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Lucy Snowe Analysis

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As Lucy grows up and experiences hardships – though what exactly, she as our narrator doesn’t tell us – she is determined to remain an unobtrusive observer and her own observations become more decisive as she chooses whether to act on this knowledge or not thus earning her autonomy through her own decisions based on information she gathered. Our narrator learns how to take the expectations of female repression and use them to her own advantage, allowing her to being to break free of the confines placed on women and take back her own freedom. For instance, when she catches Madame Beck searching through Lucy’s room while the latter is sleeping, becomes a prominent example of another female spy that Lucy build off her own surveying: “I divined her motive for this proceeding, viz., the wish to form from the garments a judgment respecting the wearer, her station, means, neatness, &c. the end was not bad, but the means were hardly …show more content…

Beck’s snooping, Lucy does struggle overwhelming sense of being watched and the mistrust that goes along with it. Lucy doesn’t want her secrets to be revealed, but understands the reasons her boss is spying. So, Lucy faces the conflict of being spied on and learning from Mme. Beck – which is the eventual outcome – and with Lucy’s own desire to watch the people around her. May’s article “Lucy Snowe, A Material Girl? Phrenology, Surveillance, and the Sociology of Interiority” reasons that: “There is also a problem with Lucy’s consistency: she sometimes seems to invite the very kind of intrusion she normally struggles against, and she also does not always respect the secret space of others” (53). After Lucy discovers Mme. Beck in her room the second time – it takes time for her to come to terms with what it means for her to be spied on and the potential repercussion. Once the second incident with Mme. Beck occurs, Lucy’s façade about her thoughts towards this invasion of privacy falls for a

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816 Words | 4 Pages

The epigraph suggests that new students will be happy during the first stage of their education at St. Lucy’s, because “everything is new, exciting, and interesting” for the students (p. 225). Claudette describes the fun she has with other members of a pack as they explore the environment of St. Lucy’s, as the girls spray “exuberant yellow streams all over the bunks” (p. 225), but this fun is mixed with anxiety, as when the girls sense “some subtler danger afoot” (p. 228) when the nuns approach the girls to give them names. Claudette’s enjoyment of the new environment at St. Lucy’s is therefore mixed with fear and discomfort.

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In both instances in “St. Lucy’s” and the Native American Indians, they had no other option but to be repressed by the Early Americans. Such as the early American nation thought it was necessary for the assimilation of the American Indians. Likewise the assimilation of the American Indians the girls in “St. Lucy’s” were forced to blend in and forget their old way of life to learn to act like a human. For the purpose of assimilation, some American Indian children were kidnapped and taken to boarding schools to learn how to be more like the early Americans and forced to forget their old way of life. With this in mind; “St. Lucy’s” children weren’t really kidnapped, but more convinced that this is what there wolf parents wanted from them and

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Through the first person narration in this story, readers can uncover the thoughts and feelings of the main character, and even some universal truths this text has to offer. The main character in this story, doubling as the narrator is named Claudette. This name is given to her by the sisters at St. Lucy’s in their attempts to civilize a “pack” of girls who have been brought up as if they are the offspring of wolves. The majority of the girls are compliant with learning the new ways, however some learned slower and some progressed much faster.

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930 Words | 4 Pages

In “St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” By Karen Russell, Claudette tries to adapt to the culture of a human. Claudette’s progression ties in to what each epigraph states. The reader learns to understand Claudette’s place in the pack and her character. Claudette in every stage has different actions and responses to her sisters. Also to the new things they learn.

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1351 Words | 6 Pages

In the beginning she talks about how throughout the centuries women have been slaves to men’s desires and philosophies. She evens relates men’s hold of women as the “shackles of slavery”. “We now know that there never can be a free humanity until woman is freed from ignorance, and we know, too, that woman can never call herself free until she is mistress of her own body. Just so long as man dictates and controls the standards of sex morality, just so long will man control the world” (pg.2).

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

Topic: Bertrande’s position as a woman in a patriarchal society makes her choices impossible. Discuss. Janet Lewis’ novella, The Wife of Martin Guerre presents a hierarchical society that disregards the voice of women in society who seek justice. Throughout the novel, Bertrande is depicted as a strong, independent women however, her ability to express her objections is restricted due to feudal system being an important part of the 16th century. Furthermore, although the French parochial lives under the patriarchal system, Bertrande is able to strongly express her decisions when taking the case of Arnuad du Tilh in court.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

They show the harsh and cruel reality of the surrounding environment that women live in without framing that reality in beautiful frame. This is obvious in William Dean Howells’s “Editha” and Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”. Both Editha and Daisy share the same characteristic of the New Woman. These two women redefine the feminine ideology of women who suffer from following the social norms of their culture. They believe that women should have freedom as well as men, and they are responsible for making decisions in their lives without under

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891 Words | 4 Pages

This causes internal conflict because she would much rather think and question people, challenging their ideas, when all everyone else wants to do is live in their “utopia” and in their ignorant bliss. Watching the parlor walls keep their minds wastefully busy, driving cars at ninety miles per hour for an adrenaline rush to fill the void that there is when there is nothing to do, talking about the abstract things that do not even matter, all conflicting with what Clarisse desires. She wants to think, to challenge, but everyone shuns the idea, calls her crazy, and demands she goes to a psychiatrist when there is nothing even wrong with her, she just views the world

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1075 Words | 5 Pages

It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

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It was a time when almost everything was seen as either black or white, with no grey in between, and Victorian ideologies regarding women were not excluded from that notion. I believe that the fears revolving around the idea of the “New Women” resonates with Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, Arthur and Mina, as they are characterizations of the times they were composed. In order to combat against those fears, they treat Lucy in a way that revokes her personhood, to gain control over her and simultaneously make sense of her shifting personas, such will be explored at length throughout the

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601 Words | 3 Pages

This passage explains love and emotional significance in the war . Although the small role of women in The things they carried ,it is an importance threw out the book. Females character’s Martha ,Mary Anne and Kathleen have all effects on the men. Different women in the book have different effects on the men and affect them in different ways .For an example “Jimmy cross carried letters from a girl who named , Martha who 's an English major at Mount Sebastian College.

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1638 Words | 7 Pages

Her refusal to submit to her social destiny shocked many Victorian readers when the novel was first released and this refusal to accept the forms, customs, and standards of society made it one of the first rebellious feminism novels of its time (Gilbert and Gubar). This essay will discuss the relationships Jane formed with the men she encountered throughout the novel and will attempt to identify moments of patriarchal oppression within the story. The first act of patriarchal oppression Jane experiences is quiet early on it the novel, during her childhood years spent at Gateshead. It is here where she must endure to live

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632 Words | 3 Pages

She exists in a time when women are classified as objects of beauty and property, and her heart trouble suggests that she is fragile. Louise’s initial reaction to the news of her husband’s death suggests that she is deeply saddened and grief stricken when she escapes to her bedroom. However, the reader is caught off-guard with Louise’s secret reaction to the news of her husband’s death because she contradicts the gender norm of the 19th century woman. Her contradiction to the stereotype / gender norm is displayed when she slowly reveals her inward

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990 Words | 4 Pages

The Man, the Bitch, and the Closeted Sexism The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a wonderfully imagined novel that the author, C.S. Lewis, wrote for his goddaughter Lucy. He aspired to incorporate many elements that little girls like Lucy, in particular, would find intriguing, such as the compelling beauty of the wood inside the wardrobe, the magnificence of the characters in it, and the great significance of relationships between family and friends. He even named the young protagonist Lucy. However, by focusing on his intention to enchant her, Lewis also negligently integrates sexist attitudes and stereotypical gender roles into the tale.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

As many other literary texts such as Jane Eyre or Gone with the Wind are more straight forward with their exhibit of views on women, this short story requires a more in depth, close reading to illustrate

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