Theme Of Identity In The Shining House

When she enters the bedroom, her voice changes from present to past tense and she starts to reminisce and begins to talk about her mother and aunts. She seems happy to remember her mother’s room and introduces her aunts to the audiences. Mary delivers her dialogue saying that the dressing table and the small elephant statue figures are all same. When Mary gently touches her mother’s photo, she delivers a sad tone. Her performance conveys to the audiences that she misses her mother. The tone of her voice represents that she is a gentle, innocent and a loving child. Her verbal and non-verbal interactions conveyed the viewers with a message that she is an orphan.

Mary begins the story as a doting housewife going through her daily routine with her husband. She is content to sit in his company silently until he begins a conversation. Everything is going as usual until he goes “ slowly to get himself another drink” while telling Mary to “sit down” (Dahl 1). This shocks Mary as she is used to getting things for him. After downing his second drink, her husband coldly informs her that he is leaving her and the child. This brutal news prompts the first change in Mary, from loving wife to emotionless and detached from everything.

Allegorically, Butler conveys a courageous woman who must think about the torment she causes others, in light of the fact that, she will truly feel it herself as well as a champion who must defeat an inability with a specific end goal to

Nella Larsen’s Passing uses the two main characters to explore how the idea of racial identity is not a discussion that is black and white, but rather one that is grey. The story is utilized to demonstrate how some individuals of black complexion fell trap to societal standards, causing them to abandon their own race in search of better life. But, in all actuality, the text argues that the pursual of another identity ultimately causes an individual to lose their own self identification.

In The Glass Castle, Laura Walls feels that “if she got out of Welch, and away from the family, she might have a shot at a happy life” (Walls 218). She feels that as long as she is associating herself with her home in Welch, and her family, she will never be able to be happy; in other words, she is unhappy with that part of her identity. Similarly, once Jeannette moves to New York City, she becomes ashamed of her past home, feeling that if people knew that part of her, “it would be impossible for [her] to keep [her] job” (Walls 270). In the cases of Jeannette and Laura, their home shapes a part of their identity that they wish to hide, their past. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie presents the idea that our identity is largely shaped not only upon where we come from, but whether or not we choose to stay. When Junior decides to go to school outside of the Reservation, his mother informs him that he is the first person to leave the Reservation in this way and that because of this “the Indians around here are going to be angry with [him]” (Alexie 47). Though as the novel progresses it becomes clear that your identity is not just about whether or not you leave your original home, but also where you go. Junior’s sister, Mary, had left the Reservation to “marry a flathead Indian and move to Montana” (Alexie 89), showing that what she left for has shaped her identity more than the mere fact that she left. Much like Walls, Alexie presents the idea that our identities are affected by where and whom we associate

Additionally, gender roles affect Mrs. Wright’s (also known as Minnie) reaction to oppressive marriage. Before marriage, Minnie was a carefree independent woman who was active in her community. She always dressed in pretty clothes and was one of the town girls singing in the choir (Glaspell 1111). After marriage, Minnie’s life became sad and lonely due to the lack of children and the lack of empathy and warmth from her husband. Glaspell provides the reader glimpse of Mr. Wright’s character through Mrs. Hale’s description of him being honest and upright, but he was a “hard man” and not very amiable (1114). The Wright’s marriage is a perfect example of the effects of traditional gender roles. Mr. Wright represents the traditional role of male dominance in marriage by controlling Minnie’s life through isolation and removing anything that would bring her happiness. Although Minnie became submissive in order to conform to the demands of her husband, she took back control when she murdered her husband in the same fashion as he did to her pet canary (1116).

Mary is very manipulative in that she is able to create the character of the poor, pregnant wife, whose husband has just been murdered. She is able to convince the police to take pity on her, to mix her a drink and then to even eat the evidence, the leg of lamb that she has left in the oven. "Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven" (Dahl, p. 17). Mary realizes that if the police find the evidence she will go to jail. Her quick thinking and manipulative character results in the police officers eathign the evidence and therefore she cannot be charged of this crime. These actions show the complex character that Mary Maloney truly is.

As she becomes more curious about the land, Mary Anne develops a disinterest in femininity, ultimately becoming indifferent towards social and gender

This displays that her being ostracized has forced her to change her views on society and realize not everyone is as nice as they appear. Later on in Mary’s life, her aunt says to Dunny: “Now she remembers so little, and it’s better so, because when she does remember she thinks of Paul” (Davies, 129). This proves that she has continuously been ignoring and forgetting about society for a couple of years. She has isolated herself to avoid conflict and hatred. This alienation Mary has experienced has changed her perception of

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

Also, when she's asked if she cares about how the neighbourhood looks, she stutters as she says "no, I-I don't care" (Munro, 29). These descriptions show how Mary is afraid when telling her opinion, and not used to speaking up for herself. There is conflict when Mary stands up for Mrs. Fullerton, but she feels good about herself for doing what she did. Archetypal theory is applied to Mrs. Fullerton's character because she is portrayed as the 'platonic ideal' archetype character. The platonic ideal is seen as "the inspiration to the protagonist", whom is Mary (Casement).

n Virginia Woolf’s self biographic essay Street Haunting, she explores complex themes and ideas on perception and identity while going out to buy a pencil on a winter evening in London, a seemingly mundane task. This passage in particular highlights how Woolf uses her writing as a way to examine and explore her feelings on transformation and her own self identity, and how identity is something that constantly changing as we progress through life, or even, as we take a walk to the store. Woolf’s main idea on identity that she presents in this passage it is so, “varied and wandering” that we are only truly ourselves and find our true identities when we allow ourselves to explore and acknowledge the identities that come into our life, and not

Mary deals with the sense of displacement because of the absence of a stable home. Since her husband, James, was an actor, the family would have to move around depending on his schedule. Leaving Mary and her children on cheap hotel room. Mary was not a fan of this, she never had a place to call home. She fondly remembers her ideal childhood home, and contrasts it with her present dwelling.

In the play, Mary is a beautiful woman and lives the life like any other girls of her time; but she is emotionally attached to her sons and her family when she marries into the Tyrone family. She is also getting old, so she keeps going on her days worrying about her change of appearance. She suffers from a morphine addiction and she is psychologically wounded because of her past. She tries many times to break free but she could not stop as she spends time with her family. She has gone through many struggles but she cannot move on with her life. She keeps looking back into the past; and she regrets marrying into the family because of the dreams she had to sacrifice such as becoming a nun or a concert pianist.

  In 1969 N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his phenomenal work, House Made of Dawn.  The novel addresses the issue of identity, how it can be lost as well as recovered.  Momaday offers insightful methods of recovering or attaining one's identity. Momaday once made the following now famous statement: