Review Of Irene Opdyke's 'In My Hands'

Ophelia is accustomed to having her father speak on her behalf, as well as being dependent on him for emotional support. Her absolute dependence means Ophelia does not know how to cope and reason on her own. Being left to grieve alone, she does not have an objective perspective or someone to bring her back to her senses, and therefore becomes overwhelmed by her emotions. Having no control over the intensity of how to feel and act is a very unhealthy way to cope. Her grief makes her speak “nothing”, and those who hear her are left to doubt and “think there might be thought”, although they cannot be sure about what she really means.

By exploring the responses Ophelia and Laertes had to their father’s death, other aspects of human nature are revealed. Their responses to

When first introduced to the narrator, readers quickly pick up on how observant she is to the world around her. However as the novel draws to a close, many quick events take place with little to no explanation or commentary from the

The way Davidson uses imagery and intricacy to reveal Marianne’s past life through her stories will engulf one into the novel and make one feel like they are truly in the century in question. As Marianne tells her stories, the emotion from her and the man pours off the pages and the reader is all but helpless to surrender to feeling sympathy and fret for the characters. The flashbacks are so seamlessly inserted into the text that the reader will sometimes lose track of which world he or she is in, the modern one, or the 14th century. Davidson also considers historical continuity in the stories that are told, and because of this the reader will not only be lost in the story, but also gain a wealth of knowledge about ancient religion, forgotten traditions, and origin of literature from all of Davidson’s

Since this book was wrote in first person I could really see what was going on inside of Hanneke's head, along with how she was feeling during this whole ongoing problem.

In Sherwood Anderson’s “Hands” and Eudora Welty’s “A worn path”, both authors convey a main character where they both have the unlikelihood of getting back to the way things used to be for them. In Anderson’s story, Biddlebaum is an outsider because he had no other choice but to isolate himself from the town he is originally from due to the fact he was wrongfully accused of molesting children. Regarding Welty’s story, Phoenix Jackson is headed to a town she goes to every year; insisting that she retrieves medicine for her son, but will end up not making it back home. Anderson and Welty’s characters are considered outsiders because they are both going through a time in their life where things are not what they seem to be and in order to deal with that they decide to stem further away from their issues.

(2) She generally concealed her emotion, even when she talked about her experience of abuse and rape. While, she sometimes behaved dramatically and occasionally produced short-lived angry outbursts.

The author heavily focuses heavily on memories. The half the book consists mostly of Ove’s memories. If it were not for the flashbacks one would not understand Ove. We

This becomes important because it is where things begin to spiral into a rush of bad luck for them. The novel takes place in many time frames because it gos from current day to when his father died and he met his dead wife. The main time is in present day when Ove is learning about how to be a good neighbor and learn to adapt to the modern world.

The genre of memoir has many literary qualities those are unique only to memoir that appeals to many readers. Compared to other genres, memoirs are author’s real memories and include stories involving the problem of the author and other characters’ relationship. Memoirs include many authors’ extraordinary memories and events that may look surprising to the readers. In the book A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me by Jason Schmidt, the author recalls a horrifying memory of his father. It said,”... I came home from school one day and found my dad crawling around on a kitchen floor in a big pool of blood. (3)” For Jason, who was surprisingly calm, some happenings that may be seen horrifying for the readers weren’t casual for him. Events like this

In the story, No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt, Josh’s father, Stefan, seems very unhappy with his life at this point. He lashes out at Josh for things that I assume normally wouldn’t get him very angry. In the book it did say that Josh’s father had been out of work for eight months (Hunt 9); this may be the source of his anger. In the story it stated that Stefan used to take Josh out all the time to show him off to his friends, co-workers, and other people (Hunt 11, 12). However, now “a harshness sprang between” them (Hunt 12). In 1930, Josh’s father had been losing hours of work; eventually, in 1932, he lost his job (Hunt 13). Stefan had wanted to live the “American Dream” after he came to the United States as an immigrant (Hunt 13) from Poland (Hunt 25).

A perfect reason for shame, fear and major vulnerability comes up in the beginning of the novel, when the protagonist is being raped by the much older Serge. She does not state that she experiences fear and horror, but she recounts rather unemotional how the situation evolves and a possible fear is only spelled out in this sentence: “And my fear and horror seemed ridiculous.” (68)

Contemplate any times you had to keep a secret, keeping something hidden that you knew would have a negative outcome if release, despite the constant tugging at the back of your mind to tell someone, and then multiply that feeling by a few hundred. Then span it over a decade. That is close to the pain that this secret had most likely been putting Mrs. Kittredge through. However, this doesn't mean I believe that this was the best decision to make. Keeping a story with effects that great from a child until they are in their mid-teens could be devastating to some.

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

that “ when I began the book I thougt of it as a little bridge of sympathy between East and West ,