The Role of Social Class in The Necklace and Recitatif
Often in a piece of literature, a story will appear to be about one issue when, in actuality, the author intended it to be about another. In the short stories "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison, the issues of class separation and struggle, though they may appear at first glance to be unimportant, are in fact the central points around which these two stories revolve.
In "The Necklace" and "Recitatif," class differences affect the ways in which the characters interact with one another. Nowhere in the story "Recitatif" is this more apparent than in the meeting between Roberta and Twyla's mothers at the orphanage. Twyla describes Roberta's mother as tall, prim, and proper. She adds, "on her chest was the biggest cross I'd ever seen..." (page 213). In direct contrast to this is the image of Twyla's mother, a woman who wears revealing pants and a ragged old jacket and curses in church. Roberta's mother clearly looks down upon Twyla's because she is of a lower class, as illustrated by her refusal to shake her hand. In "The Necklace," class differences between Mathilde and Mme. Forestier put an obvious restriction upon their relationship. By the end of the story, Mathilde becomes a member of the lower class - "the woman of impoverished households - strong and hard and rough..." (page 71). When the two ladies meet again in the last lines of the story, Mme. Forestier is "astonished to be addressed by this plain goodwife" (page 72). In a parallel event from "Recitatif," Roberta looks down upon Twyla when they meet in a Howard Johnson's. She sees Twyla in her "blue-and-white triangle" uniform, "[her] hair shapeless in a net," and "[her] ankle...
... middle of paper ...
... between the characters play the central role in the action of the story. These differences affect the ways in which these characters interact, they create the conflict in the story, and they affect the way the reader feels about and reacts to each of the characters. In making the issue of social class the focus of these two works, the authors successfully communicate to the readers their belief that, no matter how hard we might try to avoid it, class is indeed a major factor in today's society.
Works Cited
de Maupassant, Guy. "The Necklace." Understanding Fiction . third ed. Eds. Cleanth Brooks and
Robeert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979. 66-72.
Morrison, Toni. "Recitatif." New Worlds of Literature: Writings from America's Many Cultures.
second ed. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 1994. 209-225.
In this analysis includes a summary of the characters and the issues they are dealing with, as well as concepts that are seen that we have discussed in class. Such as stereotyping and the lack of discrimination and prejudice, then finally I suggest a few actions that can be taken to help solve the issues at hand, allowing the involved parties to explain their positions and give them a few immersion opportunities to experience their individual cultures.
With all the different types of literature we have in our world we also have a similar amount of interpretations of those pieces of literature. Each interpretation is as valid as another. Literature not only allows the writer to create a wonderful world and a story, it allows the reader to fully embrace the story and find meaning out of it. There are also many different types of literary criticisms. These criticisms are vehicles or guidelines for us to use to understand the reading in a very specific matter and really pinpoint the issues and overall theme of the story. This brings us to the Toni Morrison short story “Recitatif”. This short story encourages an African American or ethic criticism style of understanding it. The driving
Edgar Degas was born July 19th, 1834 in Paris, France. Born into wealth, Degas became well educated throughout his youth. He studied Law at the University of Paris, due to his father’s desire for him to achieve financial security on his own. However, his love for art was ever-present, even at a young age. He turned his bedroom into his own personal studio by age 18. During his time at the University of Paris, Degas met well-renowned artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who encouraged him to pursue his talent. Shortly after, Degas was accepted to the premiere Ecole des Beaux-arts ('School of Fine Arts'). Post attendance, Degas traveled to Italy for three years to continue his artistic studies. Degas life was nowhere near perfect, when he was 13 years old, his mother passed away. This caused him tremendous heartache, due to the fact that his mother was a lover of the arts; she was an opera singer and often gave recitals in their home (“Edgar Degas”). She inspired and encouraged his artistic ways.
Born in 1881, the son of Jose Ruiz Blaso and Maria Picasso Lopez. Young Picasso at the start of age 7 had lessons involving art from his father. His father taught figure drawing and oil painting to him at that point. Pablo started his first oil paintings as portraits of his family eventually doing caricatures of villagers. By 13 he was working on his own oil paintings. In 1895 he lost his younger sister to diphtheria. (Pablo Picasso's Early Life - Before 1901).
Pablo Picasso was fostered for creation, his love for the work he did and for the people he shared it with led him to be the most dominant artist of the 20th century. The foundation for Picasso’s successful life was set early on. He was brought into this world by mother, Maria Picasso Lopez (Bernadac and Bouchet 18), and father, Don Jose Ruiz Blasco (Cabanne 1), on October 25th in 1881, at 11:15 p.m. (Bernadac and Bouchet 17). It was a difficult birth and Pablo was a weak baby, so weak the midwife believed he was a stillborn (Pablo Picasso Biography 8). It was his uncle who realized he was alive, he blew cigar smoke in Pablo’s face to see if the baby would react; when he scowled they all knew Pablo was alive (Pablo Picasso Biography 8). Pablo
Salvador Dali began his painting career at the age of eight. His parents allowed him to continue his artistic interests because of the influence of the Pichot family, a family full of artists who lived at the Mill-Tower, their family home. Ramon Pichot provided Dali with his first contact to Impressionism. During this early period Dali primarily created still lifes, figure drawings, and landscapes of Cadaques. Dali was also influenced by Juan Nunez, a teacher at a night school for drawing which he was allowed to attend. Nunez introduced Dali to watercolors and etchings. Dali was influenced by Impressionism until 1919. From 1920 to 1921 Impressionism gave way to Pointillism and the use of color. During this time ...
Born in 1886 Diego Rivera was born to a wealthy family living in Guanajuato, Mexico. At the age of two his twin brother died and a year later Diego Rivera started drawing, his parents caught him drawing on walls and instead of punishing him nurtured his artistic side by enabling him with the supplies he needed. Throughout his life Diego Rivera was dedicated to art, “He began to study painting at an early age and in 1907 moved to Europe. Spending most of the next fourteen years in Paris, Rivera encountered the works of such great masters as Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and Matisse.” Influenced by the work of such great minds Rivera began the search for his own signature and contribution to modern art, “Rivera was searching for a new form of painting, one that could express the complexities of his day and still reach a wide audience.” Rivera found the medium he was looking for, a form of street art involving murals painted on fresh plaster, he returned to Mexico to introduce this new form of art to the public. Rivera soon sewed himself into the art community in America, “His outgoing personality puts him at ...
The reader must also recognize what social class the author is in and how that could possible affect the authors portrayal of characters.
Picasso was born into a very artistic family on October 25th 1881. At the age of 14 he started producing and selling oil paintings. He was a very determined young man and dropped out of a renowned art school
He changed art more profoundly than any other artist of this century. First famous for his pioneering role in Cubism, Picasso continued to develop his art with a pace and vitality comparable to the accelerated technological and cultural changes of the twentieth century. Each change embodied a radical new idea, and it might be said that Picasso lived several artistic lifetimes. Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain, son of an artist, Jose Ruiz, and Maria Picasso. Rather than adopt the common name Ruiz, the young Picasso took the rarer name of his mother. An artistic prodigy, Picasso, at the age of 14, completed the one-month qualifying examination of the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona in one day. From there he went to the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, returning in 1900 to Barcelona, where he frequented the city's famous cabaret of intellectuals and artists, Els Quatre Gats.
Atonement is set in England during the 1930’s in which during that time society was highly influenced by very segregated social class, in the novel both characters Cecilia and Robbie are the most affected characters by this segregated social class. Social class is one of the big themes in the novel “Atonement” it helps establish the background and foundation of the whole plot. It adds to the conflict the characters deal with throughout the novel. Social class is an example of social structure; class deals with the shaping of a cultural group who share many similar qualities as in race or economic standing. Social class also shapes the way people interact with each other, in other words how they interact with different social groups that already been established. This is demonstrated by even though Cecilia and Robbie both went to Cambridge together they never became friends because of the obvious social separations.
de Maupassant, Guy. "The Necklace." Understanding Fiction. 3rd ed. Eds. Clanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hill, 1979. 66-72
Social class, as defined by the film, is something that affects who you are as a person. In the film, the people saw class as the defining factor of a person. They saw class as a barrier between people. If one person is in a different class than another person, then obviously, they are not supposed to associate. They allowed their social class to dictate their action each day. It was amazing to me just how much the people in the film allowed their class to truly define them and really serve as a boundary in their life. The people in the film lived their daily life with their social class as the most influential factor. Their worth and value as individuals was not determined by anything else except the amount of money they had. It was really interesting to see how the amount of money a person had somehow equated with their worth in society. The same is true within our society today, but in the film, this aspect was especially evident. The film really shed a light on just how impactful social class is and just how much we allow it to
Several different elements are necessary to create a story. Of all the elements, the conflict is most essential. The conflict connects all pieces of the plot, defines the characters, and drives the story forward. Once a story reaches its climax, the reader should have an emotional connection to the both story and its characters. Not only should emotions be evoked, but a reader should genuinely care about what happens next and the about the end result for the characters. Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is the perfect example of how a story’s conflict evolved the disposition of its characters.
...y a set of expectations and values that are established on mannerisms and conduct challenged by Elizabeth. From this novel, it is evident that the author wrote it with awareness of the class issues that affect different societies. Her annotations on the fixed social structure are important in giving a solution to the current social issues; that even the class distinctions and restrictions can be negotiated when an individual turns down bogus first impression s.