Cited: Parker, D. (1942). The collected stories of Dorothy Parker. New York: Modern library.
Cited: Parker, D. (1942). The collected stories of Dorothy Parker. New York: Modern library.
While on their tour the guide brings them into the greenhouse and shows them the resident’s orchids. An orchid is a symbol that has been brought up many times throughout this novel. Earlier in the book Tan explained how "Orchids looked delacate, but thrived on neglect," (Tan 40). This symbolized Ruth in the beginning of the novel. She was always pushed around by Art, the kids, and LuLing. She had a tendency to put herself second and put others first. In this section Mr. Patel explains how many of the residents have a strong maternal instinct and like to water their plants every day. Their orchids are "a dendrobium orchid known as cuthbertsonii. Blooms nearly year-round, nonstop, and unlike most orchids, it can take daily watering," (Tan 361). This new type of orchid represents the Ruth toward the end of the book. She has developed a better relationship with Art, the girls, and her mother. The orchid symbolizes Ruth because the people around her are now realizing how important Ruth is and how much they need…
In the short story, “Paul´s Case”, the author, Willa Cather, uses flowers to symbolize Paul´s life, which she does to show the connections between all living things. In the story, Paul, a young high school boy, dreaming of a life of someone else, first works at a theatre, then drops out of school, gets a job, and in the ends stealing money from the company so he can pay for his travel to New York, Later on in the story, Cather describes how “flower gardens (were) blooming behind glass windows… (Both) violets, roses, and (again) carnations.” Flowers seem to follow Paul wherever he goes. Even, when there are no flowers around him, he asks for them in the hotel suite. Perfection and a longing for a world he was not naturally born in. In the end of the book, before Paul dies, he buys some red carnations. Before Paul jumps in front of the train, he buries the flowers in the snow. Paul´s life was like the flowers. Both the flowers in the glass windows, the one in his buttonhole, the ones at the hotel, and in the end the carnations he buries has a limit for how long they can stay alive. They have a better opportunity to live longer if they are in their right environment. When they get cut off from their roots and gets put into fancy glass windows they only have a certain amount of time that they can stay alive. The same thing happens to Paul. When Paul steals the money from the company, and leaves his roots at Cornelia Street for New York, where he, just like the flowers, only can live for a certain amount of time, because it is not his right environment. All in all the flowers symbolizes the life of Paul. They both bloom best in their right environment. The problem is; Paul does not know his right environment.…
Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O” describes a Southern American family, narrated by a dominating older sister. Known only as “Sister,” she attempts to convince readers that her family is the reason that she lives at the post office, however, the actions of the wealthy family suggests her unreliability as a narrator. Throughout the manipulating lies within the family, Welty’s classic American comical story relates to mainstream literature throughout the drama of a typical family but the unusual lies and characteristics of the family remain distinct through the bias point of view of the narrator.…
3. How does the McGee’s relationship support the idea that literature reflected some women’s feelings of being trapped and oppressed by their husbands?…
The three stories to be discussed in this essay are “The Bouquet” by Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. It’s interesting to dissect these pieces of literature to see how they reflect the time period they were written in, by whom they were written, and if the stories they read have any abnormalities outside what is expected.…
At the beginning of the story, we encounter loneliness that forces Elisa to dedicate her energies and love to her flowers. The creation and setting of this narrative gives an impression of isolation and a miserable ambiance. The setting is in autumn, a season characterized by dead leaves and chilly whether. In addition, the place where Elisa stays is compared to a “closed pot” (Steinbeck 175) and it is set apart from the rest of the universe by the “grey-flannel fog” (Steinbeck 175), which is representative of the pot’s cover.…
While on the way to dinner with her husband Elisa finally realizes that she had been taken advantage of. She sees that the handy man has discarded her beloved chrysanthemums in the ditch on the side of the road. She realizes that the man used flattery of her and her flowers to get work. This realization makes her break down and cry. She then understands that she is doomed to her current role in society, a passive woman, and she hates it.…
The Chrysanthemums that Elisa Allen grows represents how her and many other women were treated during this time. Currently, the Chrysanthemums are bare and dormant with no flowers. This is similar to Elisa's life because her life is bare dormant with no excitement. Furthermore, the Chrysanthemums also show the theme by how they are grown in the valley. The narrator proclaims “There was a little square sandy bed kept for rooting the Chrysanthemums(271)”. The chrysanthemums are grown in a limited space which does not allow them to grow to their fullest potential. This resembles how Elisa and many other women are being trapped by men. Women are limited to a small space and cannot perform at their…
The treatment of women was extremely negative; most were expected to stay home to fulfill domestic responsibilities. Mrs. Beazley’s issue involved her husband selling land and property that was willed to her by her father. She signs the legal documents due to feelings of force from her husband. At one point Mrs. Beazley says to her husband after he exclaims, “You’ve signed the deeds,” she replies, “Yes, I know I have- you made me” (389). Mr. Beazley brings home a tenant to keep his spouse occupied and distracted from his escapades only to have the woman legally advise her of her rights. The author wrote “Mrs. Beazley’s Deeds” to shed light on how women were treated in the nineteenth century society and how they are still treated to this day in time. Gilman writes this story to appeal to American men and women and make them aware of how men and women are equals.…
Cited: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Anthology of America Literature. Comp. Jeane Campbell Reeseman and Arnold Krupat. Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 808-819.…
The stories of The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and A Room of One’s Own by Virgina Woolf are important to view in their historical contexts. Both novels demonstrate that there are limits placed on women that prevent them from living complete lives. This demeans women and does not give them the same rights and privileges as men. The Yellow Wallpaper demonstrates the attitudes during the nineteenth century that concern female mental and psychical health. Whereas A Room of One’s Own explores whether women are capable of writing great literature and the obstacles that they are faced. Each story demonstrates an common idea that women are viewed as unequal to men and that they must work a lot harder to achieve the respect they wish to gain.…
In this essay I will identify the main theme of Ernest Hemingway’s poem “A Soldiers Home”, Langston Hughes “A Dream Deferred”, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “On a Play Seen Twice” and how each theme displays beliefs and characteristics of the Modernist writing between 1915 and 1935. I will also analyze how Steinbeck’s imagery highlights his theme of loneliness and confinement in “The Chrysanthemum’s”. And lastly, I will explain how Oscar Casares creates a believable main character in “Mrs. Perex” and focus on his use of flashbacks, the importance of the bowling ball, and the effect of her family on her life.…
In the year 1973 Alice Walker published a collection of short stories titled “In Love and Trouble” which includes one of the most widely studied pieces of work till this day titled “Everyday use”. In this short story the author Alice Walker incorporates the struggle and stereotypical beliefs that circulated among the lives of rural black American women during the time and did this by demonstrating the numerous adversities a rural family has surpassed by assimilating it through the tension between the main character, who in this case was the mother, and her oldest daughter. The subjective view of the story is made possible by the observant voice of the first-person narrator, the mother. In “Everyday Use” the mother’s point of view is what allows us to get an…
When the literary gentleman, whose flat old Ma Parker cleaned every Tuesday, opened the door to her that morning, he asked after her grandson. Ma Parker stood on the doormat inside the dark little hall, and she stretched out her hand to help her gentleman shut the door before she replied. "We buried 'im yesterday, sir," she said quietly. "Oh, dear me! I'm sorry to hear that," said the literary gentleman in a shocked tone. He was in the middle of his breakfast. He wore a very shabby dressing-gown and carried a crumpled newspaper in one hand. But he felt awkward. He could hardly go back to the warm sitting-room without saying something - something more. Then because these people set such store by funerals he said kindly, "I hope the funeral went off all right." "Beg parding, sir?" said old Ma Parker huskily. Poor old bird! She did look dashed. "I hope the funeral was a - a - success," said he. Ma Parker gave no answer. She bent her head and hobbled off to the kitchen, clasping the old fish bag that held her cleaning things and an apron and a pair of felt shoes. The literary gentleman raised his eyebrows and went back to his breakfast. "Overcome, I suppose," he said aloud, helping himself to the marmalade. Ma Parker drew the two jetty spears out of her toque and hung it behind the door. She unhooked her worn jacket and hung that up too. Then she tied her apron and sat down to take off her boots. To take off her boots or to put them on was an agony to her, but it had been an agony for years. In fact, she was so accustomed to the pain that her face was drawn and screwed up ready for the twinge before she'd so much as untied the laces. That over, she sat back with a sigh and softly rubbed her knees ...< 2 > "Gran! Gran!" Her little grandson stood on her lap in his button boots. He'd just come in from playing in the street. "Look what a state you've made your gran's skirt into - you wicked boy!"…
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is a small story written by Katherine Anne Porter, the American writer. It was published in 1930 along with other short stories alike, as part of story collection called “Flowering Judas”. The reaction to this fiction story from a reader’s point of view I’m going to express in this short essay.…