'He' and 'A Jazz-Age Clerk'

When she sees that it is her friend Charlotte in this heart breaking situation, she says: “gracious heaven is this possible? And bursting into tears, she reclined the burning head of Charlotte on her own bosom; and folding her arms about her, wept over in silence” [125]. In this passage, Mrs. Beauchamp proves how sentimental and good she could be because not only does she have a sick child at home, but she finds the time to actually care about others and because she actually cries for Charlotte, a person who is not even her relative. She is a sentimental person because she is the only one that in the beginning offered Charlotte her friendship and because thanks to her, Charlotte’s father is able to see Charlotte one last time and forgive her. In many cases, this might be confused with weakness but it is not weakness. It is the ability to feel others pain as your own, it is the ability to care for others as you would your own relative; it is being a moral person and only through the act of sensibility can this be shown. In a situation like this, an immoral person might have only thought about their own problems and not the problems of others.

Throughout the novel, Jane narrates and looks back on her story as an adult. In this sense she has a better understanding of how she was affected by her changing place in the class system and is able to provide a clearer picture of how she has since shaped her beliefs from childhood. When Jane recalls finding out that she had possible relatives in the lower class, her immediate response was to denounce their existence and to stay with her abusive guardian, Mrs. Reed. Jane explains her reaction by noting that “poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children” (29). While she admits that as an adult, poverty appears dreadful, she claims that this reaction is exaggerated in children. Firstly, Jane’s comment reflects the fact that she has since grown from her childhood disdain for impoverishment and this growth is hers alone; no other adult in the novel has exhibited maturation in thought such as this because they are stuck in their rigid class structures. Secondly, Jane’s comment on the difference between child and adult views on poverty

The life of a parent is a difficult journey. To be an acceptable parent, the parent must complete different tasks such as being employed therefore providing needs of children. Oftentimes, society judges a parent on their ability to provide for their children. For example, if the father determines to abuse

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

It was not really anything of a separation, yet he was surprised to find that is seemed to him a grave one perhaps because his business was grave, or because of the solemn hour. He saw this in her face as well, and almost wished they had waked the children after all" (44).

He acts like a mirror. He lets whatever the Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never really agrees with her or disagrees, and in the end he is the one who kills her. His second to last line, “She would of been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,”(O'Conner 425). might be the way O'Conner felt about most of us alive, or how she felt that God must feel about us. The third, and final stage of the Grandmother is the moment of recovery. She finally sees The Misfit for who he really is, a person just like her. He is not someone who was made by his social class. He is a simple human being just like her. At this point she sees herself in relation to everyone else. She finally realizes that her class does not make her. Society makes the class, and she just fits into it. She shows this by claiming that The Misfit could be one of her own beloved children.

In Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" an old woman's light is slowly fading out and memories from her past are phasing in and out of her head as she lives out her final moments. The times she was "jilted" are pouring out of her memories, releasing

The rich and privilege versus the poor and unprivileged are the people being compared to one another and recognized throughout both “The Lace-Makers” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Otto-Peters throughout her poem compares the working class women to the rich men that take advantage of the product of their labor (lace), bring awareness to the injustices between the working class and those in power. This comparison is seen in, “You live in luxury and debauchery while they perish,” (line 21) where she is addressing the rich men that mentions earlier and how they do not acknowledge the injustices that happen for them to live in luxury. Similarly in “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” King describes the injustices that occur in society due to the government and law enforcement, “Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section on this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality,” (81). The social injustices are brought into light for black people (and minorities) going unrecognized because they are seen as lesser than those in power and privileged. Both writers try to bring awareness their injustices, but they focus on their own experiences.

Similar to Mr. Shiftlet she can be viewed as selfish. She only cares about her well being and her farm being well kept. To make sure her house and farm are well kept she takes advantage of her daughter by trying to get Mr. Shiftlet to marry her.

We all experience some sort of transition in our lives, whether it is something small or relatively big. The transition from adolescence to adulthood can be a dramatic yet difficult time for any teenager. In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”? by Joyce Carol Oates,

Her strong belief that the lighter you are, the more respect you deserve is fallacious; the Harlem Renaissance brought those of all colors together through music, art, and literature, making this ideal a departure from that epoch. In the novel Mrs.Turner states, “You’se different from me. Ah can’t stand black niggers. Ah don’t blame de white folks from hatin’ ‘em ‘cause Ah can’t stand ‘em mahself. ‘Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and you mixed up wid ‘em. Us oughta class off”. Mrs.Turner’s thoughts and beliefs are included to show how superiority and prejudice are not only discriminatory but also pernicious to those of color, in particular African Americans. This mindset is inimical to equality and is used to help the reader visualize how the drive to be preeminent and obtain the highest social class is

Only when the grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit, does she understand where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of being superior, she realizes, she is flawed like everyone else. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of [her] own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding.

Money plays a huge part in this story. Hester, the mother, is obsessed with having more and more money. She lives the life of a woman with money, never allowing anyone to see past the family's small income, "The mother had a small income, and the father had a

It seems as though the Whipples take advantage of their son's retardation. They never speak directly to Him, and refer to their son only as "He" and "Him"; thus, we never learn His name. They also take advantage of the fact that He seems indifferent to pain or cold, so they give His blankets to the other children, and give Him tasks the other children seem to have sense enough not to do. By the end of the story, we learn that He might not be as dumb as He appears. Nevertheless, we know that Mrs. Whipple does love her son (as well as her other children). She constantly talks about Him, and her intense outpouring of emotion at the end of the story supports the fact that she loves Him and indicates she feels some grief about the situation. She knows that "there was nothing she could do to make up to Him for His life," and we feel the Whipples have made the right decision to put Him in the knows that "there was nothing she could do to make up to Him for His life," and we feel the Whipples have made the right decision to put Him in the County Hospital. Unfortunately for the Whipple family, another defining characteristic of Mrs. Whipple is that she drowns herself in self-pity. She seems to consider many things "a mortal pity" and once even complains to her husband, "I wish I were dead!" Of course, she would never say this to the neighbors, for appearances' sake.

She was not upset the day her brother died, and felt no guilt for her feelings about him. "I was sad for them [her family] rather than over any loss of mine, because my brother had become a stranger to me. I was not sorry that he had died, but I was sorry for him because, according to his standards, his life had been thoroughly worth living" (p. 55-56).