Mavis Gallant's Bernadette

Everyone is in control of their actions. One must be held accountable for . Sometimes though, fear can infiltrate one’s mind and block their ability to make rational decisions. In John Connolly’s “The Book of Lost Things”, it is evident that fear plays a large role in how David, Beauty and Beast find love and how the King and wicked Queen in Snow-white rule their kingdoms. Some overcome their fears while others allow it to consume them and cloud their judgement.

neighbors. This changes her personality. She spends all her time at home with the radio

a very common fear every salve of the time inhibited. By illustrating the tragic life of a young

the reality of her life is on the ranch. When Crooks suggests that she should go away

Throughout Nora’s whole life she has been controlled by whomever she has been close to. She has never had to chance to have her own experiences, to think her own thoughts and to try to make something of her life. She knows nothing but what her and her father let her. Nora admits to

Nora finds strength in realizing her failure, resolving to find herself as a human being and not in what society expects of her. Nora’s recognition comes when Torvald so

Nora is motivated throughout the story to be according to her "free," however, she does not only want to be free of the loan she is owning to Krogstad, she wants to be free from her father and husband's control. Throughout the story, Nora feels as if she has always been treated like a doll child first by her father and then by her husband and is never given the opportunity to evolve as an individual and become a woman who has the potential to be independent and forceful (Yuehua 83). The perfect example her attempt to fulfill her potential as a woman is when she first borrows the loan from Krogstad by forging her dying father's signature. Although she knows her act is wrong and against the law, she still goes on with a naïve challenge to Krogstad during their encounter about the forged signature

what was right and did what they had to do in order for the later generations to not have to suffer

Girls need a women figure to talk to about female things. Not only that but if Nora left and then later on down the road decided to enter back into the children's lives, they might have resentment towards her.

At the end of their first reconnection, Nora reveals that her transformation from obedient doll to liberated woman had already begun. She now admires Mrs. Linde for her long years of work and independence and uses it as inspiration for her own. In Mrs. Linde’s trust, Nora exposes her personal act of sovereignty: a few years ago, she had secretly borrowed money to save her husband’s life, incriminating herself. Even though she did the morally correct thing, Nora’s actions are condemnable and

wants the reader to realize that Nora was not the fool she allows herself to be

(Vopat 303). Another more universal fear that they felt the need to escape was the red scare. ?In ?the great McCarthy hysteria,? flight is the only means of expressing their dissent? (Feied 293). They also do not want the commitment of a real relationship with the opposite sex. ?Free love is rather freedom from love and another route down that same dark death wish? (Vopat 303). They feel if they can escape these bindings of life than will achieve a better way of living. ?Inwardly, these excesses are made to serve a spiritual purpose of an affirmation still unfocused, still to be defined, unsystematic? (Millstein 279). They want to just experience the joys of life to the fullest without worrying about any responsibilities. ?They seek to make good their escape in moment to moment living, digging everything, pursuing kicks with a kind of desperate energy that passes for enthusiasm? (Feied 295). ?They want for everyday experiences something that will give them an exalted, intensified sense of life- that will make them ?live,? that will make life ?real?; they want to transcend, not their actual limitations, but their sense of limitation? (Baro 281). The beats were looking for an easy way out of dealing with the pressures of having a real life.

Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.

accept what Nora had done, and wouldn't have been able to deal with the extreme

Her final goal was so important to her, protecting her family, she knew she had to do whatever was necessary, even if that meant not being true to her husband or society. In the end, she realizes that it was more important to her husband his reputation, than what it had meant to Nora, all she had done for the love of her family, concluding to the raw truth that her husband didn´t really love her: he loved what she represented before society, a loving, faithful wife that compelled to all his expectations. She knew that to love her children, she needed first to understand and love herself, a thought way beyond and ahead of time, for a woman in the late 1800´s.