The Optimist's Daughter
The major characters in The Optimist's Daughter are Judge McKelva, Becky Mckelva, Laurel Mckelva, Wanda Fay, Dr. Courtland, Miss Adele Courtland, Tish Bullock, Major Bullock, Miss Tennyson, and Miss Missouri. Becky Mckelva was Judge Mckelva's wife before she died and had Laurel Mckelva with him. Wanda Fay remarried Judge Mckelva after his wife's death. Dr. Courtland did surgery on Becky Mckelva and the final operation on Judge Mckelva. Miss Adele Courtland is the sister of Dr. Courtland and is a bride's maid to Laurel McKelva. Tish Bullock is also a bride's maid to Laurel and is the daughter of Miss Tennyson and Major Bullock. Miss Tennyson is another bride's maid to Laurel McKelva and is married to Major Bullock. Miss Missouri is the maid to the McKelva's and a long time friend of the family.
3.1 Two main characters in The Optimist's Daughter are Wanda Fay and Laurel McKelva. Wanda Fay is a woman in her 40's and has the maturity of a child. Whenever she becomes mad, Fay starts to scream, point fingers, and search out people who will help her. She can not stand up and fight for herself, instead Fay uses tactics to make her opponent feel sorry or inferior. This makes her extremely hard to get along with since she is always demanding and never giving. Laurel McKelva is the complete opposite of Wanda Fay. She is kind hearted, nice, caring, and intelligent. Laurel has a air of maturity and understanding around her due to her experiences in life.
3.3 In "The Optimist's Daughter" Judge McKelva will soon enter eye surgery to fix a slipped retina. Judge McKelva, his daughter, Laurel, and his new wife, Fay, are all anxious about the surgery and what might happen. Laurels mother died from cancer that started with her eyes and the family fears that the judge might be suffering from the same illness. The surgery symbolizes a fear that is contained by the three main characters and is a form of foreshadowing. As mentioned by Laurel several times, she fears that her father might not make it out of the operation and die, like her mother, blind and confused. I predict that Judge McKelva will not make it through the surgery or he will die shortly afterwards. With such a sudden death, Laurel and Fay will not have time to say good-bye to him and this will lead to complications later in the book.
The first character we encounter is Mrs. Freeman. She is the wife of Mrs. Hopewell's tenant farmer. She is a very outspoken woman, and "she [can] never be brought to admit herself wrong on any point" (O'Connor 180). Mrs. Freeman is a gossip; she is nosy and she "ha[s] a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children" (O'Connor 183).
Do you ever have one of those days when you remember your parents taking away all of your baseball cards or all of your comic books because you got a bad grade in one of your classes? You feel a little depressed and your priced possession has been stolen. This event is the same as August Wilson’s, The Piano Lesson. The story is about a sibling rivalry, Boy Willie Charles against Berniece Charles, regarding an antique, family inherited piano. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano in order to buy the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves. However, Berniece, who has the piano, declines Boy Willie’s request to sell the piano because it is a reminder of the history that is their family heritage. She believes that the piano is more consequential than “hard cash” Boy Willie wants. Based on this idea, one might consider that Berniece is more ethical than Boy Willie.
Mama is a good example of an extremely optimistic character in the play. She always sees the best of every situation. At times the situation may seem completely hopeless to the audience. Yet, she never gives up. Mama has always dreamed of owning a house, she has always wanted to move her family out of the “ghetto”. Finally, she gets the chance to do so; she gets an important amount of money from the insurance company. She decides to use that money to make a down payment on a house. But her dreams are rapidly crushed; her son, Walter, has lost all of the money in an investment. Although she is extremely angry at first she does not give up. She decides that perhaps they can clean up the place they currently live in. They can add new furniture and perhaps even new curtains. The following quote perfectly illustrative Mama’s optimism: “I sees things differently now. Been thinking ‘bout some things we could do to fix this place up some. […] Why this place be looking fine. Cheer us all up so that we forget trouble ever come… […] Sometimes you just got to know when to give up some things… and hold on to what you got …” (p140) Mama is a really strong and important character in the play. Due to her hopefulness she is able to hold her family together till the end.
Minny is also a maid who, because of her sassy mouth, frequently transitions between jobs and bosses. Immediately readers identify that Minny is courageous and that her anger and snarky remarks get her into trouble quite often as she struggles with keeping her thoughts to herself. She questions why she has to act kind and polite to white people she doesn 't respect or care for, "I saw the way my mama acted when Miss Woodra brought her home, all yes Ma 'aming, no Ma 'aming...Why I got to be like that. I know how to stand up to people." (Stockett, 47) Skeeter, a privileged white girl who just recently graduated from college plans to be a writer. She affiliates herself with other southern house wives who have their own social club referring it to, The League. Skeeter is differnt from your typical person in Mississippi who treats blacks as equal and views the as any normal person. These thoughts were developed as a young child after creating a deep and personal relationship with her maid, Constantine "All my life I 'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine 's thumb pressed in my
Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan returned back home to Jackson, Mississippi from graduating from Old Miss. When Skeeter returned home after graduation she finds her maid and Nanny Constantine had left and no one would tell her why. Skeeter tries to please her mother by being a proper southern lady but in all actuality she just wants to be a writer. While joining in the local bridge games with young married women Skeeter cornered the Leefolt’s maid, Aibileen, to ask her what happened to her maid Constantine but Aibileen claims she knows nothing. Skeeter searched and searched for a writing job before and after she moved back home. During her search she finds the path for white women seems just as narrowly defined as the path for black maids. Skeeter finally receives a job with the Jackson Journal writing the Miss Myrna column, a housekeeping advice column. Skeeter asked Aibileen to help with some of the question and Aibileen agreed because Skeeter knew nothing about housekeeping. Aibileen and Skeeter built a bond with each other put of course they had to keep it secret because back then
...ernment for it is but as you continue to read closely, he reveals his opinions on the government and the lives of all men in the nation.
Emma will become aware of her cognitive schemas about herself as a newly widowed women and how theye are leading to her stress.
“This is what is expected from a society that teaches black people and white people to hate each other, but where they also live side by side” (Shmoop). Love is shown through the close bond between the black maids and the white mother’s daughters. Aibileen and Mae Mobley. Mae Mobley loves Aibileen because Aibileen is the one who taught her to love. In this novel, it shows that nurturing love is not limited to blood relationships. Even when times get tough with the racism Aibileen still loves Mae Mobley just as much. Skeeter and Constantine also had a loving relationship with each other. Constantine taught Skeeter to love herself and not to buy into racial prejudices. Constantine mysteriously disappeared when Skeeter was in college, and no one would tell Skeeter what happened to her. Aibileen later told Skeeter what had happened, “We was all surprised Constantine would go and… get herself in a family way. Some folks at church wasn’t so kind about it, especially when the baby came out white. Even though the father was black as me” (Stockett 358). When Skeeter is interviewing the maids, she does not use the interviews to find about Constantine, but she is always on her mind. Friendships were made, but also there were significant losses. A lot of characters lose vital friendships and relationships. Skeeter loses Constantine, her childhood maid. She also loses her childhood friend, Hilly, after she published
Another reason wolves are bad for our society in the southwest, is a good piece of income and food is raised from hunters every year; with wolves being in the wild, hunters would feel afraid to go into the back country looking for a good deer or elk, the best animals would be eaten by wolves thus reducing the number of permits that are being given out, reducing the money generated by hunting permits. Every year hundreds of people purchase hunting licenses and tags for elk and deer. All of that money goes to the forest service’s fund for improving trails, roads, and safety systems in the national forests. With reduced tags being sold, that revenue is lost. In addition to that money being lost, the best animals will be taken down by wolves, leaving the hunters to go for small, sick, injured, or extremely old animals. The effect of releasing wolves into the wild would be detrimental to the southwest’s hunting community.
Have you ever been told that you are too young to be playing in competitive sports?
My passion for reading began in kindergarten when my teachers came to the consensus that I was behind and needed extra help in reading and writing. My grandmother enlisted me in a tutoring program, and I joined in a special class at school with other kids who were having similar troubles. An activity that began as mandatory, developed into a past time I would forever cherish. My interest of reading would soon develop into a need for writing. To the outside world, I was quiet. While I was shy and an introvert as a child, what I didn’t say with words I wrote on paper. With a book or a pencil, I could transport myself to any place or time I could ever possibly think of. I was not always happy at home, like all families, mine had some issues. However, through literature, I
Kids used to picture imaginary worlds. Where they can be anything, they want to be. Through the past decades, kids are no longer imagining these worlds. They have drifted towards more of a virtual world, a world where there are limits. Kids are becoming more absorbed in this virtual world, than in the real world. Modern society calls this world video games.
In approaching the meaning of life we have to examine the nature of meaning itself. Meaning is by definition the point, or the intended goal. Consider the point of humans and the universe as seen from monotheistic religion. If life and the universe is some sort of toy or form of entertainment for some prime mover, his point, his own entertainment, would then be the meaning of humans and the universe. Consider the goals of the deities of various cultures. Some strive for a balance between the forces of 'good' and 'evil'. This balance seems to simply be a choice of the deity, the way he thinks it ought to be. The concept of a prime mover as a source of the meaning of life is flawed, because in talking about an actual point to absolutely everything, we are simply considering the goals of a being more powerful than ourselves who has chosen one of many possible goals that humans can conceive of. This is to say that, if a god like this exists, his goal for life and the universe is not necessarily valid as a meaning of life, the universe, and himself. For instance, the Bible claims that the Christian deity created the universe and placed humans in it that they might be in awe of his power. If this is so, why is worship the correct response? The meaning of the universe as created by God is the entertainment of God, but what is the meaning of the larger system containing God and his creations? We could conceive of an even 'primer' mover, but that simply takes us all the way back into the wall of infinite regression.
People have very different reasons on why going to college and getting an education is important for them. Some people go to college because that is what is expected of them, and others go because they have nothing else better to do. However, I am interested in going to college and obtaining a good education because it will benefit my family, my country, and me. My parents have this perfect life for me pictured in their heads, and the first thing they see me doing is going to college. They expect the best of me, and so by going to college, I will not only have fulfilled their goals for me, but I will have accomplished one of the goals I have set for myself. In our culture, when parents come to the age where they can't support themselves, it is the duty of the children to look after them. We don't just throw our elders into retirement homes and visit them twice every year. We are expected to meet their wants and needs, and that will not be possible without a good education, which will then lead to a good job. As you know, a college education is good for each individual, but not only that, it is good for the country. As a college education becomes more obtainable through the use of financial aid, our country benefits the most. We are the future businessmen and women of America, and through our knowledge, the country will grow. The education we get today will help us prosper in the future, and the more we expand our horizons, the more the economy will increase.
After graduation from high school, I plan to do several things. The most important thing I plan to do is go to college. Other than a degree, from a college education I plan to pursue higher learning, to begin a career, and to make history in my family.