After reading the invigorating and richly textured novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is evidently established that symbolism is dredged in depth throughout. Although most illustrations in fact are inferred, such symbols are somewhat apparent and exemplifying. For example, the knothole, or a hole in a piece of timber, is one of the key symbols in the novel because it constitutes a connection or relationship between Jem, Scout, and Boo. In the novel Boo distributes several relevant objects to Jem and Scout by placing them in the knothole, instead of verbally communicating. As everyone in the county believes Boo is actually insane and violent through passed down uncivil rumors.
Jubilee, a book centered around the life of a slave named Vyry (Also known as Elvira Dutton). Vyry who was born a slave had to work her life at a plantation owned by the negro loving master, John Dutton. It is also told that Vyry was the illegitimate child born from the miscegenation John did with a young slave named Hetta. The young slave died after giving birth to a huge number of children for years. The story revolves around the struggle of living a life as a slave, the so dreaded civil war, and how Vyry managed to live a peaceful life in the end.
Her grandmother was a wealthy 70 year old. She took the responsibility to take care of Dorothea and her two brothers. Dorothea, 12 was not used to the wealthy life. She was raised to give to those in need and not to take more than she's was supposed to. Her grandmother wanted Dorothea to act as if she had always been wealthy, but Dorothea did not want that.
Hurston describes the transition Janie makes from being identified by others to recognizing her self worth. “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the her handkerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there” (Hurston 170). The author uses the handkerchief to symbolize how people and objects have constantly covered and concealed the true beauty that Janie has never been able to embrace.
Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” This realization made by Janie supports one of the biggest themes in this novel, which is that the concept of innocence and womanhood can’t exist at the same time. Because Janie finally lets go of her “childish fantasy”, her innocence is lost and she is now a woman. The theme of lost innocence in exchange for womanhood is also prevalent in Hurston’s story Sweat. This idea is one of the reasons that Sykes and Delia’s relationship begins to fall apart when we meet them.
While she is at work, “her face [is] eager and mature and handsome” (Steinbeck 1). Elisa is often put down and stereotyped into an archetypal housewife of the 1930s, especially by her husband. Her character is depicted as “mature and handsome,” rather than young and pretty. Her “handsome” resemblance is a reflection of how Henry portrays her. In reality, “her face [is] lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water” (1) and a youthful thirty-five years old.
Though the novel represents many feministic ideas in relation to marriage, it should not be read and discussed solely from this perspective. This statement is commented by Ramsey who claims that the story is “both a precursor to the modern feminist agenda yet also a reactionary tale embalming Hurston’s tender passions for a very traditional male” (1994: 38). In spite of the fact that the scholar agrees that Janie gains some self-belief and self-realization in the course of time, he still perceives her as a woman who cannot survive without a man by her side who would support her. It seems that she has a strong need to have someone by her side to support her when something goes wrong. This argument is confirmed by another researcher, Jennifer Jordan, who states that the protagonist “never perceives herself as an independent woman” (1988: 115).
Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25). Janie now realizes that she never really loved Logan but only felt artificial attraction because the values her grandmother instilled in Janie were
In an article written by Liza Ortiz, she talks about how women know how to read other women while men do not: “As Fetterley points out, ‘Women can read women’s texts because they live women’s lives; men cannot read women’s texts because they don't lead women's lives” (Ortiz 166). This quote is ironic because women can understand other women better because they live the same lives, while men don’t, making it harder for them to get a read on women. By Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters taking the evidence that could put Minnie in jail, shows that they notice the pain she wants through by being married to Mr.Wright. Also, it demonstrates that the two women want Minnie to know that they believed she killed her husband for the right reasons.
The town of Salem is a small town with a population of five to six hundred people. Imagine if a secret about witchcraft was to be kept between a group of five to ten people. Not everyone in that group is rushing to keep their mouth shut. The secret is going to spread like wildfire. In this town of Salem witchcraft or satanism is the reasoning behind everything.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play which contains a multitude of complex characters . In the play, the characters’ motivations and inner processes are explored. Because of the historical setting, the characters live in a society of judgement and extreme religious devotion. This is a factor that places any of the characters’ choices and morals in a public balance to be judged by others. Abigail Williams is the main character of the play and acts with an utter selfishness and obsession.
Miss Brill is lonely, has a completely messed up mind, and tries to hide her true self by trying to live other people’s lives. Miss Brill views each person at the garden differently. The people who are mostly like her are the ones she judges the most, “Miss Brill had often noticed-there was something funny about nearly all of them. They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or even-even cupboards!” (Mansfield 185).
Portraits drawn by Raphael are a vital source for the analysis of his artistic motives. “Lady of the Unicorn” (fig. 3), one of Raphael’s earliest Florentine portraits, owes much to Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” in its design. However, the clarity of light which infuses even the shadows with colour not only recalls Raphael’s early exposure to the paintings of Piero della Francesca, but also in itself a statement he wanted to make through his art. Raphael’s obsessive experiments with clarity of features cannot be construed as a mere influence of his teachers or contemporaries. Somewhere deep down, deliberation to do away with the mysterious haziness associable with divine or religious mystification must have inspired the Italian great to incorporate
The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).
The denouement of the play is received differently by both the readers. In act 3, when Nora intrepidly questions Helmer 's perception of her "most sacred duty" towards her "husband and children", she questions the Victorian era reader 's ideals and beliefs as well which leaves the reader infuriated. Moreover, Nora is thought of as unhinged when she "slams" the door, in hopes of transforming from Helmer 's "little songbird" into a "woman." This is not the case with the modern reader who is relieved by Nora 's epiphany as she begins "to realize everything", including the need to become "independent." The modern reader, on the time spectrum, has had the chance to discuss the sexism that prevails in society and the need for feminism;
