Theme In Katherine Anne Porter's 'He'

She was staring at his chest, blindly, not knowing what to think, not thinking at all. He lifter her chin, gently. “Look at me Faye.” She did, but his face was a blur. “Faye, we’re in this together—you and I. Don’t you see that? It’s not just your problem, it’s ours.” In “A Sorrowful Woman”, I found the husband’s nurturing ways most appealing. He completely rearranged his life to make sure that his wife was as comfortable as possible. The passage that most signifies this is found on page 41. With great care he rearranged his life. He got up hours early, did the shopping, cooked the breakfast, took the boy to nursery school. “We will manage,” he said, “until you’re better, however long that is.” He did his work, collected the boy from the school, came home and made the supper, washed the dishes, got the child to bed. He managed everything. One evening, just as she was on the verge of swallowing her draught, there was a timid knock on her door. The little boy came in wearing his pajamas. “Daddy has fallen asleep on my bed and I can’t get in. There’s not room.” In “A Sorrowful Woman” what I found most unappealing was that even though the husband clearly loved her, instead of getting her the help she clearly needed, he let her sickness overcome her.

To begin, this short story has a lot of secrets various people keep from one another. One of the secrets that is in the short story is that the mom does not like her own children. Only Hester and her children know that secret, everyone else surrounded thinks that Hester the mom loves and is happy with her children. The author states, “Only she herself knew that at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody.

Tobias Wolff’s memoir, “This Boy’s Life”, explores the idea that an individual’s actions can be altered due to the people they are exposed to. The protagonist Jack Wolff lives an impressionable life where he undergoes somewhat of a dilemma in relations to his actions, being incapable of changing for the greater good of himself. The absence of a proper male role model plays a large role on Jack’s actions, though is definitely not the only reason. Jack’s actions are influenced by Rosemary’s abusive and power craving ex-husband Roy, as well as Dwight’s violent and arrogant personality. However, Jack is also responsible for his

As a child Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother; a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave; no longer a boy, but an 'it'. His bed was an old army cot in the basement, his clothes were torn and smelly, and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dogs' bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. Dave dreamed of finding a family to love him and call him their son. It took years of struggle, deprivation and despair to find his dreams and make something of himself. A Child Called 'It' covers the early years of

Since the story uses a certain object, the Jacket, as the meaning of several issues, it primarily focuses on the narrator's poverty-stricken family. First of all, an example of the poverty is demonstrated when the narrator complains that the jacket "was so ugly and big that I knew I'd have to wear it a long time"(paragraph 3). It is clear that his lack of money was a problem in which he

The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between

Turpin sees herself as “a respectable, hardworking, church going woman” (394), however her high moral values are overshadowed by her condescending demeanor. She believes that she is a good person and deserving of her category, as she expresses, “some of the people with a lot of money were common and ought to be below she and Claud” (388). Mrs. Turpin, who is ultimately consumed by her preconceived notions about social hierarchy, thinks she knows everything about a person based on class and race. For example, when the “white trash” woman in the waiting room spoke about not being able to feed her son and mother anything, but coke cola and candy. Mrs. Turpin thought that she was lazy to cook and that there was nothing you could tell her about people like them that she didn’t already

The women of the story are not treated with the respect, which reflects their social standings. The first image of the women that the reader gets is a typical housewife. They are imaged as “wearing faded house dresses and

Mrs. Dempster, who is the young wife of the pastor, was unfit for nursing children and taking care of domestic tasks, compared to other housewives in Deptford. As such, townspeople would gossip about Mrs. Dempster’s family: “By the time a year had passed since Paul’s birth her husband had become ‘poor Reverend Dempster’ to everybody, a man burdened with a simple-minded wife and a delicate child, and it was a general source of amazement that he could make ends meet” (Davies P). The townspeople’s rumours reflects an obsolete prejudice, where women must be competent in domestic tasks. Besides possessing the capability of doing housework, the society deemed that married women should be loyal to their husbands as well. In the novel, after Mrs. Dempster had gotten lost, the townspeople found her naked in the grove with the tramp. At first, the townspeople thought that Mrs. Dempster had been the victim of rape. However, Mrs. Dempster clarified that she had not been raped, because that man desired her. Afterwards, the townspeople no longer believed that Mrs Dempster was a simple woman, and talked about her, behind her back: “Mrs. Dempster

The men in this story were very stereotypical of the women’s capabilities. It says in the text, “‘Oh, well,’ said Mrs. Hale’s husband, with good-natured superiority, ‘women are used to worrying over trifles.’”(Glaspell) Mrs. Hale’s husband in the story was being very stereotypical about what women are used to. He says that women are used to worrying about small things and is saying that they are over dramatic. Mrs. Hale’s husband also went on to say, “‘Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?’” (Glaspell) Him saying this is not only insulting their ability to clean but he is also saying this like it is their job to clean the towels. He also says this in a very demeaning and arrogant manner.

Despite being looked at in a certain way, Women are being portrayed as “going exactly where their mothers and grandmothers have already ‘been’: into sexual bondage at the hands of a male ‘Friend’” (Christle 1). This is showing how even though women are changing the way society works, some people still want it to be the same. In the story Connie’s mom wanted Connie to be like her and her sister, just the average, not overly pretty looking lady. Some people think that “women have been silenced,” (Spelman and Lugones 574) but Connie had other ideas, she wanted to be different from them. She was constantly looking at herself in the mirror and thinking about what others were thinking about her. When she went out, she would always wear nice clothes that would get her noticed. Looking through a feminist lens one can conclude that Connie’s family sees women now as they always were.

Mrs. Whipple feels her neighbors are unfairly judging her because of her son's handicap. She probably knows that they talk about her behind her back and suggest that there is "bad blood" in her family. She also feels guilty about His condition; so she may suspect that it is somehow her fault. Consequently, she feels she must justify herself to them, and is very careful not to do things that will cause them to continually talk about her. Once again, this is a natural response and does not mean she is a bad mother.

Once again, we see a female character dependent on her male counterpart for her well being. Lulu is very much a catalyst for the action in the story. Her suffering forces Mann to act, pushes him to use the stolen boat and ultimately seals his fate. The final archetype of women offered in the collection is the role of women as mothers. In “Long Black Song” Sarah is the primary caregiver and is responsible for looking after the house. Her primary concern is her child when Silas throws her from the house. This idea of women as the caregiver is evident in all of the stories. The mother figure in “Big Boy Leaves Home” frets about her son’s well being as the father makes arrangement to get his son to safety. Aunt Sue in “Bright and Morning Star” takes action to protect her son and his comrades. Throughout the stories we see time and time again that the place of the woman is in the private sphere, the home, while the men are far more assertive in the public setting.

However, at the end of the story this stereotype is completely contrasted following the passing of the mother. When the boy, who is now a grown man and father, returns home to his newborn daughter it is he who displays a nurturing and affectionate relationship between a father and his daughter. This role reversal developed by Munsch effectively casts aside the stereotype that women are better suited to raise a child, and demonstrates that affection and the ability to nurture are not qualities that are able to be defined by a persons gender. Munsch instead shows how these qualities are learned by a person and are displayed as they mature with age. Munsch effectively represents this progression though maturity when showing, the love the boy has for his mother is not absent during his childhood, but simply something he does not display as well as he does when he becomes an adult.

A Child Called "it" In his two novels A Child Called "it", and The Lost Boy, the author, Dave Pelzer explains about his childhood. During that time, author was a young boy from an age 3 to an age 9. David’s mother has started to call him " The Boy" and "it." The author mainly covers the relationship between his family. His main focus point is the bond between his mother and him. He describes his mother as a beautiful woman, who loves and cherished her kids , who changed from this " The Mother," who abused him because she was alcoholic and was sick. The Mother used David to take her anger out. An abusive mother who systematically closed down any escape he may have from her clutches. Shuts