How Far She Went by Mary Hood and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
Synopsis 1. One of the more interesting literary selections in Perrine's Story and Structure was " How far she went" by Mary Hood.
The setting in this story takes place in a rural american town. There is the girl, who's name is never revealed and the Grandma, who's name is never revealed as well. The girl is kept at her grandma's house against her will. Her father sent her out to her Grandma's not telling her that she would be staying for good. The Grandma is very critical of everything the girl does. She doesn't approve of any aspect of the girls character. The girl feels the same way about her Grandma. Neither two of the characters get along.
After an argument the girl runs off, disappointed with her surrounding circumstances. The Grandma continues to do her chores up the street of their large property when two bikers roared up with the girl clinching to the back of one of them.
After an argument the girl was forced back home with her grandma.
Later on as they were driving the two motorcyclists tormented their vehicle throwing bottles and shooting their guns. Eventually they crashed their car and had to run to the woods and hide out from the rowdy boys. They chose to hide under a dock. The dog would not be quiet so the Grandma had to drown him. The boys never found the girl and Grandma. The frightening experience strengthened the bond between the Grandma and girl ( Hood 121- 129).
Synopsis 2. One of the more interesting literary selections in Perrine's Story and Structure was " Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield.
In this story the interpretation of Miss Brill's character is revealed through her observation of other people. The story starts out as Miss Brill with Miss Brill describing the sensation of her fur coat upon her skin and how it made her feel. The setting takes place on a bustling Sunday afternoon in the center of a town. Miss Brill has made it a routine for her to go out on these Sunday afternoons dressed up at her finest, and go people watching.
She takes a seat where a live band is playing, and next to her is the same old couple who always sits their every Sunday, and never says a word.
The Grandmother often finds herself at odds with the rest of her family. Everyone feels her domineering attitude over her family, even the youngest child knows that she's "afraid she'd miss something she has to go everywhere we go"(Good Man 2). Yet this accusation doesn't seem to phase the grandmother, and when it is her fault alone that the family gets into the car accident and is found by the Misfit, she decides to try to talk her way out of this terrible predicament.
Not only is the grandmother portrayed as being selfish, she's also very annoying. She talks from the moment they leave the house all the way until they have the accident. She is constantly talking about the scenery or telling a pointless story. She seemingly has good intentions to break the tension between the family members, but her intentions definitely fail. Instead of breaking the tension, she causes everyone to become agit...
At the beginning of the story we are led to believe that the grandmother is morally superior to the other characters in the story, especially The Misfit. Who we are led to believe is an evil criminal, but in fact the rolls are reversed. The Grandmother sits lower on the moral ladder than The Misfit. She looks judgmentally on other people but never turns that look toward herself. She believes this until the end of the story right before she is killed. Even though The Misfit commits horrendous crimes, he still admits that he is not a good man.
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
France, Marie De. Lanval. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. 127-140.
Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.
Although no one was killed, the grandmother limped out of the car and said "I believe I have injured an organ," still trying to seek attention. In addition, when the family sees a car from on top of the hill, "The grandmother stood up and waved both arms dramatically to attract their attention." ( O 'Connor 716) Furthermore, three men came out of the car and the grandmother thought that the driver 's face looked familiar. She later recognized him from the newspaper she had read and said: "You 're The Misfit!" The grandmother began to cry and said: "You wouldn 't shoot a lady, would you?" ( O 'Connor 717)
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
The Third Person-Point of View as used by Katherine Mansfield in “Miss Brill” Katherine Mansfield’s use of the third person, limited omniscient point of view in “Miss Brill” has the effect of letting the reader see the contrast between Miss Brill’s idea of her role in life and the reality of the small part she truly plays in world around her. In one short Sunday afternoon, the main character’s view of herself changes dramatically different changes. Until the end, the reader does not realize the view is like a mirror at a carnival, clear on the outside edges and distorted in the centre. Mansfield’s use of the story’s point of view causes her readers to look inside themselves to see if they also view life as Miss Brill does: as they wish it to be, not as it is. In the beginning, Miss Brill sees herself as an observer of life, somehow separate, but yet an integral part of life. From the first sentence, “Although it was so brilliantly fine--the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques”(49), the reader is made aware of her wonderfully vivid imagination. She seems to notice everything. In addition, she paints it in such words that we see it also. As readers, we want to believe that Miss Brill really has a deep understanding of the world around her. Yet Miss Brill wishes to be a part of the world and not apart from it, so we see her view shift to include herself. Now we begin to wonder about her...
The granny and the misfit are two completely opposite characters that possess two different beliefs. The grandmother puts herself on a high pedestal and the way she calls the misfit ‘a good person’ based upon his family background gives the reader an idea of what the grandmother acknowledges to be considered as ‘good’. Self absorbed as sh...
The grandmother thinks she recognizes the driver; then it hit her that he is the Misfit. She stood and made it known to him that she knew who he was. The Misfit said it would have been better if they had not recognized him. Bailey said something harsh enough to his mother that shocked everyone. Grandmother began to cry while the Misfit said not to get upset, because some men say things they don’t mean.
Miss Brill is without any relatives or close friends. She has no acquaintances to converse with. Therefore, she treats her fur as if it were a pet. Her fur is a “dear little thing” (98) with eyes and a tail. She sometimes feels like “stroking” it (98).
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Mansfield, Katherine. "Miss Brill." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 1999. 258-61.