An Interpretation of Jean Rhys' Used to Live Here Once
Jean Rhys’ “I Used to Live Here Once” is a very well written and thought through short story. Rhy is very descriptive about all of the surroundings in the story. She makes sure to leave out no details regardless if the reader realizes it or not. That is why I say Jean Rhys’ “I Used to Live Here Once” is not about where “she” use to live, it is about a woman remembering the first time she knew that she was dead.
The story begins with her standing on the bank, staring and “remembering” each “stepping stone” (Rhys 358). Everything was just as she remembered at the river. As well as it should have been, for that is where she died, and her spirit has remained until she decided to go home. The last stone she remembered is a very important element of the story. She remembers that, “The next wasn’t so safe for when the river was full the water flowed over it and even when it showed dry it was slippery. But after that it was easy and soon she was standing on the other side” (358). The importance is that the unsafe rock was what caused her death. She slipped on it and fell into the river and lay dead beneath the water for many years. Now her spirit has returned and she is trying to go home. She knows that it “was” easy after this stone, because she had done this several times before (358).
When she saw the road, she immediately realized that it was wider than before. At this point everything around her was familiar but damaged. The road was wider, but it was poorly done. The trees were still there, but they were lying on the ground. The bushes were still there, but they “looked trampled” (358). Although everything was not exa...
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...59), because “she” was eye to eye with the boy and he sensed her spirit. That is why the children never responded.
In the last paragraph the narrator states, “That this was the first time she knew” (359). That indeed was the “first time that she (narrator) knew” that she was dead.
I feel the moral of this story is that we have to live each day as if it were our last. For tomorrow is not promised to any one. And that the decisions we make are life-long and it is not possible to go back and re-live or change the past. Therefore since tomorrow is not promised and we can not go back to yesterday, we must live each day to the fullest with no regrets.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Rhys, Jean. “ I Used to Live Here Once.” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Eds. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 1999. 358-59
Coontz, Stephanie. “For Better, For Worse.” The Contemporary Reader. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. 10th edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. 496-499. Print.
Literature: Penguin Edition. The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 561-562. Print.
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Filban said the home had a yard that was overgrown. “The trees and bushes were overgrown, and the house was dark,” Filban said. “And the windows were covered.” She and her sister slept in the front bedroom of the house. She remembers the bedroom having a large, floor-to-ceiling window. She said you could look out and see the wra...
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Literary text sheds light on different erasures through which a dominant Canadian national narrative of benevolence and tolerance emerges. In What We All Long For by Dionne Brand., this tolerance becomes more specific as readers are able to see a struggle in race, generational difference and identity. However, these concepts lead to the creation space negotiation in order to establish Toronto as a home. Through this negotiation there are two kinds of erasures that emerge: fictional and historical. The fictional erasures work to create an unconscious space for the characters. This means that the characters navigate spaces in an intangible manner where they face issues that are not directly impacting to them. It is brought on or is created by the issues they ‘actually’ face. The ‘actual’ issues that these characters face are then transposed into a greater erasure that presents itself as a historical erasure. The fictional erasure becomes a mirror of the historical erasure as it sheds light on how the text manoeuvre through space and time in the text. Though Brand addresses the issues of tolerance while enabling a dominant national Canadian narrative, the novel reveals the generational differences as the vehicle to the negotiation of space. The negotiation of space draws attention to the fictional and historical erasures that show white hegemony as Brand illuminate the issues of immigration, blackness and generational gaps.
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Often times I find myself reminiscing about my child hood. I recall driving throughout the prominent metro Detroit neighborhood in which I grew up, Rosedale Park. See in those days my community was a gem which shone bright toward the edification of the Motor City. On streets like Piedmont, Grandville, Stahelin and Artesian one could drive by almost at any time and see children outside playing, adults on porches and sidewalks fellowshipping, and houses abounding with vibrant lights, laughter, and with life. This was my community; moreover, this was a facet of my adolescence that I ignorantly took for granted. Today desolation has grown sovereign over this beautiful gem. Today the sounds of laughter have all but faded into a resounding restless silence. One could even say that abandoned houses and boarded doors and windows have become indigenous, not only to Rosedale Park, but to every part of the metro Detroit area. However, one thing has remained constant; Rosedale Park, no rather Detroit as a whole is still my community.
In the end, the poem is looking to show what actions can do in the long run. It teaches us to be very cautious with everything we do since it can affect the people around us. It can have good or bad
...In her death-throes, she lands on her brother, causing him to die of fright. The narrator escapes only to see the entire
The fact that her husband was standing at the bottom of the stairs was not the cause of her death. It was her time to die. " Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife, but Richards was too late. (Paragraph 21& 22)"
The stories suggest we shouldn’t be spending so much time trying to get to the “Happy Ending”, and we should be more concerned about what’s going on in the middle. The majority of us are that typical person living the typical life, and perhaps Atwood is suggesting that we strive for more.
... “He stood on a stone bridge where the waters slurried into a pool and turned slowly in gray foam. Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current, tracking their perfect shadows on the stones beneath” (25). There is a direct correlation, I believe, with this passage and the final paragraph. The difference, however, is that in the final paragraph the reader gets the sense that there no way to return to this beautiful place and that all is lost. It reminds me of a lesser-known saying that goes something like: “The egg. Perfect in form. Until we chip away at it, and we are left with nothing but greasy breakfast. It’s still an egg, but it’s not the same.” The world in this novel is like this egg. Perfect in form, but slowly being chipped away at by humankind until eventually we will be left with a new, less beautiful and less awe-inspiring, version of the world.
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
I feel this book was a great read, and that the story can apply to anyone’s life no matter what the age. It can relate to parents, as Paul Auster recants the life of his father Samuel Auster. It can apply to younger people, as Paul told of his childhood and the things he learned from his father. It will also apply to elderly people’s lives because of how the story portrayed the importance of memory, and enjoying life to the fullest. I think the book is also very easy to understand by the way the author used examples of stories such as Pinocchio and the story of Jonah to teach his lessons.