Guilt, An Emotional Rollercoaster. . Robin Gibb, A Famous,

This fond memory of her childhood was a time when the Walls family was not starving or homeless, and Jeannette’s father had a true job that was providing food and shelter for their family. This period was one of the few times in Jeannette’s life during which the Walls family was at peace with one another. Education was the main way the family bonded, so the constant presence of literature and reading in this part of her life demonstrates that this could have been a time where the relationship between parents and children in the Walls family was at its strongest and

Sometimes we heard moans from the back room and I helped wring out cloths and Doris brought water in a glass held to her mother’s lips (17-22)” it is the first time we see the children in a serious manner as they take care of Doris’s mother. While the war may be a faraway thought, Doris’s mother having cancer directly affects the children and they have to deal with reality for a short time.

In the short stories A Rose for Emily and The Story of an Hour, Emily Grierson and Louise Mallard are both similar women, in similar time periods but they both are in entirely different situations. This essay will take these two specific characters and compare and contrast them in multiple, detailed ways.

Coming from a lonely and abusive home Mary had to find happiness outside of her house. Her mom made a friend from their church and she happened to have a three month year old baby. Mary always occupied the Richardson’s by helping with baby Alyssa, while also distracting herself from reality. Meeting the Richardson’s ended up being Mary’s worst nightmare. One night the Richardson’s went out and asked Mary and her mother to watch Alyssa.

Ed is described as the ‘cornerstone of mediocrity’ who lives in a ‘shack’ in a less desirable part of town, who has ‘no real potential’. Throughout the text Ed completes an array of different tasks giving the readers an inside perspective of the experiences. ‘Old lady Milla’ is one of Ed’s many tasks, he supplies her with the company she so desperately needs, but not only did he help her, she ‘put a piece of her heart inside’ him. The readers see Ed’s transformation from ‘dickhead Ed’ to a kind gentlemen willing to spend his time reading to a ‘lonely’ ‘old lady’ of which he barely knows. One of the toughest challenges Ed faces is his Ma, ‘one of his darkest hours’ as Ed is forced to confront his mother.

During this hours, everyone can see what is going on, so the narrator barely creeps, just like it was seen as taboo to be seen supporting women’s rights. “ [...] He said what I felt was a drought, and shut the window” (Gilman ). The windows in the story are a path to freedom, but when they are barred, it represents the opportunities for independence and freedom being taken away, and the narrator hold back from reaching for them. “She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession”(Gilman 650). Jennie was John’s sister, and she represented the “ideal” woman role expected by society, just like Mary. They are everything the narrator’s husband wants her to be, the stereotypical housewife, who does what she is told to do; the exact opposite from the narrator. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friend and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do? My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” (Gilman 648).The physicians are symbolic to high rank in society

Eleanor, the protagonist, undergoes a difficult childhood where she had to take care of her ill mother for 11 years, until she died. Taking care of her mother for most of her childhood prohibited her from developing as a person; that affected her tremendously. For example, During Theodora’s supernatural experience, Shirley Jackson displays how Eleanor’s inner child managed to let her grow anger and jealously towards Theodora. Eleanor felt like Hill House was giving Theodora more affection and attention than it was giving her; similar, to the one that a child would have

Some say it’s ‘bothered conscience’, Some describe it as ‘a feeling of culpability for offences. ‘ but it is much more than that. Guilt is an underestimated aspect of human life. A person living with guilt can be elucidated like a prisoner who dreams to be a free man like Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank redemption. But on the contras Andy was not living with guilt whereas an guilty man like Amir was ; the guilt changed Amir as a boy and made him mentally caged.

Oates begins her story much like any other author showing a dysfunctional family, with depictions of dysfunction, rebellion, and mindlessness of those who are most important. Connie, the main character, is shown as the redheaded step child so to speak, she is neglected by her father and receives nothing but negativity from her mother. Now, there is always the argument that Connie is an immature teenager who has not yet had to grow up and face the music of responsibility; however, the lack of defined parental structure in her life hinders her capability to flourish as a young adult. For example, Oates writes “Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper he went to bed. He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent head Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over.” (Oates, 468) The excerpt describes the relationship of Connie and her parents to a tee with the description of the ignorance of her father and the personal anguish with her mother. Oates uses language to paint the picture she wants the reader to see and follows through on the image she has manifested.

Victoria Roubideaux is a seventeen year old girl, who finds out that she is pregnant. She and her mother had a fight in the morning and in the evening, after work, she starts to walk home. “The evening wasn’t cold yet when the girl left the café. But the air was turning sharp with a fall feeling of loneliness coming. Something unaccountable pending in the air.” (31). In that line we see the foreshadowing of her feelings and her mother throwing her out of the house.

The character of the mother executes the tell-tale signs of counterfeit happiness when she tells the murderous story of the narrator’s father’s brother. “‘Oh honey,’ she said, ‘there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find out’” (36).

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

Though her Aunt Jill and Uncle Mel were pleased to have her, they were not too favorable of the idea of letting Abby hang out with their daughter. Abby’s cousin, Sharon, a wholesome, farm girl, had the appearance of a strong backed laborer, tall, thin, and toned from working with her father in the barn and around the farm. Though naïve and sixteen, she had all the maturity and grace of a twenty year old. Fortunately for Abby, Sharon had been cursed with being plain and shy. Abby, on the other hand, had been blessed with beauty and abruptness.

Watching her father hold her son on his lap, examining every inch of his chubby little body, warmed Allie’s very soul. Not so long ago, she had been the one sitting in his lap- after all, she was his little princess. Then, suddenly, she was grown, married, and a mother… It seemed eons ago as she stood there watching the two of them getting to know one another.

Eveline exhibits the qualities of a young woman who has spent her life exposed to traumatic, systematic abuse. As she looks out over the field of her childhood, reaching into the past to pull forward the memories of friends and happiness, a foul taste creeps in to her mind of “Her father [who] used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick;” (Joyce) and the author gives the first indicator that Eveline’s life has been little more than tragic. An abusive parent is bad enough, but the real despair she must feel is driven home when Eveline’s thoughts reveal the unthinkable: “her