When people use expressions such as “curiosity killed the cat,” they usually don’t mean it literally. However this is a theme of Grace King’s short story, “The Little Convent Girl”. The Little Convent Girl is curious to find her mother, and see the outside world because she was never able to while living in the convent. However, because she is so used to her own lifestyle, it becomes difficult for her to accept and adapt to the American society. The Little Convent Girl’s curiosity (more than just about her mother) and her inability to adapt to the information that her curiosity reveals ultimately causes her to commit suicide.
Being raised in a convent, the Little Convent Girl knows almost nothing of the outside world. There is a very strong influence of strict Catholicism in her life because of it. She grew up with very strict rules that were almost completely different than the “rules” of American society. For example, “On Friday, she fasted rigidly, and she never began to eat, or finished without a little Latin movement of the lips and a sign of the cross. And always at six o’clock of the evening she remembered that angelus, although there was no church bell to remind her of it” (King, 2-3). Even when she is out in the real world, she still follows the rules and procedures set by the convent because she is completely ignorant to the general American’s lifestyle. These procedures show how strictly she was raised, and how devout she is to God. The general population doesn’t live life the way she does.
Also, she has become a bit of a perfectionist, in the eyes of the convent at least. She was always concerned about her sins, and while she was on the ship, traveling from Cincinnati to New Orleans, it would often make rough stop...
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...Captain could cheer her up, but even he isn’t able to save her. As she is leaving the ship, she ends her own life. She is unable to adapt to the society she was exposed to and unable to live life knowing that she is biracial. This is why she kills herself in the end of the story.
The Little Convent Girl was unable to accept the American society because she kept herself tied down to the rules of the convent. She was curious to know what was outside the walls, she wouldn’t have left it if she wasn’t. She seemed to adapt to the society at first because she would watch all the sailors work on the ship, all day. However, if she saw or heard anything that was remotely sinful, she would go back to living her rigid Catholic lifestyle. That was the problem. She couldn’t accept the fact that people were different from her, which caused her downfall in the end of the story.
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
is very upset and think that they are the cause of her "death". Also, the Friar
... sins, but she can’t take back what she did so she will forever have blood on her hands. This guilt and all of the lies she has told is giving her true trepidation and in the end she decided to end her terror by taking her life.
Another tendency of those practicing religion in the Middle Ages is to take Jesus' words from the Bible to a new literal level affecting medieval lifestyles across the board. Where monks and nuns had typically been the only observers of chastity, fasting, and poverty, laity began to observe these life practices as well. In Margery Kempe's life, this apodictic understanding of Jesus' biblically recorded or spoken words is evident among her commitment to make vows of chastity, her desire to embark on long pilgrimages, and her steps of unquestionable obedience as she advances on her spiritual journey. The absolute submission of Margery and the dedication to perfect contemplation in The Cloud of Unknowing which warns, “…y...
Much of Joan’s time was spent praying to the statues of saints around her village (“Gale- Free Resources par 5). Joan was a white Roman Catholic (“Joan of Arc” par 3). Her whole family was very religious and lived near a church. During the day, Joan usually helped out with her family’s animals and her dad’s heavy work (Bouet De Monvel 13). No one expected something to happen to change this normal lifestyle of Joan’s.
In the early stages of Catherine's life the surfacing modern age was bringing with it social turmoil which spread throughout Europe (Giordani 3). During Catherine's lifetime, according to Mary Ann Sullivan in her essay “St. Catherine of Siena,” the center of Catholic rule fluctuated between Rome and Avignon and contributed to a schism between popes in Italy and France (1). Catherine was born 23rd in a line of 25 children and, according to Sullivan “even at a young age, [she] sensed the troubled society around her and wanted to help” (1). While her parents were not exceptionally religious, St. Catherine's biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua discusses Catherine's early zeal for Catholic practices: “When she was about five she learned the Hail Mary, and repeated it over and over again as often as she could…she was inspired by heaven to address the Blessed Virgin in this way whenever she went up and down stairs, stopping to kneel on each step as she did so” (24). Her devotion to the Virgin Mary would become especially important in a vision she had around this time while walking with her brother to visit one of her sisters.
Near the beginning of the movie her brother dies from falling out of a third story window and she is forced to buy a coffin for him because her parents are unable to communicate this is largely because of the lack of accommodations that were available during the time. As the movie progresses and she faces more of lives hardships she starts to realize that she is the connection between the hearing and non-hearing worlds for her parents. For her graduation her father makes a kind jester of purchasing a hearing aid, which was one of the early models. Unfortunately her misunderstanding led to he feeling embarrassed of her parents although, it is unfair that she hid away her parents from her social life in the first place. One of the main characters that really kept her grounded was Mr. Petrakis. A kind elderly man who runs a pawnshop down the street. He also tends to be her way of venting because she doesn’t know how to tell her parents how upset she is. After her graduation she starts as a secretary where she meets her eventual husband William Anglin who repeatedly asks her out, but is unable to up until he is leaving for basic training for WWII. After they date are dating for a while ...
Throughout Catalina’s memoir, she builds up her masculine façade. She hides the characteristics of femininity and highlights the key concepts of being a man. As a young fifteen year old girl about to take her final vows of becoming a nun she, “got
church and the way she is forced to live so that Graham does not look
Frances Piper’s change in nature can be seen the day of Materia’s, her mother, funeral. She cannot control the laughter that escapes her while the funeral proceeding is happening. However she is amazed when James and Mercedes, her sister, think that she is crying. In that moment of her life, Frances learns something “. . . that will allow her to survive and function for the rest of her life. She finds out that one thing can look like another . . . Some would simply say Frances learned how to lie” (142)...
In analyzing this story, there are several other interesting facts that merit further exploration. For instance, throughout the story all references to the little convent girl use black or dark references. But, when plunging to her death, the author describes the little convent girl as a "flutter of white petticoats, a show of white stockings". What is the significance of the sudden color change? Also, Since the reader must assume that the little convent girl is Catholic, what can be concluded about a proper catholic committing suicide?
For the majority of my childhood, I never questioned the Catholic teachings, practices, or beliefs that I was taught to encompass into my everyday life. Being raised in an extremely catholic family and attending a catholic elementary school led to a unique form of socialization – the process whereby an individual develops an identity and culture through interacting and communicating with others (Sandstrom 2014). As a member of my city’s catholic community, there were numerous expectations to maintain, however, as I entered my early teenage years I began to question the Catholic system and the teachings that were instilled into these social institutions. By questioning the legitimacy of the information that priests, teachers, and my parents
... little girl's banishment from Puritan society she was thrown to another way of life and her wildness and peculiarity is a direct product of her banishment.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...