Essay on Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place

In the beginning of the book Mattie is always being told what to do, when to wake up, how to do her chores, etc. This causes her to be unreliable as well as immature when she takes her anger out on her cat Silas. Mattie also tended to mumble things under her breath. This demonstrates to the reader that Mattie isn’t good with handling her problems. In the book on page 53 chapter 17 it saids “ I stood so quickly that the seams under my arms ripped open with a snarl...It’s not a tavern, it’s a coffeehouse”(Anderson 17). To sum up the quote Mattie gets offended and deals with it in an immature way, which leads to her standing up and yelling across the table. When the story starts to pick up Mattie finds herself in a situation causing her to become more like a mother figure. This happens when she finds Nell and cares for her. When Mattie finds Nell, Nell is in a house alone as her mother lays dead on the bed. Mattie knows that Nell doesn’t know what is happening so she takes her. Mattie even said that they need each other causing Mattie to mature in a situation like that. On page 179 chapter 23 it saids “ Nell climbed in my lap and fell asleep sucking her thumb...I worked the knots out of her hair slowly and gently”(Anderson 179). This quote has changed Mattie to being the character she was in the story. Mattie somewhat adopted Nell into her family as she has matured

A character in this story that plays an important part is Matt’s friend, Maria. Maria is always kind to Matt and although he is a clone, Maria still loves him and likes talking to him and Matt also loves Maria. Maria is always kind to Matt and has wanted to play with him ever since they met. On page 15 Maria shouts,“Hey, boy! What’s your name? Do you want to play?” This quote from the book is the first time Maria and Matt met. After the first day they met, Maria has always liked him and never forgotten about him. Maria

Elaine and Robert, Mattie's two unmarried children, along with other family and friends, are encouraging her to be what they expect a seventy-eight year old woman to be. They talk about how she needs to get rest because she is slowing down and can't keep going as steady as she seems to think. When she decided to try and help a young juvenile, Wesley Benfield, become a better person by taking him to church and offering him to stay the night with her, Robert thought that Mattie was sick.

Representing her living family and her father’s name, she withstands strife, danger, and death. From her band of outcast “contract killers” facing their own inner turmoil- an example being LaBoeuf’s fleeting trust in Rooster Cogburn- to the danger and death that coincides with Ned Pepper’s gang, Mattie seems to be indestructible. Man, can this girl take a punch! Riding side by side with her mentor Rooster Cogburn, a man whose reputation lies with the bodies of men he’s killed, Mattie exhibits yet another trait associated with the heroic archetype: gaining knowledge from her mentor. Although Cogburn’s morals may be questionable, he teaches Mattie the set of skills needed for her hunt, and for life.

“. . . The finest man I had ever known” (Anderson 149). He was a man who was the captain of Pennsylvania Fifth Regiment and served under George Washington. He always found a way for Mattie to break away from Mother’s thoughts--he pampered her. He also taught her the basics of soldiering, which Matilda used when she and Grandfather were kicked off a wagon due to Grandfather’s coughing--the summer grippe. Both Matilda and her grandfather were stranded in the middle of nowhere and in order to return to their homeland they would have to walk miles and miles. As strong, brave, and courageous her grandfather was; he decided to go out and look for her. He found Matilda laying on the floor because of her faint. Matilda’s grandfather picked her up in the struggling heat and carried her all the way to Bush Hill. Where she fought off the fever and was treated. “Imagine a man his age carrying someone like you all that distance” (Anderson 99). Matilda’s Grandfather was everything to her. Too bad he was killed by thieves robbing valuables. A man like him shouldn’t have died, this put Mattie in a very difficult and heartrending

First, Mattie is very confident. The reader knows this from the beginning, with her telling Yarnell “ I want you to go with Papa.” Her being left alone in Arkansas at the age of fourteen and going to find the man that killed her father intrigues the reader. It gives them the sense of her strong will and her sense of right and wrong. Also, it asks the question at what point will she stop and realize the danger in this pursuit.

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

As you can see Mattie put herself at risk facing her father’s killer and also showed that her weakness is her poor skill on how to handle a gun. Second part is the abyss where, “the initiate faces the greatest challenge of the journey…. Often final step…

Mattie is the older character in this book that was owned “Jesus is Lord Tires” and was a character that acted as a mother to multiple characters. “She looked at me the way Mama would have,” (Kingsolver 252). This quote was found near the end of the book that signified Mattie looking at Taylor and Taylor observing that look and thinking that it is similar to her real mother’s. Mattie gave some money to Taylor for the trip and Taylor refused to take it, so Mattie said that it was for everyone in the car and gave her the look that reminded Taylor of her biological mother. “’I’ve got some peanut butter crackers,’ Mattie said leaning over Turtle. ‘Will she eat peanut butter?’,” (Kingsolver 252). Mattie seemed worried about Turtle and offered her something to eat. She acted as a mother figure to Turtle because she fed her and gave her more food when Turtle hinted for it. Mattie was the one that fit as a mother figure to a lot of characters in the book. She was the person that led a sanctuary and was the one who took care of the many.

Edith Wharton uses Mattie to express isolation and being lonely. She comes to the country with ribbons in her hair and more joy in herself. She wanted to free Ethan from the terrible society he lived in. Life in Starkfield is bleak and boring. No one comes outside or enjoys themselves. This is mainly why Ethan wants to escape the barren and poor neighborhood. Ethan is also isolated as well. He opposes society mainly because he cannot be with the one he loves and he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage to Zeena as well. When Zeena falls ill, she goes to the doctor for a couple of days and returns only to find her expensive china now ruined. Angry, she tells Ethan that she needs more hired help and plans to send Mattie away. Upset, Ethan did not know what to do . He decided to write a letter to Zeena telling her to run the farm and be by herself. However, he

In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For

Sara is the widow of a soldier. She lives alone in the mountains, raising her baby in the face of certain starvation after Federals have looted her farm and burned down her barn. Despite being in such a poor condition she still offers Inman food and shelter [240-243]. An anonymous author from Middle Tennessee State University discussed the state of women during Civil War writes, “In addition to the challenge of everyday subsistence, ex-slave women had to deal with such other problems as lack of warm clothing and good shelter, rampant illness (contraband camps had extremely high mortality rates due to disease), abuse from soldiers, and the transitory nature of life within a war zone. To cope, many women helped each other and drew on the resilience they had learned while enslaved” [p. 3] making point stronger. Ada is the main female character in the novel. She was raised by her father Monroe with sophisticated education and a privileged background as a preacher’s daughter, she turned out to be docile, submissive and obedient. Raising her so had left her helpless in the Black Cove Farm with no idea how to maintain the farm and live on her own without any

In the beginning of the story, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Jacobs illustrates the importance of the family relationship. The description of the attachment Linda has with her parents as a child is displayed to accentuate, Linda having dignity in herself, for she never knew she was a slave. Linda is not receptive of accepting that she is property to another person. As a result, she had a different outlook on life and much was expected of her by her family. Seeing that, the unveiling of Jacob’s audience develops more in depth for women, with an appeal to women ideal of true womanhood. Sentimental literature is used to appeal to women, introducing both sexual and psychological abuse through taking a close look at relationships surrounded

The roles of men and women were not specifically defined in her family, mainly after her dad’s stroke and one of her brothers having head trauma. All work was divided up between three girls and the one remaining son,

The essay “The Meanings of a Word” by Gloria Naylor discusses the many definitions of a word and how its meaning can change according to context and delivery. She made this point by telling a story of her childhood and the first time she heard the n-word used by a white person in a derogatory, demeaning way. She described her this situation that took place when she was in third-grade and a boy in front of her in math class called her the n-word. She had no idea what it meant to be called that in a negative way because the people she grew up around only used it as positive and empowering. At the end of her essay, she once again emphasized how easy it is to change a word into something hateful simply depending on who says it and their