Essay on Reservation Blues

Marriage is a union between two people who communicate and love each other. A love so pure and unconditional that only in death can they part. In a Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora and Torvald appear to portray the perfect marriage. However, throughout the play flaws within the Helmer marriage are exposed: a lack of communication, love and selflessness. A relationship based on lies and play-acting; A marriage condemned by the weight of public opinion.

The Native Americans have come across long journey of difficult times since the occupation of their land by European settlers. There are still two sides of a coin- a world of civilization and a world of underdeveloped society in this one country- USA. The paradox is that the constitution which seems to be a model of democracy to many nations of the world lacks a lot for not acting accordingly. Those organized and unorganized struggles of Native Americans were challenged by the heavily armed white majority settlers. This history is among the worst American experience because of the massacre and the violation against human right. In order to be heard, they protest, occupy land, and write books. The Native Americans have raised several

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie, published in 1995, is about Robert Johnson, a black man with a “magical” guitar that he received when he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical talent. Ever since that day, Johnson has been on a journey to find the lady he had been dreaming about. When he hears about Big Mom he starts to believe that she is the one he has seen in his dreams, and that she can help him overcome his “illness”. Big Mom is known on the reservation as the lady on the hill. Thomas Build-the-Fire, the Spokane Indian that Robert meets at the Crossroads on the Reservation, tells us, “Ain’t nobody goes up the mountain to see her. We always wait for her to come down. Only special visitors get to go up the mountain. Nobody

In the book Spoon River Anthology, author Edgar Lee Masters uses epitaphs to recap the lives of the Midwestern people that lived in a town called Spoon River. Masters awakens the souls of the people to tell the secrets of their lives and the myths of moral superiority of the town. Spoon River is an evil and corrupt city filled with sneaky, conniving people and a few good hearts. Spoon River Anthology describes the relationships and marriages of the people in the town. Some of the marriages were extremely happy and others were abruptly unhappy. In our society, the qualities of a happy marriage differentiate based off the concepts of a happy marriage in the book.

The idea of marriage is praised in all the in last few stories we have read. Marriage or domesticated relationships are held to a very high status back then in Victorian times and even now with some people today. In The Coquette written by Hannah W. Foster, marriage played a huge part of the power and dominance in the text. The men’s sexual control from the text used sex and marriage for their own personal desires showed power. She was abused and if she would have lived, she would have been chastised for her actions.

However, the actual school system was also a problem for Coates. When describing his dilemma between street skills and education, he says: “If the streets shackled up [his] right leg, the schools shackled up [his] left. Fail to comprehend the streets and you gave up your body now. But fail to comprehend the school and you gave up your body later” (Coates 25). The way in which Coates describes the “shackle” and “giving up” one’s body creates a prison-like connotation for school. He emphasizes on the necessity of balancing one’s schooling with education of the streets in order to survive. In fact, Coates explains how “There was nothing sanctified about the laws of the streets…But the laws of the schools were aimed at something distant and vague” (Coates 25). As schools have to cater to the needs of all of its students, this restricted education inevitably creates a generalized and vague curriculum aimed at the middle class.

Collectively, these literary images go to describe a young ethnic man, probably of Latin descent, who lives with his mother in a poverty stricken area. The careful recitation of instruction given to the younger man seems to demonstrate an intricate knowledge the narrators has accrued from both predecessors and experience. Singularly, this part of the story is very powerful in that it shows a young man having to hide who he is and where he comes from in an effort to seem appealing to women, and speaks volumes about the deception that both genders go through all in name of the chase.

Not many knows this about me, where and how I grew up. I was born in San Francisco, CA, and at the age of 3, my abusive, alcoholic parents abandoned me. I don’t remember how long I was left alone in that apartment until CPS was called, but I do remember being hungry, alone, scared, and what it was liked to not be loved or wanted.

Marriage is when two people come together to form one union, and these two characters had a different idea on what that meant. Edna, from The Awakening, is married to man named Leonce Pontellier. Edna isn’t happy as the stereotypical house wife and mother. Although she claims to be a loving mother to her children, her attention and priorities are on being free and feeling the freedom of change (The Self-Realization, n.d.). She also wishes to seek love from another

Marriage in the 20th century is defined as one that kept women in the house to do the domestic work and the men responsible for providing to their family. According to ushistory.org, “The husband had to be out in the public sphere creating the wealth, but his wife was free to manage the private sphere.” The men go out to work while the wives stay at home and take care of domestic works.

Marriage can be what sociologist thinks of the world. Which is “things are not what they seem” in some situations. Meaning that you never know the real motives why some people get married.

The novel displays characters that have an impact on society and many which try to break the gender roles. Such as Nila Wahdati, who discusses feminism and the oppression of women. On the contrary, Nabi partakes the role of a female by staying home and doing the

Weddings are hallmark ceremonies for officiating marriage, the recognized union between two individuals. Historically, arranged marriages were the most common and often conceived for the purpose of social or monetary benefit. Marrying on the basis of romantic love is a more recent concept, despite its popularization as the ideal foundation for marriage. In a novel titled The Wedding by Dorothy West, there is a noticeable absence of an actual wedding ceremony, although that scarcely means the novel is devoid of marriage. The book traces the past relationships and marriages within a family before culminating in the anticipation of its titular wedding.

Torvald enforces such ideas when he tells Nora that before all else “she is a wife and a mother.” Nora stepping into the role of modern woman declares “I don’t believe that anymore. I believe that, before all else, I am a human being, no less than you. I need to think and try things myself.” She went from being a toy, child and a doll wife to a self-thinking individual capable of creating her own miracles and living life as she pleases.

The second marriage I am going to explore is Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins relationship. In the novel, Charlotte Lucas presents a practical view on marriage, declaring that happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. Her marriage to Mr Collins is to gain in establishment and acquire social standing and economic stability.