Life Goes On The Optimist’s Daughter tells the story of Laurel Mckelva who has previously lost both her husband and mother. She returns to her hometown in Mississippi to be at side of her father as he gets surgery. Complications rise up and end at the death of her father. She stays in her childhood home with her father’s new wife; Fay. When Fay leaves to visit her family in Texas Laurel stays alone at the house and confronts memories of her family who are no longer with her. In this novel the setting in the story is a major factor to Laurel’s ability to move on from the past. Laurel loved her parents as much as any child could love their mother and father but her being an only child made it harder for her to go through two sudden deaths in a short amount of time. Her grieving over her husband as well only made it much harder for her to be happy and move on. When she was left with no family and was stuck with Fay she blamed herself for all the deaths and carried a huge burden for leaving her father alone when he …show more content…
In reality Laurel had many people who were there for her in Mississippi but she was stuck on the idea of her never being able to see any of her few family members again. Laurel was afraid to confront memories of her loved ones but on her last day she was trapped inside her home because of a storm. She visited every room in the house and started remembering all of the great things that happened to her as a child in each room. She touched and reminisced almost every room and object in the house starting with her mother’s sewing room. She finds the twenty-six pigeon holes on her mother’s desk which brings her on to many memories of her mother. As she is confronting all these memories little did she know that it starts a process of discovery towards her mother and
The Arizona atmosphere was visibly different in both literal and nonliteral ways from Kentucky. Taylor’s lifestyle would have been drastically contrasting with how she thrived in her new home of Tucson. Apart from having a night and day experience at maternity, and getting a fresh start at life on her own, Taylor also met a new group of people who changed her in many ways. Lou Ann, who molded her into a better mother, Mattie, who helped her to overcome fears, Esperanza, though she spoke very little, managed to open Taylor’s eyes the horrors of a life she would never have to experience, and finally Turtle, who made Taylor realize what she loved most in life. Pittman, Kentucky did not have any of these individuals to teach the protagonist of this story.
In Chapter one, the narrator vividly relates his mother’s death to the audience, explaining the reasoning behind this amount of detail with the statement, “Your memory is a monster; you forget- it doesn’t.” The author meticulously records every sensory stimulus he received in the moments leading up to and following his mother’s death; demonstrating how this event dramatically altered the course of his young life. Another example of the detailed memory the narrator recounts in this portion of the novel is seen in the passage, “Later, I would remember everything. In revisiting the scene of my
she gets flashbacks of the past incidents that occurred all because of her uncle. This story overall,
“Well, Alice, my father said, if it had to happen to one of you, I’m glad it was you and not your sister” (57). Even though Alice was the victim of the horrid crime, she had to stabilize her own emotions, so that she could help her sister cope with this tragedy. Throughout Alice’s childhood, Jane struggled with alcoholism and panic attacks. “I wished my mother were normal, like other moms, smiling and caring, seemingly, only for her family” (37).
In the poem Happiness by Jane Kenyon, the main idea is that happiness comes in many forms to our lives and it is very difficult to see it, rather we need to experience it. The poet also conveys to treasure the happiness in our lives, even if it occurs in its miniature forms. Happiness is an emotion that is unique to an individual, rather than an event. Additionally, the poet tries to point out that happiness comes to everyone and everything – even though we are not aware of it. The poet effectively utilizes the parable of return of the prodigal son to explain what happiness is, then suddenly takes a turn to claim “happiness is the uncle that you never knew about.” Now the scene is set with the uncle arriving in his plane and to find you “asleep
Afterward, she sums it up: "The complete list of losses. There they are. And it helps, I've found, if I can count them off, so to speak”. That same night, when Dede falls asleep, things are different; she does not hear the spirits of her sisters running through the house. Her telling the of the story of a great loss over to herself, honors the memory of sacrifice and she can find the sense of closure with the heroic tragedy of her dear brave sisters.
In “The Youngest Daughter” by Cathy Song, Song reveals the codependent relationship between an aging mother and her daughter by characterizing the daughter as a begrudging but dutiful caretaker who longs for freedom, and the mother as a dependent woman in need of care, who feels entitled to it because of cultural standards.
She pays attention to the mother and daughter 's shoes, dresses and jewelry, and image their conversation, I because she wants to feel that she is also involved in such relationship between mothers and daughters. Then here comes a question, I keep asking myself this question. She lost her mother when she was nineteen, did she ever have those moments in her life before her mother died?, then I re-read this essay again, the last two paragraphs makes feel that she might not have those moments with her mom before, or she even had a bad relationship with her mother before, because she said " I suspect that we would have been friends... The woman inside the mother.” That might mean before her mother died, she was too young, she might not have a good relationship with her mother, but after her mother died, she starts to regret and miss the time when her mother still around. Anna leaves us a sad ending, “And I think that my fantasies… Then again, maybe not.” It contains sadness, lost and
...nd just as fast the memories came they went. Cringing her teeth, she begins to count. “One, two, three, four, five…” As she is about to reach six she begins to feel a warm rush invade my inner skin, instantly she feels relief. It no longer mattered to her that that woman came, or that the trash was overflowing with weeks of junk mail or that she had a thirty page thesis due tomorrow. All that mattered was getting on the phone and phoning her mother, Nancy. “Mom?” says Janine.
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
In conclusion, Daisy says that “. . . After all this time, I know exactly where I belong, here. With Edmond.” (194) Daisy’s long adventure for change and adjustment is successful. Change is not always easy, but it can be beneficial. In Daisy’s case, she experiences a lot. As clear as it is, Daisy grows as a person and overcomes her anorexia, fear of being loved, social anxiety, worry of loving someone and the struggles of war. All of these things that happens to her makes her a stronger person and changes her.
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
...a was raised, she was learning life lessons. She learned of violence from inside The Little Store. She never considered Mr. Sessions and the woman in the store to have any kind of relationship because Eudora never saw them sit down together at the table. Then tragedy struck, and this was how she learned of violence. She never knew exactly what had happened, but knew it was not good. The family just disappeared. Every time she came home from the store, she was carrying with her a little of what she had learned along the way. She learned a lot about, ?pride and disgrace, and rumors and early news of people coming to hurt one another, while others practiced for joy?storing up a portion for [her]self of the human mystery? (82).
In the first stage, the narrator is in touch with reality; she lives and exists in a state of mind known in Freudian psychology as the Ego. The Ego is defined as "the element of being that consciously and continuously enables an individual to think, feel and act." (Barnhardt, 667). The ego is based on a reality principle, in which, a person reacts in "realistic ways that will bring long term pleasure rather than pain or destruction" (Meyers, 414). The narrator's inability to cope with disagreeable thoughts such as her father's possible death is evidenced early in the novel. The narrator states: "nothing is the same, I don't know the way anymore. I slide my tongue around the ice cream, trying to concentrate on it, they put seaweed in it now, but I'm starting to shake, why is the road different, he shouldn't have allowed them to do it, I want to turn around and go back to the city and never find out what happened to him. I'll start crying, that would be horrible, none of them would know what to do and neither would I. I bite down into the cone and I can't feel anything for a minute but the knife-hard pain up the side of my face...