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The Sewing Woman In Jane Anne Phillips '' Cheers'

461 Words2 Pages

According to researchers at the University of Scranton, 92 percent of people never achieve the goals they set for New Year’s. This constant cycle of being unable to accomplish one’s desires is very prominent in this passage by Jayne Anne Phillips. In her writing, Phillips demonstrates her belief that the actuality of the world is much bleaker than what an individual fantasizes. In “Cheers”, writer Jayne Anne Phillips portrays the sewing woman as having a disheveled physical appearance, and the house as filthy and malodorous, to ultimately reveal how life rarely turns out as planned. Philips establishes the sewing woman's appearance underneath her mask of makeup as unappealing in order to contrast what an individual craves for in life to what …show more content…

According to the narrator, the sewing woman's house was in a “row of skinny houses on a mud alley” and the “rooms smelled of salted grease and old newspaper.” By describing the house’s unpleasant scent and unfavorable location, the author demonstrates how disgusting and unkempt the house is. Although no one would wish for a dirty house, unfortunately that is the world the sewing woman is living in. Additionally, there was a “postcard of orange trees in Florida” hung up on the wall. The beautiful, peaceful postcard of Florida contrasts with the reality of the dirty house. Philips uses the postcard to further develop her belief in that there is a considerable difference between reality and dreams. Despite one's yearns to live somewhere appealing and calm, like the orange trees in Florida, the actuality of the world is a disarrayed household. Ultimately, Philips features both the unappealing physical look of the sewing woman and her grungy house to unveil how cruel the real world is, regardless of the fantasies one might

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Recently I read the book, Tangerine. The story is about a boy named Paul Fisher and his family moving to Tangerine, Florida. The theme is even though it appears perfect on the outside, the inside is grotesque. In this passage, there are many ugly things that happen to Paul and his family. Beguile occurrences take place in the form of a muck fire, sinkhole, and thievery.

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In the extract from “Maestro” by Peter Goldsworthy, the author discusses the protagonist, Paul, and how he and his family moved from the South to Darwin. They stay in a motel room the first night and the next day they visit their new house. It shows the relationship between the family and their environment, expressing their feelings about the situation. In the prose extract, the author illustrates a rough atmosphere which the protagonist immediately loves, unlike his family, in order to create characterisation through the family’s first impression of the new town. The text conveys Nancy as a strong-willed person by her initial rejection of her new circumstances and then she improves them by quickly moving forward with the situation, showing

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The hopes of Wes, Mary, and many others can be depicted through the sight of their new neighborhood in which “flowerpots were filled with geraniums or black-eyed Susans, and floral wreaths hung from each wooden door” (Moore 56). Not only does this use imagery to describe the beauty of Dundee Village, but the metaphoric aspect contributes to the message that Moore is trying to

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We can interpret undoubtedly, that Jeanette has a positive attitude. Jeanette explains that the houses were “shabbier” than the ones in the valley, she isn’t direct in her meaning but what exbiting is a responds to her life then. She is using her words to display her connection with herself, and what she feels. This strategy has stimulated not only extreme detail, but also amplify the writer’s

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From the outside, Jane and the house remain unharmed,but the inside is wounded unrecognizable. A window never broke or even smudged is Jane's never faulty appearance (Cormier 91). The trashing left the house empty and without a purpose; Jane is weakened and numb (Cormier 8). The permanent,staining smell in the house represents how Jane can't rid her emotions (Cormier 37). Simply looking at the stains, reminds Jane she is surrounded by the stench.

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Her dress is also made of “chiffon,” which is an expensive, fancy fabric worn to important events, further displaying the significance of the party. Myrtle’s dress is described as being “swept” across the room, further connecting to her “costume.” “Swept” causes one to assume cleanliness, something a wife of Tom would be expected to uphold, suggesting her “costume” to be the role of Tom’s wife. Continuing with the idea of change, Myrtle’s personality is described to change from an “intense vitality” to an “impressive hauteur.” Her “vitality” is representative of her lively, animated self.

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The story opens with Mrs. Wright imprisoned for strangling her husband. A group, the mostly composed of men, travel to the Wright house in the hopes that they find incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright. Instead, the two women of the group discover evidence of Mr. Wright’s abuse of his wife. Through the women’s unique perspective, the reader glimpses the reality of the situation and realizes that, though it seemed unreasonable at the time, Mrs. Wright had carefully calculated her actions. When asked about the Wrights, one of the women, Mrs. Hale, replies “I don’t think a place would be a cheerful for John Wright’s being in it” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 7).

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Symbols in the story depict two different themes: the American dream or its horrible post apocalyptic interpretation, and the alienation. The last term means an indifferent attitude to the surrounding environment and a feeling of an absence of connections with it. It is impossible to talk about feelings or emotions of the house’s artificial intelligence; it looks more like a

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The smell of formaldehyde foreshadows that she might use it on Billy, to preserve his body. The landlady smelling of preservatives and hospitals establishes a mysterious atmosphere; leaving the readers unsure of what the landlady is up to. When the landlady offers Billy more tea, he politely declines because the tea tasted “faintly of bitter almonds,

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Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.

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Bedrooms are representative of laziness, they are a place for sleeping and are associated with not wanting to do anything. Not many activities can be done in the kitchen, it’s sole purpose is a place to make and eat food, thus it is representative of gluttony. Yet another human quality that is viewed as unideal. She continues to describe what is on the map, “In the legend are instructions on the language of the land, how it/ was we forgot to acknowledge the gift, as if we were not in it or of it” (8-9).

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1686 Words | 7 Pages

The persona cautions her to “tread” instead of simply walking, to be wary of the “tricky latch” and walk like a “trespasser”. These lines also explain the elevated tension between the lady and the apartment now on the sexual level; she cannot be herself or even allow herself the freedom to be comfortable in her own skin not only because of the lack of space, but also for fear of being objectified and sexualized by the other tenants. The use of figures of speech such as simile and metonymy is also evident in these lines. The persona likened the steps that the persona to a trespasser, on one level, this is to emphasize the measures that she must take as she stays in the apartment; but on the other hand, this could also signify that she remains an outsider in spite of living there, that she truly does not belong in the apartment. The use of metonymy in these lines: “lazy Susan” for the dining room, the “toilet” in place of the comfort room was effective because it emphasized the rooms and its purpose without having to explain them thoroughly.

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923 Words | 4 Pages

She was never happy and satisfied with what she had and always daydreamed of large ballrooms… decorated with oriental tapestries and lighted by high bronze floor lamps. She wanted to be the envy of all other women. When her husband gets an invite to the ball she wishes to appear wealthy to the other women at the ball. She borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend, Mme Forestier. At the ball, she becomes pretty, elegant, gracious and smiling than all the other ladies, and she finds herself enjoying the party.

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In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, appearances prove to be deceptive veneers that disguise the reality of situations and characters. Ibsen’s play is set in 19th century Norway, when women’s rights were restricted and social appearance such as financial success and middle class respectability were more important than equality and true identity. Ibsen also uses realism and naturalism, portraying the Helmer’s Marriage through authentic relationships, which are relatable to the audience. In A Doll’s House, Nora represents 19th century women entrapped by society to fulfill wifely and motherly obligations, unable to articulate or express their own feelings and desires.

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“Of course,” she said.” This demonstrates the feeling that seemingly good things are not always as good as they seem by Billy mentioning before he enters the bed and breakfast that it was comforting to see live animals there, but then he comes to realize that those animals are not alive. One of the very things that drew Billy into the bed and breakfast was false, this is true with the landlady’s character as well. The landlady seems very warm and pleasant, just as the bed and breakfast seemed at first, but the more we learn about the landlady, the more we see that her behavior is disturbing and deceptive. Moreover, the fact that the landlady practices taxidermy is eerie, it gives the reader an alarming

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