Passage ID 1: This passage is from Our Nig by Harriet Wilson, which was published in 1859. Overall, this passage perfectly exemplifies a theme found throughout the novel: that Frado is treated as less than human. This is portrayed through the characterization of Mrs. B’s rage and how it contrasts with Frado’s treatment. For example, after deciding to not beat Frado, Mr. B“left the house, as he usually did when a tempest threatened to envelop him.” In other words, Mrs. B’s emotions are a tempest- a violent storm- that often try to drag Mr. Bellmont into the chaos the emotions creates. Her emotions aren’t human- they’re a force of nature and little can stop them. Basically, this seems to imply that Mrs. B’s rage is inevitable and natural as there …show more content…
by Willa Cather, which was published in 1913. Within this passage, Cather utilizes contrasting imagery to characterize Alexandra as a steady and orderly outdoorsperson. Cather first sets up the contrast by describing Alexandra’s home as “unfinished and uneven in comfort” with rooms ranging from “papered, carpeted, over-furnished” to “almost bare.” The only rooms of the house that are enjoyable are the ones where other people have made them livable- the kitchen, where her girl helpers work, and the sitting-room, where all the furniture was from her family’s old house. In short, Cather is saying that Alexandra’s home is disorganized and chaotic. And since the home is where the heart is, this would seem to imply that Alexandra too is disorganized and inconsistent. However, as Cather makes clear at the end of the passage, Alexandra’s true home “is the big out-of-doors”, which means her character should be judged by how she keeps her outside space. In contrast to her actual house, you can feel “the order and fine arrangement manifest all over” the minute you step outside into her garden, with “symmetrical pasture ponds” and a “white row of beehives.” In other words, Alexandra’s home is constant and organized- everything has its place and it’s not chaotic like the house she lives in. Therefore, Alexandra herself is steady and orderly, especially when it comes to the
However, what makes Cather’s writing unique is that whilst she does conform to historical beliefs surrounding the wilderness, this conformity is only partial and she deviates from traditional historical ideals just as much, if not more, than she abides to them. Tom Outland’s discovery is a not a virgin landscape, which is what he expected, but rather a forgotten city. What he ultimately discovers is the palimpsestic reality of American history. The landscape is not new to everybody, it is only new to the individual finding it that time around. This is where we start to see Tom deviating from the typical Masculine sublime.
However, these feelings induced by Mrs. Auld soon turn to hatred and remorse as “the fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that
The poem “Nigger” by Judy Simmons corresponds with the plight of Frado’s life in the book Our Nig. The story of Frado starts with her as a free black in the North living with and serving a white family called the Bellmonts. Frado was born into a society in which she was already at a disadvantage because of her skin color and socioeconomic status. The poem “Nigger” reflects the hatred that constantly surrounds Frado’s life and how she grows up through that hatred and tries to find her way out of it.
In the poem Schizophrenia, when expressed “It was the house that suffered the most” it proceeds on to say that it began with slamming doors and angry feet scuffing the carpet. Dishes were left unwashed and it was certain doors that were locked at night. Neighbors referred to the house as a madhouse. My interpretation of this poem was that the house is personified within it. It was described as if the house was turning on itself, I imagine that the author implied the house as if it was a person with schizophrenia.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female narrator is greatly troubled by the suppression of her imagination by her husband and her ultimate isolation due to this subordination. These feelings are reflected through the author’s use of setting as the narrator’s dreary and malicious descriptions of the house and the wallpaper mirrors her emotional position. Throughout the reading, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s in-depth loss of touch with reality as she sinks further and further into her own reality. As she becomes more isolated, her descriptions of the house become more abstract as she begins to focus on the wallpaper and starts to see herself as being hidden behind it.
This quote connects to how certain anxieties can ignite, for instance, since she has murdered people and will never be able to make love anymore,
In the short story “Noah Count and the Arkansas Ark” the author illustrations the values of education and how the lack of it can change your outcome. The younger boys father in the plot of the story was made fun of because of his expertise in building, but because he was informally educated he did not have to suffer the consensus of the flood. Although the flood was a major outcome though the story the main character changes his feeling from being nervous, to preparing for the big flood and watching his father being made fun of, to being safe because of the sacrifices he made. In the beginning of the passage the main character is nervous, scared and anxious for what is to come.
Couplings – Menna Elfyn Couplings by Menna Elfyn is a poem about love, life and relationships: mainly about a couple starting their life together, written in the form of couplets. The poem uses provocative vocabulary, meant to jar you out of a peaceful mindset – ‘ruins’, ‘knock’, ‘skyless’… It perpetuates the idea that the house, which is a metaphor for the couple, isn’t perfect – it’s ‘crooked’, ‘creaking’. The fact that the lines don’t rhyme but they still get the message across could be to imply that the couple is imperfect but they still work well together.
In the story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier there is a lot of imagery and diction. The imagery was mainly focused on how the town looks and the contrast between the town and Miss Lottie’s house. In the text is states how that the only beautiful part of the house is the marigolds, “Miss Lottie's marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture. Certainly they did not fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard”(Collier 23). This quote is trying to say that her house was a very old house that no one really cared for but, the marigolds were always taken care of and that was the only beauty in the whole yard.
Both characters experience treatment that parallels the oppression they are faced by society. In ‘The Bell Jar’, Doctor Gordon, represents the universal presence of patriarchy in society, where men are completely dominant and women’s voices are silenced. He is an influence on Esther’s psyche and displays the same lack of empathy as John, when seeing Esther and her failure to make any progress. Esther’s desperate alternatives are either shock therapy or suicide. The shock therapy is seen to be inhumane as Esther experiences it at the private hospital.
Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.
In Rita Dove’s “Daystar”, there are several phrases and words that lead the reader of the poem to a profound understanding of the struggles that the main character of this poem experiences. According to the context of the poem, the main character appears to be a mother and wife in distress. Throughout the poem, she is presented as having a dreary, lethargic, and disconnected outlook of her current situation. The main question that must be asked is what the narrator tried to convey by stating that “she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day” (21-22). There are many possible answers strung across the poem that suggest why this mother describes her state of being in this way, such as the words that were being used to express how
Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century. Penning many stories that demonstrate her opinions on the social issues of the era,
The family had stacked on food and wood to keep warm so no one would die over cold and starvation. Anne Frank didn’t want to be always stuck in the house doing nothing because that was boring
A tempest is typically known as a violent gale that can rival a tornado or hurricane in intensity and raw power. However, most English majors and literature enthusiasts associate the term “tempest” with one of Shakespeare’s final plays: The Tempest. Focusing on a revenge plot for banishment, the play’s main character, Prospero, utilizes his smooth tongue and magical properties to gain revenge on his past king and brother for stealing his dukedom away. Though this plot sounds like a fantastical story of revenge and retribution on the surface, deeper themes of rest underneath its waves as this play has been known not only for being one of Shakespeare’s final theatrical releases, but for being Shakespeare’s supposed love song or ode to the theatre.