Essay about Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Sometimes we heard moans from the back room and I helped wring out cloths and Doris brought water in a glass held to her mother’s lips (17-22)” it is the first time we see the children in a serious manner as they take care of Doris’s mother. While the war may be a faraway thought, Doris’s mother having cancer directly affects the children and they have to deal with reality for a short time.

The social code of the Victorian era places women in a role of obedience. They are expected to fulfill duties such as a mother, keeper of a house, and to be a quiet and “behaved” spouse. The narrator in this story is an obedient spouse, who has become a new mother that experiences postpartum depression. The change in her role sparks a change in her demeanor, causing a “nervous condition”, in which her husband dictates her treatment. John’s treatment of his wife represents the powerless-ness and repression of women during the late nineteenth-century.” (Wilson). John’s authority over her treatment, mimics that of patient to doctor relationship, and further reminds her of her secondary status during the era.

    As the time passes she can clearly see the woman in the paper. The woman in the paper is quiet and peaceful during the day, but at night she is imprisoned by the bars in the paper. This is reflection helps the narrator identify her own bars--her husband John. He is away during the day and at home in the same bed with her at night. She also identifies with the woman in the paper by sharing their similar routine. "At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be"..."by daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy its the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour".

The mother started the story not wanting her children or even really caring for them, they had a full time nanny and the mother had no interest in them. "She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her. And hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself." She was dull to the way she felt and was negative towards and about her husband because she believed him to be unlucky and the reason for all the money problems they were having. She was negative and dark the whole time. She hardly had anything positive to say and it stayed that way until she finally received a great deal of money and that made her feel adequate again as a family. She changed her way of being and started to care more about her son and what was happening with him. She wanted to leave places to check on him and concer herself with how he was and if he was okay."Two nights before the Derby, she was at a big party in town, when one of her rushes of anxiety about her boy, her first-born, gripped her heart till she could hardly speak. She fought with the feeling, might and main, for she believed in common sense. But it was too strong. She had to leave the dance and go downstairs to telephone to the country." Her mood only changed after she got money and felt that she was good enough again, she valued herself on the outside look not what was really important. This just goes to

In "A Sorrowful Woman" the wife is depressed with her life, so much so, "The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again"(p.1). This wife and mother has come to detest her life, the sight of her family,

Have you ever been in a place of green with forests and animals everywhere? Well, where some of the Native Americans lived, there were such things. Native American tribes such as the Crow lived in the Great Plains. The Crow tribe of the Great Plains were nomadic and followed the buffalo migrations which provided their food. This tribe spent a good part of the year living in camps that could easily be dismantled and moved to follow the buffalo migrations. Other tribes of the plains were more sedentary. These tribes lived in permanent villages year round.

Porter begins the story with Miranda and her brother Paul exploring a graveyard while out hunting. As they continue with their hunt, Paul shoots a rabbit that is about to give birth. Paul proceeds to carefully slit the dead rabbit open revealing her young unborn babies. This moment is an epiphany for young Miranda as she understands the meaning of rebirth and the cycle of life and death. Miranda later reflects upon this incident years later in a foreign city’s busy bazaar and is reminded of the event that transformed her from an innocent child to a more experienced and knowledgeable young woman.

Appalachian music is music that has influenced many mainstream type that are around today. This music is not easily explained by playing a song and being able to identify the music. After reading about Appalachian music I have come to think of it as a Copper pot of music. This is in a similar way to the United States as the Copper pot of ethic people from around the world. To be able to understand this it is best to start from the known beginning roots and to understand who sings this music, why, and where it originated.

The next main factor in the story is society's attitude towards illegitimacy. Any woman who bore a child out of wedlock was treated with disgust and held an air of shame and disgrace. This caused those who did happen to have their children out of wedlock to give them up and send them off to orphanages in hope their child would be alright. A lot of these single mothers tried to send their children to one such orphanage called "The Coram Hospital". An example is when Melissa, a young girl just found out she was pregnant and says "'And Mama? What about Mama? The disgrace. We'll both be thrown out. Destitute." This is a good example of the consequences of illegitimacy. If anybody found out about such circumstances the mother and her acquaintances would be thrown out and homeless. The writer includes this factual information in the story and it entwines

After a few of these vain attempts to convince the man to consider having the baby, she implores him to "Please. please please please please please please stop talking" (272). The author uses her avoidance of confrontation and denial of self-expression to assure the reader that the girl?s weak and dependent nature prevents her from verbally expressing her point of view. Even the use of character terms?the man and the girl?reinforces this effect.

The novel Plainsong by Kent Haruf can truly help troubled, young adults set their lives back on the right path by teaching them overcome numerous experiences in their backgrounds. The story takes place in the poor, small town of Holt that has similarities to the areas the students grew up in where they struggled to afford living necessities. The story has many examples of everyday struggles making the story relatable and credible to the Changing Lives Through Literature Program (CLTL). I personally believe the message in Plainsong is for everyone to not judge a person’s situations because you don’t know what is going on in their life or what they have been through. This message is sent by the people struggling who need understanding and love.

The Rise of a Native American Balladry First, it will be necessary to review some important points. In the early days (1600-1770s), importation/adaptation was the dominant process. British songs and ballads were adapted to the frontier experience, Victorian morality and Puritan ethics. Songs which contained subject matter which was completely irrelevant to the frontier or unacceptable to moral and ethical standards were either discarded altogether, new lyrics were added to old melodies, or lyrical changes were made.

The common theme is that women are weak and cannot continue to live their life without families in 19th century. From “The Story of an Hour” we can see that the main character, Louise Mallard was happy after knowing her husband was dead. She was celebrating the freedom she obtained because of the death of her husband. In fact, she could divorce with her husband if she did not love him anymore. Somehow, she did not dare to ask for divorcing. Besides, in “Desiree’s Baby”, the main character, Desiree was weak as she cannot stand for her husband’s mental abuse towards her that he changed his attitude towards her, he talked to her with averted eyes, losing all his love towards her because she was potentially a black. Thus, she went away from L’ Abri with her baby, risking her life and her baby’s

"Desiree's Baby" is not a mere tragic short story by which a reader may be entertained by its ironic and catastrophic ending. It is a story of a crime and brutality against women of all generations to come, depicting vividly how a woman may suffer and conceal her anguish for the sake of others. It is a story of innocence slain mercilessly by the unscrupulous power of harshness that directly governs human societies.

In “The Mother”, Brooks discusses the mental torment that she has experienced after having an abortion. She writes that “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 388), meaning that the burdensome decision to have an abortion is something that will haunt her for years, because she agree to end the life of her own child. A woman’s connection to her child is extremely powerful and she must cope with the love that she had extinguished. At first glance, Hemingway’s story illustrates how a pregnancy can upset a happy relationship. The relationship between the man and the