From looking for the girl in his dream to trying to find out how they are connected, they are some of the most important parts in the book.I will go over Ethan’s search for the girl in his dream, information from the past about the locket and why him and Lena are connected and why they are some of the most important searches in the Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Ethan in the beginning of the book had a constant nightmare about him and a girl falling and he couldn’t save her. “It was like I was in love with her, even though I didn’t know her. Kind of like love before sight” (Garcia & Stohl 5). Since Ethan doesn’t know who the girl is in his dream. He doesn’t know who the girl is, or if she is even real. But since he feels like he is in love with her; he most likely wants to know if she is real or not. So he searches for the girl but it is hard to look far in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina. Ethan didn’t think she existed until there was a new girl in school. Ethan notices she has all the same characteristics as the girl from the dream. They become friends and find out they have the same dreams, and are connected in some way because they can hear what they are thinking and they have the same dreams/visions. …show more content…
When Ethan brought the locket home to Amma she freaked out and told him to get rid of it. He didn’t get rid of it and brought it to his great aunts house. He asks around and searches for information about the locket. “’We found this locket in the garden behind the great house. We don’t know who it belonged to, but it looks really old.’ ‘That’s not Macon Ravenwood’s property. That’s part a Greenbrier’” (Garcia & Stohl 89). Ethan asks his aunts for more information about the locket. He is very meticulous about the information they give him. They tell him about the date and one of the initials and it turns out to be someone Ethan is related
“It was only when she drew toward her last illness, and his cousin Zenobia Pierce came over from the
This book was very interesting. The book had a lot of drama and I really enjoyed it. Although, the book ended on a cliffhanger, I still really liked it. There was conflict throughout the book with Ethan and his family. His family thought that things would go back
In //Ethan Frome// Edith Wharton illustrates how Ethan views Zeena versus Mattie through the parallel scenes of when Ethan is greeted by Zeena/Mattie at the door of his farmhouse first coming home from the dance and second coming home from. Although both scenes play out almost identically, Wharton uses the slight differences to emphasize how Ethan sees Mattie as beautiful, submissive, and attractive compared to Zeena who he only sees as an obstacle. As Ethan comes up to the door the first time when Zeena waits for him, he is so infatuated by Mattie that Zeena has become but a hurdle for him to overcome. He even dreams about if a dead vine dangling was a"crape streamer tied to the door for a
Isolation can be the determining factor in changing one’s mindset. In Ethan Frome, Ethan faces many disappointments throughout the novel. In the novel, Ethan is an orphan since both parents have passed. His wife Zeena who is also his cousin has become the dominant one in the relationship taking over full control. While living in Starkfield, Zeena has suddenly become “sick” and is forced to bring in her cousin Mattie for help around the house. Zeena is depicted as a bitter prematurely old woman who is always “sick” while Mattie is the picture of health as well as the sweetest woman alive. When Mattie comes into the picture, she becomes the speck of happiness in which Ethan longs for but Zeena keeps taking away. This brings up a theme of failure throughout the novel.
The novel, Ethan Frome, was mostly centered around the desires of three people, Ethan Frome, Zeena Frome, and Mattie Silver. Ethan and Zeena have a passionless marriage, which makes it hard for Ethan to feel loved. So Ethan decides to turn to someone else someone that has a mutual desire for him, Mattie Silver. Ethan and Mattie had deep passion for one another despite the fact that Ethan is married to Mattie’s cousin Zenna. They been trying to hide their feelings from the out side world, but their feelings for one another take over. They decided that if they couldn’t be together now than they would be together in the after life. After Zenna chooses to kick Mattie out of their home Ethan says that he will drive Mattie to the train station. It is then they decide to try and commit suicide. They sled right into a tree at the bottom of the hill they had stopped to sled on. They both lived but were hurt very badly. This just proves to show how immense a desire for another human can become. It can take over your thoughts and actions leaving you to feel hopeless and aspirated at the same time.
For at least the young Ethan Frome, his desire to make others happy is a defining feature of his personality. The seemingly contented man introduced to readers contrasts with the unfortunate description of his education: “his father’s death, and the misfortunes following it, had put a premature end to Ethan’s studies…” (14). Even in his youth, Ethan prioritizes the needs and wants of others over his own. While dropping out of school was inevitable once the funds stopped flowing, his decision not to sell the family farm and remain in Starkfield is the most socially acceptable thing to do. With the whole town of Starkfield watching, Ethan accepted his duties as a son and eventual husband. These obligations corned Ethan, so much so that he was not able to elope with Mattie. Although Ethan despises his wife, his concern for her is demonstrated when he thinks: “and what of Zeena’s fate?...how could she keep the farm going?” Even when he’s about to leave her, Ethan is still worried about her prospects and position in society. In this respect, Zeena personifies all inhibitors of dreams: time, money, education and ability. Ethan’s failure to get away from Zeena is indicative of his resignation to fate.
In the story Ethan is married to Zeena while he is in love with her cousin, Mattie Silver, that lives with them at the moment. In the book it states, “All his life was lived in the sight and sound of Mattie Silver, and he could no longer conceive of its being otherwise”(Wharton 49). To what was stated before, Ethan was in love with Mattie. He felt that his marriage with Zeena was dead and there was no fixing it. The second cited text states, “He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and even if he had had the heart to desert her he could have done so only by deceiving two kindly people who had pitied him” (97). Ethan was going to leave Zeena and move out West with Mattie, but he would have to hurt two friends to do that. This whole book really falls under the theme of courage. Ethan took bold measures to do what was right verses following his heart and hurting people that felt for him. Courage is to be defined as, “Strength in the face of pain or grief”(google). Ethan stayed courageous throughout the whole book by not following his heart and
Everyone in the world wants to be happy in life, but most of the time that doesn’t really happen. Many people usually face hardship in their life for them to become happy in the long run. Henry David Thoreau once said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” which mean some people keep their struggles quiet. Men fake their life until they reach a grave and realized they did nothing in life. This relates to Ethan because when the argument happened between him and Zeena he than expresses his frustration towards her. In the book, Ethan Frome Ethan lives a tragedy life. Ethan has a lot of complex problems like Ethan marrying Zeena and him not able to stand up for his wife. After Ethan and Zeena get married, Zeena becomes an annoying, selfish and sick wife to Ethan.
Even a few minutes earlier when they stood outside the house, he would not have dared to think of kissing her (43). But since he had seen her lips in the lamp light he felt that they were his. Ethan is a victim of his own personal choices and temperament, because in the book it says, and I quote, “Get up,” he ordered her. It was the tone she always needed, but she cowered down in her seat, repeating vehemently, and I quote, “No, no, no!” “Why?” “I want to sit in front.” “No, no! How can you steer in front?” “I don’t have to, we’ll follow the track.” They spoke in smothered whispers, as though the night were listening. As I quote, “Get up! Get up!” he urged her, but she kept on repeating, “Why do you want to sit in front?” “Because I - because I want to feel you holding on to me,” he stammered and dragged her to her feet (123). The answer seemed to satisfy her, or else she yielded to the power of his
Ethan’s parents passed away and he thought getting married would solve all his problems and he would not have to be alone. Ethan found a girl named Zeena and he proposed. They lived on his cold farm in Starkfield, Massachusetts. Zeena became sick and they had to hire a housekeeper, which turned out to be Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver (Wharton 25). When Zeena became sick and Ethan started having feelings for Mattie, he realized he made an immense mistake of rushing into love when he was young. Now he lives a life of suffrage and greater
Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome’s sense of responsibility lives strong enough in him to forget about his own happiness with Mattie, to stay with his wife Zeena, and to take care of the town when all of the others have passed away. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Ethan’s sense of responsibility to his wife and land prevents him from achieving true happiness and causes his ultimate emotional death.
Ethan Frome and his wife, Zenobia (Zeena), never really know what true love feels like because they are both very lonely people. They meet when Zeena is caring for Ethan’s mother; due to their loneliness, they mistake the bizarre feeling of companionship for love. Ethan marries Zeena, not because he is in love, but because he does not want to be alone and he feels like he owes it to her for everything she is doing for him. She is aware of this and claims, “...you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother! And my folks all told me at the time you couldn 't do no less than marry me after—” (Wharton 83). In addition to Zeena saying that Ethan
When Ethan passes by his family’s graveyard, the narrator says, “For years that quiet company had mocked his restlessness, his desire for change and freedom” (Wharton 30). Ethan reflects on his year attending college in Worcester and working for an engineer in Florida before his marriage to Zeena. After his marriage, Ethan makes plans to move with Zeena to a big city where they can “see the world,” yet his circumstances stand in his way of his success (Wharton 42). Ethan never forgets his desire for a better life. The fifty-two year old Ethan Frome continues to buy a copy of the Bettsbridge Eagle, a magazine that tantalizingly displays ads for “Trips to the West,” business success stories, and the latest scientific discoveries (Wharton 9). However, as the young Ethan grows wiser and realizes the impossibility of life beyond Starkfield, his dream
One item, actually the idea that the item represents, that symbolizes the theme of the novel Ethan Frome is the red pickle dish. That pickle dish symbolizes something different for each person connected to it. The primarily symbolism of the pickle dish is that of Ethan and Zeena’s marriage, it was a wedding present from her aunt (Wharton 35) and one of her most prized possessions. This highly symbolic pickle dish meant different things to the three people involved with it.
Frome’s suffering brought about by forces beyond his control. Included in these forces are the weather and time of year, leaving for college and having to come back, and falling in love. The winter weather influnces Ethan to marry Zeena.Due to the seasonal weather, Ethan makes a poor choice in marrying Zeena. “After the funeral, when he saw her [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter” (44). This quote substantiates Ethan’s regret in marrying Zeena. He believes he wouldn’t have made that same decision had it been spring time. Another force beyond Ethan’s control is seen in the introduction, it is about Ethan being forced to come home on page 5 ““Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warn’t ever anybody but Ethan. Fust his father – then his mother.””(25). This quote relates to when Ethan was forced from college and back to the