The “Collector of Treasure” is an irony short story was written by Bessie Head. It is a dramatic story because it presents how men treat women and children in her culture. They are supposed to care for and love instead of being brutally torture. Bessie Head develops the theme through the comparison of the marriage between two families Dikeledi and her husband Garesego, and Kanapele and Paul Thebolo.
The story begins with Head’s observation. There are two types of men: those who abuse their women like animals and those who really care about women. Garesego is the first type of man. He made Dikeledi pregnant three times within four years then left her. He lives in the same village but pretends like a stranger and has no responsibility to provides support for his wife or his kids. Although for many years living in the same area, she never approaches him for assistance for neither herself nor her children. She can prove that she is able to feed and clothe her children and pay for their school educations out of the small income she earns from her job sewing and knitting for other people in the village.
Her neighbor Kenalepe’s husband, Paul in the other hand, is completely different from Garesego. They have a long happily marriage and wonderful life which Kenalepe told to her friends in great details. Paul is the second type of man. Finding out that men like Paul still exist brings Dikeledi an eye opening experience. It shows that there are still men who do not act like animals and who respects and treats their women right. It also suggests that she should try to approach her husband Garesego again; not for begging him for help but to try to convince him to pay for the children’s school fees so their oldest son can go to secondary ...
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...The Collecter of Treasures,” is extremely irony on the surface. It would seem that what Dikeledi has had in her lifetime has not been treasure but sorrow. Yet Head’s opening transitions, showing how well Dikeledi has adapted to jail life and the closeness of other women who were put in jail for the same crime shows which Dikeledi really doesn’t feel that her life hasn’t been that awful. She learned lots more from her hardships than Kenalepe has learned from her good fortune. Moreover, in her travels through life, she deserved to earn the respect of men like Paul and women like Kanapele. The fact is that her failure marriage made her strong, and she has more life experience than Kenelope who had it much simpler. As Dikeledi observes, throughout her challenging life she looked beneath the surface and collected small treasures, and these gave her the strength to go on.
In a restaurant, picture a young boy enjoying breakfast with his mother. Then suddenly, the child’s gesture expresses how his life was good until “a man started changing it all” (285). This passage reflects how writer, Dagoberto Gilb, in his short story, “Uncle Rock,” sets a tone of displeasure in Erick’s character as he writes a story about the emotions of a child while experiencing his mother’s attempt to find a suitable husband who can provide for her, and who can become a father to him. Erick’s quiet demeanor serves to emphasis how children may express their feelings of disapproval. By communicating through his silence or gestures, Erick shows his disapproval towards the men in a relationship with his mother as he experiences them.
Rain of Gold, is a true story about the history of Mexican people, their culture, traditions and customs that were passed down from the Euro-Indian heritage of Mexico. Rain of Gold was written by Juan Villasenor in search for his ancestral roots. The people of this story are real and not fiction. The places that are discussed are true. And the incidents did actually happen to his family. There are several underlying themes that need addressing. Such as: the importance of family, the importance of religion and spiritualism, woman as center of home and family, respect--protection of woman's virtue; ideal of women as pure, power of the woman--the mother, being a man-man as protector of the family, pride of man to be a provider, importance of traditions, respect for life, work and education/learning, death as part of life, honor, dignity, and finally discrimination and prejudice. I will be using this book as a reference and as a guide throughout this review to discuss the themes that are stated above.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romances are like the ones she has seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed it would be. Cisneros wants to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Cisneros uses Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wants to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, women begin to feel a sense of low self-worth.
Whenever Sira, Aminata’s mother went to help women deliver their babies, Aminata would go along too. She would watch and help her mother, eventually le...
A woman’s self-worth and self-esteem are vital to experiencing happiness in a marriage. In addition, low self-esteem will cause a woman to feel abandoned, because she is not getting enough emotional support from her husband. Cisneros demonstrated this through the character of Cleofilas in the story. For example, Cleofilas often reminds herself why she loves Juan Pedr...
Since Sister was affected the most by certain actions of the family, Welty narrated this short story through Sister’s point of view to show how the function of the family declined through these actions. Sister was greatly affected when her sister broke the bonds of sisterhood by stealing her boyfriend and marrying him. Secondly, Sister was affected by the favoritism shown by her family towards her younger sister. Since her sister was favored more than her, this caused her to be jealous of her sister. For example, Sister shows a lot of jealousy by the tone she uses when describing what Stella-Rondo did with the bracelet that their grandfather gave her. Sister’s description was, “She’d always had anything in the world she wanted and then she’d throw it away. Papa-Daddy gave her this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace when sh...
Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.
Honor is a concept that is held true and dear to the residents of the Columbian town depicted in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Honor can represent the status of one’s family, it can determine whether a person is fit for marriage and, if stolen, can resort to violent consequences. In the Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold honor is a prominent theme that is underscored through a major symbol as well as various characters throughout the novel. Each character displays their respect towards honor in different ways.
it is unmistakable that life situations inspired Juan Rulfo to write this story. He like no other person had a greater understanding of how to portray the theme of family especially missing a father as a role model, death, survival and revenge. Moreover, through the use of local Mexican language it furthermore developed the society in which peasants had to live during the post-revolution. Additionally Juan Rulfo tries to add all five senses in the story forming magical realism and a vivid picture that the readers can understand. Overall, the readers learn a lot about peasant’s approach to life after revolution that the main drive was
Junot Diaz's short story “Fiesta, 1980” gives an insight into the everyday life of a lower class family, a family with a troubled young boy, Yunior and a strong, abusive father, Papi. The conflict, man vs. man is one of the central themes of this story. This theme is portrayed through the conflicts between Papi and his son. Papi asserts his dominance in what can be considered unfashionable ways. Unconsciously, every action Papi makes yields negative reactions for his family. Yunior simply yearns for a tighter bond with his father, but knows-just like many other members of his family-Papi’s outlandish ways hurts him. As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the conflicts between Papi and himself-along with conflicts between Yunior and himself-affect not only them as individuals, but their family as a whole.
In “The Fortune Teller,” the author, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, uses symbolism to prove to one that an affair is not worth a person’s life. He uses the letter to symbolize hate between Villela and Camillo regarding the affair. This very ambiguous letter has terrified Camillo and put an end to his life. The letter enhances the theme of the short story by showing the anger and hate that Villela now had for Camillo. This hate is a focal point in the short story that leads to ending the affair along with Camillo and Rita’s life. Ultimately, the affair caused a large amount of tension between the three. However, the author was successful in grabbing the reader’s attention with the letter as the turning point of the short story.
Also the article talks about divorce in this kind of society and about if a younger brother wants to leave the marriage. The article then goes into talking about how this marriage is materialistic for this society. Then it goes into Dorje’s reasoning for the marriage along with the wife’s view on the marriage too.
Firstly, this part will focus on the characters of Lydia in "Souls Belated" and John's wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" into the context of marriage and their perceptions of material duties. To find out what their roles in the relationship are, it is important to understand the characters of Lydia and John's wife, how they describe their marriages and their behaviour, in order to see how their choices affect in a positive or negative outcomes in their marriages.
Nazneen, who is just sixteen years old is married to Chanu aged forty years. It a case of mismatch marriage. This decision is taken by her father after her elder sister Hasina elopes with nephew of the saw mill owner. As passivity is expected from young girls at the time of marriage, Nazneen accepts this match made by her father. There is no resistance on her part. She reaches England with her husband. Here she has everything. She has well- furnished house, food to eat and above all an educated husband. A husband who is the identity of a women. Monica A...
Janwillem Van De Wetering says, “Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.” Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” tells of Mrs. Mathilde Loisel’s longings for the finer things in life. Her desires are so intense she risks her husband’s affections, the friendship of an old chum, and even her mediocre lifestyle to pursue these cravings. One small decision based on an ill-placed desire causes a slow drawn out death of the spirit, body and relationships.