The modern world can learn much from past events, whether they be written or orally passed through generations, and de Vaca’s account of his explorations through early America and Mexico is of no exception. Readers see an account of the still ongoing physical and emotional struggles between races, as well as learn important lessons about life and its temptations of greed and pride.
Motifs, which are repeated in the novel, are loneliness, friendship, strength and weakness. Men like George who migrate from farm to farm are often alone. As the story develops, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife all confess their deep loneliness. Each of these characters searches for a friend, someone to help them measure the world, as Crooks says. For George, the hope of such friendship dies with Lennie.
And when «she knows it's happening: that thing, that connection» between them, when she dances for him and «making him fall in love with her» she says to him: «We've got all we need. We don't need love. Don't diminish yourself – don't reveal yourself as a sentimental sap. You're dying to do it, but don't. Let's not lose this.» (p. 231). She knows she's driving him nuts, she knows that her rejection of his feelings makes him want to attach to her sentimentaly even more. She dances for him and teaches him what life really is. She – a 34-year-old illiterate janitor, teaches him – colledge proffessor, ex-dean, a member of highest rank of society class, what life is all about.
Lizabeth does not care about Miss Lottie’s feelings until after she destroyed the flowers. In effect, having Lizabeth destroy the marigolds gives Lizabeth a lesson that would turn her into a compassionate person. The night that the flowers became destroyed, Lizabeth had heard an argument between her parents. Significantly, she did not like how her father was being weak while her mother was being strong. Then, to let all her emotions out, she went to Miss Lottie’s house to destroy the marigolds. After her deed, Lizabeth calms down and realizes Miss Lottie saw the mess. This moment was when Lizabeth realizes her destruction on the marigolds. The moment she saw Miss Lottie and her expression of the mess, Lizabeth comes to a realization of why Miss Lottie planted marigolds. Thinking back on her past, Lizabeth said “Yet, there are times when the image of those passionate yellow mounds return with a painful poignancy. For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that one’s life is barrens the dusty yards of one’s town. And I too have planted marigolds” (30). Every time she remembers the marigolds and how they look she describes them as, “the images of those passionate yellow mounds return with a painful poignancy.” The “passionate yellow mounds” is the description of marigolds and every time she remembers them, she has a “painful poignancy” which can be indicated that the marigolds represent the lesson she has learned and her experience to becoming a compassionate person. The end sentence of the quote “And I too have planted marigolds” is the overall lesson that Lizabeth learns from her experience that made her a compassionate person. Lizabeth learns why Miss Lottie had planted her marigolds, but as a lesson, she realizes the meaning behind this. As a result of destroying the marigolds, Lizabeth changes
When the narrator first encounters the girl, his friend's older sister, he can only see her silhouette in the “light from the half-opened door”. This is the beginning of his infatuation with the girl. After his discovery, he is plagued by thoughts of the girl which make his daily obligations seem like “ugly, monotonous, child's play”. He has become blinded by the light. The narrator not only fails to learn the name of his “girl”, he does not realize that his infatuation with a woman considerably older than himself is not appropriate. He relishes in his infatuation, feeling “thankful [he] could see so little” while he thinks of the distant “lamp or lighted window” that represents his girl. The narrator is engulfed by the false light that is his futile love.
Lennie and George end up employed on a ranch and begin to realize that every man is for himself and that nobody is truly happy. They come to know a character referenced throughout the entire book as “Curley’s wife”. Being the sole female on the ranch, she is often referred to in derogatory terms because of her flirtatious personality (Steinbeck 28). She approaches the other men and “stirs up trouble” (77) which in the end leads to Lennie’s death. Being the wife of an arrogant and egocentric man, Curley’s wife tries to cure her loneliness by finding solace in other men. Knowing her future is bleak, Curley’s wife risks the dangers of the other men’s lives by trying to find someone like her. She lures Lennie into her world, telling him about how lonely she is and the future she could’ve had as an actress (86). Her solitary life drives her to put Lennie in danger and ultimately end her and his life. Curley’s wife and another one of the ranch hands talk about how “maybe people are just afraid of each other” (35). The fear of missing out (FOMO) drives people to make irrational decisions when feeling lonely which happened to both Daisy and Curley’s wife..
Although Frankie indirectly suffers due to his father’s actions, the two can enjoy their time together. This relationship implores the reader to frame the world as Frankie does because doing so allows one to improve his/her life. The fact that the overarching theme of the passage is love allows one to conclude that the author has achieved the goals of Faulkner’s mission because the reader can endure and prevail by following McCourt’s message.
Mansfield’s description throughout the narrative is intriguing and captivating, pulling the reader into the drill hall and making them sway to the “oft, melting, ravishing tune” as though they themselves could have been Leila. Moreover, her use of description allows her to create the character of the “fat man” and utilise him to portray the idea that “happiness [doesn’t] last for ever.” Because she describes him as the fat man, who is old and wearing a coat that “looked dusty with French chalk”, she creates an evident contrast between the beautiful characters she initially described. Through this imagery, Mansfield subtly portrays Leila’s fears of losing the beauty of this first ball and emphasises that in fact, beauty doesn’t last. However, Mansfield plunges the reader back in to the dance, such that the almost
As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)
In this short story, Louisa’s internal independence plays a major role in who she is as a woman. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman describes Louisa as an introvert because she is someone who enjoys being alone. She spends fourteen years of her life being isolated at home, waiting for her fiancé to come back from his job in Australia. During those years, she learns how to be by herself through the hard times and the pleasant ones “Louisa’s feet had turned into a path, smooth maybe under a calm, serene sky, but so strait and unswerving that it could only meet a check at her grave, and so narrow that there was no room for any one at her side” (Freeman 66). This demonstrates how she is so use to not having anyone by her side. This is why she creates her own path through all the dark times she had to face on her own. In many ways this can foreshadow the ending of the short story. This shows how she always counted on herself and
When Félicité was approached by a man named Theodore to dance, she accepted and through a series of events, she was thrown “down brutally” and left screaming in a field (Flaubert). Theodore walked away, but on a later evening, Félicité saw Theodore and after he apologized, her naivety took the best of her, and she fell in love, kissing him and thinking of him as a lover. Theodore set up a place to meet Félicité, but upon her arrival she realized Theodore was not in sight, but one of his friends was there. Félicité learned that Theodore married an older woman to get out of being drafted and she was heartbroken. In this situation, Félicité’s naivety got the best of her and due to this she ended up on the short side of the
The author carefully crafts the story so that every detail contributes to a certain unique or single effect, whether it is as complex as irony or as simple as depiction of feelings. The Husband describes his absolute love for Ann as he reminisces about the years he spent with her and how deeply he "knows"
Lucy Westenra is young, innocent, beautiful, and at most times some would say she had a child’s mind, but she was still adored by all. Lucy was sweet, she never met a stranger, and she loved everybody, three in particular are the men who cherished her so much, they all proposed to her: Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, and Dr. Jack Seward. Even her best friend Mina Murray expressed continuously on how gorgeous Lucy was. The only fault Lucy had was that, she was vulnerable. Lucy was not as strong and independent as Mina, she depended on everyone to protect her because that was everyone’s natural instinct towards her. And she let them because she did not want to disappoint anyone. In the story she even said, “Why can’t a girl marry three men,
In the article, Mittleman, Leslie B. take different approaches to breaking the story and characters down. Mittleman writes about how that story resembles a fairy tale or folktale of transformation. For instance, a Cinderella story or the story of The Ugly Duckling. She used The Ugly Duckling because of the main character Mabel, goes from a humble or ugly to attractive and marriageable. Nevertheless, Mittleman, believe D.H. Lawrence story resembles “coming of age rituals” or” “from passivity to vitality”. She concluded “Lawrence truly mean that Mabel and Jack must either love or die.”
The theme in this quote is the contrast and comparison between lust and love. Susie’s mother, Abigail, is having an affair with Len, the detective in charge of solving Susie’s murder. Abigail is having an affair with Len when her husband is in the hospital after he suffered from a heart attack. This scene presents adultery and describes lust and love as separate feelings. Abigail does not love Len, however her desires to escape reality and her fleeting feelings of love toward her husband drive her sexual attraction towards Len. Abigail has sex with Len as a means of liberating herself from her roles as a mother and a wife, which she deems as oppressive. It appears after Susie’s murder, Abigail now has twisted sexual and romantic attractions