Helen
She was a dazzling character to set your eyes on. She had that strong look of confidence in herself and it seemed as if she had everything made. She dressed her body in only the most fashionable of cloths and in jewelry that cost a very pretty penny. She was a beautiful black women. She was a natural length and very narrow in the hips. She had these big round glossy gorgeous eyes with a smile that can make a crocodile grinn.
Helen Grew up in the gutters of atlanta, raised around drugs and violence. Her city was a criminal infested wasteland. Her family was a poor working class family trying to make the best for her. She never made it to college, instead she chose the stereotypical “wife” life when she married and never worked a day in her life. She relies solely on charles and his pay check. She was a good wife to charles, always cleaning and cooking and just taking care of the house for him. She was not bad tempered and submitted to her husband without question. All of helen's friends are charles rich friends so she never really had a...
In Mary’s household, her two sons and daughter are dependent on her. Mary is head of the household and is currently going through a divorce. Mary is close to losing her house, car, and internet services. She hires babysitters for the days/nights that she has to work. Her children know that times are tough, and continuously encourage their mother. However, her son Quinn is dealing with the divorce and poor living in
witted, and had an amazing sense of humor. Her husband was a lady's man and
She allows her mother to control her and make decisions for her. During their conversation, she asks her mom if she should marry Mr. Jones even if she does not love him. Her mother does not seem to care until Helen mentions that he is Vice-President of the company. Her mother says that she should marry him whether she loves him or not because he will be able to take care of her and Helen. They continue to discuss how Helen can marry this man that she doesn’t like so she will never have to work again and he can support her mother, or she can say no at the risk of losing her job and not being able to support her mother anymore. Helen ties in how life is making her “feel like I’m stifling!” (591). Again, I feel this is another representation of Helen not being able to handle the pressures of society. Helen can’t talk about important decisions she has to make without feeling claustrophobic and blowing up by saying things like “I’ll kill you!” (592). I think she blows up because her mother is always nagging her and she can’t handle it in that moment anymore, especially since it is a conversation about
The majority of families were once considered perfect. The father went to work everyday, while the mother stayed at home and cared for her two children, “Henry” and “Sue”. The children never fought and the parents were involved in all the community events. Our society has grown to accept that there is no such thing as a perfect family. Eleven-year-old Ellen from the book Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons, grows up in a household where her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is too sick to complete everyday tasks. By using her positive assets, and learning from her negative assets, Ellen was able to overcome a lot of challenges throughout the book.
The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed. The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship. She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever. This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house." Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no human interaction at all. He chooses a "prison-like" room for them to reside in that he anticipates will calm our main character even more into a comma like life but instead awakens her and slowly but surely opens her eyes to a woman tearing the walls down to freedom.
Lettie Lang is a poor black woman who has been a maid most of her adult life. She is married to an alcoholic who has never held a steady job. Her home is busting at the seams because her children, grandchildren, and mother are all living in Lettie’s small dwelling. Lettie is devastated when she learns of Hubbard’s suicide, because once again she finds herself unemployed. Little does she ...
...and impulsive” and buys a puppy (Yates 352). Since the Wheelers and John disappointed her, the dog presents her with a new, demanding maternal role. Several times Helen positions herself to be a motherly figure, however disappointment and rejection causes her to jump from person to person to satisfy her needs.
In Anne Tyler’s Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the negative effects of a broken marriage on the family are continually presented through the use of multiple characters’ internal and external dialogue, along with their interpretations of events that determine their overall outlook on the world. Contrary to the “normative” family structure consisting of two parents, this family is run solely by the mother, Pearl Tull, who is often overwhelmed by her role of being the exclusive support for her three children - Cody, Ezra, and Jenny. The constant dissatisfaction of their mother and the early desertion of their father, Beck Tull, cause many issues throughout the relationships of the family members and those who become intertwined in their lives. Though inadvertent, each child seems to end up becoming an exact specimen of the very personality type that is attempting to be avoided. This is especially true for the oldest son, Cody Tull, who is most affected by his father’s absence, yet seems to display the same absent behavior towards his own son, Luke. After thorough examination of the characters, it is clear that a dysfunctional marriage can adversely affect the relationships within in a family, further causing permanent damage that has a profound effect on one’s relationship with self and others throughout one’s adulthood.
Helen fell in love with Huntingdon based on his wit and handsome looks, but realising his negative features like his heightened levels of self-indulgence and selfishness resolves to change his ways through gentle persuasion and example. As the story unfolded her marriage goes down hill after the birth of their son, Arthur, who Huntingdon sees as a rival for his wife’s attention. The situation is further aggitated by visits of Huntingdon’s drunken friends. The voice of women who suffered was never heard or undermined by the men who controlled them and it seemed as though marriage was a trap for mice in pursuit of love. Intrahousehold inequality has been an underlying issue for a number of years, although times have changed and laws have come into fruition, the unspoken code of gender complementarianism still thrives and exists. You can find it when you look at the dynamics of a household. Look at who spends more time on household chores and who has more time for leisure? Consider whether or not households spend the same amount of income on girls’ and boys’ education, health and nutrition? Furthermore, speaking into the finances of the home, do married women have a say in how their own cash earnings are spent and do they participate in decision-making on major household purchases? These are the dimensions that expose the factual level of equality in a
Everyone seeks the comfort of the stability in their own home. Ellen Foster knows her home is rather abnormal. Enduring physical, mental, and sexual abuse from her family, Ellen learns early on that what she wants is what she cannot seem to find: a loving home. Through challenging adversities in the novel, Ellen finally found a family that suited her needs, in a foster home. Once she had at last found her place that she felt fit, her first thought was to invite her best friend, Starletta, to present her pride of her new, blissful, life. This passage, references to history, repayment, and equality serve to emphasize Ellen’s desire to atone for thinking she was better than Starletta in the past. Ellen’s journey of finding a stable home life leads to her discovery of the love of her true friend.
From being able to save up money to buy a car and move out to West Virginia and then leaving the responsibility of finances and income to her children, Rose Mary Wall’s helped put Jeanette and her siblings through a hard and tough childhood. Although, a debate could be made that with all the awful impacts that the mother had on her children, all she really did was actually positively influence them to be able to conquer any hardship that they may face in their life. In the end, Rose Mary Wall’s character of being independent, unreasonable, and stubborn did both positively and negatively impact her children’s lives through the hardships they all faced
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Anything in the extreme is dangerous; too much piety, or too much anger, are both dangerous. Jane’s life is a testament to the dangers of these extremes and the good that can come from equal measure; like passion and logic, possessiveness and indifference, or wrath and submission. Jane experiences the full spectrum of these extremes and sees firsthand the dangers they bring. Towards the end, with these experiences having stayed with her, Jane is better able to control her impulses and, as a result, finds happiness at
the center of her heart go hard" (254). She never really gives her children a chance because she is more concerned with herself and she always feels negativity towards them. Her obsession with money and the status it would provide for her completely takes control of her emotions hindering her ability to create a stable and healthy relationship between her and Paul. Her uncontrollable cravings for money create an "anxiety in the house" and a constant whi...
Amanda, somehow, finds a way to be both selfish and selfless when it comes to Laura. Amanda wants Laura to be happy and successful, but does not understand that Laura is too shy and unmotivated to be either. When Amanda discovers that Laura has stopped going to typing class she is beyond disappointing. When discovered Amanda yells at her daughter saying, “Fifty dollars’ tuition, all our plans- my hopes and ambitions for you- just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that.” Laura quit something as simple as learning how to type; this realization struck Amanda because if she cannot do that there is no way Laura could provide for herself without a husband. Mrs. Wingfield’s worst nightmare is is for her children to become dependent on relatives and not being able to take care of themselves. After Laura drops out of typing school Amanda says, “What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position. I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South—barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife!—stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room—encouraged by one in-law to visit another—little birdlike women without any nest—eating the crust of humility all their life!. Amanda had always wanted for Laura to find a nice husband, but then the situation became desperate when the younger women