Included in Pam Houston’s “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” is a short story called A Blizzard under Blue Sky. In this short story, an unnamed narrator tells a time in her life when she was clinically depressed. The woman is overwhelmed by unfinished work and unpaid bills. To make things worse, she allowed a man into her life just so he could leave her heart broken into pieces. In order to cure her depression, her doctor suggests medication. Instead of utilizing drugs, she resorts to winter camping in an attempt to “fix the machine” that drives her. She brings her two best friends, Jackson and Hailey, whom she reveals to be her dogs. (Reading Literature and Writing Argument, p291) A common mistake that some writers often make is spending a copious …show more content…
This is mainly because the narrator is camping out in the frigid wilderness where it is silent for the most part. The sounds that she did hear came from her own materials like the squeaking of her bindings, the moving slashing sound of Jackson’s water pack, the whoosh of Nylon, and the rattle of dog tags. (Reading Literature and Writing Argument, p292) This may be the reason why the character has “conversations” with her dogs periodically, as a way to keep her sane. Though it is tough for an author to add more noises to a generally quiet location, Houston could have added sounds of people talking or laughing earlier in the story when she was examining the world before her. By doing so, it would have intensified the emotions that the character was feeling at the moment, increasing the effectiveness of the setting. Additionally, both senses of tasting and smelling were barely included in this narrative also. It was clear, however, that the characters did not starve in the wilderness since they had packed a variety of instant-made …show more content…
In the beginning, she was a woman who was constantly thinking about money, her job, and love issues. The continuous stress that these situations brought her started deteriorating her life, both emotionally and mentally. But when she spent the whole day fighting the unpleasant cold with her dogs, she realized in the near end of her journey what had happened. About five miles down the trail, she finally recognized that she was no longer thinking about any of the day to day problems which had been constantly plaguing her mind during her day to day life back in the city. She was finally able to escape from her “house of mirrors”, whereas before she could not even find her way out of a paper bag. This dramatic change just after a whole day of fighting thirty-two degrees below zero temperature proves how the natural world provides us what’s “good for us” even when we are unaware of it at the
“There are all these books that say we create our own destiny and what we believe is what we manifest. You're supposed to walk around with this perpetual bubble over your head thinking happy thoughts and then everything is going to be sunshine and roses. Nope, sorry, don't think so. You can be as happy as you've ever been in your life, and stuff is still going to happen. But it doesn't just happen. It knocks you sideways and crushes you into the ground, because you were stupid enough to believe in sunshine and roses. (Stevens 99). She was forced to live every day of her life worrying about her family and friends. The likelihood of her feeling threatened by ‘the Freak’ is extremely high causing her to live in fear worrying about everyone that could be impacted. After being trapped in the woods for over two years she started to do nothing but look at the negatives of the scenario. The only light in the tunnel was when she was able to go outside for the fifteen minutes. Overall, the changes eventually led to the change in her personality as well as change in attitude and approach towards the entire
Sometimes all one needs to create a better condition is putting in a little effort. However, as the poem implies, it is easier to do nothing for staying in a comfort zone is better than achieving a better condition. She complains of the heat in the room because the sun for sunlight pours through the open living-room windows. All she needs to do is get up and close the windows, but she won't do it either. She also reveals the futility of trying to get out of the meaningless routine that people adopt. In an attempt to be proactive, she thinks about the essence of living and is almost convinced that routine is the nature of life. She thinks for a long time and thinks again but ironically, the same routine chores distract her yet again. She goes to buying a hairbrush, parking, and slamming doors. At the end, she gives up on finding the essence of living; she wants to do things like she has always done
In the “Interior Life”, Annie Dillard discusses the minds process of realizing the difference between imagination and reality. Dillard begins her narrative by recounting the childhood memory of an oblong shaped light that invaded her room every night, terrorizing her with the possibility of death. Beginning at the door of her bedroom this “oblong light” quickly slid across the wall, continued to the headboard of her little sister Amy’s bed and suddenly disappeared with a loud roar. Oftentimes it returned, noisily fading away just before seizing her, meanwhile Amy slept, blissfully unaware. Continuing on, Dillard describes the unforgettable discovery of the connection between the noise the oblong light made and the sound of the passing cars
moreover, it shows us that she is like an animal that is trap in a cage suffering from the burden of not enjoying herself. Thus, lashing out at her husband while disregarding the danger she is putting her family through mentally traumatic events. As well as strains on the fact that she is not acknowledging the effects and extent of her addiction. Thus, shutting everyone out and eating herself apart. Therefore, she avoids discussing her issues with her husband on the movement to the city which might help with resolving her issue or lessen the magnitude of the stress she is going through.
She thought about her family, and the neighbors, and the town, and the dogs next door, and everyone and everything she has ever met or seen. As she began to cry harder, she looked out the window at the stores and buildings drifting past, becoming intoxicated suddenly with the view before her. She noticed a young woman at the bus stop, juggling her children on one side of her, shielding them from the bus fumes.
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
While showing how brave and unselfish she was, she also showed that she was fragile and not as strong as she used to be. “A black dog with a lolling tongue came up out of the weeds by the ditch. She was meditating, and not ready, and when he came at her she only hit him a little with her cane. Over she went in the ditch, like a little puff of milkweed.” Even though she hit the dog only a little, it caused her to fall into a ditch. At last there came a flicker and then a flame of comprehension across her face, and she spoke. "My grandson. It was my memory had left me. There I sat and forgot why I made my long trip." This shows how her mind went blank, causing her to forget why she had made the journey.
...e the situation that triggers the emotion of hate, anger, sadness. When a person begins to link negative experiences to positive emotions, they begin to love themselves more and not fear their reality. By loving themselves they create a loving reality. In the movie, after Amanda reroutes her neuronetwork she begins healing. She is able to face her cheating husband that has incurred much pain and hatred in her being. As she is healing, she gains control of her reality.
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small portion of his writing helps to illuminate a major theme of the Romantic poets, and can even be seen in contemporary writings of today. One such work is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This story follows two characters, Inman and Ada, who barely know each other and are forced apart by the Civil War. As Ada waits in North Carolina Appalachia for Inman to return home from three years of battle, Inman decides to abandon the war effort and journey across the Southern states to reach his beloved.
When reading the story the first time, you get the feeling that the woman is most likely dead. She described her surroundings as a “blue day” and that they sky looked “glassy.” Almost, as if the woman had drowned in the river and was looking up at the sky through the surface of the water. The woman also feels happy and this is probably because she has the chance to return to where she came from. The woman appears to be stuck between two worlds, because the strange description of her surroundings almost seems ghostly, when she reaches her childhood home there is an immediate sense of belonging that is gone almost as soon as she felt it.
The feeling of walking down a seemingly endless tunnel of shadows is overwhelming for a vast amount of people. The tunnel is as dark as the blackest part of night, and those individuals cannot see a shining light that represents a hopeful end to their troubles. Some experience an inability to recover from hardship or stress in their lives, while others may have a lack of self-confidence or sense of purpose. These are the people who have the hardest time seeing that light at the end of the tunnel and might do just about anything to find a way out. Nearly every individual going through a hormonal change can understand the raging war that is taking place between the characters and their inner demons in Ellen Hopkins’s novel, Impulse.
In the first stage, the narrator is in touch with reality; she lives and exists in a state of mind known in Freudian psychology as the Ego. The Ego is defined as "the element of being that consciously and continuously enables an individual to think, feel and act." (Barnhardt, 667). The ego is based on a reality principle, in which, a person reacts in "realistic ways that will bring long term pleasure rather than pain or destruction" (Meyers, 414). The narrator's inability to cope with disagreeable thoughts such as her father's possible death is evidenced early in the novel. The narrator states: "nothing is the same, I don't know the way anymore. I slide my tongue around the ice cream, trying to concentrate on it, they put seaweed in it now, but I'm starting to shake, why is the road different, he shouldn't have allowed them to do it, I want to turn around and go back to the city and never find out what happened to him. I'll start crying, that would be horrible, none of them would know what to do and neither would I. I bite down into the cone and I can't feel anything for a minute but the knife-hard pain up the side of my face...
The protagonist, Laura belongs to a wealthy family where her is life is perfect. She carries on with an ideal life that most people desire to live. The narrator creates some images of paradise to demonstrate how impeccable Laura’s life is. However, Laura has been trapped from the reality. She has not been exposed to the lives of the destitute. This is demonstrated when the
We all grabbed our lawn chairs and cozied up next to the roaring red fire. I always sat a little too close, enough to where the fire burnt a hole straight through my favorite pair of flip-flops, assuring me to never make that mistake again. S’mores was all of our favorite bed time snack time and a perfect way to end the night. Every time I would roast my marshmallow until it became slightly brown, mushy, and not too hot in the center; then I 'd put it between two graham crackers and extra pieces of chocolate. One too many s’mores and a belly like later I laid back in my chair and listened as Nancy told us stories. Before going to bed Nancy told us about her favorite past times here as a child and how just like the little girl we saw fishing, she was also afraid of fishing. She told us stories about how much the campground has evolved since she was a child and how every year she promises to take us here and to keep it a tradition. At bedtime Alicia and I crawl into our tents and snuggle up in our warm sleeping bags. We talked to each other about how sad we felt that it was almost the end of summer, and how nervous we felt to start our freshman year of high school. However, our conversations ended when Nancy yelled at as from the other tent to keep quiet and go to bed. I’d fallen asleep that night to the sound of the fire crackling out and the crickets chirping