Made the surrogate mother of her twelve and six-year-old siblings, Ree Dolly challenges the social constructs of young motherhood, and learns to face the adversities that come with having “adult duties” in the unconventional, rural Ozark society. The main character in Debra Granik’s film Winter Bone’s, Ree, demonstrates that despite she’s been burdened with consequences not of her own fault, the love and protection she has for her family is not something she’s not willing to lose — even if that means amputating her deceased father’s hands. By reinforcing the concepts of “duty” in the film, Winter’s Bone juxtapositions the responsibilities of a “typical” seventeen-year-old in contrast to those of Ree in her journey of personal redemption, preserving childhood innocence, and forgetting the past. One of the first notions of duty can be seen when Ree …show more content…
Although Ree knows that the family needs the meat, her statement suggests that she is trying to preserve the kids’ childhood innocence. It clear to see that both of the children idolize Ree is some way. Ashlee looks to her as a child would her mother — mimicking everything she does from folding the laundry, cooking the meals, and tending to the animals. Sonny looks to her for parental guidance and knowledge on how to survive, and her influence can clearly be seen on him when he asks about the meals, the way he tends to his younger sister, and the concerns he has when he asks Ree if she’s going to leave them to join the military. Under their observant eyes, Ree knows that they learn from her actions, and they may try providing for one another as she does or worry about their stability, but she doesn’t necessarily want that. She wants them to remain young and innocent and
Shiver is the first of the “The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy” or more commonly known as the “Shiver Trilogy”. It is written by the bestselling author, Maggie Stiefvater. According to GoodReads (n.d.), she currenty lives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia with her husband, children, cows, farting dogs, bizarre cat, fainting goats, and a 1973 Camaro she named as Loki. After finishing her studies, she ended up as a portrait artist with a specialisation in equestrian art. At age 16, she changed her given name, Heidi, to her current one Margaret, hence the nickname, Maggie. She is 33 years old and is the author of the books Linger and Forever, which are sequels to Shiver. Some of the other books she wrote are Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception
In the book “The Boys of Winter” by Wayne Coffey, shows the struggle of picking the twenty men to go to Lake Placid to play in the 1980 Olympics and compete for the gold medal. Throughout this book Wayne Coffey talks about three many points. The draft and training, the importance of the semi-final game, and the celebration of the gold medal by the support the team got when they got home.
In a normal functioning family, both parent and child care for and love one another, and display these feelings. A parent is required to nurture his or her child and assure that the child feels loved by spending time together, and by giving the child sufficient attention. However, there are often times when a parent is unable to fulfill these requirements, which can ultimately have damaging effects on the child. A child who is neglected by his or her parents “perceives the world as a hostile and uncaring place. In addition to this negative perception of the world, the neglect a child faces affects later interaction with his or her peers, prompting the child to become anxious and overly withdrawn” (Goldman). This neglectful type of parenting proves to be a pattern in the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, as the main characters, Jimmy, Crake, and Oryx are crucially affected by their parents’ choices and are unjustly abandoned by them. In this novel, the neglect of parents, especially mothers, is clearly reflected in the behaviours of the three main characters.
Factory workers, especially immigrant women, often work very hard for little pay. They continue working day to day, performing the same tasks endlessly because they have no choice. Their diligence and hard work is portrayed in the poem “My Mother, Who Came From China Where She Never Saw Snow” by Laureen Mar. In the poem, the author uses punctuation, irony, and imagery to demonstrate the struggle female factory workers must overcome to meet ends need.
I am reading the short story, “Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell. In this story a boy is obsessed with a girl and a bass. He asks the girl, Sheila Mant, to go on a date in his canoe, and he brings his fishing rod. He catches a bass and has to decide whether to bring it in or let it go, for Sheila who doesn’t like fishing. In this journal, I will be predicting whether the boy will choose Sheila or the bass.
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
The poem, “Field of Autumn”, by Laurie Lee exposes the languorous passage of time along with the unavoidability of closure, more precisely; death, by describing a shift of seasons. In six stanzas, with four sentences each, the author also contrasts two different branches of time; past and future. Death and slowness are the main motifs of this literary work, and are efficiently portrayed through the overall assonance of the letter “o”, which helps the reader understand the tranquility of the poem by creating an equally calmed atmosphere. This poem is to be analyzed by stanzas, one per paragraph, with the exception of the third and fourth stanzas, which will be analyzed as one for a better understanding of Lee’s poem.
In “Two Kinds,” Amy Tan explores a theme of independence. Jing-me is an impressionable nine year old girl living in an apartment with her parents. She struggles with the high expectations of her mother, to become a prodigy. The conflict results in a rebellious independence. Tan develops Jing-me’s character as willful, defiant, and insecure.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
When you lose someone, it usually hurts. The loss of someone you love is usually associated with grief. In psychology, they classify the grieving process into the five stages of grief. Elizabeth Kübler Ross came up with the theory of the five stages of grief. According to her theory, the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then acceptance, in that order. These five stages of grief can be identified in the characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, a novel narrated by a girl, Susie Salmon, who was raped and murdered by George Harvey, a serial killer that lived in her neighborhood, and the story of how her family deals with her loss and what Susie sees and goes through in her heaven. The author illustrates different
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
To start off, a key point that ended up in a shift of the author’s beliefs upon her culture was demonstrated in the quote, “On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns.The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food.” This quote is essential to the disrespectful tone of of the story. Amy is extremely condescending of her culture and seems embarrassed of her culture and its food.
Is society too egotistical? In Hunters in the Snow, Tobias Wolfe gives an illustration of the selfishness and self-centeredness of humankind through the actions of his characters. The story opens up with three friends going on their habitual hunting routine; their names are Frank, Kenny, and Tub. In the course of the story, there are several moments of tension and arguments that, in essence, exposes the faults of each man: they are all narcissistic. Through his writing in Hunters in the Snow, Wolfe is conveying that the ultimate fault of mankind is egotism and the lack of consideration given to others.
Culture molds the character of writers and gives a variety of different perspective on certain life experiences. In Julia Alvarez’s short story Snow, Yolanda, an immigrant student, moved to New York. While attending a Catholic school in New York, bomb drills were performed. The teacher would explain why these drills were important. Yolanda later found out that her first experience of watching snow was not the best experience one could possibly have.
To what extent does Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Medusa’ challenge stereotypical masculine and feminine attributes?