Personal Polish in Katherine Longshore's Book, Tarnish

her body was gaining a lot of attention. This left Anne feeling uncomfortable about the changes that were taking place within her. "I looked so good that it became somewhat of a problem. Whenever I was in town white men would stare me into the ground."2 Anne was

Allegorically, Butler conveys a courageous woman who must think about the torment she causes others, in light of the fact that, she will truly feel it herself as well as a champion who must defeat an inability with a specific end goal to

Fitting with the common theme between the two novels of the judgment of others, each heroine falls victim to a horrible misjudgment of the character of another. After discovering that the engagement between her brother and her friend Isabella has been broken, Catherine finds she has grossly misjudged her friend’s character, and thinks, “She was ashamed of Isabella, ashamed of ever having loved her” (Northanger 150). Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds her attachment the Wickham wholly inappropriate after receiving her letter from Mr. Darcy. After digesting the shocking contents of the letter, Elizabeth “grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (Pride 156). And indeed, as suggested by Elizabeth’s mention of Darcy, this misjudgment goes on to affect each girl’s attachment to her future husband.

As a means of assessing the extent to which the work was successful, I evaluated the books ability to answer the questions the author himself posed to the audience. These questions were discussed in the introduction where Ozment presented two questions before he launched into the narrative in search of their answers. Ozment asked: “What exactly had [Anna] done to cause her father, the Burgermeister, to denounce her as an “evil serpent” and the government of Hall to declare her a renegade?” and “Why did the behaviour of one woman rivet the attention and disrupt the lives of so many important people for so long a time?”. According to Ozment, answers to these questions can be found “in the internal workings of a distant society and in the inner lives of people who were both like and unlike ourselves” (3). Therefore, in considering whether or not this book was successful I looked

The memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is the tragic story of Wall’s abusive childhood with her alcoholic father and living in poverty. One of the most important and memorable parts of her story of struggle is when she actually stands up for herself against her father on pages 236-238. Throughout Jeannette’s horrid childhood, she has always been loyal to her father, even though he has been highly abusive. It is at this point of the story Jeannette’s rhetorical strategies help convey to the reader her realization that she needs to stand up for herself and get away from her parents. Even in only three pages, Jeannette's strategies show how much better off she would have been without the help of her parents.

Author, Jeannette Walls, in her novel, The Glass Castle, from pages 226 to 230, exemplifies the themes of escapism and betrayal. In this chapter, Walls’s purpose is to identify the instability that her family is going through. Through her diction, Walls creates various tones in order to convey to her audience that despite obstacles, it is possible to escape from a dysfunctional family in hopes of a brighter future. Walls begins the chapter by recalling incidents of disappointment.

Set centuries apart, Arthur Milller’s The Crucible and Katherine Howe’s Conversion, seem to reflect follow similar plot lines of rebellion, scandal, and sex. Both follow the lives of teenage girls who face similar problems despite the fact they are based centuries apart. The time of adolescence in a woman’s life is an extremely influential period when one either stands out as a dominant leader, or falls in line as a follower. Though The Crucible and Conversion are based over three hundred years apart, both focus on similar motifs regarding female adolescence including rebellious lust, and the desire for attention and one’s individual identity.

She once wished to disappear, but her peers showed her the idea of the average American teenager. Jeanne fell into their world, changing herself and the way she dressed. Her conservative clothes disappeared, and were replaced by gaudy clothing that became a distraction from her heritage. Papa became outraged when he found out that Jeanne had been voted carnival princess at her new school. She barely won the vote, only after confronting teachers that stuffed the ballot box because they wanted Jeanne to lose. For her coronation night, Jeanne found a dress that was traditional and elegant. When she arrived that evening, her fellow contestants taunted Jeanne, making demeaning comments about her dress. One girl in particular was especially mean, ““The high neck,” she explained, studying my dress. “You look so… sedate. Just perfect for a queen.” As the other girls arrived, she made sure they all agreed with this. “Don’t you wish you’d thought of it,” she would say. And then to me, during a silence she felt obliged to fill, “I just love Chinese food.”” (Manzanar 180). The way that Lois Carson spoke to her reeked with sarcasm and made Jeanne feel like she didn’t belong with the other

with veils that floated across her face…looking like an African bride” (67). Her face is described as

Through portraying the life of a girl in the Victorian era, Margaret Atwood creates a scathing critique of relationships between the sexes which transcends the setting of Alias Grace. By outlining the trials and tribulations of a branded murderess, Atwood displays the dynamics of power in relationships between the male and female sex, along with the prevalence of social class and societal order in all aspects of Marks’ life. The manner in which Grace is formed by her experiences and her actions in retaliation to society’s treatment of women, especially a proclaimed mentally unstable murderess, provide contrast to stereotypical expectations of a Victorian woman. Grace’s wit, intelligence,

Celia was not just making Vivian look beautiful with a dress that really fit, but her personality was was beautiful as well. Celia is stunning in so many ways and everyone knew it. She wore cheap garments but put her outfits together to make them look sleek and expensive. Even people she did not know, liked her because of her looks, even the boat boys, “shouted at her and threw her kisses over the water” (Bristow 17). Looks are a factor for girls in today’s world and even back in 1779 . “Celia loved to pretty herself and she never looked frowsy” (Bristow 2). When Celia went to go sew a dress for Vivian, Vivian made Celia slowly turn around with her arms out to compliment her figure (Bristow 43). Knowing that Vivian accepted her courageousness to make her a dress that really fits was a tremendous accomplishment for Celia to prove that she is more worthy to

Given these points, Claudette’s exposure to St. Lucy has made her confined on the way she talked and acted unlike before when she was wild, exuberant and carefree. She changed from overturning dresser drawers to the point that her own mother couldn’t even recognize her. As a end result, she cared more about her appearance and she started to filter her actions and words. Therefore, St. Lucy had stripped away Claudette’s personality and her culture identity, replacing both of them with set expectations that were placed onto her.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale harbors a character that some would most likely pass over in terms of grandeur. This character, known as the “loathly lady”, isn’t as magisterial as Queen Guinevere, nor is she as perplexing as a predatory knight trying to save his life. The Devil Wears Prada and The Princess and the Frog are modern mediums that contain their share of “loathly ladies”. These characters come from unique tales, but they all show us how we may learn regardless of who the teacher may be.

Austen has set out to save the rising art form of the novel. In this address to the reader she glorifies what a novel should be: the unrestrained expression of words conveying the wide range of raw human emotion. This veneration of the novel is necessary to the development of Catherine's fiction-loving character as it justifies the narrator's right to remain fond of this flawed heroine.

In this passage from Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion, she highlights Anne’s distracted thoughts and emotions of distraught as she had overheard the conversation between Wentworth and Louisa. Through the literary devices of speech and point of view of the author, Austen illustrates Anne’s inner struggle of her past sentiments.