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Mrs. Reilly's Relationship In Beloved Myrna

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Moreover, Ignatius shares a special relationship with Myrna. Myrna has incredible influence on Ignatius and almost all of the extrinsic changes in Ignatius are a result of him trying to impress Myrna. he even calls her Beloved Myrna in one of his letters, hinting at a romantic relationship between them however, their relationship seems to more a clash of their egos. Ignatius is motivated to act upon her letters and she does the same thing. She mentions a boy she met during a party in one of her letters to Ignatius saying “This guy was really amazing; in addition to his tough mind, he was a real mensch. He was so gentlemanly and thoughtful i could hardly believe it.”(Toole 179). It seems that she is deliberately trying to make Ignatius jealous …show more content…

Other characters in the story who don't have an ego as big as Ignatius change throughout the story however. The best example of this would be Mrs.Reilly, her views towards Ignatius change drastically as we progress and this could be attributed to her relationship with Santa Battaglia. Mrs.Reilly becomes very close with Santa and this friendship affects Mrs.Reilly greatly. Especially her thoughts about Ignatius. From the first time we meet Santa it becomes clear that she is not the biggest fan of Ignatius during her first encounter with Mrs.Reilly she says “Fuck Ignatius”(Toole 103). This sets up her character and shows what she thinks about Ignatius and throughout the story as she becomes closer with Mrs.Reilly she eventually is able to convince her to send Ignatius to the mental hospital as she said “ ‘Oh, Lord! Not something else. Irene! Hang up and call them people at the charity right now, honey.’ ”(Toole 381). Early in the story Mrs.Reilly would have never done such a thing. In the first chapter Mrs.Reilly defend s Ignatius against Officer Mancuso and says “ ‘You got plenty bussiness picking on poor children with all the kind of people they got running in this town. Waiting for his momma and they try to arrest him’ ”(Toole 381). By the end her views on Ignatius have changed to the point where she is considering putting him in a mental hospital, this show the influence that her friendship with Santa has had on her …show more content…

He is a representation of what not to do. People in real life, however are able to put an end to their bad habits and change. There are countless people around the world who with sheer willpower make drastic changes in their life and end up in a better situation. It is the willingness to realize there is a problem and acting in order to get rid of the problem is what counts. By no means is changing an easy task however, it is far from impossible, while some aspects of our character will not change we can always find different ways to improve. Whether this is finding a healthier alternative for ourselves or finding different things to obsesses about. After All the same obsession that leads a person to be addicted to drugs can lead them to be addicted to sports. While the addictive personality would always be a trait of that person, he will be in charge of what he gets addicted to. Ignatius lacks the will to change and that's why his life never changes for the better, he is always in a downward spiral and finds ways to blame it on something else. Every human can dig deep in himself and find something worth fighting for, we need to put away our egos and truly want to change for the better. It is only then that we will be able to change, otherwise our lives would be stagnant similar to

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