Throughout Maggie Mitchell’s novel Pretty Is Carly May and Lois repeatedly hold Zed as an Idol that could never do wrong and no one could be better than him. This causes both Carly May and Lois to have unhealthy relationships throughout their adulthood. For example Lois cannot respond to the feeling Brad, a colleague at the school, shows toward her. Making the relation, they have strained. In addition, Chloe unable to keep a relationship with any male including her father runs away from the situation refusing to confront it. The strain becomes so bad between her and her father that she leaves home and never contacts him again. The pull Zed has also causes them both to have high praise for anything that Zed said. An example of this can be seen …show more content…
At the very end of the novel, both girls reflect on Zed. Lois refers back to him unlike she has before, criticizing him, by saying, “He was quite selfish in a way”, where Chloe retorts “’Yeah’…‘just a little selfish. He never meant to break our hearts’” (Mitchell 304). This tells us that the girls had actually fallen in love with Zed. Due to this attraction both girls had towards him at such a young age when the bond broke, when he dies, both girls hearts are shatter unable to form whole again keeping them from having stable relationships with other men. When a man comes into Chloe’s life, she begins to compare both his mannerisms and face to Zed. When Chloe goes out to eat with the writer, Stephen, she begins to imagine Zed sitting across from her. She says, “I even let myself imagine that I see a hint of Zed in his face” (Mitchell 85), once he begins to criticize the book that Lois wrote about them and Zed “The hint of Zed vanishes” (Mitchell 86). Chloe wanted to see Zed in him, but once Stephen began to criticize, her life with Zed she begins to despise him and Zed’s present disappears. Likewise, Lois became the same way toward Brad. Brad being the main man in Lois’ life after Zed she is unable to start a romantic relationship with him. She pushes …show more content…
Zed being a very charismatic man caused both Chloe and Lois to become attracted to him. This leads to the three of them creating a special bond early on. In the beginning of the novel Chloe describes her trusting of Zed being due to the way he looked at her, “As if he knew me perfectly, as if he could read my mind, as if I were the only person in the world who mattered. Doesn’t everyone want to be looked at that way?” (Mitchell 5). This shows how much his first impression left an impact on Chloe, how much she was attracted to him as soon as he picked her up. For a girl at her age to have a man look at her as if she is that important is almost magical, and very dangerous. For this small look to cause Chloe too, willingly get into his car shows how charismatic Zed was. After living with Zed for only a few months the two girls had become like a family. The three of them would read books, play games, and talk as if they were a real family. Then when they left Zed, both girls relationship with their real families fell apart due to that strong bond they had with Zed and each other. Not long after returning from Zed Chloe got into a fight with her brother nearly pocking his eye out. This causes her dad to kick her out and sending her to his mothers. Before long, she decided to leave the small town. Going for one
Zailckas has very low self-esteem and confidence. Two of the most important things a woman struggles with while growing up, and here we find the author still struggling with these problems in her adult life. Zailckas experiences a regression that keeps taking her back to her teenage years before the drinking, which demonstrates she was never able to mature. She keeps going back to that regression because it was the time in her life before the alcohol, that allowed her to believe in her own confidence. Alcohol was her self-medication, she believed it helped her become herself.
Daisy’s line about her wishing her daughter was a “beautiful fool,” was actually first said by Zelda during Scottie’s birth years before the writing of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald wrote it down at the time and never asked permission to use it. He even reframes the quote to make it seem like Daisy— or in this case, Zelda—is plagiarizing the thoughts of her husband. Zelda accused Fitzgerald of such plagiarism in his other novels as well. In her review of Fitzgerald’s second Novel, The Beautiful and Damned, Zelda had noticed that a good portion of the writing came directly from her diary and wrote: “In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald … seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home" (Keats). Fitzgerald’s incorporation of Zelda’s material was more than a common occurrence. But, Zelda never received any acknowledgment from Fitzgerald for co-writing. Zelda is the unsung hero held back by Fitzgerald’s jealousy and authority as a male in the unjust patriarchal society. Ring Lardner, Jr. said, “Scott is a novelist and Zelda is a novelty” (Keats). As the novelist, Fitzgerald depicts what he wants about Zelda because she has no power over him. In the same way, the men in The Great Gatsby can do what they want and Daisy has to face the consequences. As Person argues “Daisy, in fact, is more victim than victimizer: she is victim first of Tom Buchanan's ‘cruel’ power, but then of Gatsby's increasingly depersonalized vision of her. She becomes the unwitting ‘grail’ (p. I49) in Gatsby's adolescent quest” (Person,
& nbsp; A Destructive Society Exposed in Maggie &nbs & nbsp ; In Maggie, Stephen Crane deals with poverty and vice, not out of curiosity or to promote debauchery but as a defiant statement voicing the life in slums. Drawing on personal experience, he described the rough and treacherous environment that persisted in the inner-city. By focusing on the Johnsons, Crane personalizes a large tragedy that affected and reflected American society as a whole.
Some people are made tough; others are born with a certain resilience that makes them less susceptible to being brought down by their surroundings or their predispositions. Stephen Crane’s character Maggie in his work Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is one of those unique few who has a little something extra in her being, some fiber that is stronger. Others in Maggie’s situation would likely fold under the pressure and succumb to what some might see as an inevitable destiny. Maggie, however, withstands great amounts of pressure and survives it for much longer than a weaker personality would. She does fall prey to the stereotype that a person is born either exceptional or lowly, but Maggie shows great potency and will power throughout her trials. It is her strength that fights the evil that surrounds her. She is in a battle with herself: On one side, there is Maggie, the girl not of the streets but rather the girl who wants more for herself. On the other hand, there is Maggie, the stereotype, the girl who cannot escape who she is destined to become. Influenced by forces beyond Maggie’s control, she falls prey to the novella’s title and becomes of the streets. Maggie, as Crane describes her, “blossomed in a mud puddle” (Crane 18), but even though the beautiful flower is visible, it is covered in mud. Maggie would be a character easily forgotten if it were not for her resilience that is manifest in her resistance to what becomes her fate.
Many times when reading a novel, the reader connects with one of the characters and begins to sympathize with them. This could be because the reader understands what the character is going through or because we get to see things from the character’s perspective and their emotions and that in return allows a bond to form for the reader. The character that is the most intriguing for me and the one I found comparing to every book that I read during school was Stacey from the book “Ravensong” Lee Maracle. The character Stacey goes through a lot of internal battle with herself and it’s on her path to discovery that she begins to understand herself and what she’s capable of. Throughout the novel, Stacey has a few issues she tries to work through. This is emphasized through her village and in her school that is located across the bridge in white town. Stacey begins dealing with the loss of Nora, and elder in her town. And this in return begins the chain of events that Stacey begins on the path of self-discovery not only on herself but everyone around her. She begins to see things differently and clearly. Stacey is a very complex and confused character, and she begins to work through these complexities through her thoughts, statements and actions.
Storytelling’s impact on people who use it has been life saving in certain cases. By asserting the existence of different perspectives, writers get to suppress their own opinions in order to sympathize with others. (insert thing about meta-fiction) With this idea in mind, author Kate Taylor wrote the novel Serial Monogamy, a meta-fiction of a writer recalling the story of her husband’s affair and her deal with terminal breast cancer, all through her telling of Dickens’ secret life and tales of the Arabian Nights. In Serial Monogamy, storytelling makes people more understanding as they explore new perspectives.
How would one feel if ones significant other was constantly disobeying the relationship? In Irwin Shaw’s “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses”, he shows how important having a trustworthy and honest relationship is. This short story highlights the flaws in romantic relationships by demonstrating how one needs some type of relationship in life, how fragile a relationship can be, and how many take loved ones for granted.
Within two marriages, there are two extramarital affairs. These take place between Gatsby and Daisy as well as between Myrtle and Tom. Both Tom and Daisy appear to know about the affairs going on, but fail to do anything about it. They are passive aggressive when dealing with each other and continue to wreck people 's lives in the process. Daisy leads Gatsby on without seriously considering leaving Tom. Originally, Daisy promised herself to Gatsby, but instead, married Tom to fit into society’s standards. However, this idea of following society’s standards is cast out of her mind because she becomes consumed with the pursuit of her own pleasure than with her household. This is exactly the type of woman Zelda was in her marriage. Zelda had an affair with Edouard Jozan and in her opinion, it was not a symbol of unfaithfulness because sex was a fairly impersonal transcendent experience (Lanahan 25). Lanahan further argues that Zelda was the model for many of Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional heroines is not a point to be debated. It was no secret even at that time that he used Zelda and Zelda’s experience in the interest of his art. Fitzgerald’s use of Zelda to create his characters displays how accurate his depiction of the 1920’s woman is. Especially in the case of Daisy, Zelda can be seen. From being unsatisfied and therefore turning to another acquaintance for attention, to her wild and careless attitude towards life, Daisy’s character closely resembles the historical facts of Zelda’s life. The carelessness of the women in The Great Gatsby affects the relationships between men and women in the
The friend’s conversation somehow got on the subject of love (Carver 330). Mel thinks that “real love was nothing less than spiritual love” (Carver 330). Terri said that her ex “loved her so much he tried to kill her” (Carver 330). Nick and Laura do not really voice their opinions on the subject, instead show it through small gestures (Carver 333). The gestures show that love cannot be explained, but that it can be shown. The conflict of the story goes along with the plot. The friends all disagree on the meaning of love, and no one is able to explain or prove what love truly
The main character Jaycee is with her boyfriend Skyler. Jaycee really loves Skyler and he really loves her. They both think that they can only really talk to and trust each other. Jaycee is looking into the death of her friend and doesn’t want to tell anyone but Skyler. Skyler loves her a lot and near the end after things start coming together Skyler tells her what he did and hopes she won’t hate him. He tells her that he killed Manny because he loved Rachel, but then he meet her Rachel told him to stay away from Jaycee. He didn’t want Rachel to keep them apart so he killed her. Then he tries to kill Jaycee and himself. In the end she doesn’t want to but some part of her still loves
The majority of the book is told by a tall and pretty seventeen-year-old, Ariel Pearson. She is affectionate despite her complex relationship with her father, Mark Pearson. While being on the road since the age of three, she is always pursuing to please her father, and his complicated relationships. Ariel and her father ultimately settle down in Sonora, California, to live with of her father's new girlfriend. Ariel is searching for her own identity. Life becomes even more complicated when she enrolls in Sonora High School her junior year. She establishes a group called the Freak Club with her new friends, Syrah and Monica. Syrah is introduced towards the beginning of the book. She is the wild child out of the three, dealing with separated parents, a step-mother, and twin brothers. Monica is Ariel’s best friend, who is a Mexican-American, Catholic lesbian. Ariel begins to have feelings for Monica but has been raised to believe that homosexuality is obverse. While she’s confident of her emotions for Monica, someone else has begun to strike her eye. Gabe, her father’s girlfriend’s nephew, has her questioning if she even knows what she craves from a relationship. Gabe is the oldest teenager out of the group, 19-years-old, who is up to no
Creating flawed female characters allowed Fitzgerald to breakdown the idealization of women in America. By corrupting the flawless image of women, he criticizes the toxic masculinity pulsing through the social norms. Jordan, in particular, as an emancipated woman, is a threat to Nick’s masculinity. Nick reflects on his feelings on Jordan by claiming, ¨dishonesty in women is something you never blame deeply¨ (Fitzgerald 58). Jordan blurs gender roles because she wants the independence of the modern woman and the security of a man. As a result of striving for independence, Fitzgerald strips Jordan of her
Gloria Naylor creates a peaceful place called Bailey’s café in her book, where people can find their confidence and release their stress. Bailey and his wife, Nadine, are the owners of the cafe, and Bailey is also the most important narrator in the book. By running the cafe, Bailey meets a lot of different customers who share some common but have particular life experiences. Some of the customers are white, while most of them are “colored people”, the same as Bailey. Through describing various stories from those customers who come and visit Bailey’s cafe, Naylor guides the readers to think more deeply about gender instead of ethnicity when we can see how different a male and female is treated in such a society.
...lec because he has caused too much heartbreak in her life already that she wasn’t going to be able living unless she knew that his previous actions had had their consequences. Unfortunately, Tess is sentenced to death because of this murder and Tess’ tragic life ends with her knowing that the man who scarred her life is no longer alive. The novel ends with Angel and Tess at the Stone Hedges reunited until the police take her in and execute her.
While the use of language by Stephen Crane does help facilitate the meaning of “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” there are ways in which it can be changed to reflect the time period of Cassandra Clare 's Clockwork Angel, without taking away from the overall message. This is accomplished by making the majority of the changes solely to the world building sections, rather than the dialog itself. Take for instance this section: