In The Lives of Girls and Women, the main character Del Jordan grows from a young curious child to a woman. At a young age she is very curious about her sexuality, but is forewarned by her mother to be careful about her decisions. Del's curiosity leads her into making many wrong decisions regarding men. All these wrong decisions cause her to lose everything she had worked so hard for her goals, her dreams ruined. Del's first relationship with a man is Art Chamberlain, who works at the Jubilee radio station and is the boyfriend of Fern Dogherty, the Jordan's resident. Chamberlain begins to grope Del secretly in the presence of others. Del thought of this as a "signal of impertinent violation, so authoritative, clean of sentiment"(Munro 177) Del subsequently chooses to make herself vulnerable by getting into positions where Chamberlain can continuously violate her body. After all this Del still allows him to take her to a secluded place by the river, where he masturbates in front of her. Del doesn't exactly understand his actions but just the thought was horrifying. Mr. Chamberlain leaves Jubilee and Fern. Del is left feeling ashamed and violated. Del's mother uses Fern's case to warn Del against being similarly distracted by a man, and allowing it interfere with her ambitions: " Once you make that mistake, of being distracted over a man, your life will never be your own." (193) As Del grows she become close friends with Jerry Storey, who competes with her for top marks at Jubliee High School and claims to have the highest IQ ever seen in Wawanash high schools. Jerry belittles Del's intellect, characterizing it as feminine and abstract. This uncaring relationship becomes odd when Del gets a bit to curious and ends up ... ... middle of paper ... ...er to realize that she has to think about her decisions and what she gave up in order to be with Garnet her identity. This is proven when she says "And already I felt my old self in the stupid pain of loss."(263) This shows that Del lost her beliefs and values when she began dating Garnet. Addie also noticed this and confronted Del saying "You've gone addled over a boy do you want to be the wife of a lumber yard worker..." (240) Before Del met Garnet she was a good student and because she spent so much doing what he wanted her marks dropped and lost all of her chances at getting a scholarship. Del has many different relationships with men but does not learn from the relationship and doesn't make sure these decisions are not repeated. Del doesn't take her mothers advise to heart. In the end Del has nothing, she has not accomplish her goals, or reached her dreams.
This is also shown when Maida feels as though “Uncle Nathan could still pick out a girl and marry her” (4). The term “pick out a girl’ (4) implies that women are simply chosen and selected to be married without any thought being put into it. Also, Maida continues to say that she “[feels] that way about women” but she “never [thinks] of men that way” (4) when she wonders why Uncle Nathan wasn’t married as of yet, implying that it’s usual for men to still be interested in marriage at an older age, whereas women become continuously undesirable as they age. Furthermore, the reoccurring standard of beauty is evident when Uncle Nathan continues to compare Eunice and Delia as he states that “[Eunice] [is] prettier than Delia” and that she didn’t seem to be “the sort of girl to need anyone’s help in finding a husband” (7).
Hurston puts many biblical allusions in this short story. Delia is a woman with strong faith. At one point , she even went to the extent of changing her church so she would not have to deal with Syke (Hurston 707). Sykes is said to “ have strayed from God’s path of righteousness” (Hurd 3). One allusion that contributes to Delia’s character is the following:
She’s just so weak. If she would stand up for herself, no one would bother her. It’s her own fault that people pick on her, she needs to toughen up. “Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod, introduces us to a group of girls trying to “fit in” in their own culture, “school.” This story goes into detail about what girls will do to feel accepted and powerful, and the way they deal with everyday occurrences in their “world.” Most of the story is through the eyes of one particular character, we learn about her inner struggles and how she deals with her own morals. This story uses verisimilitude, and irony to help us understand the strife of children just wanting to fit in and feel normal in schools today.
largely inferior to men at the time when this story was written. The story revolves around a couple Delia and Sykes, who have been unhappily married for 15 long years. It focuses on the turning point in Delia’s life when her husband wants her to go away from his life but eventually falls in his own trap and dies.
Speaking with the females, Henderson and the other men make a key mistake that the women get their identity from their relationship to men. For example, Henderson tells Mrs. Peters that just because she is married to the sheriff, she is also married to the law so she is a reliable to obey the law. Mrs. Peters suggests that over the course, she has discovered a different aspect of herself that ties more closely to her experience as a woman than to her marriage to Mr. Peters. Mrs. Hale concludes, all women go through...
“Early on, the narrative establishes that Sykes both physically and mentally torments Delia. Scolding him for scaring her by sliding across her knee a bullwhip that she thinks is a snake, Delia say...
Delia is a hard-working woman who is very obedient and faithful to her husband, Sykes. Through harsh words, he cuts her down about her work of washing white folks clothes and her looks saying that he 'hates skinny woman';. Delia's appearance resembles her hard work, with 'knuckly hands'; from using the washboard. Delia has put many hard- earned tears, blood, and sweat into her house while supporting Sykes' habits and taking all the abuse he could dish out. On many occasions Sykes has cut down Delia and her kind nature, even to her religious beliefs, accusing her of being a 'hipocrite'; because she worked on the Sabbath day.
Montag is unfeeling because as him being married to mildred and he ask her questions
“The Found Boat” by Alice Munro is a story about five teenagers that learn to explore and have a sense of freedom after finding a boat washed ashore after a flood. The boat becomes a common ground used between the characters to become closer friends and explore things in the world around them. This boat that they find gives these kids a new found form of freedom and they embrace that.
DeLacey is the Parisian-turned-blind-peasant who lives in a cottage with his son and daughter. He is a nice old man: "descended from a good family in France", he was the only person who treats the monster kindly because he was blind. His family experiences were also tragic. This gives the monster the idea that he is not the only one who suffered from an injustice. At first the monster did not know any of the family stories or had the courage to meet them; he camped around their cottage and observed them. He started his self-education through the observation
In his culture there is a lack of emotion and love towards anyone or anything in general. People don’t remember why they love each other or why they’re together and do not care for one another. This lack of love and emotion is shown between Montag and Mildred in their relationship. After Montag confronts Mildred about taking the pills she appears to be confused and denies it stating she “never in a billion years” would take a bottle full of pills. The discourse in their relationship may be the main reason she takes pills. She appears to have depression due to the way her marriage has developed and how she lives her life. To cope with her problems she takes a bottle full of pills to try to kill herself. The TVs in the parlor are there to distract her from the pain she truly feels inside, but when the TVs go off and she is in her room she cannot deal with what she's in the mirror. This connects to an article titled Mental Disorders in which a person with depression is described as having “feelings of guilt” and “thoughts of death or suicide”. The feelings of guilt Mildred feels are due to her awareness of the absence of love in her marriage, and inside it tears her apart because she knows that it is not how things are supposed to be with her
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
Sykes had a mistress named Bertha who he spoiled all the time, but the people in town always wondered why he never paid attention to Delia. Walter Thomas, one of the men from the store, said, “Ah 'd uh married huh mahself if he hadnter beat me to it.” (Hurston) All the men in town were jealous of Sykes because of Delia. But Sykes, on the other hand, didn 't see what he had right in front of him. The plotting of Delia 's death was all done by Sykes. He went out of his way to get a rattlesnake and place it in the clothes hamper with the lid on, hoping it would strike her while washing clothes. When Delia saw the snake, she scurried outside and hid in the barn until Sykes arrived home. Delia calmly stated, “Ah done de bes ' ah could. If things aint right, Gawd knows it aint mah fault.” (Hurston) After the freak accident of Sykes being struck by the rattlesnake and suffering a long and painful death, Delia, hearing all the screaming and moaning coming from inside her “broken” home, sat under a Chinaberry tree that was in the front yard. She felt a sense of relief after she heard Sykes crying for her help and her knowing that she could not do anything to help. Her fear of their relationship and of him that went on for 15 years, was finally over and she felt as if she achieved her
In the story, “Boys and Girls”, the narrator is not the only one coming to terms with their identity.
In Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder teaches philosophy and it explains basic philosophical ideas better than any other reading book or textbook that I have ever read. The many philosophical lessons of the diversified thinkers of their own time were dexterously understood. The author has a wonderful knack for finding the heart of a concept and placing it on display. For example, he metamorphoses Democritus' atoms into Lego bricks and in a stroke makes the classical conception of the atom dexterously attainable. He relates all the abstract concepts about the world and what is real with straightforward everyday things that everyone can relate to which makes this whole philosophy course manageable. ''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15).