In short stories, characters play a primary role in the development of the storyline. Especially in “Strong Horse Tea”, Alice Walker focuses on telling her story through the emotions and evolution of the characters. It focuses on Rannie Toomer’s desperate efforts to save her son, Snooks, with her neighbor, Sarah. Rannie and Sarah are representations of dynamic and static characters, respectively. With assistance of the antiheroes, the mailman and an alleged doctor, Rannie encounters a rough realization that causes a shift in the story. Rannie’s son suffers with double pneumonia and whooping cough. Walker describes Rannie as an unattractive black woman, who is very poor, filthy, and lives far from the city. Since she is poor and disconnected …show more content…
Unlike Rannie, Sarah illustrates a fixed character, which is one who remains constant in their beliefs (K&G 78). Sarah, “skeptically, under her breath” chants “‘white mailman, white doctor”’, “as if to banish spirits” (Walker 2). Walker intentionally makes it clear that Sarah is not confident in the competence of white people’s assistance. Rannie told a white mailman about her son’s health, who is supposed to relay the message to another white doctor. Sarah does not believe the white men to be useful to black women like themselves. To add to the severity of Sarah’s animosity, she “banishes” them, as in forbidding them to come assist Rannie. She encourages Rannie to instead rely on her home methods, but Rannie rejects her offer. Nonetheless, Sarah is consistent in her feelings. Throughout the story, she repeatedly suggests that Rannie uses home remedies regardless of Sarah’s …show more content…
Together they play the role of the “white man”, whom Rannie is reliant upon and Sarah detests. In the stormy weather, the mailman is expected to go out of his way to retrieve a medic for a poor black woman. It is he that Rannie places all of her faith into; he falsifies her hope. She is indeed idealistic in the start of the story, but by the end, her idealism drains when he does not show up. From Rannie’s perspective, they both assume the portrayal of antiheroes. An antihero is “a protagonist conspicuously lacking in one or more of the usual attributes of a traditional hero, bravery, skill, idealism, sense of purpose” (K&G). Neither the mailman nor the doctor demonstrate characteristics of a hero. The mailman claims they will “‘do what [they] can,”’ but when Rannie touches him he “[cringes] from the thought that she had put her hands on him” (Walker 4). His cringing demonstrates his malicious regards towards Rannie. He tells her that he is going to try to help, but his actions prove otherwise. While Rannie is pleading and begging for aid, he “hurriedly rolled up the window and sped down the road” (Walker 4). It is clear that he has no intentions of hearing what Rannie has to say. His hasty departure is not depicted in an eager-to-help manner, but rather a vicious way. He makes an effort to remove himself from the situation as quickly as possible. Regardless of their possible feelings
After reading the passage, “Clover”, by Billy Lombardo, a reader is able to describe a particular character’s interactions and analyze descriptions of this individual. In the passage, “Clover”, is a teacher, Graham. He, in his classroom, shares something that had occurred that morning. In this passage, the author, Billy Lombardo, describes interaction, responses, and unique characteristics and traits of the key character, Graham.
In the story, this group of brownies came from the south suburbs of Atlanta where whites are “…real and existing, but rarely seen...” (p.518). Hence, this group’s impression of whites consisted of what they have seen on TV or shopping malls. As a result, the girls have a narrow view that all whites were wealthy snobs with superiority like “Superman” and people that “shampoo-commercial hair” (p.518). In their eyes “This alone was the reason for envy and hatred” (p 518). So when Arnetta felt “…foreign… (p.529), as a white woman stared at her in a shopping mall you sense where the revenge came from.
In All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy reveals the limitations of a romantic ideology in the real world. Through his protagonist, John Grady Cole, the author offers three main examples of a man’s attempt to live a romantic life in the face of hostile reality: a failed relationship with an unattainable woman; a romantic and outdated relationship with nature; and an idealistic decision to live as an old-fashioned cowboy in an increasingly modern world. In his compassionate description of John Grady, McCarthy seems to endorse these romantic ideals. At the same time, the author makes clear the harsh reality and disappointments of John Grady’s chosen way of life.
The characters and their traits in the short story, “Good Country People,” play a major role in enhancing the plot of the story. The short story’s main character, Hulga Hopewell, is a physically impaired thirty-two-year-old woman who uses her physical complications as
In Wright’s short story “Long Black Song”, through his anger about white men, Silas reveals that the black woman is the source of African American difficulties. His anger for white men is triggered when he learns about Sarah’s interaction with the young white man selling clocks and gramophones. It escalates as he discovers that Sarah was raped by the white man. When the white man returns with his colleague for the gramophone, Silas whips and shoots at them. He wishes “all them white folks dead” (436). As he is expressing his hatred toward white men, his anger shifts to Sarah:
Morrison uses the awkwardness of the two women’s meetings combined with the words spoken by the women to portray the confusion of race throughout the story. The first meeting was at Saint Bonaventure when they were roommates. Twyla’s mother was “always dancing” as a stripper and Roberta’s mother was a well off business woman “who was always sick” (Morrison) as Roberta would say. In the time period of the story, it would have made sense that a black mother would not have had a good paying job as a business woman. Because of this, one would think that Twyla was the black child while Roberta was the white one. Also, both girls’ mothers come to visit St. Bonny’s one day. Morrison focuses on the interaction between the grown women. Twyla’s mother, Mary, is dressed inappropriately and Roberta’s mother is dressed very well with “an enormous cross on her even more enormou...
Alice Walker is vital to the ideas of literary traditions because she is a writer who speaks about how she feels. She writes from what she knows, not what she has learned. Walker, in her stories expressed the problems that may have kept a group in people from achieving what they wanted in life, but still managed to show that these people still had joy in their lives. Her works should continue to be incorporated into Literature on the college level in order to maintain for those who do not understand the plot of African Americans the struggle they faced. She is a powerful force in the Literature that can stand with the likes of Shakespeare because she presents her works in a manner to make the reader think about what life and what is really important. All three of these short stories support the main thought in this essay because Walker as a writer, wrote from what she knew; she grew up in a culture where African Americans seemed to be enslaved to their race which in turn, forced them
O’Connor powerfully made the reader realize that having an epiphany opens up our mind to a clearer insight, and this was seen with the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Mrs. Turpin in “Revelation.” Nonetheless, O’Connor also created characters that obtained a certain type of violence deep within their personality to show the importance of real life experiences within our society. These two short stories show a great amount of emotion and life lessons towards the reader, and O’Connor successfully conveyed her point while using her powerful Southern gothic writing technique.
It has been said of Anton Chekhov, the renown Russian short-story writer, that in all of his “work, there is never exactly a point. Rather we see into someone’s hear – in just a few pages, the curtain concealing these lives has been drawn back, revealing them in all their helplessness and rage and rancor.” Alice Munro, too, falls into this category. Many of her short-stories, such as “Royal Beatings” focus more on character revelation rather than plot.
Lareau’s main argument in the text is that when children grow up in certain environments, parents are more likely to use specific methods of child rearing that may be different from other families in different social classes. In the text, Lareau describes how she went into the home of the McAllisters and the Williams, two black families leading completely different lives. Ms. McAllister lives in a low income apartment complex where she takes care of her two children as well as other nieces and nephews. Ms. McAllister never married the father of her two children and she relies on public assistance for income. She considers herself to be a woman highly capable of caring for all the children yet she still struggles to deal with the stress of everyday financial issues. The Williams on the other hand live in a wealthier neighborhood and only have one child. Mr. W...
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
Like any other novel or short story, a lot can be learned about the actual story by understanding the historical content embedded in the piece. Louise Erdrich draws from her her imagination, life experiences, and social climate to piece together American Horse into a fictitious short story that somehow manages to give the reader a very real sense of the socioeconomic divide between the two groups portrayed in the story.
Rannie is unaware of who she is and how others view her. She does not
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
Walker made known she believed that despite the challenges in your life you can over come with guidance and motivation. “ Women in general are not a part of the corrupt of the past so they give a new kind of leadership” (Royster 85). The novel is based on the revolution of women out of a form of slavery.” Celie finds a glimpse of courage when she identifies with the character, Shug Avery. Celie is exposed to confidence and self- love. “Transformation from a life of shame to self esteem occurs when Celie receives the embrace of the real Shug Avery”(Byerman 91) This foreign world of cherishing one’s self was amazing. After carrying herself as irrelevant and empty, suddenly she aspired to be more. “Celie’s ability eventually to stand up and leave due in part to her discovering a definition of God that is large enough to encompass even the poor, ugly black women that feels to be herself. Also a part in discovering within herself the ability to love and to be loved”(Winchell