Horace Walpole created a basis for his literature that explores themes of troubled marriages, female empowerment, and incest; themes that challenge the eighteenth-century norms. Walpole uses ideas from his observation of his parents’ troubled marriage and his close relationship with his mother for his writings. Walpole created characters based on himself and his parents by giving his characters similar characteristics and personalities as himself and his parent. He is not a feminist but the female characters in his novels gain power and control from the tyrant male characters. His writings are also an anti-catholic portrayal by his uses of the supernatural and erotic themes. Walpole's childhood experiences affected his writing with the distant relationship with his father that made him want to become a father figure himself, and his hidden sensual desire for his mother. Walpole incorporated his life and his beliefs into his writings.
As a child Horace Walpole's parents had relationships outside of their marriage that inspired complicated love triangles in Walpole's writings. Walpole's father, Sir Robert, had a reputation about his sexual life, “There is no question about Sir Robert's sexual irregularities; indeed he is said to have affected a reputation of them...he lived openly with Miss Catherine Skerritt, whom he married after Lady Walpole's death” (Gwynn 15). His father sexual reputation created a problem in the family. His parents didn’t spend much time together therefore Walpole’s relationship with his father was distant because he spent most of his time with his mother, who devoted her time to Walpole since Sir Roberts was with other women (Ketton 30). An unhappy marriage is in the relationship between Manfred and Hippolita in Walpole's book The Castle of Otranto. In the story, Manfred's wife, Hippolita, was sterile and therefore Manfred had no heirs to the
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American slave takes a look at how it really feels like to be a slave. There is only so much you can learn about slavery in the textbooks. Oftentimes we know what slavery is, but never really understand how brutal it was for the slaves. Within the autobiography, chapter one lets you learn about who Frederick Douglass is and you learn about his childhood. You learn about his family, and the life he lived as a slave. Douglass shares his experiences to help us learn how exactly slaves were treated. Douglass emphasizes his writing in a unique style to capture the audience, while also reeling in their emotions to embrace the experience of being a slave, and uses an effective tone to illustrate
By the 19th century slavery had already become a prominent aspect in everyday life. During this time, slaves were of great economic value and becoming increasingly important in the South. After the abolition of slavery in the North, the fight to end slavery in the South, had the attention of those who supported the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist's sought to give all the slaves freedom and bring to attention the wrongness of slavery as an institution. Frederick Douglass' was one of the most illustrious figures in the abolitionist movement. The "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass", was intended to bring to light the truth of slavery. Frederick Douglass uses his personal narrative to show the horrors and violence that slaves are subjected to while society turns a blind eye. His written accounts of experiences while living life as a slave testify to not only the degradation and dehumanization of slaves, but to that also of slave owners.
Have you heard of the book Maniac Magee? Maniac Magee becomes an orphan at the age of three. His parents died in a trolley accident and ran away after living with his aunt and uncle for 8 years. Maniac’s real name is Jeffrey. He is a kind hearted person who is athletic and he’s always thinking about others. Maniac has trouble finding a permanent home and being accepted in the black community even though he’s white. In both the movie and book they have similarities and differences.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" demonstrates the highly typical gender roles that could be found in a late 1800's scene as it shows even if the marriage is kind, it could be inherently oppressive. This is clearly shown through the relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, as when news hits Louise Mallard that her husband has passed on, a large wave of grief washes over her; however, it passes when she realizes that she will be able to bite into the forbidden fruit of freedom. According to Louise, this freedom would mean "there would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-crea...
Throughout this paper I will explore the power of storytelling using the course lexicon and I will examine it in the context of two course texts. One of the texts that I will be referring to is by Doxtator, excerpts from Fluffs and Feathers and the second text I will be referring to is by Griffin, excerpts from Woman and Nature. The power of storytelling is a part of the mimetic world and because stories have so much power they can be used to help bring about dominant fantasies. Stories are told over and over again until they are reinforced and in this essay I will argue that the power of storytelling is a form of social control.
The Hero’s Journey is a basic template utilized by writers everywhere. Joseph Campbell, an American scholar, analyzed an abundance of myths and literature and decided that almost all of them followed a template that has around twelve steps. He would call these steps the Hero’s Journey. The steps to the Hero’s Journey are a hero is born into ordinary circumstances, call to adventure/action, refusal of call, a push to go on the journey, aid by mentor, a crossing of the threshold, the hero is tested, defeat of a villain, possible prize, hero goes home. The Hero’s Journey is more or less the same journey every time. It is a circular pattern used in stories or myths.
It was a beautiful summer day when it happened. I was enjoying the fresh air and the amazing view of Walden Pond. The sun was shining and a slight breeze blew across my face. I love standing still and listening to the swishing of the leaves and the soft feet of animals running through the grounds.
...heir characters. By underlining the contrasting traits in their characters, they successfully criticize a society’s sexist views. They each presente the way a woman should act, and then brake the mold with a main character. In both situations, this creates conflict that helped the author’s with both plot progress and a symbol of the tough road to equality. The characters that stray from the social norms to pursue a happier more fulfilling life all end with a textbook “happily ever after” endings where as the characters that strive to keep to the tyrannical patriarchal system moving, end with poor lives, or no lives at all. Radcliffe and Walpole both claim the profound statement in their novels that the patriarchal society they live in is unfair and unjust, and there are benefits to living outside this lifestyle to those people willing to take the rough road there.
...rd Times and Brontë in Wuthering Heights represent their protagonists as struggling to overcome oppression in order to survive as independent females. The struggles faced by the females provide similarities as well as contrasts to their literary counterparts. On one hand you have Louisa, corrupted by her father and never allowed to imagine or be free; and on the other hand you have Catherine, corrupted by her own aspirations and social constraints. Although Catherine does - for a short period of time, achieve some independence, she is destined to retain her traditional role of passive and dependent female; thus inevitably losing in her struggles. In contrast, Louisa faces similar struggles in the fight for the survival of her inquisitive mind; but she ultimately wins her battle against her ‘fact-loving’ father and in doing so, establishes herself as an individual.
Many girls of different ages fantasize about the perfect wedding, perfect husband, a gorgeous dress, and the happiness to come after the wedding. At one point I was just like these girls. I saw marriage as a paradise that everybody should experience. Around tenth- grade, my rose tinted glasses were removed and I witnessed just how bad a marriage could get to the point of divorce. The divorce my parents went through, changed my entire view on monogamy. I now see marriage in a more realistic point of view and that it is not an easy journey as I once had thought it was.
There is no doubt that Charlotte Bronte knew the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, and she knew them well. Although Wollstonecraft's ideas were written a hundred years beforehand, many women did not read her work because it was not easily attainable. Many women were not educated to read this piece of literature and many men deemed it unimportant to their education. Bronte's works were cleverly disguised in women's entertainment, the novel. The main themes both women discuss are education, love and marriage.
Dialect literature is found to not only deliver a story’s message in a compelling manner but also literally gives voice to the characters. Today, dialect literature is commonly known as vernacular speech or vernacular storytelling. Vernacular speech is understood to be the spoken dialect of a particular race or people. It allows for the unique patterns, pauses, accents and phrases to frame the story. This distinctive form of storytelling soon developed into a post-Civil War literary phenomenon. This may be due to the fact that it allows the contrast between white and black speech patterns to be further highlighted by the reader, granting the overall theme of racism to become more evident. Two famous American authors by the names of Mark Twain and Charles W. Chesnutt both incorporate vernacular storytelling into their own post-Civil War short stories. Twain uses vernacular speech throughout A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It and Chesnutt uses vernacular speech in his short story The Goophered Grapevine.
Charlotte Brontë composed her novel Jane Eyre during the Victorian era; a period of history where Patriarchy set the expectations of men and women. The effect of this social system resulted in women suffering discrimination simply because of their gender. Sigmund Freud, in his essay entitled, “The Relation of the Poet to Day-Dreaming,” articulated that women were only capable of having erotic wishes dominate their “phantasies,” and even their ambitious “phantasies” were rooted in erotic wishes (177). The predominating thought concerning women during this era was that, due to their nature, longed to marry—tending to the needs of her household. Those who were not fortunate enough to marry (due to appearance or social status) were to become governesses. Ms. Brontë, through her protagonist Jane Eyre, clearly depicts the struggles of an indigent young woman who is forced into near slavery. This tale is articulated well by Adrienne Rich in her essay entitled, “Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman,” when she states that Jane wants to “choose her life with dignity, integrity, and pride” (471). Even though Charlotte Brontë depicts a woman who will not be bound by the mores of her society, she is not so exuberant as to have her protagonist proclaim “I am woman, hear me roar.” The toning down of Jane’s demeanor can be attributed to satisfaction of the critics, but Brontë also expresses that the societal expectations, or the patriarchal rights of men, produced a similar negative effect on men. From John Reed and his self-righteous attitude, to Rochester’s internal battle in regards to the treatment of women, Charlotte Brontë demonstrates that sexism—inherent in a patriarchal society—has an adverse affect on both men and women.