Misery memoirs attract readers because it is a way for them to find their sympathetic self. They have a hard time letting go of the things that make them miserable, which brings them some type of pleasure. For example, sympathy is one form of pleasure. In today’s society, sympathy is a form of virtue. If you complain about being sick, or struggling with a personal problem, there is always a sympathetic ear to listen and offer you advice that makes you feel special and indulge your egotistical need of acknowledgement and attention. Another form of pleasure would be desires and opportunities. This is attaching yourself to a misery now in order that your future desire will occur. This is true for Darin Strauss, the author of Half A Life. In …show more content…
He doesn’t have to be living this life. He wasted half his life living in guilt, regrets, and misery for something that wasn’t his fault. At the end of his memoir, he wrote, “The accident taught me this. Things don’t go away. They become you. There is no end…” This memoir was his form of pleasure, his desire and opportunities. Had he not written this memoir, he would still be living in guilt. In one of his interviews, one of Celine’s friends wrote back, “I want to thank you for bringing this memory back in such a meaningful way.” This memoir was Darin’s first step of living his life as he should and …show more content…
Few years later, the mistress died and Linda was sent to Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint abuses his power as a slave owner to get what he wants, such as trying to get Linda to sleep with him. Another example of him abusing his power is when Linda stated, “I was made for his use, made to obey his command in everything; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his…” However, Linda had no intention of submitting to Dr. Flint’s control. Although Dr. Flint owns her body, she can still remain spiritually free. She lives in a time of slavery, but she still hold the hopeful thought of someday of being really free. Linda was different among all the slaves. She has the power to control her life in a way. She had an affair with a white neighbor and has two kids. However, because she was afraid Dr. Flint would do something to her kids after he finds out, she decides to hide in the attic for seven years. During those seven years, Dr. Flint spent countless of days and money to track her. This shows Dr. Flint has a deeper feeling towards Linda rather than just a slave. Linda have lived her life in confinement, yet she does not give up hoping one day she will provide a home for her
Tom Paine’s, A Boys Book of Nervous Breakdowns: Stories, published by Louisiana State University in 2015, is a collection of stories that deals with issues from war, Wall Street, and to inner demons within a human mind. Each story there are the main characters, the background characters, and the care free characters. Each character struggles with some form of sickness whether its PTSD, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Every character is not some hero to change the world but to struggle and survive everyday problems. Whether it’s a soldier from Afghanistan with a girlfriend that wants a normal life, to a Japanese reggae singer that is positive that the CIA killed the infamous singer Bob Marley.
The first of the main characters that are introduced are Celia’s master, Robert Newsom. Mr. Newsom was a wealthy landowner in Callaway County. In 1850, after the death of his wife, Robert Newsom purchased a fourteen year old slave girl from nearby Audrain County. Now as far as McLaurin can tell Newsom purchased Celia for no other reason than a sexual chattel. The night that Newsom purchased Celia it was “on his return to Callaway County, Newsom raped Celia, and by that act at once established and defined the nature of the relationship…” (McLaurin 24). From the time that Newsom first acquires Celia, he begins to rape her on a regular basis. Although it was generally accepted as being morally wrong for a slave master to sexually abuse a slave, Robert Newsom seems to view her as his property, to do with as he pleased rather than as a human being. McLaurin states that “…Celia’s rape by her new master would have been a psychologically devastating experience, one which would have had a profound effect upon her” (25). Even though the “u...
In the autobiographical writings Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs’ reflects on the times that her master Dr. Flint consistently tried to molest her sexually. In spite of her fears of horrible repercussions such as beatings or torture if she refuses to submit to him, Harriet always manages to evade his proposals to become his mistress by out-smarting him. She defends herself from his numerous attempts to seduce her, by the power of her mental strength and intelligence, and her Christian morality. While she fears him each time he secretly approaches her with his sexual propositions when he caught her alone, she could always think of ways to protect herself. For example she protects herself from the dangers of his sexual advances by removing herself from the master’s presence any opportunity she gets. She sometimes stays with her grandmother or aunt at night to protect herself from him. They are both Dr. Flint’s former slaves too who live on the plantation where she lives. Even though he threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, she tells his wife about his sexual advances, and Mrs. Flint invites Harriet to sl...
This account of enduring adversity begins with a man by the name of Robert Newsom. After his wife passed away he apparently craved the need for sexual fulfillment. He came to the conclusion that the best possible way to nourish his craving was by purchasing a young, healthy slave to keep as his personal "mistress". So at the age of 14, Celia became a white-man's sexual object. Over time Celia accepted her role in the Newsom household and bore two of Newsom's children. Towards the end of her five years at the Newsom farm she began a personal romance with another slave by the name of George. Finally, George's masculine pride erupted and he demanded that Celia end this sexual relationship with Newsom. Celia went to Newsom in an effort to stop the nature of their affair, but was unsuccessful in doing so. Out of desperation it is believed that Celia even went to Newsom's two daughters, Virginia and Mary, who still lived with their father, to plead protection from him and his enforced sexual interactions, with no luck once again.
In Linda Brent’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Brent’s grandmother showed her compassion by giving her a place she could call home. Her grandmother provided a place in her desperate hours of needs; she had to hide from her slave owners at her grandmother’s house. Even though the home was a hiding place with horrible living conditions, Brent preferred it over slavery, as she stated, "It seemed horrible to sit or lie in a cramped position day after day, without gl...
Linda Brent, Ms. Jacobs' pseudonym while writing "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," became so entrenched in hatred of slaveholders and slavery that she lost sight of the possible good actions of slaveholders. When she "resolved never to be conquered" (p.17), she could no longer see any positive motivations or overtures made by slaveholders. Specifically, she could not see the good side of Mr. Flint, the father of her mistress. He showed his care for her in many ways, most notably in that he never allowed anyone to physically hurt her, he built a house for her, and he offered to take care of her and her bastard child even though it was not his.
Ultimately, I believe Linda Brent’s somatic rights was more important to her than anything. She grew up knowing full well that as a woman, her body automatically belonged to someone else; whether it be her master or whatever mate he chose for her. Linda continuously fought and rebelled against this notion. Although she could have had a nice and comfortable cottage to herself being Dr. Flint’s mistress, she chose the opposite and more challenging path because along with that cottage would come the constant torment of owing her body to him. Linda sacrificed everything to be free from this distress, including going into hiding and isolating herself for 7 years.
The life of a slave was tedious and full of pain, many of them hoped for death to come and take them away. They were constantly being whipped, locked up in jail, starved; and unfortunately the young beautiful girls, abused by their masters. When Linda and Benjamin (her brother) were taken to their new owner’s home, Benjamin said that they “[were] dogs [there]; foot balls, cattle, everything that is mean.” Their old mistress would take such good care of them, that when they stepped into the Flints home, they immediately felt how cold this family was towards their slaves. Harriet states that “No pen can give an adequate description...
It tells the story of a woman who lives secluded in mind, body, and soul for about three months in what is a “hereditary estate” (Gilman 462) , but how she portrays to the reader as “a haunted mansion” (Gilman 463). Extremely unhappy in her current situation (a suffering woman who nobody believes is truly ill), she escapes through her writing. Having to keep her passion of writing a secret and hiding it from her husband, housekeeper, family and friends, the story has untold endings to her thoughts due to the abrupt arrival of unexpected guests. The diary helps us to see the quick, spiraling downfall and eventual breakdown of an unstable woman whose isolation from society may have encouraged her imminent disease. Through quickly written journal entries, the audience can see the unfolding of the unstable woman. This enlarges the view of the narrative because it helps show a plot line of the progression of an illness (which is the theme as a whole of the
Everyone can pant a pretty picture of how wonderful their life may be. In fact, doing so may come with a consequences. Reading these three short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell and a short biography by Malcolm X called “My First Conk”, set off many different emotions. I felt as these author’s wanted to me to feel in such way. I believe there is a life lesion in every life story someone has to share, no matter how small or big.
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
The agony and suffering caused through slavery is no common, relatable pain. As individuals who have not been able to actually experience the harsh conditions of slavery, we can not even begin to fathom the terrible racism and prejudice that African Americans were put through during the time of slavery. Linda Brent was only able to portray her experiences through a novel that retold her life through such a medium that we were able to sympathize for her. There is no possible way that we can fit all of the details of Harriet Jacobs’ mind into a book from cover to cover and that is why we only can believe that slavery is way worse than described in the novel and not any better. That is why I believe that Linda should have made a pass as soon as she could to be white in order to escape from the tight bonds of slavery.
Despite Flint’s overtures, Linda is able to avoid being by the grace of her own intellect. Although her actions may seem illicit and ill-advised, like her love affair with Mr. Sands to fend off Dr. Flint, so are the repercussions if she cooperates and does nothing. Jacobs predicates that slaves suffer from the influence of the slave system on their moral development. In the text, it is evident that Linda does not condemn slaves for illegal or immoral acts such as theft or adultery, but rather saying that they usually have no other option but to behave this way. However, she also points out that slaves have no reason to develop a strong ethical sense, as they are given no ownership of themselves or final control over their actions. This is not their fault, but the fault of the slavery system that dehumanizes them. “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another” (Jacobs 49). Slaves are not evil like their masters, but important parts of their personalities are left undeveloped. She argues that a powerless slave girl cannot be held to the same standards of morality as a free
It's particularly telling in light of this that “The Light That Failed” is dedicated to his mother. How is someone with an artist's soul to live in a world where, despite all protestations to the contrary, not even the love of a mother -- much less that of any other woman -- can be relied upon?
The emotion and actions he felt and performed aren’t typically those that characterize anger, but in grief, anger is often simply the acknowledgement that the tragedy occurred, the asking oneself why it happened to you rather than someone else, and the placement of blame. When Darin is at the assembly at the end of the year when the principal speaks of Celine, he performs a “ritual” in order to try to avoid the judgement. He has accepted that his car is the reason Celine is dead, but he doesn’t want to be watched or judged. He would rather be staring at someone else in the gym than have everyone staring at him. Also, Darin frequently asked himself why she swerved into his car. He blames Celine for his pain. When he finds out about her diary entry, he grasps onto the words that could feasibly make the death a suicide. Even though the entry could just as easily have nothing to do with suicide, the stage of anger causes him to use it as an excuse to blame her. All of these actions and thoughts cause the reader to judge him slightly, but in reality, he is experiencing the anger that comes naturally with grief and acting as it