Tobias Wolff’s “Bible” explores the nature of a woman whose life is in “danger” and the personality of her abductor. At the beginning of the story, Maureen is vulnerable. She leaves her friends at a bar to go home alone on a cold Friday night. She is powerless over her own body.
While the main focus of the story is the Price women’s guilt, it is really about the guilt of the American people. The character Orleanna sets the framework of the novel. She shows the depth of the story by saying: I had no life of my own. And you’ll say I did.
1920’s society offered a prominent way for blacks that look white to exploit its barrier and pass in society. Visible within Nella Larsen’s Passing, access to the regular world exists only for those who fit the criteria of white skin and white husband. Through internal conflict and characterization, the novella reveals deception slowly devours the deceitful. In Passing, Clare and Irene both deceive people. They both engage in deceit by having the ability to pass when they are not of the proper race to do so.
Although Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “The Lame Shall Enter First,” creates a wicked atmosphere through its plot and characters, it can easily be compared to “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin with its dangerous environment within the city of Harlem. The evil shown in both of these stories are reflected through the effects of family neglect, the main characters’ persistence for change and the outcomes, and the secondary characters that are primary source of darkness. Family neglect and the different effects it can have on people are shown within O’Connor’s and Baldwin’s short stories. O’Connor shows this through the opposing circumstances it had on Sheppard and Norton. After his wife’s death, Sheppard took up a life of serving for the needy
Just as the yellow wallpaper symbolizes gender inequality, escaping from the this cage of discrimination and oppression on women springs the rising of feminism. At the end of another story, the narrator is able to grasp an understanding of Sonny’s values and struggles, along with a salvation of his own. For all this time a seemingly rebellious and depressive figure of Sonny is illustrated, a soul of freedom and his values are conveyed in the music. Contrastingly, despite of a stable life of being a middle-class high school teacher, the narrator is trapped in Harlem both physically and mentally. Unlike Sonny, escaping from the neighbourhood of “boiling sea” that’s filled with people of rage and depression rarely seems an idea that occurs to the narrator ’s mind.
While there can never be one single story, the memoir, The Color of Water by James McBride, shares the struggles of growing up as an African American in the 1960s and onward. This memoir is James’s tribute to his white mother Ruth, giving up her heritage and old life to marry a black man, and start a new family. He devotes himself to learning about his mother’s old life and true identity, and in the process gets closer to finding his own. Ruth put James in situations that not a lot of poor black kids were in back in that time, involving: race, religion, social location, and identity. These factors ultimately formed the way James thinks, and James as a man all together.
Responsibility often comes with the connotations of burden and sacrifice and most of the time, this is true. In The Wars, by Timothy Findley, the concept of responsibility is demonstrated in the character of Mrs. Ross whose duties as a wife and a mother may be viewed as cold, cruel, and purposefully isolating; the complete opposite of the archetype of a compassionate mother figure. However, like each unique individual in society, the way one responds and takes responsibility varies infinitely; Mrs. Ross attempts to dissociate from society when she feels she has not fulfilled her duties and responsibilities. However, her empathetic nature prevents her from completely isolating herself from all sentiment. Rather, she subconsciously internalizes the welfare and hardships faced by others while sacrificing her own well-being.
Woman Hollering Creek touches on the subject of a female victim of domestic abuse who desires a happily ever after. Sandra Cisneros uses an abundant amount of characterization to describe the actions, feelings, and manners of the people presented in this story. The author also expresses the theme of relationships through Cleofilas and her husband, Cleofilas and her father, and Cleofilas and herself. Lastly, she emphasizes symbolic elements through Cleofilas, a symbol of other women, as well as the creek, a symbol of escape. Sandra Cisneros in Woman Hollering Creek illustrates the importance of finding a sense of independence.
As characters are exposed to different situations, their feelings and opinions change and develop. 'The Woman in Black', written by Susan Hill, is a gothic novel set in Victorian England. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is sent to an isolated town in the country to recover papers that belonged to newly deceased Alice Drablow. What he thought would be a relaxing time away from the noisy London turns into a nightmare as he is haunted by the Woman in Black. Being alone becomes a fear instead of a luxury.
Susan Hill’s Woman in Black is about Arthur Kipps, a lawyer in London, who has been given the task of filing the papers of the dead Mrs. Drablow. While on his journey and at Eel Marsh House he experiences some interesting and eerie happenings. In Chapter 10; “Whistle and I’ll Come to You” Hill uses a variety of literary techniques to create an atmosphere of fear and foreboding. Hill uses sensory imagery to create fear and foreboding.
Scott Fitzgerald’s The Alcoholic Case is a master work of modern gothic literature, because of its theme of hopelessness. The main character is in a scenario many would never dream of; being stuck in a hotel room, drinking himself to death, trying to evade the trauma and fear in his own mind. An Alcoholic Case shows us why hope is necessary. With it, we can rise above where we stand, but without it, we fall even
Masculine and Feminine Roles in Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums” In the story “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, Elisa Allen lives an unsatisfactory life as she desires more than what is bestowed upon her. The reader learns Elisa’s husband is culpable for not seeing the beauty of his wife, leaving an open door for the antagonist, a traveler, to prey upon Elisa’s. Steinbeck uses Masculine and Feminine roles of the early 20th century, Internal Conflict, and an antagonist, to show Elisa’s struggle for Identity. Steinbeck illustrates Masculine and feminine roles of the 20th century in the “Chrysanthemums” to show Elisa’s struggle with identity.
In both The Story of an Hour and Hills Like White Elephants, the authors Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway describe women and the desire to express themselves and be free and how men influence their decision making. Women strive for a sense of freedom and independence and have the yearning to convey themselves freely. In Kate Chopin’s and Ernest Hemmingway’s stories, the authors suggest the two female main characters in their stories feel suppressed for liberty. Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour is sick and very lonely. She is
The London fog, the town of Crythin Gifford, and the park scene all gives the novella a very gothic atmosphere. The novella, especially gives a feeling of dread and mystery with the atmosphere. “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill is a haunting story that leaves the reader searching for more answers, maybe even more than
This shows a balance between gender roles, as well as the embracing progressive changes within culture and society. In the story “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, a third-person omniscient narrator, relates how Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, experiences the euphoria of freedom rather than the grief of loneliness after hearing about her husband’s death. Later, when Mrs. Mallard discovers that her husband, Mr. Brently Mallard, still lives, she realizes that all her aspiration for freedom has gone. The shock and disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard.
