In everyday life, people face difficult situations. These situations span a wide spectrum of severity, but they are common occurrences for all. Some people are more adept at handling these problems and finding solutions. Others are unable to remove themselves from these situations; rather, they allow the issues to control their lives, whether they realize this or not. In her novel, Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood uses characterization to show the validity of this statement. Primarily, the protagonist and narrator, Elaine Risley, is shown having these difficult experiences and being unable to overcome them. Atwood aims to show that people make themselves powerless to resolve the difficult situations in their lives.
Elaine’s childhood and adolescence is characterized by the power she perceives in others and in herself. Carol Campbell, Grace Smeath, and Cordelia are a trio of girls who bullied Elaine in grade school. They antagonized her in numerous ways, all of which attempted to prove their status over her. For instance, when the four of them walk home from school, Elaine is purposefully excluded on numerous occasions, with the hypercritical girls walking ahead or behind her, so they may critique and judge her. The most shocking aspect of this bullying is that Elaine never tells anyone what these girls are doing to her (131). The same secrecy happens when the girls place Elaine in a deep hole, cover the opening, and leave her in there for a while before releasing her (115-6). By keeping these events a secret, she rendered herself incapable of overcoming these bullies and their antics. She made herself powerless and relinquished the perceived power she might have had to the girls who bullied her. Later on in the novel, ther...
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... and poor choices of Elaine Risley, but she also offers advice subliminally through these events. Her first proposal is that perceived power is not true power unless allowed to become real by submission to it. She also cautions individuals to make rational decisions and to consider the consequences of their actions, both for others and themselves, before making these decisions. Finally, Atwood describes the necessity to seek and accept help when overwhelmed by the circumstances of this world. These situations cannot be avoided; they are a natural part of life. However, when people make themselves powerless to overcome them, the experiences will begin to dictate their lives. When one chooses to empower themself, it makes overcoming these obstacles much more feasible. Inner power is an extremely effective tool for combatting life’s troubles when used correctly.
What is power to a human? As time has gone by, there have been many forms of control and influence in the world. Many strive to achieve total rule over a society or group of individuals. Yet the question still presents itself to the average man. Why does man desire power so greatly even though there is visible trouble that follows? Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, whether through the situation or the character themselves, depict the evils and hardships due to an imbalance and poor management of power.
Michael Ondaatje is very much like the narrator of his novel. Both share similar aspects of their lives beginning with the fact they share the same name: Michael. It is perhaps because Ondaatje himself experienced the same voyage as eleven year old Michael that the novel seems so very realistic. Both are born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and each, at age eleven take the voyage of a lifetime by boat from Sri Lanka to England. It seems appropriate that as the narrator of the book recalls his past as a journalist deep in adulthood, the same may be said of the novels true real author. Only Ondaatje himself knows how connected the two journeys are and this blend of truth and fiction are married perfectly to create a dreamlike quality to young Michael’s story.
Everyone has to deal with struggles during their everyday life. Some people’s problems are more serious than others, and the way that people deal with their problems varies. Everybody has a coping mechanism, something they can use to make the struggle that they’re going through easier, but they’re usually different. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people pretend there is no problem. There are healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and people will vary the one they use depending on the problem they’re facing. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author and her family deal with their struggles in multiple different ways as time goes on. However, the severity of her situation means that the methods she uses to deal with it are very important. That’s why it’s bad that Jeanette’s and her family have such unhealthy coping mechanisms, such
It is often said that a dog is a man’s best friend. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Crossing, a deep affection and fondness are established between man and animal. In a particular excerpt from the novel, Cormac illustrates the protagonist’s sorrow that was prompted from the wolf’s tragic death. As blood stiffens his trousers, the main character seeks to overcome the cold weather and fatigue with hopes of finding the perfect burial site for the wolf. McCarthy uses detailed descriptions and terminology in his novel, The Crossing, to convey the impact of the wolf’s death on the protagonist, a sad experience incorporated with religious allusions and made unique by the main character’s point of view.
In the stories “To Set Our House in Order” and “The Lamp at Noon” the authors are both able to effectively communicate that alienation is self-inflicted, while using multiple different techniques. As a result it becomes apparent that each author can take a similar approach to the alienation of a character in the story yet develop the theme in a unique way.
The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas is a short story written by Ursula Le Guin. In her story, Le Guin creates a model Utilitarian society in which the majority of its citizens are devoid of suffering; allowing them to become an expressive, artistic population. Le Guin’s unrelenting pursuit of making the reader imagine a rich, happy and festival abundant society mushrooms and ultimately climaxes with the introduction of the outlet for all of Omelas’ avoided misfortune. Le Guin then introduces a coming of age ritual in which innocent adolescents of the city are made aware of the byproduct of their happiness. She advances with a scenario where most of these adolescents are extremely burdened at first but later devise a rationalization for the “wretched one’s” situation. Le Guin has imagined a possible contemporary Utilitarian society with the goal to maximize the welfare of the greatest number of people. On the contrary, Kant would argue that using the child as a mere means is wrong and argue that the living conditions of the child are not universalizable. The citizens of Omelas must face this moral dilemma for all of their lives or instead choose to silently escape the city altogether.
Trace the development of the bullying. How convincing are the situation and Elaine's feelings portrayed? -How it changes and increases We are first introduced to Cordelia and prepared for the future conflict between the two girls when it is mentioned, "The third girl doesn't wave". This lack of warmth towards Elaine is a premonition of what is to come, and is at the same time believable- new girls are often wary of each other, uncertain of what the other will be like.
Literature is the superlative resource when one is attempting to comprehend or fathom how society has transformed over the centuries. Many written works—whether fictional or nonfictional—express the views of gender roles and societies’ expectations. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is an exemplary novel that explores these issues. Ester Greenwood was portrayed the superficial and oppressive values of the mid-twentieth century American society through her experiences of gender inequalities and social conformities. Plath’s own life was correspondingly mirrored in this novel; which in turn left the reader aware of the issues in her time period. At the conclusion of The Bell Jar, the audience realizes that she was pushed to completely conform to society.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
Elaine reacts to this by (stage directions) hitting the coal-shed door, which demonstrates that she has never forgiven her father for what he did and still feels strongly about the issue. She is also in conflict with her father because he hit her mother and brother and buried their mother without even informing them of her death. Elaine: “ you didn’t even give her a proper funeral” Elaine: “ you never told anybody she was dead” This emphasises how she felt about her mother and how much hate she has for her father because of how he mistreated her mother.
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
When somebody abuses a great amount of power, that individual can lose all of their power. The struggle against someone who abuses power is perfectly depicted in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. When someone abuses their power, they can impose certain feelings and actions on others. If someone tries to conceal their personality. Finally, if someone abuses power and is constantly challenged by another individual who is trying to take the power abuser’s power away from them, the power abuser will always be frightened of his or her challenger.
It is clear how living in such an environment can affect how you are forced to behave and act. The adversity and overall helplessness Ree faces can all be pointed back to the environment and social standing she resides in drawing many similarities to the problems faced by the many that are socially vulnerable
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.
The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m... ... middle of paper ... ... bservations of her situation and form an analysis of her own feelings.