The Wife's Story By Ursula K Le Guin

Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.

The story begins with a description of the husband. "He was a good husband, a good father" (Le Guin 3), "He was always gentle" (Le Guin 3). These lines create confusion, it makes the audience question. In order for the questions to be answered finalizing the story would have to be done. This foreshadows what will occur later on the story. Le Guin tells about how they first met and about how his sophistication attracted her.

Another literary device Jane Kenyon uses is the double. The double represents the husband because his other half is starting to be revealed to his wife. The first instance of the husbands double coming out is in lines 7 and 8 . “…and this year’s budding leaves push last year’s spectral leaves…” The author uses nature to represent the husbands change over time. Something interesting in that line is the word, “spectral.” The word spectral means transparent. That could represent how the husband use to be so transparent to the wife. She thought she knew everything about him but now she is

In almost every story there is a meaning, whether that meaning is obvious or not is up to the readers’ interpretations. In some stories, that meaning hides behind a character, how that person acts, thinks, or express themselves and how they change throughout resembling growth. In Raymond Carver’s “The Cathedral”, the unnamed husband narrators the tale of his wife’s old blind friend Robert coming to visit after not seeing each other for years. They had remained in contact through audiotapes, but the husband seems to not understand the significance of their relationship, showing distaste with the visit for the majority of the story, due to his uncomfortableness. In this story, the writer displays his tale and its morals; by using the narration of the husband; Carver shows that there comes to be more meaning behind this bitter man that meets the eye, which argues the fact that perhaps this unlikable narrator is truly the antihero.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin, the informally-speaking narrator depicts a cookie-cutter utopia with perpetually happy citizens that sing and dance in the music-filled streets during the Festival of Summer. However, under one of the beautiful public buildings lays a child, no older than ten years-old, who lays in its own excrement. Although the citizens know the emancipated child is there, they refuse to act upon the child’s suffering, for their happiness depends entirely on the child’s abominable misery. Through ethos, the narrator illustrates this utopian society with a casual tone and frequently asks the audience for their input. Le Guin’s fairy-tale introduction of the story establishes her credibility through her extensive knowledge and understanding of the people of Omelas. Le Guin utilizes logos through the narrator’s second person point of view which incites the audience to draw their own conclusions about the city of Omelas and question their own justifications of the child’s existence. The concept of the happiness of many relying on the necessary suffering of one forces the reader to question their own morals and their justifications for the child’s physical and mental condition. Through ethos, logos, and pathos, Le Guin presents the contrast and divide between the citizens of Omelas and the child in the cellar in order to challenge the reader’s capacity for moral self-conception.

There are many styles of writing authors use to captivate their readers. One style in particular is the epistolary style. The epistolary style of writing seduces its readers by using the character’s documents or letters to tell a story. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote the book The Left Hand of Darkness using the epistolary writing style, in return he captures his readers by making them feel the experience one would have if they lived on the planet Winter and understand the planet’s history. The story is told by Genly Ai, a person from earth who is sent to Winter to study their forbidding, ice-bound world.

Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story "Cathedral." From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wife's friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this story.

“America 's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole” is a quote from Bobcat Goldthwait. He is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter that refers to Christopher Columbus as the thief. Following in the European settlers footsteps, Americans had no respect for the Indians’ homes or the people themselves. Similar to Columbus and his successors, the United States government has taken Native Americans’ land. The unfairness of this injustice led to the erosion of Indians’ rights, which has ultimately threatened their safety, especially women’s. In Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Round House, she indicates that understanding the lack of safety Native women face is vital in maintaining a civil community. Louise Erdrich reveals that

Throughout history, Australian has always been perceived as a land of men. This is due to the colonization of Australian during the eighteen and nineteen century, where men are seen inferior to women. They also are domesticated within the house duties that the society has influence because of their gender. Although, Henry Lawson “the drover wife” and The Chosen Vessel” by Barbara Baynton challenges the Australian society through Australian literature by placing women in harsh environments. The drover wife is short stories about women who face the new obsolesce while living within the harsh environments. The Chosen Vessel has a similar aspect of the drover wife but the lead female experience the harness of the environment, which lead to her death. Both women display their own straights and heroics while facing their fears, through their selfless action. They are both portrayed of women of the bush but their fate had stored different outcome for both women. This essay will examine both the drover wife and the chosen vessel both contain a simple plot, but it expands on many issues of gender expectation and domesticated within the household role of the expectation of women. It will also examine the religious aspect of the historical narrative that has been seen within both bush stories.

The wife serves as a catalyst to bring about change in this perception by welcoming her friend into their household. Carver foreshadows that this blind man, Robert, has the power of insight through the detail in which the tape recorded episodes are described. Before Robert is even introduced into the dialogue the reader's view of him is the opposite that of the narrator-- this is emphasized by their separate relation to the woman in the story. She becomes the object from which the two men illustrate their approaches to life. The blind man opens himself up to her words, thoughts, feelings and substance. The husband relies on the surface like visual clues from her and taking things at face value. The poem that she writes about her experience with Robert is dismissed by her husband, "I can remember I didn't think much of the poem" (210). When she shares the poem with its subject communication is opens up between them. However, her role is minor in the underlying conflict of the story, which is the juxtaposition of the values embodied by Richard and by the narrator. Carver molds the husband into a disciple, one who is unwilling at first but gradually shifts his ideology.

Ursula K. LeGuin's egregious use of voice in A Wife's Story changed the perspective and emotion of the story in a considerable manner. Ursula K. LeGuin's use of voice in A Wife's Story changed the perspective of the reader. An example of how she changes the perspective of the reader, "He turned his face. It was changing while I looked, it got flatter and flatter, the mouth flat and wide, and the teeth grinning flat and dull, and the nose just a knob of flesh with nostril holes, and the ears gone, and the eyes gone blue — blue, with white rims around the blue — staring at me out of that flat, soft, white face." The way the author describes everything changes the way you think about the husband and how he acts and what he is like.

Ursula Le Guin uses techniques to put the audience at disbelief and at shook. In the story, “The Wife’s Story,” Guin uses irony to put the readers at sorrow for the characters like the husband. The husband was portrayed as a kind beautiful man. A man that was good with the children and anyone could see that there was nothing wrong with him. The woman was deeply in love with the man with many secrets.

Condren also points out the tales’ formulaic approach. This seemingly identical structure cements the notion that the two tales are thematic brothers (despite the animosity held between their respective tellers.) Condren rightly notices the repeated structure that the two tales share: a brief ad hominem, a description of each teller’s adversary, a sudden interruption by the target of the tale, moral/theological dialogue between the central character and a supporting character, an act devoted to terms and conditions, and a concluding act presenting the consequences of agreement. (115). According to Condren, this framework reinforces the idea that the two tales were designed as tightly structured “footnotes” to the larger tale told by the Wife

However, just a well known as rvw white beard and his calm disposition have been, so has the wife’s nagging become. Seen as epitome of what a bad wife is. Painted as such in the story, and viewed in the same manner by all of who have read this story. However, a closer look past the veil of the classical nagging wife, and delving into her actions and their motives may bring a new perspective of this character. Illustrating that through literary contemplation, we may come to realize that those whom we esteem as the heroes or villains of a story, may not be

Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex suggests that to resolve the tension between bad faith and authenticity, people must regard women as subjects and not objects. They must also collectively fight against the idea of womanhood in order to remain authentic to themselves.