A Parallel World When I’m assigned a text to read, my first reaction is to search for deep analytical content, rather than to accept it at face value. However, when presented The Quadroons by Lydia Maria Child, I found myself enjoying it for what it is: A great story. I was extremely touched by relationships in the story and the strength portrayed by Rosalie. After forcing myself to dig a little deeper into the text, I discovered a lot of interesting aspects that are still relevant in the world today. The relationships between Rosalie, Edward, and Xarifa are as complex as, and similar to, the relationships of modern day. Rosalie’s selflessness in many ways, is equivalent to that of women in today’s society. The relationship between Rosalie …show more content…
She had to watch her father leave her mother, and “the gloomy atmosphere of their once happy home overclouded the morning of [her] life” (187). She had to watch her mother suffer from a heartache that eventually killed her, and was then given a lifelong babysitter. It then seemed that Edward attempted to buy the love of his daughter with the promise of financial stability. It seemed as though he tried to buy his way out of guilt by employing the best educators for his daughter. Despite his efforts, he formed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and met death after falling from his horse on route to see Xarifa. Because of these ill-fortuned events, Xarifa found herself thrown into a relationship with a man that she might not have otherwise pursued. Similarly, the children of the world today find themselves suffering as a result of their relationship with their parents. How involved a parent is in a child’s life constantly affects the way the child behaves and the actions they take. Lydia Maria Child’s The Quadroons paints an extremely interesting parallel situation of the struggles families experienced during the 1800s as well as modern day. Despite the varying circumstances, families of each time period endure hardships that affect the ultimate quality of their lives. Readers of modern times can use the happenings of The Quadroons to further understand the day to day struggles of modern
The title of her book comes from the story of Ophelia, from Shakespeare's Hamlet, shows the destructive forces that affect young women. Ophelia was happy and free when she was young, but she loses herself in adolescence. When she falls in love with Hamlet she pushes aside her own wants and needs, and wishes only to please him and gain his approval. For the rest of her brief life she struggles to please others, mostly her father a...
Jeannette Walls has lived a life that many of us probably never will, the life of a migrant. The majority of her developmental years were spent moving to new places, sometimes just picking up and skipping town overnight. Frugality was simply a way of life for the Walls. Their homes were not always in perfect condition but they continued with their lives. With a brazen alcoholic and chain-smoker of a father and a mother who is narcissistic and wishes her children were not born so that she could have been a successful artist, Jeannette did a better job of raising herself semi-autonomously than her parents did if they had tried. One thing that did not change through all that time was the love she had for her mother, father, brother and sisters. The message that I received from reading this memoir is that family has a strong bond that will stay strong in the face of adversity.
All through the times of the intense expectation, overwhelming sadness, and inspiring hope in this novel comes a feeling of relief in knowing that this family will make it through the wearisome times with triumph in their faces. The relationships that the mother shares with her children and parents are what save her from despair and ruin, and these relationships are the key to any and all families emerging from the depths of darkness into the fresh air of hope and happiness.
We pick up with Caroline Phelps’ Life on March second, 1830. This is an important day in her life, as it is her wedding day. William Phelps, her husband is a rugged frontier fur trader. Caroline’s parents did not approve of William because of his jagged lifestyle. “He (her father) said William was wild and careless and I would have to live like a squaw if I married him.” Throughout the next few years we see some character traits of Caroline. She lives a very demanding lifestyle; her husband is hardly home and is gone for months at a time. Caroline also deals with many hardships with little complaint showing she will do what it takes to get by.
The lngles family from Little House on the Prairie, a popular television series, demonstrates the working class. Mr. Ingles works while Mrs. Ingles takes care of the household duties. The family displays a genuin e happiness. They have no modern utilities, but they have each other. They have a strong love within their family, and worldly materials serve little importance to them. A typical family today displays tremendous difference s compared to the Ingles family. Jealously and competitiveness play a major part in showing these varia...
Intergenerational conflicts are an undeniable facet of life. With every generation of society comes new experiences, new ideas, and many times new morals. It is the parent’s job go work around these differences to reach their children and ensure they receive the necessary lessons for life. Flannery O’Connor makes generous use of this idea in several of her works. Within each of the three short stories, we see a very strained relationship between a mother figure and their child. We quickly find that O’Conner sets up the first to be receive the brunt of our attention and to some extent loathing, but as we grow nearer to the work’s characteristic sudden and violent ending, we grow to see the finer details and what really makes these relations
who wanted to enter her life, she is left alone after her father’s death. Her attitude
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
From a traditional housewife in a white middle-class family, Mother has become a strong woman with independent minds. Her character becomes vivid step by step. Mother and Father represent an ordinary family in society. If their lives can change so much, what about millions of others? Their changes indicate the upcoming revolution taking place in this world.
A picture of a woman with her two children shows that not every family is the stereotypical family with two parents and responsibilities are spilt with gender roles. The tired eyes, wrinkled skin, and aging face illustrates the struggles that a woman has to face, physically and emotionally, for her family. It shows the individual worth of being a woman, as she is not only the caretaker for her children but also the provider for their needs, which is a generally a man’s responsibility that she is executing, even though many men couldn’t provide for their families as they lost everything they had. A woman during this era is expected to stay with the children and make their home a haven, and she was stripped of the ability to do that by the necessity to become a migrant. The image cues for emotional responses with economy, as there were a few families during the Depression that hadn’t been severely affected and at least had a solid roof over their heads, food to eat and clothing to keep them covered. This image portrays a clear distinction of social class issues in the United States during the time, and “Migrant Mother” shows people what the life if a migrant worker from a poor family is really like during times of crisis. It proves that the Depression was a systematic failure in the political, economic, and social spheres, and the poor pea pickers are suffering an outcome for something they hadn’t caused. Their living government in the image show that there has been no political or economic help extended to them by a failing government. The pea crop had frozen; there was no work. There was no opportunity for prosperity and success, no possibility for an upward social mobility for the children, there was no land in which life was better and richer for everyone. This wasn’t the American Dream that everyone grows up thinking because this was about a crisis that left the entire
The tragedy of Shakespeare’s King Lear is made far more tragic and painful by the presence and suffering of the king's youngest daughter, Cordelia. While our sympathy for the king is somewhat restrained by his brutal cruelty towards others, there is nothing to dampen our emotional response to Cordelia's suffering. Nothing, that is, at first glance. Harley Granville-Barker justifies her irreconcilable fate thus: "the tragic truth about life to the Shakespeare that wrote King Lear... includes its capricious cruelty. And what meeter sacrifice to this than Cordelia?"5 Yet in another passage Granville-Barker has come much closer to touching on the real explanation. I quote the passage at length.
Barrie shows these throughout the book in differing situations as well as his emphasis on the importance of mothers. In today’s society, women have many more rights than ever before, therefore, we study literature to identify the changes we have reached
However, as time has progressed literature has finally come to terms with the feminism theory within literature and its ideologies. In this specific story, we are able to identify the traits of feminism theory with ease; Hurston allowed the world to finally accept the new dominant roles of women, while also allowing the female character to simultaneously possess every innate feminine trait along with those usually associated with the male
... is not willing to give up the fight by her amazing desire to want that child to live. Although the book does not show Claudia in adulthood, one can envision her as the epitome of a strong woman. These three main characters defy society because of their strength. These books become timeless because of the female characters. Each novel defies the expectations of society in its own way. They exemplify women who rise above the average to become greater than what most people are. The novels show the female spirit in all its glory; they portray its strengths and ability to overcome obstacles.
"Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could." (Joyce 32) How is it possible for one to not follow out a parent's last wish? Eveline's mother's last request was for her to take care of the family. That is a great responsibility to be put into a child's hands. Everyone deserves a chance to be happy, so why did she go along with something that would only continue to make her life miserable? Eveline felt tangled knowing that it was all up to her to keep the family together, and to support her father, so she decides to stay. "She always gave her entire wages-seven shillings-…" (Joyce 30). This is again another example of what Eveline does for her family. After working all hours of the day, in the end, she gives all of her earnings to her father. It gives her a sense of purpose in a weird sort of way.