The Optimist's Daughter

Imagine floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean. You are famished and dehydrated and on the brink of death. Sores cover your sunburnt skin, and sharks surround the raft waiting for you to fall in. But somehow you remain optimistic. You find happiness in the little things. Perhaps a rain storm passed and you were able to drink and collect water. Maybe you caught a fish or a bird to eat. It’s the little things that are keeping you alive. This is how Louie and Phil were in Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. They were both very optimistic about the situation. However, their friend Mac was very pessimistic. He would not talk, ate all the chocolate rations, and was just trying to protect himself. All of these men were able-bodied, fit, and received

There is a common theme of hope throughout the stories of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Even in the face of immeasurable danger and strife, the mothers and daughters in the book find themselves faithful in the future by looking to the past, which is only helped by the format of Tan’s writing. This is shown specifically in the stories of Suyuan and Jing-Mei Woo, Lena and Ying-Ying St. Clair, and Lindo and Waverly Jong. The vignette structure of The Joy Luck Club allows the stories to build on one another in a way that effortlessly displays both the happy and dark times in each mother’s life, which lets their experiences act as sources of background and guidance to their daughters in times when they need it most.

The setting Edna is in directly affects her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; New Orleans, restriction; the “pigeon house”, relief from social constraints. While at Grand Isle, Edna feels more freedom than she does at her conventional home in New Orleans. Instead of “Mrs. Pontellier… remaining in

A nation's success and standard of living is determined by its economic growth, which is measured by percentage in real GDP. Capitalism is an economic system that yields strong incentives for rapid increases in output of commodities. The most advanced capitalist economies have been more successful in raising productivity, as a result of their low unemployment rates and ability to adjust to new and improving economies. Developed countries in general, contain a lot of natural resources, which can be used as income. As stated in Sarah Ahmed’s book “Why Happiness, Why Now?”, developing countries are shown to be happier than undeveloped ones (3). Would this supposed happiness be due to the progression of their country? A country’s growth and advancement

As a character, Mrs. Hopewell is static and stubborn in her views. Mrs. Hopewell questions her daughter’s choices in life because she loves her. She has a “mother knows best,” mentality yet her only daughter is not like her nor does she follow her mother’s wishes. Joy’s heart condition keeps her at home with Hopewell. This fact and her daughter’s prosthetic leg made Hopewell feel sympathetic for Joy. Therefore, rather than respecting Joy in her passion, she treats her like a child even though she is in her thirties. The story frequently refers to Joy as the girl as an example of how she is treated. Hopewell has also given up on her daughter getting married and starting a family. The doctors have informed her that Joy only has a couple more years left to live. The mother is essentially waiting for her daughter to die. Joy does not fit into her ideal of life and accepts this fact that she will never be perfect. This is shown by Hopewell letting Joy dress and act as she pleased. Her few attempts in trying to connect with her daughter were not genuine seen she was trying to change Joy. Her comments were also not received well by her daughter.

It all begins when Blanche Morton, moves in with her sister, Kate Jerome’s family, as a result of her husband passing away. Instead of being an independent woman, and taking care of her family, she depends on her brother-in-law Jack for; financial support, guidance, and the nurturing of her children, as if they were his obligation. Unfortunately this situation causes a great deal of tension between

This story is about a farm owner named Mrs. Hopewell, her daughter Joy (renamed Hulga), her hired help, the Freemans, and a bible salesman named Manly Pointer. Mrs. Hopewell believes everything can have some good to it if you just adjust to the situation properly. She believes everything is within her grasp. Her name is ironic because she is hopeful and hopes that everything will go well, but in the end it does not. Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter Joy also has a happy name. Joy thinks that she is leaps and bounds smarter

With a new mindset, Edna’s behavior becomes that of a child; she begins to ignore her role as expected from her by society, and starts to develop an atypical behavior. She even immaturely starts to fathom an adventurous and adulterous romance with Robert, not thinking of the possibilities of consequences. Edna soon renounces her family in the sense that she divorces her husband, Leonce, and sends her kids to their grandmother’s without a second thought; she believes her perfect life with them is a mere mirage and is an appearance of what society deems

The reasoning behind the marriage was different than that of his first marriage. Fay’s young character and beautiful appearance suggest the Judge married her for her looks, whereas she married him for his status and wealth. Fay never truly loved the Judge, as evidenced by her arguing to him in the hospital in New Orleans. The conflict directly leads to the death of the Judge. After her husband’s death, Fay is left out of place. Laurel does not accept her, nor does Fay treat the Judge’s family or possessions well. For example, Fay destroys the breadboard that once belonged to Laurel’s mother. From this, the reader can tell Fay has little moral bearing when it comes to dealing with other

Readers grow more sympathetic for Ellen as the story progresses, as her mama's mama immediately sends Ellen to work the fields with her grandma's black staff or, "help", on the farms she owns in the scorching summer heat. Through this, we see how cold-hearted her mama's mama is, and grow only more empathetic for Ellen, as all she wants and deserves is a nice family, but instead gets an almost soulless grandmother. When her mama's mama dies from illness, readers finally believe Ellen may get that happy ending. But, instead she is sent to her Aunt Nadine's and her obnoxious daughter, Dora. We find out how cold and vain Dora is, as she only wants her mother to herself, and finds sharing futile. At church, Ellen constantly sees a woman with many children. A foster mother. Ellen sees how well she treats them, wishing that she might find a happy ending with her. Hope has been tough for Ellen to keep, as she has juggled many challenges that destroyed whatever chance she had for being happy. But, maybe this woman could be that chance. On Christmas, Ellen finds out the truth when Nadine kicks her out and she tells Ellen that she never wanted her, and nobody ever did, which not only made readers have sympathy for her, but also gives Ellen the courage to seek out her own happy ending. Ellen goes to the foster lady's house, and bribes her to just let her stay there until high school, then she'll be on her way. The lady declines the bribe, but agrees to take her in and give her

Clinton McKelva is a Judge and the father of Laurel McKelva. Laurel left the southern United States for the North and later returns home to see her father before he dies. Being gone so long, Laurel’s remembrance of her father is blurry. Laurel’s relationship with her dad is cold, and her last thoughts of him are of his optimistic attitude and not introspective. Laurel’s pain is followed, after Mr. McKelva’s passing, by the discovery of her father 's library. She attempts to use the library, after his death, to relive some of her and her dad 's past through its contents (Gygax). An attempt to find evidence of the judge’s past in his desk fails. It becomes clear that her father’s possessions have already been removed. Instead of finding material pertaining to her father’s past, Laurel comprehends there is nothing left except the books on the shelves, which makes her reminisce over the sound of her dad reading aloud. Ironically, not even this memory can bring the father

Throughout The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan inserts various conflicts betweens mothers and daughters. Most of these relationships, already very fragile, become distanced through heritage, history and expectations. These differences cause reoccurring clashes between two specific mother-daughter bonds. The first relationship exists between Waverly Jong and her mother, Lindo. Lindo tries to instill Chinese qualities in her daughter while Waverly refuses to recognize her heritage and concentrates on American culture. The second bond is that of Jing-Mei Woo and her mother, Suyuan. In the beginning of the book Jing-Mei speaks of confusion in her recently deceased mother's actions. The language and cultural barrier presented between Jing-Mei and Suyuan

She looks forward to moving away like others in her town. She admits she will not be missed at her job and at nineteen, without the former protection of her older brothers, she is beginning to feel "herself in danger of her father's violence.” This danger she sees is taken away when she meets her suitor, the sailor, Frank who promises her a better life away from these hardships she has faced.

Augusta Davies Webster’s dramatic monologue, “The Happiest Girl in the World” complicates the traditional view of dramatic monologue as a genre. Webster’s dramatic monologue keeps most of the criteria of a dramatic monologue while taking out the unnecessary parts of the genre. Webster’s dramatic monologue call in the question for a need of an auditor as well as for dramatic action. Webster chose to have her speaker have action within herself rather than performing an action. Webster also did not add an auditor because an important part of the criteria for a dramatic monologue can be fulfilled without one. With these two changes Webster adds to her dramatic monologue it calls into question for the need of dramatic action and silent auditors. Webster’s “Happiest Girl in the World” is a dramatic monologue that appears to complicate the traditional view of the dramatic monologue. This complication which displays how the genre dramatic monologue is unnecessarily complicated and should be revised.

Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about “be an optimist, not a pessimist!” shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you.