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Themes in women's writing
Themes in women's literature
Theme feminism in novels
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Themes in women's writing
Themes in women's literature
Theme feminism in novels
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Throughout life, evolution, or change, becomes the center of each day as people overcome many different obstacles. Literature, such as in Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Ruined Maid” and Karen Russell’s, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” often upholds the same idea about change. In Hardy’s poem, two country girls simply conversate about the times they were apart to emphasize how ‘Melia changed in the city, yet she kept her same individuality. On the other hand, Russell displays through her writing more obvious change as girls were trained by undergoing five different stages as a way to teach them how to conform to new environments while remembering who they were at the beginning. Both authors illustrate the importance of change while hanging on to one’s roots, but Hardy uses a naive tone to create tension between the two girls while Russell uses an abundance of symbolism to represent each stage of change.
When Mr. Clutter came into the Post Office Mrs. Clair noticed that he never had to time to give a hello or a good-by. She did not like how he always acted like he was in a rush. She thought for a while that, “…it’s all caught up with
Mary explained to her son she could not walk and he called an ambulance. Mary stated she does not like to bother her children with her problems because they are all very busy people. Mary was wearing the same night gown and bathrobe she was transported to the hospital in. The bathrobe was dirty
These help build up to the theme which is the development of courage and the understanding of sacrifice (Shmoop Editorial Team, “Paris in Fever 1793,” 2008). The piece begins in the summer of 1793. Matilda Cook, also known as Mattie, is a fourteen year old girl who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She resides above her family’s
Her children are successful and move on with their lives but Rose Mary sadly finds herself in a situation quite the opposite of luxurious living styles. Jeannette finds herself, “wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.” (Walls 3). Rose Mary is in a very difficult situation having to “root” through a dumpster when her children’s highest concern is looking “overdressed” for a party. Rose Mary and Rex are deep in poverty, and on the streets while their children are happily
She had been born in squalor and lived in it all her life.” Miss Lottie dealt with the poverty-stricken life for years. She owned the most run-down house in the town, along with having a mentally disabled son. To her, the beauty of the marigolds lighten and bring colors to the ugly surroundings. Despite how desperate times are, Miss Lottie still enjoys painstaking the breathtaking yellow flowers that washed her worries away.
Katherine Anne Porter, in her short story Old Mortality, attempts, with the aid of Aunt Amy, to analyze and deconstruct the figure of the Southern Belle, focusing on both Amy’s acts of rebellion and the impact that her privileges (beauty, charm etc) had on them. The reader’s first contact with Aunt Amy is made via a description of a photo of hers: She was a spirited-looking young woman, with dark curly hair cropped and parted on the side, a short oval face with straight eyebrows, and a large curved mouth. A round white collar rose from the neck of her tightly buttoned black basque, and round white cuffs set off lazy hands with dimples in them, lying at ease in the folds of her flounced skirt which gathered around to a bustle.
She attempts to act as though things of luxury are nothing new to her, as members of the elite would. An instance this ideal becomes apparent is when she speaks of her dress, which represents her trying to assimilate into the upper class. In fact, “with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change”(34), and upon being complimented on her dress she responds “‘It’s just a crazy old thing,’ she said. ‘I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like’”(35). As a wife of an auto-shop owner, she hasn’t seen too much luxury in her life, and a luxurious dress of chiffon is not of commonplace to her.
Polly’s sensibility is one of her most noticeable traits, Polly does not usually over react to things or spend money foolishly on objects she does not need. After Polly moved to the city and became a music teacher, she saved most of the money she earned and used it to pay for her brother’s education. Although Polly’s family did not have the money to pay for Wills education, Polly had no problem earning the needed money for her brother. Polly can also be very frugal, she makes and mends most of her own clothes rather than buying new ones like most of the other ladies, later she even helps Fanny and Maud make their own dresses, hats, and other garments. Polly does not find mending clothes a chore, she finds the activity rather fun and relaxing.
The speaker states, “I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown, / And a delicate face, and could strut’ about Town!” While the victorian society creates the mindset of the people to believe that if you are ruined you are going to have a horrible life, but Hardy insists that those who are ruined do not suffer as much as those who are pure. Thomas Hardy may have put a twist on the poem, to make you believe the one who is “ruined” is Melia, where in reality it is those who still have their virginity. Throughout “The Ruined Maid,” Thomas Hardy displayed anapestic meter, rhythm, closed-form poetry, and imagery explaining the views of the victorian society among those who have become ruined.
Polly sometimes envys the Shaw’s for having money, being able to buy what they want when they want it, while she on the other hand has to earn her own money to buy practical things rather than new dresses. The conflict intensifies when Tom was talking to Fanny one night at the opera, and said to his sister “It’s just Polly.” This deeply upsets Polly to hear one of her dearest friends say such a thing, and to refer to her as just Polly rather than a friend. Even Fanny continues to call Polly “Old fashioned” she might not mean it to be rude, but it still hurts Polly to be called names by her friends.
The world she lived in was so ugly and plain and she choose to “create beauty in the midst of [all that] ugliness" (62). This helps to create the theme because even though Miss Lottie had so little she still worked hard to care for the beautiful marigolds. In “Marigolds” the author uses diction, symbolism and point of view, to develop the theme that people can create beauty even in the poorest of situations. Through diction, Collier is able to show the reader the contrast between the beauty of the marigolds compared to the run-down town the story is set in.
Herman Melville allows us to join his narrator into “The Tartarus of Maids” on a quest to retrieve paper for packaging his seeds. Growing demand for the seeds came from Missouri, North and South Carolina who used them to repopulate forests like the Eastern and Northern States (1503). The economic climate pushed our seedsman narrator to leave behind the industrious wholesale market of the villages, “among bright farms and sunny meadows” (1502) sprouting upon the New England landscape. The seedsman narrator drove horse and sleigh to the foot of Woedolor Mountain into the Devil’s Dungeon and the Devil’s Dungeon paper-mill. There he purchases his paper from the bachelor proprietor Old Bach and his boy servant Cupid.
In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” the nuns use a shockingly casual tone when speaking to the girls, as if they understand the sacrifices the girls are going to have to make. For example, when the girls first arrive at St. Lucy’s and are running rabid around the courtyard the sister asks, “And what is your name?”(239). The nun asks this question as if she is speaking to a girl who knows how to respond despite the fact she knows the girls can not speak. In “The Ruined Maid” the author uses word choice to set the tone. By repeatedly using the word ‘ruined’ Melia does not let the country girl forget that despite how glamorous her life seems it does not come without a price.
Thomas Hardy in his novel Tess of the D’ urbervilles has highlighted the life of a women who was being exploited by the society and her purity and chastity is questioned upon throughout the novel. In the nineteenth-century society, there were two types of women: Fallen women and good women. Good women were seen as pure and clean i.e. virgins until they get married and their bodies were seen as that of a goddess in a temple which should not be used for pleasure. Their role was to have children and take care of their household chores. The woman who did not fulfill the expectations of the people in the society and their family was considered as a fallen women.