Laurence also makes a parallel study about the women torn in between the quest of identity and the struggle for space and the desire to live happily with their husband and her children in the sister novel The Fire Dwellers. Stacey MacAindra is the sister of Rachel Cameron, she is thirty-nine years old house wife with four children who is lost and desperate because her husband does not understand her nor even listens to her miseries and sufferings. Like Rachel, Stacey is seen fluttering like a bird in the cage, though she tries hard to break the rules, she is unable and therefore remains a passive sufferer. Laurence portrays Stacey as typical Canadian woman who knows that she is in need of freedom but the societal walls bind her to come from the restrain.
Stacey’s life is a struggle against domination of the male society. She lacks the bravery and self-confidence because of her
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Stacey’s every attempt of self-realization makes her guilty, as she is having only one identity of a mother of four children- as a person to wait for her children at home. Here, Stacey too like Rachel is a caged bird, who knows how to fly but doesn’t fly because they are the persons to take care of their children. She even says that,
“At the day of judgment, God will say Stacey MacAindra, what have you done with your life? And I’ll say, well let’s see sir, I think. I loved my kids. And he’ll say. Are you certain of that? And I’ll say, God, I’m not certain about anything anymore. So he’ll say to hell with you, then. We’re all positive thinker up here. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t. May be He’d say, Don’t worry, Stacey. I’m not all that certain, either. Sometime I wonder if I even exist. And I’d say, I know what I mean, Lord. I have some trouble with myself” (FD 14).
Her communication with God shows her social phobia and her inability to deal with the expectations of being a
Stacey uses pathos as her main appeal. This rhetorical appeal is highly effective when appealing to family, as it provokes sympathy and empathy from loved ones. The author opens the letter with “My dear father-in-law.” Then throughout the story she gradually seems to become more affectionate towards him and ends the letter calling him her “dear Father” and signing the letter off with “your deeply afflicted daughter.” This is a subtle attempt that Stacy uses to persuade her father-in-law by making him see her as his blood relative. In the letter, Stacey illustrates how inopportune of a time that George, her husband, was taken
At a young age she comes to the realization that she “no longer believed in God” (171) because she is incapable of accepting people being condemned due to chance occurrences. This colours her entire world view, leading to her becoming cynical of the world around her and especially her father who attempts to push his personal view onto everyone. When she finally starts to look for a religion for herself, she decides “God is everything” (528), good or bad, living or dead, human or animal. Her belief is very different from the rest of her family, all of whom, mother, father, sisters, see God as someone or something that only cares about certain groups with specific characteristics. Viewing God this way helps her to gain clarity on many issues she has with the world, giving her the peace which is denied to the rest of her family. In spite of no longer holding a conventional attitude toward God and religion, Adah succeeds in finding a belief system that fits her religious needs to fill the void left from her childhood disenchantment with the evangelical Baptist
TJ gets himself in trouble with R.W. and Melvin Simms, two white brothers. The boys only want TJ around so they have someone to put the blame on and make fun of him. When TJ wants a very nice handgun at the Barnett Mercantile, the Simms brothers fool him into thinking that his dream is about to come true. RW and Melvin convinced TJ to try to steal the gun. They were caught in the act and the brothers punished TJ horribly. TJ tapped on the Logans door in the middle of the night. Stacey and Cassie answered the door. They knew they had to help him despite the negative acts against their family. “Stacey? I whispered afraid of what he might do. As far back as I could remember, Stacey had felt a responsibility for TJ I had never really understood why. Perhaps he felt that even a person as despicable as TJ needed someone he could call “friend”, or perhaps he sensed TJ’s vulnerability better than TJ did himself. Stacey, you ain’t goin’ are you?... You go on back to bed Cassie. I’ll be alright.” (pg. 249) This quote is a prime example of Stacey’s courage. Stacey knows that helping TJ could get him in trouble or even killed. Stacey is a true friend, and a brave one too.
Another example is when Linda moves to Boston, she has mixed feelings of joining the church’s worship ceremony. She asks herself: “should they preach from their text, ‘Proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that are bound’? (Isaiah 61.1) or will they preach from my text, ‘ Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you’? (Mathew 7.12)” (1827). Linda feels lost and not sure what to do. She asks God to forgive her and relief herself saying: “the scripture says ‘ Oppression makes even a wise man mad’; (Ecclesiasters)” (1827). It looks like Linda was a good believer but she was not sure how to act in such a contradicting world.
God asking why? She said, “And I know we are not going to understand, or like what happens in
materialistic she is. There are many quotes that describe how she feels about love, mortality,
These two statements are very important because they are the backbone of the whole book. These are the strongest parts that support the women she is. She is so hand in hand with God that she doesn’t even once criticize the reasons she’s in captive but as I have stated before, she blames herself for not praying enough. In the sixth remove she explains her circumstance, her being surrounded by her former enemies amidst no Christians at all but herself. She exclaims, “Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!” Without any form of disbelief she praises the kindness of God. The beauty of her relationship with God is that she mentions no matter what kind of situation she is in whether it be near death or with luxuries. And she sees every good thing that happens to her as a sign of God. To sum it up, everything that has happened to her was pre-planned and the grace of God.
Picture your life being the most perfect life ever. A family who loves each other, a best friend who never wants to be apart from you and a Bible to help you stay focused, until you lose all of that. It is important because anybody can go through tragic times in their life. The book is called The Chance. It is written by Karen Kingsbury
She allows herself to believe all she is told. She also allows herself to believe that being treated as she is is going to make her better, when in fact it is only making her worse. Her being sent up in a room, like a penitentiary will add loneliness to her illness. Her being told not to write or not to go and see family and friends, again, adds to her loneliness. She is separated from society. Therefore, she feels as though she is alone in society. She gives into the fact that the male-dominated society would rather her alone, than be with lots of women and cause chaos. She gives into everything the world wants instead of listening to her inner self. She ignores herself, causing her to act out in madness. When one does not listen to one's inner self, he or she is then turning away from his or her conscience. It's like the "devil and angel" episode that has been seen in numerous cartoons. If the person listens to the little devil, it will end up being the wrong decision. It the person listens to the little angel, it will be the right decision. The narrator listens to almost neither. She allows what is happening to happen and does nothing but sit back. This would cause anger inside anyone.
As the girl continues on to grow up she is continually facing challenges with her confidence and thus affecting her emotionally and physically. For instance, one of the line states that “ she went to
She truly believed that these experiences were unquestionable. She explained how she had changed her for the better and became a stronger individual, and that her prayers were being answered differently from
Figurative language is used to emphasize Cassie and her emotions in her experiences and interactions and how she learns from that. Epiphany is used to convey how both Cassie and Stacey learned from their mistakes and simultaneously grew from said mistakes. Many other characters in this book go through an experience they could learn from, but don’t learn from it (e.g. T.J.). But, Stacey and Cassie, thanks to their parents they learn from their mistakes and experiences and get a life lesson along with it. Taylor's book displays a variety of themes but the most prominent theme is that making mistakes is part of life, and is okay, but it is important that you learn from those mistakes and grow from
Throughout the story we see the protagonist struggle with the gender roles placed upon her by her society; specifically the role she is supposed to play as
for the gods give her a character similar to a saint or a martyr; she expresses very clearly her acceptance of
At first, the story frustrated me. I presumed based off of the first couple of paragraphs that it would be about a stereotypical woman, who is obsessive towards the male. I thought that the idea of the novel was somewhat patriarchal, because the woman was almost belittling herself for being so distraught on the idea of the male not communicating with her. Yet, I found the idea of “God” interesting in this story. For me, I found that God, in some aspects of the story, wasn't supposed to have any religious aspect to it, rather “God” was the female character referring herself. She was contemplating to herself, asking herself questions, and wishing a plethora of wishes to herself, not God. As an example, when she says,”Oh, God, please don't let me telephone