Loose Change
The short story is a about a woman who lives in London or a ”Londoner” as she calls it. One day her period comes early as she is walking into the National Portrait Gallery to get warm. She doesn’t have any change for the tampon machine so she asks in the bathroom if anyone has got some change she could borrow. One girl responds. The girl and her brother fled from Uzbekistan, she is now homeless and all of her money can be kept in one pocket. The woman decides to take her out for a cup of tea out of gratefulness for the change she borrowed from her. The girl tells the woman about why she is now in England and how she and her brother are now sleeping on the streets of London every night. At one point the girl starts crying. The
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In this last part of the text the woman shows a great lack of compassion and is almost at the edge of cold hearted.
I see this short story as a critique towards the British- or maybe even wealthy first world culture. This poor, good-hearted girl comes to a new country in the hope of a fresh start, but gets rejected by society. The woman in the story is made to look like the British stereotype. She is shallow, minds her own business and she is mainly focused on herself and her own problems. The girl and the woman are basically opposites. When the girl steps into the woman’s life, the woman is curious but when she hears the girl’s story she gets uncomfortable and leaves. I think this story is a critique towards countries, like England, where society is not exactly welcoming to foreigners or immigrants.
The bible says to love thy neighbour as yourself and I think that this is what this story is about. In The Bible there is a story about a man who was robbed and beaten, left to die on the street. A priest comes by but ignores him and keeps walking even though it is against is faith. Later a Levite walks by and like the priest he ignores him as well. Then a third person walks by and sees the wounded man, he bound his wounds, fed him, gave him money, got him a place to sleep and took care of him. This is a true act of kindness and compassion which is everything the woman
Writing about integration into a completely different society and, even a completely different world, is, in my opinion, very difficult. To be able to really well describe all the feelings and conflicts which, unfortunately, are present while speaking about such an issue, one needs some own authentic experience, and since the author of this short story is of Japanese origin, there is a very good chance of reading a great piece of work.
She is truly overcome with grief and overflowing with uncontrollable emotion. She is asking for sympathy and understanding when she says, "Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate." In addition, she passes the blame when she says, "Though why should I whine, / Whine that the crime was other than mine?" This suggests that she was pressured from another source -- a boyfriend, family member, or society.
“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.
The audience in the arena serves as an audience for Perpetua’s martyrdom. This detail, describing the women, is meant to be persuasive and create empathy amongst the audience, for Perpetua and Felicitas. The readers of the story are supposed to feel sadness over the public humiliation of these women. Especially, because the public humiliation is the result of their strong belief in Christianity. This empathy may cause some readers to convert to Christianity because of the sadness which they feel for the events the women endured. Another way that this example can be used to persuade is by showing that no matter what difficult situations we are in, if we follow God, he will have our back. This situation was one of an immense amount of public embarrassment for the two women. But, because they trusted in God, the women found some sort of comfort in the situation and realized that soon they would be in a better place. Moments before her death, even when she knew what the next few minutes would include, Perpetua spoke saying, “Stand fast in the faith, and love you all one another; and be not offended because of our passion.” (20.13-14) Perpetua showed that no matter what, she was going to be the bigger
The women of the story are not treated with the respect, which reflects their social standings. The first image of the women that the reader gets is a typical housewife. They are imaged as “wearing faded house dresses and
A woman watched me with sympathetic anger, as though she in no way approved of this kind of treatment. However, she did not speak.(pg.44)
In this quote, she realizes her attitude was bad when she was with her family, and since they died she realizes she didn’t stand in good faith.
“Stop crying,” she said sharply, “I’m ashamed of you!”” (l. 28-32 p 99) It seems like she’s disappointed of her son, because he’s weak. And it might indicate that she’s also very disappointed of her husband’s behaviour.
“Girl”, a short story by Jamaica Kincaid is narrated from a girl’s point of view of her mother telling and teaching her how, in her mother’s eyes, to be the perfect lady. The story takes place in a cultural setting of the islands of Antigua where the author was raised. The title “Girl” makes us assume that this isn’t just a personal story, but a somewhat universal childhood that we all face as women and the cultural standards we all face to become the perfect lady.
This story allowed me to see into the thoughts and emotions of a recently immigrated family. I was able to see how difficult it is to find a balance between your old culture and the one you are moving into, which I wasn’t aware was such a struggle. As a reader I was able to understand how the people around me potentially may be feeling, as this story gave me a good view of the emotions they experienced. Canada is a diverse place and now I am able to sympathize to people around me, since many have gone through the struggle of immigrating. Hopefully the story has allowed all readers to also see the challenge of moving to a new place, as some of them may have experienced it themselves and never had anyone understand. As an individual I cannot
Because the story is written in diary format, we feel especially close to this woman. We are in touch with her innermost thoughts. The dominance of her husband, and her reaction to it, is reflected throughout the story. The narrator is continually submissive, bowing to her husband's wishes, even though she is unhappy and depressed. Her husband has adopted the
Now, after moving to the United States and becoming well-off, she’s still happy and satisfied – perhaps even more so. But much like her childhood, she often imagines a different life – the life she had as a child, when things were simpler. Yet she knows it wasn’t all the perfect “Eden” she sometimes thinks of it as. Her lack of a nearby doctor, plumbing, and light at night causes her to accept that she couldn’t afford to live that life again. This lack of a simpler life mirrors her childhood lack of the privileges of living in a more developed world – and so is “Lack, Part Two”. It also further
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.
It also follows the story of Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night and was taught about being born again. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and was referred to as “a ruler of the Jews”(he was a member of the Sanhedrin). Whereas, the woman was just that, a woman, without a husband and a Samaritan––who were even more despised by the Jews. She went to get water at the well in the middle of the day when it was the hottest because that’s when no one else would be there. She met Jesus when it was light, whereas, Nicodemus came in the night. Both were alone with Jesus, but Nicodemus went in the night to hide because he was ashamed of being seen with Jesus. The woman had no intention of hiding, in fact she didn’t even know who Jesus was.
signify some repressed anger toward her parents. The lack of love from both parents, has left