The Funeral Party By Shacheglova

Over the course of time the male species has always been the gender to attain the more favorable conditions. Numerous cultures heed to the belief that the man is the provider and head of his family. This machismo nature can condition the mind to believe that a man should feel superior to a woman. The continuous cycle of male superiority flows down from father to son subconsciously. Do to this unceasing sequence of behavior women fall subject to repression and control at the hands of mentally undeveloped men. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, illustrated this particular topic in a way that not only appealed to the readers’ sense of pathos but, the readers’ likeliness to be able to relate to the aforementioned as well. Chopin stylistically renders the struggle of the protagonist Edna Pontellier, a strong willed woman who finds herself imprisoned to the concept of trans-temporal existence, as she seeks refuge to her true being, Edna experiments relationships with multiple men that unintentionally repress her existence. Between Leonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Alcee Arobin and The Colonel effect of Edna’s life they catalyze her awakening and ultimately lead her suicide.

Kate Chopin’s controversial novel, The Awakening, ignited turmoil because of her blatant disregard of the established 19th century perspective of women upholding strictly maternal and matrimonial responsibilities. Edna’s candid exploration of the restrictions on women through her liberal behavior in a conservative Victorian society makes her a literary symbol for feminist ideals. Despite denunciation from other people, Edna chooses individuality over conformity through her veering from traditional obligations. Edna indulges in her love of art, which is considered to conflict with her expected singular devotion to her household. Exploring her sexuality rather than repressing any sexual awareness constructs her feministic mentality.

Weddings are meant to be a time of happiness and joy for both families of the couple who intend on joining their lives together. This cultural normality does not prove true for Frankie Addams, in the novel The Member of the Wedding written by Carson McCullers. Frankie is a young, twelve year old girl full of jealousy towards her older brother who will be wed towards the end of the novel. Despite being a tomboy, Frankie dreamed and eventually became obsessed with her wedding and the thought of getting married. The novel, set in southern United States in 1944, focuses on Frankie’s lack of a crowd to classify with and her desire to change herself to fit in with those around her. The reader learns of Frankie’s plans to run away with her brother because she feels she will fit in with him and his fiancé due to the love she has for the two of them. The author develops this novel by creating a “fascination with the breaking apart of the individual and social body” (Thurschwell 109) and sharing this fascination with the reader. This character analysis will show how the novels plot is guided by the transformations of the protagonist, Frankie, shown primarily through her identity changes which separate the novel into three separate parts in order to develop the main theme of losing innocence.

Night is a story that reveals some of the worst of the human race. It is a re-telling of a young Jewish boy, Ellie Wiesel, coming of age in the midst of the Holocaust. The book is quite short and very clearly written, but it is still a very hard book to read. The young boy who is also the author of the book makes us, the readers, accompany him through many in-human and near-death experiences. These are written in such detail that anybody taking the time to read the book will be left with an in-depth knowledge of what we as humans are unfortunately capable of and a desire to contribute in any way possible preventing this part of our history to ever repeat itself. This, I believe, is the authors goal, to teach us, make us aware through his own experience, and hence give us a reason to hopefully prevent it in the future.

“What is equality?” one might ask. We all have different views on specific topics and can describe what something truly means to one’s self like in the 3 text, “I have a dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (published; 8/28/1963, genre; narrative and argumentative), “If we must die,” by Claude Mckay (published; 1919, genre; narrative and lyric), & “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (published; October 1961, genre; satirical & dystopian science-fiction short story). In all 3 texts the authors are giving their touch on equality. Equality can convey being treated the same when a colored and a white man/woman are next to each other as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says. You can also see equality as Mckay who thinks it’s being on the same level of strength and worth as a white man being in the shoes of a colored man. Or equality can be being exactly the same in every way as anyone around you in every exact way in Vonnegut’s eyes. All these 3 authors have a particular view on how to answer “What is equality?” and we can compare their ideas.

Live your life to its fullest, if I had to mention one thing I learned from Mary Oliver 's beautiful poem, "When Death Comes", that would be it. Specifically not letting time pass you by, or letting things like anxiety or anger control your life. The comparisons to death also help with understanding the magnitude of our mortality, and the importance of not taking each and every day for granted. With many fitting and unique metaphors I found it easy to be engaged with the poem. This leads also to a lot of relevant and surprising imagery, employing a more detailed vantage point for the reader. In "When Death Comes", Mary Oliver uses persona, metaphor, and imagery to speak not only of death, but more specifically living life to its fullest before death.

In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, we see how much of an importance the men in Edna’s life serve as a purpose to her awakening. Chopin is known to write stories about women who are unsatisfied with their lives while living in a life that is dominated by men. Other than Edna, the main men characters are typical men of the late 19th century era. Chopin shows how these three men are diverse from one another. The Creole men are Léonce Pontellier, Edna’s husband, Robert, Edna’s mystery man number one, and Alcee, mystery man number two. Léonce, Edna’s husband, is a businessman who has no time for his family let alone his wife. Alcee comes off as carefree and does not seem to care what society thinks of him. Robert is Edna’s main mystery man who she loves but Robert doesn’t love her back. Throughout the novel, these men make Edna question herself, which lead her to her awakening. These men show how men in the late 19th century behaved. In a male dominated world, women were not allowed to do much except for be good wives and mothers to their families. Edna learned the hard way as to what it meant to be the wife of a Creole man in the Victorian era. Men expected too much of women because appearances meant everything and no man would want to have a wife who is out of line and not well behaved in public. In studying these three men in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, we see how different yet alike these men are to one another.

Pigsy, Rib of man, Piece of goods, Frail, Scupper are some of the many words that were used to describe over the last millennium, some of the words which are very offensive today. According to dictionary.com, Feminism means the advocacy of women’s right on the basis of the equality of the sexes. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Chopin expressed female oppression and feminism through Edna’s life, her choices and the people in her community. Chopin had many examples of female oppression and feminism in her novel, such as Adele Ratignolle’s life, how women were stereotyped in the society at that time, why women in the 1800s fought for their feminist rights,

Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther was an astounding book. Granted, it was a bit depressing, but it was a great book because I could relate so closely to the author. The trial of a loved one going through cancer is something I can relate to. Fortunately, my story turns out a little bit better than Johnny’s did.

The Member of the Wedding is a story about a twelve-year-old girl named Frankie Addams. The book talks about her feelings, her thoughts, and her daily life. The book also includes some other characters like Burnice (her housekeeper), her cousin John Henry, and her father, just to name a few. They also made a movie about the book too, Which is good, but the movie doesn’t have what the book had. The movie and the book has a lot of similarities and differences.

“Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer is about a girl who is caught in a situation in which her father attempts to bribe her to do something immoral. One message suggested in this story is how misdirection and trickery can negatively affect relationships between a parent and their child.

The poem I chose to do a close reading essay on was, “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye. “Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905-2004) is an American poet who remains known today for a single poem-a sonnet of just twelve lines-but it may be the most popular poem in the English language. “Do not stand at my grave and weep” is a consoling Holocaust poem and elegy with an interesting genesis, since it was written by a Baltimore housewife who lacked a formal education and had quite never written poetry before, and certainly none of note” (The HyperTexts). The tone of this poem is comforting and helps people find comfort with the view of death. This poem uses a lot of imagery, metaphors, and symbolism. Frye’s, “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep,” is enlightening people how to handle a death of a loved one while using important parts of the theme such as tone, vocabulary, and overall meaning.

Abigail’s Party is a play by Mike Leigh set in 1977 in Essex. One of the most prominent themes in the play is class mobility. This was a major interest in the 1970s and many lower middle class members of society were aspiring to be genuine middle class and beyond! The stereotypical ‘middle class’ social occasion would have been a dinner party, yet we find ourselves at a rather less ‘classy’ occasion in Abigail’s party. All of the characters in Abigail’s Party seem to symbolize an area of society: Laurence symbolizes the aspiring lower middle class, working man, trying to gain a higher social status; Susan symbolizes the already middle class citizen quite content to remain middle class; Angela and Tony together symbolize the lower middle class. Beverly is also lower middle class but you could argue that she is beyond categorization. At the time, in 1970’s Britain, class mobility was at its most agitated; therefore there was a sense of social aspiration and desire for improved lifestyles among the lower and lower middle classes.¬¬

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).” The love and respect for the outdoors is something everyone should value, many things promote this way of life, due to its extravagance and true freedom in this great creation. They can sometimes go to that outdoor place in books, poems, art, and even some news articles. Much of this world doesn’t get to see the other side of America; they don’t get to see the best part, the outdoors.

Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this