The Women Of Brewster Place : Character Analysis

(Introduction): Throughout her novel, The Women of Brewster Place, Ms. Naylor emphasizes the importance of sister hood by showing how the women are strengthened by their relationships with one another and proving that men are not necessary to their survival or happiness.

John and Lorraine were friends that went from nothing to something. They didn’t know each other much at first but eventually they fell in love. After lots of fights and more that came they had a relationship that kept growing; therefore, it grew to where they started kissing (Zindel 107-109).

In a world where showing a bit too much shoulder was forbidden, came Susan Glaspell. Glaspell was an American playwright, born in the cruel times of oppression. This influenced women’s opinions on certain subjects which caused them to be silenced by fear of rejection from society. “A Jury of Her Peers” was based on an era where women felt as though it was unreasonable to speak up if they felt it was not absolutely dire. Harboring these pent up feelings could cause a person to act antagonistic. Minnie Wright was an example of this. She killed her husband and was subjected to the judgement of her peers. As the group investigated Mr. Wright’s death, there were two stories unraveling. The in depth explanation that the women figured out and the simplistic version the men had seemed to pick up (Glaspell). People would benefit from reading this story to begin to understand the struggle of what this and other women had gone through. Penn Manor American Literature students would benefit from having Susan Glaspell’s story “A Jury of Her Peers” in their curriculum because of how she expressed feminism through her writing at a time when it was new and discouraged; her ability to emphasize the themes with her settings and characters; and her literature that follows a protagonist that navigates through a sexist world.

Ben’s Purpose in the Drama (Consider how his appearances give meaning to the drama as a foil* to Willy.)

Gloria Naylor’s powerful novel, The Women of Brewster Place, consists of many characters and many great themes, though, only one character in particular sticks out the most: Mattie Michael. Since the longest individual chapter focuses on her, readers get a glimpse at Mattie’s life, struggles, and how she got to the unit known as Brewster Place. With her constant recurrence throughout the novel, readers come to understand her importance as she is the strong-willed, backbone, and main ebony phoenix of Brewster.

The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant by W. D. Wetherell is about a 14 year old boy(the narrator) that is trying to get this girl, named Sheila Mant, to like him. After observing and trying to make an impression Sheila Mant, he gets her to go with him to Dixford where a band is playing, but there is a problem, Sheila Mant thinks fishing is dumb and the boy thinks he has just caught the “biggest bass he has ever hooked” (McDougal 30). He needs to make a decision, the girl or his passion, the largemouth bass. The author of The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant was W. D. Wetherell who “was raised in Garden City, New Jersey, but has made his home for a number of years. Wetherell is the author of eight books and several short stories. His avocation is fly-fishing.” (W.D. Wetherell) Some things that help the reader empathize with the narrator in The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant would be the narrator observing Sheila Mant, him trying to make an impression Sheila, and him choosing between the girl and his passion, the largemouth bass.

Ben is also a very peculiar character.  The audience first encounters him with the full knowledge that he is dead.  Ben is also the one figure that is able to move freely between the past and the present.  Because Ben represents that which Willy seeks, Willy feels that he can achieve his goal the same way that Ben did and so he believes that "opportunism, cheating and cruelty are success incarnate" (Smith).

Ben shows in both texts that instead of hurting others with “tart words”, that we should instead love everyone, and to make no enemies. Life is too short to be bitter all the time and create unneeded grudges between others. Life is to make the best of it, not to spend it alone.

Through choice of detail and diction, Edith Wharton justifies Frome’s adultery by juxtaposing the warm, charismatic nature of Mattie to the cold, barren one of Zeena. While his wife speaks in a “monotonous” (129) “flat whine” (32) her cousin’s “suffuse[s] him with joy” (44). Despite the fact that both women are frail and sickly, Zeena’s “puckered throat” and “protruding wrists” (47) disgusts Ethan, while Mattie is so “small and weak-looking that…it wr[i]ng[s] his heart” (106). Throughout the novel, Wharton’s choice of detail drastically contrasts the two women, one a vivacious, vigorous beauty, the other a walking, whining corpse. From their physical looks alone, Zeena is hard to love—sterile and dark—while Mattie—fertile and warm—is easy to. The author intentionally feeds this bias, allowing the readers to feel the same temptation that Frome has in the novel. However, he

From the very beginning with John and Lorraine, to Mr. Pignati, John, and Lorraine it has been about their friendship building up. It all starts with the friendship of John and Lorraine. If those two never became friends there would have not been a book. When Lorraine moved to town she was not a very social person, but she was at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come and she noticed John. She said she noticed him because of his eyes. One day John had to sit next to her on the bus because there were no other seats left. She didn't like it at first cause, all he did was laugh and she thought he was laughing at her. She asked him to stop laughing at her. He said he was sorry for laughing and later he said under his breath that he was a lunatic. Even though they are two different kinds of people they are still best friends. Like it said in the book "The fact that I'm his best friend shows he isn't as insensitive to Homo

Ben exemplified compassion in many cases, were he would sacrifice himself or his personal trails for someone else troubles. In reality this scene can compare with real life cases in the world today how compassion can be shared with people to impact others. In the movie Ben finds himself falling in love with a girl name Emily, who has an enlarged heart that he later gave his life for her to survive. Ben shared compassion with 6 other people, but given the most compassion to Emily.

Now in the literary story Benjamin has a grandfather who at the start was antagonized, became to enjoy his grandson’s company. It is a brief account of his grandfather but a meaningful one as this was the first one who gave him a sense of acceptance. The film version gave him acceptance through Queenie and we never get to know a grandfather; though one could say the patrons at the old folk’s home could have been grandparent surrogates for Benjamin. The patrons at the old folks home taught him many things but his experience living there taught him not to fear death and what loss was about which, in a sense, desensitized the character so that when Queenie passes he is not visibly upset.

Like all couples, Andie and Ben struggle with dialectical tensions in their relationship. First, they have trouble with the connection-autonomy dialectic. They are spending every day together trying to build (or destroy) their relationship (connection), but in Andie's efforts to drive Ben away she begins to make him uncomfortable with the amount of control she has in his life. She redecorates his apartment, makes him wear a shirt that matches hers and their dog's, crashes his night with his friends, and even blows his nose for him, interfering with Ben's autonomy. Another dialectic that Ben and Andie struggle with is that of openness-closedness. They both begin to have feelings for the other and want to share some things about themselves but neither is willing to disclose their original motive for the relationship. Also, Ben understandably does not mention to Andie that he was in diapers until he was five, and he gets angry when his mom divulges that information. Every relationship has such tensions, and they cannot be eliminated, only managed.

Gradually, Ben overall becomes sensitive to the environment. The sadness has overwhelmed him and left him a primitive form. He becomes impaired in the way that he relies on a caretaker and is unable to recapture the memories of himself after he’s gone. Once Ben becomes missing, people don’t search for him but instead call to ask where he has been. After about a week everyone in his life ceases to call or look. Annie is the only one to evoke the memories of Ben, the disabled man who became primitive

Daisy Miller is breaking these social norms by constantly associating with different men, drawing the attention of many others and Connie expresses her sexuality by abandoning her friends to spend time with a boy in his car; this ultimately leads to society’s metaphorical murder of these women.