The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty's first novel, The Robber Bridegroom, is a combination of fantasy and reality while exploring the duality of human nature, time, and the word man lives in. The union of legend, Mississippi history and Grimms' fairy tales create an adult dream world. Every character in the story has little insight to themselves and how they relate to the world around them. The antics of Mike Fink, the Harps, the bandits, and the Indians closely relate to Mississippi folklore. The blending of actual history and pure fantasy create a much richer form of entertainment. Mike Fink was an American frontiersman who is said to have beaten Davy Crockett in a shooting contest. The Harpe brothers were
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Rosamond is looking forward to the future, to be free from her stepmother and experience love besides that between father and daughter. The story is loaded with cruel and horrible acts. Mike Fink tries to kill Jamie and Clement for bags of gold; Clement's first wife dies after seeing their son thrown into boiling water by Indians, Kentucky Thomas is killed leaving his ugly wife to marry Clement, an Indian girl is raped and killed by Little Harp, and Rosamond is raped by Jamie. All of these acts are overpowered, however, by the humor of the characters. The three main characters represent clear opposites in their own characters. Rosamond is beautiful and pure but could not tell the truth to save her life. Clement is a planter who is restless and loves to travel. Jamie is a criminal as well as a bridegroom. Their outside appearance can undermine the opinions of others. "If being a bandit were his breadth and scope, I should find him and kill him for sure," said he. "But since in addition he loves my daughter, he must be not the one man, but two, and I should be afraid of killing the second. For all things are double, and this should keep us from taking liberties with the outside world, and acting too quickly to finish things off. All things are divided in half-night and day, the soul and body, and sorrow and joy and youth and age, and sometimes I wonder if even my own wife has not been the one person all the time, and I loved her
The story I chose to analyze is “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty. The author, Eudora Wetly, is originally from Mississippi from a prosperous family, she was born in 1909 and passed away in 2001.During her early days she worked at small places involved with writing until she launched her literary career. ‘Why I Live at the P.O’ is about sibling rivalry and favoritism among family. My thesis states that this story shows a good example of favoritism among families and good insight from the outcast.
In the middle of the trip to Aunt Ida's, Rayona wonders what will happen to her. Standing on a hill overlooking Ida's house, Christine runs and leaves Rayona. In a short lapse of time, Rayona has lost her mother and gained an unwilling caretaker. The treatment from both women causes Rayona to question her own value as a person; she finds herself of little worth. As life on the reservation slowly progresses, Father Tom befriends Rayona. While the priest's intentions are innocent, he ends up causing Rayona to feel more poorly about herself. So Rayona runs, she tries to escape from her difficulties at the reservation. At the lake, she decides to begin a new life. Several things happen to Rayona at the camp. The ways her co-workers behave toward her depress her further, and then the letter she finds causes her to want what is perceived as a normal life. Though also at the lake, begins a turning point for Ray
While Heather is in a Boston awaiting her husband to arrive from Europe, Heather has a child. News is delivered to Heather that her husband had been lost at sea, but in actuality he is living a double life no one ever suspected. When he arrived he was captured by native americans and when finally arriving to the puritan settlement he discovered the crimes of his wife. He made a new name for himself, Roger Chillingworth, and decided that there was only one true reason to stay in
Americanization is a process immigrants and first-generation American children encounter when shocked with the potent culture and mannerism of American society. In Abraham Cahan’s short story “The Imported Bridegroom,” Americanization and its various influences of different people are highlighted. Within the story, the audience is introduced to Flora, a first-generation Jewish American who is heavily influenced by the luxurious aspect of the American Dream and projects this romantic and unrealistic goal onto her future ideal husband, leading to her unhappiness. On the other hand, Shaya, an immigrant from Pravly, evolves from reading Jewish books and prayers to all sorts of higher Gentile books, including philosophy and mathematics.
The Revolution released the potential for America to become very democratic; allowing space for political and social struggles to spread ideas of freedom and challenge the old way of doing things. Ideas of liberty invigorated attacks on both British and domestic American foundations and so did the beliefs of equality in the Declaration of Independence, which caused many in society who were seen as the substandard bunch such as women, slaves and free blacks to question the sanction of their superiors.
Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl allows Harriet Jacobs, speaking through the narrator, Linda Brent, to reveal her reasons for making public her personal story of enslavement, degradation, and sexual exploitation. Although originally ignored by critics, who often dismissed Jacobs ' story as a fictional account of slavery, today it is reported as the first novel narrative by an ex-slave that reveals the unique brutalities inflicted on enslaved women. Gabby Reyes
They say that opposites attract and this holds true for the relationship between William and Hester as they learn more about one another. The husband and wife came from different upbringings. William is born with a strict father among the “Back Creek Folk”, while his wife is considered “one of the Gap people” with flexible, supportive parents. The way their parents raised them influences the way they act. William is a hard worker who speaks very little, but his wife Hester does enough talking for the both of them. Hester is a strong woman and manages the family farm very well. She is able to make decisions quickly without William’s input. The farm is considered to be most prosperous in Mcpherson County. The couple’s three sons work on the
In the short story “A Worn Path,” the author, Eudora Welty uses mythical, religious, and spiritual symbols as well as the setting to help the reader understand an old African-American woman’s life. Welty also uses the symbolism to represent the hardships old woman has faced during the old woman’s life. The old African-American woman’s name is Phoenix and is on a journey to town as the readers are taken on journey through her life. Welty also uses fine details and sentence structure in addition to the symbolism and setting to increase the understanding of her story or change the meaning an object.
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
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific events, to ever occur in history. Hitler and the Nazi party started a genocide that killed millions of people because of their ethnicity. The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman tells the perfect story of how life was like during the Holocaust period, through a woman and her family. The main characters in the book are Antonina, the wife and mother, Jan, the husband, and Rys, the couple’s son. The Nazi’s invaded Poland, and took over the Jan and Antonina’s zoo. Throughout the whole novel, Jan and Antonina Zabinski play an active role in the underground network of both hiding Jews and taking care of animals within their Zoo. The main character, Antonina, finds herself managing various relationships during the novel, she’s a zookeeper, a wife, and a mother as well. Throughout the course of the novel, she reveals aspects of her relationship between the animals, and her husband.
The novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl by Harriet Jacobs, is the story of Harriet Jacobs under the pseudonym Linda Brent. It tells the life story of Linda and her life as a slave, her battle of freeing her children, and her journey to freedom. The majority of the book is set in a North Carolina small, close knit community in the early 1800s on Dr. Flint’s plantation, Linda’s master and owner. It begins when Linda is a child. Her parents are free and the slave owner who possesses Linda and her brother will not sell their freedom. After her parents pass she is left in the hands of her grandmother known as Aunt Martha, whom is a free black woman as well. When Linda becomes a young teenager, Dr. Flint begins to pursue her, sexual harassing her restlessly. When Linda rejects his initial offer, he spends most of his time devising plans to win her over, having her in his presence always. Although Dr. Flint is her owner and can tell her what to do, according to law, he demands her acceptance and is persistent to win Linda’s affection. Linda never gives in and finds a way to evade her master every time he is around. Trying to escape the harassment and abusiveness, Linda bares two children to a white lawyer. Seeing no change after her second child, Linda decides to run away trying to free her children from living their lives in slavery. She hides in her grandmother’s storage shed crawlspace for seven years until fleeing to the north with the help of generous white
What reaches would you go to in order to aid the ones you love? In “A Worn Path,” by Eudora Welty, the reader is taken on Phoenix Jackson’s, the main character’s, journey to the doctor’s office to obtain the medications needed for her ill grandson. Having to commute in such difficult conditions, Phoenix endures through the dense and tiresome woods, stretching from the countryside to the town. After persevering through the long journey to her destination, Phoenix arrives at the building and receives the medication she needs. Welty concludes the story in neglect of a “resolution” by prolonging Phoenix’s journey to a store. In “Is Phoenix Jackson’s Grandson Really Dead?”, a literary analysis on “A Worn Path,” also by Eudora Welty, Welty responds to a common question that she receives regarding the status of the main character’s grandchild. In her essay, she argues that, in general, the focal point of the story is the grandmother’s journey, not whether or not the grandson is alive or deceased.
How far should one travel to another if they know the will not be thanked for their actions? Eudora Welty, a lady that wrote in a male dominated world, wrote the story A Worn Path, which is consider one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. A Worn Path is about Phoenix Jackson an older woman that goes on a journey through the forest to get to a hospital in another town because her grandson got into something and is dying. Phoenix truly shows that she will do anything and endure anything for her grandson; not matter what she receives in return. In an article it says,” The bird consumed itself in fire, rising reborn
In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying,
The only other dynamic character is Laird, her little brother. At the beginning of the story he is very young and obeys his big sister, no matter what she tells him to do; at the end, he too has grown up somewhat and no longer accepts her authority unquestioningly. He puts an end to their bedtime singing ceremony when he tells her, "You sound silly," and tells on her when she lets the horse escape. Laird is the only character beside Henry Bailey that is given a name. His name, a Scotch form of the title "Lord," demonstrates his importance to the family, as the only boy, and his place in society, which will have more respect for him than for his sister. Yet, in the story it is evident that the narrator is just as good a worker as her brother-far better, because of her advantage in age. It is only because she is a girl that her mother expects her to be a help inside the house, not outside of it. The other characters are the narrator's father, her mother, and the hired hand, Henry Bailey. Henry is someone whom the children admire for his "ability to make his stomach growl at will, and for his laughter, which was full of high whistlings and gurglings and involved the whole faulty machinery of his chest," and for other characteristics that adults might find vulgar, but that are wondrous and exciting to the children. The father is a creative, inventive man and a hard worker, who keeps his thoughts to himself but, in the narrator's opinion, can be depended upon. The mother is a