Society tends to encourage virtuous qualities such as kindness, patience and optimism, indeed, these are virtuous qualities that could make up potential leaders and role models. But, the irony is that in some circumstances virtues can become a hindrance not just to yourself, but the people around you as well. This happened to Aunt Burnie, a gentle caretaker of the narrator and two girls Min and Jade, in George Saunders’ “Sea Oak”. Due to burglary, Aunt Burnie’s life came to an end, but due to strange circumstances she was resurrected. This resurrection changed her completely Aunt Burnie was no longer her pleasant self but full of spite and anger due to her life experiences and her compensation in death. Though she worked hard and was complacent …show more content…
Therefore, when she is resurrected she becomes cruel, but is able to advise the Narrator, Min and Jade on how to improve their current situation of life in a repugnant way. By resurrecting Aunt Burnie, Saunders reveals that living passivity does not achieve happiness, but instead becomes a hindrance not only the advancement of a better life, but to those around you and sometimes the only way to help is through loathsome means. Aunt Burnie before was always perceived as the picture of virtuous she was kind, patient, optimistic, and passive, however, it seems her virtuous qualities affected others as well.. When Aunt Burnie was introduced, she walked in to Min and Jade arguing with each other while the children were crying she easily calmed down the situation and was described as by the narrator, “Aunt Burnie 's a peacemaker. She doesn 't like trouble.” This quote show how she was someone who kept peace around the house when things are amiss she was the one able to calm everyone down, so it seems that she as a positive role model to the family (Saunders 95). However, Aunt Burnie was passive, she acts apathetic towards her environment, and if something bad happened she would just go about her merry way. She even is uncaring to herself “Once
It has changed from feeling sorry for this woman to thinking she is going to murder someone. Near the end of the story, after describing Miss Emily’s life, Faulkner catches up to the present day where Miss Emily has died. He explains how Emily’s cousins came once they heard of her death and buried her. The cousins all walked into Miss Emily’s room, which greeted them with a bitter smell.
In William Faulkner's 1930 short story "A Rose for Emily," the protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson is a desperately lonely woman. Miss Emily finds herself completely isolated from other people her entire life, yet somehow manages to continue on with her head held high. French philosopher and writer Voltaire said "We are rarely proud when we are alone," but Miss Emily's case is quite the opposite. The strength that Miss Emily gains from pride is what helps her through the loneliest of times.
Throughout Kaye Gibbon’s novels, each unified character portrays a resemblance to overcome their obstacles through hope. In Gibbon’s first novel, Ellen Foster the main character, Ellen a young child struggles to survive and live a normal childhood. Making matters worse, Ellen’s father was a drunken alcoholic who physically abuses her mother and sexually harasses his own daughter. As a result, Ellen’s mother commits suicide and her father dies from over dosage. As her, own parents abandon their precious child; Ellen was alone in search of a new home and family. As hope motivates Ellen to seek forward and find her new home she begins to believe what an ideal family would be like, “I had not figured out how to go about getting one for the most part, but I had a feeling it could be got”. Similar in Ellen’s case, in Gibbon’s second novel A Virtuous Woman, Jack is in search to regain himself after a heartbreak loss to his wife Ruby who died several months prior from lung cancer. Jack is an old farmer and relied heavily towards Ruby. He is now left on his own, he acknowledges that only hope may lead him back on his tracks and leave all the crucial memories behind.
After five years of being raised and living with their grandmother whom they truly loved, the girls had a rude awakening. Their grandmother, Sylvia had passed away. “When after almost five years, my grandmother one winter morning eschewed awakening, Lily and Nona were fetched from Spokane and took up housekeeping in Fingerbone, just as my grandmother had wished” (Robinson 29). This was the final attempt that their grandmother had made in order for the girls to have a normal and traditional life. This is a solid example of how the sister’s lives are shaped by their family and their surroundings. Lucille’s ultimate concern in life is to conform to society and live a traditional life. She wishes to have a normal family and is sorrowful for all of the losses that she has experienced such as her mother’s and grandmother’s deaths. On the other hand, Ruthie, after spending more time with her future guardian, Aunt Sylvie, becomes quite the transient like her.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne short story “Young Goodman Brown,” he takes us on a journey of the human heart, in which he would later coin the phrase that “there is a fund of evil in every human heart”. Though the story is filled with dark gloomy imagery, Hawthorne was able to keep us wanting to know more base on the fact its Salem village. With the uses of symbolism, the author incorporate nature such as the “deep forest”, and “Faith” the newly wife of young Goodman brown working hand in hand to illustrate the purpose of the story. Hawthorne shows us that our faith should not dictate base on the perception of others, as a result, would be compromised and weaken.
When one faces a traumatic experience, his or true nature often reveals itself. Trauma forces its sufferers to cope. How one copes is directly linked to his or her personality. Some will push any painful feelings away, while others will hold onto pleasant memories. Both of these coping mechanisms can be observed in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily,” the two protagonists’ prominent characteristics distinctly affect the way they cope with trauma and influence the short stories’ outcomes.To begin, Granny Weatherall is a prideful control freak. In contrast, Miss Emily is delusional and stubborn.
The turning point of “Sea Oak” is Aunt Bernie’s resurrection in which the seemly contemporary story has turned into a horror fantasy. Rising from death, Aunt Bernie has not only gained her energy but also her dissatisfaction about her previous living condition. She angrily yells to her family members, ‘“Because I am getting me so many lovers. Maybe you kids don’t know this but I died at freaking virgin. No babies, no lovers. Nothing went in, nothing came out. Ha ha!”’ (9). Using the repetition of “No” and “Nothing”, Saunders depicts Bernie’s life with an absolute emptiness. The change of Bernie’s character from a generous, optimistic lady to a selfish, scary authoritative figure has placed a situational irony for readers. In Jennifer L. Hochschild’s book Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation,” she argues that “Americans are exhorted to ‘go for it’” (Hochschild 21). Carrying the burden of a big family with more than half lazy hands, Bernie never follows this slogan to fight for her own rights, and her ambition to chase her dreams only rises after her death. Though she has worked hard her whole life, she doesn’t die in peace, The good-hearted Bernie who sacrifices her life to support her family but still dies regretfully. This ironic path of Bernie’s life is Saunders’ mockery to awaken diligent working class people as well as his
The novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, and the novella “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, both display the treatment of pride for upper and lower class similarly. Furthermore, the treatment of pride will be compared and contrasted in this essay to examine and understand how pride is treated. In novel and novella both the lower class characters believe their pride makes them superior beings. Although the pride of lower and upper-class characters led them to their corruption. Moreover, the upper-class characters in each narrative maintain their respectability by their pride. However, in “Jane Eyre” all casts must have their emotions controlled by their pride, or this will lead to inappropriate behavior. Nevertheless, in “The Turn of
Veronica Roth’s book demonstrates, in a few key ways, how great literature must include life lessons. The story teaches readers to never give up and to push on even in hard and rough times of struggle. Beatrice prior (Tris), the protagonist in the book, leaves her home to live with the danger seeking “Dauntless”. During the evil plot set by the antagonist, Beatrice’s mother gets fatally wounded by a gun shot. Tris watches this horrible moment unfold right next to her as her mother lifelessly crumbles to the ground. Beatrice loves her mother very much and doesn’t want to leave her body there, but knows she has to uncover the strength to move onwards. Not only was Beatrice brave after witnessing the death of her mother but her mother was also brave. Beatrice’s mother was also brave, having to die like that for her people, sacrificing herself for her daughter and family. Beatrice shows how she feels about her mother’s braver when she says,” My mother’s death was brave. I remember how calm she was, how determined. It isn’t just that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, wi...
It is not difficult to find a connection between Olive Ann Burns’ life and the characters of her novel Cold Sassy Tree. At the time the author was writing this novel, she was also dealing with cancer. “Being a journalist, I never expected to get around to fiction,” but in 1975 a cancer diagnosis altered her plans. Even before she left the doctor’s office, she had decided to write a novel, a decision that “surprised me more than the diagnosis” (Purcell, 53). To keep her mind busy, she began a novel with characters based on the tales her father had told about his family. Although she began assimilating those tales after her mother’s death from cancer, she had not developed them into a coherent storyline. Her character, Will Tweedy, grew up in the same time period as did her father and would have experienced the major changes of that era such as the introduction of electricity and automobiles.
Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” and Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall serves to demonstrates the importance of self-effacement and self-sacrifice in Victorian England. The two main protagonist in both texts, Lizzie and Helen, self-efface themselves to be virtuous and to be a proper woman in victorian society. Lizzie effaces herself in “Goblin Market” to remain a pure woman and Helen efface herself to be the proper mother and wife to her small family. Through this self-effacement the women have become virtuous enough to attempt to sacrifice themselves to redeem their loved ones. The only issue to this self-sacrifice is it can cause much unhappiness if the fallen cannot be redeemed due to being unwilling to repent for one’s sins.
Why did Ray Bradbury choose the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold? Ray Bradbury chose the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, because at the time when Guy Montag reads it, he is questioning his faith similarly to Matthew Arnold. Also, the poem “Dover Beach” expresses Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag’s sadness and unhappiness with the world. Lastly, this poem represents the loss of love, and hopelessness that Montag feels.
While she is buying flowers for her party, Mrs. Dalloway has an existential crisis regarding the meaning of life and the inevitability of death. She reflects on the atmosphere of the London streets and her old suitor Peter Walsh as she reads some lines from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. Mrs. Dalloway’s existential crisis demonstrates situational irony since the concept of life and death is quite deep and complex, yet she seems to live a shallow life consisting of throwing parties and picking which flowers to buy. Although she is contemplating her own mortality, Woolf’s word choice, such as “consoling,” suggests that death is positive and liberating, applying a light tone to a dark situation, adding to the irony. Mrs. Dalloway describes the trees,
The book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex” by Nathaniel Philbrick is tragic, eyes widening and heart wrenching where all the morals and ethics are gravely subjected to situation and questioned when it comes to survival. What they must do for survival? How man love their lives and no matter what strikes upon them, holler from behind, ambush their morale, yet they want to keep going just for the sake of living. The book is epitome of such a situation that encounters survival over morality. However, in the thrust of knowledge and oceans of secrets locked inside the chambers of this world, there is a heavy price men have to pay in the ordeal of yearning for knowledge.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights employs one of the most powerful forces to drive its plot forward: the need for revenge. This is a force like no other because it thrives on negative emotions such as suffering, loss, and anger, especially from the pain of rejection in the novel. Not only is it influential, but also prevalent. Bronte depicts that the need for revenge is hidden in many characters, suppressed by love, until a single event unleashes its fury, corrupting characters and causing them to aggravate their misdoings, with one disaster following a first. Revenge, like abuse, is a repeating cycle; a sufferer becomes the inflicter of suffering on others so that everybody feels the pain, and only the power of love can overcome this