In The Predicament Ije was faced with different predicament when her father died, she was sexually abused. Onenenyi who was ije's father paid more attention to ije than his other children, which lead to the other children not liking ije. Even the villagers use to praise ije in the presence of his father in order for the man to give them there demand. Ije's father had diabetes and when he was in the hospital, ije was always crying for his bad health. When her father died, people said all sort of things to her because she didn't cry during the funeral. "That child's sorrow is beyond this world. It is in animus. No tears can wash it away. With people like this, I am afraid. She must be watched closely before she does any harm to herself" (50). After the funeral ceremony, her family had nothing left, and some of the children were to be sent to the homes of their aunt of the house to live with Mama Oko. When ije went to madam Oko's house, she was use like a house girl, even though she was still going to school. She was selling banana on the street without putting on a shoe. "It had become ugly, full of a stone that punishes her toes and the soles of her feet" (56). When she's going around hawking her banana, the sun penetrates through the metal tray she's carrying into her brain. "The broiling sun was mercilessly heating her head and sizzling her brain" (57). "The metal tray on which her bananas were displayed was a good medium for the punishing heat and carried the message to her brain, making the skin of her skull the go-between." Ije was in a terrible situation going through all these suffering. When Ije was going around hawking her banana, she met Ajekwu who bought all her bananas on different occasions. Ajekwu became closer to ije and it became a normal route for ije to be in Ajekwu's house. Ajekwu had sexually abused Ije that she became more interested in going to his house everyday. But when a civil war broke out, and Ajekwu left to join the army without informing Ije of his movement. Ije passes by Ajekwu's house for three weeks before she learned that Ajekwu has moved. It was as if her suffering was just starting, her heart was broken.
Day's curious nature made her want to see first-hand the conditions of life for those who were poor. She adventured through the poor district and looked into the houses and looked into the people, both containing very depressing things inside them. Day did this a lot, and as she did it she would imagine the characters in The Jungle, and imagined their existence in this very alive and very real neighborhood. It would become her childhood that she wou...
Often when children are spoiled, they develop a sense of superiority to those around them. However, after leaving the closed environment of a household, the need for authority and supremacy can create unintended consequences imbedded with sorrow. The fallout from this misfortune is seen in “Why I Live at the P.O.” in the family quarrel that ensues due to the return of Stella-Rondo. Throughout the narration, the author asserts that because, the world is apathetic to one’s dilemmas, a shielded and pampered upbringing can only hamper personal development. Through the denial of truth that the family exhibits in attempts to improve relations and through the jealousy that Sister experiences as inferior to Stella-Rondo, the source of hindered maturity is exemplified.
...on social conventions. In addition red signifies energy and passion, the girl be identified as a symbol of these values. “Harder. Go. Do. Cut. Harder.” Juxtaposed against her afraid, depressed mother, her energy is emphasised. In addition, dedication is a recurring value held by the girl throughout the text. “Every night after school, the girl trained in the swimming squad”, “Be an engine.” She is portrayed as greatly desiring and as a result exceedingly determined. Similarly, ambition is a prominent value obtained by the girl. “Be an engine…don’t think, breathe!” and “Pushing out, she knew that as soon as she was old enough she would leave her mother.” She is portrayed as immensely focused. Therefore, many values and attitudes are explored in this text, such as determination, anger, aspiration, desperation and evil, all of which are represented by the colour red.
Suffering from the death of a close friend, the boy tries to ignore his feelings and jokes on his sister. His friend was a mental patient who threw himself off a building. Being really young and unable to cope with this tragedy, the boy jokes to his sister about the bridge collapsing. "The mention of the suicide and of the bridge collapsing set a depressing tone for the rest of the story" (Baker 170). Arguments about Raisinettes force the father to settle it by saying, "you will both spoil your lunch." As their day continues, their arguments become more serious and present concern for the father who is trying to understand his children better. In complete agreement with Justin Oeltzes’ paper, "A Sad Story," I also feel that this dark foreshadowing of time to come is an indication of the author’s direct intention to write a sad story.
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...
I am a small child… I am wearing…” Kogawa begins to speak of what she went through during relocation as a young child with her Obasan (aunt). The author no longer uses figurative language to describe the occurrence, but instead selection of detail. When informing the reader of a very young mother on the train she used details to emphasize her points. The “... tiny red-faced…” description of the baby highlighted the fact that it was born prematurely only days prior. Also, the “... birdlike face” of the mother created a relation in the reader’s thoughts between the mother and birds who are iconic for caring for their young. The most important detail included in this section is the gesture on Obasan’s part for this young mother. The young lady had nothing for her baby, “not even diapers.” So in an effort to help this woman in some way, Obasan wrapped up some food in a cloth and gave it to her. This is very important to the story because it shows that even in their darkest times her people are still giving and will sacrifice what little they have for someone who has even less. By including details and speaking in first person singular point of view the author made what was happening feel much more personal and real because instead of a generalized group that is being terrorized, it’s individuals and shows the author’s pride in her
...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
Rosemarie Zagarri argues in, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, that Mercy Otis is an extraordinary woman who deserves recognition just like Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, and any male figure receives. Through the most important parts of Revolutionary America, Zagarri can convey just how important Mercy really is. Expanding from her knowledge of politics to her ability to write, Mercy creates magnificent poems and plays. She is able to stretch away from the idea of women not belonging in politics and not having the same intelligence of men.
One member of this society is not as eager to keep the status quo. Cuiqiao is seen in the beginning apprehensively observing an arranged marriage. Her older sister had been beaten by her betrothed and the audience is never informed on how her mother died. Cuiqiao expresses her sorrow in song, most pitifully in th...
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
The years have passed but the event remained in my heart as though it just happened recently. Unfortunately, couple years ago, I had to run away from my abusive husband. I moved to a women shelter with a lawyer’s help. The women shelter was the only place I thought would give me a hope, support and after all, protections for battered women like me. However, my impression on the shelter changed after I was admitted to it. There were number of reasons for that. I had to share a room with a stranger not knowing the background of that person even though the shelter organization assured me that everyone has undergone a screening process. I was also cautioned to be careful and to stay away from all women in shelter because some of them were drug or alcohol abused victims since they can be still under the influence of those addictions. The shelter itself looked as though as a communal building with lots of rooms for women. There were laundry rooms, a kitchen, a small library, a computer room and common living room for everyone. The new setting of living made me very uncomfortable to adapt a new lifestyle.
The emotive language used throughout her memories, show direct contrast to her present situation, as well as her reasons for leaving home. The use of personification, in text such as ‘ the sea roared like an angry beast’, provide emphasis of emotive language, used in describing the estrangement felt. The language is so eloquent, conjuring such engagingly vivid images, of Ziba’s emotions, particularly as she feels the ups and downs of the unforgiving ocean. Through figurative and evaluative language, Ziba is able to depict her past and present feelings and memories. The strong connection between sensory experiences and memory is sophisticated and crisp, making the text straightforward and resonant. The author uses simile’s such as, ‘thoughts of home washed over Ziba like the surge of sea washing over the deck’, linking past and present, creating feelings of loneliness, whilst reflecting on her once peaceful home. The effective use of noun groups - laughter of children, cool mountain air, rich spices of the evening meal - alongside side a number of sensory verbs - thought, felt and smelled - assist and connect the reader to Ziba’s thoughts. Furthermore, the use of repetition in the first and last page of the text, places emphasis on the unstable state of their emotions, the uncertainty of what’s to
...is on a downhill trend from the beginning, even his very tone expresses his desires and sadness. He is a little boy with a big crush in an even bigger world, where thing don’t always go as expected. The boy acknowledges this in his innocent heart and soul, at the carnival, when he is deprived of accomplishing his biggest and most important journey; bringing his love something very special from Araby. This task was extremely vital to him, and it was left uncompleted. The reason that the boy could not get to Araby on time was because his uncle arrived home late, because he had forgotten about him. That was a very cruel thing to do knowing how important this was for his nephew, he reminded his uncle many times. The uncles response was “ The people are in bed and after their fist sleep now( )”. The motif of decay is seen in some symbolism too. The apple tree in the wild garden is symbolic to the tree of knowledge. However, the tree in the story is wild, meaning that knowledge is limited in the neighborhood. For example, when the previous owner, the priest, of the boy’s house had died, he had given all his money to charity and left his sister with nothing but old and used furniture.
Toer’s portrayal of Annelies Mellema as innocent and childish is symbolic of a naïve pre-colonial Java before the corruption of Dutch influence. Her birth being the result of a unique relationship between a Dutch colonizer and Javan concubine known as Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies exhibits physical features of both cultures. Annelies is characterized as being a girl that is “white-skinned and refined with a European face and the hair and eyes of a Native” representing the crossing of two cultures within Java (Toer 25). Despite her capability of helping her mother Nyai Ontosoroh run their family business, Annelies remains submissive and allows various authority figures in her life like her mother, doctor, and husband Minke to make life decisions on her behalf. This, coupled with her physical fragility that is especially apparent in the form of illness whenever Minke is absent from her life for extended periods of time is Toer’s method of illustrating the weakness of pre-colonial Indonesia that is eventually conquered and forever changed by the Dutch. Despite h...
Throughout the history of mankind, the rank of women has been extremely pivotal in the development of the humans. At present, the progress of the nation is determined by the high positions of the women in the society in terms of the employment and the work. It is said that without the contribution of the women in the political, business, social, economic and national activities, the growth of the country will stagnate. In the past, the women were more accustomed to working in homes and taking care of children, etc. but now they are stepping into the outside world due to advances in education for women and increasing awareness.