Real life people rarely fit the good and bad dichotomy that is often presented in literature. However, in EDEN Southworth's The Hidden Hand, the protagonist and antagonist defy such preconceptions. The protagonist, Capitola, is represented as the devouring mother through her manipulative actions, demanding personality, and all-consuming demeanor. Similarly, the antagonist, Black Donald, often shows traits of the great heroes of old, including being willing to sacrifice himself for others, his honor, and his charm, to portray him as a knight in shining armor. By associating Capitola as the Devouring Mother and Black Donald as the Knight in Shining Armor, Southworth's characters defy stereotypes, making the reader question who is the hero and who is the villain.
Southworth first defies literary stereotypes by using the hero, Capitola, to represent society's deep-seated fear of the devouring mother, the "enemy" of ancient and modern times. The devouring mother architype is the deep-seated primal fear that our mothers will "consume" us; physically, emotionally, and psychologically (Neumann, pg. 27). People who are manipulative, demanding, and consuming or overbearing are
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The knight in shining armor trope is usually a character with a sense of honor, a self-sacrificial and protective tendency, and a charming personality. Black Donald perfectly presents all of these qualities throughout the book. There are scenes in the story that clearly show how Black Donald will sacrifice himself for another. He is willing to place himself in danger to rescue other men, by dressing up as Father Grey when he enters a town (Southworth pg. 137). He even vows to free his men from prison by stating “Your chief will free you from prison or share your captivity!” (Southworth pg. 134). By merely making such a claim, Black Donald revels his inner sense of sacrifice and
Cinderella Man is the story of James J. Braddock, a struggling boxer who was faced with many hardships during the great depression, and learned to overcome these obstacles to provide for his family. Cinderella Man illustrates the journey of how James Braddock became a hero for his family. His quest is driven solely by his will to provide for his family. The Hero’s Quest can be categorized into 3 steps: Departure, Initiation, and Return.
When an author romanticizes a piece of literature, he or she has the power to convey any message he or she wishes to send to the reader. Authors can make even the most horrible actions, such as Dustan murdering ten savages in their sleep and justify it; somehow, from both the type of mood/tone set in this piece of literature, along with the powerful word choice he used, Whittier had the ability to actually turn the tables on to the victim (i.e. the ten “savages” who were murdered in their sleep). “A Mother’s Revenge” by John Greenleaf Whittier, is a prime example of how authors can romanticize any situation into how they want to convey their message.
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
The Outsiders by SE Hinton The Outsiders by SE Hinton is a great coming-of-age novel that is about gangs, violent but also at the same time about love and brother ship. In the book, the society suddenly thinks the greasers, Pony, Johnny and Dally, are heroes. That really got me thinking. What is a hero?
The description of the father’s character and plot shows his evilness. Abner is described as having an “inscrutable face and gray eyes” which, Faulkner writes, “glinted coldly” (342). Describing the father’s voice, as “cold and harsh” and the fact Abner often wears a stiff black coat paints a picture of evil in the reader’s mind (340). Making the connection with the color black to represent evil, Faulkner often uses black when describing the father. For example, when Sarty states that he “could see his father against the stars, but without a face or depth, sharp, black, flat, and bloodless as though cut from tin in the iron folds of the frock coat, the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin” (341). Thorough out the story, the father burns down barns of people that he assumes are his enemies. The father resents rich people, and he does not financially support his family adequately, placing the family in the low income class.
The narrator’s father is being freed from slavery after the civil war, leads a quiet life. On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather is bitter and feels as a traitor to the blacks’ common goal. He advises the narrator’s father to undermine the white people and “agree’em to death and destruction (Ellison 21)” The old man deemed meekness to be treachery. The narrator’s father brings into the book element of emotional and moral ambiguity. Despite the old man’s warnings, the narrator believes that genuine obedience can win him respect and praise.
The argument of slavery portrayed as a “slow poison” can be seen throughout the three narratives that are the basis for this paper. The “slow poison” being that slavery is a slow poison that effects not only blacks and whites but everyone around and subjected to slavery. The most obvious people that are effected by slavery are the slaves but there are many examples of whites and their families being effected by slavery also. The Epps family from Twelve Years a Slave is a good example of how slavery can tear apart a family. Mr. and Mrs. Epps were happily married until their marriage became challenged by Mr. Epp’s liking to a slave girl named Patsey. Mrs. Epps became jealous over their relationship and over time their marriage became broken and Mr. Epps became an alcoholic to deal with his marriage and his near constant whipping of his slaves. Mrs. Epp’s jealousy and hatred for Patsey c...
Capitola, Southworth’s main character, is the tomboy of this novel, and from the moment we meet Cap we see that she is not the average, 19th century, prim and proper lady. Instead, she is a girl posing as a boy picking up any jobs from the street that she can to obtain some money to survive (47). She’s portrayed by Southworth as a witty, clever and brave young girl, but readers could often mistake her for a lad because of the way she spoke, acted, and even dressed at some points within the novel. Southworth, by creating a female cha...
Kindred relates Dana’s struggle for freedom and self-determination primarily by way of her body. It constructs the time jumps, which forcibly move Dana as explicitly corporeal events. It presents the apprehensive and over-determined relationship between Dana and Rufus, her white ancestor, in terms of a struggle for control over her body; and it clearly marks the brutal legacy of slavery, imprinted on a character from the presen...
Mary Wilkins wrote her short story, “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” which mainly focused on a woman to stand up against an authoritarian husband. She wrote it during the time when woman had no voice and counted as a second citizen if not a slave. The writer realized that speaking out is the only chain breaker, especially for the character of Sara Penn to free herself and others from the cage in it since she was seen not as better than as the cow Mr. Adoniram had. He built a new bunny for his animals while his wife stayed in an old, wall-paper tear, and a roof issue home. More than that, she waited for about 40 years to have a new house expecting him to build her. However, instead of keeping his word, he built a bunny to his animals while his wife
In conclusion, cruelty fulfills a vital role in Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible where it contributes immensely in reader engagement and theme awareness. From the many cruel actions imbedded in the in story line, the reader benefits tremendously in analyzing the characters in precise detail. Successfully, Kingsolver applies cruelty to her advantage as it enhances the work to strengthen the plot, theme, and reader
The protagonist, Mama, shows two distinct traits throughout the story. She possesses a hard working demeanor and rugged features, leading to her insecurities shown throughout the story. She raised two children without the assistance of a man in her life, forcing her to take on both roles, and further transforming her into a coarse, tough, and burly woman. Mama portrays this through her own account of herself, saying “[i]n real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man”(Walker 1312). It is very difficult for Mama to raise her kids on her own, but she does whatever
The women of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! embrace fundamental characteristics of the nature of the South and its relation to the women who inhabit the area. The women particularly challenge the reader to an examination of the time of the Civil War, the relation of the war to the South, and the relation of the people to their surroundings. There is a call for recognition of the intrinsic complexities of the South that stem from the mythological base of the gentlemen class and the qualities of hierarchy that so ensue. The women are very much caught in the web that is the South, the intricacies of their lives linked to the inherent social structures.
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys were produced at different times in history. Indeed, they were created in different centuries and depicted extensively divergent political, social and cultural settings. Despite their differences, the two novels can be compared in the presentation of female otherness, childhood, and the elements that concern adulthood. Indeed, these aspects have been depicted as threatening the female other in the society. The female other has been perceived as an unfathomable force that is demonic in nature but respects these enigmatic threatening characters.