Preview

My Father's Life By Kay Boyle

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
394 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Father's Life By Kay Boyle
“THE ASTRONOMER’S WIFE” In her short story “The ASTRONOMERS WIFE” Kay Boyle presents a woman that is concerned with her marriage. She realizes that she is living a joyless life. A plumber made her realize how a man and woman’s actions differ bringing back Mrs. Ames wakes up one morning gently trying not to wake up her husband as she gets ready to start the day. She goes downstairs and starts doing her chores like every other day as her husband sleeps. At this moment she feels unloved, insecure and unimportant to her husband because this was a daily routine in her life. Her husband would ignore her and seem not to care so much for her. A plumber arrives at her house, she salutes him and then leads him quietly to where it’s leaking.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Meanwhile, Mrs. Ames then looked at the plumber and noticed that he is looking “up in her face”. She noticed several physical characteristics about the plumber, “hair as light as gold, lean cheeks, rugged bones, firm and clean flesh.” She began to think about the differences between the plumber and the astronomer, a men who descend and men who go up. Suddenly, everything about the plumber became appealing to her, and she continued to think about the dissatisfaction of her husband. At the end of the story, Mrs. Ames followed the plumber into the drainpipes.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    HOMS Theme Essay Growing up, everyone expects it as this unbelievably spontaneous thing . In Sandra Cisneros book “The house on Mango Street” states that growing up can happen to people variously, in good and bad ways. In the pages 46- 57 there is a lot of growing up in many of the characters especially Esperanza. Esperanza gets her first job, during her break time she mingles with an oriental man; “ He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth,”(55).…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Cynthia Rylant’s short story, “Papa's Parrot,” the main character, a 12-year-old boy named Harry Tillian who can't seem to spare the time to visit his papa at the family candy store during the afternoons. I firmly believe that the message in this story is to always appreciate the people around you before it's too late.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    We are also introduced to the main character's family, such as his wife Elaine, and his son Jamie. We also see what each person's role is within the family.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. Louise is the first of the two main characters shown, at the snack bar. It is noisy, crowded and fast paced. The cameraman follows her from point to point , in this way making her the center of attention and also serving to give the viewer a good view of the snack bar. On the other hand, Thelma's kitchen is quiet and she is alone. From the onset, the viewer gets an insight into the loneliness and boredom in Thelmas life. This is further confirmed when her husband comes into the scene, acting rude and unappreciative of her. Louise is the free-spirited one - this is depicted by how she is shot in different parts of the snack bar. The viewer gets the sense that she is independent. Thelma, on the other hand is in the small kitchen and her movement are limited by that space - her kitchen. Ken, her husband, comes in, and the kitchen looks even smaller - suggesting that he overwhelms her.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever suffered from such loss that could have possibly ruined you emotionally, physically and mentally? Well, you’re not the only one. JC also suffers from a mental sadness that has to be cured by finding himself and being able to grip the feelings in his heart to tell the story of his best friend “The King” who had died tragically falling off his father's under-constructed skyscraper, unknown if his death was an accident or a suicide he learns that the bond they had may have been more than friendship. Which makes his summer so much harder. He’s confused.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victoria Sanford’s book, Buried Secrets helps readers to understand the violence that occurred during the genocide that took place in Guatemala. This destruction happened during the 1960’s until 1996. She reviles the tragedies that happened from the standpoint of more than 400 rural Maya survivors, former soldiers, archival research and formerly classified documents. There were 626 villages and 200,000 civilian victims that were affected by this genocide. The Guatemalan army were the ones who led this genocide.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Son By Mcbride Summary

    • 1972 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Dr. Campbell-McBride, a neurologist who also holds a Master's degree in nutrition, lives in Cambridge, UK, with her husband and her autistic son, who was born in the autumn of 1992. Her clinic treats autistic children from around the world, and she is currently working on a book on effective autism treatments. This story was written in February 2003.…

    • 1972 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He remains lying in his bed while yelling at his wife that ‘‘There’s a problem worthy of your mettle!’’ Mrs. Ames and the plumber continue to walk outside where the plumber realizes that the drains are ‘‘big enough for a man to stand upright in them.’’ However, Mrs. Ames is not paying attention because she is thinking about her husband’s thoughts and how his remarks that he says to her makes her sad and make her wish that he would just keep silent. She finally came to the realization that her and her husband were mismatched and that there are actually people like her, such as the plumber, other than people like her husband who like to scorn…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marriage is widely seen as a sacred union between two individuals, who promise to love and cherish one another until death. However, it has also been historically known to dichotomize and assign roles to each partner. In a marriage between a man and a woman, the former is traditionally designated as the leader of the household and the breadwinner. The latter is given the roles of mother and homemaker. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, these gender roles are shown to be the bane of a happy marriage, especially for the wife. Both Gilman and Hurston demonstrate a concordance that gender roles assigned to a husband and wife are inherently misogynistic and damaging for a happy and healthy marriage.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ashes By Susan Pfeffer

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Susan Pfeffer’s story “Ashes” teaches a lesson about how trust is decided on past, not relationships. Ashleigh, “Ashes”, with divorced parents, talks about how when she is with her dad, the sun shines just a little bit brighter, but according to her mother, he is just an “irresponsible bum”. Ashes was a nickname her father gave her, which her mother hates. Ashes, says that her father hardly ever keeps a promise, such as when she was a kid, he told her that the stars were her necklace. One lesson the story suggests is that parent-child relationships can quickly change, depending on the choices they make.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The secret to a man is through his stomach, that’s what many naive women think, that’s simply the information out there. Food is important but it’s not the only thing that will glue a man to you. In fact not very men really cares if a woman knows how to cook or not. It’s more than cooking. But have you ever asked yourself the reasons why a man will stay with one woman and be happy?…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Our Kids By Robert Putnam

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Throughout America’s communities today, the quality of schooling varies from school to school. In the book Our Kids the author, Robert Putnam, believes that the increased gap between the wealthy and poor is what causes the differences in school quality and opportunities for the students (Putnam, 2015). Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing two of today’s youth, Josh and Erin. Their names have been changed for the sake of anonymity. Josh is a 17-year-old student at Shawnee Mission East High School, in Prairie Village, Kansas.…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kay Boyle's short story “The Astronomer's Wife" is an example of a woman's dissatisfaction with her husband and her life. There are several themes that arise from this story. Love and marriage, however, is the main theme. Katherine Ames is ignored by her spouse on a daily basis. Mr. Ames is too concerned with his astronomy work that he forgets to give any attention to Mrs. Ames. He rarely speaks or even listens to her. He is totally unconcerned with everything that goes on in his home, and leaves all the work for her to do. Boyle uses comparisons between a plumber and Katherine’s husband—Mr. Ames’ silence, the plumber's interaction with her, and her response to the plumber—to show the loneliness of the wife throughout the story.…

    • 697 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Astronomer's Wife

    • 913 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the short story titled Astronomer's Wife, author Kay Boyle tells a superb story of Mrs. Ames a woman who has forgotten her strength and beauty, whose life is missing it's true identity because of her husband's control. Mrs. Ames tells the story in third person as the protagonist, with her being the main character. The plumber is antagonist, who brings changes into Mrs. Ames' life giving her back her lost identity. Mr. Ames uses control through out the story by isolating his wife from the rest of the world.…

    • 913 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays