Shells By Cynthia Rylant Summary

n the story The reefs by Marcella Morris the theme of 'never give up.' is developed as a girl named Sophie who attends a school in new york feels she can solve an environmental issue but is rejected by her professors and isn't allowed to use the school lab, so she sets up her own in her aunts home to conduct research and experiments on the endangered species of the reefs. Throughout the story, she describes how her friend Sam helped her by using his humor to encourage her and was there when she found the solution. The climax sets in as Sophie hesitated to enter the door in fear that the scientists would laugh and ridicule her solution and because of Sam, she goes in. Sophie walks confidently to the front and begins her presentation, and at

The second person that illustrated the theme of the book was Esther’s mother Raya. Raya showed this by always keeping a positive attitude, which raises the spirits around her. For instance, in the novel her husband went off to war, his entire battalion was wiped out and everyone had given up hope of him returning except for her. She kept saying, “Be sure to get some farmer’s cheese, the kind he adores.” Her positive attitude paid off in the end after everyone thought she was grief ridden she proved them wrong when he returned. In addition, her positive attitude did pay off again when he husband was thought to be lost in a when he did not return for work. Everyone was starting to be worried and lose hope but she continued to hope and believe and tell the others to and he returned again. That is how Raya illustrated the theme of the book by maintaining her positive attitude and encouraging others around her with it.

Early on in the novel, Esther establishes her attitude towards food: “I’m not sure why it is, but I love food more than just

Mostly everyone is aware of Mrs. Esther's mental condition but they're not sympathetic towards her. They labeled her as a "certified nut" because she preaches at the ocean waves on the beach. Still, Peter decides to get to know her better that he

Aunt esther struggled with trying to work with michael. In paragraph number 5 “She said you hate it here,” “she said and you hate me.” it means that Michael and aunt esther don’t get along together and it matters because they don’t like each other and in the end they were hugging. Aunt esther in the beginning was mad at michael but she was very loyal to her sister, that is why she brought him in. Aunt esther was always on the phone and she always talked to her friend. Aunt esther tried to work with michael but he would not work

While at home, Esther becomes into a deep depression when thinking about her experience in New York. She doesn’t want to read, write, or sleep and she stops bathing herself. Her mother sends her to see Dr. Gordon who is her first psychiatrist whom she doesn’t like and doesn’t trust. He is the man with a good looking family, and to Esther he is conceited. He doesn’t help Esther, but only hurts her more. He prescribes her with shock treatment. After this horrifying experience, she decides to kill herself. She tries to slit her wrists, but can only bring herself to slicing her calf. She tries to hang herself but can’t find a place to tie the rope, she tries to drown herself at the beach, but cannot keep herself under water, and then she crawls into a space in the basement and takes a lot of sleeping pills. “Wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” (Plath pg. 117) This quote shows how she felt trapped in the bell jar, and her suicidal urges began. She awakes in the hospital to find that her attempt at suicide wasn’t successful. She is sent to another psychological ward where she still wants to end her life. Esther becomes very paranoid and uncooperative. She gets moves to a private hospital paid for by Philomena Guinea a famous novelist. Esther improves and gets a new

Coming Out “Shells” by Cynthia Rylant is a realistic fictional short story about a 14 year old boy who moves into a new home after his parents passed away. In the beginning Michael and his Aunt Esther don’t have the best relationship. Later on they get along a little better when Michael brings home a hermit crab named Sluggo. In the end Aunt Esther and Michael get even more hermit crabs and finally have a wonderful relationship. This story shows that Michael and Sluggo are similar in many ways.

Esther refuses to allow society to control her life. Esther has a completely different approach to life than the rest of her peers do. The average woman during this time is supposed to be happy and full of joy. Esther, on the other hand, attempts to repress her natural gloom, cynicism, and dark humor. This eventually becomes too hard for her and causes her emotions to go crazy. She begins to have ideas

Three days later, she is found and placed in a mental hospital. First assigned to a rich psychiatrist named Dr. Gordon, Esther feels harassed by the doctors surrounding her. She feels that they do not really care about her; in a sense, they don’t. After seeing Esther three times, he states that she is not improving due to the fact that she has not been able to sleep, read, eat, or write in three weeks. She is moved to his mental asylum, where she suffers through electroshock therapy for the first time. The procedure is done incorrectly and she is shocked, literally.

Another common aspect of both the women’s lives is that they both dated Buddy Willard. When Esther began to have a relationship with Buddy, she thought that her relationship with him could go somewhere, that he could possibly be her husband one day. When she is in his room one night, they are talking and having wine, and Esther asks Buddy if he has ever had an “affair”. She expects him to say “no”, but he says, “Well, yes I have” (70). This is shocking to Esther. She thought Buddy was innocent, but he had been pretending the whole time. She tells Buddy to tell her about it, so he doesn’t think it bothered her that he said “yes”. He tells her that while working at this hotel in Cape Cod for the summer, one of the waitresses seduced him, and that’s how he lost his virginity. Esther and Buddy eventually part, but she doesn’t break up with him because he had slept with the waitress, it was the fact that he didn’t

Esther evidently feels as if she is constantly being judged and tested, although in fact she is not. Her magnified sense of distrust is illustrated repeatedly throughout the course of the book, at once involving the reader and developing her own characteristic response to unique situations. Finally, one who views occurrences which can only be categorized as coincidental as being planned often experiences a suspicious response. When she finds out that an acquaintance from high school is at the same hospital, her first reaction is wariness: "It occurred to me that Joan, hearing where I was, had engaged the room at the asylum on pretence, simply as a joke." (Plath 207). Although the reader is incredulous of the protagonist's manner of thought, it is also possible to feel a connection to the situation. Such a

The events in New York introduce us to the beginning of Esther’s psychological transformation. The story first inaugurates with the

Esther’s mother and society’s expectation as a woman, which is to be a good wife and a mother, suffocate and demoralize Esther’s dream as a professional writer. Esther’s mother wants her to “...learn shorthand after college, so I’d have a practical skill as well as a college degree” (Plath 40). Her mother believes that Esther cannot further advance her education as a writer and simply wants her to be a secretary since professional career for women was uncommon and discouraged because it disturbs the role as a married woman. These pressures often obliged her to fall into the societal expectations, to give up her higher education, and to marry somebody. However, she knew that the marriage and the babies were not for her, “because cook and clean and wash were just about

Esther was constantly pushed around by men, which was a stereotype in the 1950’s that men controlled the women and were always in charge. Esther had a relationship with a man named Buddy Willard who was expecting that she was just going to marry him. Men believed that they had everything a woman may desire, but actually they did not. Women were forced to marry men because of their fortune or family relations.

Just like Esther’s father died, so had Sylvia’s. And they both had unresolved feelings about it. Sylvia portrays her pain through Esther and shows her true feelings, as she rarely was able to show them anywhere