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Symbolism In Dance In America

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“Symbols and Signs” written by Vladimir Nabokov, and “Dance in America” written by Lorrie Moore, both examines parental responses to a child’s illness. The “Symbols and Signs”, is the story of severe mental debility of an unnamed child and the struggles of his parents to cope with it. Meanwhile, “Dance in America” is centered on the sufferings of narrator’s friend and his son named Eugene, who is dying from cystic fibrosis. The children in these stories differ in their relationship to their parents and their attitude towards illness. However, both parents experience hopelessness and hardships in response. In the “Symbols and signs” both the parents and their son are living in two different and separated worlds as their son is languishing in a sanitarium, while they are living in a tenement house. Moreover, the son is suffering from a disease named “Referential mania” that makes his mind inaccessible to his parent minds and results in lack of bond between the two. The …show more content…

In “Symbols and Signs” father who is financially not good enough and “wholly dependent on his brother Isaac” (Nabokov) wants to bring his son back home, as he believes that he will kill himself there and they will be to blame. But he seems helpless because of his material and emotional hardships. The parents and their son, both are suffering in two different realities. The clouds, trees etc. are conspiring against their son, while at the same time parents themselves are punished by poverty, fear and darkness. In the same way, Simone and Cal, the parents of Eugene in “Dance in America” are cursed with impoverishment. “Maple seedlings have sprouted up through the dining room floorboards…. Scrabble in the walls. Paint is chipping everywhere in scales and blisters and flaps” (Moore 196). These lines illustrate the crummy condition of their house that manifestly delineates their financial

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One example of this laid-back attitude towards spending money is when Francis goes home after 22 years and gets $10 from Billy. Francis then jokes with his wife, Annie, about putting “…ten dollars toward the frame” (183) for a picture they like. This minor and seemingly harmless remark digs deeper into the person Francis is. Rather than spending money on food or shelter, he would rather spend it on a useless trinket that does not improve his life. Considering the economic climate at the time coupled with his situation, this joke turns into an ignorant statement which explains why he has “…been broke twenty-two years” (182).

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Pathos dominates the article when Ehrenreich allows her nephews mother in law, grandchildren, and daughter to move into her house. The situation focuses on pathos because in Ehrenreich’s personal story she includes that “Peg, was, like several million other Americans, about to lose her home to foreclosure” (338). She is effective in her writing by appealing to the readers’ emotions through visual concepts and personal experiences. When I read the article, I felt emotional because the working poor are not fortunate to know if they will have a house or food the next day. I agree with Ehrenreich in which the poor are as important as the wealthy group who get more recognition.

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Parent-teen relationships influence your academics, your actions, and the choices you make. As one can tell Sharon M. Draper’s novel focuses on relationships and depression. After all, if Andy had a relationship with his parents he probably wouldn’t have committed suicide. As a result, Andy suffered as well as, his parents when he died. They faced the consequences of not having a relationship with Andy.

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The poverty cycle affects many American families, it is the phenomenon in which poor families are poverty-stricken for at least three generations. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings break that cycle. It is a story of triumph over adversity as Jeannette did not let the label of “poor” create an obstacle in her path. It did not come easy, as her parents obscured her view of what life out of poverty could look like. Although the weight of poverty strayed her relationship with her parents, it was all she knew, due to hard work and determination she defied the odds stacked against her and broke loose.

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Paula A. Treichler from the University of Illinois analyzes “The Yellow Wallpaper” and its effects of the diagnosis given to the main character effectively in her article “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”. In her article, Treichler emphasizes the reasons why the main character was lead to believe her diagnosis from her husband and the other contributing factors that played a role in her hysteria, such as lack of social interaction and confinement. In the introduction to her article, Treichler gives the background of the story and hits on every area of importance. The diagnosis made by the narrator 's husband is highlighted by Treichler in her opening paragraph to illustrate the significance and informality of the diagnosis and its unreliability.

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From beginning to end, the son calls his father “Baba” to show his affection and admiration. Despite the father’s inability to come up with a new story, the son still looks up to him. This affectionate term also contrasts with the father’s vision of the “boy packing his shirts [and] looking for his keys,” which accentuates the undying love between the father and son (15 & 16) . The father’s emotional “screams” also emphasize his fear of disappointing the son he loves so much (17). Despite the father’s agonizing visions, the son remains patient and continues to ask for a story, and their relationship remains “emotional” and “earthly”--nothing has changed (20-21).

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I believe it also means lacking the ability to live comfortably or having pretty much nothing to make it day by day. Some people in the U.S. say they are poor, but have a house, car and all of their bills are paid. They may not have any extra money to spend, but they are richer than they think compared to some people who don’t have that life at all. The difference with Jeanette and her family is that their parents chose to live this lifestyle. It may seem pretty selfish of the parents being they have young children and didn’t think twice about a steady upbringing.

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Her descriptions of the room, with the furniture seemingly being nailed to the floor and the windows being “barred” show an underlying understanding that her thoughts and personality is being confined. The irony present in this description, due to her belief that the room used to be a nursery, shows her early denial of her husband’s dominance over her. As the story progresses and she begins to see the woman behind the wallpaper, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s realization that she is the one that is actually being suppressed. The descriptions of the wallpaper, showing how confining it is for the symbolic woman behind it, shows how the narrator is being trapped by those bars in both her marriage and in her mental illness. Thus when she says, “At night in any kind of light… it becomes bars,” the reader is shown how restricted the narrator feels, reflected through the wallpaper.

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