Theme Of The Ballad Of Sad Cafe

In "A Sorrowful Woman" the wife is depressed with her life, so much so, "The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again"(p.1). This wife and mother has come to detest her life, the sight of her family,

The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.

On a date to tour the city, George tells Cocoa that “Most people are confined to ghettos by economic circumstances…. the young and talented confine themselves by choice” (Naylor 65). The city is an often cruel, unfair place where “there was little enough of [kindness]…to kill off in one shot” (Naylor 59). It is also sometimes an unfriendly place; the city has a kind of cold, informal aura about it. Take for example, the description Cocoa uses to describe the waitress service at the restaurant: “especially when the check came glued to the bottom of your dessert plate…watching a big greasy thumbprint spread slowly over the Thank You printed on the back” (Naylor 13). The unfriendliness is enough for a Southern girl like Cocoa to turn her back on the city and not give it a chance, as so many others had.

In Cry, the Beloved Country, the city of Johannesburg enables Gertrude’s desires to control her life, yet the desires that govern her are shamefully careless. Before Gertrude left Ndosheni, she had been surrounded by villagers who essentially knew many or all of their community’s people, including her. With the fear that several people would know of or observe her actions, Gertrude was encouraged to act upon the ethical desires widely accepted by her people. On the other hand, Johannesburg has little to no sense of community—being a heavily populated city and the majority of its inhabitants strangers to one another—which allows Gertrude to pursue the amoral desires within her, and for them to occur unnoticed by relatives. When Stephen Kumalo, her brother, finally receives word of Gertrude’s illness, he leaves for Johannesburg and finds her in a shabby, dirty house, crammed between similar buildings. Anxiously standing in front of his sister’s door, awaiting what would be their first encounter after several months, Kumalo overhears a “laughter in the house, the kind of laughter of which one is afraid… perhaps because it is in truth bad laughter,” (Paton 59 emphasis added). The bad laughter he hears is a product of Gertrude’s careless desires; her undisciplined lust for men. The context in which this laughter comes from is what makes it bad, especially in Kumalo’s mind, for he is not just her family, but a priest as well. Without a close-knit community to direct

Janie’s second home helped her learn that love cannot be bought with gifts. Jody was a successful man; he had become Mayor of Eatonville. Even thought Jody bought many gifts for Janie he was no better than Logan at affection and love. Jody was a sexist and disrespected women. He restricted Janie’s freedom out of jealousy, she would only go out for work or chores. The only reason she stayed with him was that she didn’t have many options. “but he is something in my mouth He’s got tuh be else Ah aint got nothing ‘tun live for. Ah’ll lie and say he is. If ah font, life wont be nothing but uh store and uh house”. She had to lie and fake her love for Jody except when Jody had died, she mourned the loss of him and had mix feelings but she cherished her freedom as a widower. After several months she wanted to go back to her birth home but remembering she had no more family to go to, she didn’t know what to do and that transitions to her final

Summary: It was already past dawn when Johnny woke up. He was still hopeful with Merchant Lyte. He was imagining how Mrs.Lapham would so awkward curtsies, and how Madge and Dorcas would stare at him in his ruby coach. The first thing he would do is take Cilla for a drive and not invite Isannah. At Charlestown Ferry Slip, Johnny washed himself in the sea, he combed his hair with his fingers and cleaned his nails with his teeth. Once he becomes Merchant Lyte’s relative he would be able to buy Cilla a cart and a pony, and Mr. Lapham a bible. And nothing for Mrs. Lapham.

The following characters Mildred, Clarisse, and Montag each have problems with being happy. Mildred who overdosed on “sleeping tablets which earlier had been filled with thirty capsules” is an unhappy person in the society (13). She has her up and downs about being happy but in this specific time she was not happy. Montag goes to Faber and says “we aren’t happy” because he thinks nobody is listening to him (82). Montag does not want to burn books anymore because he is unhappy when he does burn them. Clarisse states that she does not fit in “I don’t mix” shows that she is unhappy in the society that they live in (29). She does not like the place she lives because of the problem in the society. These characters do not like the way the society works which makes them unhappy.

Every time when Hope leaves a place, she always writes “ Hope Was Here” in a unnoticeable place as her way of saying goodbye. Addie and Hope get a job at the Welcome Stairways in Mulhoney. Owner G.T. Stoop hires Addie as the head chef and Hope as the waitress. G.T. has been treated with leukemia and needs all the help he can get. When Addie and Hope arrived, G.T. announces that he wants to run for mayor. He can’t stand how the corrupt Eli Millstone takes cares of the city, Eli has been in office for eight years, and wants to make sure Mulhoney is a safe place while he still can. Millstone works with the Real Fresh Dairy, so he could get votes from the workers. In exchange for the votes, Millstone lets them do anything and not get in trouble. Real Fresh Dairy is disliked by the citizens because of the things they do to the city. The things the Dairy does is not pay taxes, cracking roads with overweight trucks, and disturbing the peace with their big milk

It is this air of isolation that brings him together with his far-elder cousin, Miss Sook. “…neither of us had an ordinary outlook or background, and so it was inevitable, in our separate loneliness, that we should come to share a friendship apart” (243). This friendship with a woman fifty years his senior livens Buddy’s world as they spend all their time together, working in the garden, going fishing, and cooking up gigantic breakfasts. “…she was a child herself…she understood children, and understood me absolutely” (242). Buddy relates to her as an equal, creating a much needed friend that serves as an anchor in his childhood. As the primary figure in Buddy’s life, Miss Sook is able to teach him lessons about envy, vengeance, and empathy. She knows that Odd bullies Buddy, so she invites him to join their Thanksgiving dinner. Buddy is outraged and feels betrayed by his friend’s welcoming of an enemy. Immediately he views Odd in contempt as he watches him eye up one of his relatives while grabbing all the attention with his talented singing voice. “Odd was good, he could sing for sure, and the jealousy charging through me had enough power to electrocute a murderer.” (259). Overcome by this jealousy, Buddy immediately finds a way to find vengeance on Odd by accusing him of stealing a brooch from Miss Sook, which he was in fact guilty of. In the process of

In 1941, Eudora Welly has written a short story called “Why I Live at the P.O.”. This is a short story about a girl and her resentment for her sister, which is why she has moved away to the post office. Welly was known for wanting to establish that there are multiple different viewpoints for a single image, and this short story demonstrates that desire. At the beginning of the story, Sister is portrayed as a sweet and innocent girl, but near the end, her jealousy overtakes her and she goes as far to make her sister, Stella-Rondo, cry. Welly uses the narrative to her advantage to create this plot twist to reveal this change in behaviour. She also uses it to create the characters in the story, especially Stella-Rondo, a character who is constantly spoiled. This becomes the source of Sister’s envy and it becomes quickly established that this pampering and spoiled nature can lead to a character not being able to adapt when taken out of the spotlight.

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

He introduces himself as “ill in health, but [now is] convalescent” (pg. 1), which undermines his later statement that his “intellect, electrified [has surpassed greatly] its everyday condition” (pg. 1). Although he clearly has ample time to act the part of the flaneur, his mental faculties and generally languid demeanor dissuade the reader from taking him seriously. What then follows is the narrator’s merciless dissection of the crowd passing by the coffee house. He divides each class of people into two groups, one being the “best definition” (pg. 2) of the class and the next being their degenerate counterpart. As the narrator seems to have no current occupation whatsoever, it is left up to the reader to discern whether he would fit into the degenerate part of his class or not were one to come across him in the street. This lack of knowing on the part of the reader encourages one to further question through what socio-economic lens the narrator is casting his judgment upon the “filth” (pg. 4), as he so compassionately calls the lepers and older women attempting to recapture their

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” by Carson McCullers is a novella that tells the story of a three strange characters and their abnormal love triangle. Cousin Lymon is one of these characters, a grotesque and evil character that illustrates McCullers theory of love through his actions. Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy’s actions towards Lymon and each other also exhibit characteristics of McCullers theory of love. The townspeople emphasize Lymon’s true character and provide another point of view of these relationships. Therefore, the love triangle present in this novella supports and further explains Carson McCullers theory of love.

Addie Bundren, the novel’s seminal character, lived a sad life. She recalls that “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169). Although Addie remembers hating her father, she adopts his philosophy. She says, “I knew at last what he meant” (175) and this understanding guides her life of sorrow and sadness. She feels no comfort or joy in her husband and merely exists with him, “I did not even ask him for what he could have given me: not-Anse. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled” (174). Even her children have no special place in her heart, “I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them” (174). The children merely take from her and she finds no satisfaction in mothering. The only excitement she finds in life is in her affair with

Author, Kate Chopin, presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. Finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow: "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." In her soul, the dark clouds are disappearing because she is illuminated. All the memories of her husband are now of the past. She is living in the present. At this point, she is no longer "Mrs.Mallard." She is Louise and is ready to welcome a new horizon of freedom : "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." Overwhelmed with a new sense of herself, she feels as if she