. Mattie told Yarnell, (who is an African American that works for Mattie's family) “Yarnell said ‘you can't stay in the city by yourself’ [Mattie] said ‘It will be alright’” (Portis 26). Mattie is going to stay in the city by herself without her mom knowing when she will return, or what her sleeping arrangements are. It is strange because she is a young girl in a city alone with nobody to protect her, and her mother has no idea what is going on. Mattie told the sheriff “[I’am] looking for the man who shot and killed my father” (Poti 59). Mattie is not asking the sheriff to find the man and bring him to

Mattie was smart. She remembered everything her grandpa taught her. She saw Willow trees and remembered this trick: find a Willow tree and you will soon see water nearby. She saw raspberries, and knew that rabbits were nearby. She is the reason why her and her grandfather survived. Her personal traits that helped her get through this was the

Ethan ends up falling in love with Mattie. Mattie offers the warm qualities of a relationship that Zeena|

When Mattie is to be sent away, Ethan and Mattie grow desperate looking for a way out of their impossible situation. They decide that it is better to die in a sledding accident together than live their lives apart. Ethan hesitates slightly, “But in a flash

Previously, Ethan went to work hauling wood, meanwhile, through his work, he was perpetually thinking of Mattie, and how he should have kissed her when they were together. Moreover, Ethan decided to continue working, due to his frustration, however, he decided to head on home, where he encountered his wife wearing her best dress, due to she was planning to see a new doctor, as a result of no longer being able to withstand her pain.

Throughout the story Ethan lets Zeena be in charge and never fights his own case against her. This reveals a flaw in Ethan’s character. When Zeena tells Ethan that she is kicking Mattie out and hiring a servant to help with her with her sickness Ethan tries to find many solutions but does not directly tell Zeena she cannot kick Mattie out. Ethan Frome recalls when he left Zeena alone that night and how helpless he felt going against her “he shut the door and turned back into the room. His wife’s attitude was unchanged, her face inexorable and he was seized with the despairing sense of his helplessness” (73). Also their actions prove that Zeena manipulates Ethan including using his money. When Zeena was leaving to visit a doctor Ethan didn’t take her because he was to collect money and regrets his lie “’I’d take you over myself, only I’ve got to collect the cash for the lumber.’ As soon as the words were spoken he regretted them, not only because they were untrue—there being no prospect of his receiving cash payment from Hale—but also because he knew from experience the imprudence of letting Zeena think he was in funds on the eve of one of her therapeutic excursions” (41). He lets Zeena take advantage of him and use his money on her false illnesses which eventually causes him to resent his and Zeena’s marriage and fall in infatuation with

Ethan, the main character, continuously fails to express himself, no matter how strongly he desires to. “He took a wild step forward and then stopped.” (88) In the scene Ethan arguing to keep the hired girl his wife and him have, but fails to show any emotion. This causes the situation to turn against him, due to his failure to show how he feels. “When the door of her room had closed on her he remembered that he had not even touched her hand.” (72) In this scene Ethan tries to connect to the hired girl, Mattie Silver, who he is secretly in love with. Ethan spends the entire night with her, and yet

Mattie is now in the initiation step of the journey, where she will go through four parts; the first part is the challenges and the second is the abyss. Anywhere that Mattie went she faced challenges as how the hero’s journey’s writes, “Whichever direction the voyage takes… [she] puts [herself] more and more at risk, emotionally and physically…. always seem to strike the initiate’s greatest weakness: [her] poorest skills… [Her] most vulnerable emotions” (Harris and Thompson 51). A challenge that we see Mattie puts herself at risk and show her weakness is when see faces Tom Chaney and says,