Have you ever wished that someone would go away or were dead? That everything would be fixed if this one person would just go away. You wouldn’t have to deal with anymore of their issues. The neighbors of Mrs. Turner know this wish very well, as they deal with Mrs. Turner everyday. The first page of the story “Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass,” by Carol Shields, represents Mrs. Turner as a social outcast compared to her neighbors as she is alone and spends her days outside cutting grass and killing the plants with chemical killer. She doesn’t care about her looks and what others think of her. The Saschers are waiting for her to pass away or to be moved into an old folks’ home as they are judgemental towards Mrs. Turner and her daily activities. …show more content…
Turner represents death caused by her actions towards the environment. Even though Carol Shields portrays Mrs. Turner as an older lady who represents death and is social outcast compared to her neighbors, Carol portrayed the story to be character vs society. Carol choose her words deliberately to make an impact on the reader to in force emotion and impact towards Mrs. Turner and the Saschers.
Mrs. Turner is a sight; however, Carol Shields portrays her as a sight that others don’t want to look at. She is often seen in clothing that disgusts the neighbors and the teenagers walking home when she is in her yard doing yard work. Clothing that is not suited for an elderly lady to be wearing. Mrs. Turner is described to be wearing “ancient pair of shorts… halter top… wedges… crepe-soled sandals… covers her red-gray frizz with Gord’s old golf cap.” Her articles of clothing are old fashioned and she is unkept in social standards. She doesn’t want to buy new clothing, as she is content with her way of living. Mrs. Turner wears Gord’s ten-year-old golf cap even though he passed away from a Seizure because she wants to remember him for the aspects that he had. She repels the teenagers and
Early on in the story, there is a phrase about an older woman explaining an image. It says, “A woman with shorn white hair wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched.” She dresses comfortable but we know
Once Janie was an older woman in her forties she finally found the love of her life Tea Cakes. Tea Cakes soon became her third husband and has no comparison with the other two marriages. While married to Tea cakes Janie wore whatever she wanted because he was not controlling over her like in either of her other two marriages. Janie usually would wear overalls like Tea Cakes symbolizing how free and not under control she was. ?They don?t need to worry about me and my overhalls long as Ah still got nine hundred dollars in de bank. Tea Cake got me into wearing?
Although there were numerous efforts to attain full equality between blacks and whites during the Civil Rights Movement, many of them were in vain because of racial distinctions, white oppression, and prejudice. Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi recounts her experiences as a child growing up in Centreville, Mississippi. She describes how growing up in Mississippi in a poor black family changed her views of race and equality, and the events that took place that changed her life forever. She begins her story at the tender age of 4, and describes how her home life changed drastically with the divorce of her parents, the loss of her home, and the constant shuffle from shack to shack as her mother tried to keep food on the table with the meager pay she earned from the numerous, mostly domestic, jobs she took. On most days, life was hard for Anne, and as she got older she struggled to understand why they were living in such poverty when the white people her mother worked for had so many nice things, and could eat more than bread and beans for dinner. It was because of this excessive poverty that Anne had to go into the workforce at such an early age, and learn what it meant to have and hold a job in order to provide her family. Anne learned very young that survival was all about working hard, though she didn’t understand the imbalance between the work she was doing and the compensation she received in return.
Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the sun displays the struggles faced by an African American family living in Southside Chicago during the onset of the Civil Rights Movement. In the opening scene, Walter Lee Younger reads from the front page of the newspaper “Set off another bomb yesterday” (6). This news bulletin presents the major issues of the time period surrounding the war on Civil Rights and gives insight into the Younger family’s future intentions to move into a white neighborhood. The conflict-taking place in Southside Chicago over housing causes tension for the surrounding community, especially when they read news articles publicizing the brutal murders of those who try to improve their situations by moving into a white neighborhood. The family’s own efforts have failed to provide the income necessary to move into a bigger home in a better neighborhood. It is not until Walter Younger Sr. passes away and augments the family’s financial situation, through a life insurance policy for $10,000, that the Younger’s are able to pursue better living conditions. Unfortunately, this newfound fortune causes friction between the family members, especially between Walter Lee and Mama Younger. In pursuit of her own happiness, Mama Younger puts a down payment on a house in Clybourne Park, a white neighborhood. It is her right to pursue happiness in the manner she chooses. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the American way. Her happiness is in a home for her and her family. The conflict over whose happiness will be
In this small town, in which the story takes place, women are treated as if they are less than the men. Tessie Hutchinson was even told to “‘Shut up, Tessie”’(Jackson 5) by her own husband while revealing her thoughts that the process was unfair. To readers, it is clear that this ceremony is completely random and that Tessie’s husband, Mr. Hutchinson, had an equal chance of pulling the cursed paper along with everyone else. It could have been any family, but Jackson chooses to emphasize the family that has an outspoken and strong-willed woman. Not only does Tessie advocate that Mr. Summers
Jane in her younger years was practically shunned by everyone and was shown very little love and compassion, from this throughout her life she searches for these qualities through those around her. Due to Jane’s mother’s disinheritance she was disowned by Mrs. Reed and her children, and was treated like a servant consistently reminded that she lacked position and wealth.
In her story “Currents” Hannah Vosckuil uses symbolism, and a reverse narrative structure to show the story of how unnamed sympathetic and antagonistic characters react differently to a traumatic event. Symbolism can be found in this story in the way that Gary does not mind sitting in the dark alone at the end of the day as well as how both of his girls are affected by the symbolism of hands. One holding a boy’s hand for the first time and the other becoming sick after seeing the dead boy’s hand fall off the stretcher. The sympathetic and antagonistic manner of these characters is shown when both girls are told by their grandmother that they must return to the water to swim the next day. The grandmother sees this simply as a way of encouraging them and keeping them from becoming afraid of the water. However, the girls see this as a scary proposition because of what had happened, showing the grandmother as an antagonist character to the little girls.
Daisy’s society places her under strict social regulations based on wealth, which ultimately decide many aspects of her life. The 1920s society that is the setting for The Great Gatsby seems to consist of three social classes: the wealthy, socially connected, and old fashioned in East Egg; the newly rich and flamboyant lacking social connections in West Egg; and the poor living in the “Valley of Ashes.” Daisy Buchannan belongs to the upper East Egg class. Those who are part of this class are held to high social standards. Coming from a wealthy family, Da...
When Miss Brill is sitting in the park observing passers-by, she notes “two young girls in red” who were met by “two young soldiers in blue … and they laughed and paired and went off arm-in-arm” (Mansfield 176). And later Miss Brill sees “a beautiful woman [come] along and [drop] her bunch of violets” (Mansfield 177). Miss Brill admires the beauty of these young people with their bright and vivid colors. To her the vivid colors represent life, passion, beauty, and happiness, all fulfilling elements that she believes she lacks. Later when she is studying herself she realizes that now in her older age “her hair, her face, even her eyes, [were] the same color as the shabby ermine, and her hand, in its cleaned glove, lifted to dab her lips, was a tiny yellowish paw” (Mansfield 177). All the colors that she notices in herself are dim and muted, communicating to the audience that Miss Brill feels her life much reduced from the brilliant excitement and color that it had once been. When observing the young people she sees red, which is commonly symbolizes passion and love; blue, which is frequently associated with innocence, youth, order, and serenity; and purple, which conveys richness, vibrancy, and royalty. In contrast the only colors Miss Brill mentions when critiquing herself are a muted brown and a yellowish color. The brown represents the confusion that is
Mrs. Turpin shows prejudice in several different aspects of her life. Her prejudice is first seen when she is in the doctor’s waiting room. The story states that “her little black eyes took in all the patients as she sized up the seating situation.” (339) While in the waiting room, Mrs. Turpin is surrounded by people of many different cultural and social backgrounds. As she gazes around the room Mrs. Turpin immediately begins putting the people into categories. Some she called “white trash”, others were wealthy and pleasant, and the remainder such as Mary Grace, were ugly. Most of Mrs. Turpin’s free time is also filled with prejudice thoughts. The story states that “Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people.”(341) She spends so much of her life judging other’s lives that she does...
word “art” which may imply something about the materialistic world that she tries to be a part of. Interestingly, and perhaps most symbolic, is the fact that the lily is the “flower of death”, an outcome that her whirlwind, uptight, unrealistic life inevitably led her to.
The saying about the grass always being greener on the other side comes alive with Mr. Wright’s opening story as he describes the difference between the yards on each side of the railroad tracks. You can almost feel the envy not only for the lushness, but the advantages that he sees with the “trees, hedges, and the sloping embankments of their lawns” (Wright, 1937, p. 21). As cruel and unsympathetic as his mother’s response was to his battlefield injury, it helped to instill the ...
...could relate to the daily struggles of completing chores to please their husbands and children and understood how Minnie Wright could develop feelings of desolation due to the lack of variety in daily activities. When the men found the unwashed towels by the sink and the burst jars of fruit in the cupboard, they quickly took a tone of disgust and disappointment that Mrs. Wright fell short of her “womanly duty” of picking up daily messes. Women in the early 20th century often were not rewarded for completing difficult tasks amongst the homestead on a daily basis, but could be punished and mistreated for not completing the tasks in a timely manner. Glaspell’s work “offers a sympathetic portrait of an abused wife, a woman who is mistreated economically, psychologically, emotionally, and perhaps physically… [her actions] supporting battered woman syndrome” (Keetley).
Our lives are consumed by the past. The past of what we once did, what we once accomplished, and what we once could call our own. As we look back on these past memories we seldom realize the impact these events have on our present lives. The loss of a past love mars are future relationships, the loss of our family influences the choices we make today, and the loss of our dignity can confuse the life we live in the present. These losses or deaths require healing from which you need to recover. The effects of not healing can cause devastation as apparent in the play A Streetcar Named Desire. The theme of A Streetcar Named Desire is death. We encounter this idea first with the death of Blanche and Stella's relationship as sisters. Blanche and Stella had a life together once in Bel Reve and when Stella decided to move on in her life and leave, Blanche never could forgive her. This apparent in the scene when Blanche first arrives in New Orleans and meets Stella at the bowling alley. Stella and Blanche sit down for a drink and we immediately see Blanche's animosity towards Stella. Blanche blames Stella for abandoning her at Bel Reve, leaving Blanche to handle the division of the estate after their parents die. As result of Stella's lack of support, we see Blanche become dependent on alcohol and lose her mental state. Blanche comes to be a a terrible reck through out the play as we learn of the details of her life at Bel Reve. Her loss of the entire estate and her struggle to get through an affair with a seventeen year old student. This baggage that Blanche carries on her shoulders nips at Stella through out eventually causing the demise of her relationship. As Blanche's visit goes on with Stella, the nips become too great and with the help of Stanley, Stella has Blanche committed to a mental hospital, thus symbolizing the death of the realtionship they once had. The next death we encounter in the film is the death of Stella and Stanley's marriage. Our first view of Stanley is of an eccentric man, but decent husband who cares deeply for his wife. However, as as Blanche's visit wears on, we come to see the true Stanley, violent and abusive.
d. Brently Mallard: Mrs.Mallard's husband. He was supposed to be dead. · Setting: The story takes place in Louise's house. · Theme: I think we can't live in oppression because that doesn't let us be free. We can find themes like the oppression by men, and women rights.